November 6, 2017
Well my good friends,
We had a rocky
start to this week. It started off with the WORST pains of my life at about 2
Am on Monday night. I was 90% sure it was my time to go. So yeah that was no
bueno, anyway long story short I got rushed to the hospital at about 4Am by our
Zone leaders. When I got there they were taking forever to work out the
insurance the mission give us, but I got through and luckily got hooked up to
some medicine! The doc came in and barely tapped my kidney and it felt like I
got hit with a hammer, and that's with the meds.. So they took me back for a CT
scan or something I felt like I was in a NASA spaceship! Then they moved me to
a room with 4 old men all in there like 80's I would say and that's when again
I thought it was my time to go. The doctor finally came and told me I have 4
kidney stones. He said that I was going to have to wait in the hospital until
they passed and if they hadn't passed by the morning they would have to go in through
the front and remove them. I asssured them that would not be happening. hahaha
I was kinda bummed though because I wouldn't be able to do any missionary work,
but then I remembered something that I saw "Leave evidence everywhere you
go of your faith in Christ." So I start talking to all the oldies in that
room and we're practically best buds within no time. We all found out we were
all Christians.. well except the guy next to me I'm pretty sure he was dead.
But one was a Catholic priest and I got to talk to him about some things (he
kept going on walks and being sneaky smoking his pipe) so I had the
missionaries bring me some BOM's and I book swapped with this other man. Then
the nurse came in and moved me to another room, I was pretty mad to be leaving
my old buddies, anyone who knows me knows I love old people. They moved me into
this room with and Indian guy (70), colored guy (40) and a 16 year old boy. At
first the Indian guy's wife was going ape and getting SO mad at all the nurses
and everything and I felt bad. The boy was super scared because his mom and dad
were leaving and I could tell he was "babied" growing up anyway it
was amazing to see the room change as I began to talk to them about Jesus Christ
and soon the woman was so loving she offered to buy me something from the
store, ended up cutting up my food for me haha (they put my IV in my right
elbow so I couldn't bend it) anyway we found out that we were all Christians in
that room as well and we ended up saying a group prayer with everyone's
families visiting them as well. It was amazing to see the light that comes even
from talking of Christ. Anyway I had no success with passing the stone so the
nurse came in, in the morning with my gown for surgery. I was planning on going
but I thought I'd give it one more go before the surgery and the stone luckily
came out!!! It really was such a miracle and I know I had so many prayers
coming my way, so thank you so much for those prayers. I also heard kidney
stones hurt as bad as childbirth.. !
Elder Hamilton
from the 70 came and was so awesome, the spirit he brought was amazing. He
talked about testimony vs. conversion and it was so good to hear. I just had my
testimony again confirmed that our church’s leaders are really inspired. One
thing he said I loved in the leadership meeting was "we don't move up or
down in churches callings, we just move around". It was so great to hear
from him and of course President Thompson always brings the spirit!
Jackie came to church again, along with Colleen, and
Nondotuzo and Zama and Asanda. So church was great this week hahah! Jackie
really is our most progressing though, she was asking such great questions and
after church she just told us how much she loves this church and how she's
coming again next week for sure! Haha I love it so much when you can see people
grabbing ahold of the restored gospel and beginning to know it's true for
themselves, there really is just a new light in them. I'm so glad to be a part
of it! I know the church is true and I invite you to act on what you know to be
true. To change and become the person God see's you can become. I love you guys
so much and pray for you always.
Stay blessed😇
Elder Thompson
