New-Year Celebration

The missionaries within and hour of Gabarone got together to celebrate the New Year. To make sure that everyone was home before the local partying started we celebrated the New Year at the same time as Aukland, New Zealand, that is one o'clock in the afternoon Botswana time.It was a potluck dinner with every companionship bringing something to contribute.

 We were really impressed with what a good job the elders and sisters did. They made some very delicious main courses and desserts. We made ham and chicken baguette sandwiches and cinnamon rolls. After dinner we watched the movie "Seventeen Miracles" about the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. Many people have gone back to the villages for the holiday season and Gaborone has been very quiet especially the day after Christmas and today. Going to the villages for the holidays is the equivalent to going home to grandma's house for the holidays in the United States. We are anxious to have everyone back in the city so that we can start doing seminary and institute teacher training and have the teachers trained before school starts.

 

Thunderstorm

We have experienced several thunderstorms since we have been in Botswana. If they occur in the evening, we have time, and are home, we sit on chairs on the front porch and enjoy the display. Neither one of us had seen a thunder and lightning storm as spectacular as the one we saw last night. We could see the rain coming before it got to our house. It was obvious we were going to get dumped on. When the rain came it just poured. It rained very hard for forty-five minutes and then continued to rain for at least three hours more. Because of the clouds and the rain we could only occasionally see lightning but we saw the sky light up many more times. We had continual thunder accompanying the visual display. Those lightning bolts we could see were spectacular because they were so close and the thunder that went with them equally impressive. We knew the thunder was coming very quickly after seeing the lightning. It would crack and then roll on for several seconds. It was a great display of God's power.

The water just gushed from the house downspouts.

The rain flooded our backyard and streamed though our new grass an inch deep. Today there was dirt and sand on many of the streets and some roundabouts were still flooded this afternoon. We received about an inch and a half of rain.

After the rain eased a bit the termites came out in force. The next morning we had termite wings all over the cement patio blocks under our side yard light. We thought we had been smart and by not turning on the front porch light so it would not attract termites. Unfortunately, the breeze today just blew termite wings onto the front porch anyway.

Christmas 2011 in Botswana

We had two Christmas events with about three dozen young missionaries and senior couples for those working in the area around Gaborone. The first was held on December 23 with a Christmas dinner of ham, baked potatoes, vegetables, rolls; and we provided brownies with ice cream and fudge sauce for dessert. It was held at the Botswana Mission Home. This made it feel a little bit more homey. It was crowded but everyone enjoyed being together. We watched a video of the nativity and sang Christmas carols. President and Sister Kimball had Christmas stockings filled with treats for all the missionaries. We made popcorn balls for the missionaries to take home with them. It was well after dark when the party ended so many of the elders that work in outlying villages stayed overnight with the Gaborone elders and went home the next day. Some of the elders helped move Elder and Sister Moss to Lobatse so that they could live where they worked rather than commute from Gaborone to Lobatse.
 

We get a lot of use out of the aprons the Lineruds gave us for our mission.

The second Christmas event held December 26 was a party where we played games, watched the video "The Note", and had refreshments. Elder Koloji sang Christmas carols and Elder Hansen played his violin. Sister Kimball used a dried cactus plant and bags of snacks to make a creative center piece for the refreshment table. A new senior couple for Gaborone, the Taylors, and two other couples from South Africa brought three cars to Botswana and joined us at the party. We made caramels, peanut butter bars, and ranger cookies for the refreshment table. The four sister missionaries (Sisters Mudzimba, Blum, Banda, and Clendon) bought matching skirts for Christmas and wore them to the party. Everyone had a wonderful time. There are now six senior couples in Botswana while a year ago there was only one. The church is growing rapidly in Botswana.

Trip to the Border

The car we have been temporarily using is registered in South Africa and can only remain in Botswana for thirty days without incuring fines, so we took it for a drive across the border into South Africa about an hour away. We then just turned around and came back paying the road fee and insurance fee as we re-entered Botswana so that the car is good for another thirty days. We should soon be getting a car registered in Botswana so that we don't have to do that again.

