dear all,
i have the funniest and best parents in the whole wide world! surely it sounds like you are all having a blast traveling the big wide world to texas. Mom, i especially liked the part where you said "somewhere in the middle of nowhere texas she blew." it reminded me of a similar experience we had, only it was somewhere in the middle of nowhere ukraine we found a five star hotel! truly we have been a blessed family. happy birthday to Tate, sorry that i didn't say so sooner. the bobot party may have been a little too crazy. Mom, i hope your electrical burns don't stay too long (if you are confused look at the email dad sent me)
my new zealand companion is very amazing, i am so excited to work with her. the only problem is that people don't understand our accents. we lost an investigator this week because she couldn't understand us. she told us not to come back unless we had an african person with us. we have decided to adapt, we are not learning setswana (there is no time) rather we are using visual aids in most of our lessons. it is making things so fun, truly, preaching the gospel should be fun and it is with awesome visual aids!
i like that you had so much talk about tires in your last email, like you, we had our own experience. on our way to an appointment the car in front of us lost their tire completely, fortunately we were slowing down for a red light and we were not tailgating them. it was strange to see a wheel rolling down the road and a man jumping out of the car to chase after the wheel. about two minutes later we were going through a traffic circle and the car behind us made some funny noise and then we didn't see them anymore. when we left the traffic circle we saw the car on the side of the road with a tire that perfectly unrolled itself off of the rim! (dad, what causes tires to do that?)
we met a white guy, he asked us for a copy of the book of mormon. he is a very nice man (which never happens in botswana) turns out he is from zimbabwe. as we were talking to him i found out he is a paramedic. i told him my sister was a paramedic. he had a friend who was with him (also a white guy from zimbabwe) and i found out he is a mechanic. "what a surprise" i said, "so is my brother in law!". then i asked the friend what his name was, his name is Gordon. "hey, that is my grandpa's name!". the three of us came up to a conclusion, we were supposed to meet. we gave them the book of mormon, hopefully something awesome will come of it.
so i went on this little diet thing before my companion got here, i don't eat sweets anymore. the first thing she said to me when she got here was "my mom sent me a package full of sweets and she told me i had to share them with you!" that stinker, she tempts me every morning during study. i hear this little wrapper and i look over at her, then she eats it and asks me if i want one. she likes to test me. then she makes me keep her wrappers on my desk as a constant reminder to stay strong! i think you would like her.
anyway, the adventure continues. please pray for us that we will find man father led families that are ready to hear the gospel. thank you for all of your prayers thus far, i really know that heavenly father has been listening. i feel a strength coming from somewhere that acts as a shield of protection. thank you :) i love you all, until next week.
sis. blum
give the little ones (yazzi and tate) big hugs and lots of tickles from their aunty ri ri
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
June 20, 2011
YIPEEE! go mom for using your talents to help a neighbor feel loved and
welcome. for real, do absolutely everything you can to be that families
friend! invite them over, let them sit with you at church, give them food,
go on double dates with them. if they don't like you, get them different
friends, do absolutely everything you can for that family. God needs people
to fellowship and love the lambs. that is a difficulty we are having with
our ward these days, they don't really fellowship anyone. thus our
investigators lose interest in the church FAST because the feel like they
are sitting inside a freezer. if you as a family are being a freezer, it is
time to crank up the heat, the missionaries, the investigators and God will
love you so much for it. Please fulfill your calling to be a missionary and
fellowship the new ones. please please please please please!
HAPPY BELATED FATHER'S DAY! dad, i love you. pretty sure i wouldn't be here
without you. I might, but i wouldn't have this awesome nose or my hips!
Sorry that you turned old, how are amber, cohwen and the little ones?
i think you and mom should consider going on a mission, you can start when i
have 6 months left, go for six months and we can all get home at the same
time :) tempting?.... you should. senior couples are the best.
mom, we got the ensigns! it was so thoughtful of you to send 4 of them,
brilliant, except for i don't know what i will do iwith them, i can barely
read one on my own and they all say the same thing ;) everyone is very happy
about them, i was actually going to send you an email to ask you if you can
send my companion one but you read our minds. good job listening to the
spirit! the cd's are awesome, you know your daughter too well. although
sister nalusiba hates them. it is ok though, transfers just happened,
unfortunately the nalusiba blum train has come to a halt. it is now going to
be the clendon blum show. sister clendon is from new zealand, we were in the
mtc together, we lived in francistown together, i love her very much and am
so excited to start working with her. i am sad however, sister nalusiba and
i are really close friends. the good news is, she isn't going too far,
people always say that you know you are a sister missionary in botswana when
a transfer consists of moving closets and beds! she is going to gaborone
west and is moving down the hall. i will miss that happy little head in our
wonderful broadhurst! such is life, greener pastures are somewhere ahead,
God will help sister clendon and i to find them!
