Well, well, well... Where to start with this week...
I guess I should say that Amanda wasn't baptized yesterday haha. We're finding really quick how hard Satan pushes against baptisms, but we're running out of things preventing it. This week the issue was that Amanda may have TB... So they tested her on Wednesday, and the results should have been in on Friday! Buuuut, they did the test wrong. So, we'll know by Tuesday for sure if she has TB, but then if she does they'll just start her treatments and she'll be uncontagious by Thursday and we'll be good to go by Sunday for sure.
Maybe I shouldn't speak so fast... Elder Wilcox told me about a lady who, on the day of her baptism, drove into a cow. As if that isn't bad enough, she actually hit the cow hard enough that it flew through her barn window. So, instead of a baptism that day, they just fixed a barn window... and ate fresh steak hahaha. Luckily, Amanda says she doesn't drive by cows. We spent the morning planning out her baptismal program, so things are finally starting to become more and more finalized.
We spent all day Saturday over at Krissa's parents' house, putting up their wood ceiling. I guess I'll take it as a compliment that when Curt (her dad) sees us helping at Matt and Krissa's house that he will still invite us over to his. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a pro at installing ceilings soon enough. This is my third one in just over six months in the field! I'm getting pretty skilled with a power nailer, as well.
I'm getting a little nervous about how things are going with Krissa, though. The past couple visits with her have felt a little more... apprehensive. We finally got talking about it, and I think the idea of going forward without Matt is getting harder and harder on her. The past three weeks of Sunday School have been "Families Can Be Together Forever," "Family Responsibilities," and "Eternal Marriage," so you can only imagine how it's felt for her. I just wish that Matt would come along so we could avoid all of this! When we teach her, I don't know what to say sometimes. She knows it's all true, but really wants it to be a family thing... I obviously can't just tell her that it shouldn't be a family thing, so it's just a matter of helping her decide if how badly she wants this, especially right now. Oh, the stress!!
I feel way dumb. We had interviews with President this week, and he asked me like three basic questions, then just turned it on me: "So, do you have any questions for me?" I totally stalled! I could have asked the most spiritual man anything in the world, and instead I just asked him one question (that went on for about ten minutes) about a scripture I'd read earlier. I could have asked him anything, and I blew it! Haha it was pretty frustrating.
Oh, and Jesse said he is "starting to believe that the Book of Mormon is from God." I know that sounds super basic, and I really don't have much to build off of after that, but it is awesome! He'd long avoided learning anything until he came to church with us, but just never would (still hasn't...) come to church so that we could start teaching him. I think the Book of Mormon has been the key thing in actually teaching him, now. We just read a chapter that talks all about the lesson we wanted to leave anyways. (2 Nephi 2 for Plan of Salvation, 2 Nephi 31 for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, etc.) Hopefully he'll actually come to church sometime, too haha.
All right, now ready for the crazy cool story of the week??
We got a call yesterday from Liz wanting us to come over as soon as we could to talk with Kathy. I don't remember how much I've told you about Kathy, but she has the absolute worst skeletal system I've ever seen. It is completely crippling for her sometimes, and puts her in pain all the time. Some of her vertebrae are completely twisted around, jabbing at her, and it's just awful. Usually when we go over to talk to her, it's to calm her down and help comfort her, oftentimes to give her a blessing. That's what I was expecting to have to do.
Well, we got there, and sat down around a table, and Liz and Freddy left the room. I was still expecting the worst. She started giving a recap of her usual pains and frustrations. Then she said that the day before, she had been in really bad pain and had Liz check her back. They saw a sore down by her tailbone and were stunned to realize that her bone was literally sticking through the skin. (Why they didn't go to the ER immediately, I'll never know... People are weird out here.) The next day--yesterday--it was very blistered and infected. She says she went into the bathroom, and just collapsed in pain. She then prayed, and just called out, saying she absolutely couldn't take it anymore; she didn't know what else to do, but she couldn't keep going like this. That's when she felt like someone literally took her in their arms, was just right next to her to comfort her. She says she really felt like someone was right there with her.
Then... she stood up. She says it's the first time she has stood up on her own in four years. She said the pain was completely gone! She said while laughing, "When I felt someone there, I thought I was crazy... but you can't crazy away pain!" She really was moving around better than I've ever seen her move. It was incredible!
She remembered a few months ago, when she was sitting in Relief Society. She says Sister Nielson turned to her one day and said, "You know Kathy, you're going to be a testament someday that God still does perform miracles."
It's hard to explain over an email... but it was so awesome to talk with her yesterday! SOOO cool!
Well, I can't think of much else to write. But write me! And go to brackenallen-thinkonthesethings.blogspot.com! I wrote a new post just a couple days ago that's well worth the read (in my opinion, of course!).
I love you, but I don't miss you!
Elder Allen
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