Icy Windshields

First off thank you for all of the wonderful Birthday wishes! Thats right world. I am officially two decades old. By statistics I am a fourth of my way through life. I am an old fogey… Just kidding! By some sort of miracle I was able to receive my birthday package from my family just before my birthday even though we don't receive mail so often out here on the south shore. Here is a picture of me modelling off one of my all-time favourite parts of the present. My family knows me WAY too well. Also this Saturday is Transfer calls…again!… So I will keep you updated =D

Now I don't have much time today but I just wanted to share something that I learned this week.

There was a point this past week which, as is very common with missionaries, my companion and I hit a slump. Everything seemed to be going wrong. We had woken up, planned amazing lessons, and even had time to practice role plays with these lessons. We were so excited. And then the unforgettable happened. One by one our lessons cancelled, until we were left with only one lesson that we hadn't had the time nor the thought to really prepare for. So we spent our time making phone calls, passing by formers and potentials, you know, missionary life. We ran into one of the members of our church, a wonderful girl my age named Kelly. She invited us out to lunch when she realized Sister Blanc had yet to partake of the beauty named Tim Hortons. Well we were able to talk to her. She is planning on going on a mission and has almost finished her papers. It was really sweet to hear about her testimony of how she chose to go on a mission. Well we offered her to do a mini mission with us! Which means she would be a missionary for three days, joining us in our apartment and everything. She excitedly said yes and we organized it for this weekend! Later on the member we had called to join us for this one lesson that had managed to stand had called and said that she wasn't able to come… It was frustrating. But we were able to all another member at last minute who was more than willing to come and accompany us. Through the spirit and the questions that this wonderful sister brought we were able to find out the true problem of why this man, who was a member, was not attending church. It was really inspiring.

With our day finished we headed to car. Scraped off the best we could the sometimes crazy amount of ice and snow on our car and jumped in to head home. There were obviously some parts that we were not able to scrape off which made it difficult to see. Except while driving I noticed something. If I focused on where I was going I could see perfectly. But if I were to focus on that ice I wouldn't be able to see a thing. This brought to mind the seemingly no good very bad day that Sister Blanc and I were having. I recognized that it was only that way because I was focusing on the ice. On the bad parts of the day. But if I looked at what we had accomplished I was able to see the beauty of the day and all that we were able to accomplish in the future.

Sometimes we focus on the obstructions. On the trials and heartache that we see in life. However there is always at least one clear spot that makes it possible to see through the heartache into the beauty that we call life. It is my testimony that we are all capable of everything that we need to accomplish and face in our lives here on Earth. A loving God would not give us more than we can't handle. I ask you to look past the ice on the windshield and pray that you may have the strength to do so.

I love you all and thank you so much for the prayers that you send my way

Sister Cummings