I made it!

Howdy!!!

Well I made it! I'm officially in the MTC. Which means that I'm in Africa!! One checkmark for that bucket list item. But even more exciting than a bucket list checkmark, I actually feel like a missionary now!

Alright I don't have too long so I'll try and tell you as much about the last couple days as I can. First of all, London is incredible. Deciding to go explore London on our layover was the best idea ever. I was with two other Sisters- Sister Clifford and Sister Graves. We got along really well so it made it so the day was really nice. We got a day pass for the London Underground, or "the Tube" at the airport and it was only about $10. Totally worth it. We were able to travel pretty much anywhere the entire day. We were pretty much pros after a few transfers. We started out by going to Picadelly Circus (I probably spelled that wrong). I’ts basically the London version of Times Square. It was way cool. Then we went to Kings Cross Station where Harry Potter was filmed! They have a little scene set up by platform 9 3/4 where you can have your picture taken but it was like $5 and there was a line 12 miles long so we just stood near it to get a picture. Close enough. (p.s. I don't have my camera with me so I'll try to send pictures next time). Then we met up with some of Sister Clifford's friends who are doing a study abroad program in London with BYU. They took us to this really fun local outdoor market were there were tons of little shops and vendors. They showed us this super delicious sandwich cart that had spicy pulled pork and cranberry sandwiches. Sounds weird but it was so good. Then we went and walked across the London Bridge (and appropriately sang London Bridge is Falling Down) and saw Big Ben! (checked that off my bucket list too). It is so much more beautiful in real life! Then we went to the V&A art museum. We didn’t stay too long because by this point we were all dead tired. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we hadn’t slept for days. Then we went back to Sister Clifford's friend's apartment to rest and have some british cookies before heading back to the airport. On the way back we stopped at a local restaurant and got some soup to warm up (it was snowing part of the day) and we stopped by Marble Arch. Sorry that was brief but I'm almost out of time. It was a really awesome day, though! I definitely want to go back someday.

Before I tell you about today so far, I just want to say that 11 hour flights are even less fun than they sound. Yea. They aren’t good. At all. But I did get a little sleep which is the only reason I'm conscious right now. Anyway, we met with the MTC's travel guy in the airport and we drove about 45 mins here. Johannesburg is a really pretty city. Once we got here we all brought our bags upstairs and started right away with paperwork. There hasn’t been too much but still enough to take up most of the morning. Then we had lunch. It didn’t even occur to me that the food would be South African! But it is! So yummy. Then I had an interview with the MTC president. I passed. Don’t worry. And he shared a really cool scripture with me. D&C 58:3. I think that was it. It was really good. And now I'm getting to email you! Its been really relaxed so far. There are a grand total of 11 missionaries here right now. And that's all there will be the whole time. I'm in a companionship of 3 Sisters. Me, Sister Webster who is from Idaho and Sister Nyambita who is from Tanzania. I’m out of time but I love you all and I’ll talk to you next time!!

Love, Sister Gehring