The Errand of Angels: Jan 12th

Transferring in English was an adventure for me. We spent a majority of the last few days going from members' house to members' house saying goodbyes (or "see you on Sunday!"s) and giving away thank you cards as Sister Smith got ready to go. I saw what it's like to say goodbye after such a short time, and it hurts! They say if you're doing it right it feels like you're heart's getting ripped out. It hurts to love, but the relationships, memories and knowing you served your best make it so worth it!

I've started this new thing since I've gotten so behind on my journal where I may not be able to write the things we did for the day, but I can at least write the tender mercies I experienced each day before bed. So I've started this new little book I've realized will probably be one of my most treasured possessions from my mission that I wish I'd started earlier, but at least started at the beginning of this year, and it's a good way to remember the little tender mercies throughout my life.

So my new companion Sister Rasmussen is the curly haired one to my left in the picture I attached because we're both horrible at taking pictures, so we don't have one of us just yet, but we're going to change that! So until next week, this was a picture taken at a leadership meeting we had on Friday after transfers. She's awesome! Oddly for an older missionary I was a little nervous about "taking over" the area until Sister Rasmussen gets the hang of things, but considering I've only had one other area, it's a pretty rational thing. But Sister Rasmussen works super hard, and I love her! I've told her how much I appreciate her and I still don't think she quite understands just how much I've learned from her already.

The work was a little slow as we had a lot of appointments fall through this week right after transfers, but we checked a ton of potentials and upped the appointments for this coming week which will be nice. A little nice miracle we had is we're working on getting names ready for our recent converts to go to the temple with. We needed a place for Ian to use a computer, and at this point the only member Sister Rasmussen knows is a recent convert of a year, so she texted her asking if she'd like to learn more about family history. The sister calls back saying she'd just hit road block and was wondering how to move forward with her family history, and we texted! So not only do we have a place for Ian to get family names, but we can help this sister with hers, and of all things, Sister Rasmussen just came from a place where she specialized in family history, so she knows exactly how to do it!

Another miracle happened last night as we dropped by a less-active on our street. They didn't answer their door, but I heard an Asian voice and caught a few words that sounded like Cambodian across the street, so looked around to see if they really were Asian (this is going to be a hard habit to break when I'm home). They were, but when they saw us walking over, they went inside and closed the door rather emphatically. I was positive I'd heard Cambodian, so I went up and knocked anyway. A guy answered and I greeted him in Cambodian to which he responded, and got his mother who speaks more fluent Khmer. She came out and as we talked I learned she's Buddhist, but is open to all religions, so I got to pray with her, and sent the referral over to the Cambodian sisters. I met maybe two Cambodians last transfer with sister Smith, but not once did I realize there were Cambodians just down the street! I plan on dropping by again sometime, but what got me was how easily Cambodian came to me even though I haven't conversed with anyone in it for a month and a half, and I know it was the Spirit helping me for doing my language study in spite of teaching in English.

I just love this work!

Sister Dunster

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28