Back to the Beginning

What a week this has been!

I guess I should start with the news that I am getting transferred. After 8 months in good ol' Tehachapi, I am leaving. It makes me sad to go. I was hoping to stay for Christmas, but the really awesome good news is that I am going back to my greenie area! I will be serving this next transfer in Lancaster 1st ward, which was my very first area on the mission! I am so sad to leave, but happy to be going somewhere for Christmas where I already know and love the people. And I am MOST excited to be able to see my recent converts there again!! :) I will be in a trio with 2 other sisters.

It was so funny when we got the transfer calls. We had been waiting anxiously all evening to find out what was going to happen, and finally the APs called. Sister Gallacher answered the phone: "Hello, this is Sister Gallacher and Sister Daelemans!!!" "Hello, this is Elder Bennett." And then........Sister Gallacher dropped the phone and it fell apart! She hurriedly but the battery back in and turned the phone back on, but it seemed to take an eternity. Most suspenseful moment of my life! We called them back and then they gave us the news.

This weekend was also the Tehachapi Creche Festival! I can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but a "creche" is just a nativity. The church building was full of nativities on display and there was also live musical performances from members of the church and members of the community all day Saturday and after church on Sunday. It was a big hit! We had a lot of people from the community show up and they seemed to really enjoy themselves. We were there most of the time as docents. There was also a live nativity with animals, which they recruited us to be a part of because I guess nobody else wanted to sit out in the cold for 20 minute shifts. Their loss. It was super fun!! I was a shepherd. :) Christmas really is the most amazing time of year to celebrate the birth AND atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ, and I think it was such a wonderful opportunity to show people of other faiths, who sometimes wrongly judge us and our beliefs, that everything we do really is centered around Jesus Christ! :)

For the Creche festival, our mission president wanted all of the missionaries in Tehachapi to sing a song. So they made us the very last performers Sunday night. The only trouble is that when we got together to practice the day before, our singing was atrocious. Imagine 2 sisters on melody who sing so quietly you can't hear them, me and another sister on harmony (the other sister was practically belting, so that's probably why you couldn't hear the melody), 1 elder attempting to sing the melody but completely off-pitch, and 1 elder who I'm pretty sure was just lip-syncing. I was sure it was going to be a disaster. But, when we got up in front of everyone Sunday night to sing, it somehow sounded really good! Sister Gallacher said it was because Jesus was singing with us, lol! It was a Christmas miracle!

The somewhat sad news of the week is that we are no longer teaching Hong and Mike. We have been teaching them every single week since I got to this area in August, and they have been reading and praying and coming to church. They have even been living the Word of Wisdom for the past 2 months. I love them and their children so much! But Hong has always struggled with faith, and throughout the whole teaching process she constantly flipped back and forth between leaning more on her faith and leaning more on her doubts. The week before last she told us she wanted to stop taking the lessons, but we still went over and taught them because Mike really wanted to get baptized and we had to finish the lessons with him. Hong sat in on the lesson. Then this week she texted us and said she wanted to get baptized! We were so flabbergasted. Sister Gallacher and I just sat there for probably 3 minutes, and all we could say was "Wait...What?!" In our lesson with them this week we set a goal for baptism on December 31. And we taught them the Law of Tithing. Mike was all for it, and Hong seemed to take it pretty well and said she was willing to give it a try. She told us that she realized she needed to give the Lord 100% in order to show him that she really is sincere. I was walking on clouds! She had finally gotten there! But then the next morning she texted us and said that she had changed her mind, and that they were both officially out. She said they just could not pay tithing, that it was too much for them, and that they wouldn't be coming to church anymore. I was so sad. I don't think I have loved or cared for anyone else on my mission more than them. But I know that there is nothing more we could have done. We literally gave them, and the Lord, everything we could. But I am ok with it now. I said goodbye to them yesterday, and Hong said that she hopes to someday get there. She still has the desire. And it might take them being away from church for a while for her to feel the difference in her life and to realize what an impact it actually had. Mike seemed kind of sad. He was completely ready for baptism, but they were in it together as a family so he isn't going to get baptized or go to church without his wife. Hong told me that she has learned so much from me, but I told her that if she only remembers one thing, it is how much Heavenly Father loves her. I hope she knows that and can feel it. Sorry to end this on a sad note. I am not sad. Even though this was disappointing, the Lord has filled me with peace. All I feel for them is love and hope. :)

And now, I go back to the beginning. I have 3 transfers to go, and I will most likely spend them in the same area where I spent my first 3 transfers. I could not sleep the night that they told us, my mind just kept racing and thinking about all the people I will be able to see again. I have often thought to myself what I would have done differently in my first area if I had known then what I know now. I did my best when I was there, and that's all the Lord expects of me. But I have learned and grown so much since that time. I want to make my last months as a missionary mean the most. I feel so blessed to be in the Lord's service, to serve him and his children. I remember the hard times at the beginning of my mission, when I could not image spending the next 18 months knocking on people's doors. It seemed like it would be an eternity. But the time has flown by. Looking back I realize how much I have learned and how much I have grown from both the difficult times and the good ones, and I think about what would have happened if I had given up any of the many times when things were really difficult. I would have missed out on so many joy!

Have a wonderful Christmas season and remember Christ in all that you do! :) 

Sister Daelemans