Monday, April 25, 2016

Let the house rest begin

So here are the details about my back and what happened with the cambio. 

Cambio: Presidente Obeso made some changes. I did not go to Punta Arenas. I went to a neighboring sector- Martines de Rosas. Like literally the neighboring sector. I walked to it. It is in the same district as my last sector (Los Encinos). 

My back: I am on rest. That means I don’t leave to work for 30 days. I have permission to go to church, meetings, and scheduled appointments. We basically never leave the house. I normally don’t even go to scheduled appointments because my back hurts really bad after walking. After going to church, my back hurt from the walk. I can’t walk or stand for extended periods of time. I’m not doing exercises. I’m not chopping wood. But I can walk around the house just fine and without really any pain. I can always feel my back. But it only really hurts after walking or standing for more than a little bit. This week my back has gotten worse. Haha. I totally feel like Betty White in that Snickers "You’re not you when you’re hungry "commercial. "My baaaaaaack hurts!" And then she gets tackled. Hahaha

To pass the time, I’ve basically been gratifying all of my disobedient missionary desires I’ve ever had. For example: after lunch naps, studying Spanish for longer than I’m supposed to, and watching movies (mission approved of course). But we are going crazy. We are also making a division calendar with the members and other missionaries in our district so Elder Hobbs can work in our sector.

Movies we have watched: God’s Army, The Other Side of Heaven, Legacy, The Saratov Approach, The Work and the Glory 1, 2, and 3. 

I’ve also been able to cook a lot: frog eye salad, brownies, scones (twice), sloppy joes, cookies, muffins, chicken noodle soup, chicken Alfredo pizza and normal pizza. And we have also boiled chestnuts with sugar (that’s a thing in Chile). 


Last pday we watched the sea lions on the river side, made a pichanga as a zone. Today we had Elders Griffin and Camargo from Paillaco come over. Elder Griffin and I got our calls in the same week while at Lone Peak. We took the same AP psychology class. So it is way fun to jut chill with him. We made pizza and scones. 

My new zone leader that replaced Elder Ryan is Elder Davis. I spent my first day in the mission with him.

I’ve made some goals for the time I’ll be in the house. I’m going to read Jesus the Christ all the way through. I’m reading 22 pages a day. I’m also studying an hour of Spanish every day and memorizing 30 words daily. 

I absolutely love my new companion. He is from the group that arrived right after me. His name is Elder Hobbs. He is from Taylor, Utah. Tyler Anderson is serving in Hooper. My comp’s grandparents live in Hooper. Cool connection. My companion went to Roy High School, and played football and basketball. He has a scholarship to play as a receiver for Dixie after his mission. He is super fun. We get along great. 

The former mission nurse just ended her mission. She was serving in the same ward as I was. When she heard about my medical rest, she told me not to be down. She said a lot of times when missionaries have rest like that, they feel disobedient and want to work really bad. She said right now, obedience for me is resting so I can work later on. That has helped me a lot. Because when I got the news from the doctor on Monday about the rest, I was pretty depressed the rest of the day. I felt worthless. Especially because I didn’t go to the office where I could do something even as a "broken" missionary. But I’m good now. I’m growing still. That advice from Hna. Laguna was a tender mercy. 


On the day of Cambios, Elder Ryan was feeling sick. He had thrown up all of the night before. He asked me for a blessing. I’m so grateful for the priesthood. I felt the power of the priesthood in that blessing. 

While watching The Other Side of Heaven this week. A part hit me. Feki was talking about how the missionaries taught his drunk dad and he turned around. Feki then thanked the missionaries for their sacrifice for leaving their families and traveling a huge distance to teach his dad. The missionaries than told Feki that their sacrifice was small, and that there were other missionaries who were injured, or persecuted, or living in worse circumstances. I felt the Spirit. I felt included for a minute with that "other missionaries" group. I have walked until I can’t. Like, literally. Because now I am in the house. I have walked until I’ve had back problems. I felt good.

This week, I found some scriptures that have helped me. Doctrine and Covenants 61:36; Isaiah 41:10; and 1 Nephi 21:14-16.

I have had a lot of time to think this week. I was thinking about how we grow by grace to grace as we have faith and humility. I feel like I have humility. But the faith had me thinking. I could have more faith that the atonement can help me with MY weaknesses. I felt distanced a bit from the enabling power of the atonement. Like could it help me with MY weaknesses? I read in Jesus the Christ how Christ healed multitudes of people. And I thought that if I could only be in those multitudes, He could heal me. I would see Him face to face, and He could help me. Then I remembered how Christ healed a man’s son. The man asked him to heal his son who was hours away, and Christ said his son would be healed without even going to him. And it happened just like that. He also healed a Roman gentile centurion’s servant with just His word. He healed him from a distance. And here I was feeling a bit distanced from the atonement. And the Spirit taught me that I don’t need to be in direct contact with Christ to receive His healing. He loves those in the multitude just as much as those who are in a house in southern Chile.  Christ can heal me from a distance, just as if I were there in the multitude.

Elder West