FUN STUFF

                                            African Chewing Gum

                                          Krystal and Sister Two

                                               Sister Scott at the African School

                           

MAPAKIWA FOR THE WEARY

Dumela my lovely friends and family!

 

 

So this week has been another long but very great week to say the least! We work so hard but its not work it is just fun! However this week was very nice for a few reasons!

 

It started off kind of slow but Monday we got to all go together as Sisters and climb a hill called Nyamgabwe Hill. It is sort of like Pinnacle Mountain except it is way steeper! We actually climbed twice and it was a lot of fun. (Tiring but fun). Then on Wednesday I got to do exchanges again! This time I went with Sister Two to her area which is Gerald. Lets just say it was the craziest day ever! All of our appointments fell through so we tracted ALL DAY LONG. We knocked on door, after door and taught lesson after lesson. I was so happy it was the first day it wasn't burning hot because I might not have made it! haha. We also took a member with us named Lydia so we had sooo much fun!!! We didn't have time to go home for lunch so we went to a little African Tuck Shop (stores on the side of the road) and we bought Mapakiwa. Mapakiwa is a type of bread that the Africans cook and it is sort of sweet which makes it yummy! We literally bought a bag of them and kept teaching! It was so great! I had so much fun and we met lots of people and so that is always a great thing as well! I love Sister Two she is the coolest missionary ever! Hopefully we will get to work together again!

 . Oh by the way, thanks for the cards and packages And tell everyone I said thanks who signed the birthday card it was sooooo sweet! I really appreciated it! Also this week we had our Zone Conference so all the missionaries in our zone which is 3 areas we all got together and the mission president taught us and we all learned more about becoming better teachers! I really enjoyed it and learned so much. One thing we really learned a lot about was Charity. Christ was the perfect example of charity and we all want to become like him. But how can you become like someone is you don't know them, so in order to become like Christ we have to study his life!!! I really loved it and I know that is my new goal. To truly become charitable and also become like Christ.

Also this week we got to see the Relief Society broadcast which was AMAZING! I really enjoyed it all so much and the importance placed on keeping our covenants. Baptism is truly a lifelong covenant and it is really important that we are living up to our covenants in Mosiah 18:8-10.

 

I guess this week was not too exciting since we are still trying to find more people to teach all the time! The work is slow but it is definitely growing and I am seeing a change in so many people and it is amazing to be able to take part in it! Something that was on my mind was definitely the importance of Missionary work. All of the prophets have been emphasizing it a lot and in conference they said that the gospel is now in 197 countries and nations. There are only 224 nations on the world. Christ has promised that he will come back as soon as the gospel as reached every nation, country, and clime. Do you realize how close that is?? It just makes me so excited because the second coming is soon! I know that I am out here not only preparing people but I am also better preparing myself because when he comes it will be a marvelous day. So I encourage everyone, everywhere to do your part. It is almost time and it is up to all of us! How grateful I am to be a part of the Lords work and gathering his children. I am so grateful to be here and I know that Christ lives. He is our Savior and he died for each and every one of us. He loves us so much. How grateful we should all be! I wish you all a great week and encourage everyone to show Christ the love that he shows us each day that he wakes us up! :)

 

Sincerely,

Sister Scott

Missionary work,Marriage,Family &Repentance

Dumela my lovely family and friends!!

 

 

Well this week by far has been the craziest one ever! Last week was definitely not as intriguing!!! So here we go!

 

So last time we left off I told you about not having electricity and thankfully we got it back on Monday afternoon so things were great... until we are driving home and we see a massive hole in the road with tons of water spilling out. All of these workers are there trying to fix it and so we just keep going home. Once we get there, its just our luck... WE HAVE NO WATER. Yes. No water. Not anywhere and so that was just great! After deep contemplation over what we should do we figured we should probably call someone and we ended up staying home but we had to go to the senior couple (The Davis's) to shower and all that stuff. I just knew the week would go downhill from there.

 

Not to mention the mosquitoes are so horribly bad here that I counted 25 bites all over my body so yeah that's super fun :) But other than all of that haha my week had some bright moments. We were able to put one of our investigators, Lebo on date! We met her right when I got here and when we first met her we really didn't know what to do! She is probably like 36 or so and she has two kids. She didn't believe in God and she didn't like churches. She didn't know how to pray and she wasn't really interested. But WOW I love that girl. She has grown so much and I honestly love her!!! We have seen her grow so much and now she prays and reads the book of Mormon and I'm so excited for her to get baptized! She makes me so happy. Whenever we go to her house she calls me here sister and it just makes me see how the gospel can change people. Also we were able to put our other investigator Adam on date as well. He has stopped smoking and he is so happy! He honestly dances when were at his house and he says the gospel makes him "free." Its honestly the coolest thing I have ever seen and it strengthens my testimony 100%. It just makes me so happy and grateful to be here.

