October 29, 2012 Email

Hello Family! Well, I have some bad news: this letter is going to be short! Sister Alvarado called me a little while ago and wants to take me to the doctor's office to have my body checked out: the pain has spread bad into my back and into other parts. Our mission nurse thinks it's torn, and signs seem to be pointing to that. This injury has basically put me out of commission for the past week! There was a night where I HAD to bike with Elder Garcia to another city because the other elders had our car, and the lesson we had planned was really important--you might ask, "Why didn't you call a member?" We did. No one could help us out. So, we biked the ten mile route, and I immediately dropped into bed when we got home: my body is not responding well to this injury! I'm sure you know this, but an abdominal injury impacts your upper and lower body, your back, and thus everything. So...I'm feeling a little down. I don't have a lot of pain unless I do a lot of walking or biking, but I feel a huge lack of support from my core: my back is taking most of the weight, which isn't really good...So I'm headed to the doctor! Because of all that my week was very uneventful! We had three lessons, one with a new investigator: Jorge Andujos! The couple we are teaching are both improving with the Word of Wisdom: he dropped from 2 packs of cigarettes a day to just one, which is great! We're really excited for him, and we can see how happy his wife is as well to see him improving. She is such a happy person! She's entirely dropped coffee: so they're both working really hard to be prepared for their baptism, which is now planned for November 24. Haha! We have to keep bumping it back because they haven't attended church--we tried to teach them about it this week, but each night we visited something came up that caused our lessons to fall short. Elder Garcia is really bothered by that: he almost had a Hondurian temper tantrum when they didn't show up to church. Jorge Andujos is pretty great! Elder Garcia and Elder Jensen found him over a month ago, but they were a little lazy and only now did we start teaching him. He had a golden question: "Where do we go after this life?" He's Catholic, but--and I didn't understand everything about this--he didn't feel like he received his answer from his priest...or something to that effect. I'm still learning to understand Puerto Rican: the Puerto Rico version of Spanish. Anyway, Jorge has throat cancer, and he's "preparing" himself to die, or so he told us. So we taught him about the plan of salvation and he loved it! His only question about it was infant baptism: he wanted to know why we teach that infants don't need to be baptized. We taught him the doctrine and he seemed to accept it, I'm not entirely sure though. He's a really funny guy, and I wish I could help him out more! He isn't capable of paying for all his treatments, so he hasn't received them yet. He and his wife are working really hard to have the means to pay for the medical bills they already have, so it's hard to meet with him. I wish I was capable of doing more for people! I feel that quite often here: especially when a member--who we know has hardly anything to give!--invites you to their house for dinner where they pull out a small box of ice cream and cake--their little kids cheering in excitement because they NEVER have ice cream--and you eat...while the wife feeds her kids and the husband only eats a little bit because he has to get ready to work a night shift in order to support his family. I've almost cried in front of families just because of how grateful I am to them, and I cry inside for a blessing to be on their house! These people are so good! The humble ones. Those who really know what it means to be simply a good person! We meet plenty of good people here: Catholic, Protestant, Mormon: all good people who bless the lives of others! It's incredible to see what people will give and do, even when they have hardly anything. Well, I'm out of time. I would have sent pictures, but I didn't have time for that. I'm sorry! I took some good ones too! To answer your questions: 1-I have no idea what's going to happen on Halloween. I believe we come in early for the night. 2-I did give Arelys' stepfather's address to some missionaries: their names are Elder Foggin and Mendez. I talked to them today at a meeting and they said they will be going soon. Now that I hear this from Arelys, I'll give them a call while I'm on my way to the doctor. 3-Christmas ideas: ties. I will continue to think about other things. I'd really like just a small pillow. Travel size. I don't have a pillow right now, and most apartments don't have pillows. I've been using some sheets wrapped up in my pillow case for the past 3 weeks to rest my head on. I can't believe how much snow you have! I miss the snow already. I'm getting used to the heat, but I really look forward to ending my mission right before Fall. I think I know what I'm going to do when I get home: work again. Gotta go. Love ya. Love Elder Cevering!