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