These two cute Sister Missionaries are Sister Edet from Nigeria, (Left), and Sister Mei, Sierra Leon, (Right)
One of the duties we have as senior missionaries is doing apartment inventories for the young missionaries. We start with a spiritual thought and then check their first aid kits/medicine boxes to be sure they have all they might need. We make sure that all the appliances are working, the plumbing and electrical are functioning properly, and that the apartment is properly equipped. We resupply with insect repellent and hand sanitizer if they're getting low, check their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and drinking water filters. We check it for tidiness and cleanliness also and if something is amiss, we encourage them to correct it. We leave them with treats. (I've made them brownies each time.)
This time when we checked these sisters' apartment, (they do great!), I asked Sister Mei to tell me her story. I had heard parts of it and since she's in her last transfer, I wanted to get it before she goes home.
"I was a very little girl when my story started," she began. I went to church with my Mom, but I didn't like it. It didn't feel good. I noticed another church nearby and I wanted to go there. Pretty soon, I started going over to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after I went to Church with my mom. She didn't know.
"When I got older, I asked the missionaries to teach me about the Church. They gave me a pamphlet and told me I must get permission from my parents. When I told them that I wanted to be taught by the missionaries, they said, "What? You have been going to that Church? We are members of that Church." But they didn't go and hadn't been there in a long time. They gave me permission to be taught."
So she and her sister and younger (brother, I think) and her dad were taught, and were baptized. Her dad became active again, but her mother didn't want to come.
Several years went by and sister Mei was asked to give a talk in Church. She wanted her mother to come to hear her talk but her mother said 'no'. She begged and pleaded her mother, but she refused.
When she was just starting her talk, she saw her mother come in and sit down in the back. "I was so happy!" Sister Mei remembers. "About then, I decided that when I was old enough, I wanted to serve a mission. I wanted to tell people about the true Church."
After that, her mother attended occasionally, but continued to attend her other church.
Meanwhile, her mother had a business, (she didn't say what the business was,) that her children were all helping her with. Her pastor came to her and told her that she must prove her faith by giving half her income from her business to him. He had already told another member of his congregation that he must prove his faith by giving (the pastor) his nice car. The pastor got a nice new car, and the member was walking to church from then on.
The Mei children told their mother that the scriptures say that tithing means only 10% and that the pastor was a wicked man. "If you give that wicked man half of your business income, we won't help you anymore."
The mother finally listened to her family and stopped attending. But she continued to be inconsistent in attending church with her family.
After our sister Mei finished high(secondary) school, everyone advised her to go to college. She did and enjoyed it very much. Her father reminded her of her plan to serve a mission, but her enthusiasm had waned and she didn't want to stop going to college.
"Remember the covenant you made with Lord? You must keep the promise you made to Him," her father encouraged her.
So she applied and received a mission call, (here to Rwanda). Right before she left, she started getting nervous, thinking, 'What if something happens to my Dad or Mom? What will I do?"
She talked to her father about it and he said, "If something happens to us, it will happen whether you are here or not. But you will be showing that you love Jesus Christ, and that will make you happy."
Six months into her mission, word came that her father had died.
Sister Mei wanted to go home. She talked to her mother on the phone and her mother told her "Your dad won't be here if you come home. He was so happy and proud that you were serving the Lord, he would not want you to come home."
So she stayed. "It was very hard. I was so close to my dad. I love him very much."
A few months later, Sister Mei got another call from home. Her mother's mother had been so grief stricken by the death of her beloved son in law that she had given up on life and stopped eating and had also passed away.
"That was very hard, too. I love my grandma and I felt so sad."
"One night, I had a dream. I saw my dad in a beautiful place. He was laughing and playing with many children. He was very happy. He called me to come to him, but my mother was behind me. She said, 'No, no! You can't go to him now. You must stay here.' So I turned and went back to my mother. But I know that my dad is very happy and I am not worried about him."
Six months after her father passed away, she got a call from her sister telling her that her mother had cancer that had spread throughout her body and Sister Mei must call to say goodbye. Her mother was in the hospital and the doctors didn't expect her to live much longer.
Sister Mei called her mother, said goodbye and shortly thereafter received word that her mother had also died.
I met Sister Mei shortly after the death of her mother. She seemed to be a well spoken, but solemn young woman. Then I heard that within the last 8 months, she had lost both her parents and her grandmother.
Now, (Oct 21, 2024) she has about three weeks left in her mission. She says she wants to finish her college degree and become a writer. "I want to do something different. I want to be able to support my children if something happens to my [future] husband."
I gave her my contact information. "I can help you with that," I urged.
She said "I will definitely contact you after I go home."
Oh, God, bless her! What amazing things are in her future that she should endure such trials so young and still strengthen her faith with such courage and grace?
When we came on our mission, many people told us that it would change our lives forever. I think that is already true. I am thinking hard about what we will do after we go home. I know I will certainly want to maintain the friendships with the people we have already come to love, here.
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