My 23 new grandmas!

Dear family,

Hello!!! How goes it? I hope everything is great there and you are happy. Christmas is almost here! I'm so excited. I keep getting more and more into the Christmas spirit! Especially with one thing we did this week. 

Remember how last week I told you about going to the retirement home and how great it was? Well we go there a lot. A few times a week at least. The people there love us so much and I love them too! They have just adopted us right in to their family. Sometimes we go and just visit, sometimes we do chair yoga with them, sometimes we help serve them their afternoon tea. But this week we got to go and do a Christmas music sing-a-long! It was so much fun! A lot of them are too old to be able to sing but those who could, did. And those who couldn't just listened. Elder Butcher played the piano for us and then me and Sister Gillis and Sister Clifford took turns conducting. It was so incredible. They all loved it so much. You could tell by looking at their faces as we were singing that it really lifted their spirits. Then Elder Brown dressed up as Santa again and they all took photos with him. The whole activity is one of my favorite things I have done on mission so far. The residents there have become like my grandmas. They call us their kids and we call them grandma. I am just in love with that place!!!

Not a whole lot else really happened this week. We are mostly just still trying to find people to teach. The Elders were great and went through their area book for us and got like 30 names of people who had been contacted in the past but weren't being taught right now. So we spent a lot of the week calling them and trying to find their houses to see if they were still interested. We didn't have a whole lot of success. We found a lot of them but a lot of them weren't interested in learning more about the church. One of the names on the list had no phone number. It was just a man's name and for his address it said "Look for a big house with shiny cars on the way to the game reserve" I wish I was kidding... But by a miracle, we actually found the house! We decided to just try it out. So we headed towards the game reserve (which is in our area. How cool is that? we have a game reserve in our area!) We saw a few big houses but none that really stood out. Until we were almost there. There was a HUGE house with a HUGE gate. The garage was open and there were 2 Bentleys inside. parked outside were 3 other super nice, super shiny cars. Turns out it was the right house! The family wasn't interested anymore but it was still amazing that we were able to find the house.

That's about all that happened... Just moving the work along! Oh we also got transfer news this week! Obviously I'm not being transferred. But Sister Anderson and Sister Twongeirwe also lost their residency in Botswana so they are coming to Mafikeng! I'm excited to have them here. They are both super great missionaries but I am really sad too. I am staying with Sister Clifford but Sister Gillis is leaving our companionship. These last few weeks have just been perfect. The work has been amazing and the missionaries I have been serving with have become a family. We are so close. Elder Allred is being transferred to Bots, we are getting a brand new, fresh out of the MTC elder and 2 more sisters are coming. Our family is changing. I had a hard time with it when I found out. But I'm sure it will all be fine. Its the Lord's work! If there is one thing these past weeks have taught me its that God really is in charge of His missionaries.

Well I hope your week is great! Merry 2.5 weeks till Christmas!!!! I love you so so so much!

Love, Sister Gehring

p.s. all the awesome animal pictures are from today. This morning we went on a game drive. It was incredible. We saw a TON of animals and the weather was perfect. I wish my camera was able to capture it better. Everyone should be able to see the beauty of Africa at least once in their lives.

My district!

Merry Christmas from Africa!.... yes those are donkeys!

A package from home!

Zebras! We saw a ton but these were the closest.

Rhinos! The momma and her baby. We got super close to these too.

Giraffe family!!! The baby was adorable. It was amazing-they always stuck together.

We were so close!

More giraffe pictures. They were so cool!

This is what happens when you let the elders hold your camera... (p.s. they switched name tags. From left to right its Elder Butcher, Elder Brown and Elder Johnson)

My amazing companions! Sister Clifford and Sister Gillis.

And my amazing District! We definitely did not plan on matching. We are just that unified.

This is the view from my flat. Lovely huh?