first to answer your questions...

how did primary go this week?

WHEW! it seems as though the more we try to help the branch run
independantly the more we end up running the branch (or the primary part
that is). we were left completely to ourselves this last week and what was
worse was that last week we were told to plan nothing so the president would
have a little more of a desire to get things going. our bad i guess, we
should always be prepared, fortunately we had a whole bag of cookies and new
crayons :) it went well though, most of the time the kids don't really say
much when i am around because, you know, i am white and they think i am a
ghost. ha ha.

i can receive emails but i am not supposed to email back unless you are kin.
i will ask however that you give my postal address rather than my email
address. it is easier for me on email days to only read and respond to
letters from family. please be sparing to who you allow to have my email. my
postal address for here in francistown is as follows:

sister blum
P.O BOX 301797
Selepa, Francistown
Botswana

the package can be sent to gabarone

now an update on the work... sometimes things are hard because of the
amount of work that is here (imagine that huh, i am complaining because
there are too many golden ones), i seem to have mini stress attacks
sometimes because i rely too much on my own strength. we have a white board
that has all of our progressing investigators, people we are working with,
and our on-date investigators written. we have so many people that we are
preparing for baptism that sometimes i look at the board and SERIOUSLY
question, "how in the stars will it be possible?!" something my dear
companion is really good at is putting things in God's hands.
my companion is the best, honestly. i can't believe how lucky i have been to
have her as my trainer for the last two transfers. she is so good at being a
missionary, i marvel at how faithful, virtuous, caring, loving and giving
she is. she takes so much time to help me with the things i struggle so hard
with. one of those is remembering things. for some reason, i am here and i
can't remember anything some days, like how to get to investigators houses,
names of people that we work with all the time, lessons that were taught,
information i am supposed to share with people, etc. she is patient and
always caring when we make the millionth u-turn because once again, i forgot
where our investigator lived. or when i re-commit people to be baptized for
the 50th time because i couldn't remember ever putting them on date before.
also, i love to talk and talk and talk about one principle in a lesson, if i
am not careful, i can still be talking about our loving heavenly father
after 20 minutes. she has been doing an amazing job helping me teach to the
point. it has been hard though, sometimes i get frustrated because when i am
talking too much she will interrupt me and move to the next topic. yes, i am
thankful for that because it is helping remind me to be brief and sweet,
just sometimes it hurts my pride. which is a weakness i have developed over
the course of my whole life.

i wish to be a good misisonary, often i feel so inadequate for the job at
hand. we have so much work to do, so many things to improve on, and so many
rules to apply. i know that God is in charge here, i just don't want to let
him down.

i have been studying a lot on pride the last few weeks, mainly the talk by
benson titled "beware of pride" it truly is the biggest stumbling block. i
wish it was easy to get rid of, unfortuanetly it is like the morning
glory of sins, it roots itself deep and spreads like crazy. it is almost
impossible to kill, sometimes i fear that it will never be gone. in the book
of Helaman chapter 3 it says there was no contention in the land, save a few
instances brought up by the pride of the people. i am working oh so hard to
rid myself of it, and i am finding that the deeper to the root i get, the
more the roots resist being pulled and the more painful it is. sister
randri is like the gardener who is digging, and pulling and wiggling on that
root. she is doing such a good job but man does it hurt sometimes, one day i
wish to be free from this great evil that holds my heart.

i am sorry for those that i have not had the opportunity to contact may the
lord continue to bless you and i am doing my best here, if you wish for me
to write you, i plead with you to write me a letter so that i can 1)
actually respond to you and 2) so i can send you more than just a two second
shout out via these letters. i only get to see a computer for one hour on
monday.

times up, love you
sister blum