Being sick is no fun

         This week I heard your voice of advice through the scriptures. Seriously, it was as if you were there in the room talking to me! I will explain more a little bit later. So before I relate the events of this week, I need to start off by saying that I am now healthy, happy, and you have absolutely nothing to worry about. With that said, we can start in on the week!

          Last Sunday evening I started to have a horrible headache. The kind where it feels like a knife s stabbing your head. I didn't want to have to walk all the way back to our house just to get some medicine though, so we just kept working. Monday morning I felt a bit better, just sore and still with a bit of a headache. It was p-day though so I was able to take it relatively easy. The next day the Sister Training Leaders came out to Alfenas for splits with me and Sister Malta. I had a very full day planned for us! It ended up being a very successful split. We taught tons of lessons, set several baptismal dates, made a lot of good contacts- and I didn't even get us lost! I think I was so busy making sure that everything went well during the day that I didn't have time to think about myself. By the time 9:30 rolled around and we finished planning for the next day though, I wasn't feeling too great. I just hurt everywhere, my eyes were burning and my head ached like crazy. I took my temperature and had a fever too. I didn't want to slow down our work or the next day though or inconvenience anyone, so I just went to bed hoping I'd feel better in the morning. The next day though things were even worse. I took some pain reliever and fever reducer and got to work though. The meds didn't help much though. I made it through morning exercise, getting ready for the day, breakfast and started in on personal study. I was reading in Jacó 6. Even though it was in portguês, when I read verse 12 it was as though you were right there talking to me. In português it starts, "Oh! Sede sábios!  Que mais poderei dizer?"  I'll let you look that up in English :) (I looked it up for you! Jacob 6:12 "Oh, be wise.  What more can I say?") I then remembered you telling me to take care of myself and not just push through pain and sickness. I had an internal struggle over the matter briefly- I really wanted to visit our investigators we had planned out for that day. They really needed us! Yet the Mom voice won out. I told Sister Malta what was going on and Sister Bicaleti happened to be walking by. She asked a bit more about my symptoms and then told me that I probably had Dengue... (she took a medical course pre-mission). So we called up a member in the ward and they took us to the hospital. After several hours there, they diagnosed me with suspect Dengue and told me to just take some pain meds and come back if things got worse. So we did that and then went home. The next day we tried to continue on as normal. After our first lesson though I wasn't doing too great. So we went back to the hospital. This time we got them to run a blood test and sure enough, I had Dengue. There isn't really a cure for dengue. They gave me an iv again and a liter of a saline solution (I think... something to keep me hydrated and flush my system. I finally go to go home at about 1am... After that I was on orders from President and the doctor to rest up, drink a crazy lot of water and stay home for a few days. They gave me some better pain killers and fever reducers. The first day the pain killers were doing nothing. It was miserable, I just hurt everywhere. Then I was able to get a blessing from some Elders though. Within the hour I started to feel better. By Sunday I felt fine again and was sick of being stuck in the house. Today I will finally be able to return back to normal missionary life and teach my investigators again! Like I said when I started off, I am back to normal health wise. I feel great and am good to go. Don't worry, I will definitely be careful still and take it easy if needs be, but I am so happy to be getting back to work! 

         So things that I learned this week: 1)People in a hospital waiting room are pretty open to a gospel message, (2) if you are sitting next to a bunch of people who also have IVs in their arm, you should share the gospel. They can't go anywhere (3) Nurses are more likely to help you if you say thank you often and give them a pass along card (4) Juice is heaven (5) My medical vocabulary could use some work (6) Not being able to visit my investigators is torture (7) a companion isn't quite as good as having a mom (8) Priesthood blessings have amazing power

        Needless to say, after this week I will be using my bug repellent religiously (and not just because I am a missionary)! I don't have much else to write about this week... weird, it's like I didn't get to do anything! Haha! 

 

Sister Maxwell

Nice apartment.. don't mind the weeds or barbed wire

American Food!!!!