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

March 14, 2011

the new converts are good, and it seems as though i counted my chickens too soon, we had three baptisms on Saturday, the family i was mentioning was not part of them. you know what though, wen they are baptized, they will be super converted and super amazing. the three we baptized are part of a family that was baptized in december. that family is taking over the branch, seriously. the mom has four sisters that live very close to each other and each sister has a bucket load of baptism aged children, one of the sisters is married, the others are either living with someone or are single. the children of all the sisters come to church all the time and are waiting for the day when they can be baptized as well. that family does so much amazing missionary work and the best part is, those who have been baptized are super strong in the gospel and committed to bringing the whole family along for the ride.

 

i am glad that you let me sacrifice this time to come here, seriously mom, this church is the most truest of true true true church in the world. i bet it is hard to let our little ones go to far away deserts in unknown lands to preach the word of God. i was thinking about that today, how can this church not be true, God calls young ones to build his kingdom, even a 14 year old boy to restore the only church that can bring salvation to all of the souls of men who have been, are and will live on this earth. that is CRAZY for me to think about. i know this church is true, the book of Mormon is true, it is the proof that Joseph smith truly did restore the church, that the church is true and that Christ is the savior and redeemer of the whole entire world, and there is a true and living prophet this second. what a marvelous thing to have a testimony of living prophets in these last days.

 

so on to some funny stories...

we have a pet chicken! a woman we contacted sells them and we were talking to her a little about that. she took that as "the missionaries wish to buy one so i need to order it for them!" today she informed us that we need to pick it up because it is at her house. we took it to a recent converts house to keep until we have time to slaughter it. i want to name it Frankfurt.

 

sister randri loves fish, we live in the middle of Botswana where the only water is about 40 kilometers from here. we have a member who fishes in the water and brings the fishes home. he was kind enough to give us some of his fish. that night we took them home, cooked them and ate them. they were delicious, but we thought it was strange that he only gave us three fishes and we are four at our house. the next day, we got into our car and it smelled really bad. we just assumed it was because some of the fish juice got on the floor. it wasn't until later that the smell was horrendous and we found the fourth fish rotting between the seat and the middle consul. we threw the fish out, cleaned the carpet as best as we could, sprayed it with air freshener and the smell remained. the car wasn't even ours, we were borrowing it from the elders because we needed the stick shift. so we gave the car back to them that evening and we still haven't heard them complain about a fishy smell, nor have we told them. our car smelled great when we got it back.

 

last one, at baptisms we have a lot of people who are baptized, so usually they will line up at the edge of the pool (we use the pool for the font) and they just take their turns. so this one boy was in line, sister randri and i had no clue who he was, we just assumed he was the elder's investigator. when it was his turn he went into the water and told the baptiser his name. the witnesses couldn't find his name anywhere on the list, we came to find out no one knew who he was, he was just by the white clothes closet when the baptizees were preparing, he was handed a white outfit, told to put it on and was instructed to go wait outside with everybody else. the poor kid had no clue what was going on, neither did we, or the elders, they assumed he was ours and we assumed he was theirs. that was close. that poor kid was so confused, well, i hope a seed was planted in him and he will want to be baptized someday. 

oh botswana, i fit in great here.

 

anyway, i must be going, i love all of you so much and i am loving this mission, time is going much too fast, i blinked and now it is the middle of march. and the new couple don't arrive for two more weeks, they will be in the mtc with paco i think...?

 

peace and blessings, 

sister blum

March 7, 2011

i am glad that you have had so much fun in montana, marlayna would probably say that the reason why you did have so much fun was because montana is the best, others would disagree because we all know that francistown botswana is the best! (sorry marlayna).

