It's been a really weird week.
P-day was fun. We all chilled up in Hornell again. It was nice! Elder Brown and Elder Hales are fun. They have the funniest relationship. Because they are super opposite. Hales is a "Professional Nerd" as he calls it. And Elder Brown just loves fun and is super chill. But they get along well.
We had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Which wasn't exchanges. They just came and blitzed our area. Which was nice. But Elder Lewis and I started contacting our long list of potentials. Guess what? Elder Lewis was contacting the same potentials in Wellsville with me that he has contacted THREE TIMES. People need to update records. So we are pretty much throwing out all the potential investigators because obviously they don't have potential if nothing ever comes of them over repetitive contacting over the last 6 months. So we are trying to find people.
Elder Miller was reading in D&C. He shared with us the scriptures that he found. It talks about how The Lord was asking the Saints to find the Kings and the influential people of the communities to FIRST share the gospel with. The "High hanging fruit" if you go off that analogy. At first that seems really off to me. But the more we talked the more it made sense. We are really hoping that we can find a "Kingdom Builder." Someone that can really help the Branch. To build it. That way, once the foundation of the Branch is set, we can really just get all of Wellsville to become it's own Stake. So Elder Miller is helping us to find out the demographics and find good places to tract.
There is going to be a whole Christmas initiative done by the church. So get ready for that. Mormon.org/Christmas I think it is. It starts after Thanksgiving. It'll be very interesting. I think it'll be good. The Church is going to have like Youtube's mainpage banner bought out as well as some screen time in NY square. It'll be interesting!
We had Zone Conference this week as well. Being on the opposite side of the mission makes it much more interesting. We had to drive all the way up and were there all day then drove all the way down. Boom, day gone. It was actually a really good Zone Conference. A huge step up from previous ones. The leadership in the mission is trying out some new things. I think the whole mission is going to start shaking up. There is good news! Since it's winter, President Finally is letting up. We are allowed to play board games on P-day again. Wooo! Got some things to do on P-day when we are snowed in ha!
So the weather is crazy! So Buffalo got like 8 ft or something in 24 hours! CRAZY! My two first areas got hit HARD! The whole city was shutting down. My friends and fellow missionaries out there were just stuck inside. It was crazy. The pictures were crazy. There were people who'd open up the door and it'd be completely covered in snow. However, we here in Wellsville got only a few inches. BUT driving up from Zone Conference it took an extra hour and a half because we had to drive through a blizzard! 30 ft visibility if that. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive.
We survived well. Thanksgiving we are going to a less active families' for dinner. They are interesting. Never a dull moment with them. She just complains about the whole gospel and doesn't really listen to our answers to our questions. Then she complains that se doesn't have answers. But we explain the answers... So it'll be interesting! haha!
We have a new investigator Lisa. Just taught her one lesson. Her friend is a Recent Convert. So there is good hope for her. We'll see how it all goes!
It's cold. Super cold. But today is warm? NY is weird. ha!
Monday, November 24, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Quick Tree Removal Service
Tuesday was intense. We had a lady call us and ask for us to go to her daughter's home and take down a wall. A whole wall. We get there and it was actually a whole lot less of a issue then I was thinking. The wall already had most of the dry wall off of it and everything. We just had to finish taking the dry wall off and hammer everything down. The frustrating part was that they had like no tools. Just a few hammers. And she was just all "I don't know. Figure it out." And she wanted us to salvage as much wood as possible. And of course, since it's New York and Wellsville, she had a nasty/hoarder house. So it definitely wasn't clean. But oh well. We got the job done and relatively fast. Then later we had to help Ada move in. That was kind of a sad situation. She is taking care of a little girl named Dovy. Super cute. But has had a rough go. Ada is like 65 and Dovy is like 4. Dovy's parents were horrible and just welfare bums. Anyway, we helped Ada move in and that wasn't too hard. It was mainly us and Elder Miller doing the moving though so it took forever!
We are looking for a family. That's what the branch needs. They need a solid family that will be kingdom builders here in Wellsville. All the active families live in either Pennsylvania or not even in the Branch's boundaries. So ya... We are praying hard and going to tract areas that will have a family. We know that God has to have a family being prepared. That's what this part of the vineyard needs.
