Staying Home is the Worst!!!! (Oct. 8th)

Hey everyone!!!

 

How are you all doing??????!!!!!!!

Hope you all enjoyed general conference!!!! I didnt quite get as much out of it as I would have liked (since it was in portuguese....) but it was still amazing! AND 19 YEAR OLD SISTER MISSIONARIES!!!!!???????? WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Lets fill the mission field!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was a tough one............

So, like I said before, the weather has been up to tricks here in Brasil......... a few weeks ago, it was baking hot. Then we had a week of freezing cold, then this past week was baking again.......... And that lovely weather has been wreaking havoc amongst us missionaries and Sister Feistner and I have each been battling colds on and off......

This week, apparently it was my turn again and I got a cold from you know where......... Tuesday night I started to feel sick and couldnt sleep very well. When I got up Wednesday morning, I felt terrible and had the WORST pain behind my eyes and in my head.... Turns out I had a fever. I gave up on studying and just retired to the couch for the morning. That afternoon, we called Sister Perrotti (the mission president´s wife) and she told us to head over to the hospital and have them check me out just in case. So we went out to the hospital, and the doctor just listened to my breathing, checked out my throat and was like "congratulations, you have a cold".... almost with a look of "check out these dumb americans coming into the hospital because of a cold....." hahaha.

The doctor just told me to go home and take tylenol and decongestant. So we went home and I took medicine and slept the rest of the afternoon.....

Then that night, I couldnt hardly sleep.... ended up waking up at about 12 and not being able to go back to sleep again till 4ish.... sweet.

Thursday, my fever was worse and I was still feeling terrible so we stayed home again. And I still couldnt sleep.

Friday, woke up with a bad fever AGAIN, and had diarrea..... So we called Sister Perrotti and she told us to go back to the hospital. So, Izabel (the bakery lady who loves to take care of us) took us out to the hospital again. I was like "sweet, we get to go BACK to the hospital so the doctor can laugh at us stupid Americans AGAIN. Yay." hahah. We waited at the hospital for a while, and then went in to see a different doctor. He prescribed a bunch of medicine and then had me go in to get a shot in the butt and be put on an IV for an hour..... I thought they just gave shots in the butt to five year olds!!! hahah. But no, apparently they do that a lot here in Brasil. They also put people on an IV a lot.....

Afterwards, Sister Feistner and I were waiting for Izabel to come pick us up out in the waiting room when I started to feel really, REALLY awful. Then I started to feel like I was gonna pass out..... I was like "Sister Feistner..... I dont feel so good..... I cant see..... I cant hear......." At this point, Sister Feistner got up to go tell one of the receptionists that I was either having an allergic reaction to the medication, or I was gonna pass out..... While she was telling them this, she looked back at me just as I slumped back in the chair and passed out. So she just was like "just kidding, she passed out!"

Apparently, my blood pressure just dropped because of all the medication and because I hadnt eaten much of anything... I was only out for about 6 seconds.... long enough for Sister Feistner to come back over to me, grab my face and be like "sister ward!! sister ward!!! can you hear me??!"

As I was coming back to life, I couldnt really hear cause of the buzzing in my ears.... so when she was like "can you hear me??" I was like "No. I cant hear you." hahaha. And she was just like "yeah you can you idiot, you´re talking to me!!" hahah.

Then they brought over a wheelchair and wheeled me back into the room with all the IVs and the little beds and had me lay down for a bit.... Sister Feistner was just laughing. Apparently it was pretty hilarious when all of a sudden I just slumped back and let my head hang back over the chair when I passed out.........

So they just had me lay down for a bit, then brought me some juice and crackers and had me sit and eat until my blood pressure came back up..... And while I was sitting there eating, all the nurses and the doctor all came and sat down and watched me.... As I´m struggling to open the stupid little cracker wrappers... And they talked about me like I couldnt understand a word they said (just cause I was a little too worn out to answer them... hahah.). They were like "poor girl. she´s so far from home and cant understand anything..... the other one has been here longer but this ones only been here six months..... " hahaha. That type of thing.

Eventually, we got to go back home. Then I slept the rest of the afternoon, and then we went out and bought the list of medicine the doctor prescribed.... SWEET.

 

Saturday, it was all I could do to get down to the chapel to watch General Conference...... We started walking there, and we had to stop every couple blocks so I could rest. hahaha. Then it was baking in the chapel which made me feel even worse.... so we had to go sit in the Bishop´s office with the AC for bit.

We only left the house for General Conference Saturday and Sunday and then stayed home the rest of the day.... I think Sister Feistner is gonna go crazy here pretty soon if we have to stay home anymore......... So I better be all better tomorrow!!! hahah.

 

Saturday night, after conference, we asked some members to give me blessing. Afterwards, I didnt magically feel better or anything like that.... but I was actually able to sleep well that night... All the other nights, I hadnt been able to sleep well at all. The night before I was soooo tired, but I couldnt relax enough to sleep. At one point I was crying in the middle of the night so frustrated that I couldnt sleep. So me sleeping through the night and actually getting some good rest was a miracle. I really hope that after another night of rest tonight, I will be able to work normally again tomorrow!

 

Staying home this week, we had a lot of time on our hands to read/study/watch the district movies/stare at a blank wall for hours..... and so in this time, I read some cool talks and one in particular that I really liked........ It´s titled "all things will work together for good" by Elder James B. Martino in the April 2010 conference.

He talks a lot about trials and difficulties and how our Heavenly Father PERMITS us to have these challenges because He knows that these things are what we need to learn and grow and become more Christ-like. He gives an example of immunizations and asks "would you do something to your child that causes them pain even though they didnt do anything wrong?? Of course you would!!" This is what we do when we get shots... we know that "a small amount of pain now will protect them from possible pain and suffering in the future".

I think that sometimes we have challenges and experiences in our lives to prepare us for the hard things to come....... We can learn now on a small scale, or when the real heart-ache comes..... But if we can learn to accept these things and learn them in the moment, we will be prepared in the future.

 

As for conference...... I´m still waiting for the print version to understand it a little better........ but I noticed a lot about being really converted and having a change of heart....... I know that through prayers, the Lord can help us to "change our hearts". So that we have more desire to serve and do what is right. And we need to strengthen our own testimony every day, through prayer, going to church and studying the scriptures. I know these are things we always say, but they need to be things we always do as well. If we want to actually serve and help others, we have to be strong ourselves.... and this comes through these simple seminary answers. It really does make a difference!!

 

Love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for your support, emails/letters and prayers!

hope you all have a great week!!!!

 

love,

 

Sister Ward

 

Pictures:

When Sister Feistner and I got splashed with lovely gutter water.............

after sister F. got stitches in her chin.............

Crazy motorcycle here in Araras.......... We´ve seen this guy a couple times and we are always trying to get a picture of it!! Finally we found it parked outside a little restaurant and Sister F. had her camera with her!! SCORE. Izabel filled us in on the history of this...... Apparently the guy who owns the motorcycle always rode with his two little girls in the side cars.... then the girls grew up and got married, so he got those giant dolls to keep him from being lonely. hahah. They move and everything while he is driving!!!

Neaopolitan oreos from Sister F.´s mom!!!! Woooooo! (the week that it was SOOO COLD, as you can see from the sweaters we are wearing.........)

 

Luciana and her two youngest kids the day of her baptism!!!! She didnt smile for the picture, but when we go visit her, she is always smiling!