Hello my momma! Hello my sweet family and wonderful friends! Hello my sweet GRANDMA! I am excited to write you this week :)
This past week were transfers so we spent a lot of our day on Wednesday going by members homes, taking a million pictures, and seeing Sister Adino cry at every home (on top of getting five lessons in). She was really having a hard time leaving. It was so neat though, the whole day, Sister Adino was hugging me and telling me she wished she had another cycle to start fresh and that she would miss me. Transfer meeting was so beautiful. An elder named Elder Naylor sang "His Hands" and I just sat there trying to hold back my tears throughout the entire song--I just kept thinking about how difficult that last cycle was that I had just been through, all of the beautiful things I had learned, and how close my Savior was there to help me the whole way. I grew to know Him better.
The APs announced the transfer list, and my area was the first they announced. Sister Martinez is my new companion!! She's gorgeous. (More on that later)
President does this thing every transfer meeting where he has someone play the piano for about two minutes and just lets us sit and allow the spirit to talk to us. The whole two minutes, as Sister Webre played "I feel my Saviors love" I just silently cried/forced myself to keep my tears in. And my heart pounded as I knew President would call on me to share my testimony. After the two minutes, I was called on.
I said, "As I was sitting there listening to the prelude music, the Spirit told me that President would call on me to bear my testimony. :)" In between tears and long pauses, I told them I knew my Savior lives. I said that sometimes, through my struggles on my mission, I wonder where he is. But as I listened to Elder Naylor's song, I realized that through my struggles, he carries me. I told them I am grateful for the knowledge that He lives and loves me, and that is why I'm here. To share that knowledge with others. I will go wherever he wants me to go and be whoever he wants me to be. I think the last time I felt the Spirit like that as I bore my testimony was my 1st year at girl's camp.
President took me into his office and said, "Don't worry about the members. Don't worry about making them laugh. They don’t need a clown. They need a missionary. And the Lord needs you, Sister Fort, just who you are and where you are. And with your new companion, she may be the one soul that you bring unto Christ. And that has great worth. You're wonderful and we just love you so much." I told him I loved him too and really wished I could've given him a fatherly hug. He says the most perfect things to me, always.
Sister Martinez asked me if I knew we would be together and I smiled and nodded my head. We talked ALL THE WAY HOME on the bus--three hours. We have so much in common. She told me that the day before transfers President took her into his office and asked, "Sister Martinez, if you could have any sister missionary to be your companion, who would it be?" And she said she answered like, "I know that each companion is special for me at different times and I'll learn a lot from each one." And President asked, "But if you could choose. From all of them." And she said, "You know I would choose Sister Fort." And President said, "Oh good. Cause that's your new companion." President told her that I had received revelation that she would be my new companion also, and told her that he's been looking at our pictures from the beginning of the cycle, and saying to himself, "That’s a divine companionship." She said that President told her that he and Sister Carlos were so thrilled and excited for our new companionship.
So every day, we've been language studying, and in our companionship study, I've been helping her role play and say things she wants in Tagalog. I've been helping her with verb conjugations and sentence structures and pronunciation, and she says its clicking for her in ways it has never before. Our preparation for the day--personal and comp study, language sudy, etc--takes a little while every day.
Just yesterday we went to teach the Laylay family (their picture is attached) and we taught them the Book of Mormon. I taught about what the Book of Mormon is about, and she taught how it came about (how it started as gold plates, and how Joseph Smith found them and translated them). She taught how we had planned and wrote little notes to help her remember what to say. And Girlie Laylay said, "This was so clear how you guys taught this. I've never understood what the Book of Mormon was until now." They have been investigators for about 6 months now.
She is such a sweetheart and I am so excited for all I will learn from her this cycle. And for all the growth we will see. I think the things I went through last cycle have stretched my patience, increased my awareness that my Heavenly Father and Savior are helping me, and strengthened my capacity to love and focus on strengths of people. I have been prepared for this cycle. I know we will be friends for a long, long time. :)
I love you momma. I pray for you always. And I will do all I can to be by you when I have my beeebes. :)
Love
Sister Fort
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