Hello to All!
Another week has passed so quickly and we now have a new Mission President which we haven’t had the privilege of meeting yet; but Dad has talked to him a couple of times on the phone. President Omer asked Dad to stay on as a Counselor until we leave; so we will carry on as normal and try to do everything he wants done and help him get adjusted to Botswana when he has time to come up. He plans to come up on the 15th and have interviews with all of our missionaries here at our home just like President Poulsen did; so I think he is planned to carry out the 1st month or so with the schedule President Poulsen used; and then perhaps make some changes to do things “his way.” We are anxious to meet him and his wife and get to serve with them for this transfer and then hopefully we’ll have someone else trained to take our place. He isn’t quite sure which couple he is going to use to replace us so we’re just waiting until someone arrives and then we will go to work teaching them about the amazing Branches and Wards here in Botswana. He will love the people here and enjoy working with them. But he doesn’t actually get to know them very well unless he does things a lot different than President Poulsen. This mission is so large that it is impossible for one Mission President to get everywhere and spend any time there when he arrives. President Poulsen was so busy taking care of almost 200 missionaries that he rarely had time to even be here on a Sunday for a Branch or Ward meeting. I guess we won’t actually know if anything changes much because I’m sure President Omer will still be getting his feet wet by the time we have to leave and it’s amazing how quickly things change when you leave the Mission and someone else takes over. We will soon be forgotten and life moves on for everyone. That is one thing we’ve learned from our other missions is that we are all totally replaceable and the next couple will probably do it better!
We did a lot of traveling again this past week. Dad had a 2nd interview to do in Mafikeng (back in South Africa) so we took a day and went down there. We made the bad choice of going on Friday and it was a Botswana Holiday (Sir Seretse Khama Day) our President so we got stuck at the border for almost an hour. I think ALL of Botswana was traveling by car or walking across the border that day and he had to be in Kanye by noon so we left early in the morning and it’s a good thing. We were at the border (a 2 hour drive) by 9 O’clock that morning, but we lost an hour there so we were still 30 minutes late for his appointment on into Mafikeng. The interview was only 30 or 40 minutes and then we headed right back across the border and he was still late for his appointment to fix a baptismal font there. However, when we went to fix the font, we found out that the Hardware Store in Gaborone had sold us the wrong length of cable to fix it with and he couldn’t fix it anyway so that was a total waste of 3 hours travel and rush. But we did get to pick up Marea and bring her to Gaborone with us for the weekend. She needed to earn some money so we let her do some cleaning for us and she is a great cleaner. I told her we’d pay her by the hour and she jumped on that and went right to work. She got in 3 hours on Friday (she and I did the whole kitchen, cupboards in and out and the whole bit) and by evening the whole kitchen felt cleaner than it ever has since we moved in. It was nice!
Saturday she cleaned and cleaned all day while I cooked and prepared for a YSA Sisters Conference I was sponsoring today. I had about 30 Sisters come along with Bishop Motswagothata and his wife Busi come and we listened to the YW Conference tape which none of our sisters have ever heard and then had Chicken noodle soup and rolls, cookies and ice cream to close our fast. It was really a great day together and I prepared some fun handouts to go along with each of the talks so I hope they all felt Spiritually fed as well as Physically fed.
Marea stayed for the meetings with us and then she jumped on a Combi and headed for the bus station to catch a bus to Kanye while we cleaned up the house and the yard from the party and said our good bye’s to everyone. Bishop and his wife stayed around for quite a while, they are so fun and we really love them and enjoy it when they come over. Mike and Roger and Bryce got to meet them so I know they understand how much we love them; I wish all of you could just meet them; you would love them also. Hopefully they will get to America some day to meet all of you and see that you are as wonderful as we tell them you are.
So now it’s evening and I’m beet but it’s been a wonderful week and we’ve had a stream of visitors all evening including some missionaries who heard there was soup left over to a couple coming over for some Marriage advice (they came alone but we sent each of them home to talk things out together and tried not to take sides or give much advice.)
We know you are all busy at home; enjoy your busy summer and send us lots of letters and pictures about the kids and all that is going on. You make my day when I come to the computer early in the morning and there is a letter or pictures of any of you. It’s even a better day if there is more than one letter so keep the letters and notes and pictures coming; they mean a lot to us.
Love,
Mom and Dad, Grannie & PaPa Lynn
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