Dear Family,
Well, Time is marching on so quickly that we are running out of time for training, teaching, talking in church, and visiting with these people that we love so much. We are doing our “last” of everything and it’s really quite sad. We had our final part together with the YSA yesterday and it was so fun. We bought wood out in the country from a little family that sells it for a living and that is an experience in itself. Dad started the fire and got it just right for a good ol’ American wiener roast and they had never even seen and couldn’t imagine how to cook them over the open fire. Dad had made about 18 wiener stick with a good stiff wire he found and some dowels and they worked really well. We had about 75 in attendance and they ate until I thought they would all burst and I think they had a great time. Sister Busi Matswagothata (Bishop’s wife) had put together a really nice memory book and had all of them write us a little note to put in the book along with their pictures and it is really a treasure. We will really miss them and hope we can keep up with their lives through Bishop and Busi. The Matswagothata’s have become way more than friends and we will never forget them. They say they will come to America to visit and we think they really might. We certainly hope so! They invited us to their home this Thursday evening and we are looking forward to going.
Today we drove to Kanye for our last time; we really love the Saints in Kanye and they have become like our 2nd family. They became a branch about 2 months before we arrived so we have seen them through a lot of baptisms, confirmations, building remodeling and building grounds clean up operations, as well as parties and leadership training. It was hard to speak in their meetings today as, of course, we got quite emotional and the spirit was certainly with us all as we said our fair wells and as we witnessed to them of the truthfulness of the Gospel and pleaded with them to remember our testimonies and to let our testimonies strengthen them until they could be strong enough of their own to ALWAYS stay close to the Gospel and it’s teachings. I met with Sister Lasedi (The Relief Society President) for an hour after church; she is a member of less than 9 Months and trying to be the mother of the ward; and doing an excellent job I might add. Their Branch President is a wonderful 7 Ft. Tall Elder (Elder Oketa) with a crippled leg and a dynamic spirit. We left Kanye with heavy hearts, but full of excitement for the future. Marea was with us today and she came back to Botswana with us and is going to help me clean tomorrow and then ride the Combi back to Kanye as she starts school again on Tuesday. She has been out for a 3 week break, but will soon be in full swing again. She is doing excellent in school and getting very good grades. She is happy and fun and we love her. We bought her a bed as she has been sharing a Twin Sized bed with her cousins daughter because she has no place else to sleep except on her grandma’s floor. It was fun yesterday when we took her to the furniture store, she went to the absolute cheapest bed in the store and laid down on it and said (thumbs-up) this one will be just great!
We plan to pack up and clean and train all day Monday and Tuesday and then move into the small apartment across town where we began our Mission and let the Kimball’s move into the Mission Home so they can start doing all the computer work, answering phones, and everything else that comes up daily. As long as we are here, we keep doing it and they need to be on their own for a few days before we leave. They are wonderful people, fun to be around; having a great experience here so far and they are thrilled to be serving in Botswana. They have served a Family History Mission in their home stake, but have been praying for a Foreign Mission some time in their life and now at age 74 and 75, they have realized their dream and they are just so excited to be here. They were a little less excited after it took them 5 hours at Immigration on Friday, but they are good sports. We are proud of them.
Well, it’s been a big weekend and the week is looking about the same so I’m going to close and I don’t know if we will be able to write any more or not. It’s kind of hard to use the computers when it isn’t our house, but if we get a chance we’ll try. If you need anything, you can e-mail us though as I’m sure we will at least be able to check for messages one day when we come over to do office work with them.
We love you all so very much. We thank you for your love and support as we have served this mission. We couldn’t do it if we didn’t have that support. Thanks for allowing us to spread our wings and fly; we love each other and we love serving together. We have been so richly blessed and we pray for that same blessing for each of you. We’ll see you in “a few”.
Love,
Mom and Dad, Grannie & PaPa Lynn
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