See, last p-day, right after I sent my email, I went out into the gym where we were playing soccer. Elder Hirschi kicked the ball and instantly fell to the ground. He said his knee often pops a little, and he's able to pop it right back, but this time it wasn't repopping. He kind of hobbled out to the car, and we went home, staying there the rest of the night. It wasn't weight-bearing and it wasn't able to straighten past about 150 degrees.
Well, day by day it's gotten a little better. There was definitely some fluid buildup in it that has since mostly gone down. That's made it so he can straighten it to about 170-175 degrees and in the past few days finally put some weight on it and even walk around the apartment a little bit!
He'll be seeing a doctor this week. He's had it looked at by a missionary who did three years of athletic training in high school who says there's a decent chance of a meniscus tear, and then looked at again by a member of the church who is an academic surgeon at UB (though, admittedly not an orthopedic specialist) who was the one who emphasized the fluid buildup and said to watch that and see what happens, while not ruling out a meniscus tear. So, we've given it a week, he's still on crutches, ANNNND now he's being transferred to Rochester tomorrow! Haha transfer calls came last night, which I'll talk more about in a bit, but yeah, President figured he might as well wait until he gets to a new area before seeing a doctor. Hopefully all turns out all right!
But, as I said, our week has been slow moving. We've been busing rather than biking, and then crutching from wherever the bus drops us off at. Additionally, we got cancelled on a lot. Sooo.... not too exciting of a week haha.
We did get to help Stephen move on Friday! That was good to show our "real" side. Unfortunately, he cancelled on our normal teaching appointment, so we didn't really teach him anything. What was cool, though, was that he brought up church. Although he said he wouldn't be able to make it since he was going down to West Virginia to pick up his brother, that was his reason for not coming - not that he had been bored last time. Hopefully he comes again either this week, or if he ends up going back to West Virginia next Saturday night, the week following!
We did have quite a bummer with Zach this week. It's frustrating beyond belief, and needs a lot of background. So, he was getting ready to get baptized, and came to church with us three weeks in a row, then was baptized on the fourth. He came again the next week to get confirmed, but had to take off with his family for something or other. He came to a couple other sacrament meetings on and off with his family. Then, it became a constant battle because he wanted to come to church, his mom promised to drive him to church, so we wouldn't arrange another ride for him, then she wouldn't come to church therefore HE wouldn't come to church. This went on for a while. Then we finally started arranging rides, and the most bizarre things kept on happening, from people putting in the wrong addresses to who knows what else. Well, over the past few weeks, things have been getting reallllllly tough out at his house. Like, real bad. We are often there for the worst of it, too. Without getting into that, though, we told him that he needed to come to church and we would find him a ride. He agreed... until about four hours later when we texted his mom saying he had a ride, she said he didn't want to go. We called him, and he gave every excuse from "I have to do laundry" to "Church is all about praying, and I feel like I pray enough at home" to "I just hate how early it is." It is so aggravating. Really, retention has been my most frustrating thing of my whole mission. A lot of baptisms in comparison to other NYRM missionaries? Sure. How many of them are still involved in the Church? Let's not even go there. It's really depressing.
Jerry and Andrea did come to church, though! Sadly, we didn't really get to teach them, either... Haha but we did have a birthday cake for Andrea! The first time I've ever eaten cake with chop sticks. To be honest, I probably never will again. It's pretty inefficient. But I love those guys! I just hate that they are so studious! They are probably the only people I have ever taught who I actually believe when they say they can't meet because they are studying too much.
Haha well, like I said, this is REALLY not a good email. Haha hopefully this week goes better. On the bright side, us and the sisters in our district are going to a pumpkin patch today! That's always a good thing!
I love you, but I don't miss you!
Elder Allen
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