mom,
the packages have not come yet. don't worry, the senior couple has been not here for the last week. when they come back i am sure all will be well. thank you for your love and support. i hope the weekend was good. those little ones are so cute!
the birthday was great! i celebrated it by waking up at 6:30, exercising for 30 minutes, eating, showering, studying at 8, then companionship studying at 9, then teaching lessons all day! we got home at 9, did some planning, then went to bed at 10:30. ! yep pretty awesome :) but really though, i had a great birthday. the elder's made me a cake (ps, that was a miracle, i guess they just like me the best. don't tell the other sisters, they will probably be jealous). i got a phone call from a recent convert who was visiting her family in south africa! and i got another phone call from the mission office.
we have a senior couple who is serving here and on wednesday they took sister chir chir (pronounced cheer cheer) and me to lunch (sister chir chir is another sister serving with us, it was her birthday on the 15 of may.) because we were on exchanges, they took the opportunity to take us to a really nice restaurant in the middle of the bush. turns out there is this awesome greenhouse and in the center of it there is a huge tree. there is a restaurant built around the tree. the amazing thing is that the tree itself has such a huge canopy that it gives shade to the entire restaurant. there is no roof, it is just the tree. the food was amazing as well. i love being a sister missionary, we get to go out to really nice restaraunts for our birthdays!
the muslim man/ recent convert taught the best lesson about the book of mormon ever on sunday. our ward mission leader has been giving all of our recent converts the opportunity to teach a lesson in gospel principles. so far it has been awesome. i love helping them prepare and listening to the outcome. ahh, i wish you could have been here to hear it, it was P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L-L! i can't believe how much joy i feel when i see these people that we have baptised become so awesome on their own. he is a converted soul. his wife is the one who called me on my birthday.
work continues, with a skip in our steps and smiles on our faces we are proclaiming the gospel all over this place.
i am happy to hear that the Lord placed the right chicken in the coop to keep all the little ones safe! amazing :) speaking of orphans, we are teaching a man who works in an orphanage. it is the only one i have ever heard of in this country. each person in botswana has a home village, basically like a town but they call it the village, they come to gaborone to work and such. the women come here, have a baby, and send it to the village where the parents or the grandparents raise the child. to have a child that someone isn't taking care of is very strange. adoption really doesn't exist either, i guess marriage would also fall under that category.
if by chance someone wants to be married they have to pay a bride price (called lebola), it is just like johny lingo and is even payed in cows!
if there is a man who wants the child who is in the village with the mothers parents (the child is called by the mothers surname) basically the man has to pay a similar thing called "damages" to the mother. when the man buys the child, he has the right to change the surname to his own. that is how marriage and adoption work here. that is why it is very uncommon, it takes a lot of money to buy cows, and a lot of money to pay damages.
otherwise, things are going well.
Dad,
awesome job on all of the success. it is great to hear you are doing well finally. i have been taking a lot of photos on other people's cameras, i printed some today and will be sending them home when i finally get around to sending that package.
i understand what you are saying about finding some people to love here, we have been following your advice and are finding that it is true. it started with a baptism we had when i first got here, her name is ellen. next we met the muslim family (because we knew ellen) then we met another man named tshepo who has just become another extension of our love for ellen. tshepo will be baptized on june 12. the Lord has been blessing us. we hope to continue finding those people who can be added to the family that we have made here. we love missionary work, we love our recent converts and we love the people who just keep on adding themselves to the group! it is a natural thing for the newcomers, we just let them come and spend time with us awesome people. they are taught the lessons by the recent converts, we just sit back and direct their comments. i never knew things could be this awesome and amazing.
thank you, i love all of you, may the lord bless you even more and more
sister blum
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