Nov 16, 2009
Alright family and friends, buckle your seatbelts and keep your hands and arms inside the ride at all times: There was a lot of things that happened this week.
There was a lot, but I think Im going to mention the 3 major things that happened, in chronological order, as it works out better that way. Alright, here we go!
1) Its 9:30 at night. Elder Stephenson and I are walking back to the pension after just getting rejected by a menos activo family that we really wanted to teach. We see two ladies walking up and I politely step out of the way so they can get through the side walk (The sidewalks in Chile are pretty small, and built for midgets because there are so many low hanging branches its ridiculous). They, however, just stand there. Not being one to miss a teaching opportunity smile and introduce myself. If someone in Chile stands in front of a few missionaries for longer than two seconds, they´re just asking to be baptized. As it turns out, the older woman was a member of the church, but went inactive almost immediatley. However, she somehow knew about priesthood blessings, and asked us if we could give one to her sick granddaughter, pointing to the other girl and a small infant in her arms. She was about 18 or 19, and the child was probably 1 or 2. Not that rare in Chile. As a matter of fact, I was pretty impressed. Elder Stephenson and I looked at each other for a moment to take in the randomness of the situation and then generous agreed and asked where they live so we could bless her. This is where it gets weird. They lived pretty far away and wanted us to do the blessing in the street right there. We politely explained the sacred nature of the blessing and offered to find a place nearby. We thought and realized the only place nearby was the less active family we had just passes by. So we go to ask the family that just rejected us if they would let us in to offer the blessing. Then it gets even weirder. The family accepted the invitation surprisingly, but when we started walking back to the family, the 19 year old mother was contently breastfeeding her child. Umm... yeah. Okay. We go to the family and thankfully by that time the kid had stopped breatfeeding. We pulled up a chair for the mother to sit down and she pops the kid back on again! Oh no! How am I going to do this? i thought. Elder Stephenson very very carefully placed a drop of oil on the baby´s head. Then it was my turn. I prayed to know what to say and do. I began the prayer, trying in Spanish, but it was pretty difficult a) not knowing the language very well b) with a name like Sadca Isidora Lindsey Sedevitch Idalgo, its hard to remember anything else, and c) I was a little worried about my hand placement as I was placing my hands on a breatfeeding child. I got the first part down, but midway through, the baby started to cry bloody murder. I couldnt do it. I quickly finished the rest in English. The sealing was equally difficult. The baby continued to cry as Elder Stephenson offered what he could of a beautiful blessing. I kept my eyes as tight as i could, knowing what I would see if I opened them (remember how the child was breastfeeding before she started crying) crying=no cover. We finsihed the prayer and I looked at everyone but the family. We got a cita with them for later in the week and discovered that our prayer worked: the baby was fine and healthy again. I was sweatin bullets on that one.
2) The day before changes. We are by the bishops house because we need to ask him a question. While we are waiting, we see a few of the kids from the ward were kicking the soccer ball around. We go join them for a bit and enjoy ourselves while we wait for the bishop. At some point, the ball goes astray, and I jog over to go get it. I dont know why it happened. I wasnt doing anything wrong, we had been knocking doors like crazy that day and were just waiting for the bishop. All I know is that the Lord for some reason wanted this because there is no other way this would have happened without there being some greater reason behind it. I walk up onto the sidewalk to get the ball and my foot falls weird and slips off the sidewalk. Then I hear it. Im brought back to scout camp, jumping on rocks. I land on one weird and I hear it. Im at track, running as fast as I can and while Im placing my foot down when I hear it. The same sickening sound I hear everytime I dislocate my kneecap. I heard it and thought "oh no" right before the world goes black and I fall to the ground. This weak knee problem has been with me for a while, and for the most part, I could get up and walk after. But this was different. Of course.I couldnt put pressure on it for the life of me. I get it wrapped up and put ice on it at one of the member´s house nearby, but I can already feel it start to swell up. This was not good. On a saturday afternoon after the doctor has gone home and wouldnt be there on sunday of course. The only perk was we got a free ride back to the pension. We sat there for a while and my knee just kept getting stiffer and stiffer. Soon it became the size of a grapefruit. What I think happened is that when I fell, I put too much pressure on my dislocated knee, which poked a hole in my synovial membrane, which exploded like a balloon, causing miniscus, bursa, or something like that to leak everywhere. Not too scientific, but hey, what do you expect? So now im in the mission office having just talked to the doctor. I have an MRI and an X-ray scheduled for 5:30 today, so we´ll see the extent of the damage. I hope that I can still walk around with my cool krutches that they gave me. Mom, dont worry, I´ll be okay. haha, I know what she is probably saying right now: "He needs to just take it easy and he shouldn´t have blah blah blah". Ashlee, you too.
3) Changes. Every six weeks, we have a chance of getting changed inot a new sector and place. Elder Stephenson has been in Parque for 5 changes now (7 months) and has told the President that he wanted to change, and got leaked information that he was leaving by the Assistants. So as we waited around the cell phone for the assistants to call on Sunday, Elder Stephenson packed. He wistled and grinned, excited to be leaving the sector that he has been in for way too long (almost half of his mission). Finally, it came. Most of us were upstiars, and I was already headed down as quickly as I could (via hopping on one foot). Everyone else soon overtook me and I was the last one down, hobbling in as Elder Stephenson answered the phone. "Alo? Hola Elder Rodriguez, como esta?" We all look at one another like kids waiting to get presents from santa. "yeah buena, entonces, cual son los cambios?" "Yeah, yeah, okay." "Elder Westover se va!?" It was all down hill after that. I was leaving and Elder Stephenson was staying in El Parque. Again. I packed my things the best I could with one leg. Elder Stephenson was too distraught to help me, but I dont think he would have helped me anyway. He definately needs to work on his bedside manner. The next day, we left to go to the conference where we would find out where we were going. I was super nervous, hoping I would be stuck with some stiff or a lazy missionary either. One by one, all the people from my pension left to go to their new companions. Then, right as I was spacing out, I heard my name and instinctly stood up. My new companion was a brown haired kid with a nice smile and a hopefully nice disposition. I got filled in later that I was assigned to the La Raiz mission: the northern most sector in the mission. It is up in the city Los Condes, the richest place in Chile. My comp, Elder Stagg, has been a stud so far. He is one of the zone leaders, so I know that we´ll be doing some good stuff up in La Raiz. This does not mean I am also a zone leader, it just means I am companions with one.
Alright, so that is about it. I am out of time, but I want you all to know that I love you guys all and will let you know how my first week in the rich part is. Im guessing it will be better than sleeping on a mattress on the tile floor!
Con Amor,
Elder Westover
No comments:
Post a Comment