For Who? For Everyone!

Hello, hello! 

The world has changed, For worse or for better? 

South Africa is quite different from Botswana, but it is still great! My new companion is Elder Sjovold, (he says to pronounce it Shovel.) He is from Norway and is super cool. I am only six weeks older than him and i'm supposed to finish his last four weeks of training. But the strange thing is.... He has to train me in the area, so he knows more than i do about the work here, especially because South Africa and Botswana are very different.   But being his companion is awesome, he is really great and we get along very well. 

I am sad that the little bit of Setswana that i learned and knew how to speak does not work anymore, and now i have to learn more stuff all over again. But everything is just okay. One of the weirdest things so far from being here is that there are waaaaay more white people! Like there are almost none in Botswana. Here i see them all the time and even teach some it's really strange and different.

The area here is different, i am half walking half driving, we share a car with another companionship. They get it for four days and we get it for three days. It is interesting. I got quite a bit more tan in my first two days of walking, so that's pretty cool. Though walking makes me feel more like a missionary it also does not get near as much work done. 

There are some sweet people here, though i have not got to meet a lot of them yet. I am now in a branch with about 50 people who attend.  And they are all super nice. 

So i found a cook book from the Johannesburg mission in my new flat that has a thanks to grandma for providing some recipes, which was petty cool. But also when i came into my flat there was a big ugly spider on the wall, and these things can move, its hard to kill them. And also, there is a picture of the only souvenirs i got from Botswana. 

Polokwane is very different from what i am used to, but i know that it is where the lord wants me, and i am so happy to be here doing the very best. And i know that he is always watching over me and holding me up! 

I cant waaaaiit till general conference, though i think i'll be watching it like aweek after. 

Love Elder Smith!

Transfer #3 Wait... What?...

Woot woot! Another week gone by with lots of fun and too much to talk about about, but i suppose I might as well start with the biggest news. I am only two weeks into this transfer and yet... I am being transferred! 

Yes, so we were not able to get me visa extended anymore, so i have to move out of Botswana over to south Africa, along with Elders Burgess and Shorthill. So with that the weird thing is that a couple days ago they told me i was leaving on Wednesday and going to an area Called Kwa-gwka and elder Burgess was going to be my companion. However we got a call Saturday night and they told us i am actually going to Polkwane and i am leaving on Monday at 11 not Wednesday. So yeah, i don't have much time to email today, because i have some things to do here before i leave.

Yes, so i sent a lot of pictures and i hope i did not overload you guys, but those are just some of my favorite people from the area that i got pictures with. I'll let you know next week who my new companion is. 

Other than that i have had a blast in Broadhurst and i am sad to leave it, the people are amazing here and several of the people i have been teaching should be baptized in the couple weeks to come. However i am exceedingly excited to be heading out and joining with a new companion in a new area and progressing the work there.  

The scripture for this week is mosiah 2:41

Love Elder Smith! 

Fun!

So this week has been crazy. We spent the first half with a ton of elders in our flat as we tried to get extensions for the five Americans who came in with me. 

First we had the some elders who were supposed to go to Namibia come back to stay with us because they didn't get their visa's. Then, Us Americans have been struggling to get our days, they are supposed to give us another ninety, but for some reason they don't like what we are doing and cant decide what to do. They gave three of the five of us until the 20th of September, one of us until the 10th of October and the last one they didn't give anything to at all. So we will see if we end up getting to stay here in Botswanna or not, we are trying to figure out how we can get the full ninety. But who knows. 

Anyway, my new companion Elder Hillyer is pretty awesome, we are doing great work here in Broadhurst and i am enjoying leading the area because i actually know it a lot better than i thought i did. Sadly i may end up leaving before the 20th because of the visa issue. 

Today i get to go out shopping for souvineers and see how cheap i can get them for. Yay! But i am out of time so gtg!

Here are some fun pictures for you all. 

Brownies and ice cream with my comp, the chicken that our investigators gave to elder Mosweswe as a parting gift and him eating its whole back by himself. Lunch with a recent convert Torquil  and his girlfriend Veronica. My old companion and my new companion with the Zebras in the round about by our flat, and the bots fifty sign. (50 years of independence was last year.) Grace and i.

Love Elder Smith!

Transfer #2

Hello! What a long week this has been! To start us off we had Zone conference on Tuesday! It was pretty awesome, we had read a talk called the fourth missionary in preparation for the meeting and that was a fun one to discuss. We also had some other pretty cool presentations and stuff. 

At zone conference we got some new mission vehicles which are super sick bakkis (trucks). Brand new ford rangers, they got two for our zone, one for Francis town and one for SA. It looks like almost everyone in the Zone other than me will be driving a bakki. I miss driving big vehicle, but it's okay, cause a bakki would not be nice for my city area. 

Kay! Now we move onto the next couple days, which were spent with four other Americans trying to extend our days so that we don't get kicked out of Botswana. First we went Friday morning to get photocopies of our passports notarized, and we had to do it in the us embassy, but the embassy wouldn't let us do that until 1:30, and we got there at 8. so we had a long wait. After we finally got the photocopies notarized we went to the immigration building and waited in line forever just to find out that their finger printing thing was not working so wee couldn't even do it that day. Came back the next day and it still was not working and we only just got done at like three. So there we have two long days of doing basically no work.... For three different areas. 

Funny thing though, when we went into the embassy they were playing a video all about utah, which was amusing because our the two oldest missionaries with us are from utah. And we just walked in right when it was doing utah cause it was just going through a ton of different states. Long videos talking about why we should visit them, and they all end with asking us what we are waiting for. 

Now for the coool thing! 

We had a baptism on Sunday! it was Thelma Majola! She is way awesome and it was super exciting to see her be baptized! We have been visiting here for a long time, since before i got here. Its way awesome to see people progress and gain their testimony, and to see them act on their faith.

It was been getting really hot at night, so much so that its really annoying and hard to sleep, but soon enough i will be able to use the air condition because...... Transfers! 

Sadly, my companion and i are going different ways! I love the guy, bnut i am happy i will finally get to use the A/C. Elder Mosweswe is headed over to Kanye to be our Zone leader, and i am getting our previous Zone leader Elder Hillyer! I will send you pictures of him and Elder Mosweswe and i next week. 

While Elder Mosweswe Heads to Kanye i am now left to lead my area, which should be super fun cause there are still some places and things i don't know, and maps don't really work, cause people call places by plenty of different names and yeeeeaaaah! Cant wait! I sure will miss Elder Mosweswe! He was the best trainer i could have had. 

They are checking if we bring alcohol onto the Unviersty campus when we go and teach there now. I guess they have been having some fun lately.

 So Saturday night was pretty wild, there was a party going non all night with loud music playing the whole time, they sure enjoyed themselves. Though i don't know where the party was i could sure hear it pretty well. 

Anyway! My scripture for this week is 3 Nephi 12:44

It is important to make sure we care for everyone, not just the people we like, but even those we don't, show love and kindness in all that you do and remember to pray, for your friends as well as your enemies. 

The family here is the Bakoko family, and they are some of my favorite people. 

And the cookie is something i bought for like 40 american cents. 

Here I go! Off to another week of fun and sharing the gospel! Stay chill.

Love Elder Smith