Dearest Family,The biggest news of this week and the biggest surprise to me was transfers. We had just finished this amazing lesson on Wednesday morning with an amie named Floriette that we had met, by miracle, the night before (that story will be told soon), and we were on the road walking to an less-active woman's house. The elders called and said that they had some big news. Admittedly, I was upset when they told me, because, well, I LOVE Magenta. I have been her for three months and we are beginning to see some real progression and success. There is Aurélie's baptism in May, and Jimy is soon to have a date. There is Celine who told us the other night that she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that the answers to the questions she has had within herself unanswered for years are finally being answered. Three months is not long at all and Soeur Chugg and I thought we were safe with this new sister coming in - we didn't think that our little Magenta monde would be interrupted. And added to that, I would be leaving my favorite district. I just love the missionaries in our district here. We had a lunch together on Friday afternoon, before the Saturday transfers, at the church during our lunch hour and I nearly fell apart. These last two months with Soeur Chugg and this sector and this district and this branch and the members (all combined) have truly been my favorite moments on my mission so far. I have felt the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Lord changing the hearts of our investigators, and I have never been quite so happy. Geez, if I feel this way just moving to the sector next door, 3 miles away, what will I feel when I come home? That is a thought for another day...
That news was, needless to say, shocking, but the rest of the week went well. Soeur Chugg and I taught many lessons together, and there was one experience that we had that I wanted to share with you. We were walking home, or better said, floating home after a lesson with Aurélie. It was getting dark, but we usually walk home at that hour and there are lights on the roads, so we are relatively safe. Anyway, a member drives by and offers us a ride home. We had to decline because he was all alone and that would have been against the rules to get in his car (and as Soeur Chugg said later, it would have been probably more dangerous to go with him than to walk home), and he was angry that we declined and said that there rules were meant to protect us, etc. We told him firmly that we couldn't go with him, so he drove off. Afterwards, as followed the curving streets leading home we talked about what we could do to serve people more. Suddenly we saw someone stumbling on the road and instantly I thought, “Great, another drunk man,” but then I saw it was a woman crying and in pain. I asked if everything was alright. She said no. We directed her to a nearby bench and spoke with her. She said that her husband was cheating on her (which is, unfortunately, a VERY common thing here), that she couldn't find her children, and that she found out some news earlier about her family that was extremely troubling. She said that she just wanted to die and that it was too much for her to support. We asked if she believed in God, and then asked if she believed in prayer. She said we did, so we offered a prayer for her. Then we got up and started walking her home. We talked to her (name: Floriette) about her children and about her life. She started becoming more optimistic and then she told us that while she was walking she had offered a prayer. She asked Heavenly Father to send her his servants to help her and bear her up in her situation. We told her that we were, indeed, those servants and that Heavenly Father loved her very much. We got her home and left her with some of the food a member had given us earlier that evening and the promise that we would come by in the morning. As we walked home we were silent for a while. It was a holy experience that we had had, and we rejoiced in the fact that God had used us as his instruments in helping one of his struggling daughters. What an indescribable JOY that you feel when you know that you have been obedient and that the Lord has used you as the answer to someone's fervent prayers. If we had taken that ride with that member, what would have happened to Floriette? We saw her the next day and gave her a Book of Mormon. She expressed the fact that she wanted to be a good mother, not like her mother at present. I told her that my mother read the Book of Mormon and that she was a great mother. We told her that if she read the Book of Mormon and applied it to her life that she too would become a great mother.
Time is short, but I am thankful to have been able to share these experiences with you. Life is good, and this transfer is going to work out, as they all do. It just takes time, patience and humility.
I love you all so much. This is a great work.
Love,
Soeur Cummins
Love,
Soeur Cummins
