The Hospital

Hello everyone, the subject for this week's email comes from an unfortunate event that occurred late Friday morning. Elder Rogers and I were just finishing studies when his back started to hurt. He went to lay down and I made lunch for us both. It became clear that this was not just a passing pain, and Elder Roger's self-diagnosis was kidney stone. Long story short, we went to the hospital and Elder Rogers was indeed right, it was a kidney stone. This took a while to find out though, because they wouldn't let us be admitted until our insurance checked out, and so I had a hassle of trying to get the church's insurance to send in some information to the hospital. 

Luckily, it all worked out, and Elder Rogers had an procedure on Saturday, and we left the hospital Sunday at three. So, while this was happening, I would basically just read the Book of Mormon. On Saturday, some members came and I was able to go back to the apartment to get some things: like a change of clothes for us both. The members were really great to us and we got meals, snacks, and other things to make our stay more comfortable. I was especially grateful for the blankets, because after being told that the hospital didn't have a lazy chair sort-of deal, I slept on the ground, with the hospital and member's blankets for padding.

The worst part about all of this, however, was that we missed out on listening to General Conference. We are already watching it a week late, and this was the much anticipated weekend. I'm not sure when we will get to hear the talks, we might have to wait from the magazines (which take even longer because we have to wait for a missionary to come in from mission headquarters in Singapore). But, we do have a little bit of time on P-days, so feel free to send in some recommendations so that I can pick and choose what I want to read.

Other than that our week was pretty normal and pretty good. We had a small miracle this week where we were finally able to meet with a lady who was a referral from someone in a different area. It seems like she didn't really know the person who referred her, but because she felt like it was inspired, she decided to meet with us. Her name is Alisaa and she is new to Christianity and very open. Elder Rogers and I had planned to share the message of the Restoration, but after finding out about her life, she shared that her dad had recently died, and she had powerful experiences with God while that was going on. So, Elder Rogers and I both felt inspired to teach her the Plan of Salvation, and it went well! We also committed her to be baptized, so this is the first investigator that we have had on date since I have gotten to Malaysia!

Finally, I feel like I should explain the plethora of pictures that I sent from our Pday activity today. Elder Roger's past area's ward mission leader: Brother Ben, was visiting Klang and he took us away from the city and down to the "beach." What we were looking at was the Strait of Malacca and there were some run down play ground things, as well as a 'good fortune tree' (I'm not sure what to call it. Basically, it is a tree loaded with red ribbons that have washers on each end and the names of people, as well as a good fortune phrase written on it. You then throw that onto the tree (the higher it is, the more lucky you are). After that we did what everyone in the states wants to do: tour a rice factory. It was cool to learn about how they get white rice (fun fact, white rice has 5% of the nutrients that brown rice has - and both white and brown rice are the same plant- white is just more processed). The rice fields are beautiful, and the concrete buildings that dot the country are bird nests, because the birds eat the bugs that eat the rice.  

The Church is true, and God is our Heavenly Father. Omnipotent and loving. I am having great experiences with the atonement, as I learn each day how to be a better servant of the Lord, and to be more Christlike in general. The Book of Mormon is also true, and I know that we can find both comfort and guidance within it's teachings. I recently read about Abinadi talking to King Noah about Jesus Christ. Chapter 14 is beautiful (same as Isaiah 53) and I know that through Christ, we can conquer and fear, trial, or weakness. Missionary work isn't always easy, nor is it easy to have a good attitude, but it is worth it.