Nancy

My dear friend, Nancy, gave me these gorgeous tulips this week. Nancy has moved out of our neighborhood. She and I have been visiting teaching companions for ages. Really, at least four years. And honestly, when they handed me my new assignment, with a new partner, today in church, I nearly handed it right back. Going on without Nancy is going to be so. hard.

Nancy is one of those people that I found out about before I really met. I knew she was a great teacher because she taught Sunday School at church. And she is truly a gifted teacher. But more than that, her testimony of Jesus Christ is just so...amazing. She not only talks the talk, Nancy walks the walk. She is a person of true integrity. And I could see all of this, before I even met her.

So, it became one of my life goals to meet this incredible woman and to somehow make her my friend. And then it happened. One day I went to a church activity, and Nancy had brought the most perfect apple pie I'd ever seen or tasted. And I went on a quest to find out who had created this perfect pie. Imagine my surprise when Nancy raised her hand and said, "I did it," without the customary self-congratulation with which I would have announced such an accomplishment. Make no mistake, Nancy is not soft-spoken. Every word has power. But not an ounce of misdirected pride.

Well, right then and there, I knew I had an "in." I love to bake. And I needed her apple pie recipe. Correction: "Award-winning" apple pie recipe, so her husband told me, while Nancy just shrugged.

We ended up working together as visiting teaching partners and all I can say is that it just works. Easy. I make the appointments (she puts up with me when I neglect to make the appointments until the end of the month), she gives the lesson. Nancy never goes empty-handed, so we trade off giving gifts every once in a while because we both like to give something to the sisters we visit each month.

Nancy has taught me so much over the years. We've talked through just about everything together and I love her so very much. Thankfully, she's not going far. At least she had better not! I'm looking forward to many more years of Nancy's wisdom.