I can't think of a good subject

The Zone Leaders thought it would be funny to feed us chicken feet and intestine. I wasn't so amused...

In case you were wondering, this is where Botswana is!

From Texas to Botswana. I'm pretty far from home. Good thing it feels like home here now!

October 21, 2013

Dear Family!

 

Well it sure has been a week. It felt super long and some weird things happened but looking back it wasn't bad at all. To start off the week though, a major water line in Francistown burst. I was right under a main road and it was so bad the road just crumbled and fell into the gaping hole left by the burst pipe. As a result traffic has been horrible but most significantly, we were out of water for the first 2 days this week. So that was fun. It all worked out but it was definitely an adventure I don't really have a desire to repeat...

 

Also I got suuuuper sick this week. The worst one yet on mission. I think it was some sort of food poisoning but we aren't really sure. I woke up at 1:30 am Thursday night (between Thursday and Friday) and threw up every about every 30 minutes till 7:30 the next morning. Then I got a super high fever till the next day. It was all delightful. I got a blessing that helped a ton and Elder and Sister Davis let me and Sister Scott stay at their house till I felt better. Everyone was really caring and I feel 110% better now. It made it so we missed a few meetings and a lot of teaching lessons but it will all be ok. That's just life!

 

Something really awesome that happened this week was that we finally got to watch General Conference! I honestly felt like every single talk was just for me. I really enjoyed it. It made me a little homesick to see Utah. I don't even live there! But its a lot closer to home than here. Luckily it was not too bad and mostly I just really really loved it.

 

Pretty much all of our appointments canceled this week which was to be expected because pretty much all of our appointments were with new people. New people tend to cancel a lot. But the few lessons we did have were excellent. With Adam especially. As you know (or maybe you don't. I can't remember how much I have told you) he has been having a really hard time. He has jut been burdened down with a divorce, trouble with his business, he relapsed on smoking, just a lot of hard stuff in his life. It has all been keeping him from being baptized. Well this week he was finally able to turn it all over to the Savior and let it go. I don't know what happened but whatever it was, it changed him. He has been changing little by little ever since I met him back in July but something this week kind of made him take that last final leap of faith he needed to be freed from his burdens. He even said that over and over this week. "I feel free! I am free! I can start my new life now. There are so many changes! I'm free forever because of this gospel!" You know how if you have been carrying  really heavy backpack for a long time, when you take it off you have to kind of stretch and shake things out? Well he was literally doing that. He was just... lighter... I can't even really describe it. The relief he felt because of the Atonement lifting his burden was so significant, he felt physically lighter as well. I can't even describe how incredible it is to see someone come that far and be that freed.

 

My favorite scripture this week is 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. When I was sick, the word somehow got around to a ton of people. A lot of people were checking on me to see how I was doing. I got this text from Gosego that almost made me cry. It was so sweet. I'll type it out word for word exactly as she sent it.

"Hie sisters! I wonderd where u wer 2dai but after i had that sister G is not feelin wel i find it better for you to read this verse 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 and bear in mind what Elder Jeffrey R Holland said 'that God's love is alwys there no matter what' "

 

Well I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!

 

Love, Sister Gehring