Double Headed Dragon

Monday 24th March, 2014

So this week has been interesting. They went on exchanges, and Sam mentioned to the District Leader that something bad always happens on exchanges. That day he got a phone call telling him he had to go home for surgery, and Sam got what is called "double headed dragon" (vomiting and diarrhea at the same time). He has never thrown up with so much force or volume before. He had eaten rice for lunch, which made for a really interesting texture when it came back up. That totally wiped him out for two days, so they're behind on their goal to teach 120 lessons this transfer, right now they're up to 35, they need to be up to 40 to be on track for our goal.

Sam also discovered a bed bug infestation in the box springs in the apartment, so they had to throw them away, that was pretty interesting, Sam has never seen bed bugs before. He finally found the reason that there was blood on the sheets every morning!

They talked to some people outside their apartment, her name was Jarene or Janene (I'm not sure exactly). She had just lost her mother and they offered some words of comfort and they saw them again the next day and invited them to stake conference. Elder S. Gifford Nielsen was there, and she had the opportunity to talk to him and he gave some words of comfort and counsel as well. It's really handy to have a seventy tell a potential investigator that they need to take the missionary discussions!

Sam also sang in the stake choir, it was really hard since he effectively had to sing tenor because the bass part was so high. He only got one hour of practice before they actually had to sing. The stake is big enough that it actually has to be broadcast to another stake. They got a text from another set of Elders telling them that the way the camera was zoomed, whenever somebody walked away from the pulpit it was zoomed in on Sam!

Mary Allen is ready for baptism, she will be getting baptized on the 29th, she has struggled with alcohol (I told you about her relapse last week), after she was admitted into hospital they totally de-toxed her and she has changed a lot. She is a lot happier and will hopefully be getting her daughter back shortly. They also just taught her a lesson last night about family history and temple work, and she accepted the commitment to prepare to enter the temple to do baptisms on behalf of her ancestors.

So one year tomorrow Sam was at the airport to leave on his mission, how quickly has that went by!? People say that the next year is going to fly by, and he is betting it does, time just gets faster and faster the longer the mission goes.