Right place at the right time

Dear family,

Well this week was definitely jam packed full of interesting events. Ill just talk about a few though. 

First of all, I got sick again. Not nearly as bad a last time but still no fun. Apparently the water isn't as safe as they originally thought so after a few of us missionaries got sick, its now a rule that we have to boil any water we consume. Gotta love Africa! I'm great now though. Back to the good ol' me!

Secondly, I have a new address for Francistown. So here it is: 

Sister Chelsea Gehring
Botswana/ Namibia Mission
P.O. Box 301797 Selepa
Francistown
BOTSWANA

That will be my address till I get transfered again

Thirdly, I have a Setswana name now! My name is now Sister Lorato. One of the members who is also named Lorato decided she likes me so we need to have the same name. She can't pronounce Gehring anyway so now she (and most of her family and friends in the church) just call me Sister Lorato. Lorato means love. Pretty cute if you ask me.

Fourthly, A lady this week brought her husband who isn't a member to church. He loved it so much that at the end, he came up to us and said "So when can I get baptized?" Just in case you were wondering, that's pretty much the greatest thing you could ever say to a missionary.

And Fifthly, the biggest thing I want to talk about though is something that strengthened me testimony that the Lord really is in charge of the work. If he wants me in a certain place at a certain time, he'll make it happen. So on Saturday we had a member coming around teaching with us. It took a us a long time to go and pick her up because there was bad traffic. We were frustrated because it was going to make us late for our appointment. We finally got to the appointment though. We taught and it didn't take long so we decided to go and check on someone else. When we got to the lady's house though, her neighbor who was drunk out of her mind was standing outside. She started yelling at us like nobody's business. I have never been yelled at that badly. I was literally painful to hear the words she was saying to us. We felt so bad too cause we still had the member with us and she was only 15. It was just a really bad situation. After what felt like ages we were finally able to get away and we decided to move on. We figured we should just leave the area entirely so we decided to go check someone a few blocks away. When we went to his house, he wasn't there. Things just seemed to not be going our way. Then to top it off, as we were getting in the car to leave, this guy stopped us and started preaching. At first it was just kind of funny but then it got ridiculous. He was preaching about all kinds of weird things and I just felt so uncomfortable. And once again we couldn't get away for probably 5 minutes. We just had to sit there listening to this guy preach to us. Finally though, we got away. We decided to check someone else in hopes that maybe we would actually have success. As we were getting out of the car for that place, a man walked by and called us over. Great. What could possibly happen next? Something miraculous happened actually. Turns out the man had been baptized 3 years ago in Gaborone. He moved up here a year ago and had been searching for where the church was located but hadn't been able to find it. He saw our tags and was so excited to be able to start going to church again. 

If all those less than awesome things hadn't happened to us, and if things hadn't gone exactly the way they did, we would have not been getting out of the car at the exact moment that man walked by. You'd be crazy to think that was just a coincidence. The Lord really is directing this work. There is no other way these kinds of things could happen. 

My favorite scripture of the week is Romans 8:16-18. Just always a nice reminder. But for some reason it really touched me this week. I truly am a child of God.

Love forever and always,

Sister Gehring

My farewell Gabarone dinner.

Saying bye to Dorcas :(.

Saying bye to Boitshepo :(.

Me with Alecia. One of the cutest girls ever.

This is the building where we meet for church in Monarch. This room is where we have sacrament meeting, Relief Society, and Gospel Principles. In this picture it is being used for a mutual/primary/YSA activity. It was their first time ever to play musical chairs. It was pretty fun to watch.

Kebotsemong's Baptism! From left to right it's Elder Ngubane, Elder Erickson, Kebotsemong, Sister Graves, Me, Sister Nyambita.

Post-baptism ice cream!

Me and my lovely companions-Sister Nyambita, Me, and Sister Graves.