We made the boarder crossing at Lobatse because we had an interview scheduled with a young adult living there for the Perpetual Education Fund. We had decided to have the interview there so the candidate would not have to make a special trip to Gaborone. When he did not show up at the appointed time and place we called him to find out that he had decided to come to Gaborone anyway to go shopping with friends. He did not call us so we drove down and back one hour each way and then interviewed him at our house when we returned. We even had to wait for him for that interview.

Elders Chelelmet, Mombashora, Richeson, and Naku

We had the elders to dinner who all live in the same apartment in Gaborone. Elder Mombashora was a few days away from returning home to Zimbabwe at the end of his mission .

Termites Galore!

We went for a walk one evening because it was cool and there was a beautiful sunset. After it got dark the termites came out to mate. There were termites everywhere in the air. When cars would pass you could see a "blizzard" of termites in the car headlights. We took this picture of the termites flying in front of our gate. The next morning there were termite wings all over the ground where the termites had clipped them off to start tooking for a home. We had to quickly enter our house to keep from letting in a lot of termites. It was an interesting experience.

Our Neighborhood

House being remodeled next door

There is a lot of variety in our neighborhood. Every day we walk we see new things. There are a lot of houses being built or remodeled. There are also quite a few houses that have been partially built or almost finished where all work has stopped and in some cases for a long time. There are very small houses (one to two rooms) and very large two-story houses.

There are houses and yards that are very well kept and others that are very run-down. There are also many piles of trash. Most of the roads are paved but some are still dirt. When we walk we see many of the well-kept yards have two-liter pop bottles filled with water on the grass. We could not figure out what they were for until a man told us they were effective at keeping dogs from pooping on the grass because they see their distorted reflections in the bottles and it scares them off - quite ingenius. There a many empty lots and a large open field where they play soccer in the evenings. There are people who seem to work every day cutting brush and burning it in the open fields. Unfortunately, they do not pick up the trash while they are doing that.

There are termite mounds everywhere, even in our neighborhood. We found a particularly large one in a building lot one block from our house. You can see some of the trash at the bottom of the mound. There are also many beautiful wild flowers in bloom at the side of the road or in empty lots right now. We live a couple of blocks from a senior couple, President and Sister Kimball. He is in the mission presidency. We are a ten-minute walk from a large shopping mall but still have cattle wandering through the neighborhood.

Grass was planted at our house this week. The workers put out individual plants eight inches apart that they brought in a gunny sack. The grass puts out long runners. It is pretty coarse but looks a lot better than dirt. We were lucky because it rained today and was cooler which will help the grass get established. I don't know how often it will need to be cut. It should make our yard look much better. The workers also cleaned up outside the gate so it is much improved. We pass a lot of people when we walk and they are always very friendly.

Fat Cooks

Thursday (1 Dec.), we invited Sister Blum (Sandy, Utah), Sister Mudzimba (Zimbabwe), Elder Huwiler (Switizerland), and Elder Kalonji (Kenya) to dinner. After dinner we had the Elder show us how to make Fat Cook (Magwinya) a traditional South African dessert like scones. The batter is a little thicker than pancake batter. You use your hand to scoop up the batter and your thumb to push it into the hot grease. The Elders were very good at making nice round fat cooks. The Sisters had not made them before and their inexperience resulted in weird shapes and we gave them names like crab, impala, lizard, etc. We had a lot of fun. After we finished we took some to the men building the house next door. They were surprised and very pleased at the treat.

Saturday (3 Dec.), we went for a hike with the Young Single Adult Ward in Gaborone. We gathered at 5:30 am to beat the heat. We met at a mall parking lot and there were half a dozen baboons in a corner of the parking lot ranging in size from the big male and female to the babies. It took about forty minutes to hike to the top of Kgale Hill, the highest hill around Gaborone. We could see our house from there as it was only a couple of km away. Janet made pumpkin bread (actually butternut bread because we could not find pumpkin) and banana bread for everyone at the start of the hike.

Sunday, (4 Dec.) we rode with the Kimballs to Molepolole a village forty minutes away from Gaborone to attend the branch services there. It was very interesting to attend the branch. Though all the members are first generation members of the church they have a good understanding of the gospel and try very hard to fulfill their callings. At the start of Fast and Testimony meeting these two boys came to sit with Elder Rands. One asked to sit next to him and the other asked to sit on his lap. They were very good the whole meeting.



