My dearest family, How goes it??
Well this week was significantly
less hectic. Last week was insane and this week seemed very slow. Largely
because for the past 6 days, my companion and I have spent approximately 5-6
hours a day tracting. Sometimes even more. When the area split and we took over
Tlokweng, we handed about 3/4 of our investigators over to the new sisters. So
we have almost no lessons ever. It’s a huge change. Before the split we were
teaching over 20 lessons a week. This week we taught 10. It’s been rough. I
know that this decision to keep Tlokweng was right so I just have to keep
reminding myself of that fact so I don't get discouraged. We have talked to a
TON of people and knocked on more doors than I care to count but so far the
results have been minimal. We have found maybe 8-10 people that actually seem
interested, and only about 5-6 that have invited us back. There have been a lot
of really promising moments but none have really led anywhere so far. But
Sister Anderson and I are keeping up the faith. We have now planted enough
seeds to grow a forest and now we just need to let them take root. We spend a
lot of time on our knees praying for results and a lot of time out there
working our tails off to make it happen. I just hope things start growing fast.
But if not, I know there is just something I am supposed to learn from this. I’s
the Lord's work. He'll take care of it. We have found ways to make the tracting
fun though! One of the ways is we just sing a lot. As we were walking around we
just sing. Sometimes we sing actual songs but a lot of the time we just make up
nonsense songs about random principles of the gospel. We have gotten pretty
good at coordinating efforts to make some pretty decent ones. Our favorite one
was about how the Book of Mormon is the roadmap to happiness in this life. It
was quite nice. Also we gave ourselves little breaks every now and again
when we would come across little kids playing in the streets. Whenever we
passed a little soccer or volleyball game we would join for a few minutes. It
has been so much fun. Within reason, I have stopped caring about how dirty I
get when I am out for the day. I walk around in the dirt and I am not going to
let the fact that the kids are playing in the dirt with a soccer ball so
embedded with dirt it poofs when you kick it stop me from joining them! I’m a
missionary. It’s my job to get dirty.
Hey plus another bonus, We only got
lost once this week! Ok well we actually got lost a couple times but only once
where it was really bad. The Elders who cover Tlokweng had told us about this
great place to go tracting so we were going to check it out. I can’t remember
if I have already told you this or not but Tlokweng is a village. It’s more
developed than others cause it’s so close to Gabs but it’s still a village.
Dirt roads, huts, all of it. That also means there are no house or plot numbers
and only a couple of the streets are named. So directions usually go something
like this. "So you go along the main road and then you go for a little
while and you turn left when you see the crooked tree then you turn right a
couple times and go a little farther then you turn left again next to the big
rock and my house is sort of near the white truck shop." I wish I was
kidding. So the directions to the great area to tract were only that it was
kind of behind Bordergate Choppies sort of far that way. Not much to go off of.
But we decided to try anyway. Bad idea. We ended up in the bush. a.k.a the
middle of nowhere. We literally reached the end of civilization. It took us
over an hour of driving around to figure out how to get back to where we
recognized. It was an adventure. After that we took the next afternoon and made
a map of Tlokweng so that sort of thing wouldn't happen again.
It really wasn't a bad week though.
The lessons we did teach were powerful and I had an awesome birthday! First I’ll
talk about the lessons. For each of them, I'm just going to write my favorite
quote from the lesson and then explain.
"Exercising faith means you go
even when you have nowhere else to start." -Dorcas
Ok so I've definitely mentioned
Dorcas before in my letters. I love her so much. Whenever I was starting to get
discouraged this week with all the tracting, I’d think of her and just say to
myself, No. I need to find more Dorcases. I can’t give up. She is just that
incredible. In her lessons, I learn just as much as she does. So this week our
lesson with her was all on faith. We talked about how it’s not enough to just
believe. We have to act on that belief. We have to exercise our faith. Before
we really explained what that meant, we asked her what it meant to her to
exercise faith. After a few thoughtful moments, that was her response.
"Not going to church is the
Devil's plan!" -Goitse
Goitse is Juliet's mom. (the little
girl that was just baptized) She got baptized in May. So we were over at their
house talking about Juliet's baptism and what Juliet needed to do to make sure
she was always this happy and clean. We were talking about how going to church
every single week was one of the things she needed to do. Then she told us how
it’s hard to wake up early sometimes for church. Goitse then responded with
that. It was hilarious. Sister Anderson and I lost it. We both were laughing so
hard. Luckily Goitse wasn't offended.
"I can be a doer" -
Stellah
I've mentioned Stellah before too.
