Cornelia shares the following about a momentous day for the small group of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kasane, Botswana — their first sacrament meeting held just a couple of months ago. It was a day she had waited for for years. The dedication and faith of these modern Mormon pioneers is inspiring. (If you haven’t read Cornelia’s conversion story, and how these people all came together, it’s worth a read.)

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~by Cornelia

I moved to Kasane, Botswana in April 2005, at which time I was not yet a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On the 8th of May 2005 I was baptized and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It took 5 years and 1 day exactly for the church to have its first sacrament meeting here. How glorious is the work of God. It works in His own time and not ours. But it is perfect.

first sacrament meeting in Botswana

On the 9th of May 2010 we held our first Sacrament meeting in Kasane; it was a great day. We were all early and excited. We carefully opened the boxes containing the sacrament trays, each smiling at each other with wide eyes. We were almost like little children around a Christmas Tree…actually we were definitely like small children around a Christmas tree. We had Mormon Tabernacle Choir hymns playing in the back ground; a reverence came over the room and I sat in the chair with tears in my eyes. What a wonderful experience. I was asked to do the first talk during our Sacrament meeting, and so I decided to talk about the Plan of Salvation as we had not been given specific topics.  Nametsegang [in the center of the photo below] gave the second talk. True to the fashions in the past, the topics we choose are often similar or the same.   It is amazing how the Holy Spirit works.

Mormons in Africa (Botswana)

Over the past while, we have been holding Family Home Evenings as a group every Tuesday, and Sacrament and Sunday School every Sunday. We also try to meet when we can to play games and have fun. Most of us have really demanding jobs and a few of us are called to work at various stages during the week. We have had a few visitors at Sacrament Meetings and they have now also started coming to Family Home Evening, so we are all really excited. We are all on a mission to learn as much as we can so that we can start teaching others about the gospel.