A Week of Trial

Good news and bad news.

The bad news is: My companion had to stay home all week.

The good news: I read all of Isaiah out loud in one day to Elder Segura and am now starting Ezequiel in my quest to finish the Old Testament.

It seems the mission repeats itself. Just one short year ago I was the one suffering in a bed at home. This year, it is my companion. Last Tuesday, he tried to get his wisdom teeth out since they have already knocked some of his teeth out of line. Shouldn't he have done this before the mission some would ask? The answer is yes, but you have to give him a break since he had his appointment for the 5th of April and his call came after telling him to report to the MTC on April 3rd. However you look at it, he is paying for it now. 

Keep in mind we are here in Candelaria, one of the remote areas of the mission without specialty doctors. For example, no one here sells glasses. No optomotrist. Therefore, it makes sense there would be a specialist to take out wisdom teeth. Apparently that is normal, so he went along with it. I didn't realize how they planned to do it beforehand, but when we showed up the dentist got to work giving him 4, ultimately 5, anesthetic injections. Then the dentist cut open the gum with what honestly looked like a butter knife. He then proceeded to just dig in as would Captain Hook and pull up relentlessly. All to no avail. I laughed. Elder Segura got mad. Ha. 

The end of the story is that he got no relief to his pain of his wisdom teeth pushing on all his other teeth. But he also now has pain from when the dentist cut down to his bone and just left it there when he decided he wouldn't be able to do it. No saws, no stitches, just Captain Hook. Somehow I doubt Elder Segura feels as good as Peter Pan. 

So, I'm no dentist and have little idea of how to take care of him. He can at least talk now and eat normal. But I made him rinse with salt water. It was pretty gross when he couldn't brush his teeth. But, we're past that now. We haven't really been able to do much this week so I can't say how things are going. One day we sat in the Church all day as I shouted that I would buy their tortillas or an ice cream if they beat me in Book of Mormon Memory to try and trick them to come inside the Church. I stationed Elder Segura at a desk with a piece of paper to write down all their information that I got out of them while we played so that the other missionaries could go visit them. We got one person to come to Church that way. And I didn't even buy anyone's tortillas. 

So, it's been a rough week, but we've been as dilligent as we could. All the time in the house is more tiring then the hot Mexican sun and has made us eager to get back to work. 

So, I'll finish with a scripture that I read today in Lamentations 3:40 "Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord."

We all lose our way sometimes, whether it is for sin or lack of paying attention. May we each meditate on what we do each day and give a report to the Lord and let Him help us reach higher.

Elder Andrews