To give a little more understanding of the Wellsville Branch. I think we had about 35 people at church this Sunday. 6 of us were missionaries. There are 3 main families. And like 3 couples. Pretty much the whole branch lives outside of Wellsville. The Branch President lives in PA. As well as his first counselor. Missionaries used to be able to go down to his house but President said no... The last couple of Branch Presidents are excommunicated. (nuts, I know!). So... It's had a rough history around here. But God isn't giving up on Wellsville.
The trick is Wellsville and all of Allegany county is the poorest in the state (tons of welfare). Nice because everyone is home to meet with. Bad because many aren't self sufficient.
So here is the interesting story of the week. We are coming back from Aundey's. First real solid snow of the winter. Elder Glenn is driving. We are coming down a bend on the hill and the truck starts to slide. No real big deal but there is a car coming the opposite direction. So Elder Glenn over corrects to try and avoid the car at which point we start to slide off of the road. At this point I've looked up from the iPad that I was trying to do a lesson report on. Of course I flinch on the first couple of bumpy "wave like" parts of the ride. Then my eyes open again just in time to see a tree straight in front of me on the passenger side. We nail it. Luckily it uprooted and we won and bounced out of the ditch onto the side of the road. We are stopped. Just like "HOLY CRAP!" Take a second to get our senses back and start to drive off. Nope. Not happening. We realize that we have a flat tire. So we pull over to the side of the road maybe 80 yards past the now destroyed tree. I try to get out. Nope, my door will only open 1/4 of the way. So I slide out the back door. I come around my side to see that there is a dent next to the door that stops it from opening. Then I see that our tire is not really on the rim/axle anymore. It's looking pretty flat. I come around the front. Well... The bumper wasn't looking too pretty. The whole front right light isn't looking too pretty. It's pretty much all wrecked around that tire. Well, that limits our ability to get anywhere. So we call the Millers to come rescue us and call 411 to get the local police station and get a tow truck coming. Took forever for the officer to come. Then even longer for the tow truck. So we were chilling for a while. The officer was nice. He was just all "Well, welcome to NY!"
We were pretty safe. No real injuries. I got a little bit of a whiplash on my neck so that's been sore the last couple days. But no real big deal on that. We call and report it to the Mission President. There goes our nice Nissan Frontier. But that's okay! The church is rich. And we have the largest area in the mission. So less than 24 hours, we picked up a 2012 Chevy Colorado. Super sweet! We also have pretty much extremely flexible mile limits for the rest of the month. So we are going to be able to do a TON of work! It's great! God works in mysterious ways.
I'm driving now.
Then Friday night we had the awesome idea to go Shoot hoops at Alfred University. They have like an open gym going. We played some five on five and met a couple guys. Super chill kids. Hopefully we can get teaching them. We made some good connections and plan on going back soon. Plus it's super fun. I love black people. These kids are super open and asking questions about us being missionaries.
Aundey is driving us crazy. She like believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She believes that the Book of Mormon is true. She believes it all. She just is afraid to get baptized because what if she dates a guy that doesn't like Mormons OR that is just super firm in his religion? Aundey... Aundey... Aundey.... Plus she is still being a 15 year old in a 55 year old's body. She is down to 110 pounds. She is tiny.
Tanya is still being interesting. She has some mental handicaps. It's hard to tell where she really is at. She keeps inviting us back. We keep having lessons. She keeps saying that she is reading. She wants to be baptized. She is just afraid of water and wants her husband to tell her to do it. Well, he is a Less Active Member. He wants her to. He just wants her to make her own decision. It's interesting. Never a dull moment.
We've got a few potentials. Just trying to clean everything up and find that family!
We are looking for a family. That's what the branch needs. They need a solid family that will be kingdom builders here in Wellsville. All the active families live in either Pennsylvania or not even in the Branch's boundaries. So ya... We are praying hard and going to tract areas that will have a family. We know that God has to have a family being prepared. That's what this part of the vineyard needs.
To give a little more understanding of the Wellsville Branch. I think we had about 35 people at church this Sunday. 6 of us were missionaries. There are 3 main families. And like 3 couples. Pretty much the whole branch lives outside of Wellsville. The Branch President lives in PA. As well as his first counselor. Missionaries used to be able to go down to his house but President said no... The last couple of Branch Presidents are excommunicated. (nuts, I know!). So... It's had a rough history around here. But God isn't giving up on Wellsville.
The trick is Wellsville and all of Allegany county is the poorest in the state (tons of welfare). Nice because everyone is home to meet with. Bad because many aren't self sufficient.
