The work progresses....

One email remains (one more P-Day next week, then she comes home the following Friday).

 

So it's been a rollercoaster of a week, with a lot of surprises and several moments of "I'm glad I won't be here in 2 weeks."

 

We went to pageant 3 nights in a row, getting home particularly late the night before and still rising bright and early as we are required to do. It was a lot of fun (though it was muggy the first day), and we even had an investigator come and do the tour with us.  She had a very positive experience and we're hoping it will continue to open doors for missionaries in the future. I know I won't live (stay in the mission field long enough) to see that to fruition.

 

That was another hard aspect about this week- weekly planning (which took us several short sessions over the course of 3 days instead of our usual single 2-3 hour session because of how much was going on) spent a lot of time planning things that I would likely not see, like setting dates several weeks from then. Sad, but the planning must go on. 

 

We had Zone Conference this week, before a pageant trip. It was a long drive and an even longer meeting.. It was nice to talk to President and Sister Badger (new Mission President and wife)- they even shared a lunch table with us. Poor them though- needless to say, I spent most of the time leading the discussion. I am a story teller.

 

Friday we drove the 1 1/2 hour to Quincy to see a member doctor there; I was approved for a few visits.  So I saw a chiropractor this morning - I'll be back Wednesday and likely Friday after that, and hopefully that's enough because that's all I'm approved for and that's all I have time for anyhow, with the following week being transfer week (he also goes out of town then, so it’s just as well.)

 

Saturday was lovely in that there were two baptisms (two different people the elders were working with), and we had several lessons, so the work progresses.

 

All my love

 

Christine

Still working hard



4th of July hiking - PDay

CHEEEECKEN!

It's been a long week and this coming week doesn't look too promising in the way of actually getting effective work done.

Monday was mercifully quiet and uncomplicated- another box is packed and will go out next week, containing more cold weather gear, stuff I don't need, and my brown boots.

Tuesday was a lot of finding after helping a member of the ward pack up her kitchen in preparation for moving to a much smaller apartment. We met this lady who 'had nothing to say' to us, but talked our ear off for an hour, telling us all her concerns about the church and the world and not letting us say more than a couple of words before cutting us off to keep talking. It was hard to disengage from her without being impolite.

Wednesday was fun in that we got to see BYU's acapella group 'Noteworthy' during our lunch hour, as they came and performed in the park here. We held district meeting in town as well. Then the Activity Day girls fed us dinner that night (I had my own little separate bowl from everyone else because it was ALL milk based. ): No cheese or anything for me. It smelled quite lovely though.) We had a lot of fun with them.

Thursday we got to see a man whose wife had been a member before her passing a few months ago. A member couple took us out because he lived about 30 minutes away (and he's a single man so we needed a lady with us). They bonded a little and we're hoping to teach him about the plan of salvation and help him be baptized and eventually get sealed to his wife.

Friday was a lot of service in that we continued to help the member from earlier in the week move stuff to a storage shed, then we went to the radio station to read stuff for the blind. We managed to see a less active lady as well. Slow progress- she's willing to read aloud and pray with us now, as previously she was not.

A lot of time got eaten up that day though, as I was trying to get some medical help. The last week or so I've been having shooting pains from my ring and pinky fingers up through my wrist, aching in each join up into my shoulder blade. Occasionally this happens, but normally it passes in a day or two. Well, unrelenting and beginning to go farther (up my neck and down my back), I figured it was time to call the mission nurse, who sent me to the mission office, who sent me to the mission president's wife. She tried to send me to urgent care where I could get a referral for physical therapy (as missionary medical won’t cover chiropractic since it’s a pre-existing condition), but there is no urgent care here, just an emergency room and a quick care clinic. The clinic tried to send me back to the emergency room, which I politely declined, as we'd been told very specifically by missionary medical not to go there. It’s expensive to go to the ER, especially when they'd likely send me home with some Ibuprofen and an “oh well”. I've been taking quite a bit of that and

 

Excedrin/acetaminophen the last couple of days. So I get to drive down to Quincy on Friday to see a doctor in the nurse's ward to get me a referral for physical therapy. I'd just wait to get home and talk to the family doctor, but 2 weeks is a long time to more or less prefer no use of my right arm.

Saturday we had an amazing lesson with an investigator whom we were having a hard time pinning down.

Monday (July 4^th)  was a lot of fun- we went out to a tiny town where some members live and went hiking on their property (thus the waterfall image), barbequed, and got to hold all sorts of animals; then we hauled back up to town to get picked up by some members to go to the ward shin-dig (our cars got grounded around 6, so we wouldn't have been there long otherwise) and we got some more coordinating done.

Wish us luck finding those who the Lord has prepared.

Our ward is treating us well, feeding us fairly frequently, and is supportive of our work.

Anyhow. All my love.