Dear Family and Friends,
It is now about 5:30 PM on Saturday and in 168 HOURS three of our boys will be getting off the plane in Johannesburg and we will be waiting for them. I don’t know if they are excited or not but I know two people that are very excited. We are hurrying and getting things done in preparation for their weeklong visit. Just so the rest of you will know we will be driving back form Johannesburg on Saturday night and need to move right out as we must cross the Botswana border before it closes at 12:00 midnight. We should be well before that but I don’t want to sleep in the car so we will leave Johannesburg as quickly as we can. We will get as much sleep as we can and go to the Young Single Adult sacrament meeting at 10:50 Sunday morning. Come home and have a bite of lunch and then drive up to Kanye (this is Mom’s and my favorite drive) and count the donkeys on the way. We have told Mariah that we will be coming that afternoon. Then drive back and visit for the evening and have an evening meal and get another good night sleep.
The next morning we will see a few sights here in Gaborone and then cross the border again to go to Madikwe which is a game reserve. We need to arrive about noon and spend until Wednesday about noon seeing what animals we see. It should be great as President and Sister Poulsen have taken some of their family there and most of the office staff in Johannesburg has been to see it as well. We are really looking forward to the game reserve as we so much enjoyed the time we were in Kruger Park with Colin and Jenny Bricknell. Then Thursday we will visit here close to home in Gaborone and see what we didn’t have time to see on Monday.
Then on Friday we head back to Johannesburg to see what we can see and maybe do a little African shopping. We will put the boys back on a plane and stay overnight in Johannesburg and head back the next day.
It seems like a short visit but we hope to visit a lot and see a game reserve and see most of Gaborone and enjoy the travel time with the boys. Mike, Roger and Bryce thank you for preparing to come and visit us. We are very EXCITED and hope you are as well.
Now I want to write about some mission type news. Yesterday we had a conference call from Julie Jensen, Sara McBride in the church travel department in Salt Lake along with Joseph who is over travel in the area office in Johannesburg along with President Poulsen and me. You can probably give even just a little thought as to what was talked about. Of course it was better ways to get our missionaries visa or we call them here in Botswana residence permits. We finally decided to have the two ladies in Salt Lake put a test run on two missionaries coming either in June or July and see if they can get the visa before the come to South Africa Johannesburg Mission so they can serve in Botswana any time President Poulsen wants them to. In the mean time we will do what we have been doing all along and see what turn the immigration department will take on our applications that we have applied for. I had a really good talk with President Poulsen and he had Sister Henrichsen who is his secretary in the Johannesburg office in on the conversation as well. It has been even more mixed up recently. When the missionaries come into Botswana some bring the medical form 5 all filled out and some don’t so we have to wait and see who does and who doesn’t so we can make appointments. Some come with birth certificates and some don’t so we have to work on that also at the last minute. We ended the conversation with us going back to the old way we did them but we will still use Stix. He is getting a little easier to work with and it is helping a lot.
We fell at the moment that taking them to Lobatse is a great help. We hope the immigration office in Lobatse will continue to help us. It is too early to see but we hope to get some residence permits approved before next transfer which is the 5th of April. These 7 are the ones that replaced the emergency transfers about two weeks ago. This transfer is coming up next Tuesday and we hope to have these emergency transfers approved before they have to leave on the 5 of April.
That is enough of the detailed information. I want you to know that Mom and I love serving here in Botswana. It is hot this time of year but our mission home/office does have air conditioning and we put it to good use. We have great missionaries even if they do only stay for two transfers. This next one will be 17 if some of the residence applications don’t come through.
I have a great love for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I am happy to do what He wants done and we are very prayerful and strive each day to be guided by the spirit to do His will. Our goal is to do what He wants done and to say what He wants said and be an instrument in His hands. We truly feel the Holy Ghost as a guide in our lives. We pray hard for knowledge to know what needs to be done then we get up off our knees and work hard to do His will. Missionary work is the greatest work in the church. We get time to study to pray and to work, it is a great life. I hope and pray for each of my children their mates and each of their families every day. May each of you have a desire to do missionary work.
LOVE OUT OF BOTSWANA, DAD and MOM
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