The Hospital; Look Up and Look Ahead

So this week I got to see a Philippine Hospital for the first time. The bad news is that it's because I was sick. On Tuesday morning I woke up not feeling too well so we didn't really do any work, and for the rest of the week was kind of feeling off. Headache and weird feeling in my stomach. Then Friday night I woke up at about 2 in the morning and spent most of the rest of the night in the bathroom throwing up. I don't know what it was that got me sick-water, food, weather, bacteria--but it was bad. I was so exhausted when the morning came, that we couldn't go to Conference for the Saturday sessions or priesthood. At about noon we went to a hospital a town over to see if they could figure out what was wrong. Basically, the E.R. was a small room with a couple guys sitting around that asked me a few questions, told me to eat some fruit, wrote up a prescription and sent me on my way. Not exactly as thorough as I felt it should have been. So then we came back to the apartment and I was out until Sunday morning. And now, basically I can't eat much and I still kinda feel sick, but better than I was the other night. So that was my fun experience for the week.

Besides that the week was pretty slow. It was the end of the first transfer so Elder McBride in our apartment was sent to the other end of the mission on Tuesday and Elder Estevez found out he would be training so he wouldn't get his companion until Friday. So he got paired with another Elder in our district and they both stayed at our place for a couple days. And they both spent a pretty good amount of time asking me about the U.S. because it's the other Elder's one dream to visit there or live there some day. Then on Thursday, E. Esteves found out his companion from the Marshall Islands never got his visa so he's still stuck at the MTC in Provo for another two weeks, so I am again in a companionship of three for the next little bit. It's tough because we have to try and work both of our areas and with me feeling sick, the work went pretty slow this week.

Our investigators are still struggling to progress. Salvador has had nearly every lesson now, but still is not willing to commit to baptism. We did continue lessons with Fermin's son this week and they went pretty well, but Fermin's health has been taking a bad turn lately. He got really sick somehow and the combination of that and some meds made him go a little crazy this past week, so his son had to tie him up so he wouldn't knock down the house. So his son, Juben, has largely been left to care for him by himself because the other brother isn't right in the head due to some drug use in high school. But in working E. Esteves' area we had some more luck. We had a couple lessons at a members house to some investigators and they said my Tagalog was getting better, which was a boost I really needed this week. We also helped another family commit to baptism last night.

What I have seen of Conference I really liked. My favorite talks were from Richard J Maynes, Elder Scott, and President Monson in the Sunday Morning session. Together with some of the reading I did this week gave me a message that's kind of a continuation of what I said last week. Bad things happen. Things are hard. As President Monson said, "Sadness and suffering are universal." But besides what in addition to what I said last week about learning from experiences, I just want to add to that and the words from Conference by saying how to bear trials, how to learn, and how to "become the rock the river cannot wash away" as Elder Maynes said. And all we have to do is "Look up" as Elder Adrian Ochoa said and "Look Ahead" as Elder Dube said. I finished reading Job this week, and the prevailing theme as they discuss trials and afflictions is that Job was patient in his afflictions. The book starts off by saying that Job was a perfect and upright man, but later he suffers the loss of all his family and possessions. He wasn't punished for any particular reason. Sometimes we suffer things for reasons that we can't understand. We may feel that we are about to be overcome and can't stand strong. But all we need to do is Look Up and "Learn to recognize the power of the Atonement in our lives" from Elder Scott. Fortify against the weak points and look to see where we can work to improve ourselves, and when we fall short, we Look Up for divine help. We Look Ahead with a hope that things will be better and we rely on the strength of the Savior to help us keep going until we get there. 

I've had a really hard week, and looking at some of the time ahead of me, I know it will continue to be hard. There are times where I don't feel strong enough and like I shouldn't be here. But in our monthly newsletter, our Mission President brought up that even Ammon and his brothers had these feelings. And look how they turned out. They converted an entire nation. And it's because the looked up to heaven for strength and looked ahead to the blessings that were in store for them and those that they would convert. So I'm grateful for the blessing of strength that we can receive if we just choose to seek it out, and look for the small ways that the Atonement blesses our everyday lives.

Love you all and I'm excited to hear back about how you are doing.

Elder Jakob Van Boerum
10/14/13