Priesthood Blessing with a strong message, Killing with Kindness & Service, iPad Tech Support

Hermana Escobar and I

Buenos Dias! Can you believe it has already been another week? Wow! Quite a bit happened this past week and Hermana Escobar and I were pretty busy, so that was good because it got both of our minds off other things. I truly love being a missionary! It is just the most incredible experience. You learn things you didn't even think you would as a missionary. But all of these things just make you better able to be a representative of Jesus Christ and to share the Gospel. This was definitely one of those kinds of weeks!

Monday was a bit of a rough P-Day for Hermana Escobar and I. We did our grocery shopping first because we had to do it for us and the English Sisters who are living with us because they went to the city to see the sights. After that Hermana Escobar was so exhausted and in too much pain that she just had to go home and sleep. I spent p-day cleaning the apartment and such. We didn't even really have much emailing time because Hermana Escobar was hurting so bad. On Monday and Tuesday her hands were in so much pain and were so tight that she couldn't use them at all. She couldn't even physically make fists, let alone write, type, or use the phone. That night I went to a lesson with our less active families. I took one of the English Sisters with me because Hermana Escobar just couldn't go. It went really well. We talked about the big picture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The 12 year old boy is just so excited about the Gospel and loves learning. He also loves Star Wars so we try and relate that as much as possible. We were teaching about prophets and he was kind of confused so we compared the prophet to Yoda and it clicked for him. We always remind him of the 3 things he needs to do to have "The Force" - pray, read his scriptures, and go to Church. He is so fun to teach! That night Hermana Escobar got a call from President Woodbury. He wants her to try a few more things to try and get better, but he also let her know that she is most likely going to end up needing to go home because of her medical problems. This made for a rough end to the day. 
 
We had a pretty busy, crazy day on Tuesday. We went to the Valpo Sisters apartment to work out how to get one of the English Sister's freshly washed clothes to her (her clothing was salvaged from the fire, the Valpo sisters washed them for her, and she is now on the other side of the mission because she was transferred two days after the apartment fire) and we then went to a different chiropractor who is also a member but is in Valpo so it is a lot closer to us than the chiropractor in LaPorte. He has the neatest little practice set up. It was a very good visit because he actually took us seriously and recognizes that there is some kind of problem. He examined Hermana Escobar and talked to us about some ideas that he had. He said that he is going to figure out and fix the problem, and if he can't he knows people who will. He had us go back to Merrillville and get paperwork from the hospital of all of the blood tests done and to get the disc of the MRI's. He examined those for a while and tried to adjust Hermana Escobar to give her just some temporary relief, but she was so tender he just couldn't. He explained that he thinks it must be something pushing against the spinal cord which is causing all of her nerves to freak out. It was great that he was so open with us but hard because he thinks that she will most likely need to go home. :(

Neither of us slept good Tuesday night because the chiropractor had told us to ice Hermana Escobar's back for 20 minutes every hour. So that meant I was awake every 20 minutes that entire night. I would get up and get her ice, 20 minutes later I would put it back in the freezer, and 40 minutes after that the cycle started again. At 5:00 am Hermana Escobar was so sick of me doing that, but it did help her feel like a smaller semi-truck than usual had hit her when she woke up in the morning! :-) After the one of the longest nights of my life, we went to the Church early on Wednesday because we received an email late Tuesday night letting us know that in District Meeting the next day everyone was migrating iPads from one system to another. Being office mission techs, we knew that we should know what was going on beforehand so that we could help the other missionaries with their iPads. At the Church we migrated our own devices so that we would know how and be available to help. We also received a call from the chiropractor letting us know that he talked with President Woodbury and that he had a distinct impression we would be receiving a 'call' from him very soon, a call sending Hermana Escobar home. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot out of District Meeting because we were both so worried and anxious. After District Meeting, as everyone was leaving, some Elders from the other District walked out and Hermana Escobar asked them if she could have another blessing. They happily did so and it was so powerful. The strongest part was this: "Hermana Escobar, Heavenly Father does not want you to go home." The Spirit was SO strong and you knew that those words from that Elder's mouth were true. After that, everything changed for Hermana Escobar. We had been about 99.9% sure she was going home! we had even talked about it a little. But from then on, we decided we were going to beat it, she was going to stay, because that is what The Lord wanted. After the blessing we stayed at the Church for a long time because there was a big problem with some of the newer missionaries iPads and them trying to create Apple ID's for their devices. When they had come in, the Church just had them use generic group Apple ID's. But now with the the new system on the iPads, they need their own personal Apple ID. When they tried to create their personal Apple ID it didn't work because it said that their myLDSmail.net email address was already being used with an Apple account, but it shouldn't have been. After spending some time thinking and investigating, I figured out the problem and found a solution of how to fix it! I discovered that the missionaries' email had become connected with the generic account Apple account. After figuring that out Hermana Escobar and I were able to figure out a way to log in to those generic accounts and delete the missionaries' email addresses from the generic Apple account. We were then able to create their personal AppleID's for them and give them the info. It was so amazing to be able to be "techie" and figure out a solution to the problem to help others to be able to share the Gospel. There were so many missionaries that needed help and no one else that knew how to do it, that we put in a 12 hour work day on Wednesday helping people with their iPads. We did a lot of video chats that night to be able to help people all over the mission. It was so great! Hermana Escobar and I were so exhausted but so happy to have been able to help, and a Mission President never called to deliver that impending bad news! 

