Gaborone East Zone Activity

We invited the Gaborone East Zone (16 missionaries) on their preparation day, 18 February 2013, and the Taylors and Gublers to our house for lunch, games, and activities.

It was supposed to start at 1:00 pm. The first set of missionaries came at 1:30 pm; the second group came at 1:45 pm; the next group came at 2:15 pm; and the last group came at 3:00 pm. Unfortunately, they have picked up a bad Botswana habit of being late.

We assigned each companionship to bring a salad, chips, or dessert. We started eating at 1:45 pm even though all the food was not there. We provided the main coarse of baked ham and cheese rolls, a macaroni salad, and punch. The Taylors brought chicken salad. The Gublers brought cookies. By the time the last missionaries came we were through eating and had put all the food away except for some of the cookies, and we were playing games. The latest elders got to eat the salads they brought and cookies because we did not bring the food back out.

We had fun playing Minute-To-Win-It games - shooting cups off a table using rubber bands, blowing cups off the table using the air from balloons, stacking apples five high, sliding a cookie from your forehead to your mouth, keeping balloons in the air, making plastic cup pyramids, tossing wadded papers into a basket.

After the Minute-To-Win-It games the missionaries played tables games until it was time to leave.

Valentine Dance

We were on the committee organizing the Gaborone West YSA Ward Valentine Dance. It was held on the patio and in the cultural hall of the Gaborone West building. We were in charge of games and line dancing, dessert, and punch. Sister Rands also made a salad.

The activity started with a get-acquainted game where people had to get the signature of twenty-five people who had a specific characteristics or experiences. For example, someone who had not seen an elephant, someone who had been to Namibia, someone who wore glasses, someone who had four siblings, etc.

The next activity was dancing the Hokey Pokey and line dancing to Cotten Eye Joe on the patio. The Young Single Adults always like these.

We went to the cultural hall for speed dating. It was held in the chapel/cultural hall because it is the only room in the building big enough and it was too dark outside because the outdoor lighting was not working.

Back out on the patio, the young adults danced for awhile and then we had dinner which consisted of sausage, rolls, a variety of salads brought by the sisters, snacks provided by the brothers, punch and heart-shaped sugar cookies made by the Rands.

 

We went back into the building to play Minute-To-Win-It games - stacking apples five high, blowing plastic cups off a table with a balloon, knocking cups off a table with rubber bands, and keeping three balloons in the air for a minute, wadding paper and tossing the wads into buckets.

 

The activity ended with dancing back out in the patio. Sixty-five young adults attended.

Mochudi Sewing Class

Sister Taylor orgainized a sewing class for the Mochudi Relief Society sisters on 26 January 2013. She had Sister Rands and Sister Gubler help her. Elder Rands came along to help set up and tear down.

We have learned a lot from previous sewing classes. We had far less trouble with the sewing machines because we learned to use polyester thread instead of cotton thread which frequently broke. We also learned how to organize the work more efficiently. We had the straps sewn on ahead of time to reduce the amount of work that was needed to complete each bag.

Twenty-seven sisters made scripture bags. Twenty-four had never sewn on a machine before. The other three Relief Society sisters who had sewn before were stationed at machines and were a real help to the other sisters.

One of the sisters (in the blue shirt) is deaf but is very sharp and was even helping others with their project.

The class started promptly at ten o'clock. It is a rare thing to start activities on time in Botswana. There was a short break for lunch and we finished at three o'clock.

The sisters had a wonderful time sewing and socializing, and were thrilled to have a completed project that they could use as can be seen by the sister above in a traditional dress. The next day scripture bags were everywhere in church. Pictures of the activity were posted and everyone crowded around to see pictures of themselves, their relatives, or their friends. The children pushed chairs over so they could stand on them to see the pictures.