A Change of Course

November 20, 2013

Monday evening, the 11th, we went to the Stake RS President, Sister Ramon's house for dinner because she wanted to talk to us about how things were going.  She asked us how we would feel about cutting our assignment short with White Plains 1st and 2nd Wards and go back to the Lexington Park Ward where Sister Boone had previously served.  She asked us to think about it and pray about it and she would talk to us again, but that is kind of the direction she is leaning.  She had previously said she would look at sending us there in February, but Sister Boone will be going home shortly thereafter.  Now she wants us to go back beginning in December.  Personally, although I feel like we are just now getting to know and love many of the sisters in these two wards and it will be hard to leave them now, I also think it would be good to get acquainted with the Lexington Park Ward while Sister Boone is still here with me.  She has kind of mixed feelings about it.  She said it was hard to say good bye to the sisters there after working with them for five months, so she would love to be with them again, but at the same time she will have to go through the difficulty of saying good bye all over again.  So now we are trying to decide which sisters we want to see one more time before we are reassigned.  I am afraid that some of them we may not get to see because we have had a difficult time so far finding a time when they are home.

As we have made our appointments this week, I have come to realize that there are many sisters in these wards that I have become very fond of and I am going to miss them.  I didn't even get a chance to take pictures of these friends to keep in my journal, but perhaps I will be able to serve here again next year and see them again.

We have tried to fill our last days of November with meaningful visits and have enjoyed each appointment.  It has been fulfilling to look back and see that there really are some sisters who have made an improvement in their lives and in their church activity since our first visits with them.  Jennifer has been to sacrament meeting every Sunday this month since she made that commitment to her son the first of November.  I think she has talked with the Primary President and Bishop about his baptism.  Wanda has come from a very discouraging, depressing state, in poor health and with no job prospects to where she has now been able to get a partial-tuition grant and get accepted into a program to get an EKG technician certificate.  We invited her to lunch today along with Shelly, a sister in the other ward who is her very good friend and former nursing associate.  Going to lunch with the girls is out of the normal comfort range for both Sis. Boone and me, but I felt it was important to offer this invitation to both of them.  I am glad that we went.  Wanda said she finally feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I think her continued association with Shelly will be good for her also because Shelly has gone through and is still going through some very hard times with health, family, and employment problems similar to Wanda's.  But with much effort, Shelly is working through things.  Her church and temple attendance has been a significant part of her growth and helps her with the desire to keep going and keep trying.  I am hopeful that with Shelly's encouragement Wanda will come back to church.  And Wanda is now being a friend to Shelly as well, trying to help her get into the same EKG training program.  That is where the lasting support is found, not necessarily from the missionaries who are only temporary but from members fellowshipping and loving each other.

I don't know that our visits with these sisters have necessarily made the difference, but I know for sure that the Spirit working in their lives has made a difference.  I am grateful to be a witness of the Lord's love and goodness and to recognize that He really does care about each of his children.  He knows us by name, and He loves us.  I know this to be true.