 

Also we finally got to see GENERAL CONFERENCE :)) I have to be honest. I never really realized how important it was before mission. Back home I could just record it and watch it whenever and I never really realized how important it was but now that I teach people about prophets and the importance of them and why we need them it makes me think of Doctrine and Covenants 1:38. Everything that the prophet says is what God wants us to hear. When the prophet and apostles speak, its as if God is speaking and so I listen to every single thing and I encourage everyone to really do the same when the Ensign or Liahona comes out as well. Study it, and then APPLY it. The three main themes we found were: 1. Missionary Work 2. Marriage and Families 3. Repentance. My favorite talk (even though they are all great and equally important) was by Richard Maynes who is in the Presidency of the 70. He talked about how we have to keep our testimonies in shape and how we always have to be doing something to make them strong. It reminded me of the story of the children of Israel when they were in the wilderness and they had to gather manna everyday. They couldn't store it up because it would go bad, but they physically had to go out each day and gather it and it is very symbolic of all of our lives. 1. God wanted them to remember him. Everyday in order to eat they were reminded of God as they gathered the manna. So we as well need to be reminded of God everyday. We need to do things everyday to remember him.

2. We cant store up spiritual food, we have to be fed daily. The children of Israel couldn't store the food or it would go bad. We as well have to be spiritually fed each and everyday. We cant go to church on Sunday for three hours and expect it to "feed" us the whole week. We cant read our scriptures for 5 hours and expect that to be good for a few days. We physically eat each day, and we need to spiritually eat each day as well.

 

So overall I loved conference and I had a hard yet fulfilling week! The work is good and I hope to continue to get better! As President Monson said in conference, "We all need to ask ourselves, Shall I falter or shall I finish?"

 

I know that I will finish because I know that the church is true. I know the gospel is true and I know that this is the one true church on the earth today. And I will tell it to all the world.

 

P.S. A lot of people have asked for my address and it is:

Sister Krystal Janel Scott

Botswana/Namibia Mission

P.O. Box 301797

Selepa Francistown

BOTSWANA Africa

 

Love you all and I appreciate the support!

 

Love, Sister Scott <3

LIGHTS OUT

Dumela my dear family and friends!

 

 

Well this week was definitely not the most exciting but it was still great!!!! This week has been hotter than ever! Summer just started and its already 110 almost everyday and everyone says it will only get hotter which is SCARY!!!!

 

 

Anywho this week was very productive and fun!! I got to do exchanges again this week with Sister Vuki (the one from Tonga) and she came to my area this time and so I was the lead companion. I can honestly say it was the greatest day EVER! We didn't have many appointments because a lot of our investigators have not been progressing (coming to church, reading, keeping commitements) so we dropped almost all of them so that means tracting every day to find new people!! So me and Sister Vuki spent almost the whole day tracting and teaching people. It was so great! We found lots of father led families and also potential father leds so we were pretty excited! One family in particular we found was the Mogaruwa family. We knocked on their gate and they opened it and let us in. They live in a really nice area which is rare for Botswana and they had a really big nice house and the husband invited us inside. We went in and they have a beautiful home with lots of nice things and they were so friendly. As we introduced ourselves and started talking to them we were able to answer alot of their questions and also feel the spirit very strong. They really understood and responded well which was great! They were just great and I knew we were led to them for a reason so im excited to go back and see what happens!

 

So things have been really slow and nothing big has happened but hopefully i'll have big news soon!! One crazy thing that did happen though was our power ran out! In Botswana you don't get electricity and then pay. Here you buy electricity for a certain price and then once you use it all your power just turns off and we don't control it, the mission does and so yeah, they forgot to buy us power and me and my companion were just in our flat and the power went out! So we have been staying at the other sisters flat until they get it back on which has been fun haha.. So this happened Saturday and I just knew my luck was bad when we went to church yesterday and we go in and sit down and church starts and the first counselor comes and whispers to us (Oh, by the way you guys are speaking. Sorry we forgot to tell you." Um.. can you say heart attack? I honestly just didn't know what to do because none of us expected it so we literally had 5 minutes to figure out a topic and go speak in sacrament and I was SECOND! Haha. The joys of being a missionary right? So I chose Faith and I actually talked for a while and everyone said I did very well afterwards and they told us we are like soldiers because we are always prepared. Haha. I knew God was watching out for us because there is no way I could have done that alone!

 

 

But of course I have continued to grow more and more each week. I learn so much and I can tell I am getting better at teaching and also at listening to the spirit. The Sister Missionary Training Leader told me that she wished she was as good as me when she started so I hope that I continue to get better and I know that I will as my love for the people and the country grows. I feel like I love them all already! I'm close to a lot of them and I truly know that this is where I'm suppose to be and I'm so happy to be here (even in the heat) :) haha. But yes. Just a spiritual thought before I go. I have been reading in Alma and In chapter 37 verses 44 and 45 it compares the words of Christ/ or the gospel to a compass. If you follow a compass it tells you where to go and points you to your destination. If we follow the words of Christ they will point us as well in the right direction. To our Heavenly Father and so we should remember living the gospel is easy! Just follow and DO IT!

 

So I know that this is true and I know that the Book of Mormon is true as well. It truly will bring us closer to God than any other book. So if you haven't read it, I encourage you to do it!! :)

 

Thanks for all the emails and love! Love and miss you all!

