Included is a picture of a statue in our town. If you look close, he is tilting. We wondered why they made him that way. Maybe the thing he is carrying in his left hand is very heavy, or, his left leg is short, or, maybe when whatever he did that made him famous, his left foot was in a hole. After some thought, we decided that the earthquake of last November did it.
A missionary from the USA called us and said that his companion from Nicaragua was having problems. He was fasting every few days, and, not eating much in between, and, continually out of money. We visited them and talked to the one with problems. He said he as not feeling well and he would start eating. We gave him some meds and checked back in a few days to see how he was. He was getting worse. After a few more talks with him we decided to call our mission nurse to tell her the situation. She said that they would have to get him therapy and so on. This would end up probably ruining his mission. We were really concerned. This situation was going on for several weeks, and, all this time his companion never gave up on him. By the way, the companion with the problem is a great missionary! Finally, we get a call from the USA companion. He had at long last gotten the real problem out of his companion. IT turns out that in Nicaragua, you have to sign a contract with the church to pay the monthly mission cost, and recently, his non member parents told him they were not going to pay anymore. So, this young man was starving himself to pay the debt. We thought there were a few lessons from this event: First, the courage of the USA companion to not give up on his partner is amazing. He could of easily told us that he needed a new companion now! Or, he could have said bad things about him to get him out, but no! Second, the love that missionaries have for each other is something we would never have believed. And, third, the determination of the missionary with the problem to "pay the church" was tipical of a great missionary. The mission president will handle his problem.
By the way, the USA missionary is really prepared for marriage!
We have been here for several weeks and have had no communication with the president. Kathy thought this was not right, and Gary said that we were doing our job and it was ok. So, a few days ago Kathy woke up from her nights sleep and told Gary he had to email the president. Gary, knowing that very often, Kathy gets the insperation to guide us through our problems, he wrote an email telling the president what we have been doing. Well, the president came up here to conference with our missionaries and told them all kind of great things about us and that they could trust us!
We need to always remember to listen to our spouse!
Gary with our friends
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