Man vs Body

This week has been an interesting twist to the normal pace of missionary work.

First off, I had an ingrown toenail. There's some pictures floating around in some place of the operation haha. I didn't want to go to the doctor and have the whole nail removed (I wouldn't be able to play soccer for like 2 months or something like that), so Elder Conisds, our District leader, a Guatemalan with like one semester of schooling in Medicine, injected me with some painkiller in my toe and then removed it with Nail Clippers, tweezers, and a rather large pocket knife. That lasted about an hour and a half, and hurt like a BUGGER. Hahaha. At the same time, this whole week I've been sick (since last Tuesday). So I was barely eating and basically felt like junk the whole week.

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So Friday was the 'operation', and then Saturday we had an appointment really far away in Concepción. There's only like 5 buses in the day that go out there, and from the (final) bus stop it's like 3 or 4 kilometers of walking. But, lucky for us, a member was going to drive us there!

So, we're going to meet this member in the church at 4:30. We get there 10 minutes early like good missionaries, but they decided to pass by the mall so they get to the church at about 5:20. That's alright, no biggie.

We start going and like half a mile in the car dies. Oh dear. The last bus has already gone out there, so we're not gonna be able to get out there without this car! But, luckily, it starts again.

Then dies again. Then starts again. Then Dies again. This goes on and on until it dies a Little more permanently, in a Little 2 lane windy road when we were going up a hill. Oh dear.

Luckily, my companion's worked in automobile engineering! Sweet! So he checks the car out. Turns out, there's a rather large hole in the radiator. Like, it's completely busted. So we run to the only 2 houses there are nearby (we're out in the boonies by this point), and ask for wáter. 12 liters of wáter later, the radiator's got wáter in it again. That is, after my companion pulls off the cap that says that we should 'never in our lives under any circumstances remove this cap while the car's warmed up'. Luckily, he didn't get any 3rd degree burns because there wasn't any wáter.

So, the car gets going up this hill to find somewhere a Little more flat with sickly old me and my companion running behind it, and it's just leaving a river in it's path. ALL the wáter is spilling out! But, it gets to the top eventually. And there just so happens to be an engineer there! He takes a check, finds the same problems that my companion found, and we toss some more wáter in that radiator. He also hotwires the ventilator, because the fuse blew because the car was so hot from not having wáter. The wáter barely lasts until we get to the people's house that we're going to teach, and now it's a Little after 7 PM. Everything nice and 'calm'.

We get in the house and I realize that I'm not feeling so hot. I ask them if I can use their bathroom, and 20 minutes later I'm feeling a Little better. We start the lesson, and it went well, and we ended it and everything went well. Except that there's no way to get back. The last bus passed approximately 2 hours ago. So we have to wait for a taxi, which takes about 30 minutes to get there, and we head back to the house at about 8:40. All in all, it was about 4 and a half hours.

It was an interesting day :)

But really, with that and everything else that happened, this week was tough. I've never liked doing anything when I'm sick. I felt like I was being barraged on all sides by sicknesses and accidents and toenails and just everything. But the Lord has a plan for us. Everything turned out OK. I'm better now, the car's fixed, and the toenails gone. All they are now are fun stories to tell!

Really, in all moments of our lives, we're going to pass through tribulation. It's how we face that tribulation that makes the difference. If we're willing to be stopped by a Little bit of tribulation, then Satan will always have a Little bit of tribulation to put in front of us. If we wait until calm waters to progress, we'll find that we never move out of our stormy seas. We have to take a leap of faith, run a Little faster than we think we can, and we will always find the support we need. We can always trust in our Savior and Redeemer, Jesús Christ, to help us in whatever situation we might come across.

We can be debilitated by our circumstances, or we can choose to grow and overcome them. All it is is a choice, but only one choice will let us progress in this life.

Adam fell that men might have joy. But that Joy isn't free. As we push ourselves to follow the Example of Jesús Christ a Little better, that joy comes along. Let us all endure through whatever problema we might have, growing instead of shrinking at the sight of trouble.

I love you all! Have a great week :)

-Elder Henry
We had to take the other Elders' clothes to the cocinera (cook)'s house at the same time, and I had to bring like 3 kilos of rice and some other things, so I was pretty well loaded up for that walk hahaha

This car is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Oh my gosh. Hahahhaaha. it is TINY! And it tries so hard to be a van or something like that but it's just tiny... hahaha

 

I was nice and comfy on our long bus ride back from La Paz haha

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