March 28, 2011

dear all,




we have a shiny new senior couple!!! WAHOOOOOO. i was reminded about how nice it is to have a senior couple around. they are like the super nice grandparents that everyone wants to visit because they have super powers. compared with the last couple that was here they are pretty much totally different. here is the best description of the risers (the new couple) i can think of... a warm fire on a winter day. all of us are looking forward to having them here, i have a feeling there will be many good times shared with them.



this week was father-led family central. 100% of our finding has been on father-leds and our patience and diligence in that has begun to be paying off. we have added 5 new father led families to the teaching pool! whoot whoot! things are looking good, but you know what they say; "good better best, never let it rest, till your good becomes better and your better becomes best."



here is a little bit about the culture of the people of botswana;

when the young ones greet someone who is older, they will shake your hand but rather than only offering their one hand they will give you both of them. it is like they are playing "button button, who's got the button".



if you are in a home with a family, you must greet the father, then the mother, and you sit, then each of the children (depending on how old they are) will file through and greet you. if a child fails to greet you they are scolded.



a man who is old enough to be a grandparent is considered an elder. if someone who is younger than them is called elder, they get offended (haha, sorry elder missionaries!).



because chairs are hard to come by sometimes, we do a lot of sitting on the floor. you must have a blanket under you if you sit on the floor and you must remove your shoes if you wish to sit on the blanket.



the more grey hair a person has, the more wealthy they are.



everyone eats with their hands.



all people plant fields; they plant watermelon, sweet reads (similar to sugar cane but it doesn't need as much water), corn, sogum, and beet roots.

their staple food is corn meal prepared like porridge, they call it papa.



papa is usually eaten with a leaf called morogo (pronounced mow-row-ho) that is similar to spinach but has a more powerful and slightly bitter taste to it.



they also love beaf, they eat a lot of it.



everyone loves singing, people gather randomly and sing. let me tell you, they have some soul power! they make beats by clapping, stomping, whatever they can do, they sing in parts. really it is amazing. it is sort of close to how i would imagine life being if it were a musical.



have you seen the lion king? the language that is in all of the songs is not setswana (the language here) but is similar to setswana and when people sing in setswana, it is absolutely amazing.



yep, i love it here.



i must be going, so until next week.



hakuna matata (it really does mean no worries!!!)

sister blum

March 21, 2011

sWOOOHOOOOOHHHHHOOOOOOOO!!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the emails!


sister randri and i continue to tear it up here in francistown. we really
love life here and i love my small madagscar companion and friend so stinkin
much. she is a really good missionary and has a burning testimony and a
crazy enthusiasm for life! thank you mom for the bit on being obedient, i
needed that today.


white people don't really live here, there are a few and usually they stick
to themselves. whenever sister randria and i see one it is confusing. we
look at each other and ask this question, "what the heck? what are they
doing here in botswana?" in fact, they make me really nervous. whenever i
see one in the market i can't talk, i feel panicky. i am sure it
is something a lot like the look little children sometimes give me when they
see me, they go quiet, start looking for their mothers and usually they cry.
lately i was really wondering why i always get that look from them until
this morning i looked in the mirror and was completely shocked to see that i
am a white person! i have forgotten that i am white. talk about the pot
callin the kettle black... or white? i don't know.


my companion is from the village, meaning that she grew up in a home that
didn't have electricity or running water. because of that she is sort of
hard core. i told her my desire to slaughter a chicken someday and because
she is supportive, we cooked our pet chicken today. and she made me kill it.
i almost cried. i will spare you the details because any one who has done it
before knows what it is like. the other companionship that shares the flat
with us has another sister who is from kenya and grew up in the village as
well. she too is hard core. so here they are, trying to explain to this
white girl, who grew up in utah, how i am going to kill this chicken with
this knife that they gave me, "sister blum! it is easy, all you do is just
stand here, hold it like this... etc. etc. oh and make sure you don't let it
go! and be quick about it, we don't have all day!" i don't think i will ever
be the same. they also made me try every part of the cooked chicken, i
didn't enjoy the feet, the gizzard, or the liver. nope, not at all. dad, i
think i will join you on the couch when mom decides she wants to kill the
chickens someday.


here is my little piece of spiritual ness...

minute by minute an hour goes by, hour by hour a day.
little by little we reach our goals, or let them slip away.

please continue to do your best, in everything you try, and remember;

"...for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has
strength. and again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that
thereby he might win the prize..." (mosiah 4:27)

if at first you don't succeed, the key is diligence. keep on treckin' somday
you will be perfect!

i love all of you very much, please stay happy and well.

until next week,
sister k. blum

March 14, 2011

the new converts are good, and it seems as though i counted my chickens too soon, we had three baptisms on Saturday, the family i was mentioning was not part of them. you know what though, wen they are baptized, they will be super converted and super amazing. the three we baptized are part of a family that was baptized in december. that family is taking over the branch, seriously. the mom has four sisters that live very close to each other and each sister has a bucket load of baptism aged children, one of the sisters is married, the others are either living with someone or are single. the children of all the sisters come to church all the time and are waiting for the day when they can be baptized as well. that family does so much amazing missionary work and the best part is, those who have been baptized are super strong in the gospel and committed to bringing the whole family along for the ride.

