Week #49 - Papa Lynn

Dear Family and Friends,
22 Jan 2011

Today is suppose to be our preparation day but the only thing that even looked like a preparation day is that Mom cleaned the house which she does some everyday and I vacuumed the carpets. Other than that we had the 6 missionaries that were transferred back into
Botswana as they had to leave last Wednesday because there 90 days was up. They each received three days on their passports and we need to try and get an additional 30 days this coming Monday. I hope we can because that will take them to the next regular transfer day. Today is another special day as we have served on this mission for 11 months day. I hope and pray that Lord will except the five years we served in the Idaho Pocatello Mission as the executive secretary to two mission presidents and then served in Ukraine for two years while the mission was split and served under two mission presidents as a councilor to the last one for a year. Now we are serving this 18 month mission here in Botswana in the South Africa Johannesburg Mission as a councilor for over a year of that time. We love to serve and I do not regret any of our service we have given in any of these missions. It will be 8 ½ years all in all covering the span of 10 years from August 2001 through August 2011. We took 9 days between the Idaho Pocatello Mission and Ukraine and then about 1 ½ years between Ukraine and here in Botswana. It is very difficult for me to say but I hope the Lord will except our time served as we are planning to do other things when we get home. Meaning to serve Him in whatever capacity He calls us to do back on the home front.

This is now Sunday afternoon and I almost feel like blotting out the last part of the paragraph that I just finished but it is how we feel so I guess I will leave it. We went to G-West 1st ward today as it is their ward conference. It was really good and our stake president that comes out of Johannesburg a lot for meetings here in Botswana is a great and wonderful man and so are his two councilors. We are trying to study and catch up on some bookwork this afternoon and keep the Sabbath day Holy. We are going to take the group that came into Botswana on the 1st of December to Lobatse and have them apply for their residence permits there as they have a different committee so perhaps we can get them. It is a new immigration office for us so I hope all goes well for us. It wouldn’t hurt for some extra prayers in behalf of things going well.

Mom and I are healthy and still love to work hard. We go to bed each night between 10:00 and 10:30 almost every night and sleep pretty well. We wake up between 5:00 and 5:30 so we get up and do some exercise, get ready for the day and study the scriptures and then dive into whatever we have planned for the day. Sometimes we head for the bank or take a care in for repair or head out of town to do an apartment inspection or whatever. We love the opportunity to serve together. We get brain storms and talk about them and in some cases we talk to President Poulsen and he says to go ahead with what we have prayed and talked about. He tells me almost every time that I am his councilor and he relies on me a lot. It is fun to have him as our mission president. I hope I will always be able to comply with the Spirit and offer him good council. We are changing a missionary who is serving as branch president in Kanye and he is probably leaving next week and I suggested that he send his replacement up a couple days early to learn things relating to the branch and he loved the idea. Things are always in an uproar here in Botswana because of the immigration office of the border officers but we deal with them the
best we can.

While making a decision as to what border we were going to have our 6 emergency missionaries come back in through Mom and I went out the Mochudi border gate to check the dirt road between that gate and the Tlokweng border. We decided that the road was impassible for a car. We were glad we barrowed the bakki (pickup) from the zone leaders and it made it fine but a car wouldn’t have made it. The road follows the Madikwe game reserve fence for about 30 kilometers and we saw several Kudu, a wildebeest, and an elephant. So it was a good day.

Well I am about all written out so I will close with a Happy Birthday to Bryce out youngest. I just thought as I was writing about driving along the Madikwe game reserve that each of you boys coming to visit us should bring a pair of binoculars. We don’t have any but on the game drive up in Kasane some had them and it was great to barrow them for more close up looks.

I will close with my usual comment. Love Out Of Botswana,

DAD and MOM