Family!I have to admit with the amount of emails and news and announcements that I received today that I am feeling slightly overwhelmed, but I will do my best to dissipate those thoughts and share the golden moments of this week with you.
Lately in Rivière Salée we have been doing quite a bit of inactive work, trying to fortify them and get them to church. I doubt anybody but a missionary understands the joy of seeing a person you have worked so hard with simply walking into church Sunday morning for sacrament meeting. These are the joys that we have as servants of the Lord - seeing how small acts, in the sight of the Lord, are great triumphs.
I have seen quite a difference in my attitude this week and the fire of desire is back in full flame, while two weeks ago I have to admit that it was dwindling. The Lord hasn't taken away any burdens and the circumstances that I find myself in have not changed, but like Alma and his people in Mosiah 23, the Lord has made my shoulders stronger for the burden they carry. How grateful I am to Him. Yesterday before Church I woke up and felt so joyful. It was a mercy. I know the Lord has granted me greater patience and humility and charity in these past few weeks, and I feel blessed to have been accorded a greater portion of these attributes that are helping me become like unto Christ. I listened to a talk the other night that my companion had received and the speaker asked a poignant question to all listeners: Do you really know Christ, or do you just simply know about Him? That hit me. I have been studying the scriptures and all other church material diligently for the past 12+ months, but is that knowledge just filling my mind with facts about Christ? Do I really know Christ? We come to know Him by becoming like Him and by participating in the work of His Father - bringing to past the immortality and eternal life of man. I want to better the work that I do for Him, so I might better know His perfect Son, and thus, Him.
One of the less actives, Anne-Marie, was finally able to quit smoking this week. We gave her grapefruit juice and encouragement like no other, and when we went back on Saturday we said that she had quit completely. She had this incredible light in her eyes in the proceeding lesson that I have never seen in her before. She understood quickly the concepts we were teaching, where beforehand it took a long time for the information to be registered in her mind. Earlier that day we had some great contacts on the road. I have to admit that I enjoy running after people. Wouldn't that be so awkward if you were just randomly walking down the street minding your own business and all of a sudden three missionaries you didn't even know ran up to you to give you a brochure and try to find a time where they could come to you house and teach you more? Well, we try to slow down before reaching the person who has passed uncontacted so we don't come off too bizarre...
Tony Poreau, another less active (whom I mentioned last time), found out this week that he can go to the temple next year with the group that is going. Doké, another less active who is finally coming back to church is also going to the temple. Our work and their work are slowly but surely seeing its fruits. Joy!
As a service project we cleaned Pako's house while he was out playing soccer at the Priesthood activity. That man needs a wife. His house was very dirty, but not something that three sisters couldn't tackle.
Isabelle is a stellar recent convert. She taught a lesson to us, her "investigators", on the Word of Wisdom. She taught us, testified, and committed us at the end to live it. I stopped smoking cold turkey. She taught with such power, and to think that she was baptized just a month ago. I always think of Mom when I see her. She has a joy for the Gospel, even though she is just a young women and totally alone in her family in living it.
Oh, a funny experience happened the other day: we were doing a follow up on a woman from Vanuatu (who speaks a pigeon English and thus understands us better in English than French), and we met her husband. He invited us in and got out his Bible and began preparing to be taught. "Wow!" we thought. Then, a knock at the door and a man enters awkwardly. He then tells us that he is a Jehovah's Witness and that he has an appointment with the man. Oops. Excuse us. It's always interesting running into other religions. What are we supposed to say to them? "Good luck?"
I love you all. Another week full of promise lies ahead of us all. Let's make the most of it and come to know Christ a little better.
Love,
Soeur Cummins
little tony and his friends
isabelle
