Puerto Suarez and Lots of Miracles

Dear Family,

This week we traveled to Puerto Suarez which is the last city before crossing over to Brasil from Bolivia. We traveled in what is called a Suite Cama. Its really nice. Full A/C and big leather seats that turn into beds. (I sent the foto with the other email). All the fotos I sent were from the trip. Its pretty different from here in Santa Cruz. More jungly. And waaaaay hotter. While we were there it got up to about 44 C and the week before it hit 51-52 C. Really really really hot. And its all super humid. I've never sweat so much just standing in the shade.

We came home and had a great week. Anselmo Coca was rescued and received a calling to be a ward missionary. He is going to start coming with us to visit. He got to church late because he didn't know what time it was. Elder Santos gave away his watch so it wouldn't happen again. 

The Cabrera family is progressing a lot. Aida (the mom) went to church and loved it. She had never felt so happy before in a church. She loved the classes and Relief Society. In the Gospel Principles class we talked about the signs of the second coming. We got to talking about temples and we showed a few pictures of the Cochabamba Temple and Aida got so excited. When we visited them Sunday night she gave it pretty hard to her husband (Leoncio) that he hadn't gone. It worked well I think. He felt bad but in a sense to be better. She told him about the temple and how beautiful it was and she told him ''We are getting married there, okay!?'' We are excited to see their progress. 

It was also Presidents Birthday on Saturday and Elder Santos and I gave him a tie. You know how sometimes kids make homemade ties for fathers day?? That's what we did but with the colors of Bolivia. We ran to his house on Saturday Morning and then left it on his doorstep. I think he liked it! It was fun to make. 

 

On Saturday and Sunday we found several new families who are excited to learn about the gospel! I hope you all too can share the gospel this week. Set goals, make plans, and pray that the Lord will help you succeed. Maybe start with 1 Book of Mormon a week. Then 2, then 3, then invite someone to church, then invite someone to meet the missionaries, maybe even to be baptized!! God will bless you.

I love you all. 

 

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Gehring

Happy Families

Family,

 

This week was full of work, miracles and happy families.

 

The new missionaries got here on Tuesday! They are great. I love being with them. They are always so excited, willing, and ready to work. Elder Santos and I were able to eat lunch with them, help them with a few practices, training situations, and we were there with them in their first family home evening. On Wednesday President put us in charge of the transfers in the Trompillo Chapel and then we went with the trainers to help them a little. The trainers are always the best missionaries. They all were so excited to meet their new companions. We helped them and trained the trainers a little in the Training Model of 

                      1. Explain 2. Demonstrate 3. Practice 4. Evaluate 5. Re-practice 

The new missionaries then joined us. We ate lunch together and then with the new missionaries and their trainers we practiced, practiced, and practiced some more. The first thing we focus on is the baptismal invitation as outlined in Preach My Gospel. We always always always invite EVERYONE to be baptized in the first lesson. Sí o Sí. We practiced inviting as it says in Preach My Gospel. We practiced facing our fears, overcoming the language barriers, etc. It was a wonderful experience. We then practiced asking for referrals which we do with every person we meet too. The newbies are wonderful missionaries. I wish I could start all over again like them. Its the best.

Then President got there and he kind of took over. We were there to help explain a few things too. I am amazed by the ability President has to teach a group of people but at the same time personally teach gospel principles to each missionary individually. Well at least he did with me. He asked each trainer to share their testimony in the native language of their companion. Some of the Latin trainers had to speak in English which was hard for some. Then he got to Elder Santos and I and asked us to share our testimonies too. Elder Santos (from Brazil) shared his testimony in Portuguese because there was one Brazilian missionary who is new. Then President asked me to share my testimony. I stood up and then he said ''In Portuguese'' I thought he was joking! So I stood up and looked at him. He looked at me and I realized he was very serious. I started to share what I could in Portuguese. I was so nervous and scared. I tripped again and again over my words but as I came to what I made to be the end of my testimony an overwhelming feeling of love and comfort rushed through my body. I couldn't hold back my tears as President thanked me for my testimony. I don't know what I said and I don't even know if anyone understood me. But I do know that I needed the simple lesson taught by a Mission President called of God. I felt like a new missionary. I was scared, I didn't speak the language and I couldn't say but just a few words. President stood and said to us all ''Great missionaries can do great things but God can do miracles''. I realized how prideful I had been. No one else saw that but I felt it. I think I have relied on my own words more than one during my mission and I learned that as I trust in God, He works the miracles in my life.