 

we are preparing ten people to be baptized on this saturday. three of them are the family with the word of wisdom problem!!!!!!!!!!!! i am not trying to count my chickens before they hatch but..... I AM SOOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED FOR THEM!! they have truly repented and have made so much progress on the path back to eternal life. as they came to church yesterday i couldn't help but see the light they had in their faces. oh the power of the gospel. it is so exciting to be involved in so great a work as this. our area is leading the mission in baptisms at the moment, we have been met with so much success, since i arrived we have split into two branches, all we are waiting for now is the leadership and it will be made into three branches! we have experienced so much growth and our members are doing so much missionary work that we can't keep up with them. they are all committed to taking the gospel to every creature! we are laying the foundation for a very successfull future for Francistown Botswana.

 

how sweet is the work, i love it. and i love the Lord. i will continue in obedience with a smile on my face and a skip in my step!~ :)

sister blum

February 28, 2011

this last week i have really been impressed with how i have seen the
blessings of being exactly obedient, and about being diligent in all things.
they are not really blessings that have been too obvious, it is more like i
have so much peace and faith knowing that God looks after me
100,000,0000000000000% as long as i am 10000000000% obedient to the rules
and regulations. when we are obedient to the lord we are blessed. i am
reminded of the council that was given to me before i came by bother
simpson. he said the two things that will transform you and will make your
mission to be successfull is:

1. be exactly obedient
2. love the people.

i testify that his council is true. as i have been obedient and loved the
people, my life has begun to transform. i also know that as i am not
obedient to every rule (even when it seems really dum) i am not happy and my
life is not blessed. the times where i disobey are the times where i don't
move forward. i am doing my best at this point in time to be exactly
obedient, and i am blessed to have a companion who is so supportive in that
desire. together we are working hard and pushing our little peice of the
Lord's kingdom forward ever faster.

the work is going so well here, the last couple weeks have been a struggle
with our investigators but the good news is, we have three father led
families who will be baptized (fingers crossed) on the 12 of march. truly, i
have been spoiled way too much from being sent to the best of the best of
the best best best area in the entire world called "francistown Botswana".
we have experienced so much success and happiness here. i wonder what else
the Lord has in store for me. regardless of what it may be, i will move
forward with faith in every footstep and a brightness of hope that God knows
me, loves me and protects me! thank you mom, dad, family and all others for
the prayers. i know god not only loves me, he loves you all so sos
sosososososoosoooo much.

i must be going. keep praying for us,

sister blum

paco, you need to pray to come to francistown botswana

February 20, 2011

first thing first... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!!! next thing next, transfer news came! say hello to my THIRD transfer with sister Randriampamonjisoa. we are really looking forward to this next transfer. i am happy to have another six weeks to learn from this one. she is a powerfull missionary who is full fun and love for all. it sounds like you have been having a lot of busy things happening. it makes me happy to hear that things are going so well at home. sometimes it is strange for me to think that life is still happening back home while i am here. Thank you for making the most of your time without me!

 

i have been here for 12 weeks. i can't believe how fast time has gone. seriously, we are getting our new planners in a week and we can't believe the one we have now is already filled. we are teaching and teaching and teaching and loving every minute.

 

we have had many disappointments, especially this last week. i told you about the family that had the word of wisdom problem. they are doing very well, the mom has been sober since she got that blessing 6 or so weeks ago. she comes to church faithfully, reads the book of mormon every day, and is absolutely golden. the dad took a little bit longer to quit but got a blessing and for three weeks now has managed to not drink or smoke at all. (the power of the priethood is amazing). he is in the military and has been on a trip for the last two weeks. he returns on thrusday and is so excited to be baptized as a family this next week. unfortunately he has only been to church once because of his crazy schedule. their baptism will be postponed until april so that he can come to church. i guess we will see how committed he actually is. i love that family so much. it is a dissapointment that they will not be able to be baptized this coming week, but they will be someday and when they are how happy that will be because they will be a family!!!!!

 

i love you all very much and am excited to see what this next week has in store for us. sorry that this one is short. may the Lord keep you safe while you live life this next week. until i email again.

