Monday, November 24, 2008

You had to have been there to smile at the picture.


My Dearest Family,
So I'll start with saying HAPPY THANKSGIVING, I know its early but its the only time I can say it. I hope you guys all have a great time, I will of course be thinking of you and how grateful I am for all you do... but guess what? They don't have Thanksgiving here... ha ha but we have a sweet missionary couple that will be hosting a huge AMERICAN thanksgiving feast, I'm pretty excited for some good food. Cant help but think of y'all chilling in Steins and having a good time. Remember when I got that bloody nose, good times.... so you'll be in my heart, but I hope you guys still have a great time and enjoy, cuz after this, only one more and you'll have me back.
Well guys this week went by way fast and as for stories, I don't have to many. I'm sorry but all I can say is the work is going great and that I'm learning tons each day. So just to show you how blessed we've been in this area, when we started here we had 20 - 30 people attending church and now that number has almost doubled! Truly amazing, its so amazing to see the Lord prepare, change, and bless peoples lives, we will (if all goes well) have 2 people getting baptized on the 7th, they are very committed and were doing all we can, and more will follow... Its so sweet to feel the spirit work. I know this truly is the Lords Work.... But another story is when I was on exchanges in Gaborone, Blake sent the title "at least your not in Zimbabwe" and its true, we were teaching a guy and he loved the lesson, but he began to tell us how he had just received a letter from his Mom in Zim and it said that the last shipment of food didn't get there and she was starving, so he had his truck packed and was leaving early the next morning, and said to pray for him that he wasn't to late. It was hard to see the grim look on his face and to know all you could do was hope and pray. So I know I used to complain about food and stuff here, but I'm still very blessed, they said that some of the Elders in Zim have to come into Botswana to do their shopping and that members deliver boxes of peanut butter and stuff to the other Elders. So I don't wanna close on a negative note so I thought I'd tell ya about the people here, I think ya know quite a bit about the area, so here is my favorites about the people, the little kids are so funny, they always come up to me saying lakua (white man) and so I say back, wena lakua (your the white man) ha ha and they go off giggling, its so funny. They really like the paper birds, ha ha yes Dad, your legend lives in Africa."
Next, The sweet old ladies, They are the best, most of them cant speak English but they are just so sweet, they just sit and smile and nod their heads, ha ha. We've been teaching one old go-go with a member here named Santee, (he's way cool, we work with him almost every day) but he was translating for us and then at the end the old ma went off talking in Setswana for like 10 minutes. ha ha Santee then told us how she was saying how grateful we came by and how she said I was her favorite. Now when we teach her she always has a smile and she calls me her son, she's so sweet. I cant believe how kind these sweet old ladies are too, they always have a sweet smile on their sun dried face and love to shake our hands. But as for me, I'm doing great, just learning more and more of the things each of you taught me each day. Brandon, your advice before I left about to remember everything I learned in the wild and to walk slow and listen good has helped me a ton. You guys are the best, WildeBoyz.... I don't really have a spiritual thought for this week. I just wanna say that I love you guys so much and am excited to see you again, but right now just keep doin my best and praying y'all can feel my love and gratitude.
So happy thanksgiving and I hope y'all have a good time.... I'm jealous of Steins so I wanna see some pics. I love you guys so much and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Your son, Brother, bro in law, uncle, and ...
(Elder) Bradey Wilde