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