Saturday, November 5, 2011

October 31, 2011

Dear Family,

It is so weird seeing other missionaries in the house.  I love the ward here, but it seems like nobody really invites the missionaries over to do anything, ever...  We always have to be the ones to set up our own dinner appointments, but I just feel at times like our family might just be the only family in the world like that.  Haha I'm really jealous that I couldn't be there doing all of that fun stuff for that Halloween party!  Did I ever tell you that all of the Missionaries in the Jacksonville Mission have to wear a part in their hair?  What are the Elders names and where are they from?  Those pictures are all so fun!  i laughed so hard at the one of Molly just being Molly with her little shirt on!  Haha tell Hannah to put some pants on her!  ;)

This week was full of trade-offs, doctor appointments, and meetings.  I don't think we had a single normal morning, but we really met some great new people and found some new investigators.  One of them is the son in-law of a member of the bishopric, Jose.  He knows a lot about the bible because he used to go to the Jehovah's witness church, but didn't believe it was right.  We taught him about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and then we invited him to be baptized.  He told us that after he got an answer to his prayer, he would be baptized, so pray hard that he does his part!  It's the best as a missionary when somebody actually listens and understands and decides on their own to see if what we say is true or not.  

This week in sacrament meeting, I sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" with the Sisters and a member accompanied us.  It was great being able to do that again and it makes me wish I had done it more often back home.  I was a little bit iffy at first because I thought it was weird that the missionaries were going to sing in sacrament, but we got so many compliments and so many people told us how much it touched them to hear that song, especially the verse we sang in Spanish.  I thought you would like to hear that, especially considering how you were just telling me about your lesson on hymns.  

On Saturday night we went to go see someone in an apartment complex and ran into probably the most drunk person I have ever seen in my life.  He apparently was having trouble with his girlfriend and was making a bunch of accusations, so we just ended up giving him our phone number and telling him to call us when he was feeling better.  We said a prayer and left and then we got a call from him the next day, telling us to go over to his house and talk to him.  He was a little bit drunk, but much better and ended up telling us that he almost killed himself the night before and did coke and all of this stuff, but I honestly think that our visit was a factor in his decision not to do it.  I talked to his girlfriend on the phone for whatever reason, and it was all just so dramatic!  We took his cigarettes away and were going to throw them away, but they weren't his to give away so we ended up giving them to his friend, but I just couldn't believe how absolutely ridiculous the whole situation was.  He's an investigator now.  Haha

I just really have so much to say, but the days just blend together I can't even really remember what was this week and what was last week.  The Mayo Clinic was the most amazing place I have ever been to in my entire life.  They just baby you and it is so incredible.  They give you this page called your "itinerary" and it has everywhere you need to be and at what time and it's honestly just like a perfect society inside the borders of that clinic.  The doctor was the smartest person ever and just knew every little thing about everything is what it seemed.  He told me that he thinks that I have something called Ulcerative Colitis, but he also told me that it doesn't really matter what the name of what I have i because it is so different for every individual person.  Regardless of what it is, I have IBD and he said I might have to take this medicine every day for the rest of my life.  The news wasn't too upsetting, but I mean it's just so nice knowing exactly what everything is and what I need to do and look out for.  In the end I feel like really I just have something that has the potential to become harmful if I'm an idiot.  We caught it early and he sounded confident that I would live to see another day.  (Normal life expectancy)  I think of it how everyone probably has signs of the start of some horrible disease in their body, but it's just a matter of not letting it get out of control.  It's manageable and it is nothing to worry about in this point in time.  They are not rushed to do any other diagnostics or anything and they said I'll probably get another colonoscopy only in the case that my body starts acting up.  The symptoms are hiding, so apparently I appear completely healthy.

I am doing great, you are doing great, the world is just so great.  I didn't get any picture of any mummies, but the rest of them were so much fun!  I haven't gotten a package yet, but I probably will today so nothing to worry about.  I probably shouldn't listen to Les Mis I just realized, but thanks for sending it anyway.  I don't really know what I want for my birthday, but I'll try to think real hard this week.  I would love nothing more than to have my shirts tailored, but that's not really something you can do...  Is that expensive?  No worries.  I'll go into Dillard's and ask them.  Thank you for caring so much about your little almost 20 YEAR OLD boy.  

I'm glad you're not worried about the shooting.  It just seemed like a bunch of dumb kids or something, but honestly so many people have started moving in and hanging out outside ever since then, just a week ago!  It's like it attracted some people.  We'll let President know if it happens again :)

I love you so much and don't want you to worry about me.  I am really adjusted to this life and feel like this is going to be me forever, I even have been dreaming about doing missionary work lately, so we can officially say that my mind is on the work!  6 months in 12 days...

Love,

Eric

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