So here is the interesting story of the week. We are coming back from Aundey's. First real solid snow of the winter. Elder Glenn is driving. We are coming down a bend on the hill and the truck starts to slide. No real big deal but there is a car coming the opposite direction. So Elder Glenn over corrects to try and avoid the car at which point we start to slide off of the road. At this point I've looked up from the iPad that I was trying to do a lesson report on. Of course I flinch on the first couple of bumpy "wave like" parts of the ride. Then my eyes open again just in time to see a tree straight in front of me on the passenger side. We nail it. Luckily it uprooted and we won and bounced out of the ditch onto the side of the road. We are stopped. Just like "HOLY CRAP!" Take a second to get our senses back and start to drive off. Nope. Not happening. We realize that we have a flat tire. So we pull over to the side of the road maybe 80 yards past the now destroyed tree. I try to get out. Nope, my door will only open 1/4 of the way. So I slide out the back door. I come around my side to see that there is a dent next to the door that stops it from opening. Then I see that our tire is not really on the rim/axle anymore. It's looking pretty flat. I come around the front. Well... The bumper wasn't looking too pretty. The whole front right light isn't looking too pretty. It's pretty much all wrecked around that tire. Well, that limits our ability to get anywhere. So we call the Millers to come rescue us and call 411 to get the local police station and get a tow truck coming. Took forever for the officer to come. Then even longer for the tow truck. So we were chilling for a while. The officer was nice. He was just all "Well, welcome to NY!"
We were pretty safe. No real injuries. I got a little bit of a whiplash on my neck so that's been sore the last couple days. But no real big deal on that. We call and report it to the Mission President. There goes our nice Nissan Frontier. But that's okay! The church is rich. And we have the largest area in the mission. So less than 24 hours, we picked up a 2012 Chevy Colorado. Super sweet! We also have pretty much extremely flexible mile limits for the rest of the month. So we are going to be able to do a TON of work! It's great! God works in mysterious ways.
I'm driving now.
Then Friday night we had the awesome idea to go Shoot hoops at Alfred University. They have like an open gym going. We played some five on five and met a couple guys. Super chill kids. Hopefully we can get teaching them. We made some good connections and plan on going back soon. Plus it's super fun. I love black people. These kids are super open and asking questions about us being missionaries.
Aundey is driving us crazy. She like believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She believes that the Book of Mormon is true. She believes it all. She just is afraid to get baptized because what if she dates a guy that doesn't like Mormons OR that is just super firm in his religion? Aundey... Aundey... Aundey.... Plus she is still being a 15 year old in a 55 year old's body. She is down to 110 pounds. She is tiny.
Tanya is still being interesting. She has some mental handicaps. It's hard to tell where she really is at. She keeps inviting us back. We keep having lessons. She keeps saying that she is reading. She wants to be baptized. She is just afraid of water and wants her husband to tell her to do it. Well, he is a Less Active Member. He wants her to. He just wants her to make her own decision. It's interesting. Never a dull moment.
We've got a few potentials. Just trying to clean everything up and find that family!
Monday, November 10, 2014
Wellsville
And it came to pass that in the two thousand and fourteen year of our Lord the great village of Wellsville came up to The Lord. Translation was never this easy.
Okay can I just say I love it here already? Super sick!
Let's see where to start. Let's start geographic. Wellsville. It's a lot bigger of a town than I was thinking. I was thinking it was going to be more of a Naples size. Which is tiny. NOPE! We have like 3 street lights. Super dope. The Wellsville area is the largest area in the mission. By a lot. The whole East Rochester ZONE can fit in our area about twice or more. So there is a ton of driving to do. Allegany county is the poorest county in NY. Which means it's probably one of the poorest in the U.S. Ironically though, not the lowest standard of living. Lots of people are really easy to meet with because everyone is home on welfare all the time. It's super sad. Everyone is super open about how much they have.
Either way, super country out here. Lots of hicks. Sooo funny! Lot more hoarders too.
We'll start with Elder Glenn. Can I just say I've died and gone to heaven? He is awesome! Super motivated. Super smart. He knows his teaching and his scriptures super well already! It's fantastic. He is talkative too so he helps a ton in lessons. He is from California. Bay area. He is the oldest of 5 kids. Going to BYU for Business Communications. He wants to own his own business. With how smart and determined he is, he'll go places. He also is very good with people. So I can see how people will gravitate towards him. Which will definitely help him go far. It's sweet! He has a rough past but because of that has really gained a testimony of the Gospel. He played basketball and did choir in high school. He is really nice and lot less judgemental than you'd expect from a California stud.
