Dengue Fever?

 Saturday March 15, 2014

The daily journal thing didn't really get rolling until Saturday, but I'm making it a habit now.

Well today was... really bad.  Elder F. and I started our studies in the chapel because some of our investigators said that they would show up, but they didn’t.  That’s one of the things that I am learning in my mission; how to deal with disappointment. You’ve got to “just keep swimming.”

Dengue is transmitted by mosquito

Anyways, nothing really interesting happened today until I ended up in the emergency room with a fever of 103.1, vomiting , diarrhea, and a sore throat. Apparently I got some virus, but it's starting to pass. I just hope that it passes faster. Well, I actually hope that it passes slower if you know what I mean!  I didn’t want to go, but it is mission rule so we went, and waited, and waited some more, and basically had the doctor tell me what I already knew.  Oh how I miss my doctor parents!  I wouldn't have to waste my time and money on going to the hospital for every little thing if I was home.  Anyways, they stuck me with an IV, and gave me fluids which helped me to feel a little bit better.  That was the highlight of the day.

Sunday, March 16th, 2014

Sooooo, this is the 17th, 18th time on the toilet for me today.  I’m writing this as I am suffering from this stupid virus from hell.  It’s really not fun.  I couldn’t work today because I have to use the toilet every 30 minutes or so.  Ugghh!  Curse this freaking diarrhea.

My first baptism!

I did manage to make it to the baptism today.  We baptized Vitor and Natanael…and it was the first time I have ever baptized anyone.  I was relieved to do it correctly on the first try (for many reasons).  It was a pretty great experience despite the horrible virus. One of our baptisms fell through because our investigator is attending military school on Sundays so he is unable to attend any Sunday meetings.  That is unfortunate because he is so ready for baptism.

  

We learned that Elder Freeman is getting transferred into the zone next door, Sumaré, and Elder Whatcott got transferred to Zone Oeste (I think). He's going to be a district leader there!! Our new zone leader is Elder Packard (Elder Cetraro is still here), and he's pretty cool. He was home schooled too, but he's one of the more normal home schoolers. Well.... abnormal for a home schooler, but more normal in his behavior. Haha.  I am going to miss Elder Freeman.  I have learned a lot from him, especially about being obedient at all times. 

Monday March 17th, 2014

My special friend.

It is possible that I have dengue, but I don't think that it's too bad because I just had some minor weakness in my body on Saturday and I'm a lot better today. There are a lot of the weird and crappy viruses that can happen here. It's really horrifying and I'm glad that I haven't gotten anything super bad yet.  Overall I'm feeling fine, but I have a very special relationship with the toilet now. I think that I might have to talk with my mission president, we're getting too attached to each other.... 

This was my last day with Elder F.. I got to see a ton of new faces at the transfers, but I also recognized a bunch of old faces.  I think that I am getting to be an age in my mission where I am familiar with just about all of the missionaries.  I was super excited to see former companions, Elder C. and Elder Z. again!  The transfers went well, we just had to wait until 1:30 because the taxis were really slow today.  

So I am staying in my area, and my new comp is Elder Butuhy. As you can probably tell by his name, he is not an American. I don't know what to think of him yet, but we'll see how it goes! Elder Butuhy is from Santa Catarina (one of the more southern states of Brasil) He just got finished with his training (I guess that the Lord just doesn't want me to learn from an experienced missionary), and he's been a member his whole life. His parents are converts, but his older brother has already served a mission. I still don't know a lot about him because we haven’t had a whole lot of down time to talk.

Here are the three baptisms that we had this transfer.

Laricia's baptism.

Vitor's and Natanael's baptism.