Once upon a time I went
on a mission to Germany and I thought that I would quickly learn how to use
public transportation.
How wrong I was.
Over the past ten weeks of training, I have taken the wrong
Straßenbahn a multitude of times, but last Tuesday seemed to sum up just how
transportation illiterate I am.
It started off in the morning as we took the wrong bus and were
late for an appointment. Which wasn't a huge deal. We moved on. That evening,
we were supposed to travel to Delitzsch to teach a part member family. Except
for some reason I thought they lived in Eilenberg. So we took a train to
Eilenberg. Which as it turns out is not Delitzsch. After calling the person who
was planning on picking us up and realizing my mistake, we were resigned to
wait at the Eilenberg train station until the next train back to Leipzig came.
A train came about an
hour later and we hopped on, trying to forget my judgment error and happy to be
on our way. Happy until 45 minutes later we wondered why we weren't home yet.
We looked at the travel screen to affirm we were heading in the right
direction, when what before our wondering eyes should appear? Cottbus. Which in
case you were wondering is not Leipzig. I asked someone if the train was going to
Leipzig (just to be sure) and he said no, it was come from Leipzig.
A very important preposition distinction.
Needless to say, we got
off the train as soon as possible. Dying of laughter. Because if it's 8:15pm
and you have no idea where you are and how in the world you make the same
mistake so much, you're either going to be laughing or crying. We opted for the
former.
We called our zone leaders, only mildly frantic, to tell them we
were in Falkenberg. Which is outside of our zone (about 75km to the NE, or an hour away—another hour east and
they would have ended up in Poland). We then called our mission president to tell him of our
whereabouts and let him know we'd be late coming home. A kind member offered to
pick us up so we wouldn't have to wait for another train and buy another ticket
(or possibly have the opportunity to take the wrong train again). She arrived
at approximately 9:46pm and we made it home at 11:06pm, exhausted but grateful.
And humbled.
With this experience, I thought about the Christ's Atonement.
Because some people can be a little dumb and make the same mistake over and
over again. Like taking the wrong train. Or drinking mucho. Or doing drugs. But
it doesn't matter how far you get because Christ will also drive out to get you
and bring you back. Even if you make it farther than Falkenberg and even past
Russia. No far is too far for the Atonement to heal people through Christ's
love and forgiveness and patience. I've needed to rely on the Atonement a lot
on my mission to help other as well as myself progress and try to become better
without having the weight of failure halt that progress.
We now resume to my normally segmented email. Shortened version.
Tschüß
Sandra was my first new
investigator on my mission, which means she's been learning since February.
This week she tschüßt us, which means she said she didn't want to meet with us
anymore. Because she decided we weren't strict enough. That's a first.
It was really sad though because we've spent so much time with
her and really just love her. Such is life. She'll come back in the future. She
just needs time.
Die Woche
Other adventures from this week included increased enthusiasm
from the members about missionary work, visits to a mental hospital/rehabilitation
center, a lot of appointment fall outs, and a pushed back baptismal date for
Chaku (now set for July 27th, which is after transfers). I also hit
my five month mark. Timey wimey people.
All my love. Plus some.
--
Sister
Claire Michelle Woodward
No comments:
Post a Comment