Electricity & Invitations

August 2025

Electricity here in Botswana is purchased at convenience and grocery stores. You stop by at the counter, give them an 11-digit code (which is your electric meter ID), state how much Pula (Bostswana-ian money) you want to pay, and they give you receipt with a 20-digit code. You enter that code into your electric meter, and you now have more electricity.

We instruct the missionaries to let us know when their electric meter is down to 500 Kilowatt Hours. But imagine that! Sometimes, they wait until it’s down to zero. And amazingly, it’s usually 10pm at night.

We’ve let them know that their emergency is not our emergency.

We kind of feel it’s life skills we are helping them develop. At the last Zone Conference, Sister McCuistion talked about Stewardship, and how they need to steward their sacred funds, their clothing, their appliances, their testimonies, their health.

Then Elder McCuistion talked about not throwing their clothes in the washing machine without checking for all those things that clog and break the washing machines! Poor Widows contribute their mites to Tithing and Fast Offerings to help fund the work of the Lord, and Mark reminded them to respect that. We have a repair person (who is the Bishop of a local Ward!) do semi annual maintenance on the machines, and it’s amazing (and disturbing!) the things he removes from the filters.

Our day-to-day work generally looks like:

Morning Routine (dressing, exercise, study, responding to emergency notices)
Mission Office (Emails, WhatsApp messages, phone calls, in-person visits, deliveries, scheduling, lunch!!!)
Evening outings (groceries, mission visits, flat purchases like electricity)
Dinner
More computer time responding to Not-Our-Emergency!

We usually do our grocery shopping later in the day. Unfortunately, there isn’t one store we can go to that has everything we want or like. So we often visit Checkers, Pick and Pay, Woolworths (yes, the department store that has groceries in it here in Botswana), Sefalana, SuperSpar, even Dis-Chem pharmacy. All these places have stuff we purchase.

One of the hardest parts is remembering where it was we purchased something we liked.

A very frustrating part of Marks work is trying to get missionaries who are called to Botswana here to Botswana. There are some countries for which an Entrance Visa is required. You have to have a valid Birth Certificate, a High School Diploma and a Police Clearance letter. The young people in some of those countries are often missing one or more of these documents. It’s so sad when they have not graduated from High School and we have to get them re-assigned to another mission.

They have an interesting custom here in Botswana. When they shake your hand, if they are doing it with respect, they place their other hand near their elbow. We’ve heard this is because they are showing you they do not have a knife in that hand. But it’s a very dear custom. At the stores, when they hand you the receipt, they often do this.

On one of our prep days, we went to the Mokolodi Nature Reserve to participate in a Rhino Tracking exercise. As we walked out our front door, we found this neighbor waiting on the wall for us.

At the Nature Reserve, we boarded a jeep and drove into the park. As we drove, our guide would observe the bush and the dirt road. At one point, we stopped to examine some Rhino scat. They declared ‘Yesterdays Lunch’ after touching it with their hand.

A little further down the road, we stopped, and the guide showed us Rhino tracks in the dirt that were very recent. You could tell (well, he could tell) by the defined ridges that had not eroded. Off to the side, the brush had been crushed in one direction, and we also observed rocks that were disturbed from the resting places (you could see the indentation in the dirt where they had laid). About ten minutes of walking and tracking, we came across two bachelor Rhinos eating bushes. We were able to get quite close: 20-30 feet from them.

Later, we came across a Daddy, Mommy and two baby Rhinos. We also saw Impalas, Warthogs, Zebra (pronounced Zeb-ra here in Botswana, not Zee-bra), and a giraffe.

At the previous Zone Conference, the missionaries were invited to invite everyone they meet to come to church. It’s a simple gesture. At this Zone Conference, the missionaries reported amazing results. If we don’t invite them, it’s as if we are withholding their agency from them, not allowing them to choose.

A new Senior Missionary couple came this month to Botswana, and we took them (back) to the restaurant at the Mokolodi game reserve (where we had done the Rhino Tracking). Mark had the Game Burger, which is made of Kudu meat. It was fine. It was more beef than ground fat, so very lean.

We later met with the Communications Committee for coordinating council, with the Area Seventy and the Communications Committee. The 1st councilor of the Mission Presidency was also there with the Mission Leaders, the Mission Office staff and the APs. They talked about some upcoming national events that the church might be able to get involved with. It was interesting to hear of the growth and potential development of areas in Botswana.

Another Prep-day, another adventure. We got up at 4:15am in the morning, so we could walk out to the gate to our compound and join the Smiths and Neubergers on an adventure to the Jwana Game Park northeast of Kanye. It was almost 3 hours of driving to get to the entrance.

The first 10 minutes driving to the center was boring, but after that: Gold! We saw Rhinos, and then Leopards! After that, Wildebeest, Red Hartebeests, Steenboks, Impalas, Warthogs, Cape Foxes, Mongoose, Golden Palm Weaver, Helmeted Guinea fowl, and Giraffes right next to the dirt road. We even saw Zebras, which crossed as a herd in front of the car. It’s always an adventure.

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