Our New Botswana/Namibia Mission

The newly formed Botswana/Namibia Mission with all of us at the Broadhurst building welcoming our new President.

These the Botswana/Namibia missionaries as of 1 July 2013. Our wonderful President and Sister Wilson are sitting next to each other in the middle. Sister Wilson is wearing a peach sweater. It's so fun to be a part of this mission! The missionaries are amazing and so are the Botswanan people that they work with. I love working with everyone here and look forward to the new missionaries that are coming in. We have 9 missionaries, 5 elders and 4 sisters, arriving next Tuesday. We are losing 2 wonderful elders. I have such a love/hate relationship with transfers. I just don't want anyone to move anywhere until Oct. 2014 after we go home. Oh well, learning to be flexible! (Oh, the reason the senior sisters are wearing red, white and blue is because it's July 4th!)

Water Water Everywhere

When we came to Botswana our new home was in a flat that was built by the Chinese. It was one of about fifty flats. The Taylors were already here in number 37 and a set of sisters were in number 17. Our new home was number 6. It’s a very nice 3 bedroom flat, two stories and about 10 months old. The Taylors were in front of the sisters and we were directly behind them. We were directly behind them. We were very pleased but we were also cautioned that the Chinese build fast, leaks. We had some nice rains storms last summer (December thru March) but no major leaking problems with the exception of some wet spots around the windows. About three weeks ago we were called by Sister Cook at about 6:30 in the morning to let us know that there had been a leak in their bedroom and the ceiling had caved in directly above their bed. Luckily, they heard the sound of water running about 1:30 am and had turned the light on to see what was going on and saw the wet ceiling. They quickly moved the beds to the other side of the room before the ceiling ruptured above where their beds had been. At that time they looked out of the window and noticed Sister Taylor ironing shirts in her flat. (This was normal for Sister Taylor. She only needs 4 hours sleep a night.) Anyway, they let the Taylors know and Elder Taylor got the

Security Guard to shut off the water to their flat. I was happy that Sister Taylor was awake and I hadn’t received a call until 6:30 the next morning. We checked out the flat and the damage was confined to two rooms, the bedroom and the bathroom next to it. We called Emily Liu that Chinese lady that manages the flats and the next thing we know some Chinese workers are at the flat repairing the damaged ceiling. They even painted the wet ceiling. I told Emily that they should have waited a couple of days to let the ceiling dry out. The problem had been a leak in the geezer (water heater) that was in the attic. I took a small fan over to the sisters flat and put it in the attic to help dry everything out, plus I left the attic trap door open. The Sisters moved their mattresses down stairs and box springs outside to dry out.

Two days later I received the first call at 1:30 am from the sisters. The Taylors had gone to South Africa to go to the temple with one of their Band of Brothers. Sister Cook said it’s leaking again. I went to the guard shack and had the water turned off. This time the water came down in the same room just in a different place in the ceiling. I called Emily the next morning about 8:00 am and told her that we had another leak again in the same room. This time I made it clear to her that she needed to let the room

dry out BEFORE the workmen re-sheeted the ceiling and painted it. I thought she understood but found out later that it didn’t matter because when I came back from the office everything was repaired again and repaired even though the ceiling was still wet. I called Emily and told her I was not pleased and that we would probably have mold growing in the attic. She asked “What’s mold?” I tried to explain that the sisters could get sick from mold but I’m sure she didn’t understand. She speaks very good English but her understanding isn’t there. I had considered moving the sisters to another flat but instead left the fan in the attic to help dry the place out. We did move the sisters to our flat for the weekend because by this time their flat was stinking pretty badly plus the light switch on the stairs was tripping the circuit breaker and I wasn’t sure how safe it was there. The repair men were supposed to come on Tuesday to repair the electrical problem. Monday was a holiday, Presidents Day.

On Tuesday morning we got a call again, this time it was about 6:30 in the morning.  It was Sister Cook again and yes, she said, we hear dripping again.  I was already up and dressed for the day so I told her I would be right over. When I got there Sister Gillis was in the shower so I told her to call me when she got out so I could see the bathroom where they thought the dripping was coming from.  She called about fifteen minutes later and told me the Chinese workmen were there and they were starting to repaint the bathroom and one of them was checking for the electrical problem.  I rushed over and found three men there.  One painting the bathroom, one in the attic looking at the geezer and the other one had taken the light cover off from the light fixture at the top of the stairs. The sisters explained that cover was completely full of water which he dumped on the floor. (electrical problem solved)  I tried to speak to them in English but they didn't understand me and I didn't understand them.  I finally told them to stop doing what they were doing and get out of the house. I must have had the gift of tongues or maybe it was my angry mannerisms because they seemed to understand this time.  I called Emily and asked her if she had another flat which she said she did.  I told her that three times was enough and I wanted the sisters to move as soon as possible.  She complied and the sisters are now in number 8, two doors down from us.

I have a new saying "Chinese build fast, leaks. Chinese repair fast, we move not fast enough!!"

