Monday, June 29, 2015

Miracles

My dearest family,

I believe in miracles. I believe that they all come from God. I believe in a ''Father in Heaven [who] mentors His children and often sends unseen heavenly help to those who desire to follow the Savior.'' I have an unending desire to follow the Savior. I haven't always seen such a desire before in my life. Before my mission, yes I loved the Savior. I desired to follow Him. I wanted to please Him. But I had other desires. I wanted to study for me, I wanted to work for me, I wanted to have a family for me. Now, my only and greatest desire is to follow the Savior. Now, I love Him more and understand to a greater depth the role He plays in my life. He is the Savior of the world. He is the Son of God.

This week as I have grown closer to Him through trials and tribulations, I have felt the unseen heavenly help that was promised by Christ during the last night he passed with His Apostles. I have seen miracles. I know they come from Him.

We are teaching a young man named Marco Inta. He accepted to be baptized the first time we met him but shortly after attending church for the first time, he traveled to La Paz. This week he came back. We had called- no answer. We passed by his house- no answer. We sent him text messages expressing our love for him. This Sunday after unsuccessfully picking up several investigators and with sad hearts but high hopes, we went to the chapel alone. As the clock rapidly approached 9:00am a young man with his best pair of jeans, his cleanest t-shirt and his polished work boots, peeked his head in the doors of the chapel just far enough so we caught a glimpse of his timid face. Marco Inta waved at us and we leaped up to greet him. I have never felt such happiness. He accompanied us all 3 hours of church and we asked if we could meet with him for a few minutes after the meetings. He agreed. We talked about his feelings, his desires, and his concerns. He expressed his interest in the Gospel Principles topic that had just been taught- The Fast. We explained in more depth the law of the Fast and his understanding gave him hope. He expressed a few family concerns and asked if he could fast so that his family members could receive help. I was humbled by Marco's faith and true desire to follow the Savior, a desire that I am just beginning to understand. We agreed to fast with him. Today at 12:00pm Elder Murillo and I knelt in prayer to end our fast. We felt the love of the Lord as we poured out our hearts in gratitude. We know that Marco Inta felt the same. In that same lesson after church, Marco accepted the invitation to be baptized. He will be baptized the 11th of July 2015. He is a truly converted soul who has pure desires to follow the Savior. I am grateful for the law of the fast. As President Eyring so clearly taught this past General Conference, ‘’ [fasting] will heal and change hearts ’’. Marco has healed and changed my heart. I am grateful for him.

I know that miracles come to those who seek the Lord with all their heart, might, mind, and strength. I know that miracles come to lost souls who give their all to the Lord, as did Marco Inta. God lives. He blesses us as we dedicate our lives to Him and have the desire to follow His Son.

Miracles happen, once in a while… if you believe.  

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Gehring
 

Monday, June 15, 2015

Fotos

Dear Family,

Here are some fotos from this week. They highlight the most interesting parts. But here are a few things details.

1. We milked a cow. The owners are investigators and needed help. We love to serve so of course we said yes. They milk them every single day. 45-60 liters every night!!

2. Here's the house I live in now. Its green inside. Pretty simple. Also it gets really cold inside because they are not very many outside walls for the sun to hit. 

3. This is my chapel. Its the stake center. Its pretty neat. 

4. We had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with several families that live in our area (Barrio San Luis). Addresses here are by barrio (ward) and calle (street). The confusing thing is, the church also uses barrios (wards). So, in our ward (church) of Paraíso, there are several wards (addresses) San Luis, Petrolero, San Jerónimo, Miraflores, etc. The FHE we did was with people from the barrio (address) of San Luis. 

5. We did service where we cleaned up a cemetary. It was a long trip but worth it. We had to cross a bridge so I took some pictures. 

6. This week I read a lovely poem from Abril 2013 General Conference. Boyd K. Packer: These Things I Know. I invite you all to read it.

I know Christ lives. He loves me.

