Dear friends and family...
Remember that girl who's dress slipped down while she was teaching Relief Society. Or how about that girl that fell while walking up to give her farewell talk in church. Well that same girl is now on a mission, doing some pretty horrifying embarrassing things out here in Indiana. (and the reason I'm talking about this girl in 3rd person is because I'm still too embarrassed to admit that it is me!) People have mentioned how long my emails are... well get ready for another long one... but I promise you it is worth the reading...
To tell the story we have to go back to Tuesday... We had a training for all the trainers/trainees in Peru, about an hour away from my area. We were also going to go on exchanges with the Peru sisters, so it made sense that after we were done with training, we would start the exchange. My trainer is the one in charge of exchanges, and thought that it would be a good idea to leave me in the area to take care of Lafayette 3 all by myself while she went to Peru. So after the amazing training by my mission president, the dear Sister Stanford gets in the car with Sister Pitcher and leaves me. (We have become really close, so being away from her for 24 hours was quite sad.) But Sister Donaldson seems nice enough and the two of us go back to Lafayette. That night everything goes well, we teach a family who I LOVE! Part member families are so great, I think I told you about him, he's basically a dry mormon, but we had a really good lesson with him. They asked if missionaries were allowed to go in the temple on their mission and S. Donaldson says we only get permission if a family we taught goes to get sealed. He (the dry mormon) noticed how I perked up and commented on how he should probably get baptized soon so I can attend their sealing!
We came in that night after our lesson and dinner appointment and planned. Then the next day we did study together, and then we went out and tracted. So at this point we have covered all the things we were supposed to cover during an exchange, and we had about 2 hours before we were going to exchange back. We were at the YMCA doing our weekly service when we heard the news. Sister Stanford had gotten really sick and had been throwing up all day in Peru. She was so sick she wouldn't be able to be in the car for an hour to come home to me, so the exchange had been extended for another day. So here I am, having to take over Lafayette for a whole day longer than expected, and I start to freak out a little! We had two appointments set up for that night, we still had to find a member to come to the appointment in the morning, we had things to do and people to see and my trainer wasn't here to help me know what to do. So after our service we went home and regrouped. I made phone calls, got a member to come to the appointment, verified our things for the next day, and kinda ran the show! I got everything put together for the two lessons we had that night, and I was going to make Sister Stanford proud of me.
Right before we are about to leave for our next appointment, I start to feel sick to my stomach. I keep telling myself its just nerves, here I am without my trainer doing everything on my own, I ought to be a little nervous, right?! We were about to go teach a part member family where the husband is LA and the wife is an investigator, I had never met them, I didn't know how she would react to two new sisters showing up, and I'm missing my companion. But I pray and tell myself that I'm being a baby and go to the appointment.
Sister Carver is this really sweet lady who has water for us to drink and just dives in with questions about where we are from and what we did pre-mission, and then she dives into how much she loved conference and President Monson. To introduce myself I happen to say that I'm new at all this and have been out here for only about a month. She was saying all these wonderful things about the church, and my stomach starts to hurt more and more. I sip on the water she gives me, but I'm hurting pretty bad. I start to look around to see if I could see the bathroom anywhere. She is a nervous talker and she didn't give me a chance to say anything, she just kept going and going. Finally I had to go, and I just inturrupted her and asked if I could use her bathroom. She started to show me where it was, I cover my mouth, and start throwing up all over her house. I make it to the bathroom but I can't even turn around to get to the toilet. I threw up all the way down her hall way and then into her sink, that isn't draining at all. I do this a couple more times, and my companion that I hardly know is putting my hair up and rubbing my back. I'm about as embarrassed as they come. I asked her if I could help clean up and she said no. I sat there in the bathroom just sick as a dog while her and her husband and my companion cleaned up everything. She asked me if I needed to lie down and I told her we better just reschedule for next week. Seriously this lady was so nice, and she was so understanding. She asked me if I was just really nervous to teach them because I'm new and she saw me looking around during the lesson. I told her I just wanted to talk to her about conference... In the past she has been really hard to meet with, hence meeting her for the first time on my 4th week, but we were able to get a follow up appointment just a week later.
When we get home I hop in the shower because I, like Sister Carvers house, am kinda covered in barf. When I get out I hear my companion on the phone with the mission presidents wife, who was saying that we should stay in the rest of the night. So we cancelled our other appointments, and I put my PJs on and just laid down in so much pain. I threw up a couple more times that night, but luckily in my own apartment I was able to make it to the toilet. Not that it would have mattered at that point because I didn't have anything left in me to throw up....
So my companion is in Peru as sick as ever and I am in Lafayette as sick as ever. We closed down 2 areas for 2 days because we got sick! How horrible is that. We finally got back together on Thursday, and the two of us just laid in bed all day long. Sister Collins (the mission presidents wife) is also a nurse and she was checking in on us throughout the day with phone calls. We didn't eat anything all day except for a few crackers and had some sprite that a member brought to us. We had to cancel everything and we were completely useless... talk about a good way to spend the Lords time as missionaries, right?! It was pretty much horrible.
Friday we slept in because we were still really sick and were told to take it easy. But we didn't want to miss district meeting, so we got up just in time to get ready to go to that. After our meeting we had the DL and his companion give us both blessings, and then we went home. We had a dinner appointment and a teaching appointment that night, and it was about noon at this point. So after our blessing we went home and ate some lunch, just a little sandwich, and then I slept for another 3 hours. When I woke up I was completely better. And so was my companion! We know it was because of the blessing too, we were so sick, we shouldn't have been better that quickly after, but Heavenly Father needed us and wanted us to get better, and the Priesthood is real!
Was that long enough for ya....So ya, you all have my permission to spread that story around. Hopefully everyone will have forgotten it by the time I get home so I don't have to hear about it again... but I think this is going to be a story for the record books. I hope I shared enough details so you can see how horrible it was, but not get grossed out at the same time!
The rest of the week was just a normal missionary week. Its the end of the month and since we didn't do much traveling when we were sick we have tons of miles we can use on our car. So we went to the country and did some country tracting and found formers and tried LA's when we were out there. The ward had a Halloween party, with a trunk or treat and a haunted trail in the woods. The YM put it on, and I'm not gonna lie, I thought the trail was pretty scary. I screamed a couple of times, and then the next day at church people in Ward Council and just random people told us that they heard that we got really scared! Apparently the ward here has been gossiping about how easily the sisters scare! I think the YM really got a kick out of it.
I sure do love being a missionary though! Its getting colder which I don't like, and all the leaves are pretty much gone, also don't like that either. But we have really great things planned for this upcoming week. We met a referral on Saturday who seems really golden and I cannot wait to start teaching him, and we picked up a former who is really sweet and she's excited that sisters are in the area and wants to be taught again! I love this work and I love Indiana! I don't so much love getting sick, but I love the priesthood. I also love choir, here's a surprise to everyone... I have been participating in choirs since the MTC. I sang there and I have been in the ward choir here. We sang in church yesterday and it was amazing, and we are getting ready for the Christmas show, and since I'm training and guaranteed to be in Lafayette until December 16th, we will be here for the show! Christmas songs are just the BEST! I love them.
Anyway, thats about it. I love you guys,
Sister Cordner
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