Then there is the rest of the district. They cover the Hornell branch. You've got Elder Hales (I was in the MTC with him). Super goofy. He calls himself a professional nerd. He is hilarious though. It's great. Then Elder Brown. Solid guy. He goes home in a transfer. He is super down for fun. You can't help but love him. Which is great! Then you have Sister Locher and Sister Hunter! Sisters just make the district so much better and so much more lively. It just has the diversity that you need. Sister Locher is from Switzerland. Her accent is hilarious. Sister Locher is super mellow from Colorado.
Then there is the Senior Couple, The Millers. They are in our branch. SUPER sweet! They are so on fire. They aren't going to take any crap. They are here to turn the Branch into a Ward. It's sweet. Plus sister Miller is a SUPER good cook. They are freakin' awesome.
This week was crazy. So Elder Glenn and I just hit the ground running. We had a ton of lessons. We set two baptismal dates. One is for Dec 6th and the other for January 4th. It's nuts. We are hoping to get them going towards that.
Aundey, she is the main lady we are working with. She has the January 4th baptismal date. The easiest way to explain her is to basically say she is a 55 year old lady but acts like a 16 year old girl. She is obsessed with men. That's her main hold up. She doesn't want to join the LDS church and have that be a problem with a future man who isn't part of the religion. She is a calorie counter and what not. But she is chill.
Then there is Tanya. She is young wife of a Less Active Member. She is afraid of the water. Her baptismal date is December 6th. She is interesting. But the gospel can definitely help her.
There is also Dylan and Brittney. Brittney is a Recent Convert of Glenn and Semadeni. She is great. Her son has tons of health issues. She is like 24. We got to get her going and get her solid in the church.
Leaving Greece was tough. Mostly with Abbie. When I said I was going she turned the corner and said "No!!" and wrapped her arms around my side. (She's super short). Which made me feel tons better. Hopefully the other elders keep working hard with her. She is great. I gave her a hardcover Book of Mormon that Lissa Legg gave me to give to an investigator with her testimony written in it.
It's been crazy! I'm super excited. Work is happening. We are going to make things happen. It's nuts!
Okay can I just say I love it here already? Super sick!
19 Pine Street Apt 3
Wellsville, NY 14895
Either way, super country out here. Lots of hicks. Sooo funny! Lot more hoarders too.
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| One of our hoarders. |
Then there is the rest of the district. They cover the Hornell branch. You've got Elder Hales (I was in the MTC with him). Super goofy. He calls himself a professional nerd. He is hilarious though. It's great. Then Elder Brown. Solid guy. He goes home in a transfer. He is super down for fun. You can't help but love him. Which is great! Then you have Sister Locher and Sister Hunter! Sisters just make the district so much better and so much more lively. It just has the diversity that you need. Sister Locher is from Switzerland. Her accent is hilarious. Sister Locher is super mellow from Colorado.
Then there is the Senior Couple, The Millers. They are in our branch. SUPER sweet! They are so on fire. They aren't going to take any crap. They are here to turn the Branch into a Ward. It's sweet. Plus sister Miller is a SUPER good cook. They are freakin' awesome.
This week was crazy. So Elder Glenn and I just hit the ground running. We had a ton of lessons. We set two baptismal dates. One is for Dec 6th and the other for January 4th. It's nuts. We are hoping to get them going towards that.
Aundey, she is the main lady we are working with. She has the January 4th baptismal date. The easiest way to explain her is to basically say she is a 55 year old lady but acts like a 16 year old girl. She is obsessed with men. That's her main hold up. She doesn't want to join the LDS church and have that be a problem with a future man who isn't part of the religion. She is a calorie counter and what not. But she is chill.
Then there is Tanya. She is young wife of a Less Active Member. She is afraid of the water. Her baptismal date is December 6th. She is interesting. But the gospel can definitely help her.
There is also Dylan and Brittney. Brittney is a Recent Convert of Glenn and Semadeni. She is great. Her son has tons of health issues. She is like 24. We got to get her going and get her solid in the church.
