Cindy was asked by her teacher to subtract 3 from a certain number and then divide the result by 9. Instead, she subtracted 9 and then divided the result by 3, giving an answer of 43. What would her answer have been had she worked the problem correctly?
$\textbf{(A) } 15\qquad \textbf{(B) } 34\qquad \textbf{(C) } 43\qquad \textbf{(D) } 51\qquad \textbf{(E) } 138$
We work backwards; the number that Cindy started with is $3(43)+9=138$. Now, the correct result is $\frac{138-3}{9}=\frac{135}{9}=15$. Our answer is $\boxed{\textbf{(A) }15}$.