Elder Zachary Gehring: What happened this week?

Hi there family,

So my weeks are being blurred together. I felt like yesterday I was writing you all and now I’m not really sure what happened this week. I’ll make a list of things that come to my mind.

1. We visited a family in our ward (members) and we were talking and the wife (Hermana Rodriguez) of this family told me she had a companion during her mission from Texas. She told me her name was Hermana Hulme. Yup, Hermana Hulme from our stake was companions with a lady that now is in my ward here in Bolivia. They both served in Cochabamba together.

2. This past lunes we visited a Cathedral that is inside our area. I’ll send pictures.

3. I rode in a car with a/c. First time here in Bolivia.

4. We are planning for cambios today and this week. I may not have time to finish this email because of this.

5. We had Consejo de Líderes this week. We talked a ton about family history work and the work in temples. We now pass out the ´Mi familia´ folletos to everyone. Its amazing to see the work going forward.

6. Elder Butts from our stake (in Texas) will get here tonight and I’m going to pick him up from the airport!! He is going to stay in our house tonight. I’m pretty pumped.

7. I participated in a baby blessing Ian Wills Lino born 31 de Julio 2013. He is the son of the family whose mom just got baptized and who’s dad was inactive. We not only got to see him blessed but we also got to participate. What a beautiful Sunday.

8. I got yelled out on the phone. I think this happened this week... Maybe not. I don’t remember. But anyway, we received a reference this week so we called it and it was a lady named Lourdes. We took out an appointment and then we told her we were going to pass by. I called her the day of because we couldn’t find her house and her husband answered. He got mad... (name that movie) and then he started using a lot of strong words. Well I think they were strong words because I didn’t understand what they meant. I tried to calm him down but it didn’t work. Oh well.

9. We had an intercambio and I went to the area of Elder Mamani. He’s one of the assistants and we had a great day. I learned a ton from him. We talked with tons of people, got 2 people to commit to a baptism date, and then we visited a family who needed help. We didn’t do anything, but we saw the way that the gospel blesses the lives of all the people.

10. I felt the spirit when I talked to a man on the street yesterday. We promised blessing of a perfect body after resurrection and he started to cry. He wanted that blessing so bad so he asked what he had to do. We explained we all with be blessed with this gift but then we explained that to thank God for this blessing and to then live with him again there were a few more steps that he could take. He accepted visits from us and we know this is what he was looking for in his life.

I learned this week something very important. It does not matter what you say. If you have the spirit, they will feel the truthfulness of your message. It does not matter where you are, the people you talk with can have a spiritual experience - which is necessary before a true conversion.

We have what the world needs yet we are so prideful and don't share it with others. That needs to change. Just do it.

oh. and read D y C 109. What a beautiful prayer.

Hurrah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Gehring

There was this bell clock at the top and we paid 3 pesos para subir!

This guy was sitting in front of the church begging for money. I mean, if you've got to beg, I say do it in front of a church. The people feel obligated I'm sure.

We spent about 4 hours in the morning one day taking tons and tons of boxes of books of mormon, pamflets ( i have no clue how to spell that), training books, etc. and organizing them by category. It was not fun.