 

Love, Sister Scott

2 MONTHS

Dumela Everyone!!!! 

Well this week has been the craziest and weirdest week I think i have ever had! So many crazy things happened I dont even know where to start. First off thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! It was super thoughtful and I really appreciate it! I cant believe im 20 and I celebrated it in Africa!!!! It definitely will be a year I always remember. 

Well like I said this week has been the craziest week ever! I started the week off super happy and excited but that was until Tuesday when I got my first ticket ever!!! I was driving me and my companion to the store and i stopped at the stop sign and i looked both ways and then I start driving. I look up and the police are pulling us over and they said that i didnt stop long enough at the stop sign and they wrote me a ticket! It was pretty crazy! Luckily another officer was nice enough to change the amount I would have to pay from 1000 to 100 so yeah... I officially got my first ticket in my whole life!

So yeah Wednesday was my 20th birthday! I would have to say it was pretty great! Me and all the sisters went out to eat for lunch at a nice restaurant called Nando's and everyone was just so nice it was great! All of the sisters called me that are all over Botswana, even the ones I don't know to tell me happy birthday! And also the Mission president and his wife (who know i love zebra... well everyone does) they live far away from us but they had some other sisters drive down and bring me a birthday card that had REAL ZEBRAS on it! They even called me and it was sooo super nice! So over all I had a pretty great day! I feel like it was probably the best birthday I've ever had because I really didn't focus on myself. I taught lessons all day and also one of our recent converts needed help cleaning and so we went and helped her do her wash and everything else. It really was a great day and a great experience. I just love  MY MISSION!!!

On the other hand things were also very wierd... Me and my companion woke up this week and we tried to open the front door and it wont open! When you turn the knob the lock doesnt even move so we havent been able to get out of the door all week, we have to go around the back of the flat which is crazy and we dont know when it will get fixed! Also since it was the end of six weeks we had transfers! Since i'm still training I didnt move but we did have a few elders that did so we got two brand new elders that just turned 18 like 2 months ago!! Its so crazy because they look so young and it is just amazing to think that God wants all of us young ones in his army! I feel so privileged :) 

                             

                                            Gaborone at night

But this week was good for alot of other reasons! I know I don't talk about alot of the people we teach but there were a few things this week that were just pretty amazing and mind blowing. So two of our investigators, Gorata and Motlepula, we have been teaching for about 2 months. So this week we had a lesson about the atonement. We taught about how the atonement means nothing if we don't use it. If we don't repent for our sins then the whole atonement really has no meaning. So we have been going to see them a couple of times a week and so we asked them if they had prayed about anything that we had taught them. So the mother, Motlepula she said no. And of course me and my companion Sister Gehring were kind of surprised and we were just about to tell her how she will never know if she doesnt pray when she said "I prayed about it the first time you came. When you left, later on that night I prayed to know if the things were true. I had a dream. It frightened me because in my dream I saw a white man and he was dressed in all white. He came to me and told me that the people who came and taught me that what they're teaching is true. What they are telling you is true. So i haven't prayed about it again." Both me and my companion just were shocked. I didn't know what to say. But i knew that it was true. 

Also we have been teaching a lady named Ma Musi and her fried Parks (boyfriend) and we actually have seen her a few times but we go slow because they have great potential and we want them to REALLY get it. They are an older couple like 50's and last night we taught them about the Restoration. It was probably one of the best lessons we had. We taught with power and they really understood and so when we got close to finishing I asked them to read Moroni 10:3-5 and they did and they really understood. Then all of a sudden I just felt the spirit hit me so strong to talk about Joseph Smith as well. So I did and I explained to her that when she reads and prays and ponders she will know that Joseph was a prophet and that this is the true church, Jesus Christ church back on the earth today. The spirit was so strong and we knew they all felt it too. Then we committed her to baptism and she said yes. I honestly love this mission. The spirit that you get is so different and I truly know we are instruments in the hands of God. I feel the spirit work through me and it has to be the greatest thing ever. 

There was also another experience that stuck out for me as well. We have another investigator named Ishmael Adam. He has 6 kids and he is married but he is the only one really interested. He has been struggling with smoking and we have been having a hard time trying to figure out how to help him so this week we did a lesson on trusting God and how God will help us through hard times. So we taught, and taught and taught and we got to a minute where we were all quiet just sitting there, and he was just sitting there thinking. I didnt feel like he really understood what we were trying to say and I didnt know what else to do so i turned towards my scriptures and at that very instant the wind blew the pages over and it landed on a page in my scriptures that wasnt marked, it was blank except for three little lines in red. I looked at the scripture and it was Alma 36:3 and the three tings were..."... for i do know that whosoever shall put his trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." I dont know if it was a coincidence or if it was meant to happen but that scripture fit perfectly and I shared it with him. And I truly felt the power in that moment! It was great! 

So overall this week has been one with ups and downs and my two months mark is tommorow! Time is going fast but im truly grateful to be here and I know that God sent me here for reason and that I have learned so much more than I could ever imagine and there really is no where I would rather be! How great is my calling! 

Love,

Sister Scott