JUST COME TO CHURCH!!!

My dear Family,

 

In the Preach My Gospel training DVDs one of the sister missionaries who is frustrated by her investigators not coming to church says ''Just come to church!!!!!'' in a pretty funny voice. Lets just say that at one point this week I found myself laying on the floor in my flat yelling the exact same thing. I've decided that one of the most frustrating things about missionary work, if not the number one most frustrating thing, is people promising up and down that they will come to church and then not coming. It would even be better if they would just say they weren't coming! But instead, they promise and promise and promise that they will be there, but then they don't show. Its incredibly frustrating. I'm just glad Heavenly Father is in charge and not me because I don't think I could handle all these people's agency.

But other than that frustrating part, this week has been really pretty good. Sister Fokoto and I have been working our hardest and we have been seeing the blessings. We have found some really promising people to teach. Now again, the trick will be getting them to come to church.

 

Its been really nice having the car. Its made things move quite a bit faster. On Friday we were able to bring a member teaching with us who we have wanted to take with us for a long time but we had no way to get her and she is too old to walk all the way to where we were going to teach. Our appointment actually fell through but we were able to go to her house and spend some time getting to know her. It was awesome. She has been a member for almost 20 years! She joined the church with her whole family but since then her husband has passed away and her children have gotten married and moved to different countries so she is alone a lot. The missionaries used to live at her house and even when they got their own flats they would still go there all the time. But for some reason in the past few years the missionaries haven't been going there very often. Its been making her very sad but she hasnt said anything . Well last week the new elders that got transferred into the branch went over and visited her. It meant so much to her that they came. Then this week we went over and spent some time with her. It meant a lot to her again, especially because she can't even remember the last time the sisters came. We sang hymns with her and each shared a favorite scripture. She was so happy. Because of those 2 visits (one from the elders and one from us) she has just gotten this excitement about her! She wants to start a branch choir now and she keeps giving us all referrals of pretty much every person she knows! Its great! She even invited us over for a huge FHE next Monday with another member family in the branch and all the missionaries. I'm super excited for it. You never know the impact just a visit can have on a person.

 

My favorite scripture this week is 2 Nephi chapter 29. You cant get a more powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon than the one that comes straight from the Lord!

 

I love you! Have a good week!

 

Lots of love, Sister Gehring

Our bathroom drain was clogged so I was using a wire hanger to try and clean it out. This is what I found. You know you're a missionary when...

This was carved into a brick at a house we tracted into. It was hard to see so I tried to mess with the colors to make it easier... But either way, this is for you Em!

This is Daniel. The other sisters were teaching him. He is the security guard at our flat. He has been taught since 2012 and he finally got baptized!

The shorter man with the red tie is Brian. He is the other security guard at our flat. He was baptized about a month ago in a different branch. He came to support Daniel!