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| Abbie |
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| Greece member selfie. |
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Off to Wellsville
It's getting cold and quick!
It's been an interesting week. To start off with the news from transferred....
I'm getting transferred. I am getting "banished" [a term missionaries humorously use] to the Southern Tier area. The area is called Wellsville. It's the largest area in the mission, extremely rural and farthest away from the Mission Office/Palmyra. But, it should be pretty fun because there is lots of service opportunities. It's a Branch though. Hopefully still good service during the winter. I'm going to be companions with Elder Glenn. He is new. He came out the same time as Elder Roberts. But he has some greenie fire and drive as well as a lot of potential to go far. Wellsville will definitely be different than my city areas. It'll be more like Canandaigua area (Bloomfield, Bristol, Naples).
We got to go to the temple this week. It was great! The temple makes soooo much more sense. The more and more I learn about the symbolism, the more it's like OH DUH! That's why. Basically, I used to think there was some things that were a little bit more weird and just "Pioneer" like that I figured just were old/not updated. But the more I learn, the more I realize the purposes of it all.
Interviews with President were really interesting. Mine interview went an hour long. Which is like 45 minutes longer than it was supposed to. Had a good heart to heart. Explained a few things. It was an actual real interview and very much talking between the two of us.
Service Day! Elders Quorum Activity. We ended up going to help that same house that we helped clean out the nasty cat-urine soaked room. (I sent pictures like a month or two ago). Well... They haven't been living there for a couple weeks (Long story). But the cats have.... SO..... It was super NASTY! Like I couldn't breath. I almost wanted to throw up. 7 cats is like 8 cats too many. But we helped move a bunch of stuff because they were yanking up the carpets. They are trying to fix the house up. (They need to get rid of the cats).
I'm sad to leave Elder Moulton and Richins. But it will be an interesting change. We'll see how it goes!
It's been an interesting week. To start off with the news from transferred....
I'm getting transferred. I am getting "banished" [a term missionaries humorously use] to the Southern Tier area. The area is called Wellsville. It's the largest area in the mission, extremely rural and farthest away from the Mission Office/Palmyra. But, it should be pretty fun because there is lots of service opportunities. It's a Branch though. Hopefully still good service during the winter. I'm going to be companions with Elder Glenn. He is new. He came out the same time as Elder Roberts. But he has some greenie fire and drive as well as a lot of potential to go far. Wellsville will definitely be different than my city areas. It'll be more like Canandaigua area (Bloomfield, Bristol, Naples).
We got to go to the temple this week. It was great! The temple makes soooo much more sense. The more and more I learn about the symbolism, the more it's like OH DUH! That's why. Basically, I used to think there was some things that were a little bit more weird and just "Pioneer" like that I figured just were old/not updated. But the more I learn, the more I realize the purposes of it all.
Interviews with President were really interesting. Mine interview went an hour long. Which is like 45 minutes longer than it was supposed to. Had a good heart to heart. Explained a few things. It was an actual real interview and very much talking between the two of us.
Service Day! Elders Quorum Activity. We ended up going to help that same house that we helped clean out the nasty cat-urine soaked room. (I sent pictures like a month or two ago). Well... They haven't been living there for a couple weeks (Long story). But the cats have.... SO..... It was super NASTY! Like I couldn't breath. I almost wanted to throw up. 7 cats is like 8 cats too many. But we helped move a bunch of stuff because they were yanking up the carpets. They are trying to fix the house up. (They need to get rid of the cats).
I'm sad to leave Elder Moulton and Richins. But it will be an interesting change. We'll see how it goes!
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| Surprising low trick-or-treat tally. |
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| What I do when I cannot sleep. |
A... Not So... Emergency
Health wise has kept things on my toes this week. Monday, my constant headache decided to worsen. I took 2 ibuprofen in the morning. 2 in the Afternoon. 2 in the evening and ended up taking an Excedrin before bed. None of which lessened the headache at all. The next morning, I took two Excedrin and after a couple hours realized how little help that was doing. So I called Sister Ray our Mission Nurse. "Hey... Headache for 3 weeks. Drugs not working." At this point (most of Monday and Tuesday) it had been more of a migraine. So she had me go visit the local doctor.
I went in. It was a busy day but luckily he was able to see me that afternoon. He just ran a whole bunch of checks and poked and prodded. He asked if anything else was being effected beside my head. Nothing was. So he kind of shrugged and said "I don't know." So he gave me two different medications to try. Fun. I hate drugs.
