Wow! What a crazy past few days it has been! It started on Thursday when we had interviews with President Weed, who is the father figure for all 104 of the missionaries in Benin and Togo. He takes care of any of our needs, and he is also here to counsel and guide us. Also, he is in charge of all missionary work in the 2 countries. I love President Weed very much, and given my situation for the past couple of weeks, he gave me some great counsel of how to deal with it myself.
Then, every Friday morning we have our weekly planning session where we set out a basic plan of what we are going to do and who we are going to teach the following week. Throughout most of the session, my companion was not showing me very much respect at all. While I was still disappointed, I didn't get mad or angry like I usually would when someone disrespects me. In fact, I let it go, and just turned to the Lord and asked for help with loving my companion. The immediate answer was to just give service. Serve, serve, and serve some more. I started applying this, and I was amazed to see how much happier I was myself! Though my companion really hadn't changed, I was so much happier with the situation.
Then, every Friday morning we have our weekly planning session where we set out a basic plan of what we are going to do and who we are going to teach the following week. Throughout most of the session, my companion was not showing me very much respect at all. While I was still disappointed, I didn't get mad or angry like I usually would when someone disrespects me. In fact, I let it go, and just turned to the Lord and asked for help with loving my companion. The immediate answer was to just give service. Serve, serve, and serve some more. I started applying this, and I was amazed to see how much happier I was myself! Though my companion really hadn't changed, I was so much happier with the situation.
The second answer to my prayer came Saturday night with a call from the assistants to the President, two missionaries assigned to help President Weed fulfill his responsibilities. Elder Poll is the American assistant, and I have already established a good relationship with him. He told me that there are a lot of emergency transfers of missionaries between Togo and Benin because of missionaries who are returning home or missionaries whose visas have expired. Anyways, I received the news that my companion is being transferred! That means that as of Wednesday I'll have a new companion! Instead of changing me to deal with a companion who wouldn't changed, the Lord just sent me a new companion, which I found quite humorous. After that, I think I was a little happier than I should have been, but it's helped the past few days get by.
Another thing with the transfer is that they'e combining my area with the neighboring area, so my day tomorrow will be spent learning the new area so that I can teach both areas to my new companion. It's quite a bit of responsibility, but I know I can do it with the Lord's help. If there's one thing I've learned from being a missionary, it's that the Lord takes care of his servants.
Anyways, that's all I have time for today, but I hope all is going well over there in the States, and happy 4th of July everyone! Elder Seidl and I celebrated with Elder Poll (the Assistants stayed at our apartment that night) by having pizza delivered.
I love and miss you all so much, and I wish I could share every experience with you all!
Avec amour,
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