February 14, 2011

dear all,

we went on a game drive today! Mom, i saw a million giraffes! i
thought of you as i was taking pictures of them :) we saw warthogs,
impalas, RHINOS!!!! (right by the car!) zebras, birds of all shapes
and sizes, gazelles, green mamba snakes, wildabeasts, mongooses, and
ostriches! we saw many different kinds of antelopes and gazelles but i
don't remember their names. it was a very good time and i have many
pictures to show from it. unfortunately it takes longer than an hour
to load any pictures so i will not be able to send any for now. i have
been printing many pictures so hopefully when i get home we can share
EVERYTHING that happened here.

we baptized four people on saturday! all are priesthood age men, they
will be receiving the priesthood in two weeks. i hope i will be around
to see that happen. transfers are on the 22nd and it is hard to say
what will be happening in this neck of the bush. the senior couple
that resides here will be leaving and moving back to arizona at the
end of this transfer. the replacement couple will be arriving in 2
months. the Cardiff's will be missed terribly, they are the head of
the missionary work here. i hope this old donkey cart of a mission
will still be in tact by the time the new couple comes to replace
them.

i was thinking about how stinking fast this last transfer went. i
didn't tell you about last transfer because my companion and i stayed
companions so there really was no change. the last six weeks have
seriously flown soooooooooo incredibly fast.

i have been so blessed to have sister randria as my companion/trainer
for these last two transfers. she has been such a blessing to me, i
hope the luck will continue and she will stay here with me. of course
we can never guess what God may have in store, i just know that this
is Gods work and he cares too much about it to let someone like me
mess everything up if she, in fact, does leave me with the reigns. i
know that if she does then i will God's help every step of the way and
it will be 100% for my good. if not, i am SOOOSOSOSOSOOSOOOOOOOO
excited to give another six weeks a go where i can learn more of the
things i am supposed to with her.

this is a miracle that happened to me a couple weeks ago brought on by
your prayers (i am sure about that)

one time my companion, another sister and i were helping one of our
recent converts wash every single dish in her house. i have never seen
so many plates, bowls, cups, utensils, tupperware, etc. in my life.
before we began to wash, they had made two loaves of bread worth of
sandwiches and put them in front of us. we somehow fit them in our
stomach and washed the dishes. after we finished they brought out a
heaping (seriously heaping) plate of spaghetti and they watched as we
shoved it down. that night sister randria and sister clendon (the
other sister who came with us) were deathly ill to the point where
they needed a blessing. me on the other hand was fine. i guess i am
just used to eating a lot of food. thank you mom for always feeding me
so i would be prepared for this.

i love you family, and friends. i am doing all i can to magnify my
calling here in francistown botswana. time is short and i must go, i
love you all and am so thankfull for the prayers. they are really
keeping me safe physically and spiritually.

i will share many more experiences as i have time.

peace and blessings.
love very much sister blum