The Garbage Barrels

There were no garbage cans at the house when we arrived so garbage was accumulateing with no way to get rid of it. We went shopping for garbage cans and had difficulty finding any. Those we did find were very expensive and would disappear if they were left unattended outside our gate. The local people told us to get old oil drums and have them made into garbage cans with handles. One of the members found a place to have them made. We followed him there, he negotiated the price, and we had garbage cans made while we watched and waited. The place was just a business that deals in used barrels on the side of the road under a tree . They used a sharpened steel plate and a sledge hammer to cut the top off the barrel just like a can opener. The bought rebar from the next business down the road and made it into handles and then welded them on the cans. We paid for the two barrels and then waited for almost two hours before the missionaries with the mission bakki (pickup) could come and take the cans home for us. We were just pleased to have garbage cans and loved watching what was going on around us while we waited. 

The picture below is taken of the intersection by the business. You can see that the activity is pretty varied, from goats to heavy traffic. The vans are the mass transit of Gaborone. They are privately owned but transit regular routes and have the route name and number on their front. They come by about ten minutes apart and honk their horn to see if anyone wants a ride. They hold fourteen people and are often completely full.

Garbage collection is not regularly scheduled but happens about every two weeks in residential neighborhoods. The collectors ring your bell and then place your cans out by the street for the truck to pick up about ten minutes later. The trouble is we do not have a bell by the gate so they would not be able to contact us. Also, if you are not home you just have to wait until the next time they come to collect but you don't know exactly what day that is. We had so much trash from getting the house set up we just put the cans outside the gate a few days ago because we could not miss a pickup and to our delight our trash was picked up today.

Botswana Time

People are pretty relaxed in Botswana. If they say they are going to do something NOW, it can mean two days later. If they are going to do it soon they say NOW NOW. Saturday we had an institute activity at an amusement park with swimming and rides called Lion Park Resort (no animals included). We were told to meet at the church at nine o'clock. We finally left for the park at eleven o'clock. Lunch was scheduled for one o'clock but we finally ate at five o'clock. Everyone was hungry by the time we ate.

They had a braai (barbecue). It is pronounced "bri" with a long i sound. They grilled steaks and bratwurst sausages. They forgot aluminum foil and tongs so they borrowed them from a fellow barbecueing nearby. The food was very good. They really like to have a braai. We had a wonderful time with the young adults and they seemed to have a great time. The leader of the activity brought many liters of homemade ginger punch which is a traditional drink in Botswana; it was very good. The park had some unexpected restrictions which caused some difficulties but they overcame them.

First week in Botswana

Front of house

We followed the previous CES coordinator from Johannesburg, South Africa, to Gaborone, Botswana. It took six hours including lunch and border crossing. We didn't see any animals on the way but we passed several game reserves. The missionary couple in Botswana had spent a lot of time getting our house ready. We had a bed, couch, chair, love seat, and fan. They also had some breakfast food for us but we did not have any plates or utensils to eat it with so we had a Trio bar, bananas, and juice using measuring cups we had brought with us.

Side yard for entertaining young adults

It was quite warm the day we arrived and the house was hot so we turned on the fan. We were getting ready to shower about 11:00 pm when the power went off and the fan stopped. Luckily, Jant had just put out the small flashlight we were instructed to bring so we could at least see. It was a hot night without any air circulation. The power was off for five hours and we were very glad to have the fan back on.

Livingroom

As you can see from the photo of the livingroom since the first night we have been getting the house outfitted. We now have pretty much everything we need to be pretty comfortable including air conditioning. The house came with a whole fist full of keys; every door, closet, and padlock has a key. Many of the keys we cannot find a use for.

Kitchen

The kitchen is very small but will do what we need it to. When we entertain a larger group it will be a challenge but that is part of the adventure to figure out how to get done what we need. Besides what the church provides Sister Rands has purchased kitchen gadets and pans. Elder Rands has spent a lot of time scraping paint off windows, door knobs, the floor, and switch plates and socket plates. While scraping Elder Rands came across a two-inch spider in the house which freaked out Sister Rands.



