Dear Family:
Yesterday we stopped by a less active member, Sister Shelton, and she asked, "So was your Fourth interesting?"
"That's a good word for it," Sister Mondelli said.
It all started Friday...I think. We went to Kim's for "lunch" and to see Kendra and her grandparents.
She and I talked a lot, and it helped me. I was really tired afterwards though, prolly because for lunch we got cherries (eww) and watermelon (I have yet to taste one that's as good as Hermiston watermelon). Plus Kim asked me another hard questions, "Are we more under grace or the law, or a mixture of the two?" Both.
Well that day we had hardly any success in Roselawn/Lake Village. And I was feeling yucky. I was miserable and discouraged, and wanted to cry. That night I went to sleep freezing cold. I was wrapped in a blanket and had my sweats and sweatshirt on. I woke up the next morning with a fever of 101. I wasn't too concerned. Sister Mondelli said it was prolly stress. It was 100ish degrees outside and humid outside, so we didn't go out and tract, because that made me feel worse. I took a rest, but we did go out and teach and stuff. We found a good new investigator, Marty, who thought it was so neat that Christ appeared to the people in American and how we have an account of that.
I woke up Sunday feeling better, but by noon my stomach wasn't feeling good, and I thought it was because I was hungry. But this pain was different. It was in my upper abdomen and my upper left side and just felt different. I was in a ton of pain and so Sister Mondelli had me call sister Doll. She told me to stick to clear liquids.
That night was soooooooo miserable. I prolly got 20ish minutes of "sleep" at a time. It was the worst amount of pain I had been in...that I could think of, and I did quite a bit of moaning!
In the morning I called Sister Doll and told her. The pain did lessen a little, or either I was getting used to it. Sister Doll ordered me to stay in that day and cancel all our appointments. We only had one appointment with the Camerons that night. Lucky I got sick on the fourth huh?
That was the longest afternoon of my life!!! At 2:30ish Sister Doll called, and I told her that I really hadn't gotten any better. She told me to go see a doctor. The doctor’s offices were closed, so I went to the emergency room. I was thinking I should prolly call an ambulance, "Yeah, can you come pick me up? I'll just be lying here on the floor waiting for you."
But then again, the hospital was only 2.5 miles away. Good thing there wasn't a lot of traffic, cuz I would not have said, "Merge, everybody merge! I'm only imploding!"
Well we got there, they asked me a whole bunch of questions, gave me a sheet with a hole in it for my head, did some testing...the nurse that took a blood sample wasn't very good. I have a bruise now. The doctor said all the tests came back fine, except for that I was dehydrated. So I got an IV. And every time they asked how my pain was, I of course said 8! (I made sure there was no femur bone patients or labor patients around me:) And it really was. They took some x-rays but he was concerned that with the amount of pain I was in, there was something else going on too. So they took a CAT scan. It came back fine. So they gave me some hard-core pain meds, told me to up liquids, and told me to take Tylenol for the mild pain.
I drove myself to the pharmacy and then back home. Man, no one was outside at all, and it was around 8pm! Rensselaer doesn't have a firework show. Brook does, and I think Demont, and Wolcott...except Wolcott isn't in our area. Stacey wanted to take us to go see them, but I was like, “Well we're just leaving the hospital, so I don't think that's a good idea.”
That night I took one of those pills, and it put me out! I also had two spoonfuls of applesauce. But I just didn't feel like eating, which was weird since the last time I ate was Sunday at 1ish pm. I woke up in the middle of the night, ate a piece of toast plain...not the best thing in the world! and took another pill. I woke up at 6:30 the next morning still sleeping. I slept in 'til 7:30, got out of bed, attempted to do my personal study, fell asleep, had about 20 minutes to get ready, was late for district meeting, and had Elder Dearinger lecture me on being happy because people see that. Oh man I was't happy at him AT ALL!!! I told Sister Mondelli later and she said, "Yeah, he didn't know the whole situation, he shouldn't have done that." Cuz that day I was still in a lot of pain. It had lessened, but still, I was in pain. In fact I was in so much pain that I hardly ate. And I was so tired! I'm surprised we didn't die with me driving!
We didn't get a brake the whole day either. We had appointments to go to, and I felt bad cuz Saturday, Sunday and Monday we didn't do a lot. And I could tell Sister Mondelli wanted to go do stuff. We didn't tract though. She taught the most. And she likes it when people try to bible bash us! She's like, "they might feel the spirit when we share a scripture with them." I think of 2 Nephi 28:11-12, 24-29. I don't like getting into "bible discussions" with people, it just stresses me out. I mean I used to get mean when people bible bashed me, and used to pull scriptures out, now I don't. I just bear testimony and leave, but Sister Mondelli likes to stay there and discuss it.
And yesterday...I thought I was gonna die! We were at a potentials house and the mom came to pick up her kids (the potentials were babysitting). She was a J Dub (way to go Jackson for confounding one!) She started to say what she believed and we found that we had some stuff in common (I was in a lot of pain at this point, so Sister Mondelli did most of the talking). The J Dub was like "Actually we don't have a lot in common." And the way she said it was like she wanted to pick a fight. She started bible bashing us without us even asking, and every scripture she used was so . . . ugh! She totally misinterpreted them! Like there was one that said there will be no prophets and apostles...yeah! In the apostasy! And then there's one that says our sole will die...yeah if we sin! I just bore my testimony and hoped beyond hope that she would just leave so we could actually teach. She finally did. But it was like the whole time she was putting herself above us. "We go on a mission for our whole lives...God's word are in the scriptures...you shouldn't add anything to the bible." Crazy crazy crazy!!!! And I was in SO MUCH PAIN.
Last night after most of our appointments fell through, I was able to go home and get something to eat, rice with toast. It's actually good together. I took another pill and was out of it til 3 am. I got up and had apple sauce and toast together. The apple sauce was like jam...it was good.
I'm feeling better today, not 100%, but better. I'm just gonna take it easy so hopefully I can go out and work tomorrow. I miss working with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I'm just so tired of being sick! I just want to go to work! I think this really will build me up. You can't build something up unless you tear it down. And that's what the Lord did. What doesn't kill us will make us stronger.
I've been wondering for a few weeks how I can help Sister Mondelli lead more with things like handling the schedule, calling people, and even inviting, committing, and promising blessings. I've started to notice that during lessons I'm usually the one who does the committing and promising of blessings. I talked with her about it a couple days ago and we agreed that she would be the one to do it that this week. Well with me getting sick and not feeling like doing anything she's had to do everything. She's had to rearrange our schedule, tell me where we are going, what we are teaching people, and she even taught for most of the lessons when I was too out of it to even care. I've really seen the leader come out in her these past couple of days. If it wasn't for her, nothing would have gotten done these past couple of days. Plus the day that I was the worst was the 4th, a day that would have been horrible for proselyting. When we drove through town later that day there wasn't even anyone on the streets, well hardly anyone. So Sister Mondelli and I feel as if it really wasn't a day wasted.
Hope you have fun in Mexico!!!! The Rodriguezs are there for several weeks too! Alfredo said that Tequisquiapan wasn't in the same state or something as they were going to be in. But I would love for you guys to meet them...especially Harrison and Jefferson meeting Ulysses!
Okay, well that's all!
Don't worry about me, I'll be fine! I just need to rest...which I have been doing. It's just hard knowing my companion wants to go out and work.
I love you all! Thanks for everything!
Love,
Sister Ostler
ps. Duane, none of those cities are in my ares :(
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