Holaaaaaaa!!!!!
This week has been absolutely insane!!!! I really feel like I just came to Ecuador over again. I´m dead tired like I was in the beginning, I don´t have a clue what´s going on, and I follow my companion around like a baby duckling. But I love it!!
By the way, just so you know, my pday is on Saturday but tomorrow is conference so we´re taking our pday on friday. The assistants said we could. Don´t worry, I´m not being disobedient ;)
So, the office. To be honest, I still don´t really have any idea of all the things we do. Hermana Lecates, the old nurse that was here before me, was here for 2 days this week to wait for the new hermana so that they could go to Cuenca together, told me that we do things that we never would have imagined. So I would guess that I´ll be here for 9 months and at the end I still won´t have a set idea of what it is that I´m supposed to do, but yeah. Anyway, for the most part, we set appointments for sick missionaries with the doctor, we talk to them about their problems and tell them what meds they can try, we look for new doctors and hospitals that we can use, we pick up results from labs and x-rays, and we do a lot of random stuff. Hermana Johns works really closely with us too. We´re in the office on Monday and Thursday and the rest of the time we´re in the field proselyting, but a lot of times we have to cancel appointments because something happens with a missionary and we have to go take care of it. They can call our cell at pretty much any time they want to, even in the middle of the night, so it´s like being on call all the time. But for right now, I don´t really do anything, I just follow Hna. Foster everywhere bc I have no idea what I´m supposed to be doing!! I felt kind of bad about this at first but Hna. Foster said she was exactly the same when she came and as I learn I´ll start doing more things. So, NBD. I was talking to one of the office elders and he said that coming to the office is like drinking from a fire hose. It´s really true!! But at the same time, it´s a really awesome opportunity, because we get to work really closely with President and Hermana Johns. Who, by the way, will be leaving at the beginning of July and the new president and his wife from Venezuela will be coming. We already know that it will be ridiculously insane. Hna. Foster said that the mission presidents come knowing pretty much nothing and all President and Hermana Johns will do is give them the keys to the house. So they´re going to depend on us a LOT. Fortunately Hna. Foster will still be here with me, because she doesn´t go home until August. So I won´t be completely on my own!! Plus, we get to go on the gira, which is where we go on a road trip with president and hna. Johns and the assistants to the whole mission. This means I´ll be seeing Cuenca, Machala, Loja, and possibly Milagro, depending on if we stop there or not. But we´re not going until next change, bummer. But I should be going at least 2 or 3 times if nothing else comes up. I´m super excited about it!!
So now I´m going to tell an absolutely hilarious story about one of my first experiences as the mission nurse. We always have to give a presentation in the new missionary orientation, and this time they put all the new ones together so we had to do it in Spanish. Hna. Foster was talking about what to do if you meet muggers and said in Spanish, if you´re going to be robbed, you should keep some cash with you so you can give it to the robbers. Well we all thought that was hilarious, including me, and I laughed inside my head about it until it was my turn to talk and I told everyone that if they had diarrhea, they have to try it first before they call us. What I was trying to say was that they need to test it to see if they have parasites or bacteria or something before they call us so that we can know what to do for them, but the word I used, probar, is used when you want to say that you´re trying food. So basically I told everyone that they had to eat their diarrhea before they called us. Well all the Latins were looking at me like, what did that crazy gringa just tell us to do?? So hermana Foster explained what I had been trying to say (because I had no idea still) and afterwards we were seriously laughing so hard that we couldn´t breathe. It was SO funny, I wasn´t even embarrassed about it. So yeah, my Spanish isn´t as good as everyone thinks. But I did meet my future companion, Hna. Barker, who is from New Albany and totally knows the Porters!! Brad and James, how sad that you didn´t write me to tell me she was coming!! Anyway, she´s in Cuenca right now but she´ll be coming to the office in about 4 1/2 months. Yay!!
Our sector, Bolivar, is BUENISIMO!!!! There are so many good people there. We´re teaching a family of 4 that has already come to church twice, is reading the BOM and Gospel Principles, and loves the emphasis that the church puts on families. The only thing that´s not so great is that the hno. works a ton so we can´t always find him to teach him. But he loves the church too and we are working hard with them. Yesterday we were explaining all the things that we have to do in this life to return to live with Heavenly Father and our families to Hna. Lourdes. She pointed to faith and repentance and said, I´m doing this right now, and then pointed to baptism and said, I´m still missing this. We were like . . . . we can help you with that!! She still hasn´t accepted a date to be baptized because she wants to talk to her husband first (yes, they are MARRIED!!! ) but we figured she would say that and we would prefer to baptize the whole family together anyway. But we´re super excited about them. I can totally see the Spirit working in these lessons, it´s so amazing. Also we were talking to this less active member Mario the other day. We asked if he´d been reading his scriptures and he told us that he had a BOM . . . . . given to him by SHERI DEW. Well, we were pretty blown away by that, so he got it out so we could see it. Sister Dew had written something in english in the front cover and he had never found out what it said. So we asked him if he´d like us to translate. It said, among other things, I hope you serve a mission and get married in the temple. Well, Mario had made some choices that made him unable to serve a mission at this point, and when we read this to him, he started CRYING!!! He said that he wants to come back and we told him we would be here to help him, and that he could start by reading his scriptures and praying. He´s totally coming back, serving a mission and getting married in the temple. He´s only 19, there´s totally time.
All in all, I am content. I am ridiculously tired, all the time. This morning I fell asleep in planning, and I have these gigantic black circles under my eyes. I look like Hna. Foster and I have been having a couple of bad companionship inventories. Mom, if you´re feeling like you want to send me a just because you love me gift, some of that eyelipex stuff from kohl´s would be awesome. But really, I am doing great. I¨m overwhelmed and underslept, but I´m a pretty happy camper despite it all. I can see how the Lord blesses us because we really don´t have a lot of time to proselyte, because being the mission nurse is our first responsibility. But we have amazing people to teach, the members help us a lot and we somehow manage to accomplish a lot of the goals we make every day. It´s really interesting-and totally awesome. I thank Heavenly Father every day for this opportunity that I have. It really is amazing to see all the blessings that come to us when we´re doing our best. At first I felt weird because I came from working really hard every day, walking and talking to people and teaching all that, to this where I do a lot of sitting and waiting and watching. It was just a weird feeling. But I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be and that even when I´m sitting and waiting for the secretary to do something for me, I´m doing what He wants me to do.
To end, yesterday was April Fools in the US, but Hna. Foster and I got a good trick played on us!! We came home last night to find Hna. Montenegro and Hna. Castillo looking very sad and all of their luggage on the floor in the main room, desks empied out, etc. They told us that there was an emergency transfer and that both of them were leaving. I didn´t believe them at first but they were so convincing that soon we both fell for it . . . . . until Hna. Foster called Hna. Johns and asked her about it. Turns out it was all a joke!! Well we laughed for a long time but I was like what!! I was actually legitimately sad!! But they´re still here for another change at least, so hooray for that!!!
Well, we´re off to go grocery shopping. Be good, read your scriptures, pray and make good choices!! Mucho amor!!
Hermana Chamberlain
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