Farewell Botswana

We have had a wonderful year and a half in Botswana and are heading for home. We are leaving many friends and will miss them but we are taking fond memories for eternity with us. The members of the church have been so kind to us. Hopefully, we will see some of our Botswana friends again in this life; but if not, we WILL see them again in the eternities.

It seems like only yesterday that we arrived in Botswana following Sifiso Madela in his car from Johannesburg to Gaborone and wondered what our mission would really be like. We had no idea what a wonderful experience we would have. We can truly say that our mission was much better than any expectations we had.

We have seen our testimonies of the Gospel grow from seeing the hand of the Lord in the work and being strengthened by the testimonies of the church members. We were blessed to see the first stake of Zion formed in Botswana and hear the announcement of the Botswana Mission to be created in July.

This is both a sad and happy time for us. We will miss the wonderful experiences of living in Botswana and associating with its friendly people, but are looking forward to seeing our family and friends back home.

Animal Park

We went with 18 other missionaries on a zone activity to an animal rescue shelter at a military base here in Gaborone.  The military base rescues animals that are in danger for some reason, perhaps babies whose mothers have died. 

We saw crocodile, hyena, lion, leopard, baboon, white lion, lion cubs, wild dog and snakes: puff adder, python, black mamba, cobra, and boomslag.  The officer giving the tour had been bitten last year on his thumb by a puff adder and spent four days in the hospital and 6 months in treatment before her fully recovered. The missionaries got to handle a couple of non-venomous snakes.

The military educates military staff about the animals and gives tours to the general public and school children to help them learn how to live safely around the animals native to this area without harming them or being harmed by them.

Puff Adder

Cobra

The military will go to people's homes within a 20 kilometer radius around Gaborone to remove poisonous snakes. 

The missionaries got to handle one of the baby cubs.  The other one was not cooperative so the officer put him back and only the female cub was held.

Teaching Piano Lessons

We have taught piano lessons to 16 students while we've been in Botswana.  We used the keyboarding course kit that the church uses which includes a set of flashcards for learning the names and positions of the piano keys, a CD so students can listen to the hymns they are learning, a cardboard keyboard, and two song books, one of basic instruction and one called "Hymns Made Easy" which has simplified hymns.  It is an excellent program and students make good progress using it. 



Onalenna Gasafete

Jennie Ntwayagae

Elder Naku




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The church provides keyboards for the dedicated students and we were able to obtain five that had been used around the mission for use with our Young Single Adults.  Several had keyboards of their own.  Bob repaired four keyboards during our stay which otherwise would have been unusable. On one he had to move the keys around so that the missing keys were not in the middle of the keyboard.



Watson Rwada

Tshenolo Dick Pholoba











We gave students a one hour lesson once a week.  Some stuck with us the entire time and are playing prelude and postlude music and using the automatic piano to accompany for Sacrament Meeting.  Hopefully they will continue to practice and make progress after we have gone so they can accompany the singing in meetings.  Others weren't so dedicated and petered out, or moved, or if they were missionaries were transferred.



Maria Maile and Lefang Molobi

Elders Richardson and Epstein

Celeste Sibanda

 


Sister Banda


Sometimes if we had a male and female student taking a lesson at the same time, Elder Rands would teach the male and Sister Rands would teach the female on a piano and a keyboard at the church.  Sister Rands did most of the teaching. Sometimes we traveled 20 minutes to the Broadhurst Chapel to give lessons, and sometimes we gave lessons 5 minutes away at the Gaborone West Building. We taught lessons during the day, at night,  before or after we taught an institute lesson, after church,  or whenever our schedule and the student's schedule would match up.



Thembile Majafe

Kelly Thelo

Coulson Kgathi












Ward Temple Trip

 

We just returned from a three day temple trip with the Gaborone West Young Single Adult Ward from Thursday, 25 April, to Saturday, 27 April. We had a very enjoyable time for one of the last things to do on our mission.

