The Other Side

Dear Hermana Hughes,

I got a view of what it's like to be on the other side of health issues when we received an email from the Mission President's Wife in Budapest telling us that Dallin was in the hospital with possible appendicitis.  We waited all day to hear more and it was a good thing we were busy.  Missionaries show up about 5:30 am, right after we received the email, and we traveled to zone interviews in a far-away zone, experienced traffic problems due to All Saints' Day, and a had long ride home with a new assistant we dropped off.  These activities forced me not to worry about Dallin all day long. On our ride home there was an email that he was having emergency surgery at that very time.  And about 9pm we got a call from Sister Szabadkai saying she'd talked to Dallin on the phone and he was alive and sounded fine.  The next morning we got photos from their visit to him that night (he got sick on Transfer Day with new missionaries arriving, so it was late by the time they could visit him) and they emailed his cell number so we could call him.  We called Thursday afternoon and he sounded sore and tired, but positive and hopeful.  He said the only problem was he couldn't stop smiling, so they didn't think he was really in pain!  And he even laughed while the nurse was giving him a shot.  He was released the next day and is hopefully resting and recuperating, although Sister Szabadkai reported that he immediately wanted to go out and teach!

Halloween is a huge holiday here.  They celebrate American Halloween by dressing up and trick-or-treating on the 31st, then the next day is All Saints Day and the next day is All Souls Day and they go to their ancestors graves and spend the night.  They're literally at the gravesite for at least one night, and clean and decorate the graves, burn candles as part of a Catholic tradition, and pay respect to their ancestors--I guess like a high-powered Memorial Day.  It was pouring rain but there were still thousands of people at the cemetery we passed, huddled under little tents, and the schools were out and it was a holiday from work.  It looked like a quidditch match and the road outside the cemetery was a parking lot.

Last week I got a cold.  I wondered, "How do missionaries get so many colds--it's never even cold here?"   But I must be acclimatizing because it's been raining and "cold" all week.  I am feeling much better and went with Dad to interviews all week, even driving to the office by myself on Friday, which is a BIG accomplishment since it's on a very busy street with an impossible left turn.  But the Lord blessed me, the traffic parted like the Red Sea when I went to make the left turn, and I arrived safely.

The highlight of the week was going to Manila Monday afternoon to see Derrick and Daniel!  They came in for meetings and we went to dinner and they brought me a lot of stuff from the USA and Singapore.  It was so fun to be with them for a couple of hours and hear about their families.

Saturday Dad met with twelve stake presidencies and the area authority for CCM meeting and gave a presentation there.  Then he went to a zone missionary/member finding activity in time to greet returning workers and his investigator, the pizza man.  He spends his spare time reading letters and trying to reach stake presidents, etc. on the phone. I'm really thankful he is only presiding over one district -- some missions here have five or six. 

On Sunday Dad went to the Baliwag District where he presides, and out to the far reaches of the mission where there was to be a baptism and confirmation in Sibul, an hour from the farthest branch, where there is a "group."  He took 12 people in our nine person van to Sibul, so I stayed home and and attended our local ward to make more room in the van.  He visited a missionary in another far zone after he finished there, so I invited Sister Cole and Sister Morris to come over and hang out --  I thought a 250 square feet apartment on a Sunday may be a little confining, since they can't even walk next door to the mall and go to Chiles restaurant, which is where they normally eat.  We had a fun dinner together and Dad returned about 9pm, and after being up at 3:30 am, he was exhausted but so happy with how the day went.  He said it felt like a church meeting in 1830!  And he agrees with the great feeling of climbing into bed totally exhausted after serving well all day.

President Uchtdorf's talk at the Women's Meeting, "Three Sisters", has been very helpful to me.  I'm listening to it over and over again.  I have not set a very good example of THE GLAD SISTER for you, so I'm thankful you're developing that attribute on your own.  I hope to do better in the future.

We had a missionary spend the night here at the mission home last night, who has been waiting 15 weeks for his Peruvian visa to arrive --he is finally on his way.    We get another visa waiter for the Chile Conception South mission in a couple of weeks.  You are so blessed to be serving in Chile!

Love,

Mom

Photos:  Sibul meeting, Claudia and Sister Morris returning from missionary/member finding activity, Derrick and Dan in Manila, happy Dallin in intense pain, hanging out with Sisters Cole and Morris