Sick Week

 November 4, 2015

         My companion and I are getting along a lot better.  Today we had a pretty good p-day.  It started off playing minute to win it as a zone which would have been more fun if we hadn’t lost.  It was still pretty entertaining.  After the activity we went and wrote and bought a few things I bought some push up handles to play with and enjoyed doing a workout with them.  After p-day ended, we had a fairly great afternoon because pretty much for the first time in this sector, our appointments didn’t fall through.  There typically isn’t anything exciting to report on p-days.

Miracle #452:  E. Blaser (my one week companion) and E. G.(my current companion’s trainer) are alive despite getting shot at.  The missionaries might get pulled out of their sector because it is so dangerous there.

         There are 2 funny parts of the day and both had to do with the bikes.  The first was when I biked down a flight of stairs (admittedly dumb and dangerous) and when I got to the bottom, I looked up to see an absolutely mortified woman watching me.  I was pretty scared myself, but I lived.  The other hilarious part of the day was when a dog took off after my companion just going crazy.  He failed to notice me as I came up on him from behind.  My plan was to give the little bugger a solid kick in the butt and teach him a lesson.  But, at the last second, he swerved right in front of my bike and I ran smack dab into his butt.  He sure did run off quickly.  We were laughing about that for a long time.

November 5, 2015

         Today both sucked and was awesome.  I was horrible because all day long my stomach was bothering me until finally at the end of the day, I vomited.  It started right after lunch and I though it was from eating too much, but I felt so crappy that I had to lay down.  I was still feeling poorly 30 minutes later, but decided to try to suck it up and keep working.  It was not fun to have to contact most of the day while feeling sick.

Miracle #453: When we went back to the house to restock on Book of Mormons, I said a prayer for a miracle contact (cause I needed motivation.)  After the prayer, we found 2 super interested new people to teach!

         The funny part of the day was getting an inspection of our house from our zone leaders.  I have been working on our house for weeks, so I wasn’t worried about it.  I have also been in our zone leaders house which is one of the messiest missionary houses I have been in.  I mean, it is an absolute pigsty.  So today, they cracked down hard on the messiness of my stack of ties in my closet, saying, “Elder Colvin, you need to organize your ties.” I almost replied, “and you need to throw the rotten meat in your frig away.”  In the end I just said, “ Alright, I’ll do it.”  On the bright side, I have all my ties neatly organized now!

November 6, 2015

         Today was rough.  I woke up nauseated and stayed that way until lunch time.  In that interval we had to bike about 15 km. overall in order to do a house inspection and go to a lesson that fell through.  I didn’t really eat anything for lunch and went out to work still feeling poorly.  During the lesson I felt 1000 time worse and I could barely stand up because my stomach was cramping so badly.  The pain flared up for the rest of the day and it was accompanied by an impressively noxious fit of gas.  Basically, I was miserable all day long.

Miracle #454: A group of kids that we taught last week, read and did everything we asked.  In fact, they even read more from the Book of Mormon, and remembered what they read.

         The funny part of the day was the activity tonigh. I had a dang good time even though I was running to the bathroom every 5 minutes.  We played the flour game with the coin.  It started off all right but gradually deteriorated to the point that the kids just starting sticking their faces in the flour.  When we played a missionary round, I lost and got covered in flour.  I tried really hard to remain cheerful with my comp., but it was really hard given the fact that I don’t feel well.

 November 7, 2015

         I slept fitfully all night with horrible cramps and bad gas which was so explosive that I would wake myself up.  This left me feeling very tired.  We had a district service project this morning which was actually really fun because our district is duper fantastic.  After lunch, I was crippled once again by pain for an hour or so.  I really had no energy to work, but I finally kicked my own butt into gear, said a prayer, and went to work.

Miracle #455: My stomach didn’t bother me for the rest of the day after my prayer.

         The funny part of the day was probably hearing a random evangelist song in the street today.  I listen to the song when I work out so I know it really well, but it was weird to hear it in the street. 

November 8, 2015

         Today was another hard day.  I spent an hour of my morning with terrible diarrhea.  I recovered just in time to go to church.  I was grumpy all day because whenever I had to hold it, I got terrible cramps.  I was very short tempered with my comp, no fault of his at all.  I was just feeling badly.  The best part of the day was an open house that was held in another ward.

Miracle #456: While we were contacting for the open house, we contacted a family who had already received an invitations, but I convinced them to go and they went!

         The funny part of the day was when the zone leaders brought a drunk homeless person to the open house.  I guess the Lord’s house of prayer is for everyone.  To me it is interesting to see how God is helping me get through my work with this sickness. In the morning I feel crappy, but as we leave the house, I miraculously get better and I am able to work all day long.  Then, as we get home, I am in worse pain that ever.  I don’t know what the heck I have, but I don’t like it.

November 9, 2015

         Today was a pretty fun day of divisions with Elder Nelson.  The day started out with yet another rough morning in the bathroom.  But it got better until after lunchtime which it was so bad that I had to go back to the house to wait for my stomach cramps to pass a little.  We left while I was still hurting, but after a couple of hours, it finally went away.  Today all of the planned lessons fell through so we didn’t get the chance to really teach much.

Miracle #457: Even though the lesson fell through, I still got to meet one of the best investigators in this sector.  I have wanted to do this for quite some time now.

         The funny part of the day was trying to contact out in the fields of their sector.  I couldn’t walk because of my stomach but I was fine to bike.  The people who live out in the country are so stinking rich that they all have intercoms and on almost every occasion we were told, “we don’t need you here.” That ended up being a failed missionary experience.  Elder Nelson had never contacted out there, so we were hopeful to see some results, but we didn’t.  At least we learned that their fields are not ready to harvest. At least I had a really good time with Elder Nelson.  He is a really good guy, a hard worker, and a good missionary.  I have a lot of respect for him.

November 10, 2015

         Today was a great day.  This morning Elder Nelson and I spent our entire personal study time talking about one of their investigators and brainstormed on ways to teach and help them.  We actually came up with a lot of ideas and I hope they really help.  These past few days I have had some crazy eye and heart opening personal spiritual revelations and this has led me to be a lot more aware of the spirit.  I feel an urgency that I have rarely ever felt on my mission, and an excitement that had been waning in the past few weeks.  Today we had some really good lessons, especially with a less active member where we talked about choosing today.  She finally committed to go to church and to read. 

Miracle #458: We  were just riding our bikes along and some greeted us with, “Hola Hermanos!”  Typically, I would have just kept riding, but I felt an impression to talk to them, so we turned around and went to contact them. They are very nice and scheduled an appointment for a lesson on Thursday.

         The funny part of the day was visiting a family who just recently bought a dog.  The poor little guy was running around be terrorized by their 3 year old daughter.  The other funny part of the day was when a less active member called us to cancel a lesson for today that didn’t even exist!