Sister Chelsea Gehring: 16 down, 2 to go!

Hello again!

Happy 16 month mark to me! I really can't believe its been 16 months since I left home. But mostly I can't believe I'll be home in 2 months! But let's not talk about that for now. I've still got missionary work to do.

Unfortunately, in terms of missionary work, this week was pretty hard. We are facing some pretty rough opposition recently. It just feels a little bit like our area is falling apart. I think I had more people tell us no in this week alone than in the rest of the time on mission combined. Ok maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration but still, a LOT of people rejected us this week. But Sister Fokoto and I decided that instead of crying about it, we would just laugh. It makes all the difference. Its not so much that we are laughing because we think its funny that people don't want to accept the gospel. But its just funny how people say things!

For example, this is how it went at one door. We introduced ourselves and the church and everything just like normal. She wasn't interested but we gave her a pass along card with our number on it, invited her to church, and told her to call us if she changed her mind. She flipped the card over and saw the Book of Mormon printed on it, and then her entire countenance changed. Before, she wasn't interested but she was friendly at least. But as soon as she saw the Book of Mormon, the rest of the conversation went something like this '' Oh. You are the mormons. I hadn't made that connection.'' Then she looked straight at us and crumpled the pass along card into a ball. ''I just need to tell you something then. All this that you are doing will be in vain if you are in hell. Because no matter how hard you try, if you don't have a relationship with Jesus, you won't get anywhere. Do you have a relationship with Jesus?? Huh? do you?? With Jesus and nobody else!! Do you want to know where all your lies and your deceit are going to get you? To hell. So you to girls need to be very careful.'' Then she slammed the door.

So yea... all day every day talking to people like that gets a bit tiring. Luckily it wasn't all like that. We met a lot of those but we met a few nice people too.

One in particular was pretty amazing. We were tracting in a different part of town and we found a Indian family. When we saw that they were Hindu we thought they would just tell us to leave but the mom actually let us in! So we sat down and started talking to her. Come to find out she has actually been visiting a few different Christian churches around and she enjoys them! She told us that her family was going through some challenges. While she was talking she just started crying. We asked her if there was anything we could do to help and she asked us to pray for her. So we did. The spirit was definitely there. There was no denying it. After the prayer she just kept thanking us. She even told us that she knew we were sent from God. She told us that before we came she was feeling depressed and lost and she didn't know what to do. But after we talked and prayed with her, she felt light. Its amazing what the spirit can do. God really does love all his children with no regard of race, religion, background, situation, or anything else.

Another funny thing of the week is that Sister Fokoto and I decided to explore a part of our area that we've never been to before. We looked at a map and found out that our area actually extends farther into the city than we thought so we went to check it out... Lets just say that inner city Lusaka is a crazy place... Its not that big but there are SO many people! And a large portion of them are drunk men. We decided that its probably not the best place for us to just be walking around. Luckily we were in our car so we were just fine but I saw some pretty hilarious things that day.

Well that's about it this week. Thank you so much for your prayers. They are much needed and appreciated. We doing the best we can to keep on keepin' on. I love you so much.

Lots of love, Sister Gehring

Do you remember Kota? From South Africa... Well we made it! It was so yummy.

Group photo from the youth activity.

Sister Fokoto, Lizzy, and me. Lizzy was with the volunteers for Mothers Without Borders. We were teaching her sometimes in the evenings after they got back from the orphanage. She's pretty much the best.

My district! Sister Fokoto, me, Elder Allred, Elder Hill, Elder Amison, and Elder Packer. A couple weeks ago though Elder Packer and Elder Amison were moved to a different branch. And this week Elder Allred is being transferred. So many changes!