 

sister blum

February 14, 2011

dear all,

we went on a game drive today! Mom, i saw a million giraffes! i
thought of you as i was taking pictures of them :) we saw warthogs,
impalas, RHINOS!!!! (right by the car!) zebras, birds of all shapes
and sizes, gazelles, green mamba snakes, wildabeasts, mongooses, and
ostriches! we saw many different kinds of antelopes and gazelles but i
don't remember their names. it was a very good time and i have many
pictures to show from it. unfortunately it takes longer than an hour
to load any pictures so i will not be able to send any for now. i have
been printing many pictures so hopefully when i get home we can share
EVERYTHING that happened here.

we baptized four people on saturday! all are priesthood age men, they
will be receiving the priesthood in two weeks. i hope i will be around
to see that happen. transfers are on the 22nd and it is hard to say
what will be happening in this neck of the bush. the senior couple
that resides here will be leaving and moving back to arizona at the
end of this transfer. the replacement couple will be arriving in 2
months. the Cardiff's will be missed terribly, they are the head of
the missionary work here. i hope this old donkey cart of a mission
will still be in tact by the time the new couple comes to replace
them.

i was thinking about how stinking fast this last transfer went. i
didn't tell you about last transfer because my companion and i stayed
companions so there really was no change. the last six weeks have
seriously flown soooooooooo incredibly fast.

i have been so blessed to have sister randria as my companion/trainer
for these last two transfers. she has been such a blessing to me, i
hope the luck will continue and she will stay here with me. of course
we can never guess what God may have in store, i just know that this
is Gods work and he cares too much about it to let someone like me
mess everything up if she, in fact, does leave me with the reigns. i
know that if she does then i will God's help every step of the way and
it will be 100% for my good. if not, i am SOOOSOSOSOSOOSOOOOOOOO
excited to give another six weeks a go where i can learn more of the
things i am supposed to with her.

this is a miracle that happened to me a couple weeks ago brought on by
your prayers (i am sure about that)

one time my companion, another sister and i were helping one of our
recent converts wash every single dish in her house. i have never seen
so many plates, bowls, cups, utensils, tupperware, etc. in my life.
before we began to wash, they had made two loaves of bread worth of
sandwiches and put them in front of us. we somehow fit them in our
stomach and washed the dishes. after we finished they brought out a
heaping (seriously heaping) plate of spaghetti and they watched as we
shoved it down. that night sister randria and sister clendon (the
other sister who came with us) were deathly ill to the point where
they needed a blessing. me on the other hand was fine. i guess i am
just used to eating a lot of food. thank you mom for always feeding me
so i would be prepared for this.

i love you family, and friends. i am doing all i can to magnify my
calling here in francistown botswana. time is short and i must go, i
love you all and am so thankfull for the prayers. they are really
keeping me safe physically and spiritually.

i will share many more experiences as i have time.

peace and blessings.
love very much sister blum

Message from Elder Cardiff

We had a good week, Billy and Tsotse spoke in church, The latter was just baptized last week and gave a great talk.  I think he will be an assert to the branch. 

The branch is growing and  growing, as you know we will have to move out of the F-Town  building sometime this year, we have the possibility of a new building but it may be already too small.  we had 117 in Sacrament; 65 investigators; 20 Primary Sunday School 10; Youth SS 19; young women 9; Relief Society 31; Priesthood 41 including 9 Ym.

Gerald had 77 in Sacrament, 28 in Primary; combined class RS and PH 23; Young Men 12; Young Women 12; Seminary 20 and 20 investigators.

As you can see, we are trying to ease the pressure on the cars so the sisters are taking donkey cart lessons.   I believe Sister Blum is ready to graduate,   Sister Randria is already using her donkey cart license and is instructing Sister Blum.  The  Sisters want an increase in their allotment as the hay bill is mounting up.
We had a wonderful group of new members.  The Sibanda's own the school the Bishop works at.  The wife and daughter were baptized.  I talked with the owner and head master, he is also now on date.  The young man in the wheel chair is also being baptized.

Elder Hope is trying to corner a tasty mopony worm,  he says it is delicious.

The work is going so good here,  we have the best missionaries in the world.

Elder Cardiff