Mission Kent: I didn't shave for like 4 days...

January 29, 2013

So things only escalated with my companion's illness on Saturday. Apparently I had the flu and didn't know it and I gave it to him. Because I wasn't feeling well and I knew that I wasn't going out of the apartment I chose not to shave. I wasn't often waking up before noon even though I was going to bed at 10:30. But when Elder Roemmich got the flu it was bad news bears. Why? He has asthma. We were watching a church movie called The Mountain of the Lord when he turned to me and said, "I need to go to the hospital."

I turned and looked at him. He didn't look so hot. I called Brother Rauch, the guy that's always with us, to come immediately because I'm not allowed to drive for another like 3 weeks, and then the mission president's wife. Before B. Rauch could get to us, I gave him a blessing and I felt like my hands were burning just from touching his head. But it was a comforting blessing none the less.

We got to the hospital, and the Mission Pres and his wife showed up too. Elder Roemmich couldn't breathe, his heart rate wouldn't go below 140, his blood pressure was low, and he had a fever of 102.8. The Hospital gave him above 5 inhalers worth of medicine so that he could breathe and even ended up giving him cancer patient meds.

The mission pres drove me back to pick up our car, and then told me to drive back to the hospital. I figured with his permission it was okay ;) When we got back to the ER we found out that Elder Roemmich was going to need to spend the night. Pres told me I had two options, one was to come with him to the mission home, but then I cut him off right there. I said, "He stuck it out with me when I was sick, I'm going to stick it out with him." So we spent the night in the hospital. It was cold, and I slept in my suit. again, didn't have the option to shave. That morning Elder Roemmich woke up just fine. He could breathe, his fever was down, he seemed pretty much healthy. We joked around, studied the scriptures, and mostly waited to get released. We got home at the exact minute that church ended, but we were told to stay home for a few days because he's still contagious. great!... not.

Out of the last 5 weeks I've spent 2 1/2 weeks stuck in my apartment. You can only watch every church movie ever made so many times. I honestly had stopped feeling like a missionary and more like a charity case. But then Yesterday I wrote a letter to Katie Cary. It was the first time that I had shared my testimony in a week and it brought it all back. I love it. We're still not officially up and running again. Elder Roemmich still feels woosey sometimes. But hey, if staying home one more day will allow us to go out and work and not kill the old and the people with asthma, and get everybody else sick, I'm willing to be bored for another day cleaning the apartment and writing the Apke's, from Mommy and daddy's ward, who wrote me a letter .

So things I guess are settling down now, but I will say this, working out this morning was hard. I felt weak, really weak. I've seen a lot of flexibility loss, but it's okay, I've got a year and a half to get it all back. I only have 1-3 pounds to gain back from the tonsil surgery. The doc said yesterday that they looked fantastic and the nurses loved working with me. I hope that includes the one that I taught the first 3 lessons while doped up on surgery meds.

So I've got a question. Can I get the Germaid bread recipe? The St John's ward is having a chili cook off and they have a corn bread category. The YSA want to try it out.

Other than that I read Alma 5 for the first time in what seemed my life. When I read it in college, it didn't sink in like it does now. I hope I can use that chapter to my advantage in teaching the gospel. It's a powerful one. Go read it! This email can wait.

Mommy- don't worry. I'm a fight choreographer, I make sure that all my stunts are safe before I do them, including licking my machete knife. Why we have one, I'm not sure. It's just in the apartment. It's like one of 5 knives that we have that are actually sharp and one of 3 that aren't bent from missionaries abusing them. It's kinda funny.

Btw, it's really funny to point out to my companions on all the church videos, "oh I know him, he did this role in this other movie, oh and that guy's name is Moses in real life, oh and I know this, this, this, this and this guy in the back ground." It's ridiculous. I try not to point them out till after we've finished. Honestly when you point out that the guy who played Joseph Smith in the newest movie is also Willie in "17 miracles" and Peter in the Bible videos, it gets distracting for my companions while you're watching the videos. It pulls from the spirit, so I don't do it till after they've watched the videos all the way through.