She let us in and told us that she had been praying - in her own prayerful style - which was a conversation with God, out loud, in her apartment pouring out her heart while mopping the floor. Things had been so hard lately, and she needed Him.
He heard her that day and answered in the form of the perfectly timed arrival of us - two sister missionaries.
Her husband had recently left her, and I'll leave out the rest of the gory details, but they were sad. Very sad. And reasonably so, her heart was broken.
My companion was transferred out, and with her husband now out of the picture, it fell to the sisters rather than the elders to visit with her. The only problem was, she didn't care for women. She preferred the company of men and she made no secret of it.
But it was our job to love her and care for her. So doing what we did when the task was bigger than us, my companion and I prayed.
I remember pleading prayers for what was probably at least a week and a half - 'Please, Lord, we need thee to help her let us in. Please show us how.'
Our mission president had taught us - 'There is a way to every human heart. Heavenly Father knows that way, and He can show you.' And so it was with the exercise of great faith on her behalf that I pleaded in my personal prayers as well to be shown that way.
Finally, one day the answer came in the form of inspiration - les chou chou doux. We were to leave her les chou chou doux. It was symbolic. She would know what it would mean. And it was perfect.
A week or so earlier we had been visiting her with the elders and when she shared a poem. It was a poem about this little town where each of the inhabitants had a bag that contained Les Chou Chou Doux (warm fuzzies). They shared these freely until a witch came along and made people jealous and hoarding of their Chou Chou Doux. In time, the witch began replacing Les Chou Chou Doux with cold crystals that took the warmth away.
She is meticulously clean. All throughout our somewhat unwelcomed sister missionaries-only visit, we secretly hid little cotton balls all around her house. After we left she always cleaned her apartment. Strangely she kept finding cotton balls until she had a collection of them. Somewhere along the way, she found our little note about Les Chou Chou Doux. This was how the walls melted away.
The anticipated phone call came after our visit not too much later that night. "I was cleaning and I kept fining these little cotton balls all over my house. I thought it was so strange, and then I found the note!" From then on, she loved us. We already loved her.
Every time we visited we hid little things around her house with a note for her to find. It was our game and the foundation of our friendship. She became a cherished friend.
Last I knew her faith in God was no longer being practiced and life has not been easy for her.
Today she posted this on Facebook:
Which brought back this host of memories (i.e. this story) - and this was my response:
"Explosives - non. Les chou chou doux. Gros bisous, mon amie. :)