due to the fact all of my clothes are shrinking significantly, i blame it on
the fabric softener, i have begun work on stretching them back out, or just
losing some weight. Can you please pray for me, i really need help. sister
lovell and i are in a contest and i am bound and determined to beat her!
please everyone, i need your help on this one. any motivational comments you
wish to give are appreciated.
other than that, life on this side is great still. we learn more everyday
how much we don't know. the area improves more everyday. missionary work is
an artform we are doing our best to learn. please pray for that as well, i
need to improve my missionary skills.
just know that i pray for my family daily, i am very concerned about your
well being and i miss you all very much. it makes me happy that we ARE an
eternal family, keep on enduring to the end so we can be together forever
and ever. also, i was hoping that i could get that picture of the whole
family, you know the one where we are all in a line... mine got taken by a
recent convert in francistown. i love to use it as an object lesson. and to
look at :) all of you are beautiful and i love you too much.
love you
sister blum
welcome. for real, do absolutely everything you can to be that families
friend! invite them over, let them sit with you at church, give them food,
go on double dates with them. if they don't like you, get them different
friends, do absolutely everything you can for that family. God needs people
to fellowship and love the lambs. that is a difficulty we are having with
our ward these days, they don't really fellowship anyone. thus our
investigators lose interest in the church FAST because the feel like they
are sitting inside a freezer. if you as a family are being a freezer, it is
time to crank up the heat, the missionaries, the investigators and God will
love you so much for it. Please fulfill your calling to be a missionary and
fellowship the new ones. please please please please please!
HAPPY BELATED FATHER'S DAY! dad, i love you. pretty sure i wouldn't be here
without you. I might, but i wouldn't have this awesome nose or my hips!
Sorry that you turned old, how are amber, cohwen and the little ones?
i think you and mom should consider going on a mission, you can start when i
have 6 months left, go for six months and we can all get home at the same
time :) tempting?.... you should. senior couples are the best.
mom, we got the ensigns! it was so thoughtful of you to send 4 of them,
brilliant, except for i don't know what i will do iwith them, i can barely
read one on my own and they all say the same thing ;) everyone is very happy
about them, i was actually going to send you an email to ask you if you can
send my companion one but you read our minds. good job listening to the
spirit! the cd's are awesome, you know your daughter too well. although
sister nalusiba hates them. it is ok though, transfers just happened,
unfortunately the nalusiba blum train has come to a halt. it is now going to
be the clendon blum show. sister clendon is from new zealand, we were in the
mtc together, we lived in francistown together, i love her very much and am
so excited to start working with her. i am sad however, sister nalusiba and
i are really close friends. the good news is, she isn't going too far,
people always say that you know you are a sister missionary in botswana when
a transfer consists of moving closets and beds! she is going to gaborone
west and is moving down the hall. i will miss that happy little head in our
wonderful broadhurst! such is life, greener pastures are somewhere ahead,
God will help sister clendon and i to find them!
due to the fact all of my clothes are shrinking significantly, i blame it on
the fabric softener, i have begun work on stretching them back out, or just
losing some weight. Can you please pray for me, i really need help. sister
lovell and i are in a contest and i am bound and determined to beat her!
please everyone, i need your help on this one. any motivational comments you
wish to give are appreciated.
other than that, life on this side is great still. we learn more everyday
how much we don't know. the area improves more everyday. missionary work is
an artform we are doing our best to learn. please pray for that as well, i
need to improve my missionary skills.
just know that i pray for my family daily, i am very concerned about your
well being and i miss you all very much. it makes me happy that we ARE an
eternal family, keep on enduring to the end so we can be together forever
and ever. also, i was hoping that i could get that picture of the whole
family, you know the one where we are all in a line... mine got taken by a
recent convert in francistown. i love to use it as an object lesson. and to
look at :) all of you are beautiful and i love you too much.
love you
sister blum
Monday, June 13, 2011
June 12, 2011
dear family,
thank you for your diligence in emailing your daughter/sister/friend here in africa. it is very sad to hear about Bo. i will miss seeing him when i come home. i know that the Plan of Salvation is true, and if he was righteous he will be received into a state of happiness. kind of, i am a little jealous of him. what an adventure he must be on. give his family my deepest love and concern. be sure to give jane a lot of love.
