Hi Family,
Well, I want to start thanking all of you for the fasts and prayers. Seriously, I am so touched and have felt it all!
I heard one time, that Satan will try anything and everything to get a missionary not to finish and I am hear to testify, it hasn´t been too easy. Actually, this problem has been going on quite some time, but it comes and goes in waves. But this week was a painful one. I think it may have something to do with the colder weather. Because during the hottest of days, my hear just ran non stop. But with the breeze, the puss get dry and hard... After a few sleepless nights I talked with Sister Del Guerso. Luckily, President had chosen us to give a training to a few of the zones, Caucaia and Cotia. (On a side note, dad you would have been proud. Caucaia only has elders, so it was a funny sight, us teaching a whole bunch of elders)
Anyway, Sister Del Guerso called the mission doctor, Elder Swensen who called the MTC doctor who called me. He asked about the symptons and the treatments I have already tried (there are A LOT of them) and got a little worried. You see, lots of things have had a temporary effect, but this stupid infection always comes back... with vengance. This CTM doctor is a specialist and told me that this situation is in no way normal and if the best doctors in the best hospitals are not able to help me here, there is a chance that I will have to go home a little early to figure out what in the world is wrong with me. And I panicked. I CAN`T go home early. I have things to do and people to help. I don´t want to lose anything. Not even one day!
But, long story short, they found an anti biotic that does directly in my ear. (in all honesty, I think I have already used it once but at this point I´m desperate) and it seems to be making a difference. A little less pain. A little less puss. So, we will see.
But as I thought and tried to find the good thing about this situation, I realized that Heavenly Father has indeed given me a great gift:time. Because after the last episode back in January, everything stopped for a while. I was able to spend a few months basically painless, and in the process, I was able to help a lot of people. Also, with this last scare, I was given a chance to think about just how precious my mission time is. As my hour glass is just about empty, I want to enjoy every last grain of sand because I don´t exactly know how much I have left.
But, on another note, this week had lots of wonderful things too. I saw my bestie, Vern (vanessa) and spent a wonderful few hours with her as missionaries! We taught a few people, made a Thai lunch and everything.
Also, Veronica is just wonderful. She came to a baptism saturday and absolutely LOVED it. Then Sunday she was at church again! She made all sorts of wonderful comments. At one point, she even bore her testimony, the the Relief Society, about the divine origen of the Book of Mormon. She said that she is only in 1 Ne 20, but she can already tell that it could have only been translated by God´s servant. She has already recognized that the Book of Mormon and the bible teach the exact same doctrine and complement one another so perfectly. In Sunday school she talked about Abraham´s lineage and expressed desire to start her own family tree. Everyone sat with jaws dropped.
As we were going to the baptism Saturday, I felt that we needed to visit a recent convert. We found his son Fabio, who we had actually dropped some time ago because he simply would NOT go to church and was not progressing. Fabio was a police officer until recently when he suffered a wave of mental illnesses due to the horrible things he saw on duty. I knew he needed the gospel. So much so that he was reading the Book of Mormon and writing summaries in English and Portuguese. But he simply would not go to church. Frusterating. On a whim, we invited him to the baptism, and he ACCEPTED!! Even though we still had an hour before the meeting would start, we couldn´t give him even a minute to change his mind, so we waited in the chapel reading scriptures and talking about the importance of the sacrament.
And, Sunday, HE CAME TO CHURCH!! What joy!
The baptism was actually the son of our LMA so you can best believe that he invited a few family friends and introduced them to us. There was a super special couple who LOVED the baptism and we asked if we could visit them and they graciously accepted.. They too are owners of another fancy restaraunt.. But after they told Kiko that they think we ``felt their positive energy´´ and were irresistably drawn to them! haha they are anxiously awaiting our visit!
Anyway, thank you for the prayers and the support. I couldn´t ask for a better support group!!
Sister Lauren
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