On Thanksgiving day we received an e-mail from Trevor's mission president's wife (in Spanish) informing us that Trevor had been in the hospital since Tuesday with a skin infection and was receiving intravenous antibiotics. She said he was in good spirits and that he is a very obedient and hard-working missionary and a great leader. They expected that he would be released from the hospital on Friday. Here is Trevor's account of his hospital stay. Warning: It is a little graphic!
Hey Family!
Well, I was kind of wondering what kind of e-mails I would be getting from you guys today, and I guessed right. Hahaha. First of all, I’m ok, and you guys don’t need to worry too much. I guess I’ll just talk about that because that’s basically all that happened this week....
So...about like two weeks ago this bump appeared on my leg and I thought it was just like an ingrown hair or something. (By the way, this story is really graphic.) Soon after, another similar bump appeared on my butt like in between the two cheeks. I didn’t really pay much attention to them until they started growing and started to hurt. I called the mission nurse (who, I hate to say it, doesn’t help a whole lot) and he said he would call the mission doctor to set up an appt with a dermatologist. Well long story short, he never got back to me. I was in a lot of pain, and tried to self doctor myself, but figured that I'd just have to tough it out until it went away.
The good news was that last week Elder Amado came to our mission, from the Quorum of 70, and we had a SUPER spiritual conference with him. I felt super pumped up spiritually after, but my body felt crappy. When we got home I felt like throwing up, my butt hurt more than ever, and I had another huge lump, and I had a fever. I crashed on my bed and in the mean time Elder Leiva had made a few calls. He woke me up and said, "Were going to the hospital", which kinda surprised me, but we went. We went to emergency and they made me show them all the spots. My favorite part is when they squeezed the bump on my butt like a zit so the puss would come out. OUCH!!
Anywayssss....they told me the infection specialist came and they told me that they’d have to hospitalize me for 3 days...3 DAYS!!!! I guess I couldn’t argue with that. The weirdest part is that I was there alone the whole time. On Wednesday morning the nice nurse came in, gave me a towel to shower with, and I took a heavenly hot shower (the hospital is actually super nice). Then I put on a cool blue hospital gown and reclined in my fancy bed in my Maternity Ward Suite, and they brought me breakfast in bed: pancakes and syrup...I thought hmmm...this couldn’t be too bad. That’s when Señor Mustache and a short fat doctor came in. They injected anesthesia in my butt and cut me open to get all the puss out...fun stuff. My underwear got super soaked in blood so they gave me a man diaper to wear all day...
Anyways...making the story shorter, the first day was SUPER boring because I didn’t have scriptures or anything with me. I read the whole Mission handbook, made oragami, took a nap, and that’s when President and Hermana Monestel came at night and they actually tried to call you guys with me right there, but you weren’t home. President said something to me that actually made me feel a little better. He said, "Elder, I wouldn’t say this to a lot of missionaries, but since you’re a good missionary, I think the Lord is giving you a time to rest." I’m not going to lie, I did feel a little homesick and a little lonely, but the amazing thing was that I think I felt closer to the Lord maybe more than I ever have in my mission. I had aLOT of time to reflect on my mission, my life, my relationship with the Lord, and what I was truly grateful for. I think what I really narrowed it down to was Jesus Christ and his Atonement....I think I came to understand that a little more this week. It also made me appreciate the opportunity that I have to teach the gospel. Haha, I even joked with the nutritionist lady that came to ask what I wanted to eat. I asked if they had turkey and had to explain what Thanksgiving was. I ate lots of good food though, got really rested, and had lots of time to read, ponder, and pray. I was constantly hooked up to antibiotics though because what I had is called MRSA...which is supposedly a really serious skin infection that’s resistant to most antibiotics. I’m fine now, I just have to put bandages on my ankle and butt and take antibiotics every 4 hours.
I’ll save the story of the other one for when I get home (nothing serious happened, its just gross) By the way, I left on Friday like Hermana Monestel had mentioned.
Its kinda weird being back working now, there’s been days where I’ve said, I miss the hospital...I think I realized just how tough being a missionary can be after sitting in a nice air conditioned room with nice food, hot showers, and all that good stuff. But what I do have to say is, it’s worth it. I know that the sacrifices we make in this life for the Lord will be more than compensated in the next and that we will have treasures in heaven.
