This week was an adventure. A boring adventure. We tried to get things done in the week, but Elder Aranha´s pains did not leave him alone. Tuesday was pure suffering and slow walking and heat, and it made him worse. On Wednesday we went to the hospital again, a better hospital, but there was a problem with his health plan card and that meant hours and hours of waiting and phone calls and waiting for the insurance company to sort things out. Finally, at 6pm, we learned that we would have to wait until midnight for the technical problem to be worked out and to have him be able to enter into the hospital. Super annoying.
So the next day we went and got straight in at 11am. He went in and they did exams of the blood, urine, ultrasound, x-ray, gave him two more IVs, etc. It took until 6pm again. And after the whole day, much of which I passed either standing up in the exam room or sitting in an uncomfortable chair with sassy nurses running around everywhere. We did get to talk about the church with a murse (man-nurse) and a mom and daughter who were sick. They asked lots of questions. The mom and daughter didn´t believe that the Church is a Christian church or that we use the Bible. Thanks to a bunch of false rumors from neighbors. I showed her the Bible I use and my nametag that clearly uses the Savior´s name.
ELDER BODILY
A IGREJA
DE
JESUS CRISTO
DOS SANTOS
DOS ÚLTIMOS DIAS
JESUS CRISTO
DOS SANTOS
DOS ÚLTIMOS DIAS
Well, in the end,
the doctor said: Well, you won´t die, but we don´t know what is causing your
pain, ok? You can go. I almost fainted.
We spent the whole day there, and all they could say is that it probably isn´t life threatening.![]()
We spent a lot of time at home because he was having problems alternating between diarrhea and constipation. That´s probably more than you wanted to know.
In the end, I read three Liahonas (Ensigns), a bunch of scriptures, updated my journal, and slept this week. It has been horrible to stay doing nothing all day. But, in the last two days, it seems that the pain has stopped and his problems have gone away. We are excited to work like crazy this next week.
The zone leaders got permission to do a new year´s activity. We went to their house at 10pm and ate barbecued meat and sausage (traditional party food here, called ´´churrasco´´), salad, rice, etc until midnight. People lit off fireworks and yelled, and it was kind of neat. Then we all slept there before leaving early Sunday morning to catch buses back to our areas and arrive in church. We arrived late, sadly, because Elder Aranha was feeling sick and walking very slow. Therefore, no one was there to play the piano for the first hymn. I walked in and they had just announced the second hymn and sacrament, and I had to walk straight up to the piano, open the book ,and go. Phew!
There were only 32 people in church though. There is a custom here to spend New Years on the beach, so a ton ton ton of people went to the beach (an hour from here) and didn´t make it to church. We gave the lesson in Elder´s Quorum about goals, missionary work, and service. It turned out great.
Funny story. Tuesday night, walking home, Elder Aranha said that I always take forever to cross the street because I look both ways and wait for cars to pass that are way far away to pass. He claimed that you don´t have to wait so long, and don´t even have to stop to look both ways, it´s just a matter of being alert. I said it is better safe than sorry. He insisted on demonstrating his technique, walking out in front of me to cross the next street, making a determined effort not to look both ways or stop. It seemed that the street was empty, he glanced back at me with a smug look and then out of nowhere was almost hit by an old man on a bike. The old man was able to swerve and give a dirty look to Elder Aranha, thus avoiding a collision. Elder Aranha looked back at me laughing and said ´´He almost hit me!´´ And then his face fell, and he realized what had just happened. I laughed and laughed and laughed and he didn´t bother me about looking both ways before crossing the street any more.
Well, I want to send pictures next week. Maybe I won´t have time to do that and write an email, so just warning.
I hope your New Year was great, every one.
Tchau,
Elder Bodily
We spent the whole day there, and all they could say is that it probably isn´t life threatening.
We spent a lot of time at home because he was having problems alternating between diarrhea and constipation. That´s probably more than you wanted to know.
In the end, I read three Liahonas (Ensigns), a bunch of scriptures, updated my journal, and slept this week. It has been horrible to stay doing nothing all day. But, in the last two days, it seems that the pain has stopped and his problems have gone away. We are excited to work like crazy this next week.
The zone leaders got permission to do a new year´s activity. We went to their house at 10pm and ate barbecued meat and sausage (traditional party food here, called ´´churrasco´´), salad, rice, etc until midnight. People lit off fireworks and yelled, and it was kind of neat. Then we all slept there before leaving early Sunday morning to catch buses back to our areas and arrive in church. We arrived late, sadly, because Elder Aranha was feeling sick and walking very slow. Therefore, no one was there to play the piano for the first hymn. I walked in and they had just announced the second hymn and sacrament, and I had to walk straight up to the piano, open the book ,and go. Phew!
There were only 32 people in church though. There is a custom here to spend New Years on the beach, so a ton ton ton of people went to the beach (an hour from here) and didn´t make it to church. We gave the lesson in Elder´s Quorum about goals, missionary work, and service. It turned out great.
Funny story. Tuesday night, walking home, Elder Aranha said that I always take forever to cross the street because I look both ways and wait for cars to pass that are way far away to pass. He claimed that you don´t have to wait so long, and don´t even have to stop to look both ways, it´s just a matter of being alert. I said it is better safe than sorry. He insisted on demonstrating his technique, walking out in front of me to cross the next street, making a determined effort not to look both ways or stop. It seemed that the street was empty, he glanced back at me with a smug look and then out of nowhere was almost hit by an old man on a bike. The old man was able to swerve and give a dirty look to Elder Aranha, thus avoiding a collision. Elder Aranha looked back at me laughing and said ´´He almost hit me!´´ And then his face fell, and he realized what had just happened. I laughed and laughed and laughed and he didn´t bother me about looking both ways before crossing the street any more.
Well, I want to send pictures next week. Maybe I won´t have time to do that and write an email, so just warning.
I hope your New Year was great, every one.
Tchau,
Elder Bodily
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