April 22.2013

Family,

I'm sorry for not writing last week. Things were a little bit hectic and all over the place. I hope you forgive me.

This week was pretty uneventful. We haven't had water all week. I think this has bee the longest that we've been without water here. We're going to have to start going to the store and just buying bottles of water.

It's finally starting to cool down a lot too. We've actually begun to turn off the fans around the house and wear sweaters in the mornings. It's been a nice change of pace. I hope it doesn't get as cold here as it does in South Africa though.

We finally had the chance to watch the Sunday sessions of conference this week. they were pretty awesome. I really liked L. Tom Perry's and D. Todd Christopherson's talks. I think Elder Christopherson is my favorite of the 12. He's a super classy guy. I'd like to be like him someday, or at least be able to understand all of the words he uses. 

I really liked the boldness of all of the speakers, especially the 12. It was inspiring.

Elder Fraga was able to talk to his family last night because they're going to be out of the U.S. for mother's day. I'm glad that he was able to talk to them, but it made me really miss home and talking with all of you. I get to call in less than 3 weeks now though.

I love and miss you all.

Elder Balmforth

April 6. 2013

Humans,

Greetings from Botswana. This week has been pretty slow. Elder Fraga was pretty sick for most of the week so our proselyting time was affected. To be honest though, I didn't mind. It was nice to have a break. Turns out he was just really dehydrated. The African sun will do that to you sometimes.

I've had a lot on my mind this week with everything that's been going on this week. It's been pretty distracting. I don't think that I would've gotten a lot done even if Elder Fraga had been feeling well.

We haven't had a chance to watch conference yet. Probably won't for quite a while. I'm looking forward to it though. I hear it's good.

I love and miss you all.

Elder Balmforth

April 2.2013

People,

How are you? Good? Good. Life has been just normal here in Botswana. A lot of drunk people, a lot of naked people, and a lot of false prophets.

Easter here is quite a bit different than it is back home. I've never seen so many people celebrate the atoning sacrifice of the Savior by getting wasted. A part of me just thinks that that isn't the way He wants it done. Just saying though. All of the churches have been doing a bunch of "Miracle Crusades" in celebration of the Easter holiday as well. People just don't seem to grasp what the gift of tongues really is or why vomiting a puppy isn't a miracle (Not one that comes from God anyway).

During most of the holidays here, people leave and go to their home villages so as far as teaching went this week, it was slow. We did go to a zone meeting in Kanye this week. My zone leader insisted that we take a ridiculously long taxi ride to save k's on the car, but after an hour and a half of waiting for the taxi to show up, we drove anyway. It made me happy that my aspiring zone leader didn't get his way.

Anyway, on a more Christlike note, I'm on the last chapter of the Book of Mormon again. I love that book. My goal is to one day be able to say that I've read it scores of times. It's taken me a long time to read it this time because I was reading all of the commentary in the student manual along side it. Next time I think I'm going to read it quite a bit faster. I understand more and more everytime. Read it, it'll blow your mind. I love you all. 

Elder Balmforth out!