Turns out I couldn't fill the medication until the next day at Walmart because the pharmacy was out of that specific drug (must be popular!). Well, I got the two types of drugs. One is a daily thing. The other is more of an on-the-spot thing. Like ibuprofen. So we go about the day (Wednesday). The AP's decided they wanted to randomly do an exchange with us for a couple hours. I went into their area which is the YSA branch. Visited a guy. Took a tour of a college campus and asked around about service opportunities. On the ride back, I felt a migraine coming on. So I popped one of the on-the-spot. After about 20minutes or so, that one hit me like a ton of bricks. I can't quite figure out how to explain it. But it just messed with my whole body. At this point I was feeling pretty miserable.
So Thursday. Going about the day. For a reason that I can't quite remember right now we were with the other guys. I had popped another of the on-the-spot drugs because my headache was boosting back up on pain levels. Nothing. It just made me feel like crap but still hurting on the head. My whole right side of my body started to feel funky. SOOOOO.... The other 3 convinced me to call Sister Ray. She suggested that I go visit the ER.
I hate hospitals. Elder Richins volunteers to come with me as the wait time was likely to be long. We find our way to the ER and I'm checked in with the lady at 6:22. The Check-In lady was quite rude and I was completely lost on what to do and what to say. But a nice doctor lady asked me a bunch of questions to figure out what was wrong. I explained no drug can help my headaches go away and the one drug is making me feel SUPER weird.
We wait for about 2.5 hours. Finally I get called into a small room. They sit me down. They ask me a couple questions. They say "okay, we are going to put an IV in and take some blood." So I'm like, Cool. I can deal with that. But I give them the fair warning that I have a huge anxiety with needles and It could end up bad. She says she'll lay me back.
Boom. Crap hits the fan. I start to feel the "You're definitely going to pass out if you don't act now" feeling. So I stick my head between my legs and start apologizing as quick as I can. The nurses start to freak out a little and note how white my face went when they said needles (I thought I was playing it cool!). Well. I stopped myself from passing out. However, I quickly discovered that chicken noodle soup for lunch was a BAD IDEA. The nurses were very kind but I went from a young adult to "Poor kid." My pride was shot. They start talking and tell me that they actually don't HAVE to take blood. It was kind of a Something-to-do while they waited for the doctor. Pft. So they felt super bad. Gave me a pill for sickness and to try and calm the headache. Of course that didn't do much. Luckily my headache was to normal pains and not migraines as I waited a little bit longer to be visited.
I think it was at about 9:20 that they called me back to sit in my luxurious half room with the curtain down the middle. It had a bed. I felt SUPER awkward because I just had a dumb little headache. Now I'm sitting there praying that Mission Medical is covering this (which I was promised they would). I refused to lay down because of my pride and I wasn't exactly bleeding profusely. Sat there for about another hour before the doctor came in. I explained the issue. She said that was weird. She had heard that I was a super huge fan of needles and said that it was okay and she had some pill alternatives. (Once again, hating drugs). But she wanted to do a CT/CAT/whatever scan just in case. So I get to cozy up in my luxurious bed as I'm required to be wheeled in to the scanning room. Super awkward. Then they scanned my brain. Quick 30 second scan. Sent me off to my luxurious half room again.
Well... Nothing is wrong with my head. Just my body doesn't like to respond to drugs. So they gave me some sort of Loritab type of drug and some monstrous sized ibuprofen pills to take. Now I have an arsenal of pills to take if the migraine starts coming on. Sadly, the headache is still pretty constant but I can keep the pain levels down.
So now for a couple of the funny stories to go along with this. First of all. "On a scale of 1 - 10 how do you rate your pain?" You have no idea how much I hate that question. So much. I heard it SOOO many times. Ummmmmm.... Well I'm not giving BIRTH! My femur bone is cracked in half. I'm not shot. I don't have any broken leg. I don't know!! I just know that usually when I take drugs headaches go away. I made the mistake of saying 6 at the current moment (in the ER) and said it was an 8 earlier. I think that's why I waited so long. Always say 8.
I got to talk to a crazy guy with shingles. We talked about some of the random anti rumors he heard about Joseph Smith. Then I gave him a card for familysearch.org.
