The hospital

Ola familia, como voces estão??

Well this week let me tell ya, was a week out of left field. It started out last week Elder Erick woke up at 3 in the morning with stomach pain. I kept telling him to just take it easy, "You probably have the runs" or "Your "barriga" {said bahhiga} "belly" is upset about something you ate." So we stayed up and waited till the Pharmacy was open, and bought him some tummy medicine. Then we went back to the house and he slept until about 2 pm when he woke up saying "ELDER THIS IS NOT THE RUNS!" So I called Sister Pickitt and she said, "Go to the hospital."

By the time we got to the hospital it's 4 in the afternoon. We walk in, this guy pokes him a few times and says "Yup, you got appendicitis and we're going to have to operate tonight at 9 o'clock." Then they hooked him up to a thing with morphine to kill the pain. It was crazy. We had to wait in the waiting room with him hooked up to an IV machine. There were some people coming in with some crazy problems. All they would do was give the people morphine. It was like "Uuuhhh Doctor.. uhhh I think I bit my tongue, can I have some morphine?" It was crazy!

So 9 o'clock came and went, then midnight, then 2 in the morning, then 4 Then they tell me, "Oh I think we'll just operate tomorrow, the doctor is tired." I almost flipped out on some Brazilian doctors. (More like American construction workers with a white doctor coat on) So they sent us to this hotel room where we waited until 6 in the morning. Then they said "noon", then they said 5 in the afternoon. By that time President was with me and we both were battling some Brazilian nurses. But at 5pm (24 hours after we arrive) he got the operation. President and I just chilled. It's so strange to see President "normal" you could say. He just joked around with me and stuff. It was cool. I got to see the another side of him. He also talked to me about my post mission life. Which kind of scared me a bit. He made me think about what I want to do with my life. So that spun me around a couple of times. But it was cool.

Well by that time Elder Erick came back and he was totally fine. He was really sore, but he could talk and stuff. By this time its 10 at night. President went home and I was talking to the nurses and was like "Uhh can I go get some rest? It's been a while since I have slept." haha They were like, "No, you've got to watch his IV and make sure his medicine is flowing," and all that doctor stuff. So ya, I basically was a doctor. I had to change the IV' bags and take his readings. So ya, I didn't sleep that night and by the next morning I basically told the nurse; "Look nurse, I can't do this. You're gonna have to do this. Because I need some rest." But by that time Elder Erick was cleared to go home.

So we came home he slept and I cleaned the house just to make sure he wouldn't get infected and stuff. Then I went to bed and I was out!

The next day I had to try and find people to do divisions [splits] with me to try and save our week. We would have had 2 baptisms but they fell through because of some things. But should they should be happening this week. We had 4 people in the church, for only working for 4 hours this week which is good.

But ya, this week was crazy. Elder Erick is doing fine now and we will get back up to speed I think by Thursday.

It's crazy to think about summer there and to hear about it.

That's way cool about the college looking at Wyatt. Wyatt, milk the scholarship, even if it's DII you can train there for a year and then move to DI. That's what ton's of kids do.

Well, Family I love you guys and hope the best for you.

PS - My hump day was spent in the hospital - and no, I didn't burn a shirt. Just didn't feel like being one of those normal Utah Missionaries.

Love ya,

Zack