Oh my word, can I just tell you that sending all of those picture of food was probably the rudest form of torture in the entire world? All of the missionaries gathered around my computer and salivated over all of that food. That all looks so amazing. I am so jealous that you all got to eat and have Thanksgiving. It looks like you out did yourself back again mom! All of the decorations look great! I know how much hard work goes into that, and I am so glad I wasn't there to help! ;) haha joke no more! :)
This week definitely brought its fair share of trials our way. Papa God is definitely testing our faith and putting us through the refiners fire here in White Sands. Tuesday my companion woke up at 4 in the morning. I was tired too much and I thought that she was just going to the toilet, so I just rolled over. All of the sudden she walked over the mirror and I heard her scream, and I mean scream. I jumped out of bed and ran over to her and she turned to show me a big..something on her neck. I was a little shocked and I just sungout "What the heck is that?" haha..(yeah I don't think that helped the situation) I got my torch and looked a little closer at it and it looked like a 2 inch long blister sort of thing..but something was inside it. It was yellow and had little white eggs inside of it. After my awesome reaction, my companion began to cry and cry because she was fright. I fastened some fabric around my waist and ran over to house of our neighbors to ask them if they had ever seen anything like that before. They all gave the same reaction that I did and so we were a little concerned. Every time I tried to touch it she would scream...so I just got a pen and marked the ends of the sore so that I could try to track the growth of it. Thirty minutes later no more the sore had grown 1/2 an inch. It was hurting her so bad, so I told her that I would ring the mission nurse in Villa. After explaining the situation, the mission nurse told me to ring the elders and have them come carry us to the hospital. We waited about an hour and a half while they drove here and then we went to the hospital. Man am I grateful for the hospitals in America now, you would die if you saw what we saw.
We got to the hospital around 10 in the morning and Sister Lutui was in a lot a lot of pain. I walked quickly around the hospital trying to find where to check in and then one lady said, "the hospital is closed until afternoon" What kind of hospital just closes? Ale..so the two of us just stopped wait until 1:30. While we were sitting there waiting Sister Lutui began to whimper back again and say that her arm was stinging and burning so bad. I looked down and she had another sore coming up on her arm. This sore was worse beating the other sore. This sore was an open, sore and pussing. At 1:30 one man that worked at the hospital came up to us and said, "Sorry too much, but there are no doctors at the hospital today. We will try to find someone who schooled small to see you two." Are you kidding me? Is this real life? So we waited and waited and finally a man in a dirty white coat came and told us to come back into some room. He asked to see her sores and then he said, "hmm I don't really know what this is, so I am just going to leave them a lone and have you two try taking a medicine.." Sister Lutui started to cry and that's when Miss Katelyn bossy pants came out..haha. I said, "Brata, do you think you could try to drain the sore on her neck and dress it to try to relieve some pressure?" He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "si si that is probably a good idea.." After I said, "And this one on her wrist is red, she has a fever, and it is pussing, I think it is infected. Do you think you could drain this one dress it and give us an antibiotic?" He said, "Si si..that is good idea too" haha...are you serious? He wrote all of my instructions down on a piece of paper and told us to wait to go receive our treatment. We went into the door next door labeled "treatment room". When we walked in there was a wooden chair and a sink with no soap. One man in basketball shorts came in and asked, "Sistas, what operation am I doing?" hahaha that is the wrong thing to say..Sister Lutui started to cry and said, "Sister Brown please don't let them kill me.." haha. Needless to say..she survived! The "nurse" sent me home with a sterile solution, gauze, wrap, and a syringe to try to drain the wound every day and dress it every day. I have been up all night every night playing nurse. She ran a high fever for four days and both of her sores got really really infected. It was so fun to play doctor! We went back to the hospital 2 other days this week and finally on Sunday the sores stopped draining and things are looking better now! I pray that I will NEVER have to go to that hospital! I will attach a picture of one of the infected sores and me making surgery.
I have never been so tired in my life. I have been able to get sleep 1 hour every night this week because my companion has been sick! But it's all good, because when we went to the hospital in Lenakel we got an ice cream cone!!! A REAL ONE!! I WAS SOO HAPPY!! :) My Thanksgiving wasn't that big this year. I drew my companion a hand turkey and told her Happy Thanksgiving. We ran out of food, and the only thing left in our house was a tube of popcorn kernals. We were excited too much to eat popcorn because we have been CRAVING American food!! I put them on the stove and then went to borrow something from the neighbors. When I came back my companion was asleep and the entire house was filled with smoke. I ran to the stove and turned it off. After I got tongs to try to take the lid off and when I did flames came out of the pot. Needless to say, my Thanksgiving dinner was nothing compared to yours. Happy Thanksgiving to me I guess? haha. (Good thing our house didn't catch on fire, we have been out of water for two days...) haha
On Tuesday this week we also received news that our unit will be shut down for the time being. There are some tribal situations going on that made it so our unit can not meet anymore. For the time being we are no longer allowed to even proselyte in that area whatsoever. We cannot even walk about on that side of our area. We had all of the people that used to attend the unit meet together so that we could tell them the news. My heart broke for all of these people as I told them. They all cried and cried as we carried the sacrament trays and calico out of the unit. We cried the whole way home and all of the mama's did not want us to leave. I know that Papa God is testing the faith of these people and of us as missionaries. He needs us to sacrifice for a small time and then he will show us his plan for us. It is just so hard because we have worked so hard in this area and had 8 people ready to get baptized this Saturday. Now we will not be able to do that for the time being. We have been fasting and praying all week to understand Papa's will for our unit. I know that the unit will stand back up again. I know that Satan is working really hard, but Papa God will always win. On Sunday many of the people from the unit made the walk to the Branch to worship. We all cried as they shared their sweet testimonies of sacrifice. This week has been a very faith testing week, but I am so grateful for all of these trials that I have faced here. They are making me tough, and helping me learn patience. Missionary work is amazing!!! The experiences are experiences that I will never forget! Thank you for all of the support and prayers!! I hope that you all have a fantastic week!
Yolkokakaeek!
Your daughter is amazing. I love her testimony. Thank you.
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