Dear Family,
Well, this week was filled with some experiences, let me tell ya... whew!
Basically what went down is that on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, I was super sick! Went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at midnight with some good old diarrhea. Not thinking much, I went to the bathroom and went back to bed. About 1:30, I woke up again, same thing. 2:30 I woke up and it was same thing, but this time vomit came up with it. Basically this continued about every hour until about noon or so, when it finally started to die down. Elder Marble and I drove to a CVS and bought some apple sauce and a couple gatorades to try and get some of what I had lost back into me, but basically it didn't do much.
Unfortunately, on Wednesday we had a couple of key appointments, so despite not having eaten anything and feeling like junk, we went out to a couple of the things that we had arranged. We taught one short lesson with some recent converts, and the other guy wasn't home, so rather than going to our backup plan of knocking doors, we ran back to the apartment cause I was having trouble just standing up for more than 3 minutes. Elder Marble told me I looked paler than ever, which is a pretty impressive thing considering even being in the sun down here I'm still pretty white. My cheeks, which are normally bright red looked super white as well. So, I chose to spend the rest of the day on bedrest to try and get over it.
Unfortunately, on Wednesday we had a couple of key appointments, so despite not having eaten anything and feeling like junk, we went out to a couple of the things that we had arranged. We taught one short lesson with some recent converts, and the other guy wasn't home, so rather than going to our backup plan of knocking doors, we ran back to the apartment cause I was having trouble just standing up for more than 3 minutes. Elder Marble told me I looked paler than ever, which is a pretty impressive thing considering even being in the sun down here I'm still pretty white. My cheeks, which are normally bright red looked super white as well. So, I chose to spend the rest of the day on bedrest to try and get over it.
Elder Marble got some good study time in, which helped him a lot since he has a goal to finish the Book of Mormon in Spanish before Christmas, and he was way behind. I basically just tried to rest and sleep it off, but I'm pretty sure I had a fever and too, because even with all my blankets I still kept going from hot to cold. When I went to bed that night, I will say that I probably had one of the most earnest prayers I've had in a long time. After spending a day in bed not working, I basically felt like a super lazy missionary. I missed going out and talking to people. Being away from it, even for that short time, made me realize how much I really do love doing missionary work. So, my sincere prayer was for God to help me get over it that night, so that I could return to service and help some people out on Thanksgiving day. Needless to say, the Lord answers prayers.
Thanksgiving was pretty interesting. The members really wanted to feed us, so we took the opportunity to share some Thanksgiving messages. We had an appointment for 12, 2, and 6 to share a message and eat. Keep in mind, I hadn't eaten anything the day before, and my stomach was just coming back to full activity. I didn't even have that much of an appetite, but Thanksgiving called. Basically,I ate waaay to much for my first day after being super sick, and was pretty much full to bursting with turkey and brisket. (I think it's a Texas thing to cook brisket with the Turkey, just in case the light meat is too wussy for anyone.) But, in the end, everything turned out well and we had a fun time.
The district has been doing really well. We hit our baptismal goal for November, and we've raised our vision for December. All the companionships should be baptizing, and we have the faith that with God's help, we can reach our new, stretching goal. Elder Dewey and Elder Call are our zone leaders here in Brownsville, and I have a lot of respect for them, they're great missionaries.
I don't know how everybody's Thanksgivings were other than Mom's, so I expect reports :P
Oh, also, I've recently been thinking about some people I haven't heard about in a long time. How is James doing? Has he gone back to Utah for studies or is he in VA working or something? I had a dream that I was working with Mark, urr, Elder Johnson, here in Cameron Park. It was a pretty weird dream because his house was in the middle of Cameron Park (our ghetto neighborhood) and we were standing outside of it. Apparently a bunch of cholos (gangsters) didn't like us preaching the gospel so they rolled up to his house and tried to beat us up. We got away and all, but in my mind it started getting me thinking about what it would be like to preach with Elder Johnson in Cameron park. Weird idea, but I think it'd be a pretty fun time. Anyways, don't know why but I've had a lot of weird dreams this week, that was just one to give you an idea.
I hope everyone is having a great week! I'm thankful for you all and the examples you've given me. I don't think there's anything I'm more grateful for in this life than my family.
As far as ideas for Christmas presents.... nothing comes to mind right now, but I'll think about it and let you know next week. Love you!
