Testimony

Dear Family,

Well the week went by super fast again. But the days went by slow. Funny how that works... Time on mission is just weird.

I feel like I don't really have too much to report this week. It was kind of uneventful. Mostly we just did missionary work. All day. Every day. On Friday we did more slashing for Michelo and George. They are still doing great. But they haven't come to church the past couple weeks. It was for funerals for a couple of them but this week they were both home and they still didn't come so that was sad. We are seeing them tonight so hopeful we will find out what happened.

Another frustrating thing from this week was that another guy we were teaching dropped us. He was actually on date to be baptized next month. But for a few different reasons we haven't been able to see him for about two weeks. When we saw him this week he gave his Book of Mormon back and told us he didn't want to read it anymore. He said that it was too confusing and that he only wanted to use the Bible. We think he is being taught by people from a different church, too. He had a lot of weird questions and most of them were from pamphlets from a different church. He said he'd call us if he wants us to come back. So we will see what happens.

But good news: We had teaching appointments all day on Saturday! Thats the first day since I got to Zambia that we had appointments all day. Days like that happened almost every day in Bots so it was nice to have a full day of teaching. I really love teaching.

Sad news though: I missed church for the first time on mission yesterday. I got really bad food poisoning so we weren't able to go. It was no fun at all. I'm totally better now. It was just a 24 hour thing. But you dont realize how much you depend on something till you miss it! I missed church here and there at home because of sickness but it was so much worse here! I never realized how much of a spiritual boost it is to take the sacrament every week. Maybe its because I have a stronger testimony of the sacrament and the church now or maybe its just because I'm a missionary. But either way, I'm very excited to go to church next week.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon was hugely strengthened this week too. We tracted into a guy who knew his Bible really really well. He kept trying to prove to us that the Book of Mormon couldn't possibly be true. In those situations, no matter how many counter-verses you throw out, there is now way of proving your point. The only thing to do is bear testimony. So thats what I did. And it really is true that when you bear testimony, your testimony is strengthened. And I also learned that the when you bear testimony from deeper within you, its strengthened that much more. I don't know if that makes sense. But I truly do know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is another testament of Jesus Christ. Reading it will bring you closer to God than any other book. If you haven't read it yet, read it. If you have, read it again. You'll learn something new every time and you will feel God's love for you every time.

My favorite verse scripture this week was Helaman 6:37-38. It shows that Satan really does only have as much power as you give him.

Well I love you and I hope you all have a great week. The church is true!
Love, Sister Gehring