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Gehring
 
This is part of Elder Gehring's letter to Mom: I am sad I'm missing another birthday of yours. Not to worry, I'll still celebrate with my companion. We bought ice cream and some cookies. Its not quite like blue bell but it'll work. The main brand here is called 'Pil' and they make milk, cheese, yogurt, icecream, jugos. Stuff like that. And to celebrate even more, we milked a cow whose milk is sold daily to Pil. Soooo... we milked a cow, sold the milk, and then the next day bought icecream. I'm positive it was the same milk we took out of the cow. Im pretty sure your birthday would be way more fun here in Bolivia. Maybe next June we all go for you and chelseas bday! ;) I love it here. 

This week was great. We met some rich Italians who live here in Tarija. The are wonderful and prepared to recieve the Gospel. Oh, and I met an 85 year old man who has 1 leg. Also.... he sells a homemade medical syrup. He claims its the cure for cancer. Love it!!
Sacando la leche
El dueno me enseno todo

Elder Murillo

La Casa

La Ciudad de Tarija (en frente de la estaca)

La Estaca Paraiso

La Vista de una Puente por la norte

Las Camas

Mi companero y la vaca

Noche de Hogar del Barrio San Luis

On the bridge

Ordenar la vaca





 

Monday, June 8, 2015

Sickness in Bolivia

Hello family.

This week was wonderful. We found a new investigator. His name is Marco. He, in our first lesson with him, accepted to be baptized on the 27 of June. He came to church yesterday. He stayed for the 3 hours and told us he had never felt so happy. God prepares people and I am grateful to have the opportunity to find those prepared people, teach them, help them enter the waters of baptism, and then help them in their progress toward the temple. 

We are also teaching the Sossa Family. This wonderful family consists of the mom and dad, 4 kids, and 4 grandkids. They all want to be baptized. They havent accepted a date yet because its hard to find them all together. Yesterday we taught the mom about family history and temple work. Her eyes filled with tears as she learned about the miracle of baptism for the dead. She then told us that the temple was her only desire. The Lord prepares his children. 

Today I'm writing a little late because I am sick. We fasted on saturday which was fine. Then sunday came around and I was still fine! After lunch we had a successful afternoon and at 5pm we headed back to the chapel for Ward Council. I started feeling really cold about 5 minutes into the meeting. By the end I was shivering and could hardly stand. I was not very smart and didn't say much to my companion. We worked after ward council like normal. I was feeling pretty nasty at this point and I told my companion that we should probably go home a little early. We worked until about 8:30 instead of 9. We got home, I was freezing cold, we planned, and I got straight into bed. I was going to call for the key indicators of the zone but I couldn't even get out of bed. Then I'm not really sure what happened until about 2:30 in the morning. My companion woke up to a very lound bang. Apparently I had been in and out of bed since 10 or so. I had put my mattress on the floor, I had different clothes on, and I looked like I ''wasn't there'' is what my companion said. At about 2:30 my companion found me in the bathroom with horrible stomach pains. I started realizing what was happening and I felt a lot of pain in my head and elbow. I was dripping with sweat, my shirt looked like I had taken it swimming and my hair was all over the place. He talked to me until I was to some degree aware of what was going on. The loud bang my companion heard was me fainting in the other room. For some reason I had gone out of our bed room and I apparently passed out. I hit my elbow on something becuase I had a huge scrape and one of our bookshelves was moved like something had hit it. I think it was me. Elder Murillo called the health secretary (Elder Butts from our stake) and he told me to drink a lot of water and try to eat something. I think I ate cereal. I then woke up at 6:30am with our normal alarm. I immediately went to the bathroom and threw up everything I had eaten for the past week. It didn't make me feel better. Since then, I have been trying to rest but my whole body hurts so bad I can even get comfortable. I finally ate a few bananas and took digestan (something to help my stomach). I showered and we came to internet. Now I'm here. Its been the longest 18 hours of my life. 

Don't worry though!!! I was given a blessing, I am drinking a lot of powerade, and I haven't thrown up for like 3 hours!! I consider it a blessing. 

