What we prayed wouldn't happen--happened. :(
Stacey awoke in the middle of the night last Friday with the now familiar pain that some of us are unfortunately too familiar with. Another kidney stone, her third or is it the fourth? I can't remember, they all start to blur together. :) The mission doctor told her she could go to the hospital of course, but she didn't want to add the stress of trying to communicate and explain her history to them. She decided to tough it out and finally got through it after a blessing from the Zone Leaders and then another one from the Mission President, her kind and caring companion, and the much needed "motherly" care from the Mission President's sweet wife. She said many, many prayers and pleadings, received blessings of peace which were much needed being so far from the conveniences and comforts of home, and luckily had the appropriate meds (packed before leaving home) with her in case such an event occurred. She was sad to miss Church on Sunday, here is a little of what she wrote:
When I finally came out of the coma I was in from the drugs, the Zone Leaders came over and gave us the Sacrament. Argentina is very facilitative of this, and we ate the meal the Bishop provided, and at 4 pm on Sunday, we went out to work. We had goals to meet and believe it or not, we did 40 contacts (usually 20 a day) and taught 8 lessons. We reached all our goals, we got back just after 9 and I crashed. I know that I wasn’t supposed to run faster and all that jazz, but I was well enough to work, and there was certainly work to be done. It was such a terrible Sunday to miss church because a new convert had her baby blessed and tons of family and friends (many of which are our investigators) went, plus Rolando who is getting baptized this Saturday! bore his testimony and we missed it. Plus, our other baptism for this Saturday, Azucena came with one of her sons... I was upset to miss such a Sunday, plus we had made fliers and handouts to remind everybody about the baptism that we couldńt hang up or give out. UGH!
As you can see she is a fighter. It is always amazing to see how Heavenly Father uses the events and circumstances in our lives to help stretch us so that we can progress and grow. He wisely knows that it is through heart wrenching and painful adversity that we have the opportunity to reach upwards and develop a closer relationship with the Savior. It is after submitting to all things that we see more clearly how it truly helped us, and recognize that we are so much better for having gone through it.
Sister Benton, the Mission President's wife just called me to say that Stacey doesn't want us to worry about her. She said that she is doing well, that she is strong and back to work!
I am sure there are many out there that already know this, but this is super good stretching material for the mommy too!
Here are some FYI’s Stacey shared:
Skippy peanut butter cost 24 pesos - about 8 dollars for a regular sized thing like we have in food storage. A package of Ramen Noodles costs $2.40. It is an outrage, but I bought some for the next time I need comfort soup to get through something. :)
And A BLOG WORTHY STORY to end on something more upbeat:
We were walking somewhere and had to cross the street. Well, I've told you about the millions of wild dogs here, right? Well one such dog, stopped beside me, looked both ways (as we were doing) and started to cross right when we did... HE KNEW! He stopped, looked both ways, and crossed the street... just like a person! I was astonished.
Life is good...make the most of it, take care and enjoy!
