ARE YOU SURE?

In our blog entry last week, we made mention of Eileen’s statement that this has been her favorite mission.  As fate might have it, events this week have made her question that (only temporarily, this too will pass).  Last year, September and October were very hard months on the missionaries’ physical and mental health.  And now it is September again!  Just two months ago, Eileen was commenting about how calm thing seemed to be going (health wise) in the mission.Earlier this week she had a 4:45 am call preceding an early morning trip to the ER.  Then Eileen had a young sister call her at 9:45 pm saying she was having a significant health issue, and that in fact the sister was on hold with her doctor’s answering service already.  But then the young sister declined to call Eileen back and tell her what the doctor had said.  The next morning, neither Eileen nor the doctor’s office could reach the sister because she was playing pickle ball. Yesterday, Eileen had several calls before I left for my temple shift just before noon, and today she had calls from three sets of missionaries before we left for church at 8:30 am.However, among the challenges of the week were a few gems; and it is important for us to not let the chaos of the week cause us to forget the good things that happened.  

As I (Russell) was sitting in the ER waiting room with the two companions of the sick elder, I heard one whisper to the other, “What should we do while we are waiting?” The other said, “We could have companion scripture study.”  After which they promptly bowed their heads, said a quiet prayer and commenced with their daily routine, improvising the best they could under the circumstances.

The morning Eileen was trying to track down the sister who had called her late the night before, Eileen got a call from the missionary’s mother.  The mother said she had just received a call from the doctor’s office saying they were unable to contact the missionary.  The mother had no idea what was going on.  Unlike some parents who call and vent their frustrations on Eileen (it seems like people feel that can pick on a nurse when they are afraid to voice their feeling to a doctor, a mission president, or their child), this mother was wonderful.  My guess is that young sister will get a talking-to tomorrow on P-day from her mother.

Eileen’s presentation at zone conference was on the health issues with the caffeine in energy and pre workout drinks.  The morning after one zone conference, Eileen got a short video from two sister missionaries showing them pouring six cans of energy drinks down the kitchen sink.That made her day.

We had Karlene and Gary Young over for dinner last Sunday. The Youngs were here as missionaries for the first six months of our mission.  They  helped us significantly with the vehicles and also allowed missionaries to stay  with them  when a missionary had to fly out spur of the moment for mental health issues. 

Some of our senior missionaries enjoying lunch at Zone Conference.

We were fascinated by the way this service missionary was able to keep his yoyo going all during presentations at ZC.

The moon was incredibly beautiful this week. It is tough to get a good shot through a windshield.  The photo above was with my iphone. The one below was published in the Kansas City Star.

I was grateful this Elder was ok.  He received excellent care in the ER. He even made it to Zone Conference after his discharge.

Used with permission of the sisters. I was so impressed that after my presentation they poured their energy drinks down the sink and sent me a video.  Zone Conference presentation shared on previous posting..

This missionary wears a size 16 shoe and this is only a size 13 boot. We are working on getting him a bigger one.