June 23, 2014

Alright hopefully I can remember all of the crazy things that happened this week.  It was one of the longest yet shortest weeks of my life.  We will start off with Monday.  Monday was pday and we basically shopped until we dropped, literally.  With me being sick I almost died shopping haha.  I almost wish that would have happened so I could put that on my obituary.  "She shopped until she dropped."
   But it was a fun day and I  got some cute shirts AND we decided to buy a box hair color and dye my hair.  Which came out purple....  No joke.  And now after a week my hair is a light brown with red roots.  And I saw my mission president last night and he commented on what happened to my hair.  It was so embarrassing. Hence, today we will be fixing my hair.  Hopefully it will turn into the dark brown color that I wanted.  We will see.  

    Tuesday.  What a day.  This day I realized how sick I really have been the past few weeks.  It got to the point where my comps took me to the ER on Tuesday.  The past 3 weeks my body has been rejecting most of the food I eat and I have been throwing up almost everything.  So it got to the point where my body was completely malnourished and slowly shutting down.  In the ER they hooked me up to the IV and tried to get my body nourished again.  They said it was to the point where they were surprised that I wasn't passing out all the time and that I had made it so long already.  We were in the ER for over 3 hours trying to figure out what was wrong.  So most of the week we have been taking things slow.  My companions have been making me rest so that my body can hopefully heal itself.  Because the ER didn't find out what was wrong.  They just gave me the instructions to only drink ensure and take electrolyte tablets.  Hoping that my body will get nutrients again.  And then hopefully my body can begin to heal itself.  But honestly, stomach problems are a pretty common thing here in this mission.  Especially with the hispanic missionaries.  Man, the things we eat here at times are pretty crazy.  Of course it all tastes delicious but it slowly begins to kill your stomach. 

   You want an example?  The other day a member made us this pot of chicken legs in some kind of liquid.  And we took it home to have leftovers.  But after one day it turned into a pot of wax.  I am not exagerating here.  It solidified with the chicken legs in it because of all the fat and grease.  And Sister Encarnacion and I set it on fire haha.  It was wax.  Most of the sisters I know who are almost done with their missions suffer from weird stomach things.  I just started earlier then most of the missionaries.  But anyway, I am doing better and have more energy.  Sister Murdock(mission presidents wife) has been helping me figure out what is wrong.  And if I don't stop throwing up soon we will go back in to the ER and take some more tests. So no worries.  Plus I have a spaniard companion with a strong personality who loves me haha.  She will drag my to the hospital if even one thing seems wrong haha.  Thank goodness for her or I wouldn't have gone in the first place.  

    Besides sleeping and drifting around into a dream, this week we were invited to a special invitation only meeting on Thursday.  It is for the leaders of the mission and people who President wanted to come.  So it was weird that we went.  But it was amazing!  2 Brethren from church headquarters came and talked about how we can better our mission.  It was an all day meeting but so worth it.  I learned so much and am excited to put things into practice and become a better missionary.  

   As for investigators, we didn't have too many lessons this week because of all the crazy things happening.  But everyone is doing good and coming closer and closer to baptism.  And Gloria Cano just accepted a date for the end of July.  She says she is still not sure if it is true or not but wanted a date to be a goal.  A goal for her to look at and motivate her to truly find out if it is true.  We are excited and praying so hard for her.  And the woman Margarita came to church yesterday with her kids.  She really wants this for her life.  It will take some time with her because she smokes but already this gospel has blessed her life.  And yesterday we had to help with her kids in primary, her son noah has autism.  And he is super attached to me and would only go to primary if I went....  Which isn't what I should be doing as a missionary.  But we did it anyway so margarita could go to class and so noah would get used to his teacher for next week.  But it was super fun to be in a spanish primary and learn all of the cute songs!  

   Crazy week but I still love my mission more then anything!  I love the work and I love being able to build my testimony every day.  Truly the Lord's hand is in this area and we see so many miracles every single day.  And I love my companions and the people I work with.  And no worries, my body is getting healthier and I am doing good.  

   Thanks for all of the support and prayers I always have.  I love everyone so much!  Have a great week!