Once again, she is incredible, too. We were talking with her about how our
homes need to be a refuge from the world and how other people who come into our
homes should feel the difference the spirit makes. We asked her what she could
do to make her home a refuge. This is how she responded. She then went on to
list a bunch of really great ideas on what she and her family could do to make
their home a refuge. I just loved her statement though. It was so simple but so
true.
" I don't want to be a church
visitor. I want to be a church member." -Gao
Gao is no longer in our area which
makes me so sad. But this week we decided to stop by and say hi really quick.
While we were talking we got on the topic of her conversion story. It is pretty
inspiring. I want to get her to write it down for me so I can have a copy of it
in her own words. She told us that when she visited the church for the first
time, she knew she wanted to be a member. Not a visitor.
"I am going to tell you a story
you'll remember even when you go home." -Dikaledi
So Dikaledi is an older lady we
tracted in to a few weeks ago. She was sick when we met her first so we just
gave her a pass along card with our number on it and left. She told us though
that she wanted a copy of Finding Faith in Christ. So on Tuesday we brought her
one. We had prayed that morning that we would be able to find opportunities to
serve. Boy did Heavenly Father deliver. When we got there she was going her
wash. Great! There is a service opportunity! We offered to help but she just
kept saying she was fine. So we asked if there was anything else we could do
for her. "Yes! Actually there is." she said "I have this ingrown
toenail that has been bothering me for weeks. Do you think you could help me
cut it. I can’t reach it anymore." Yea. We helped an old Botswanan woman
trim her toenails. They were think and brown and nasty. And I loved it. The actual
trimming was disgusting but while we were working on them, she basically told
us her life story. She had some incredible stories.
So those were my favorite quotes
from the week. My birthday was awesome too. My companion is a sweetheart. I'll
just lay that out there. She made me breakfast in bed which was so nice. It was
funny though. So we get up at 6:15 and go running every morning. She was going
to turn the alarm clock off and let me sleep in till 6:30 so she could quickly
make breakfast but she knows how much I love to run so she let me get up
normal time and then made me breakfast while I was showering and getting ready.
Then she made me get back in bed. It was very cute. Then just like every other
day this week we just tracted all day. But She was sure to tell everyone we met
pretty much so I had a lot of random people singing to me. I got some good
laughs about it. Then that night all the sisters in Gabs got together and went
out to dinner at Spur which is an American type steak house. It was glorious. I
got a huge hamburger. It wasn't quite the same as an American hamburger but it was close enough
to be really nice. At the end of dinner, the workers all came out and sang me
this really loud exciting African happy birthday song and smeared ice cream all
over my face. Sister Anderson got a video. Don't worry. Then right after
dinner, we went back to our flat where all the elders were waiting with that
lemon cake you sent me . So all the elders and sisters all had cake to
celebrate. (p.s. I have no clue how she organized that. It was a complete
surprise but I am within sight and sound of her at all times. She's good...) So
it was just a really nice day. Still a missionary day, but Sister Anderson and
the other missionaries made it special.
The last thing I want to mention is
actually about the little picture book called Rosie's Walk. It’s one we read
all the time growing up. I think I read it to Melanie like a week before I came
out. It’s the one where the hen decides to go out for a walk. The whole time
she is just looking straight ahead. Having a lovely time. But she is completely
oblivious to the fact that the entire time, she is being hunted and followed by
a fox. But every time he gets close, something stops him. Like Rosie will walk
through a hole in a fence but the fox gets stuck. Or she walks by a beehive and
then the bees start to chase the fox. Or she will step in a rake and it comes
up and hits the fox. The book is silly and simple and probably not meant to
have this deeper meaning, but this week I have kind of felt like Rosie. I'm
walking around in Botswana. This completely foreign place thousands and
thousands of miles from anywhere I have been before. And there are bad things,
seen and unseen, happening all around me. But I am just pressing forward. As
long as I am focused on my purpose as a missionary and as long as I am making
sure I am doing everything I am supposed to be, the fox isn't going to be able
to get me. Thank you for your prayers too. I know you are helping to keep the
foxes away.
Well that’s about it for this week!
It’s been a long week but it’s been a good one. Plus I'm getting a pretty great
tan. Not that it matters cause no matter how tan I am I still glow next to the
people here but still, I feel accomplished! My favorite scriptures from this
week are Mosiah 21:16, Mosiah 26:37, and Alma 3:27. Can you guess why??
I love you all lots. Thanks for all
you do for me. You are incredible!
Love, Sister Gehring
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