AMERICA: Where Freedom Grows On Trees!

Dear Family
How is everyone doing? Where has dad been lately? His e-mails are higho (gone).

I got the Rousseau's package! I was slightly worried, and I heard that we somehow have connections with the post office. Because of this I sent out a search party (informed President Kimball, the one who gets the mail) and two days later I had the package. It was pretty sweet! Christmas day all over again. Please thank them for the package, I will get a letter off to them.

I just asked the other Elders if there is anything from America that they want in this next package. Their responses were:

Elder Finlinson: Ask them if they can harvest one of those freedom trees and just send me some freedom. (I am not sure where it comes from, but Elder Finlinsons favorite line to say is "America! Where freedom grows on trees!)

Elder Zondi (who goes home in 4 months, or 1 transfer before me): Well I am going to need a girl from BYU with long hair to get married to...

me: I could use some A1 sauce and some hand sanitizer. After throwing up all the liquid inside of my body I decided to eat even healthier and to watch out for germs. Which is nearly impossible here, but hand sanitizer would at least make me feel better. Other than that I will just leave it up to you, the past packages have been quite exciting. Especially the ties you have been sending lately. That Tommy tie you sent, that I gave away was quite classy.

Well, what a week! It is HOT HOT HOT in Botswana right now. The temperature is only hitting about 40 (104f), but it feels so much hotter than that. In the words of Elder Finlinson it feels like we are ants sitting on an ant hill with a kid standing over us with a magnifier glass. We even broke down and got hats, which I heard our previous mission president suggest to a few missionaries in Botswana, but I never thought someone was weird enough to do it until this week when I found myself buying one. I somehow got away with an uncomfortable sun burn, but Elder Finlinson was not so lucky, his skin is a bright shade of red and we have even had to resort to wearing long sleeve shirts on some of the days to save our skin.

This heat does not come at a very good time either. We have been spending most of our time lately finding people. Many areas have been struggling with finding people lately, and our area is no exception. We definitely still have people to teach, but we find ourselves with many hours each day in the sun trying to find people. It is kind of odd because I am in a village in Africa and it has been quite difficult to teach people lately.
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10 January 2012

Momma Llama! I am sorry I did not get an e-mail to you yesterday! I think this is the fourth week in a row that something has happened to the Internet on Monday! I was e-mailing and I answered Cami's e-mail and a few small things and then was writing my main e-mail when of course the Internet went down and I was not able to send my long e-mail. Today I realize that not only could I not send it, but it only saved about half of the e-mail. In my short time I will try to recall what I said yesterday.

I continued the e-mail by talking about the increase of confusion that seems to be going around...especially in Africa. This week when we were having lunch with the new senior couple (the Mosses, who are great!), Sister Moss mentioned how every time she gets home from an 18 month mission, the things shown on TV get so much worse. My companion and I were talking about that point that she made, and he said he feels like that with the amount of religious confusion in the world. I must agree with him, It is becoming more and more common for our first lessons with people to not go well because they bring up these crazy "doctrines" that they are set on. For example, we met with a new family for the second time this week. We were teaching them the restoration when we got to the restoration of the Priesthood. The father had done his homework and read the pamphlet we left with him (as do most people that want nothing more than to bash with us). He then walked us through a number of scriptures that did not really relate to each other. We were kind of confused as to what he was doing so we asked him (kindly of course) what his question was, or what he was trying to prove. He then said, well your pamphlet says that Joseph smith was given the Melchizedek priesthood correct? Yes. Well then these scriptures prove that you believe Christs death was in vain because everyone knows that the only purpose of the Melchizedek priesthood is for the atoning of sins.

To say the least, it was not a very successful lesson because people just want to bible bash and we realize that bible bashing doesn't do anything. It's getting harder and harder to find those that have not been bombarded with the confusion of the world, but it is all made worth it when you succeed and find those that have been prepared by the Lord. Although more and more are getting completely and utterly confused by crazy false doctrines, those that the Lord is preparing are getting more and more ready for the missionaries to meet them, and eventually to accept leadership rolls in the church. We have a few AMAZING people in our teaching pool right now. One family in particular (the family that prayed for you guys) is just so prepared! The only thing is that because of culture things, the father and mother are not legally married at the moment, so we need to wait for that to take place before they are married, but I am confident that he will help the branch here in Kanye grow.

The gospel is true! Be grateful for the restoration in your lives because we all need it!
Love you all

Elder Blake Williams
PS. Mom, you asked when transfers are. They are the 24th or something like that. I will probably have to go to Johannesburg for that.