February 5, 2008

February 5, 2008 Our good friends Elder and Sister Rose from Bountiful have left this mission due to his illness . He had Pneumonia last year at this time and was very ill. He got it again 10 days ago, the Mission Pres. was away and so Sister Rose had to rely on the nurse here and her conversations with the mission doctors. They all tried to treat him without putting him in the hospital here because it is pretty scary. The nurse was in contact with the mission doctors constantly and they all did the best they could but I think it went too long. Elder P and I bought pedialite and gatorade and took it to them in Laura the previously Sunday thinking it might rehydrate him but he kept throwing it up and the decision was made to take him to the hospital for an IV . Once he got the IV he started to get a little better, but was still very sick. The Pres. came back from Christmas Island and immediately talked to the mission doctors and the decision was made to have him sent home. They left last Friday which was February 1st. Before they left we helped Sister Rose (Connie) pack – she had to do it in about 2 hours. She had stayed with us while he was in the hospital and we were all very worried but everything happens for a reason and I think the Roses need to go somewhere in the states where medical help is good and quick. So off they went. We will miss them – we had some good times together, they are just down to earth people and every once in a while when a tough day came along for them or for us we could talk to each other openly and then move on. We will stay in contact with them (they are the cruise people) and all will work out.
We have been seeing families this week and I have been working with both YW branches here preparing them for a New Beginnings night – they have never had one before. I found the Personal Progress Books in the Branch Pres. closet which we cleaned out last week and so I am hoping that the girls will get the vision of it and will work on getting their awards. I have had them make posters to announce it and make a poster for the YW Theme so they could stand and repeat it. We did a family home evening last night with one of our good families, the son and the husband are attending our 12 step program and doing well. The neighborhood children saw us coming and all came into their little home, they wanted to be a part of that. So we sat in the floor and talked about Samuel the Lamanite (thank you Janae). We played the games and they all loved it and asked us to please come back next week so we told them to invite their neighbors and we would. We had made sweet rolls to give to them and it’s good we made plenty. They served us dinner and didn’t have any themselves because there was not enough. I didn’t eat much but told them that I would take it home. It wasn’t bad but I just couldn’t eat to much of it, especially the raw fish, and boiled bananas although I noticed Elder P ate everything on his plate.
Remember James? The little boy who knows so much about the gospel - we have been working with his family and his Father is now coming to church and taking care of whatever he needs to with the Branch Pres. We love that family – their little daughter was baptized last Saturday so we gave her a CTR ring and gave James another one (his grandma took his). That is a family we will miss if we go somewhere. Actually there are a lot of families we will miss. We are working with another little family who are non member. They are getting married this Friday so they can join the church – they both speak English and are educated and they will be a great asset. We told them we would bake them a wedding cake. Life is good and we are fine – we love all of you and thank you for your prayers. We pray for you daily and know that the Lord will bless you while we are gone.