ALL IN A DAYS WORK

Gloria

We were ask to go with the missionaries to visit a family.  The family consists of a mother, daughter, the daughters husband, and three really cute kids.  All about five or six, two identical twin girls and a little boy, all waring thick glasses.

The missionaries have been teaching the Mom.  The daughters family are members of our church.  The mom knows the truth of the gospel but she is afraid to be baptized.  We talked to her about eternal life and our conversion.  Gary has on his iPad the spanish version of “because of him”.  This little video of about 2.5 minutes has only music, pictures, and a few printed words.  The message is non-denominational, but, in a few minutes it just fills you with hope, and, a view of Gods plan of salvation.  That we are all eternal beings.

Well, surely not because of us alone, but, she got baptized the following saturday and it was a very happy moment.  For the baptisms we attend, Kathy gives the person that was baptized a print of her painting of the savior, with a message on the back that is a reminder of the importance of baptism.  We gave Gloria a framed picture of the Savior.  She is a very special lady.  Her mom died a year ago, and, of course she was in continual morning.  But, her belief in the gospel has given her hope of living with her mom again.

To us, it is all very exciting and rewarding and wonderful.

Trip to Malacatan

Well, in our quest to get these four young people on missions, we visited our third dentist with the two boys that have really bad teeth.   This dentist is about 1.5 hours away, down in the very hot and humid low lands.  It was one of those little miracles that happen often that we actually found the dentist.  We drove down this street.  Stopped and asked a lady in a little shop for the location of this dentist office.  And, it was right across the street.

While the dentist checked out boys out, Kathy and I asked to use the bathroom.  Well the toilet was way in the back in a little room with spiders everywhere.  The toilet had no water in the tank.  We had to carry water in a little bucket from a nearby sink to flush the toilet, and, it didn't flush.  There was a plunger near by, and, after about a hundred plunges we got it to flush just a little.  What a trial just to go to the bathroom.  But, this kind of facility is typical.   Bathrooms are not taken to seriously here. 

The good news is we got a good price for the dental work that our president approved.  And, these boys are going to have healthy and good looking teeth for their mission.

Shot Man

It has been very hard to get the inoculations we need for these young people we are trying to get on their missions.   We tried everything we could think of but could not get the shots we needed.  Well, it turns out there is a man that works for the government that comes to the local fire department the second Thursday of every month.  He carries a big case full of shot stuff.

We got the shots we needed for this one girl named Cleidi.  He did a good job and was quite professional.  Now, Gary is not great about speaking up to share the gospel.  But, for some reason today, as we were leaving, he turned around and ask this man if he wanted to know about our church.  He came right over and we talked to him a bit and we told him next time we would bring some information for him and he was very receptive.  As we left Gary was overcome with excitement that he had actually opened his mouth.

in a days work

Ok we just came home from the temple in Xela and the visit to the skin doctor for the missionary with the face infection.  It was an all day event.  Kathy managed to get a bad cold or the gripa, sore throat and ear pounding.  We decide to cuddle in for the night.  We just wrapped up and we got a call from the nurses to go see if one of the Elders was ok and take him some Benadryl.  Then we got this wild call from the companion of the Elder who needed the Benadryl.  He said the Elder was swelling up and was turning red.  Then we got another call, now he cant feel his tongue and his arm is numb!!

We jumped in the car and went to their house.  Out comes this elder and he looked like a Lego man-head with huge lips, a numb arm, and hardly breathing very good.  We loaded him in the car and rushed to the hospital.

The doctor there was young and smart.  They gave him a antihistamine shot. Took blood and then gave him two more pills of steroids. They decided to keep him over night for observation.  They gave him an IV .  After talking to the Elder he said he did not know what he was allergic too but had a previous experience and carried an eppi pen with him in the US.  But, did not bring them with him. (we are going to buy him one here)

He had a thing called pollen tea at an investigators house and then had this reaction.  They had to walk and hour to get home, as he swelled up.   We went back in the morning to pick him up and he looked good.  They told him he had, had a very bad allergic reaction, very dangerous.

We went home to allow Kathy to rest, when we were called by a sister missionaries that were at the hospital, one had a hairline knee fracture.  We drove around a found a place to buy her and knee brace.  Again we tried to get home but got another call. A sister missionary thinks she has parasites.  We got the sample, ugh!!, took it to the lab and got the report and sent it to the nurses.

Finally we got home in the afternoon and was able to let Kathy rest and get better.

The only explanation I have is that the missionary's are “on fire” with baptisms here. Five baptisms today!

Martin Short came to mind  in the movie, “pure luck” as we watched this Elder puff up!

After that was over, we all had a big laugh, he was all swollen up, slurred speech because of his numb tongue, dragging his numb arm around, and, bright red!!

It's all in a days work as a missionary!

Here are the zone leaders having fun with our allergic boy

Here is the temple we attended, Kathy's painting