Lesotho is a "District"! & "Self Reliance"

Relief Society Activity

Sister Moshoeshoe and Sister Mapetla

Bridget, what a vibrant young woman!

YSA listening to Branch President about marriage

“Self Reliance”
 
Are you “Self Reliant”?  That is a question we all ask ourselves from time to time.  How am I doing spiritually, emotionally, and temporally? The church has started a new program for us to learn principles of Self Reliance and practice them.  It has been part of our mission here to help see that the Branches have the opportunity to learn skills they need to become Self Reliant.  It takes some hard work, but it is so worth it.  The Lord has declared, “It is my purpose to provide for my saints” (D&C 104:15). This revelation is a promise from the Lord that He will provide temporal blessings and open the door of self-reliance, which is the ability for us to provide the necessities of life for ourselves and for our family members.  We want to share with you two Self Reliance stories from Maseru, Lesotho.

We went up to a large parcel of land this past month in the beautiful Leostho Mountain range with one of our YSA girls. Her name is Lineo Moletsane and she is 29 years old. Her parents died and left her and her sister with this property.  She is an amazing young woman and has so many ideas bursting forth from her mind.  They have planted thousands of little plants in a nursery to sell to the neighboring villages that do not have these plants growing naturally.  They have also planted 2500 fruit trees.  They just planted the fruit trees all over on the mountainside in between whatever else was growing on the mountain. They also built this big cistern for collecting spring water that comes from their property up above.  They are going to bottle the water and sell it.  Then she is going to start a bank!  I am not kidding.  She has all of these feasible ideas of things she can do.  She loves the church and the temple is her favorite place to spend time.  She will definitely be successful at anything she puts her mind to.  She wants to come to BYU Hawaii to get a masters degree in Business.  She is filling out an application right now.  I hope it works for her.

We have a funny Self Reliance story now on the other end of the age spectrum.  We have this 68 year old, MaLucy is her name, who also is always thinking of ways to be self reliant.  She is starting a larger pig business to be more self reliant.  We have FHE on Monday night with her each week.  She usually has a neighbor or two come to share a lesson with us.  So MaLucy shares the funniest story from an experience she had about a week ago. She has purchased a couple of young pigs from a neighboring village, about 40 minutes away. “The breed is better on that side,” she says.  Most everyone travels by taxi here.  So MaLucy stuffs her piglet into two bigger plastic bags and gets in the taxi like it’s just a normal purchase she has made.  Her pig is wiggling and snorting inside the bags and finally breaks his snout through the plastic bag, so she has to quickly double the top over to try and keep his snout inside the bag. Then it begins to smell like pig inside the taxi.  Everyone is complaining.  They pick up another man and after he sits there a minute he asked the driver to stop, because he has to clean his shoes.  He thinks he has stepped in dog poop or something.  MaLucy just looks straight ahead (straight face and all) and doesn't say a thing to anyone.  Her experience was hilarious.  She is buying the better breed of boar, because she wants people to come bring their sows to her place to be bred!  Oh the life of a Lesothian!!

Lesotho Saints have been waiting for years to become a District and on the 28th day of February they became their own little District.  It was a delightful weekend with happy hearts for the growth and progress of the church here.  Even with all the struggles the saints have here they are a blessed people.

We had an YSA activity with the youth this month.  The kids planned it and did everything for it.  We were so proud of them.  Another youth leadership growing in leaps and bounds.  The Branch President and his wife even talked to them about preparing for marriage.  The kids here are no different than America.  Expect too much of each other and themselves before marriage and shy away from even trying to get to know each other better. They enjoyed the evening and especially the food.  I think you will laugh at their pictures.

The Makura family is progressing so well.  We have a date of May 10^th-12th for their Temple trip.  The lessons we are sharing with them are so spirit filled. We always leave feeling so grateful to have been in their little hut teaching them and their family.  You would love them (one cow, many chickens, peach trees, and a tidy beautiful little home).  We also teach every Thursday night after the Makura family, the last Leribe Branch President, the Thaoto family. We have had wonderful discussions with them.  The wife is so upbeat, which is not usual for her, so we soak it in.  Talk about courage, she has a nice singing voice so we asked her to sing for us the following week when we came.  She and her husband did a duet for us.  It was so awesome to have them do that for us.  We were humbled by their sharing their talents with us.

Another family we teach every week is the Mohanoe family. We have had wonderful discussions with them past few weeks.  The Elders are teaching their twins (9 years old) lessons, preparing them for baptism.  He is the lawyer and she works for some big company here in Maseru.  One Sunday when we came to teach, he had invited a friend over so their little home was very crowded. But oh what a wonderful discussion we had on the Sabbath Day.  We went home rejoicing.

MaPalesa is finally feeling better so we were able to have FHE with the children again.  It has been a couple of months that she has been so sick.  The children were so happy to see us and we were so happy to see them.  Emotions were high for us.  We had no idea how much we had missed them.  The lesson was so good and they were so happy.  We got so many hugs and kisses!  My favorite!

A coincidence here in Lesotho:  An Elder Woodland came here last transfer.  My mother’s maiden name is Woodland.  Come to find out we are direct line relatives!  It is so awesome to get to know Elder Woodland.  His Great Great Grandfather Noah Woodland was my Grandfather’s brother!  I had to share a picture with you of him.  One day I looked in those eyes (that are so Woodland eyes) and began to cry.  How I missed my MOM!

It feels wonderful to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in bringing a few of his children to the temple to be sealed as families.  Lucky and Matsiu go to the temple with us on Monday March13th. Lucky will take out his endowments.  He leaves March 31st for the MTC to serve is mission in the Botswana Nimibia mission.  They are so excited.  We have struggled big time trying to get all his paperwork completed before he leaves.  Because he will serve in a few villages in South Africa we were trying to get his SA visa also, but it didn’t work out.  He just got the news that there will be no delay in his MTC arrival date because he doesn’t have the SA visa.  He will come on his 30-day permit and all is well. He was so happy he was laughing and shouting and was running to Matsiu's work to tell her the great news.

We love the blessing of serving a mission and are so grateful for all the opportunities and experiences we have, that we would not have any other way.  We send our love and best wishes to you 

Sister Lineo Moletsane at her property in the Mountains

Lineo Moletsane's partner and the water cistern

Lineo Moletsane nursery

Lineo Moletsane cistern soon to be spring water that is bottled

New District President Sematlane and his family

What the chapel looked like before conference began

President Nchapi 2nd counselor and his family

President Moorsi 1st counselor and his family

New District Presidency and their families

New District Presidency and their wives

Brother and Sister Makura heading in for training

Boys gathering at conference

Girls gathering at conference

After Conference Happiness

Hi, Everyone!  We are a "District"  Hooray for Israel!

Happy RS President Sister Moshoeshoe after conference

Catching some happy missionary action

Elder Chandler setting up for FHE "The Gift of the Book of Mormon"

MaPalesa and her daughter Loretta at FHE

The children love FHE

Sister Chandler cooking for the Elders

Elder Woodland my direct line relative and Elder Mbusi