Quick story...remember that miracle family I told you about? Maybe I did...I can’t remember. Well we’re teaching this girl named Cindy who’s 17 and her husband is a member. She’s super Evangelical and her family wants her to get baptized with them in that church. We’ve been using our most powerful weapon with her quite a bit (the Book of Mormon). The awesome thing is that last night she told us that she got her answer and has a baptismal date for the 10th of December!
Anyways...I miss you guys a bunch. I’m glad you had a good thanksgiving and I’m so thankful that you’re my family. Don’t worry about me because I’m in the Lord’s hands.
Love,
Elder Ward
PS Mom I’m going to try to go to the distribution center here tomorrow to buy baptismal pants, so I’ll let you know next week if I could or not. Thanks!
Well, I was kind of wondering what kind of e-mails I would be getting from you guys today, and I guessed right. Hahaha. First of all, I’m ok, and you guys don’t need to worry too much. I guess I’ll just talk about that because that’s basically all that happened this week....
So...about like two weeks ago this bump appeared on my leg and I thought it was just like an ingrown hair or something. (By the way, this story is really graphic.) Soon after, another similar bump appeared on my butt like in between the two cheeks. I didn’t really pay much attention to them until they started growing and started to hurt. I called the mission nurse (who, I hate to say it, doesn’t help a whole lot) and he said he would call the mission doctor to set up an appt with a dermatologist. Well long story short, he never got back to me. I was in a lot of pain, and tried to self doctor myself, but figured that I'd just have to tough it out until it went away.
The good news was that last week Elder Amado came to our mission, from the Quorum of 70, and we had a SUPER spiritual conference with him. I felt super pumped up spiritually after, but my body felt crappy. When we got home I felt like throwing up, my butt hurt more than ever, and I had another huge lump, and I had a fever. I crashed on my bed and in the mean time Elder Leiva had made a few calls. He woke me up and said, "Were going to the hospital", which kinda surprised me, but we went. We went to emergency and they made me show them all the spots. My favorite part is when they squeezed the bump on my butt like a zit so the puss would come out. OUCH!!
Anywayssss....they told me the infection specialist came and they told me that they’d have to hospitalize me for 3 days...3 DAYS!!!! I guess I couldn’t argue with that. The weirdest part is that I was there alone the whole time. On Wednesday morning the nice nurse came in, gave me a towel to shower with, and I took a heavenly hot shower (the hospital is actually super nice). Then I put on a cool blue hospital gown and reclined in my fancy bed in my Maternity Ward Suite, and they brought me breakfast in bed: pancakes and syrup...I thought hmmm...this couldn’t be too bad. That’s when Señor Mustache and a short fat doctor came in. They injected anesthesia in my butt and cut me open to get all the puss out...fun stuff. My underwear got super soaked in blood so they gave me a man diaper to wear all day...
Anyways...making the story shorter, the first day was SUPER boring because I didn’t have scriptures or anything with me. I read the whole Mission handbook, made oragami, took a nap, and that’s when President and Hermana Monestel came at night and they actually tried to call you guys with me right there, but you weren’t home. President said something to me that actually made me feel a little better. He said, "Elder, I wouldn’t say this to a lot of missionaries, but since you’re a good missionary, I think the Lord is giving you a time to rest." I’m not going to lie, I did feel a little homesick and a little lonely, but the amazing thing was that I think I felt closer to the Lord maybe more than I ever have in my mission. I had a
I’ll save the story of the other one for when I get home (nothing serious happened, its just gross) By the way, I left on Friday like Hermana Monestel had mentioned.
Its kinda weird being back working now, there’s been days where I’ve said, I miss the hospital...I think I realized just how tough being a missionary can be after sitting in a nice air conditioned room with nice food, hot showers, and all that good stuff. But what I do have to say is, it’s worth it. I know that the sacrifices we make in this life for the Lord will be more than compensated in the next and that we will have treasures in heaven.
Quick story...remember that miracle family I told you about? Maybe I did...I can’t remember. Well we’re teaching this girl named Cindy who’s 17 and her husband is a member. She’s super Evangelical and her family wants her to get baptized with them in that church. We’ve been using our most powerful weapon with her quite a bit (the Book of Mormon). The awesome thing is that last night she told us that she got her answer and has a baptismal date for the 10th of December!
Anyways...I miss you guys a bunch. I’m glad you had a good thanksgiving and I’m so thankful that you’re my family. Don’t worry about me because I’m in the Lord’s hands.
Love,
Elder Ward
PS Mom I’m going to try to go to the distribution center here tomorrow to buy baptismal pants, so I’ll let you know next week if I could or not. Thanks!
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