Mother and Son Make The World Their Classroom for a School Year: October 5, 2014

In the morning our driver took us across the border where we were met by Cornelia. “Corn” as she affectionately is known is an amazing person with an amazing story. She is related to Rachel through marriage and that is how I was connected with Cornelia. She was kind enough to allow us to stay with her so we could go to church in Botswana, since last Sunday there was no church near Ant’s Nest. Today was an exciting day for the LDS Group in Kasane, Botswana. They were becoming a Branch, something larger than a group with a Branch President. The next closest LDS Group or Branch or Ward is 500 km away and the Stake includes over 1000 km diameter.

She was introduced toThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by the Nield’s, which I am convinced all of the Harare Ward was. Cornelia used to live in Harare area. She had just graduated from agriculture school and was going to go work her parents farm which had herds of all kinds of animals and grew produce as well. Just as she had finished school and had come home to start work, two armed military men came to their home and told them that their farm was being taken over and they had two days to clear off their property and that it was being taken over. Cornelia and her family were literally kicked out of their home, all their property, and possessions and family farm taken with no compensation, but simply because the government wanted their farm. Cornelia and her family moved to Botswana where she has established herself here. She found a job working in the travel business.

As she settled in Kasane she was the only member of the LDS Church here. She would fly to Harare every few months just so she could go to church and take of the sacrament. Then a couple members moved into the area and they began to meet together in one of their homes. The church grew to 3, then, 5, then 7 members and now they have around 25 adults and 25 kids. They meet in a little building they rent that is just around the corner from Cornelia. On this Sunday that we were there they had finally become an official Branch of the LDS Church. It was a significant day to have the Branch be formed and have the leadership and order where the Branch can grow. I was especially struck by the testimonies of faith the new Branch Presidency had, as they were asked to speak. During Sunday School I went into the class with Sam. I helped the two children that were called to teach the class. The first half one of the young girls taught about “How we can be more Christlike” I helped assist her in having the class speak, since she was so so shy. Then a young boy Ronald, who will make an amazing missionary and leader one day taught about “Gratitude.” He again had the children read from the scriptures about gratitude and had everyone go around the room and say what they were grateful for. Many were grateful for their baptism, others hadn’t had the opportunity to be baptized since it required the mission president to come up to their Branch to give permission, since they have no missionaries in the area and they weren’t an official branch with leadership before today. The government put restrictions on having missionaries in Botswana. It sounds like there were many different churches that were setting up churches around the country and these churches were taking a tithe from the new members and then leaving the country with the money and abandoning their congregations. So, no missionaries from outside Botswana are allowed to come serve here. These children in this class will make good missionaries one day in their own country.

After church there was a training meeting for the new leaders by the mission president. Sam and I sat in th back room of the building and worked on our blogs. We were pretty hungry I am not going to lie since we had to leave early from Vic Falls and didn’t eat and it was hot. Around 2:30 we got back to her home and we made some sandwiches out on the lawn and ate some with President and Sister Wilson, the mission presidents who were also staying at Cornelia’s home. We then helped cut up the veggies and prepare for the braii- African BBQ. We drove out to the bush, about 40 minutes away down sandy roads into what looked like the middle of the dessert that had some cool old trees that had been toppled by elephants and set up camp. We visited and enjoyed a beautiful sunset and Cornelia made a fire with the dead branches we collected on our way to our campsite and she cooked up a feast under the sunset of beef and chicken and veggies. She seems to have mastered the bush braii. As we were packing up under the full moon we could hear elephants, Sam opted to hop in the car;) At home we were totally exhausted from the day and several mornings in a row getting up before 6 a.m. we headed to bed around 11 p.m. now. At midnight Cornelia woke me up to see elephants outside her house, I was so delirious that I first went to the bathroom and then by the time I got outside they had left, I crawled back into bed and slept like a log.