Happy Father's Day!!

Area - Kanye, Botswana
Companion - Elder Holman
Letter #32

Happy Father's Day, Daddio (Rra)! Hope you know you're my favorite dad! :D I got to see the pictures of you and Soph at the dance today! Looks super fun! Nate, Ollie, Soph and I are sure lucky to have a guy like you as our Dad. Thanks for everything you do! It's funny how we teach father led families here and help the fathers to be good fathers ha. How do I do that? Teaching them the things I have learned from the gospel and from you! There's gonna be lots of dad's like you here in Botswana! ;)

This week once again went by super fast! I don't know where time goes but it sure is movin' quick. I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting. I prepared A LOT to talk about cause I hate giving talks and not knowing what to say. Turns out I prepared like 5 times too much! ha. I was only supposed to talk for 10 mins and I struggled to make it only 14 mins! Crazy. I think one thing that I really learned this week is that the Lord really does make weak things become strong unto us. On Wednesday the AP's were here. They went on a trip through Bots visiting all the missionaries. I got to spend all day with Elder Alder as my companion. We had a great day, taught like 7 lessons and even taught 7 new investigators. As we talked throughout the day I started to realize some things. When I was on misson for 3 months I was super scared that I would have to train. Now I would be stoked to train! When I was 4 1/2 months I was super scared that I would have to open a new area. Now one of the things i want to do most is open a new area and train at the same time! At the end of the day as Elder Alder and i were planning we did an exchange report and part of that is for him to tell me what he thought some of my strengths are. The one that surprised me was he said I am good with the people, I get along with them really well and seem natural talking to anybody. Since coming on mission I guess I kind of have developed a no fear attitude about talking to anybody. I know one thing also that it didn't come easy. i had to force myself to say things that made me feel uncomfortable and most of all I had to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help me have the courage and the words to say. I still have far to go but He sure has made weak things become strong to me.

Remember how I said i was going to wake up everyday exactly on time? Did it! Except for Tuesday. It wasn't even hard actually. I found that after Wednesday I couldn't even stay in bed any longer that 6:30 ha. That was a cool experience.
Something that confuses me... We had so many good lessons with so many people this week and tons of people telling us they were going to come to church without us even asking and issues worked out for those who had a problem to come. I honestly thought we would have at least 10 and possibly 20! How many came? 2. The Molebatsi's who have come every week straight for 2 months. Why?? The Molebatsi's had a fantastic time at church nonetheless. But what about these others? Makes me sad. The zone leaders had another 5 baptisms yesterday. Super excited for them and for the branch to be growing! 4 of them were priesthood holders! There were 61 people at church which is a record! Things are growing but it seems like elder Holman and I are doing something just slightly wrong to where people like us but don't want to come to church come Sunday. Gonna figure it out soon.

Funny happenings...I got the package! The cholula was broken but I still saved about a 1/2 of a cup :D The Rice Krispies were fantastic! I baked the brownies (my absolute favorite brownies in the world) for Bro. Molebatsis bday yesterday and I burned them!!! D:<

You wanted to know what the conditions are that we and others live in? Well for us, we live in a pretty big house. The hot water runs out pretty fast so I have had tons of cold showers in the freezing morning ha. It is made out of brick and the floor is tile so at night and in the morning we always have the heaters running cause of how cold it is. I don't even walk around barefoot (casue it's cold AND my flatmates cannot keep a clean kitchen...), I got some slippers :D The bottom of my slippers is nashty.

People in the village have varying circumstances. Some live in mud huts but others live in houses nicer than ours! The running water goes out very often and even every tuesday night and sometimes thursday the power is shut off so it is suuuuuper dark. makes me feel like I'm camping again cause of how bright the stars are. Many people have cars but lots of them walk everywhere and even some have donkey carts. hopefully I don't leave before I get a camera cause you need to see a picture of a donkey cart!

say hi to chan and trevor for me it was good to hear from them!

Have a safe trip home grandma!

Have a good week family! I love you tons!
-Elder Dirkmaat :D