Hello!!
Thanks for the video of Leo! He looks really cute!!! How did you guys decide on Leo as his name? Is he short haired like a lab and the personality of a golden?
This week has been one of the most interesting weeks of my mission by far. In the beginning of the week we had our District Meeting, which was very inspirational. I don't know if I told you that when you're training you go an hour and a half earlier than when the District Meeting starts (District Meeting starts at 10:30). This is where the Zone Leaders train the trainees and basically check up on us trainers to see how we're doing on training them. When you're new to the mission you go to be trained for the first 12 weeks of your mission. The church really has a great program for training missionaries. I'm so glad that I have a training manual that guides me in the training process-- and while I was being trained also. Such a blessing. We train every day except Mondays and Fridays (P-Day and Weekly Planning Day).
Earlier this week we tried contacting people and hardly anyone was home or didn't answer. Bummer. Then on Wednesday we went to the Temple! We are so blessed to be able to attend the Temple every 6 weeks. It gives me that rejuvenating boost that I need. :) We took Zone pictures afterwards and then we were able to go to Deseret Book. It's always nice to get a CD since I only have like 3 and I'm already getting sick of them. lol
So Thursday was when it got crazy. At about 1AM Sister Holcomb woke up with the most severe pain she had ever felt in her right side and back. We thought it might be her appendix or bad cramps, but we weren't really sure what to do since it was the middle of the night. I had her stand up and slam down on her heels and it seemed like it wasn't her appendix so I gave her some midol. Since I was so exhausted because by this point it was like 2:30AM, I fell right back asleep. By 6:30AM, the pain wasn't going away so we called the mission nurse. She had us go to the Doctor that very morning to see what was going on. She couldn't really tell if it was her appendix either. So off we went to the Doctor and there he ordered blood work and a Ct Scan. We had to go to another place to do the Ct Scan and then we went home and wait for the results. The result came back negative on the appendix, but she was still in a lot of pain so they didn't know the cause of it. That night we had to stay inside and Sister Holcomb just slept.
Friday morning comes and she's still in a lot of pain, so again at 6:30AM we call the mission nurse and she tells us to go back to the Doctor. So off we go again to the Doctor and he still doesn't know what's going on, but he wanted an ultrasound done. The place where we were going to go didn't have an ultrasound, so the mission nurse told us to go to the ER because the family physician didn't know what was wrong. Yeah, fun times.
Then this starts the longest day of my mission so far. We check into the ER at about noon the entire process lasts about 6 hours. Let's just say that people are very interesting in the ER. There was a lady there and when she saw we were missionaries starting talking with me and asking me questions. I ended up teaching the first lesson to her and got her information to have the missionaries come to her house to learn more. She kept on saying there was a reason why we had to meet that day. That was the highlight of my day- teaching The Gospel. I have a strong testimony of teach when you find and find when you teach. The doctors basically said they don't know what's the cause of her pain, but they diagnosed something and had her get medication for the pain. During this entire day, I've stayed in contact with the mission nurse and President's wife along with what it seemed like half of the wards we cover. The members are awesome here! They such great care of us and checking in on us to make sure we were ok. We go home and basically go right to sleep even though it's only 7:30 (Sister Howes gave us permission to go to sleep early :] )
I slept for 11 hours and Sister Holcomb basically slept like 20 hours. Saturday we just stayed inside the entire day. Sunday morning comes and Sister Holcomb's pain was intensified and had also moved. We call the mission nurse again to see what we should do and she tells us to go back to the ER. Off we go again and this time the Doctors are inspired and figured out what was causing the pain. This time the trip only took about 5 hours and we were blessed to have great members who brought us over dinner and took us to the doctor and hospital. Today she has no pain and feels a lot better! I'm so happy for her that everything worked out okay and that she's doing better. Poor Sister Holcomb to have to go through this in her first transfer. We are now able to get out of the house and be missionaries :)
I'm excited for this next week and hopefully we'll be able to teach a lot of people this week! I love teaching this Gospel and how much joy and happiness it brings to me. We're teaching at 14 year-old girl that I mentioned last week and she seems super prepared. I'm excited for her and what the next weeks will bring. I can't believe that almost 6 weeks have gone by-- transfers are next week. We have a Sisters Training this Wednesday for the new leadership position. Crazy, eh?
Sister Collins
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Sis. Holcomb and Sis. Collins Mesa Temple
Missionaries in the Zone
Sis. Holcomb in ER