I may be in bed until tomorrow just so I don't get worse. Turns out one of the sisters in our ward (another missionary) has the same thing I do. I think it may have been the food we ate. (We eat lunch in the same place.) She and I are the only gringo misionaries and the only ones who got sick. Go figure. 

This week we also had interviews with President. I love every second of my interviews. Sometimes they are pretty short but I feel his love always. 

I love the good days and I am grateful for what I learn from the bad days. 

If you ever come to Bolivia I recommend not getting sick. 

Jesus is the Christ and knows my pains. I am thankful for Him. 

Hurrah for Israel!!

With amor,
Elder Gehring

Monday, June 1, 2015

Dangers of Tarija

Hello my dear family.

This week has been a good one. I've learned a lot from my companion. We had consejo de lideres. It was good to work with Elder Murillo (my companion). We were able to share a lot of ideas and I feel like it helped us a lot as a companionship. We get along well. 

Tarjia is wonderful. We did though get robbed last Wednesday. We went to santa cruz at 7.00am for a leadership conference and we didnt fly home until late that same night. (it was also the day of mothers here in bolivia 27th de Mayo). We got home to quite the scene. The owners of the home (we just rent a room) were very distressed. We asked what happened and they told us all their TV plasmas and their computers and everything had been robbed. They told us our room was kicked open and told us to go check it out. We went in and found everything the way we had left it. Not a single thing had been stolen. Some drawers were opened but nothing was gone. I took my camera with me to Santa Cruz and the zone money was with me as well so there was nothing from them to take. We were blessed to say the least. I didnt sleep too well that night but Im good now. We are looking for a new house to move to. Dont worry though mom, God protects His called servants. I am watched over. I thank you all for your prayers. I felt them this week. 
 
Our área is doing all right. We are struggling to know how to help people come to church. The assistance in our Ward is going down. We are at about 130. It used to be more and we are searching with the consejo del barrio to see how we can help the atendance. We had 10 investigators planned to come to church. We were so sure they would all come. We prayed and prayed and prayed some more. 3 ended up coming. We were happy and grateful for their attendance but it was a Little sad to have 7 that werent able to progress. We still arent too sure why they couldnt come but today and tomarrow, they are the top priority to help. We were humbled by the experiencia and have set goals to be more like Christ this week as we humbly work toward our goal to have 10 in the Sacrament meeting this next week.
 
We did though have a wonderful Sabbath day. We had a great consejo de barrio. We had a successful zapato misional. We all street contacted for a few hours in the afternoon and were able to find a few dirreciones desconocidas. We were able to work with the Elder’s quórum president as well. He asked to have a short 10 minute meeting with us which showed us that he trusts us. We were able to understand his goals as a president and help him in his efforts. The Ward misión leader is Young. He is a great worker, has wonderful ideas but sometimes he has a hard time making them happen. We are praying for him. The bishop is a man called of God and I have been honored to work under his keys.
 
This week I studied the Doctrine of Christ. As I pondered what I should focus on this week, I felt the spirit testify to me that it was what I needed to study. Im still in the first paragraph of PME Chapter 3 Lesson 3. I have learned a lot. I realized even more what my purpose is as a missionary. I am to invite and help others to come unto Christ. In the first or second paragraph of lesson 3 it says that when we recieve the remission of our sins, it is the spiritual healing mentioned of in especially 3 Nefi. I learned that I need to help others become healed spiritually (recieve a remission of their sins) which is only posible through baptism. I now realize even more my role in the spritual progession of others. I am to bring them to Christ, help them recieve the restored góspel so they can be healed spritually through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I am greatful for Him and His love for me. I know He lives. He is my friend, my Savior, my Lord, my God. 
Hurrah for Israel!

Love,
Elder Gehring
 


Ducati 899

Glamour Shot #SelfiSunday

House in the middle of nowhere

It fits me well

Mountain in my area

Mountain

Pig

River reflection

Sunday morning

The face of a man with a bigote

The trail to Narnia

Tree

Cochabamba