Week #28 A Chicken With Its Head Cut Off

This week was a bit different with something unexpected happening very abruptly. Let's get this started…

Tuesday:

After planning out our week and having a brief zone council we went out for the day. Our first lesson was with a sister named Julia, she’s been taught since before I got here. We’ve been inviting her to pray about baptism but she always “forgets”. Anyways, we had a really good lesson with her today and put her on date for mid april so that was awesome! 

We had a couple of decent lessons and then one canceled so we went and said hi to some members (Charmaine, Lucky, Lilie-Angela), they’re so funny. We talked for a while and somehow got to the topic of “lobola” (paying the bride's family with cows/money). Turns out that one tribe here, the Herrero's, just marry their cousins and close relatives so they can “beat the system”... no further comments.🤣

Our last lesson was with a brother who approached us about a week ago while he was drunk saying he needed help. He turned out to actually be really cool and we had a nice lesson with him.

Wednesday:

Today began the same as any other, morning routine, lunch at Fork N’ Nice, and a walk on the beach while we waited for our food. However, something crazy happened at 12:00, Elder Herrera (AP) called me. He told me that I needed to drive to Windhoek, the capital city, in 6 hours so that I could catch my flight to Botswana tomorrow morning :’( It was a total blindside so I slammed everything into my suitcases and said bye to as many people as I could manage with the given time. 

We started the drive and were projected to arrive at the Windhoek flat at 22:25, just in time for bed. While we were driving we had our mission wide transfer call. They told everyone where they were getting transferred, I’m going to the Kanye Branch area. My first two weeks of my mission were in the Kanye ward on the other side of Kanye. 

When we arrived at the flat Elders Caldwell and Were had some Lamb and Potatoes prepared for all of us so that was fire after a long drive and rushing around all day.

Thursday:

All 4 of us got up at 04:20 today and drove to the Zone leaders flat. Elder Were and I said bye to Karp and Caldwell and then the ZL’s drove us to the airport. We said our goodbyes and then hopped on our 2 hour flight to Jo-Berg. 

We had an 8 hour layover which was deadly. We did a mixture of Duolingo, going to a restaurant, shopping, and then we met up with another Elder there. He is from Windhoek and was assigned to our mission. He was serving in Bots but couldn’t get a visa, he was flying back to Nam and is going to be serving in Swak with Elder Karp. After we were with him for a few hours he got on his flight, we did a bit more shopping, got some ice-cream, and played some Uno. Finally we got on our 50 minute flight.

Once we landed Elders Peterson and Adolphson picked us up, 2J was preoccupied as the new AP so they sent Adolphson in his place. We went to the mission office and I got to see Herrera, Machisu, 2J and some other Elders which was fun. Myself and 3 other elders who are all new to Kanye as well drove there at 19:45 to make it just before 21:30. We all went to our flats, my companion is Elder Kivuva from Kenya. He’s been in Kanye now for 4 transfers (6 months) so he’ll leave soon.

Friday:

We picked up two other elders who serve in Kayne branch with us, Elder Wutkee and Mirah. We went to a friend's home and helped her with some yard work at 09:00.

Every one of our lessons canceled today so that was awesome. We were running around like chickens with their heads cut off all day (foreshadowing) trying to find people to teach but no one was in Kanye or they were at the bars.

We went to a part-member families home. They raise chickens and then sell them, they were planning on slaughtering 26 chickens so Elder Kivuva and I were eager to help with our day being so boring. We helped them slaughter all 26 which was very fun. Elder Kivuva was so scared to do it but after realizing “how stupid they are” he was a master with the blade😆 Click on the photo link to see that video.

We somehow managed to get 6 lessons in today.

Saturday:

Once again every lesson canceled today because of the Easter holidays. After scrambling trying to find in public and meet with friends with no such luck we went and got some lunch. Our first lesson today was at 2:30 with a brother named Junior and his family who are members. 

We went to the chapel at 16:00 and cleaned the chapel with Setso (branch clerk), he’s so funny, as well as Elders Wutkee and Mirah. 

We ended up getting two more lessons tonight. One of them was with a Muslim brother who also believes in “some parts of the bible” so that was an interesting lesson. 

Also, Sis. Maria got baptized in Swakopmund today! I’m sad I missed it but I’m so happy for her!

Sunday:

We picked up Mirah and Wutkee so we could drive them to church with us since they don't have a car. Elders Ayesigwa and Adolphson live in the same compound (the white fortress) as them so we drove them to their chapel since they're also walking. Church was good today and I got to meet some members, there were about 50 people at church today.

We came back to the flat to do a personal study and I was exhausted after the last few days so I kept falling asleep. 

We had 5 lessons today, after the third we played some keep away soccer vs. some kids, 2 v 4, we crushed them. 

Our last lesson was with Tinah, the Muslim I was talking about the other day. We taught him about the priesthood and the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he said after that it was very powerful and he had nothing to say… Tinah always has a million questions and arguments so that was sick.

Monday:

All of the Elders (10) went to the ward's bishop's (bishop Pule) house at 09:00. He’s building a home so we helped tear out all the bush and clean up the yard, it was pretty fun. He bought us a lot of cool drinks and food afterwards so we were all happy.

Afterward, we all went to a field and played some soccer, ward vs. branch. Eventually, a bunch of other people joined in and we had a big game going. I scored the game-winning goal by kicking it off of an opposing player and it deflected in, it was definitely 100% intentional. Jjhooo that game is a lot of running and not a lot of scoring. 

We came back to our flats and showered and then Kivuva and I did some grocery shopping. Once we finished we came back and I took a 2 hour nap, I was lights out. 

At 18:00 our P-Day ends but all of our lessons were canceled so we tried to go to a few people's homes but they were “Hio”. We went to the store to get a few more groceries we needed and then came back to the flat for the night.

PS. Kanye is a village that is full of cows everywhere, is quite green with a lot of orange dirt roads and you can always smell a fire in the air. There are a lot of hills, and the children will yell “makoa” at you every time they see you 😆

Spiritual Thought:

2 Nephi 2:11, 23-24

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things…

23 …wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. 24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

We must have opposition in life. Without having trials, struggles, and hard times we can’t fully comprehend or enjoy the happiness and blessings that we receive. All things are done according to the knowledge and will of God, he knows, loves, and plans for everything about us. He wants us to live with him again, he wants us to come closer to him and our Savior and he will always help us do that as long as we soften our hearts and turn to him.

Conclusion:

This week was a little rough but after the holidays end and I start to know the area it’ll all be shap! I’m excited for a changeup and look forward to getting to know everyone here and the people of Botswana. The other thing I need to work on is learning Setswana, jjjhoo, that language is wild. Thank you for making it this far, I know it was a long one.

I appreciate the messages, thoughts, prayers, and love that I’ve received from all of you even if I don’t always have the time to respond. Have a great week, and know that God loves you and is aware of you and your circumstances.

Stay blessed,

Elder Miller

Link to all photos/videos from the week: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qjeUp4smKaEozgTk8

Lots of goodbyes.

It was great to spend the day with Elder Were flying back to Botswana. 

We flew out to Namibia together in October so it was great to be together.
My new home.