December 9, 2013

Hey Family! 

  

Sorry that I was not able to write to you guys in the last week! It has been a crazy last couple of weeks! There has been a lot of stuff that has happened! SO we are gonna start in the last 2 weeks on Tuesday! So it was just another Tuesday and we had a zone meeting. So we went to our meeting in our stake center with all our zone and there I was just not feeling good at all! I had a pretty bad fever and I just felt pretty bad. During the meeting felt like I got hit by a baseball bat in the stomach! It was one of the worst pains that I have had ever! and then out of nowhere, I had to go to the bathroom to throw up! It was pretty bad! After the meeting, I called our mission Presidents wife and she told me to go to the doctors and get looked at. So we called the mission doctor and he told me that he was full until the next day! So I went back home and just laid on my bed! Finally my bishop came over and took me to another doctor, and there they gave me an ultrasound and saw that my appendix was pretty swollen!! From there, our mission president called me and told me to go the Hospital and get checked in. So at the hospital, they started doing all these tests and they took me to do a cat scan. Once I got put into a room, the doctor came in and told me that they had to operate now to take out my appendix. So at this point I was pretty freaked out!! My mission president got to the hospital right as they were about to take me in for the surgery. We called my parents and got permission and they took me in! Haha.. It was pretty scary! They didn't put me under for a while, and so I was awake in the operating room! Keep in mind that we are in the south of Mexico!! haha... I was pretty freaked out when they took out the operating tools right in front of me!

 So when I woke up I was being wheeled back into my room and I guess I was still pretty out of it and all I saw was my mission presidents face and he said that everything went good. So the next day I was pretty sore! They had done 3 incisions, pretty small so it wasn't that bad! So they had told me that I would be fasting and not able to eat, so from Monday night to Thursday I did not eat a thing! I have lost so much weight! Its pretty bad! I am eating a ton right now to try and gain it back!, but anyway I was in the hospital for 5 days after my surgery! Still not sure why I was in there for so long but all we did was watch the same movies over and over again! It was terrible! But every now and then we got some visits from our investigators and members that came to see me. And our mission president came in almost everyday. It was a pretty nice hospital. From what they told me, the nicest one that was here in Villa. So that Saturday, I was allowed to leave. Walking was so hard! It was like I was 90 years old! haha, So the president put me with the assistants. For the past week I have been living with them and working in the mission offices everyday with our President and doing things there. Then after the office closes, I go back home and basically do nothing! It has been alright working in the offices, but going back home and just resting has been awful! 

I am feeling a lot better now, I am able to eat pretty good just have to watch the fats;) and walking has come along way! Still not at full strength but almost there! I have been kind of worried because of my area! We had just started doing really good and then I got taken out! But Abraham had a baptism date for the 7th of December! So luckily yesterday I was able to go the baptism for him! I was pretty sad that I couldn't do the ordinance but it was so good to see him take this step! And what was even better was the look on his families face! Then having them say,thank you was the best part of the whole thing!:) I was so happy that I was able to go! He said that he didn't want to do the baptism unless I was there! So grateful for that family! 

So it has been a pretty crazy last couple of weeks! with a lot of things that I am never going to forget! The hardest was finding myself down and feeling like there was no going back up, no matter what I did. Satan attacked. He can work emotionally and even sometimes physically. Being so weak, it was easy for me to get down on myself and take the easy way out and be done with it. I could feel it so strong that I should just stop. Then I remembered why I am here, and what I am here for. Then someone shared a scripture with me in Mosiah 24 13-15. This scripture really helped me! I just know I didn't come to do a half way job. All the sacrifices that this church is built on,  I should be able to do the same! I love all of you guys so much, I said in my farewell talk that I would work as hard as I could and I intend on doing so.

Love,

Elder Liljenquist