Monday, September 1, 2014

The Only Constant Thing is Change

Dear family,

Well I'll start off today by telling the big news... I'm being transferred! It was super unexpected! Official transfers were a couple weeks ago and they told me I'd be staying in my area for another transfer (which is my last transfer). So I thought I'd be staying in Rhodes Park till I finish. But on Saturday night the elders came over and told me that I'm being transferred to Luanshya! Its a small town in the Copperbelt province. Its about 5 hrs north of here. I'll be opening a brand new area and... I'm training! My new comp is coming right from the MTC. She is from Uganda and her name is SIster Sbmpa. Nope I didn't spell it wrong. It just doesn't have any vowels. I'm going to have to ask her how to pronounce it. The adventures just keep rolling in. 

This is actually a huge answer to prayers. Lately I have been praying that the Lord will bless me with something that will help me stay strong and hardworking till I finish. And months ago I was praying that I'd be able to train right before I go home. But as the time went on I thought it just wasn't the Lord's will for me to train again. I thought the push I was praying for would just come in some other form. This was just a huge testimony booster that the Lord hears and answers prayers. In his own time and his own way but he definitely hears and answers. So if there is something you are praying for and it doesn't happen right away, don't get discouraged. Maybe its just not time yet. 

So I'll be taking a bus up to my new area on Wednesday mornning. And after that, who knows! Either way, it will be an adventure.Sister Fokoto and I are actually both being moved. She's going to a different part of the copperbelt. 2 other sisters are coming to replace us. Its going to make the time go so fast, though. First of all, time just goes fast. Then change also makes things go by fast. And to top it off, I'll be training. That makes time go super fast too. 

This past week was actually pretty great, too. I went on exchanges with Sister Lyon on wednesday! I have seen serving around her for over a year now and we had never been on exchanges! So it was cool to be with her. A miracle happened while I was with her! Do you remember John Mumba?  Well for a long time he had basically just disappeared off the face of the planet. On Wednesday we needed to drop something off at Michelo's house (who lives on the same street where John goes to school.) We were going to be there later in the day so we were just going to do it then but I had a prompting to go by a little bit earlier. So we decided to go then. Right as we turned onto the street, we saw John Mumba coming out of the gate of the school!! I pulled over really fast and we went to talk to him. Turns out he has been in the hospital for eye surgery, has been up and down from the copperbelt, and had just gotten back a couple days before we saw him. While he was in the hospital, one of his nurses saw him reading the Book of Mormon and she asked him where he got it. She is actually a member in another branch! He told her that as soon as he got out of the hospital he wants to be baptized! He even told us the same thing! While we were talking to him he said that he wants to be baptized ASAP! I'm pretty bummed I won't be able to see how he progresses from here but hopefully the sisters taking over our area will take good care of him. I have no doubt that that man will eventually be baptized. 

Other than that, we had a couple really awesome lessons. One with a less active family. We went in with a plan and ended up taking it a totally different direction as directed by the spirit and it went super well. Another with Michelo. We brough some members teaching with us and they helped her a lot to be able to resolve some concerns. So it was really good! Its amazing how much of a difference it makes when you have the spirit. 

Well, its going to be pretty hard saying bye to this place. I have been in Lusaka for a long time now. I've fallen in love with tthe branch and the members and the area and everything. Its definitely been the most challenging time of mission but I have grown and learned so much. I'm so glad I got to serve here. I'm excited for the next 6 weeks though. Time to finish strong!!

Have a great week! I love you!

Love, Sister Gehring

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