What A Week!

Dear Family,

Yet another week of fun and vacation for the family! Thank you for the pictures. I cannot believe how big Grant is getting. We are going to have to wrestle when I get home to make sure that I am still the boss. We have a family in our small branch with two sons about the same age difference as Grant and I. The young one is about three and it is funny to see that they are almost exactly the same as Grant and I.

What a week. I am actually sick right now. I have been for the past few days. I felt it coming on the whole week but was not able to fight it Saturday and Sunday. I think it is just the flue. I guess I thought I would be completely better by today because I planned a zone hike this morning. I was still a little sick, but we all went on it and it was fun. We just hiked this (in Bots it would be a mountain but it Canada it would be a slight raise in elevation) and took some nice photos at the top. I'm feeling 75% now but I am just really tired...sorry if the email this week is not action packed as a result.

So why did Grant forget his shoes at the house? He must have thought he was an Afrikaner. Afrikaners must have something against shoes because they never wear them. You will be at a very nice place and then all the sudden an Afrikaner family will walk in and the only one wearing shoes will be the mother...TIA

Thank you for sending the package. Did you send it to Botswana or South Africa? I sent that letter to the family many weeks ago, so that's sad that it got lost...I realized that I also had a letter for Jackson inside. Apparently I have had a lot of letters that have not made it to the states safely...shame.

One thing good did come out of being sick this week. I was able to spend a lot of time reading. The thing that I found most interesting was the "gratitude journal" I started at the beginning of my mission. That was something that started and ended really quickly because I can never really find the time to write in it and  I just didn't think it would be exciting to read in the future but I was wrong. Although I only had a few weeks of entries in the book, it was very enjoyable to read through what was going on and the things that I was most grateful for. I am going to have to consult my daily schedule and see if I can arrange some time to start that up again.

I also had a lot of time to read from the Book of Mormon. Now in the past I have never been the worlds largest fan of the Book of Alma. I am not sure why but I tend to zone out a little too much. That thankfully changed these last few weeks. I started Alma a few weeks ago and it is the BEST! It is pretty much Alma's journal of his mission and he had a pretty crazy mission. I am well ahead of my goal of finishing the Book of Mormon by 31 December. How is the family doing on their Book of Mormon reading...(a missionaries favorite question)?

Sounds like conference was quite exciting. The temples have been a big topic lately. We are very happy to get another two temples in Africa. I believe that takes us up to 5 in all of Africa (a fraction of what Utah must have). It is very interesting to see how people in different parts of the world view the announcement of Temples. While living in Texas it did not really affect me one way or the other where the temples were announced. In Canada I am sure the family was over joyed to hear that a temple close to home will save them a three hour drive. In Africa this is some of the BIGGEST news we can get. I know for example that Zimbabwe is really hoping for a temple. Right now the closest temple is Johannesburg which is a good 24 hour drive from them. Which I think it goes without saying that a 24 hour drive is out of the question for people without money. I have held my breath every conference for a much needed Temple in Zimbabwe (they are also like the 2nd highest baptising mission in the world, probably 2,000+ converts a year, many of which serve missions) and of course Utah is the one to get a new temple all the time.. Don't get me wrong, I am not putting down Utah. I know that the Utah temples are the most used and that is why they keep getting more, but it is a little weird that cities like Provo are getting their second temple while the east side of the Continent of Africa is still waiting.

My companion is also from Zimbabwe. My second Zimbabwe companion. He was expecting them to announce the Zim temple this week, so he was a bit down when they didn't. Which is not good because he going home at the end of this transfer and is "dying" in missionary language. This will be my first companion to "kill" (mission language for the companion of the missionary going home), and honestly it is pretty hard for me. He has served his full time mission and about 2 years of mini missions before this, so he has gotten a little lazy being on his fourth year of missions. He is a great guy and we get along, but I have to push him pretty hard for our last few weeks together.

I am excited to see conference in a few weeks!

Well, time to go. Thanks for the package you sent! Hope this one gets to me.

Love you all,

Elder Blake Williams