Life with a Groentje!

Dearest of families, 8/10/2009

I survived my first week as a trainer!!! What a miracle :)

Wednesday, I went and picked up Zr. Driggs, a short 22 year old sister from Bountiful, Utah who was jet-lagged, confused, but still burning with enthusiasm for the work. She is awesome! We are going to have the best transfer together. She is a hard worker who is full of great ideas and lots of Utah smiles :) She is really a great missionary already, and her Dutch is amazing. I think she'll have better Dutch than I do by her 2nd transfer (ok, so maybe not quite so quick, but she really can say a LOT of stuff). President Brubaker challenged the mission to a one week "English fast" which means that Thursday morning Zr. Driggs and I began communicating only in Dutch- which is at times hilarious, other times frustrating, and other times miraculous when she somehow manages to understand what I'm saying to her. I am definitely getting a taste of how our investigators felt when I first got here when they tried to communicate with me. During companion study I will explain something to her for a good 5 minutes and then say "snap je?" which means "do you understand", and she just gives me this blank look and then I realize that I lost her after my first sentence. Boy am I grateful for the progress I have been blessed with. The funniest moment this week was when she, after a long days work, laid on the floor and tried to say that she was tired, but instead said "I am beautiful" and sighed. I busted out laughing and the poor little dear just looked at me totally confused- it was really funny. She is a great sport and is patient with herself and with me as I try and figure out this whole senior companion thing. We have seen so many miracles the past few days. We committed a man to baptism in one of our first appointments together, and taught 8 lessons together during just one day of tracting. It was really miraculous. It is amazing how the Lord has blessed me with abilities to lead her and I in this work. Being a trainer forces you to focus on the work itself and your companion- and really not at all on yourself, which is the ideal situation for growth and inspiration. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with this opportunity. It really is such a blessing for me. I am learning so much about how to be a missionary- and how to just keep moving even when I don't know what to do.

We saw an amazing miracle. We have 2 investigators, Laurie and Dan, who are an awesome Dutch couple that we are teaching, and they came to church a week ago for the first time. I called them on the phone and they said that they had had and "ok" experience at church, and that they would tell us about it at our appointment. We went to the appointment and they told us about the positive and negative things that they saw. Quite frankly, they were mostly negative, and the appointment was really not that great. I did my best to share with them my testimony of the church and how the gospel is perfect even though the people in the church may not be, and Zr. Driggs did her best to follow along. I left the appointment feeling like I had failed a little bit. Our lesson had been a little bit weak because of their concerns, and I felt like I had just not done that great of a job. I was really upset, thinking that I had really blown things and that their chance of progress was pretty slim now that they had decided they didn't really like church. Needless to say, I was kind of discouraged, and my poor greenie was just confused as to what had happened. I prayed a ton that night pleading for help and direction, and finally got to sleep after much tossing and turning. The next day was church, and I had to teach Gospel principles and relief society, so I was studying a little bit before sacrament meeting, when the branch president came up to me and said "Laurie and Den are here" and I looked up and they walked in and waved. I was floored! They said that they felt like they should come, so they did and after church, they told the branch president that they felt like this was something special and that they wanted to investigate and see exactly what it was that was so special. YAY!!! We were so excited and can't wait to watch them continue to progress. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father works through you even in your weakest of moments when you feel like you've messed everything up.

Well, enjoy China- it may be crowded, but it’s a once in a lifetime experience! Travel Safe! I love you!

Love,
Zuster Cherie Gulliver
Ik hou van jullie!