J'ai Oublié Presque Tout

I had a pretty cool experience on Sunday. I live in Glenwood now, where a lot of international students live because it's across the street from the ELC. I walked out of my apartment in the afternoon and there were two sister missionaries in the hallway. They asked if I knew anyone who spoke French, and I said I knew a little. "Great, you're an answer to prayer!" they replied enthusiastically, because they were trying to figure out how to teach a Haitian girl, Darlene, that only speaks French. I warned them that I might not really be the answer they were looking for, but agreed to give it a shot.

It turned out that Darlene's cousin was there, who speaks French and English, but I stayed because I was curious to see how everything would play out. Mimi, Darlene's cousin, sat down with us and began telling us story after story of how she had been lied to by missionaries and mistreated by members. As she monologued, I tried to come up with a good response to her anger and stubbornness. One of the sisters finally had a chance to speak up and when she started talking, the Spirit immediately flooded the room. I don't think any response I had thought of would have held a candle to that. Mimi agreed to try reading the Book of Mormon again instead of focusing solely on how members of the Church treated her.

Still, though, Mimi refused to translate anything gospel-related for Darlene, because she "wants her to learn English." This is where the missionaries turned to me... and I wasn't much help. They wanted me to translate directly, and I felt like I couldn't modify anything because Mimi was sitting right there, listening rather smugly. I tried to do my best, racking my brains for words I learned at the TRC once upon a time, but mostly Spanish words came. Finally Mimi stepped in and helped me out a bit... I was grateful. They set up an appointment to come back (this time with a real translator, might I add) and then I had to take off.

So as realistic as the TRC is :) I felt like I got a real taste of missionary work -- the difficulty of trying to help someone who doesn't want to listen, feeling humbled because of my inadequate language skills, noticing how much the Lord's hand is in the work, and finding out how much He blesses us if we simply try.