good job mitchell!! glad to hear he is getting married. it is a great thing that he has found someone. i knew it wouldn't take long, especially when the first thing he told me when i saw him after his mission was, "do you know anyone i can marry, i am looking for a wife!" good for him, i wonder what their kids will be like someday... speaking of kids, HOLY CHILDREN EXPLOSION! i can't wait to get home and see all the little things :) i have been blessed with the family we have. seriously, how did i get so lucky? God really blessed me. i love all of you.
i finally reached a milestone here... we taught a white person! she is actually not even from Botswana, she is from Arkansas. she is here for a couple weeks on an exchange program. she came to church yesterday and she really "stood out" i say that because she is 6'5" tall! easily she was the tallest and whitest person there! i thought for sure she was a member so i told her to stay with the sunday school class after sacrament meeting. after a while she was escorted into the gospel principles class by the elders who pulled me aside and informed me she is in fact our investigator (she is in our area)! she is a delightful person. she knows pretty much everything and more about the church than i do, whether it is correct or not we don't know, she has been researching it on line since 2009. she became interested in the church after watching the TV series "Big Love"... she likes the church has a testimony of the book of mormon and joseph smith and wants to be baptized so we say, "sure why not?"
speaking of tv, dad, how is all of that craziness coming?
i must be going, i love you and give you some advice... just keep smiling, i have really been trying to live by the moto... everything works out just the way it is supposed to so just be happy, alright?!
are there any specific questions you wish to know about the culture, or anything that i haven't sufficiently answered?
sister blum
thank you for your diligence in emailing your daughter/sister/friend here in africa. it is very sad to hear about Bo. i will miss seeing him when i come home. i know that the Plan of Salvation is true, and if he was righteous he will be received into a state of happiness. kind of, i am a little jealous of him. what an adventure he must be on. give his family my deepest love and concern. be sure to give jane a lot of love.
good job mitchell!! glad to hear he is getting married. it is a great thing that he has found someone. i knew it wouldn't take long, especially when the first thing he told me when i saw him after his mission was, "do you know anyone i can marry, i am looking for a wife!" good for him, i wonder what their kids will be like someday... speaking of kids, HOLY CHILDREN EXPLOSION! i can't wait to get home and see all the little things :) i have been blessed with the family we have. seriously, how did i get so lucky? God really blessed me. i love all of you.
i finally reached a milestone here... we taught a white person! she is actually not even from Botswana, she is from Arkansas. she is here for a couple weeks on an exchange program. she came to church yesterday and she really "stood out" i say that because she is 6'5" tall! easily she was the tallest and whitest person there! i thought for sure she was a member so i told her to stay with the sunday school class after sacrament meeting. after a while she was escorted into the gospel principles class by the elders who pulled me aside and informed me she is in fact our investigator (she is in our area)! she is a delightful person. she knows pretty much everything and more about the church than i do, whether it is correct or not we don't know, she has been researching it on line since 2009. she became interested in the church after watching the TV series "Big Love"... she likes the church has a testimony of the book of mormon and joseph smith and wants to be baptized so we say, "sure why not?"
speaking of tv, dad, how is all of that craziness coming?
i must be going, i love you and give you some advice... just keep smiling, i have really been trying to live by the moto... everything works out just the way it is supposed to so just be happy, alright?!
are there any specific questions you wish to know about the culture, or anything that i haven't sufficiently answered?
sister blum
June 5, 2011
dear all,
botswana decided to go on strike... it all started a couple months ago, all
the high schools have final exams, basically they are like university level
finals, very stressful and they only exist for those in grade 10 and 12. if
you don't pass your exam you must repeat the whole year. dad, i think you
and i would still be going to school if that is how things were done in
north america! anyway, the tests are taken and the schools close for summer
holidays. the teachers get together and grade the exams. they found out that
many of the students had cheated on their exams so many students had to
retake it, a lot of them refused and somewhere along the line the teachers
decided to go on strike. school resumed about three months later than it was
supposed to.
that started all of the strikes, now most of botswana is on strike, doctors,
teachers, garbage men, construction workers, students, pretty much everyone.
i am just a missionary so i don't really know much about it other than there
are a lot of people just hanging out waiting for us to come teach them the
gospel! good on our side sometimes, there are some of our investigators who
work 3 times harder now because they have to do the work for all the
strikers. the strikers however, they are around all the time, teaching them
is easy.
