Long Week

October 28, 2013

Dear Family,

Well nothing that happened this week is as exciting as what's been going on at home but it was still a good week. It felt super long for some reason but it wasn't bad. Just pretty uneventful.

 We did a lot of finding at the beginning of the week and found some pretty promising people to teach. 2 of them even came to church! Which is pretty awesome. We have a hard time getting the people we have been teaching for months to come to church and these two women came after just meeting us! So we are excited to keep teaching them. Their names are Sephiwe and Nyaladzi. Both of them are really eager and willing to learn and both have already started to love the gospel. Their progress will be exciting to watch.

 We also had a zone meeting this week that was really good. We talked about a lot of different ways we can improve and become better missionaries and help the work specifically here in Francistown move along. One of the things I really liked was that we talked about the difference between bearing testimony from our head and our heart. We had kind of a testimony meeting where both ways were demonstrated and it was incredible how much stronger the spirit is manifested when the testimony comes from the heart. From the head testimonies usually go something like this... " I know that if you read the Book of Mormon you and your family will be blessed..." But when you bear testimony from your heart you take it a step farther. It would be something more like this... " I know that as I have read the Book of Mormon with my family we have been blessed with...... I know that if you and your family read together also these and even many other blessings will come..." I don't know if the difference makes sense. But it was so clear as we demonstrated it. I really thought it was cool.

 Something kind of crazy happened this week, too. There was a thunder storm! I think its rained like 3 times in the almost 7 months I have been here. And on Saturday it stormed! It was nuts! I didn't realize how much I missed rain! This whole being in a desert thing is quite different from good ol' Houston. Too bad it only lasted like an hour. But it was still nice.

 There was a quote from a recent convert that I really liked this week. Gaseitsitwe, who was baptized in June and is now the YW president in Monarch, came teaching with us this week. I can't remember now what the context was but she said

 "Other churches teach you how to make good choices. But this church teaches you how to make right choices."

I really liked that. A lot actually. Its so true too. I had never thought about it in that way before.

 An 11 year old boy named Tshenolo that we are teaching asked a pretty interesting question this week too that I had never really thought of. He asked if Heavenly Father has a mother. I had never thought of that. I'm sure he does! I mean he has to! He had to get his body the same way any of us do. It just makes sense that he does. Its pretty deep though. If I think about it too much I get a headache...

 Well my favorite scripture this week was actually a whole story. its 1 Kings 18. For some reason it just made me giggle. Plus there its just a good message about God only having 1 true prophet at a time.

 Well I love you all so much. Thanks for keeping me updated on everything. Congrats again to mom and Zach! I'm so excited!!

 Lots of love, Sister Chelsea Gehring