Today we have something to announce however I am sure Roger has already made it known. Our dear friend and like a daughter has received everything she needs to go to America and she has arrive in Salt Lake City airport yesterday afternoon and Roger and Shaundalee has meet her there. By now I am sure she is in Burley and getting ready for church. Just so the family knows it was a series of miracles that had to happen to get Mariah a Botswana identification number, then her passport, and then the United States visa. All of this was very difficult and had to happen in the proper order. We had many people say it was going to be impossible and others said it would be possible but with many trials and errors. It seems that all were correct as it was almost impossible but with the help of some key people it finally did happen. I think mom has taken some notes of what needed to be done and the difficulties in each task. It really did take many trips back and forth to Kanye to get Mariah’s identification number. We had to have her tribe involved along with her mother and grandmother and the immigration department. Then she had to get her birth records which proved to be a different date than she thought was really her birthday. She is about three weeks older than she thought she was. Older and more mature at her age isn’t bad but at my age who wants to be older (I could be more mature and perhaps it would help).
After the identification number she needed a passport and with everything else in line it was the easiest part of this whole process. In the middle of all of this Mike, Roger and Bryce came and took us away from all of this for about a week. Well some of the time while they were here we were still involved as they went with us and meet some of the Kanye members and went up to Mariah’s place where she stays and meet many of her family. We took many pictures and had lots of fun. Mariah come back to Gaborone with all of us and she stayed at her cousins place here in Gaborone as the next day we went to Madikwe Game Reserve. While we were gone there she actually got her identification number and applied and received her passport.
We applied for a visa to visit America and the man she dealt with in the interview was a real jerk. I know we are very careful who we let come to America but we should at least have the courtesy to read the complete application and the documents that go with it. The man read the information about Mariah’s planned schooling and said she didn’t have enough reason to return to Botswana and rejected her application. Because Mariah is so shy and bashful she didn’t say anything about not reading the documents.
It was very hard on both Lorraine and I and we had worked really hard to get everything in order and then for him not to even look at all the preparation work was very disheartening. We did even more during the next week. We got letters from Bishop Matswagothata, and the magistrate judge stating that Mariah has no intention of staying in America and she has a family that is relying on her return. She has a Mother, Grandmother, and Great Grandmother along with Uncles, Aunts, Cousins plus a sister and 3 brothers all in Kanye. I think their letters really helped, and I typed up a cover page in big letters asking the interviewer to read the following documents and then I listed them 1 through 7. We aren’t sure what made the difference but I think it was a lot of everything.
The proof of the pudding is that she is now in America and has a round trip ticket to return back here to Botswana the last half of May 2011.
Mom and I have done all of this in our spare time. Well I guess a lot of it has been done on the many preparation days that we have back logged during the past months when we didn’t get any. But we are not complaining as all is well here in Zion. We love serving the Lord and this next week is exciting as President and Sister Poulsen come up for Leadership Training and he wants us to be there. We will be having dinner with them tomorrow night and then the meeting will be on Tuesday. He picks up Elder and Sister Riser who will be serving in Francistown the next morning in Johannesburg airport and they fly up here to Botswana on Friday and Sister Morgan and I will pick them up and show them Gaborone and take them to dinner and then stay here in our mission home/office for the night then we will drive them up to Francistown early Saturday morning. I have two 2nd interviews there before the baptisms in the afternoon and we need to get them settled into their flat before that. Another busy weekend but it will all be possible with the help of the Lord. We rely on His help all the time and He makes things happen as they should and when they should.
If any of you know of some couples that need great blessings please have them contact us by return e-mail so we can tell them how great serving as couple missionaries really is. We need someone as soon as we can so we can get replacements for us. Seriously we need someone within the next month to put in their papers so they can be called and be ready to go to the MTC so they can arrive here in the mission field on the 20th of July and be here in Botswana on the 22 or soon after so they can learn the end of the month bill paying and learn the things necessary for transfers. It is a great job and we get very high pay for the work we do. The Boss is a wonderful person to work for and we feel His influence in what He wants done. We talk to Him several times each day and feel of His presence. Let us know if you know anyone that wants this great job.
Again as always Love Out Of Botswana,
Dad and Mom
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