On Thursday we headed out to Chicago Heights for some appointments. But, by the time we were almost there, both of them had cancelled. :-( So instead we went to the library and were able to help a ton more missionaries with their iPads. We also got a really neat email from Elder Taggart, the mission online/iPad coordinator. He had been talking with church missionary technology people in Salt Lake and had let them know that we had figured out the problem. Salt Lake hadn't been able to figure the problem out and were having problems in all of the missions that the iPads are rolled out to.  They asked us to explain to them how we had figured out the problem, and then how we figured out a solution.  I got to type up this cool report to teach Salt Lake how I found the problem and fixed it, it was way neat! After a quick break for lunch we went to the Church and helped missionaries with their iPads. We then went to MCM with our Branch Mission Leader who lives in Gary. I don't think I have talked much about Gary. It isn't part of our official proselyting area but it is a part of our Spanish Branch.  We are there regularly for members and MCM and such. Gary, Indiana is a very interesting place! It is crazy to see an entire city just kind of rundown and forgotten. So many houses boarded up, stop lights that just don't work, and entire trailer parks burned out. It is a crazy, and pretty cool place!  MCM was super good because we ended up teaching the Restoration, contacting a referral, and getting a potential new investigator, all at once! We were finishing up when our ward mission leader was like, "Hey! I hear my son's girlfriend's phone. That means she is awake. I will go get her and bring her down, you all share a short message, OK?" We were like, "Of course!" So she came down and only speaks English. So us and the Elders taught her the Restoration and it went well! She says she has her own religion but was willing to listen and there is definitely potential for the future. It was great to be able to teach her! After that we went back to the Church and helped some other people over video conferencing.

 

Our current sleeping arrangements in the living room

Friday was another super long day. We had an appointment with an ophthalmologist, an eye doctor, in the morning. It was the same as every other doctor we have been to for Hermana Escobar. We spent 20 minutes filling out paperwork, 30 minutes being asked the exact same questions we just filled out on the paperwork, 60 minutes waiting to see the doctor, and the 2 minutes with the actual doctor. It was just enough time for him to tell us what everyone else has been telling us, "There is nothing wrong." He said her eye, which had been really blurry since that morning she went to the hospital, had nothing wrong with it. It had gotten a little better since the hospital but was still blurry. All he said was that she was farsighted in her right eye and should get glasses. So that is another thing checked off the list of answers, but we didn't get any real answers. We the drove to Chicago Heights and we played the Plan of Salvation game with one of our investigators, her recent convert daughter, and her nieces and nephew. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it and learned a lot. They told us that they (the kids) had all sat down together and had read from the Book of Mormon and that they had been so excited for us to come back. So it was a super great teaching appointment. After that we hurried home to clean up the apartment a little to meet up with the Abbotts, the mission nurse, to give them the disc of all of the MRI's so Sister Abbott could look at it. It was after that when I learned a very important lesson. I noticed that the English Sisters who have been living in our apartment for two weeks since their apartment fire, had been home that morning and had taken down some of my stuff and had gone through and covered up all of my family photos with their own family photos. They had also hidden Joey, Hermana Escobar's special teddy bear that has been her comfort during all of her medical struggles. This also came after the English Sisters had put a lot of wax on the toilet seat a couple of days before to be funny. Neither of us were very happy that they had done that. Especially me, I am afraid that I was upset that they would do some thing like that. Things with them had become pretty strained over the past week. My amazing companion sent them a text letting them know that we loved them but didn't think that what they had done was necessary. They texted back that they had been bored and just though it was funny. Hermana Escobar then took me into their room (the one bedroom of our apartment, Hermana Escobar and I moved out to the living room when the English Sisters moved into our apartment after their apartment fire).  Their room has been a complete disaster since they moved in and we decided to clean it up for them. Hermana Escobar really taught me to kill them with kindness. We cleaned their room for a while and I honestly felt so good after doing that. My companion truly taught me that the best thing to do in any situation is to just love and serve. That night we went to the best appointment with the cutest little family. The Hermana made us tacos and they were so good! So good that Hermana Escobar had 3, that is more than she has eaten in weeks! We then went outside with them and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. It was SO fun! Who would have thought that I would get to sit around a campfire and roast marshmallows as a missionary! We then went home to find sorry cards, pizza, and nail polish. The English Sisters felt so bad for how they had been acting with us. Things immediately got a ton better between us. 

On Saturday I spent the morning studying and then we went to an appointment with a member in the branch. We had lunch and taught her about Alma and Moroni and repentance. We the helped her with some of the table centerpieces she was making for her daughter's personal bridal shower that night. That was fun and interesting! We also went and picked up some balloons for her. It was so great to be able to serve her just a little bit. That afternoon Hermana Escobar was in a lot of pain and super exhausted again so I just worked on studying and planning for next week. 

Sunday was a great day! We had both an investigator, and a less active family we have really been working with, come to Church! We couldn't figure out which to go with, it was such a great problem to have! Hermana Escobar was looking, if not feeling, a little bit better and so that made all of the branch really happy to see! The rest of the afternoon was spent at home because Hermana Escobar was hurting, so exhausted, and started to run a fever! I made dinner for the four of us sisters and everyone really liked it so that was good.

P-Day Selfie

Yep, it had been another interesting week here! It is so amazing to me how much learning I really am doing although we are mostly in the apartment. We are trying our best to still be regular missionaries as much as possible. It is hard sometimes, but we know that we will get through this. Things have gotten a lot better since the start of last week. It no longer feels like a cloud hanging over us as we are just waiting for the call telling Hermana that she is going home. We are going to get through this, no doubts! We had such a good week this week. Yeah, there were some downs, but if it weren't for those, that happy times wouldn't be so great! I love you all sooooo much and I hope that you have an amazing week!

Eternal Love,

Hermana Allyse Meanea