Well, the rest of the week. Sadly, I was in the ER for the visit with Abbi our 12 year old investigator. She seems to be doing good. Hopefully we can get things going and really get her understanding there. Get her mom active before she gets baptized.
We helped our crazy Italian ward member put up a little wired fence in her front yard to stop the leaves from blowing over from the neighbors.
We went to dinner with a family in the ward. A more... Liberal... Mormon family. Always a fun dinner! They took us to this super good Italian restaurant. I felt spoiled. He actually is big into theater and organized taking the Book of Mormon Musical Cast through the sacred sites. Sadly, only the APs/ZLs got to be there to talk to them and introduce them to the church that they are making fun of.
Apparently it was a good experience and actually helped influence the actors. According to the member who saw the production the night of the site tours, the guy who played Jesus (apparently that's part of the play) changed his voice tone from a mockery to similar to the reverent tone that is used in the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center in the room with the Statue of Christ. Little things make a difference. Lots of people see the musical.
Another note, apparently Elder Holland was in my mission. They kept it SUPER on the down low. We had no idea until afterwards when the Mission President's wife put up pictures on Facebook of the family, them, President and the AP's with Elder Holland. Crazy! He was going through the sites and I think they hosted a Mission President Seminar thingy.
We went to help out at the Community Center Halloween Party. I thought that was pretty worth our time! We got to run games for all the little kids. There was a couple really cute kids. Some interesting costumes! But we got to be seen by a ton of non-members while wearing our nametags and what not. Subtly putting a better name for us out there. Plus, we were the life of the volunteers! ha :D Elder Richins and I saw this little girl that reminded me of Skylar Case. We were like "Can we just pre-order one of those? I want one of those when I'm married!" She was adorable.
Sunday was really successful. We had TWO Less Active Members that we are working with come to church. Everyone was blown away. It helped that they both were in wheelchairs and it made more of scene. But the one hadn't been to church since the beginning of time. The other is a SUPER COOL black dude. I love it. His voice when he talks just is super Stereotypical Black voice. Like the guy off of the sandlot who has the dog. Imagine him in a wheelchair. Super great. Fingers crossed that it works out and they keep coming!
I went in. It was a busy day but luckily he was able to see me that afternoon. He just ran a whole bunch of checks and poked and prodded. He asked if anything else was being effected beside my head. Nothing was. So he kind of shrugged and said "I don't know." So he gave me two different medications to try. Fun. I hate drugs.
Turns out I couldn't fill the medication until the next day at Walmart because the pharmacy was out of that specific drug (must be popular!). Well, I got the two types of drugs. One is a daily thing. The other is more of an on-the-spot thing. Like ibuprofen. So we go about the day (Wednesday). The AP's decided they wanted to randomly do an exchange with us for a couple hours. I went into their area which is the YSA branch. Visited a guy. Took a tour of a college campus and asked around about service opportunities. On the ride back, I felt a migraine coming on. So I popped one of the on-the-spot. After about 20minutes or so, that one hit me like a ton of bricks. I can't quite figure out how to explain it. But it just messed with my whole body. At this point I was feeling pretty miserable.
So Thursday. Going about the day. For a reason that I can't quite remember right now we were with the other guys. I had popped another of the on-the-spot drugs because my headache was boosting back up on pain levels. Nothing. It just made me feel like crap but still hurting on the head. My whole right side of my body started to feel funky. SOOOOO.... The other 3 convinced me to call Sister Ray. She suggested that I go visit the ER.
I hate hospitals. Elder Richins volunteers to come with me as the wait time was likely to be long. We find our way to the ER and I'm checked in with the lady at 6:22. The Check-In lady was quite rude and I was completely lost on what to do and what to say. But a nice doctor lady asked me a bunch of questions to figure out what was wrong. I explained no drug can help my headaches go away and the one drug is making me feel SUPER weird.
We wait for about 2.5 hours. Finally I get called into a small room. They sit me down. They ask me a couple questions. They say "okay, we are going to put an IV in and take some blood." So I'm like, Cool. I can deal with that. But I give them the fair warning that I have a huge anxiety with needles and It could end up bad. She says she'll lay me back.
