First!

Firsts!

1st Animal we Hit: Does it count if it hit us? We were driving to Lobatse today and out of no where a bird hit our windshield. So, does that count as the animal we have to hit while living here?  (No I did not stage the feather, that's where it landed)


Another first was playing the piano for Sacrament meeting today. (See mom, all that money you spent on lessons for me paid off...I'm practicing without being told!) But this is the first time I've played for anyone to sing since I played during Seminary when I was 17. Quite an experience. After Church I had 2 young single adult ladies ask if I would please teach them piano. They had take some lessons in Gaborone but hadn't been able to continue. Some of the YW would like to take lessons as well. So not only was it a first to play as an accompanist but now I get to be a piano teacher. Who would have ever thought. Now I need to contact the Area people to find out where I can get a hold of some key boards for these ladies to be able to practice. The church really would like to have accompanists in every ward. The church piano course has the students playing very simplified hymns on the first lesson. The idea is to get them to be able to play the 80 hymns in the Hymns made Easy and then to teach the next group coming along. (So all of you who are taking piano lessons or have taken piano lesson, practice, practice, practice. You are definitely needed in the mission field)

A week ago we held out first YSA party. We played games and ate refreshments. Their very favorite game was Fruit Basket. They loved it. We had about 16 members and 4 investigators there. We deemed the activity a success. This coming Friday we are having a movie night. The ward has a projector and screen. The Taylors brought videos with them and have said we can borrow what we need. I think we'll be showing The Other Side of Heaven. Our Bishop is very concerned that there is no entertainment for the YSA or the Youth and suggested the movie night. We'll make popcorn and such. When we handed out invitations this week, the YSA we gave them to were pretty excited. I hope we'll have as many in attendance this week.

Yesterday, Sister Taylor had a project in Mochudi she needed help with. Sister Rands and I packed up the sewing machines we have access to and helped her out. The sisters were going to learn how to sew. We made some nice scripture bags. The RS activity sounds just like a home, lots of talking and laughter but it was it Setswanan so I didn't understand any of it. But the whole RS activity was definitely fun. Here's what the sisters made. Don't those funny looking white people look out of place? The part that was the very best was that the sisters were thrilled with their finished

bags. Not one of them whined about the stitching not being perfect. Nobody complained that someone else did a nicer job. Or that another bag was a prettier color. When the project was all over, EVERYONE wanted a picture. Sister Taylor printed out a picture and put it on the bulletin board and even the young children were trying to find their mothers in the picture. One of the ladies told me that she was so excited to learn how to make a bag that she could now make more of them and sell them. I'm making a note to pat myself on the back more often for my little successes.

Our Stake President was at church today and asked Elder Gubler and myself to help with training the Stake leaders, especially helping train the YM and YW leaders. This is really comfortable territory for Elder Gubler but I'm going to be playing catchup. We will specifically be working with Duty to God and Young Women's Personal Progress.  The Stake Counselor over us would like to communicate with emails to get things set up. That's just great with us, because we can't understand them most of the time when they speak! (And it goes the other way too).

We are loving Botswana. Wish that we had water everyday and power all the time, but I guess that's life in the rest of the world. Most of these women in Mochudi don't have electricity and cook over open fires. Today when Elder Gubler and I taught the Youth Sunday school class, I was so impressed with how much these kids love the gospel. Very few of them have support from home. Another wonderful thing, a woman who is getting baptized in a week just had a Second Interview from our Mission president. When I've seen her before she's been very standoffish but today, she just glowed. She is so excited to have the gospel in her life. She brought her brother to church with her today. Her son, who lives in Mochudi, will be baptizing her before he leaves on his mission.

Oh we do love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We love how it changes lives.