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Hi there family.

So last week was the craziest week I've ever had. I literally was so worn out from the amount of work we had. Everyone says that the life in the offices is easy and its a break from work but its the complete opposite. I have not stopped working this entire week. And right now I'm writing you all and printing off tons and tons of stuff for the Leadership conference that we have today in the afternoon.

Well lets start with how transfers went. We got 6 new ones coming in and then we had 11 going home. We started Tuesday with picking the new ones up in the airport. It was such a strange feeling going back and waiting in the exact spot that President did when I got here. But now I was on the other side. Waiting for the new misionaries to meet their life for the next 2 years. We then took them to their hotel, to the offices, and to do all their legal stuff around the city. It was so weird. I remember my first day here, I walked into the offices and saw someone at the front desk working and I thought he was so cool. That he was like the smartest and most trusted missionary in the mision. Now I'm that guy sitting at the desk and I don't feel smart or ready or anything for this positiion. But thats okay. I'm learning tons really fast. Then Wednesday I had to coordinate the new ones going to all their places during the day and at the same time I had to coordinate the transportation for the old missionaries going home. I had to make hotel reservations, I bought flights for the new people going down to Tarija, I literally just did everything to make sure no one had questions about what to do.

Then the fun part came. Once the new missionaries were off in their new areas, we still had to deal with the antiguos. (old ones) And the worst part was that we had to go to the airport with them. Dad, I feel your pain about early morning flights. We woke up at 3:30 and left our house in a bus at 4 to get to the hotel, and then to go to the airport with the 5 latinos going home. Then we stood in line with them, I paid their baggage fees, I talked with the airlines about their reservations, I did everything at the airport and then we sent them through with their passports, and their 100 bolivianos to pay to leave the country. Then at the second they were getting on their plane, the gringos got to the airport and I did the same exact thing with them. Then after about an hour of doing their paperwork to leave the country and all that, we finially were leaving from the airport to go home......

Until I got a call. It was one of the misionaries who was fliying to the states to go home. We had sent them off, they were sitting on the plane when the computers broke down and everyone had to leave the airplane. We once again picked them up from the other terminal and then waited with them in a line of 150 or so so American Airlines could reschedule their flights. During all of this, I was calling their families, I was calling President, Trying to figure out if I needed to get them a hotel, I called church travel in Utah several times to try and figure out what I needed to do and it was really a nightmare to say the least. Then we get up to the counter finally and I talk with the lady and we figure out that there are no flights today but only the next day in the morning. At 2 am to be exact. The airline ended up paying for the hotel and transportation and food and everything, it was just a pain. Then we let the gringos call their family but one couldn't get ahold of their mom. So we left them to go to their hotel and we finally got to go back to the offices to work more. In the taxi home, I tried calling the mom of the elder who couldn't get ahold of her. She picked up and I was the one who had to tell her that her son was going to be delayed getting home. She flipped. I tried calming her down but it didn't work too well. After explaining that it was a faliure in the computers but that they had never even taken off, I told her I would send her an email with the new schedule. It was a phonecall that I never ever want to make again.

Then the last couple days have been a little better. There are just a ton of little things that people call me about and I have to do. This weekend I bought all the tickets for the leadership conference that we have today and then tons of other little things. 

This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but its been such a blessing. I literally work side by side with President Willard. He is a man of God. He recieves inspiration for the missionaries here and it strengthens my testimony of the Priesthood Keys when I see him make decisions.

This week I was studying a lot about the service that we can perform to our semejantes? I don't know that translation exactly in ingles. But In DyC 59:5  It talks about we need to serve in the name of Jesus Christ. I thought about this and I realized that one way we can serve in the name of Him is by serving like he did. Perfectly. With a vision of the wellbeing of the other person. This is my goal. I am here in the offices but I have the opportunity to serve everyone of the missionaries in this mission individually.

I love my Savior. He lives, He is real. I recently watched the last conference talk that Bruce R McConkie gave before he died. Its powerful what he says:

"I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears.

But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God's Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way.

God grant that all of us may walk in the light as God our Father is in the light so that, according to the promises, the blood of Jesus Christ his Son will cleanse us from all sin."

I know Jesus Christ lives and is our only hope of living with God again.

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Gehring