Boom. Crap hits the fan. I start to feel the "You're definitely going to pass out if you don't act now" feeling. So I stick my head between my legs and start apologizing as quick as I can. The nurses start to freak out a little and note how white my face went when they said needles (I thought I was playing it cool!). Well. I stopped myself from passing out. However, I quickly discovered that chicken noodle soup for lunch was a BAD IDEA. The nurses were very kind but I went from a young adult to "Poor kid." My pride was shot. They start talking and tell me that they actually don't HAVE to take blood. It was kind of a Something-to-do while they waited for the doctor. Pft. So they felt super bad. Gave me a pill for sickness and to try and calm the headache. Of course that didn't do much. Luckily my headache was to normal pains and not migraines as I waited a little bit longer to be visited.
I think it was at about 9:20 that they called me back to sit in my luxurious half room with the curtain down the middle. It had a bed. I felt SUPER awkward because I just had a dumb little headache. Now I'm sitting there praying that Mission Medical is covering this (which I was promised they would). I refused to lay down because of my pride and I wasn't exactly bleeding profusely. Sat there for about another hour before the doctor came in. I explained the issue. She said that was weird. She had heard that I was a super huge fan of needles and said that it was okay and she had some pill alternatives. (Once again, hating drugs). But she wanted to do a CT/CAT/whatever scan just in case. So I get to cozy up in my luxurious bed as I'm required to be wheeled in to the scanning room. Super awkward. Then they scanned my brain. Quick 30 second scan. Sent me off to my luxurious half room again.
Well... Nothing is wrong with my head. Just my body doesn't like to respond to drugs. So they gave me some sort of Loritab type of drug and some monstrous sized ibuprofen pills to take. Now I have an arsenal of pills to take if the migraine starts coming on. Sadly, the headache is still pretty constant but I can keep the pain levels down.
So now for a couple of the funny stories to go along with this. First of all. "On a scale of 1 - 10 how do you rate your pain?" You have no idea how much I hate that question. So much. I heard it SOOO many times. Ummmmmm.... Well I'm not giving BIRTH! My femur bone is cracked in half. I'm not shot. I don't have any broken leg. I don't know!! I just know that usually when I take drugs headaches go away. I made the mistake of saying 6 at the current moment (in the ER) and said it was an 8 earlier. I think that's why I waited so long. Always say 8.
I got to talk to a crazy guy with shingles. We talked about some of the random anti rumors he heard about Joseph Smith. Then I gave him a card for familysearch.org.
Well, the rest of the week. Sadly, I was in the ER for the visit with Abbi our 12 year old investigator. She seems to be doing good. Hopefully we can get things going and really get her understanding there. Get her mom active before she gets baptized.
We helped our crazy Italian ward member put up a little wired fence in her front yard to stop the leaves from blowing over from the neighbors.
We went to dinner with a family in the ward. A more... Liberal... Mormon family. Always a fun dinner! They took us to this super good Italian restaurant. I felt spoiled. He actually is big into theater and organized taking the Book of Mormon Musical Cast through the sacred sites. Sadly, only the APs/ZLs got to be there to talk to them and introduce them to the church that they are making fun of.
Apparently it was a good experience and actually helped influence the actors. According to the member who saw the production the night of the site tours, the guy who played Jesus (apparently that's part of the play) changed his voice tone from a mockery to similar to the reverent tone that is used in the Hill Cumorah Visitor Center in the room with the Statue of Christ. Little things make a difference. Lots of people see the musical.
Another note, apparently Elder Holland was in my mission. They kept it SUPER on the down low. We had no idea until afterwards when the Mission President's wife put up pictures on Facebook of the family, them, President and the AP's with Elder Holland. Crazy! He was going through the sites and I think they hosted a Mission President Seminar thingy.
We went to help out at the Community Center Halloween Party. I thought that was pretty worth our time! We got to run games for all the little kids. There was a couple really cute kids. Some interesting costumes! But we got to be seen by a ton of non-members while wearing our nametags and what not. Subtly putting a better name for us out there. Plus, we were the life of the volunteers! ha :D Elder Richins and I saw this little girl that reminded me of Skylar Case. We were like "Can we just pre-order one of those? I want one of those when I'm married!" She was adorable.
Sunday was really successful. We had TWO Less Active Members that we are working with come to church. Everyone was blown away. It helped that they both were in wheelchairs and it made more of scene. But the one hadn't been to church since the beginning of time. The other is a SUPER COOL black dude. I love it. His voice when he talks just is super Stereotypical Black voice. Like the guy off of the sandlot who has the dog. Imagine him in a wheelchair. Super great. Fingers crossed that it works out and they keep coming!
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