Week 43

They didn't let me walk anywhere, so they rolled me around in a wheelchair, haha !

Well, it's been quite the week to be honest! To sum up what happened, I started with a fever Saturday night and had that under control with medication, until Sunday. I started having diarrhea, which caused the medication to leave before doing its work. By Monday night, I finally bought a thermometer and was checking my temp all night since I couldn't sleep, being constantly cold and having to get up to use the bathroom dozens of times, and it was up in the 103 - 104 degree range all night! It was one rough night and so the next day I called our Mission President's wife in the morning and we decided I should be taken to a clinic. At the clinic, they almost were going to send me away with a list of meds to take, but without planning it, I felt super light headed and almost fainted in the doctor's office. They sent me to a bed to have an IV put in and some medication to calm my fever. There I stayed from 9 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon with the IV. Later I went back to the house to rest the rest of the day.

By the time morning rolled around, I was feeling much better, but still had problems with diarrhea, even after having taken meds for it, so Hermana Bird talked with a trusted doctor she knows, and they decided it would be best to send me to a hospital to make sure everything is okay and to be safe. They sent us to one of the biggest hospitals in the world called Doctors Hospital, which was more like a hotel, to be honest. :P They treated me really well and did some tests to find out what was wrong. Turns out I have what I already had an idea I had, but it's gotten worse. Here it's called Gastritis. The good news is that's all it is, the fever and diarrhea were something apart, but combined together it was quite the mixture!

Outside view of Doctors Hospital, it's huge!!!

Elder Torres and me in the ER

The view from our window, doesn't do it justice, but just so you have an idea.

One of the few things I can eat is Jello, so I made some
for the first time in my life, it's easier than I thought and delicious!

They fed me, I listened to Pentatonix Christmas music and lots more since Pres. Bird allowed it last and this week:D and I slept a lot too, which was nice. We entered the hospital Thursday, in the afternoon, and left by Saturday, in the early evening, and they left me with medicine, a strict diet and I have to come back to be checked in two weeks. In other words, I am in good hands:)

Anyways through all the trials that came this week, I have been able to reflect on what a blessing it truly is to be here in the mission, and how much better it is to be out preaching the gospel, then cooped up in a hospital bed. It's easy to take the mission for granted and I want to make sure I press forward with all my might, mind and strength. Love you all, hope to have more experiences to tell next week outside of my health, but I thought it would be good to explain more clearly what happened. Have a Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Elder Torres and me with our cute little Christmas tree!!!

Week 42

I am going to be short this week because I'm not feeling too well and it's hard to think. I have had a fever off and on since Saturday night and of course the worst of it had to hit me today on preparation day, and a very important one at that because there is so much going on with Christmas coming and everything. First of all, please don't worry about me, I'm in good hands and I've been communicating with Sister Bird since it started. She has confidence that I'll be better by tomorrow night at the latest. I also asked for a priesthood blessing, and so I have faith the Lord will help!

This week has been interesting for sure as we faced a lot of challenges.We taught a lot of new people who rejected the message mostly because they didn't want to change. The way I like to think about it though is we are one step closer to finding someone ready to accept the gospel every time we find someone who isn't. And we were able to see evidence of that belief when we found a wonderful family on Saturday! I am so happy to be in the work of the Lord, even with these difficulties, and I have faith we are truly making a difference through the little things we do every day. Love you all!

Week 41

This week was a little difficult to be honest because of how much success we had last week compared to this week. Many of our appointments fell through, as well as members who were going to accompany us. Despite these challenges, we were able to press forward and keep hope. The highlight of the week I would say is the Herrera Family we've been teaching since we taught them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, which they were super interested in and had a ton of good questions. Especially the father Daniel, who constantly reads and even takes notes on the assignments we leave with him. When we taught him about the Book of Mormon he wanted to know more and asked us to come back the next day, but to come earlier to have more time since he was so excited! The sad news though is that they weren't able to make it to church Sunday, even though they really wanted too, since Daniel had some sort of accident and went to the ER. They didn't tell us too many specifics, but it isn't anything too serious from what I understood. We'll see how it goes this week with them, I hope everything is okay.

Another cool experience was a recent convert family we've been visiting named the Ochoa Family. They hadn't been going to church for a little over a month now, but we've been diligent with passing by to teach them and we've even taken their son Jonathan with us to teach a few lessons. To my great joy they made it to church yesterday:D It's always so nice to see our effort make a difference in the lives of others!

I bought some winter clothes this week finally.
 Too bad it looks like it's going to warm up again this week:/

Fuzzy socks for the cold nights!
I especially love the knee highs ;D

My head looks so big with my hat and helmet, haha!

Well, my 2nd transfer (6 weeks) as a trainer began today! That means my "son" Elder Torres only has 6 weeks left of training before he's all grown up. Crazy how times flies. In my district, only our District Leader Elder Salcedo is leaving, out of the 6 of us, but it's really sad because he is such a funny and loving guy. I will never forget the times we've spent together.

Hamburgers we ordered for delivery during exchanges with Elder Covorrubias!!

The weather has gotten semi hot again, but it's still a little cold in the mornings, which is annoying since I leave all bundled up and later end up having to take it all off and carry it since it's so hot. It's supposed to get up to 90 this Friday!! Oh, one night I taught my companion how to make S'mores. We bought marshmallows, Hershey's and Maria cookies (since graham crackers are hard to come by and it's basically the same) and used charcoal to start a little coal pit to roast them. It had been so long since I'd had one and they were delicious:) Well, that's about all I have to share this week, love you all!

We bought Donuts and Strawberry Chocolate Hot Chocolate since it was a chilly night :D

Probably can't see it but I made Macaroni with Potato chunks, yum!

 

Peach Pie (more like Cheesecake) members gifted us with, delicious!!

Week 40

Another crazy week has zoomed by! Again it has been pretty chilly here. (At least it feels like it, nothing like there in Oregon. It's at the very lowest high 50's at night and in the mornings:P) But it hasn't rained too hard which is great since we get super muddy when it does with the bikes.

This week has been one of my most successful weeks as a missionary with how many people we have found and been teaching. I wish I could talk about them all but I just want to mention a few.

A recent convert who lives close to us wanted us to come teach his friend so we showed up one day to have the lesson. Turns out, I had already thought his friend was a member because he always comes to our Zone activities on Preparation Day to play soccer with all the missionaries, and he told us he has been to church various times, goes to seminary frequently, and goes to some mutual activities! He told us a ton of stories about his life and how everything has led him up to this moment in his life, where he truly wants to start taking things more seriously. His cousin is an active member too, and so he has been around the church his whole life practically. He accepted a baptismal date for 18 of January to start the preparation process, and is super motivated. He reads the assignments we leave him and always has great questions and answers!

Another person we found just knocking doors. He was bringing things into his house so we offered to help. He accepted and afterwards let us teach him a lesson. Turns out he knows a bunch of members and is ready to make changes in his life. He also accepted a baptismal date and is super motivated.

Some bad news about Silvia is that her Quinceanera is coming up and that has made her really busy and stressed out, so she told us she needs some time: It's sad, but I know that we at least planted a seed that will be ready to harvest someday.

In church on Sunday, we were finally able to have an investigator! She's named Martina, a sweet old lady who I would never had expected to have made it, but I was super happy she was there. Also I played the piano in sacrament meeting since the pianist was sick this week. I tried playing with two hands this time and the first one was pretty rough, but the sacrament hymn went super well, especially for not having practiced it, and the last one as well. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to develop a talent I know will continue to come in handy and that I love.

Also my stomach has been improving a lot, which is good!

(Sorry no pictures this week. My adapter broke and I need to get a new one.)