Bathroom

We spent most of one day turning in our application for residency at the emigation department. We stood in line for five and a half hours to turn in our paper work, pay our 1500 pula ($250), and now have to wait until the next step. If that does not happen within ninety days we will have to leave Botswana.

We attended a zone conference where Elder Cook, the area president, came as part of a mission tour. As part of the conference the senior couple already in Gaborone put on a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. We helped by getting up at 5:00 am to cook and make mashed potatoes. The couples from Francistown brought the desserts. The evening before the conference he also conducted a fireside for the young single adults. He had a question and answer session which was very good. After the fireside Elder Cook, President Omer (the mission president) and four senior couples went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Groceries are not inexpensive here but that dinner only cost 500 pula ($85) for twelve people. We'll have to go to that restaurant again.

We are having a wonderful adventure!

CES training in Johannesburg

We traveled to Africa with Elder and Sister Alder who will be serving in Northeast South Africa. We arrived in Johannesburg on Friday evening, 11 November. On Saturday we went to seminary and institute graduation is Soweto. On Sunday we went to church at the Soweto Ward. We were impressed with how knowledgable about the gospel the saints in Soweto are. They did a great job of giving talks and teaching lessons. We stayed at a nice hote,l the Town Lodge, in Roodeport. We had Church Education System training on Monday through Wednesday. On Monday night we went out to dinner with a group of senior missionaries from the Johannesburg area for family home evening. There were about twenty of us.They get together about once a month. There are people at the restaurant parking lot who guard the cars and you are expected to tip them a few Rand for their service.

Missionary Training Center

We entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, on 31 October 2011 for ten days of training. We have had a wonderful time with other senior missionaries receiving training on our duties. We have been in classes week days from about eight o'clock until five o'clock. We have spent our evenings studying or attending firesides and devotionals. We are staying in a new facility that has been open for only three weeks. Our room is very comfortable.

One of the great experiences of the MTC is getting to know the other senior couples and sisters that are in training with us. The first week our group consisted of sixty-six people from all over the United States who are going to serve all over the world in a variety of assignments. We have a very good time learning together and have great instructors. They range in age from young returned missionaries to senior returned missionaries. They all keep us well entertained. We have been fed spiritually and given great information on teaching and sharing the Gospel. The second week there are twenty-eight of us getting additional training on teaching young adults in the Church Education System.

The food has been very delicious with lots of choices. One of the popular items was ice cream night with a half dozen flavors from the BYU Creamery and many toppings to choose from. The food was even good during the two meals when the power was out at the MTC. The staff was amazing at getting backup generators on line and keeping things going.

We leave Thursday morning for the mission field. We fly to Atlanta, then to Johannesburg, South Africa, where we will stay a few days before driving to Botswana.

Tender Mercies of the Lord

Because we were delayed one month due to visa issues we have been able to help Heather with her new baby.This has truly been a tender mercy of the Lord to let us have this experience.

Luke Andrew Johnson was born on October 24. We have had a wonderful week helping with the new baby; playing with Rachel and Seth; and visiting with Lisa, Heather, Kevin, Janet's family, and our transplanted Spokane friends. It is hard to believe that tomorrow we enter the Mission Training Center and our mission finally begins.

Getting Started

Plan A was a calling to the Denmark Copenhagen Mission with an assignment to Iceland reporting on 14 November to the Mission Training Center (MTC). A week later, the church missionary department asked if we would be willing to take another assignment. Plan B started when we said we would, and we were assigned to the South Africa Johannesburg Mission with an assignment to the Church Education System (CES) in Botswana, Africa, reporting to the MTC on 3 October. When our FBI clearance, needed for a visa, did not arrive on time the missionary department decided to delay our entry to the MTC. That started Plan C. We now report to the MTC on 31 October. All the changes are truly a blessing because we are very excited about serving in Botswana and now we will be able to help Heather, our daughter, with her new baby which is scheduled for delivery on 24 October. Needless to say Janet is very excited about being able to help Heather.

Visa Application