The end (Elder Gubler)

PS The Rest of the Story:

Today, new tenants moved into the vacated flat. The Sisters think they should take over cookies and let the new renters know where to find the water shut-off valve. The flat it newly repaired (read painted) but the water problem isn’t fixed because the workers didn’t have time to fix the problem. Argh.

Goodbye Taylors!

Saying goodbye to the Taylors at the Airport with Pres and Sister Wilson

Well, the day finally arrived when we had to say farewell to the Taylors. They have been wonderful to work with and live next too. We wish we could have kept them here but they needed to go home to see their children and grandchildren. Hopefully when they submit their mission papers later this year, they will be able to come back to Botswana/Namibia. They have now served 4 missions together and they each served when they were young. Mochudi, the ward they served in, really misses them.

While we were waiting for the Taylors flight to leave, Sister Wilson and I noticed the monkey watching the planes. When we started taking pictures he ran down the upper walk way and peered over the edge trying to figure out what was going on down below. Gee, all you people in St George and the rest of the US usually only get an occasional bird!

Final Transfers!

The week following the "Launch" was the final transfer before the mission split. (The mission will be completely separated by June 21st ... we hope.)

This week started with a bang Tuesday morning at 6:45. The elders who were crossing the border into South Africa called. One of the elders had over stayed his stated time in country. Now, it's legal to stay in country for 90 days, HOWEVER, when he came in country, he stated that he would be here 3 days. So, he had overstayed by 87 days. The zone leaders asked me to bring 1000 pula to pay his fine. I had just gotten out of the shower when I had received the call so I quickly dressed and was on my way to the border.  Normally the border is 30 minutes away from our flat.  However, 7:00 am in Botswana is rush hour traffic and it took me an hour to get to the border.  I told the zone leaders to head to Jo Burg and I would take care of the missionary with the fine. They were already an hour and a half late and they had the luggage trailer for all the missionaries moving on transfer. There were four cars involved in the transfer with four Elders in each car.  Three cars moved on and the one stayed with me.  Normally the Elders leave at 6:00 am and arrive in Jo Burg by noon then the same vehicles refuel and two of the four cars with four Elders each leave at approximately 2:00 pm and return to Botswana arriving at the Border at approximately 8:00 pm if everything goes well, which makes a long day for those elders.  The  third and fourth cars stayed an extra day for a special zone leaders meeting with President Omer and the A P s. At the border I was told that the missionary and I would have to travel 15 K's back to a police station in Tokwein to pay the fine of 1000 pula.  After arriving at the police station we were asked to fill out some paperwork.  While the Elder was doing this I was escorted by a young female police officer to the other side of the building to pay the fine and get a  receipt for the border.  While we were walking she asked me if I had the pula for the fine.  I told her that I had 1000 pula and handed it to her.  She told me that I would only need 800 pula for the fine and that she was going to keep 200 pula (about $25) for lunch for her and her friends. I told her that the fine was for 1000 pula and I had given her 1000 pula and what ever she did with it was up to her. When we arrived at the cashier she proceeded to give him the 800 pula and told him the fine was for 800 pula.  He wrote out a receipt for 800 pula. On the way back I told the missionaries what had happened and we were all concerned about what was going to happen at the border.  At the border we handed the receipt to the border officer.  He mentioned that the fine was for 1000 pula and the receipt was for 800.  I told him that I had offered 1000 pula to the police  but was told the fine would only be for 800. He excepted my explanation and allowed the Elders to cross the border. However, I did not mention that the young police officer had kept 200 pula for her and her friends lunch.

That night I received a call from the border from the elders who where in the two cars returning.  Everything had gone well at the border and they were just calling to let me know they were in Botswana.  However, the next day I received a call at about 1:00 pm from one of the zone leaders in one of the cars returning.  One of the zone leaders that had received residency previously in Botswana had been in South Africa since last July.  He was told that his residency had expired because he had been out of the country for over six months and that he would have to go to the immigration office by 2:00 pm and reapply.  When I received his call I was waiting for Elder Watson to bring me our extra set of car keys because I had locked my keys in the trunk at a bank.  I told them that I would meet them at the immigration office.  We were told at immigration that although the elder had a residency sticker in his passport it was invalid because he had been out of the country for over six months.  I asked them if he was illegal at that time and they said no because he had residency sticker in his passport and if he reapplied he would be okay.  We might have had further problems that day if the other car with the AP's and the other zone leaders had come thru the border with them. However, they went thru a different more remote border post that night because they had to retrieve one of the zone leaders passports that had gone to another area by mistake. One of the zone leaders in this car had also been out of the country over six months.  We found out the next day that two other elders had been out of the country over six months but had crossed the border in the night time and had not been detained.  We have other issues at immigration but I have already gone on to long so I won't discuss them at this time.

We now have two AP's and a pair of office elders living in the Rand's (our CES couple that went home) old home.  They are here to help us get ready for our new mission president and help train him.  We took them over to our new mission office on Friday to show them the office that they would be working in and found some friends just outside of our fence in the back.  Baboons!!!!!

