Monday, August 26, 2013

Trip to ER, Almost

No, it was not me, it was my companion. We learned the hard way that Sister Winsor is severely allergic to fire ants. Tuesday evening we stopped to talk to a guy on the street, and while we were talking with him, Sister Winsor got attacked by fire ants. She got at least 60 ant bites. To her credit, I had no idea  she was being attacked like that, she kept talking like nothing was wrong. But about ten minutes afterwards, she started saying that her ears felt really heavy, she turned bright red and started breaking out in hives. So we went very quickly to the nearest member's house, who luckily was a retired nurse. She immediately recognized it was an allergic reaction and suggested we go to the emergency room. So we did, and on the way we called the mission president's wife to let her know what was going on. She asked us to call the mission doctor before we actually went into the ER, which we did, but we got his answering machine. Since Sister Winsor was feeling a little better, we decided to wait in the car, in the emergency room parking lot, to hear back from him. After waiting for half an hour we just went to Wal-Mart and got some Benadryl, and she was fine. So, that was probably the most exciting thing that happened this week. 

It's been an interesting week. We've taught several lessons, most of them when we just met some random person on the street and started talking to them. We haven't really been able to get a hold of any of the people we've been working with. One still isn't answering our calls, so we've just been praying about that a lot. We're not sure how much more we can do for him. And although we've taught quite a few people, none of them have been interested enough to invite us back. However, there are a few less active members that we've been working with that are starting to come around. Now we just have to actually get them to church. 

On Thursday we had a mission fireside, where President and Sister Holm come down and all the missionaries in our zone bring the people they're working with to meet them and attend this fireside. It was really incredible. They had some recent converts share their testimonies, which was really powerful. President Holm also had interviews with all the missionaries before the fireside. I was the last missionary from my zone to be interviewed, and we were the last zone they visited, so I was the very last missionary to be interviewed in the entire mission. We didn't have long to talk, but it was great to be able to talk to President Holm. I could feel how much he loves me and cares about me. He asked us to share a scripture with him that describes the kind of missionary we want to be and I picked Alma 26:12. I want to be humble enough to recognize my weaknesses, but I want to be bold enough to open my mouth and tell these people what God wants them to hear, I want to see and recognize miracles, and I want to always be grateful for them. 

It was amazing to think back over the past couple transfers and see how much I've grown and how much I've changed, especially this second transfer. I'm not sure why, but my confidence has just sky rocketed. I guess it's because I have a basic understanding of what I'm doing and what to expect, but that I've also embraced that there's a lot of things about missionary work that I'm just not going to know. And I think I've been able to recognize that I have been improving, which has helped me to feel like I am making progress and doing something good, even if we don't really have any investigators. I think I've come to accept that change happens gradually, and that as I put forth the effort to work on my weaknesses, I will be able to overcome them. And I know that while the work isn't going quickly in this area, that we are doing good and that as we continue to improve and work hard, we will find people who are ready for the gospel. 

I hope everything is going well with all of you. I love getting your letters and emails, it's good to know what's going on so I feel like I'm not totally missing out on everything. I love you all. 




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