[Mexico MTC, Week 3] - August 12, 2014

Hey guys!

Isaac has told you in his e-mail, I think, about getting stung at Hunter Park during his choosies tonight for FHE (Jonah got stung too).  Isaac was a bit on the dramatic side about the sting, but it was his first time and that's a bit scary, I guess.  We gave him some Benadryl before he went to bed to help with any allergic reaction.

 

Oh no give Isaac another hug for me and tell him that Satan attacks people with wasps sometimes. And you can give Jonah a hug too, as long as you call him kiddo. 

Our FHE lesson was on the law of the fast, and along with the scriptures in my lesson I showed an older video that the Church had made.  It was kind of old school but still pretty funny as the teenager in the video moaned and groaned about having to fast.  It made Jonah chuckle, at least.

What is this video again? Maybe they will show it to us while we are here.

1. Tell us about Elder Lopez. Where is he going on his mission? Hopefully you can keep in touch with him.

1. Yes. I miss him. He and his companion Elder Navarez are going to Chihuahua. He was super friendly though. I forgot to attach pictures of me and him with my doughnuts. I will do that. When I busted them out, all of his Mexican friends were like attacking me and trying to get them. Imagine a huge pile of them on top of me with my arm clutching the doughnut box sticking out and me wildly shrieking "Lopez! Looopeeeeez!" That's kind of how it went. 

2. We're getting ready to send your package to Texas. Is there anything you want us to put into it? Something you forgot, something you're wishing that you had, etc.?

2. Maybe a Spanish coloring book. Good heavens I could have used one of those this week. I will explain later. Plus I'm pretty sure that would teach me more Spanish than the sadistic texts they gave us to learn from. And I like coloring books. 

3. How do you feel like you've grown spiritually and/or emotionally while you've been in the CCM?

3. Well I can see how having a companion might prepare me for marriage. I pray for ways to serve and love Elder Riding so our companionship can be strong. It also helps that me and Elder Riding get along really well already.  I feel a closeness to the spirit here that is similar to how I felt prior to my mission, but is sort of unnameable. I just know that if I'm obedient, I am entitled to the Lord's power and support. There is a significant profundity to that kind of lifestyle. And the food has forced my stomach's spirit to grow emotionally. What I wouldn't give for Five Guys (a burger place) right now. I still need to work on my work ethic and focus in study, but I feel like I'm more aware of the kind of life Heavenly Father wants me to live, even in little ways.

4. Have the problems in your district that you alluded to last week been resolved? How are the different elders and sisters who you've mentioned doing?

4. More or less. I've sort of come to the conclusion that everyone involved had a little bit of growing to do, and the Lord has significantly humbled the whole district. Once again, I will explain below. I've been blessed to grow close to some of the kids I wasn't really close with last week. Once you sit down and talk to each of them, you realize that there is something lovable in each one. I guess you can add that to the aforementioned list of ways I've grown. Everyone's weaknesses are made stark here, and the growing process comes on different levels, meaning as a district, as a companionship, as an individual, etc. Maybe I'm just rambling and speaking blasphemies. By the way, I got a sunburn, and thought it was an allergic reaction to some new soap I bought here (I know, I know, but I thought there was no way that it was a sunburn, because I was only outside in the heat for like an hour). Anyway, to combat the "hives," I took a Benadryl. That definitely helped me to grow spiritually. Really spiritually. Some nice stuff right there.

5. How's the Spanish coming? Anything else starting to click for you?

5. Mas o Menos. I've come to realize that a large portion of the learning is going to come with memorization, and I hate that stuff. I have been trying to find a hard fast rule to help me with all the conjugation and sentence structures, but with all of the different conjugation scenarios and rules with the random irregularities that come with every rule, I just need to flash card this crap. By the way, Dad, I kind of figured out the direct and indirect object thing. More or less. Reflexives are just mean. 

6. What do you wish we would have asked you that we haven't?

6. I'm not sure. I think some of the more interesting questions will come when I actually hit the mission field. I keep having to remind myself that I have only been here 3 weeks. It feels like way longer than that. That is another reason I am frustrated with the language. I have to remind myself that three weeks ago, I didn't know really anything substantial about Spanish. 

So are you ready for the fateful and aforementioned implied story? My companion almost died!!!!!!!! And no joke. So the bug that has been going around grew into a gigantic Mexican beast and tried to feed on his soul. On Sunday, around 11:30, Elder Riding leans over in the middle of sacrament and says "Monty." Well I know all too well what that means. We had like ten minutes of sacrament meeting left so I told him to hold it. After the meeting, he said he was fine, so we just went to lunch. At 4:30ish, in the middle of our Sunday devotional, he leaned over and asked me if I would give him a blessing afterwards. I told him yes, and kind of watched him throughout the rest of the meeting. He looked like he was in serious pain. We gave him a blessing, and he spent like twenty minutes in the bathroom. He went and got into bed. He warned me that when he throws up, he throws up loud. I half believed him, until he jumped out of bed and ran into the bathroom.

Good. Heavens. People in the next room came out and asked if he was okay.  He was screaming at me to get the doctor, so I ran outside and told someone to do just that. The doctor and his wife came, and tried to get him to work the sickness out. After the eighth vomit, they decided to take him down to the clinic to get an IV into him. We tried to get him down the stairs, which just resulted with him kneeling in the grass, puking.  They got him situated, and he spent the better part of the night puking. They pulled my mattress down from my room, and I spend the night with him.  At 4:00 in the morning, after 16 pukings, he finally stopped.  I felt useless. I would just help him hold the can and change the bag when he was done. But that's not all. He had a 104 degree fever. He actually stopped throwing up anything substantial after the third vomit. Most of them were what the doctors were calling "ringers."

And then I got it toooooooo!!!!!! Just kidding. I actually did get it, but I got the merciful version of it.  Like Monty squared. It also meant that I really didn't eat anything yesterday. I didn't get dinner on Sunday because of the emergency (and let's face it: after seeing and hearing what I had just heard, I couldn't stomach anything), and then felt nauseous until dinner last night, which I only ate part of. They released Elder Riding at like 11:00 on Monday morning, and then we just crashed. Him hardest of all, obviously. We are going to eat our first real meal in about ten minutes, which we are both elated for. 

Anyway all is well now. We are going to eat and eat and eat and eat in a few minutes. 

Love you guys!

Elder Hickman



Note:  Here is a different perspective of this last week from Hermana Medeiros (in Noah's District).  She mentions Noah partway through the letter. [http://hermanamedeiros.blogspot.com/2014/08/week-3-nurse-shalyn.html]  

Hermana Woodard also mentions Noah in her blog post:  [http://hermanawoodard.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/week-3-too-weak-to-think-of-a-title/]