 

i am glad that you let me sacrifice this time to come here, seriously mom, this church is the most truest of true true true church in the world. i bet it is hard to let our little ones go to far away deserts in unknown lands to preach the word of God. i was thinking about that today, how can this church not be true, God calls young ones to build his kingdom, even a 14 year old boy to restore the only church that can bring salvation to all of the souls of men who have been, are and will live on this earth. that is CRAZY for me to think about. i know this church is true, the book of Mormon is true, it is the proof that Joseph smith truly did restore the church, that the church is true and that Christ is the savior and redeemer of the whole entire world, and there is a true and living prophet this second. what a marvelous thing to have a testimony of living prophets in these last days.

 

so on to some funny stories...

we have a pet chicken! a woman we contacted sells them and we were talking to her a little about that. she took that as "the missionaries wish to buy one so i need to order it for them!" today she informed us that we need to pick it up because it is at her house. we took it to a recent converts house to keep until we have time to slaughter it. i want to name it Frankfurt.

 

sister randri loves fish, we live in the middle of Botswana where the only water is about 40 kilometers from here. we have a member who fishes in the water and brings the fishes home. he was kind enough to give us some of his fish. that night we took them home, cooked them and ate them. they were delicious, but we thought it was strange that he only gave us three fishes and we are four at our house. the next day, we got into our car and it smelled really bad. we just assumed it was because some of the fish juice got on the floor. it wasn't until later that the smell was horrendous and we found the fourth fish rotting between the seat and the middle consul. we threw the fish out, cleaned the carpet as best as we could, sprayed it with air freshener and the smell remained. the car wasn't even ours, we were borrowing it from the elders because we needed the stick shift. so we gave the car back to them that evening and we still haven't heard them complain about a fishy smell, nor have we told them. our car smelled great when we got it back.

 

last one, at baptisms we have a lot of people who are baptized, so usually they will line up at the edge of the pool (we use the pool for the font) and they just take their turns. so this one boy was in line, sister randri and i had no clue who he was, we just assumed he was the elder's investigator. when it was his turn he went into the water and told the baptiser his name. the witnesses couldn't find his name anywhere on the list, we came to find out no one knew who he was, he was just by the white clothes closet when the baptizees were preparing, he was handed a white outfit, told to put it on and was instructed to go wait outside with everybody else. the poor kid had no clue what was going on, neither did we, or the elders, they assumed he was ours and we assumed he was theirs. that was close. that poor kid was so confused, well, i hope a seed was planted in him and he will want to be baptized someday. 

oh botswana, i fit in great here.

 

anyway, i must be going, i love all of you so much and i am loving this mission, time is going much too fast, i blinked and now it is the middle of march. and the new couple don't arrive for two more weeks, they will be in the mtc with paco i think...?

 

peace and blessings, 

sister blum

March 7, 2011

i am glad that you have had so much fun in montana, marlayna would probably say that the reason why you did have so much fun was because montana is the best, others would disagree because we all know that francistown botswana is the best! (sorry marlayna).

 

we are preparing ten people to be baptized on this saturday. three of them are the family with the word of wisdom problem!!!!!!!!!!!! i am not trying to count my chickens before they hatch but..... I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED FOR THEM!! they have truly repented and have made so much progress on the path back to eternal life. as they came to church yesterday i couldn't help but see the light they had in their faces. oh the power of the gospel. it is so exciting to be involved in so great a work as this. our area is leading the mission in baptisms at the moment, we have been met with so much success, since i arrived we have split into two branches, all we are waiting for now is the leadership and it will be made into three branches! we have experienced so much growth and our members are doing so much missionary work that we can't keep up with them. they are all committed to taking the gospel to every creature! we are laying the foundation for a very successfull future for Francistown Botswana.

 

how sweet is the work, i love it. and i love the Lord. i will continue in obedience with a smile on my face and a skip in my step!~ :)

sister blum

February 28, 2011

this last week i have really been impressed with how i have seen the
blessings of being exactly obedient, and about being diligent in all things.
they are not really blessings that have been too obvious, it is more like i
have so much peace and faith knowing that God looks after me
100,000,0000000000000% as long as i am 10000000000% obedient to the rules
and regulations. when we are obedient to the lord we are blessed. i am
reminded of the council that was given to me before i came by bother
simpson. he said the two things that will transform you and will make your
mission to be successfull is:

1. be exactly obedient
2. love the people.

i testify that his council is true. as i have been obedient and loved the
people, my life has begun to transform. i also know that as i am not
obedient to every rule (even when it seems really dum) i am not happy and my
life is not blessed. the times where i disobey are the times where i don't
move forward. i am doing my best at this point in time to be exactly
obedient, and i am blessed to have a companion who is so supportive in that
desire. together we are working hard and pushing our little peice of the
Lord's kingdom forward ever faster.

the work is going so well here, the last couple weeks have been a struggle
with our investigators but the good news is, we have three father led
families who will be baptized (fingers crossed) on the 12 of march. truly, i
have been spoiled way too much from being sent to the best of the best of
the best best best area in the entire world called "francistown Botswana".
we have experienced so much success and happiness here. i wonder what else
the Lord has in store for me. regardless of what it may be, i will move
forward with faith in every footstep and a brightness of hope that God knows
me, loves me and protects me! thank you mom, dad, family and all others for
the prayers. i know god not only loves me, he loves you all so sos
sosososososoosoooo much.

i must be going. keep praying for us,

sister blum

paco, you need to pray to come to francistown botswana