Mission Launch and Humanitarian Aid Signing

Speeches at the signing

This past week, we had a combined Mission Launch and Humanitarian Aid Signing. This is a pretty big deal here in Botswana. (At least the signing was). The Church has committed to hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide training in Neonatal Resuscitation as well as wheel chairs, eye care training and such. This event was hosted at the Phakalane (Pa-Ka-La-Nee) hotel near where our new mission home is. We had the Health Minister and several of his department, the District Commissioner, Council of Churches (checking us out), and other prominent departments and people were invited. Many people came but didn't sign in so we aren't sure who they were.
All we know is that no one from Immigration came (or no one we were aware of).

Two of our elders, Black and Jorgensen ready to work

We had our sister missionaries and one set of zone leaders there to help man the displays. Additionally, we had the Area People, including, Sean Donnelly, head of Public Relations, Dube, head of Translation, Thabo, head of Welfare, senior couples over Employment (Herb Basso's brother and wife) and Humanitarian Aid. This conference was put together by Bro. Leonard Thebe, Country Public Relations and Stake High Councilman. President Tembo (1st councilor in the Stake) presided and President Makweni ( 2nd councilor) also attended.

Many good things were said about the church humanitarian effort in Botswana by the Minister of Health and the District Commissioner.  One of the speakers talked about his first experience with the church when he went to the United States.  He saw a t-shirt that said "Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow you might be in Utah."  He found that Utah is just that way, a dry state. But, he found a peculiar people that impressed him very much. He was very appreciative of all the aid that the Church was giving to Botswana. At 10:30, we broke for Tea (light refreshments). We had an opportunity to speak with the people who had attended the signing. One of the women I spoke with was from the Dept. of Registry, the group that registers all of the churches in the country. She was so appreciative of the Church and was going to give a glowing report to her boss. Dad spoke with the Minister of Health and he was extremely positive about the Church and what had been done that day.

Two of our sisters, Gehring and Anderson, manning a display

 During the Tea, our missionaries passed out information on Families, Employment, Humanitarian Aid, and of course all of our pamphlets and Book of Mormons. At the end of the day, everything had  been taken. Part of that is because the people here love to get free stuff and part of it was because they were really interested in the Church. I was able to speak with the representatives from the Council of Churches and she was extremely amazed that we weren't there to take over Botswana but to help the people. I think the Reps from the churches took one of everything. They love the youth in the country and want to help them in any way that they can.

Sisters Tw and Gillis

The Band of Brothers from Mochudi

 We began the second part of the Conference at 11:00. At this time we had members of our High Council, most of the Bishops and their wives, the Band of Brothers from Mochudi and several community groups. The Council of Churches and some of the Department of Health really wanted to hear what was going on during this time. (And, they were favorably impressed again.) The highlight of this meeting was the Band of Brothers. These are 12 young men who are were the only members of their families to join the church. Previously they had been involved in all kinds of stuff they shouldn't have been into. But now, 6 are serving missions, 6 either have their calls or their mission papers have been submitted. They are an extremely humble and knowledgeable group of young men. Elder and Sister Taylor have been working with the Brothers to get them out on their missions. In July, there is supposed to be a big article in the Ensign and Liahona about them.

The main topic for this meeting was that we would have a permanent mission office and a new Mission President would be coming at the end of June. The official name of the Mission is the Botswana, Namibia Mission. The Bishops and wives ended the Conference with an impromptu chorus singing "Hark All Ye Nations". It was truly beautiful!

After this part of the conference and after all of the dignitaries had left, the staff of the hotel came into the meeting room to find out what had been happening. All of the materials that were left were snatched up and our sister missionaries spent a great deal of time teaching and getting phone numbers. The elders also got some great referrals.

An African lunch was served to all who had attended the second meeting. 

Sisters Gubler and Taylor getting ready!

Mother's Day

Our first Mother's Day in Botswana has been interesting. I called my sweet Mama Saturday morning (her time) and we had a delightful call. I received some delightful notes from my daughters and sons. Wow! I am surely blessed. I had a rotten cold so I stayed home from church. Elder Gubler got to substitute for me in Primary (he hasn't been in primary for YEARS). After church I received 2 text messages from the RS President and from the Bishop's Wife (the sister who ALWAYS helps out in Primary.) They wished me good health and a happy Mother's Day. In Botswana, it's really Mother's Month for all of May. Elder Gubler kept with tradition and fixed me breakfast. (Very yummy avocado sandwich.) He didn't see any wild flowers in our yard. (Darn!) In Botswana, people LOVE the raked dirt look. This morning, he surprised me by finding a wild flower in the back area of our flat complex. So, my Mother's Day was pretty nice. Hope that all of you wonderful women had  happy Mothers Day too!

Learners in Botswana

A car driving down the road in front of our flat (yes, we were behind it)

Well, it's about time! Only one and a half months...definitely time for a new post. I thought I would post of something we enjoy quite a bit here in Bots. For most of us, a big "L" means "loser" but here in Bots, it stands for something entirely different. It stands for "Learner". So that those who are learning don't get mixed up with those who have experience the "L" separates them.

Instead of a "Driver's Ed" logo you get a big "L" on the back of your car.

Even worse is if you are new at your job as a server, You also get a HUGE "L" on your back. :-)

Our very cute and excellent "new" server at Spurs.