August 5, 2014

Dear Sister Ward,

I thought you might want a little heads up. Your son has Dengue Fever again! He will still be able to fly home on Wed. but, he needs to drink 3 quarts of water a day, rest (no outside activities for at least a week) and he should take Tylenol every 6 hours. He may need a blood test (CBC) to make sure his platelets and white blood cells have returned to normal. This occurrence has been less severe. We are so sorry we couldn't send him home in better health.

It has been an honor to know your son and work with him! He is an excellent missionary!

Sincerely,

Hna S

Later in the day, in answer to our questions...

Sister Ward,

Our Area Medical Doctor says his platelets are high enough there shouldn't be any complications. Your son knows what to do.

You only need a doctor so he can order a CBC blood test. The blood test will tell when the white blood cells and platelets are going up. The only treatment for Dengue Fever is water, water, water, rest and Tylenol (1 or 2 he knows). Also Welches grape juice helps to produce platelets. Hand him a liter of water when you see him and some grape juice when he gets home. Activity wise: if he doesn't have to go out… don't. Sitting and visiting is fine. Standing and walking around a lot is not advisable. He should be able to give his talk. 

He will know how he feels … don't push it too fast.

Enjoy your son. Resting and visiting. Look at it this way …You will have his undivided attention!

Email anytime,

Hna S

August 4, 2014

Mom and Dad,

Well, our baptism fell through, our investigator started back up full time at her job, so she wouldn´t have been able to be baptized the time we had planned saturday, and then she didn´t want to set another time to be baptized and started talking about how she doesn´t feel like shes ready to be baptized yet.. so that was a little frustrating, but hopefully sometime soon she´ll be baptized.

This week has been interesting.. I don´t know why God planned for me to end my mission like this, but I got Dengue Fever again, so since tuesday i´ve been in the house sick, all week I´ve been just chilling here, feeling like crap, and this time I´ve felt worse than the last time that I had dengue.. I´ve had a few blood tests and on saturday they said that I´m still getting worse, but hopefully the test that I´m going to do later today shows that I´m getting better again... I haven´t been allowed to go to the area to visit anybody to say goodbye to any converts and I couldn´t go to church yesterday either, which is sad that I won´t see any of these people before i leave.

So, hopefully I´m feeling better when I get home, I may be resting for a few days when i get back to fully get over the sickness.

Well, see you all soon.

I love you.

Love,

Elder Ward

July 28, 2014

Well, this is probably the last group email, next week I´ll probably be lazy and not write anyone...

This week has been a hardworking, busy week, just the way I like it. ;) Last monday, we had a baptism, and he was very excited, but didn´t want a lot of people to come to see his baptism, which was good, because it was at a somewhat inconvenient time for everyone, so there weren´t lots of people. Then, we talked to another investigator about baptism on Tuesday, and she decided that she needed to be baptized, and felt like she should saturday. So we prepared everything and planned her baptism the same time as a baptism of the elders who share the ward with us. The other girl who got baptized by the other elders is the granddaughter of a recent convert of mine from this area, so it was neat to see her whole family there and more and more of this family coming into the church. I´ve been to 4 baptisms in this ward of people from this family, so it´s always been cool to see the progression through this rock solid family who always comes to church and all the ward activities. Saturday was a good day, and both baptisms went smoothly. Then sunday after church, we were talking to an investigator that we´ve been teaching for a long time and has been to church plenty, but had always asked for more time whenever we mentioned baptism. We set a lesson with her for last night, and we went with a member to visit her. We talked and she said that she knew what we were teaching is right and that she knows that she needs to be baptized, but was hesitating about being baptized because of what her friends and family would say against the church. We all testified to her about the importance of doing what God asks us to do, and not listening to the other people who criticize the church. It was a really good lesson and at the end, she said that we were right and agreed to be baptized and said that it was important that I would be there for her baptism, so we planned the baptism for this saturday at 4:00pm. It was neat to see how the spirit touched her and she was able to see and commit to doing something that I know will be hard for her, because many people don´t understand why she is leaving her old church and joining the mormons, but I admire her faith and her desire to keep going doing what she knows is true. My last baptism I will see will be one of the last miracles I get to see as a missionary, the joy of a person changing their life to live the gospel and obey the commandments of God.

