Monday, July 15, 2013

Welcome to Monarch!

Dear Family,

 What a week! I guess not a whole lot happened but it feels like it has. The big news though this week is that I am officially in my new area! It’s a little town right outside of Francistown called Monarch. The stars are incredible here and there is just a special feeling here that I can’t really describe. I just love it already. The church here is really new. It’s so small It’s not even a branch. I am in a group. There are about 35 active members total in the whole area. We meet in a tiny house for church. It’s definitely different but it’s so cool to see how the church is still the same even is such different circumstances. I am in a threesome with Sister Graves and Sister Nyambita who were both in the MTC with me. It is way fun to be with them but it is hard because we are actually having to cover two different areas right now. I was supposed to be in a companionship with one of the sisters who had to go to SA for residency issues so instead we are in a 3 some covering 2 areas. Does that make sense? Basically it’s just all kind of a mess right now and will probably remain a mess till the sisters come back or until next transfer when new sisters come in. We'll see what happens.

Backing up to before I left though, I have a funny story. Once upon a time Sister Anderson and I were teaching a lesson when a lady who was drunk out of her mind came into the plot we were in. She saw us and yelled MAKGOA! (which means white person) then she started dancing around yelling "Makgoa! I am dancing for you! Makgoa! I am dancing. Look at me dancing!!!" She was doing this weird stumbly version of what I'm guessing was some sort of African dance. She almost fell over a couple times. Then she sat down and started cleaning out a chicken which looked like it had just been killed. We kind of laughed about it but continued on with the lesson. Then it started thundering. A storm was obviously about to come in. All of a sudden she screamed, jumped up and started running around frantically screaming at the top of her lungs "The rains!! the rains are coming!!! The rain is coming!! RUN!!!!" To top it off, she still had chicken intestines in her hand. Let’s just say the spirit of that lesson was gone. We couldn’t stop laughing for like 3 minutes straight. It was one of the stranger lessons I have taught so far.

Well that’s about all that happened this week. Lots of packing and getting ready at the beginning of the week, a 6 hour drive up here from Gabs on Thursday (p.s. I’m pretty sure I saw a zebra crossing sign on my way up), and then a hectic but wonderful new area the rest of the week. So it’s been good.

My favorite scripture this week is Alma 26. The whole chapter. It pretty much perfectly describes how I feel about missionary work. If you are ever curious how I feel every single day, read this chapter. And I have only been on mission for 3 months. I can't even imagine how much even more true it will become as time goes on. The last 2 lines of verse 16 are particularly true. But really the whole thing is just kind of perfect. 

Well I love you lots. Thank you so much for your prayers especially about residency. Hopefully I get to stay here. I'm not sure what I'd do if I had to leave.


Love, Sister Gehring

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