Our mission nurse and her husband, the apartment specialist, left the mission Tuesday night at 7pm to return home, along with 11 young missionaries. Right up until the shuttle picked them up, I was on the computer with her, sending a photo of an elder with a swollen finger to our AMA (Area Medical Advisor=My New Best Friend). From that moment on, my life got a lot more complicated. Sister Cole takes the initial calls from the missionaries, and consults with me on what to do and if we need extra advice, I contact the AMA. I can't believe how many missionaries get sick! We welcomed 17 new missionaries on Wednesday and spent the day interviewing (Stewart) and training (me) them. One came to Sister Cole and reported his tooth began to hurt at the MTC and he needed to see a dentist. (What??? You've been at MTC with a dental clinic next door for three weeks--why didn't you go next door and ask them??) Most missionaries reports colds, allergies, headaches, although one said he wasn't sleeping and insisted on a medical release. Thursday, when Sister Cole was texting me almost constantly about different health problems and what to do, I literally sat at my computer for hours communicating, looking things up on Google, and texting the AMA. At one point Sister Cole sent this text:
Thank you so much! hey so I talked to you about me being pretty anxious about a lot stuff even before all this, and i've been trying to calm myself down just about different stuff, but i'm struggling to do that! but a little while ago president hughes talked to me about the mental health person for the area! so if there is maybe a way i could talk to him about whats been going on and see if he could help me out?
I knew she'd been stressed about her daughter being in ICU and seriously ill and now she has this extra responsibility with missionary health, and I'd heard Dad tell her about how the area medical health advisor could be pretty helpful, so I asked him if I should have the mental health advisor talk with her and he thought it would be good. So I sent Elder McOmber some background on Sister Cole and asked him to text her and set up an appointment for them to talk.
Well, a few hours later she called me, "What?? You want me to talk to a mental health guy? About the missionaries, right? What's this all about?" Evidently (she figured this out that night reviewing all the texts for the day) the text she's sent me was from a young missionary, she'd just forgot to attach his name to it. Stewart and I laughed so hard!
The missionary with the sore tooth traveled from 7am to dentist, arriving at noon and returning to his apartment about 4:30. Long day, but he got a root canal. The missionary with the swollen finger continued to have soreness, swelling in spite of antibiotics and sling until the AMA requested another photo. When he saw it Saturday morning he immediately called me to get the missionary to the ER at a good hospital ASAP. ASAP turned out to be about four hours and a jeepney, bus and taxi later, but he was immediately put on antibiotic drip and admitted. This afternoon Dad visited him just before going into surgery to have an incision to drain the infection. You wouldn't want to have a real medical emergency in this mission--there's no way to get to a hospital quickly without a helicopter.
In addition to this we trained the last batch of 22 missionaries with their trainers on Friday, and on Saturday hosted a barbecue for nine stake presidents and their families and our area authority at the mission home. We were blessed that it was overcast and only slight rain and the children loved swimming in the pool while the older people ate Manti turkey (barbecued by Elder Ogden and Sister Ogden), hamburgers and hot dogs and chop suey, pancit, cole slaw, etc. Stewart is so good at making everyone feel welcome and involving them in conversations--they all love talking with him. And I'm thankful Ann came and worked on Saturday to help with the food.
The best part of the week was Dan flying home from the USA through Manila to bring me 200 Christmas pamphlets for our missionaries and stop at the mission home to visit and talk. We feel so blessed to have children "nearby" and are excited for Christmas and New Years when we will see almost all of you.
I got sick again the day after the transfers, but I got to stay home that day, and I stayed home this afternoon. We have our Christmas zone conferences coming up this week (just two weeks after our last ones due to mission tour/Christmas schedule) and are hoping we can hold on until Friday night. The Lord is so very kind to us, and has blessed us and delivered us in the past, and hopefully He will bless us this week, too.
Much love,
Mom
PS: I just want to warn you I haven't bought a single Christmas gift, so just being together will have to be the gift this year.
Photos
Stake presidency barbecue at mission home
Goodbye to departing missionaries (they set a new record arriving 9:30 am for noon departure meeting!)
New missionaries at mission office.
Dan stopped by for a couple hours.
Practice teaching at training for 6th-week missionaries.
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