Elder Christopher Egan: A Hospital Adventure

Hello pamiliya!!

So there's been some concern about why I didn't send an email last week (and yesterday). Let me explain, no, there is too much. Let me sum up. So last week we went to do emailing and the computers were really slow. It took forever just to load the email page and then we couldn't read any of the emails, just see that we had some. So we left and tried every other computer shop in Pagudpud. Turns out we lost internet connection right as we were trying to email. Bummer naman! (naman pretty much = !). So we didn't get a chance last week. Now to explain why we couldn't yesterday is going to take some more time.

Friday after lunch Elder R said his stomach felt bloated. We thought he just ate a lot. So we went out to teach and coming back he said it still felt that way. Little blessing that I'm just realizing now, a truck driver gave us a ride from where we were teaching which happened to be really far out in the bundok (mountain) and we would have had to walk a long way. But we went to a members for MCM/FHE/dinner. Well Elder R. said he felt a little hot and dizzy and needed some air. So we waited outside a bit and then went back in to eat, but Elder R's stomach was hurting again. So he had just a little bit of energen (it's like hot chocolate packets but with oatmeal and protein stuff) and then lied down. The members said he might have an ulcer so we were about to go get some hyoscine pills for him, but Elder R couldn't walk very far without his stomach hurting really bad. So the member went and got some and he just lied down while we cleaned up dinner and started FHE. Well he decided he'd better go home because of how he was feeling and we got about 50 yds down the road when he said he couldn't walk anymore and we had to get a tricey back to the apartment. We told President and he sort of freaked out (since Sister Barrientos usually takes care of that but she left to go visit her sick father). So Elder R just rested and we were both pretty exhausted and just fell asleep.

Next day he said it was still like that and he felt like his intestine was all blocked up. So that Elder J. gave President some instructions and told us we should go to Laoag hospital if his pain still persisted by . Well it did and miraculously the office elders were up in Pagudpud looking at a new apartment for the missionaries here when we decided we needed to go to the hospital. So we packed some clothes and left and when we got there the doctor's first observation was appendicitis. So he was admitted into the hospital and hooked up to an IV and told not to eat or drink for a day. So thus began our wait in the hospital. 3rd world hospitals are exactly like they sound: 3rd world. So the food they gave him was very measly and we were basically trapped in prison cell for 2 days (well it was a prison cell with tiles and a nice bathroom). President came and checked on us Saturday and Sunday night (he brought McDonalds when Elder R. couldn't eat so it was all for me :) ) and the sister that works at the mission home came and brought us better meals every day. Sunday morning they said it wasn't appendicitis because the appendix was softer and not swollen. So he had to stay there on Sunday and they said he could be released on Monday if the pain went down.

We got a lot of studies on Sunday. I read a good deal of the Bible Dictionary. It's fascinating. Most of the time we were bored out of our minds though. (I did write a letter so look out for that!). Monday they said he could go, but none of the office Elders were in Laoag to pay for the bill and as such we had to wait in the prison until 3:00. He had a UTI and we needed to go buy some drugs for him and by the time we got on the bus it was 5:00 and arrived in Pagudpud around 7:00. So today is our P-day instead of yesterday. And what's more fun is that we're really poor from that adventure until the mission can reimburse us.

So there you have the last few adventurous days. It's been fun. What else... well it's been a whole two weeks so there's plenty to say. So last Sunday we went out to Hannah's resort and had a Zone activity. It was really fun and I would send pictures, but I can't exactly do that because my pictures from that and a lot of other ones are all missing now. That sucks...

We went out to Caunayan this last week and that was interesting. It's way far, but there's a ton of people that were willing to let us in and listen to our message. I have a feeling that it will become a very good place to go and work. We had exchanges on Wednesday and I went with Elder D. We had a lot of fun, but it was stinking cold and that's why I'm wearing a jacket in the picture. He's a really good missionary. We were going to go to District meeting the next day and exchange back, but there was a landslide that blocked the passage through to Claveria so we just cancelled District meeting. That was a bummer too because it's nice to go and learn from our leaders and have spiritual meetings with other missionaries in the District.

Well that's about all that I think I have time for, but I'll tell you a quick bit about a guy named R. He's S.'s mister right now (they aren't married yet). He has problems with the Word of Wisdom and he drinks about every night. Before I got here he was smoking everyday, but now he's down to about 10 pesos a week. We taught him the Word of Wisdom straight up and told him he needs to start coming to church again and give it up. He said it's hard since he works everyday from about 8 to 8, but he said he would. Well we were in the hospital and the Zone Leaders told us he came to church!! That's pretty huge and we'll follow up with the Word of Wisdom when we can teach him again. Our work has been paying off. We increased our lessons by 20 from lat transfer and we have been finding a lot of new investigators. It's funny though, the lessons go up and then baptismal dates and church attendance goes down. We'll just have to work harder to fix that! Quick update with Sh. and L's family. Their parents said by April they can start coming to church because their jobs won't be as busy. We told them that's good, but not good enough. We encouraged them to try now to get work off. We don't think tatay's drinking as much anymore and they just seem happier right now. Thank you for your prayers and keep it up.

I got that scripture email and that was awesome. Soccer sounds like it was fun. I like hearing stuff like that. Keep me updated and have fun in Cancun.

Mahal ko kayo lahat!