we are teaching this one man, he will be baptised next week. he is one of
those super prepared ones. when we contacted him we were in front of the
church. we instantly became friends. he is a military man, very small in
stature, and super funny. when we asked him if he went to church he said
"actually, i am a believer, not a christian!" he accepted us to come and
teach him, we have been teaching him for 4 weeks and he is one of those
people who just makes preaching the gospel a blast and a half. he ALWAYS has
new friends with him when we come, he goes over to all of his neighbors
homes and drags them to the lessons so we can teach them. when we ask him
who will pray to start the lesson, he always chooses his new friend. when
they say they don't know how, he calls them a liar and asks them this
question, "so if you were in a car, and you were about to get into an
accident and die, you wouldn't know how to pray?!" then he says, "so i will
pray to set the example and you will close for us!".
we were teaching him about following the prophet the other day. sister
nalusiba asked him the question, "so Tshepo, what do you think would happen
if there was no prophet?" he went silent, you could just see the wheels
turning in his head, he thought, and thought and thought. then it was like
the light came on, he looked at us with this smile that said he had a good
one, he said, "do you remember world war 2?" he then proceeded to tell us
about how he was reading a book that put him right there on the battle
field, bombs going off, bullets flying, the atomic bomb, airplanes
crashing, and all sorts of other examples. i was laughing, sister nalusiba
was confused. after he finished talking, sister nalusiba was just staring at
him, i was laughing so hard i thought i was going to cry, then he completed
with one word, "CHAOS!" when he finally finished sister nalusiba understood
what he was talking about. oh my soul, we had a good laugh.
i love teaching the gospel, especially here with our crazy investigators,
there is never a dull moment. my time is almost up so i guess i have to go,
i love you all, keep on being awesome. be sure to just love whatever comes
your way, remember faith, hope, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience,
brotherly kindness, godliness, charity and love. ask and ye shall receive,
knock and it shall be opened unto you!
peace and blessings
sister blum
botswana decided to go on strike... it all started a couple months ago, all
the high schools have final exams, basically they are like university level
finals, very stressful and they only exist for those in grade 10 and 12. if
you don't pass your exam you must repeat the whole year. dad, i think you
and i would still be going to school if that is how things were done in
north america! anyway, the tests are taken and the schools close for summer
holidays. the teachers get together and grade the exams. they found out that
many of the students had cheated on their exams so many students had to
retake it, a lot of them refused and somewhere along the line the teachers
decided to go on strike. school resumed about three months later than it was
supposed to.
that started all of the strikes, now most of botswana is on strike, doctors,
teachers, garbage men, construction workers, students, pretty much everyone.
i am just a missionary so i don't really know much about it other than there
are a lot of people just hanging out waiting for us to come teach them the
gospel! good on our side sometimes, there are some of our investigators who
work 3 times harder now because they have to do the work for all the
strikers. the strikers however, they are around all the time, teaching them
is easy.
we are teaching this one man, he will be baptised next week. he is one of
those super prepared ones. when we contacted him we were in front of the
church. we instantly became friends. he is a military man, very small in
stature, and super funny. when we asked him if he went to church he said
"actually, i am a believer, not a christian!" he accepted us to come and
teach him, we have been teaching him for 4 weeks and he is one of those
people who just makes preaching the gospel a blast and a half. he ALWAYS has
new friends with him when we come, he goes over to all of his neighbors
homes and drags them to the lessons so we can teach them. when we ask him
who will pray to start the lesson, he always chooses his new friend. when
they say they don't know how, he calls them a liar and asks them this
question, "so if you were in a car, and you were about to get into an
accident and die, you wouldn't know how to pray?!" then he says, "so i will
pray to set the example and you will close for us!".
we were teaching him about following the prophet the other day. sister
nalusiba asked him the question, "so Tshepo, what do you think would happen
if there was no prophet?" he went silent, you could just see the wheels
turning in his head, he thought, and thought and thought. then it was like
the light came on, he looked at us with this smile that said he had a good
one, he said, "do you remember world war 2?" he then proceeded to tell us
about how he was reading a book that put him right there on the battle
field, bombs going off, bullets flying, the atomic bomb, airplanes
crashing, and all sorts of other examples. i was laughing, sister nalusiba
was confused. after he finished talking, sister nalusiba was just staring at
him, i was laughing so hard i thought i was going to cry, then he completed
with one word, "CHAOS!" when he finally finished sister nalusiba understood
what he was talking about. oh my soul, we had a good laugh.
i love teaching the gospel, especially here with our crazy investigators,
there is never a dull moment. my time is almost up so i guess i have to go,
i love you all, keep on being awesome. be sure to just love whatever comes
your way, remember faith, hope, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience,
brotherly kindness, godliness, charity and love. ask and ye shall receive,
knock and it shall be opened unto you!
peace and blessings
sister blum
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