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| Hillary with the Lobatse YW |
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| Elder Gubler teaching the YM/YW Sunday School class (outside because it was too cold in the building) |
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| Our Primary with Hillary and Roger |
A few months back, we received a young English Elder into
Lobatse, Elder Butcher. He came at a
time when our ward was stagnant and the missionary work was not doing
well. As soon as he arrived, we could
tell that he was a special young man. He
and his companion Elder Illungole and later on Elder Bangani were very hard
workers and soon they gained the respect of the members and especially the
Bishopric.
We were having Ward
Conference about that same time and the stake president requested that the Ward
Choir sing a song. Elder Butcher could
play the piano and often substituted for Sister Gubler playing the music for
Sacrament meeting. Bishop Moapare
noticed this and asked Elder Butcher and Elder Bangani if they could organize a
choir and have them ready to sing at Ward Conference in two weeks. They went to work and prepared a medley of
church hymns to the music of Come Thou Font of Every Blessing. The choir was made up of five ward members
(mostly Young Single Adults) and Elder Butcher played while Elder Bangani
conducted. It was very beautiful and had
harmony and rhythm with an African flavor.
The Stake President was very impressed and suggested they come and
participate with the Stake Choir. Our choir is now lead by one of the ward
members, Sister Montsiwa.(Side note: Today Sister Montsiwa and another Sister
sang in Sacrament Meeting. They sang I
Pray in Faith. It was beautiful and with no accompaniment.)
While Elder
Butcher was there, he was able to change the entire atmosphere of the ward. You
could feel the energy. He became a zone leader in Broadhurst, the Bots East
Zone and is now one of our APs. When
Elder Butcher became AP, Elder Fackrell the AP Elder Butcher replaced,
requested that he spend his last 6 wks on mission in Lobatse, where he had
served for 9 months. Our Mission President added another set of Elders. We have
had 6 baptisms last month, all young single adults. Lobatse is just coming
alive! Last week, we filled the building, this week extra chairs had to be
brought in. Wow! It was so exciting. The people are excited to be at church.
We
have about 8 member children in Primary (4 are under 4), but we have had 30
children in Primary. We are constantly teaching about Jesus, The Book of
Mormon, and Joseph Smith. These kids are so hungry for the gospel. They come
without prodding from their parents because their parents don’t bring them to
church. Every Sunday we have new people coming to church. They recognize the
truth and are so eager. This week we had an Area Authority Seventy and our
Mission President and their wives with us in Church. It was so exciting. We
also practiced our Primary Program. What a challenge! We never know who will be
there in attendance so we just keep practicing the songs. The kids have copies
of the words to the music because they haven’t been there often enough to
memorize the words.
Oh, the challenges and joys of the gospel out in the
mission field. We love being on a mission.
The people of Botswana are amazing and it is so fun to see the Lord’s work
among these people.
