STL and MLC

Dumeli Bwanji!!

Because Sister Vea and I have been having a hard time switching from Setswana to Nyanja, We decided to combine Dumela and Muli Bwanji to make Dumeli Bwanji! Its been working out quite nicely. 

Well this week has been pretty awesome. To start off, the big news of the week is that on Monday night, President Erickson called me and sister Vea to be a Sister Training Leaders (STL)! Its kind of like the equivalent of a Zone Leader for the sisters in the Lusaka zone. So Sister Vea and I are now kind of responsible for helping and training all the sisters in Lusaka. Basically our job is just to provide support, council, training, and just overall leadership for the sisters. Its a really cool opportunity. I am nervous but excited. Because of that, all day Tuesday and all day Wednesday, we were in Mission Leadership Council (MLC). We got to learn directly from President Erickson and some of the other leaders about the vision of the mission, about how we can help uplift the other missionaries, about how we ourselves can become better missionaries, about the how the work in Zambia is going, about other aspects of the mission like public affairs and humanitarian work, and lots of other stuff. We even helped come up with some new policies for the mission that will affect some different aspects of the work. It was incredible to be able to be in there with all the other leaders of the mission. There are 80 young missionaries in the mission and 16 of us were there at the meeting. I learned so so much and it gave me this renewed desire and motivation and drive to be the best missionary I can be. I feel a sense of urgency now to do as much as I can to further the work of The Lord here in Zambia with the time I have left.

One of the coolest parts of the 2 days was at the end of the day on Wednesday. After we had finished the meeting and training parts, we had a sacrament meeting! I didn't even know you could do that! When I was reading in 3 Nephi it talked about how Christ administered the sacrament often. Even a few times a day. And I remember at the time thinking that was interesting. It made sense that it didn't just have to be on the sabbath but I just didn't think it was ever done. And then just a few days later, we had a sacrament meeting on a Wednesday! The elders blessed and passed the bread and water just like normal and we were able to then have a testimony meeting. Just the 16 of us and President and Sister Erickson. It was one of the coolest experiences of mission so far. It got me thinking about the Atonement a lot. And it made me think about the second coming, too. We read in the scriptures a few different times how we are not to take the sacrament unworthily or it is a mockery of the Atonement. As we took the sacrament in the middle of the week I though about how sad it would be if I wasn't able to take it because I hadn't prepared. I didn't know we would be doing that but as it was passed to me, I felt complete peace as I took it because I was prepared. It made me realize that the way we prepare for the sacrament is not by trying to repent on Saturday night for all the mistakes we made during the week. It is by doing our best to live each day so that we are worthy at all times. Repentance really is an every day thing! We have no idea when the second coming of Christ will be. Maybe it will be on a Sunday after we have prepared Saturday night. But maybe it will be on Wednesday, catching us completely off guard. In fact, I think its more likely to be a middle of the week thing. It made me want to do better and to constantly prepare myself so that when the day comes, I will be able to feel clean in front of my Saviour. 

After those two days of spiritual highs, it was a little weird to be going back out teaching. It was kind of hard too. We missed a few appointments because of the meetings, but we hadn't really planned out the rest of the week. But it was amazing to see how Heavanly Father was able to help us. Even though we didn't have much planned, somehow we were still able to find good and productive ways to fill our days. We taught some great people and we were able to contact a lot of potential investigators. 

One of the people we were able to teach was Jonathan. He is the one who found out pass along card at the library and stopped us while we were walking. He is still doing really well.
He has great questions and he is eager to learn. He even came to church on sunday and loved it! We found out though that he doesn't actually live in our area so we have to hand him over to other missionaries in a different branch. Sometimes its hard to remember that its all the Lord's work so in the end it doesn't matter who teaches. 

Another person we taught was Boney. He works for the office of the president of Zambia which is pretty awesome. He also found us in a miraculous way. A couple weeks ago a man stopped us on the side of the road and asked us for money for transportation to the hospital. As missionaries we aren't allowed to give people money but we gave him a pamphlet and wished him luck. Well the man then went looking around for other people to give him money. Boney was getting into his car as the man came up to him. Boney offered him a ride to the bus station and on the way the man gave boney the pamphlet we had given him. Boney went home and read it and thought it was great. He called us and asked us if he could come to the church! So on Saturday we met him at the chapel, gave him a tour and taught him about the Restoration of the gospel. He loved it and he could recognize the Spirit that was there. Right now he is a very active member of his church, but I think there is definite potential for him to be a very strong member of the church. 

The week apart from the people and teaching was pretty great, too. 3 other sisters came from the Botswana mission (Sister Clifford was one of them!) so it was cool to see them again. And the other STLs from the other zones got to stay at our flat, too. Our flat is the biggest in the mission and it is right in Lusaka so whenever sisters are just passing through for whatever reason, they stay with us. I don't think there has been a single week since I have been in Zambia where we didn't have at least one person stay at our house. Its fun but its always nice to be back to normal when they leave again.

A funny thing from the week happened yesterday. Last night it was my turn to cook dinner so I was making rice and morogo and stew. Right as I put the meat in the stew, the power went off. It was fast Sunday so we were all hungry anyways so it was very sad. We decided to play Uno while we waited and prayed that the power came back on. Luckily it did so I continued dinner. Then right as it was about to finish cooking, the power went off again! It was off for another 15 minutes and came back on so we finally ate. The whole thing was pretty  funny. It might be one of those things where you would have had to be there but trust me, it was humorous. 

My favorite scripture of the week is in Moroni 7: 26 and 31. So in verse 26 there is a line that says As surely as Christ liveth... then if you continue straight across the coloumn to verse 31 it says bear testimony of him. So all together it is pretty cool. I hope I described that well enough. 

Well I love you and I hope you all have a great week! 

Lots of love, Sister Gehring