It has been a while since I sent an email. Mom always sends a very good explanation of what is going on here and she does it so well. It takes me forever to draft anything and it is a boring read when I am done. There may be some duplication since Mom is sending a email as well.
This week has been a slow one in terms of proselyting. We had a contractor come to the church to install a new sound system. Mom and I shuttled them around and helped get them lined out. They spoke very little English so it was good to have Mom speaking the Spanish so Good. She spoke to them all the way from the airport. You would be so proud of her. They told her she really spoke good Spanish. The project was for two days, Tues and Wed. We did some teaching in between. Wednesday Mom cooked meals for two families. One that just moved here and one that flew in on Wednesday, who we picked up at the airport and delivered their car to them. We also took a couple out to dinner on Wednesday.
There has been a lot of dire member needs that we covered this week. Some of the members who are the go to's for emergencies are off island, so we became the go to's this week. Our past Branch President, Bro. Slezak has been very ill with kidney stones. He had surgeryon Monday and was not doing well. Sister Slezak called and asked us to come and give him a priesthood blessing before taking him back to the hospital. I called several branch members to help give the blessing, but none were available. I finally called Papo, a new member of a year and a half, to help me. We drove to the other side of the island, picked up Papo and went to the Slezak’s. We could hear Bro. Slezak crying and screaming from outside the house. Sister DeMille was able to give Sister Slezak a hug and a shoulder to cry on. Papo and I went into the bedroom and gave him a blessing. President Slezak calmed down, we got him to the car and Sister Slezak headed for the hospital.
We took Zarina, their two year old with us, dropped Papo off and proceeded to the hospital. We parked and I went to the emergency room and they weren't there. Mom called my phone and said they were outside. I went out and they were parked in the parking lot. They had seen us drive in. Sister Slezak said that he did not want to go into the hospital because the pain was gone and he felt better. I went to the car with Sister Slezak and he said to get in, I thought he meant his wife and I had her get in. He said no I want you to get in. So his wife got out and I got in. He proceeded to tell me about what had happened as a result of the blessing. He said, Elder DeMille, I have had a lot of blessings in my life but I have never had the feeling came to me when you and Papo gave me the blessing. The severe pain stopped almost immediately and a calm came over me. Before the blessing I was heaving, my whole body was jerking and convulsing, the pain was unbearable. By the time we got to the hospital all the pain was gone. I am very tired now and just want to rest. I don’t want to go to the emergency room.
People can sit for hours in the Emerency waiting room and never get in. We have heard of people waiting all night. So I could understand why he did not want to go in. A couple of weeks earlier President Slezak was in the emergency room he was laying hunched up on a flat hard gurney. I asked the nurse if we could get him a pillow. She said they did not have pillows in the emergency room. That is the condition of our hospital here. It was decided that he should get an appointment with his surgeon at his office. It turned out he could not get in until the next day at 8:00 a.m. He said he just wanted to sleep so we took president Slezak and family to our apartment, put him in the extra room and he slept for hours. Megan got the other two girls from swimming and brought them here and Mom fed them all. We finally had to leave to a teaching appointment. We asked them to stay the night but they were gone when we got back.
The next day Megan called and asked us to come to the hospital to get the kids, she was there with Bro. Slezak and he was going into surgery. We were on our way to serveral appointments. We said we would be right there, canceled our appointment, and went to the hospital. We picked up the 2 year old. We picked up some groceries, and some stuffed animals and took her home to feed her. Later that day we picked up the other two girls from swimming. We had them for the rest of the day. Mom and I enjoyed playing with the girls all afternoon. Mom also prepared a meal for them to take home that night. President Selzak had another surgery at the hospital that day. Megan took him home and then came back and got the girls. Mom sent the meal she had prepared earlier home with them.
The next day Saturday, I had organized a service project for one of the elderly sisters. By 8:30 am we were hard at work. We hauled lot of loads of rock, sand, and gravel in wheel borrows to build up a ramp to the shed Mom and I and a helper had put up the week before. By about 11:00 I was back home. Mallory called Mom while I was gone and needed help to get a prescription and medicine for Noah who was sick and running a fever. We canceled another appointment and proceeded to get the meds for Mallory. After we got Mallory what she needed we proceeded to another appointment. The appointment was with a member who had been gone from Church for many years. The prospects of getting her back along with converting some of her family was exciting. It may or may not work out, but you all know as a missionary, our hopes run high at even a glimmer of a chance that we can bring someone back to the gospel and new ones to the gospel.
It has been a week of service and a blessing for us. Construction at the church, a new family picked up at the airport, Lessons, Visits, Mom preparing three meals we took to families, plus meals for the Slezak kids at our apartment, Teaching, visiting, fellowshipping, taking care of families in need, medicine, a branch service project and teaching members and investigators. I guess you could say we have had a busy wonderful week. It is good to be needed and feel like we can make a difference for someone. Sister Slezak is the age of you all, She said to mom, you are treating me like my mother would. So SWEET. Mom is definately making a difference. Sister Slezak is going to need a lot of help with the baby comes.
Today, Sunday, was a bit of a disappointment, we did not have one investigator to church. However the Lady, Iotta, who we did the service for, came to church. She has not been for a while. Mom filled in and taught primary, she was asked just before sacrament meeting, and I filled in and took the Gospel Essentials class. There were a lot of members absent today, but we still had 45 at church. The week before about 80 and the previous week about 75. After church we had a wonderful casserole and then we went to the other end of the island and taught John, our long time investigator. It went well. I believe that he will be baptized eventually and if he takes that step he will be a strength to the branch.
We love you all, and appreciate the good saints you are. Isn’t the gospel wonderful? We are so blessed. We can’t wait to hold you all in our arms again.
Thank you for being faithful to your covenants, thank you for loving your children, OUR GRANDCHILDREN, they are precious, thank you for being examples of diligent faithful saints.
Love you
Mom and Dad
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