I know that this work is true, and I know that if we let it, the gospel of Jesus Christ will change our lives and our attitudes about everything. I will never be the same from this point of my life on, and I am grateful for every experience that I´ve been blessed to have on my mission..

Including some weird experiences like having a staring contest with a goat that just randomly roams through our area and fights with dogs sometimes... ;)

Love,

Elder Ward

July 21, 2014

Mom,

I got a package today from you all, thanks!

I´m glad it wasn´t big though, because I´m going to have to start thinking about how much room I´ll have in my suitcases..

The temple was good.

In this weeks anouncements: we have a baptism today and probably a baptism on Saturday.. We are busy as ever and have plenty of people to teach. Other than that, things are about the same.. There´s not a ton to say..

Sorry I´m so boring...

Love,

Elder Ward

July 14, 2014

Mom,

Thanks for bday wishes, it`s been a good day.. No, I didn`t see a package when I went to the office today, but it might get here late.

Yes, we talked more with the Mission president this week, because we had interviews with our zone. It was good to talk with him and I learned from the interview a lot. I also talked for quite a while with his wife, which was good, she`s cool, but it`s hard for her since she doesn`t speak spanish much yet.

During the interviews the office elder in charge of my flight plans told me that the date changed to a day earlier than expected, so that is exciting..

Well, this week, other than the interviews, we went to the temple with our investigators to talk about the temples, which was good. Tomorrow our zone is going to go through the temple, which will be good. We were going to have a baptism last weekend, but in the end we didn`t get permission for him to get baptized and couldn`t really talk to his aunt very well, but hes 17 so when hes 18 he can get baptized I guess. We should have a few more baptisms this month hopefully..

Other than that, I don`t have a ton of news.. Life`s the same. We`re working hard and staying busy..

Love,

Elder Ward

July 7, 2014

Mom,

This week we had the meeting with the new mission president, which was surprizingly pretty short, but he´s a good guy and he´ll help the mission a lot. His wife doesn´t speak much spanish though, which will be harder for her.. We have interviews with him later this week, so we´ll get to know him a little bit better then.

We didn´t do too much new or exciting this week. This morning we went to Picacho, which is a tourist place that´s in my first area, it was weird passing through my first area again after over a year of not seeing it. We played handball, which is like ultimate frisbee with a ball, and it was pretty fun.

Sorry I don´t have anything more exciting to put.

Love,

Elder Ward

Arissa,

We had 6 investigators in church.

The leader meeting was good, we met the new President, and he´s cool.

This week wasn´t all that exciting. Just more visits and appointments, just like always.

Today we went to picacho, a tourist attraction in my first area. It was weird to pass by my first area again in the bus, but it was good to be with the zone. We played handball, which is like ultimate frisbee, but with a ball that you throw through a soccer goal to score. It was fun. I also climbed some trees and some building things.

Other pdays, we normally play a sport or do something small as a zone for a few hours.

4th of July was a normal day, nothing too exciting...

Love,

Elder Ward

June 30, 2014

Mom,

That´s great that Elder Lewis has been getting better. A lot of people from the ward here keep asking about him and asking how he´s doing..

Yes, a lot of missionaries get mugged here, but most of the time there aren´t any serious problems. I´ll probably make it through the rest of my mission without getting robbed ;( no fun stories for me.. 

Yeah, I guess the runway in Honduras is pretty bad. Even Pres. Uchtdorf commented on it during his temple dedication talk last year. He was like ¨I´m glad that I wasn´t the one who had to make that landing¨. It does go right over a bunch of houses, but I didn´t notice it too much when we landed..

We had 7 investigators this week in church, but not all of my converts from here came, so we´ll have to go visit and see why some didn´t come.

We had changes in the zone, and we have some cool Elders that just came in, so it should be good. My companion and I stay the same though, obviously.

We´re in the middle of Tegus, we have running water, and a water heater on the shower, but there´s not always water here. There´s a member that´s really awesome that washes our clothes for us

BTW, one of our investigators says hi, we were showing them pics of our families and everyone always comments that you look very young, like you could be one of my sisters, I always have to explain who´s who and show that my good looking 18 year old self was me, but sometimes people don´t believe me, haha. We have members feed us a lot too, if not, lots of time we go out to eat to wendys or mcdonalds or the grocery store that sells like chinese rice or something.

Well, other than that info, I don´t have much more news about this week. Things are going good.

Love,

Elder Ward