The picture is of Mochudi, the village he references in his email.
"Travellers with a taste for the wild side will relish Botswana."
This is Michael's new area! Need I say more. Sounds like the perfect place for him to finish out is mission. Here are few more descriptions of Botswana,
"Beyond the narrow eastern corridor where the majority of the population is concentrated, Botswana is a largely roadless wilderness of savannas, deserts, wetlands and salt pans. Skinflints and softies beware: this remains a destination for the intrepid, well-heeled traveller."
Gaborone, estimated population 186,000 (2001), is the capital of Botswana. Gaborone is located at 24°40' South, 25°55' East.
The old Gaberones became a suburb of the new Gaborone, and is now known as "the Village". The abbreviation "Gabs" has survived as the abbreviation for Gaborone and is sometimes used in speech.
So Elder Gabs now lives in the "GABS"- PERFECT!!!
We gave him a hard time about not telling us where he was going and along he didn't know. I am anxious to hear what it is like and how the work is going. From his email, it sounds like it will be WORK. He has been rather spoiled his whole mission. The members have really taken the responsibilty of "finding" and the Elders then do the "teaching". Now it sounds like he may be doing more finding and organizing. I think he has more responsibility as a zone leader too, which will make things interesting.
Enjoy the email.

Monday, August 02, 2010
OH boy oh boy. That was a great email! lot's of stuff is happening. well at this moment i feel like Pahoran answering in response to captain moroni's letter. So, after much assumption of my negligence to tell you where i was going i will tell this unto thee. We don't find out where we are going until the day of transfers now. So i couldn't have told you unless i attempted to prophesy. but i will tell you this i went to the one area that i almost thought would be impossible for me to go!! the language is Setswana, the people are motswana's and the place is botswana!!! So i have now officially served my mission in two different countries!! it's kinda like starting mission all over again!! The reason why i wasn't going to go was because of my visa extension stuff my passport wasn't in the mission office so i was on the "do not transfer to bots" list. But i am serving in the capital of botswana in Gaborone in a place called broadhurst! we also have the only sister in the Jo'Burg mission in our zone! so that's pretty crazy. But this area is definately going a bit slower than my last one. So hopefully that can change in the next 4 months! We've already worked had i actually had big gaps in my schedule for the first time in a long time. it was..... weird! haha
But i am having a lot of fun aside from trying to cross the border, we were stuck at the border for 4 hours on wednesday night. and had no money to pay customs for any of the stuff we were transporting it was very difficult so we left our trailer at the border and came back for it the next morning once we got some much needed pula from the senior couple. Unfortunately my rands are worthless now.
My companion is Elder Sicotte from Utah. And like me he plays a little guitar so we should be creating some great musical numbers in the coming months!! :)
I'm excited for the boise state news in the coming months if we can beat V-Tech i think we'll be ok!
Additional info: There are 3 wards in Gaborone. Including the only singles ward in the entire continent of africa! We are aside to the family ward in Broadhurst though. We live in a house not a flat. it's awesome, lots of room. As far as the investigators go i think we'll have a baptism by the end of this month. and i don't know very many of the other inv's or members!
It's definately going to be a great next few months. lots of work to be done.
I can't believe that kevin will be on mission in may! if the stars are aligned and he gets to come to my mission! he'll know all the missionaries i served with!! :0
I don't know if there is too much more to tell you! i'll let you know more about the work here when i find out about it. The big moment will definately be when i go to mochudi for exchanges. its a small village outside of gaborone. the elders stay in a shack! haha so i'll let you know about that. T.I.A!!
your lesson in setswana today is: Dumela-Hello, Legai-how are you?, Riteng(roll that R!!!)-Fine!, Salasinhle-Stay Well. Tsmiyasinhle-go well.
have a great week!
Die Kerk is Waar!
-elder johnson
p.s. i was gonna send pictures but our email shop is not the best! so i'll try another time!