 

Twenty-six went on the trip. Sixteen rode in a kombi and the rest traveled in three cars. It is a five hour drive. We stayed two nights in the temple patron housing and ate our meals in the dining room there. Thursday night we had chicken-ala-king over rice and cabbage salad for dinner. Friday morning we had chicken livers and toast for breakfast.  For lunch we had a choice of hamburgers or fish and chips.  Friday night we had ox liver, potatoes, and salad for dinner.

 

Thursday afternoon we attended an endowment session in the temple. In the evening we attended the Johannesburg 2^nd Ward institute class and had a devotional with them after institute. Both were very enjoyable.

Several of the young single adults took the names of deceased family members to do baptisms and sealings for them. It was special to get to help them do work for their ancestors. Friday morning some members did endowments while others performed baptisms for the dead. In the afternoon the endowed members attended an endowment session and the a few of us performed sealings.  After dinner we met with the Johannesburg 2^nd Ward again for a braai (barbecue) and games and dancing.

 

 

Saturday morning we drove straight home while the rest of the group stopped at an amusement park on the way home.

Unfinished Houses

There are a lot of unfinished houses in the neighborhoods of Botswana. Some have been left unfinished for years and have trees and bushes growing in them. They seem almost abandoned and may be.

 

A house two doors from our house has been worked on off and on since we came to Botswana and is still far from being completed. In January the owner told us she would move in about April. We failed to ask April of which year.

 

Many of the houses have piles of bricks or dirt out front. Often the piles extend into the road or neighbor’s property. One house we walk past regularly has had bricks covering half the road for the eighteen months we have been here and only in the last month has work started on the foundation of the house.

 

We asked why so many houses were left uncompleted and were told that people just did not budget well enough to have enough money to finish the house once they started.

 

Not only are there houses left unfinished but commercial buildings also seem to be left unfinished for extended periods of time.

Church Buildings in Botswana

There are two church buildings owned by the church in Botswana. Both are in Gaborone; they are the Broadhurst building which is now the stake center and the Gaborone West building. All the other buildings in Botswana are leased buildings. There is one branch in South Africa that is part of the Gaborone Botswana stake that is also in a leased building.

The Broadhurst building became the stake center when the Gaborone stake was created in November 2012. In order to accommodate a stake several rooms were added to the building. The Broadhurst Ward meets in this building.

Broadhurst

We most often attended the Gaborone West building where the Young Single Adult Ward and Gaborone 1st Ward meet. It is about five minutes from our house.

Gaborone West

The Mafikeng branch is located two hours south of Gaborone in South Africa. They meet in the back of a used car dealership.

Mafikeng

Lobatse is forty-five minutes south of Gaborone. The ward holds sacrament meeting in a pre-built building and holds classes in a converted house.

Lobatse

Kanye branch is located about one hour fifteen minutes west of Gaborone and meets in an office complex in a commercial building.


Molepolole Ward meets in a building in a light industrial area. It is fifty minutes northwest of Gaborone. For many months when we first were in Gaborone the only water was at a water tap in the corner of the lot because there was a water leak in the pipe to the building.

Molepolole

 

 

Mochudi is forty-five minutes north of Gaborone. The church in Mochudi is growing rapidly. They had just moved to the Dicky Bird School when we arrived but quickly grew so large that they had to hold classes outdoors. They next moved to a house. They outgrew the house and added a tent for sacrament meetings. Now not everyone can get in both the tent and house for sacrament meetings and people stand outside in the shade of trees even though they cannot hear what is happening in the meeting. The Church is trying to find land and build a chapel as quickly as possible.

Dicky Bird School

 

 

Mochudi

Francistown is five hours north of Gaborone. There is a branch in Francistown with two dependent branches in Gerald and Monarch all of which meet in rented houses. Francistown also has a dependent group in Kasane which is five hours north of Francistown.

Francistown

 



Gerald Dependent Branch

Cemeteries

 

Cemeteries in Botswana are very different from those we are used to. Many of the graves have shade covers to keep the deceased from getting too hot in the African sun. There are also fences and/or rocks around some of the graves.