What a wonderful new year this is going to be. We hope you have already had a great January. We had a very quiet Christmas but busy one. It was wonderful. We were sent wonderful testimony letters from our Ward at home and from our family members. We copied them and put a picture of the individual with them. We then decided and prayed that we would know which person should get which letter. We then put them in a envelope with an American Flag sticker on it with their name. We spent the 2 weeks before Christmas doing this. We cried and laughed. It was such a wonderful gift to us. We then visited every member and gave them a hymnal with their name in gold on the front. We wrote a message inside from us. They seemed to really like them. They loved reading them and reading them.
It was amazing how some of the letters were perfect for some of our members. We were so thankful.
On Christmas Day we went around and sang Christmas Carols to some of the members. It was fun!
This is our Christmas decoration. Our neighbor loved it and left a note about the Savior on it. It was great. Christmas Eve we had the missionaries to dinner. We had ham, potatoes and all. It was really good. Ham is really expensive here, I guess the pigs are royalty. We found a good deal, however.
We had a baptism in Motupa of Agnes Meite Selematsela. She is Julia's sister. They are both wonderful. Their motherm who does not speak English, wants all of her children to join our church because it has make them so happy.
This is Elder Reynolds and Sebetane Sekgobela who also was baptized. He is eight years old. He has the BEST smile.
In November we said goodbye to our friends, Elder and Sister Butler from Ogden, Utah. Yes, they graduated from Weber High but they were older than I was so I did not meet them. We are the only senior couple here now. We miss all of them. We are so busy because we are trying to help where they were working. These are some the things we do on a weekly basis. Many other things pop up.
-Seminary
-Piano Lessons
-Temple Preparation Lessons
-Taking members to the temple
-Family History (We have been able to help with 54 names so far. 54 more members on the other side.
-English Lessons
-Help with PEF loans
-Help new missionaries get their papers in. That has been a task, but rewarding.
-Primary (in both Motupa and Tzaneen)
-Help with Young Women and Young Men
-Help with Visiting Teaching (We hope Home Teaching will get going soon.)
-Plus all of the other "pop ups" for example this week we were asked to get a youth choir together for next week for District Conference. The problem is their is not way we can all get together. We have to practice in the different areas. We hope it will work. Also, today we have no water at the church as the neighbor does not pay his water bill and they always turn off the wrong meter. We hope they come tomorrow as we have the Mission Tour with President Cook of the Seventy here on Saturday and we need a clean building!!!!!
There are many other things that we come up and we love every second of this. We could not think of a better way to spend our time than serving the Lord full-time. Our time will be over in May and we will be sad!!!!
HEre we are with Baby Loretta and her mother. She calls every once in a while and we meet her in town. She is really growing up. She has a good mother.
In November we were able to go to the temple with Sister Mama Legodi. Here is Elder Campbell with some of the missionaries that are going home and one Elder Campbell from California that is just coming.
Here is Sister Legodi on the right with one of her friends from Polokwane.
This is her Aunt and Uncle from Durban.
This cute little man was all slicked up for a wedding that was at the temple.
A cute picture of children around the fountain.
Here we are saying goodbye to the LAST senior couple in Limpopo. Goodbye and Go Well Elder and Sister Hansen. We will see you in Ogden someday.
Here we are with our three Matrix graduates. Mamie Sekgobela, Tsoaledi Matlou, and Mamie Mohale. They are great young women. We believe Mamie S. wants to go on a mission, Tsoaledi wants to be Dr. and go on a mission and Mamie M. wants to go to college. Love them all. We have one young man, Bongani but he could not be here.
Having dinner with some of our wonderful Elders before some left us and were transferred or went home. We are thankful for them.
In December, we were able to go to the temple with one of our favorites, Julia Selematsela. She is terrific!!! I wish everyone could meet her. She is from Motupa and takes care of her invalid son who cannot walk or talk (28) and her nephew that has lost his mother, and takes care of her mother. She is amazing!!!
This is Samuel Ngobeni. He is a most wonderful man. He has been learning to speak English since we came and has done really well. He was sealed to his parents and brothers on this trip. It was wonderful!!
This was a bride and groom at the temple. We did not know them but they were wonderful so we wanted a picture!!!
This was at a funeral that we helped with. We did not know we were not supposed to take pictures until after. They said the evil spirits would come. We had taken pictures before at funerals but I guess this group felt different. This was at the graveside where many men gathered to dig the grave. I made lots of banana muffins and they poured out bread slices and tea. The men really digging the grave did not get any though.
This is the ground where the funeral tent will be. The women cleared the area with brooms made out of sticks .
December brought the Christmas Parties. We started our Tzaneen party with the Nativity acted out by the Primary children. This was our sweet Mary and Joseph, (Mmuso Manyika, and Neo Legodi). They were so reverent and amazing!!! The great thing at the end was when all the children went down the isle at church and told everyone that the Savior was born. It was so special.
I do not know if this video will work but it is Sister Manzini dancing in her traditional skirt.
Here is Sister Esther Lefa and Sister Manzini.
Here comes Father Christmas, alias Brother Cloete. Even though everyone knew who he was it brought a special funness. The children had gone a fun treasure hunt and then made Christmas chains. We ate and then sang Christmas carols.
Here we are on Elder Campbell's birthday. We started the day with breakfast at Ella Bella. We then went to see Brother Loucau.
We then went to Palaborwa to visit teach some of our members. Here we with Khutso Mokobitoa. She is holding her letter from America. The members of our ward and our family sent letters to our members. They loved them.
The next pictures will be of Motupa's Christmas Party. We had a lot of fun!
These pictures included Elder Smith-Holly with the Lemon Pavlova that I made. It is a tradition at their home in New Zealand. It was divine! It was like a Lemon Pie without the crust. You may like this Aunt Karen Campbell. The next pictures were of Santa Hats that we gave the Elders. Here is Elder Reynolds from Vernal waiting for his companion, Elder Smith Holly as he makes his call home. Here is the meal we ate on Christmas Eve. We had ham, pototatoes and all! IT was yummy!!!
Here we see the many pictures of our wonderful days. Here are the Minnie children, Kutlwano and Thato with their letters from Aunt Jennifer's 4th grade class. Then we have Nephi in his wheelbarrow. He loves to go for rides. We also have the new baby at the Sekgobelas home. There is also a picture with Nkomi and me dressed in our black and white. A special lady who almost sold us a necklace that was $15,000. We thought it was in Rand which would still be expensive but I almost had a heart attack because we almost bought it. No wonder all of the store came and congratulated us. Oh, it was a blessing we finally came around to our senses.
We had a very busy November and December. We loved spending time with the members delivering letters from home and hymnals and home evening books, going to the temple, Christmas parties, baptisms, and everything else we are allowed to do.
Love to you all and may this be a blessed year for you and your family.
Hurrah for Israel
Elder and Sister Campbell
Botswana Namibia Mission