 

The rest of the week was full of trials and laughing. Miracles and sadness. And lots and lots of prayers. The mission is baptizing more which is great but we still have a ways to go before meeting the year goal of having 2037 baptisms and rescues. As I study DyC 20:37 I have opened my eyes about the simplicity but importance of the ordinances of salvation. Our goal is baptize families. Families that can in one year go to the temple and be sealed together forever. Families + Ordinances = Eternal Happiness. That's all I want in my life!! A family united with ordinances! 

We found this week in our area several families who are ready to receive ordinances. As we searched member referrals, talked to people in the street, visited less active members, and prayed a lot we were able to find 2 families who have previously had some kind of contact with members of the church. One sister who now has her husband and kids was filled with joy as we contacted her as we looked for a referral from a member. She had gone to the church many times before she was married and now we have the opportunity to teach her and her family. We also met Wilbur. He lives with his wife and kids. He too attended the church several times and is now excited to receive the missionaries in his home. I love being a missionary!!! And I love that I have a family with ordinances! 

Hurrah for Israel!

Lots of Love,

Elder Gehring

 

Happy Halloween!

Dear Family,

As many have asked, Bolivians don't celebrate Halloween like we in the EEUU do. They celebrate El día de los muertos which for them simply means going to the cemetery all day on Sunday to visit their loved ones who are passed on. They also take a 3 day weekend. Saturday, Sunday and today Monday are holidays when no one works. We left this morning to go to the offices and report the mission numbers and there was no one in the streets. 

Other than the weekend with lots of parties and people leaving to go to the ''campo'' (which is just a term the people use to say they wont be home. Sometimes it means that they leave the city) its been a great week. I just want to tell you about 1 family and 1 brother.

Anselmo Coca Guzmán is his name. One day we were crossing a field and he was sitting on a rock. We talked to him and he told us he got baptized in 2008. We looked on our membership record list and he was there!! There previously was no address, no phone number, nothing. He was filled with joy as we explained to him that he still was a member. We are the only church here that actually keeps records of the members!! He was so happy! We have taught him almost every day this week and yesterday he came to church for the first time in 7 years. The most wonderful thing about him is that he knows it all!! He likes to memorize. Hes 69 years old and has a tiny booklet where he writes phrases and quotes he likes. Then he reads them and reads them and reads them. On top of all of that, he has the Gospel Principles books and reads and reads and reads it. For these 7 years, he has read it a million times and can teach any principle of the Gospel. He made me a booklet like his. He sews it in the middle and he signed it for me. He not only memorizes everything, he actually understands the doctrine. We recently taught him the Plan of Salvation. We just had to remind him about the pre-mortal life and a switch turned on in his brain and he remembered it all!! He was so happy to hear again that he lived with God and that God knows Him. What a wonderful man. He came to church and fully understand the importance of the Sacrament. I want to be like him. 

The Cabrera Family. The story is a little long of how we met them. We talked to a lady (Lizet) and her kids in a park, she told us her husband wasnt home at the time but that we could come back. We then for several weeks called, called, and passed by their house and called some more but we never could find her and her husband again. We went back one more time this past week with a lot of faith. Brother Cabrera (Leoncio) opened the door and immediately let us in. Turns out he is Lizet's dad! We sat down, got to know him, taught what we felt he and his wife (Aida) needed, and in the end they accepted to be baptized, he said the last prayer in the end of the lesson and we went back the next day. In the 2nd visit they had read all about the Restoration and Leoncio was excited to finally find what to him seemed like the true church. We asked him to pray and he did it!! Hes still looking and trying to recognize his answer with Aida but they both accepted a baptismal date for the 28 of November. Pray for them. They are wonderful people. The lessons we have with them are so funny! They have been married for 45 years and they argue sometimes! Sometimes we teach them something and one doesn't understand but the other does. They one who understood starts to complain at the one who didn't understand and they just go off right in front of us. Its the funniest thing I've ever seen! But I love them so much. 

I know without a doubt that, as the Lord reveled to the Prophet Joseph Smith, ''... the gospel (shall) roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth.'' D&C 65:2 

Hurrah for Israel!

Elder Gehring

Here is my Halloween picture. A shifter in a micro.

Also here is the book that Anselmo made and signed for me :)