This week has been spent in preparing an elder for dental surgery. Our dental clinic missionaries ran across an elder in the CCM with a fast growing cyst under his teeth, in his jawbone, which if left unattended, would have caused his jaw to break at any time. He was able to have surgery yesterday to remove that cyst and has done very well. He had MANY people fasting and praying for him. We all felt that it was one of the Lord's tender mercies. If he had not come on a mission, he may never have known that he had this until it fractured and caused permanent disability. He came to the CCM in Guatemala where there is a church dental clinic that does screenings of the missionaries and the dentist who saw him had a feeling that there was something wrong. He was able to remain in our mission even though assigned to another, to receive the care he needed.
I am adding this as an after thought. I woke up the day after this post and felt I needed to clarify a little. The elder in the above incident is the son of 2 missionaries who live in and both served in Honduras. His first name is Helaman. He has only been in the mission for a week. He was added to a companionship with one of the friendliest missionaries in the mission when he came, as a temporary missionary because they weren't sure which mission to put him in. Since then he has been permanently assigned to our mission.
He stayed overnight, one night in the hospital. We were unable to reach his mother for him to talk to the first day and that morning. As we were driving him home, he finally made telephone contact with her. He only needed to talk to her for a couple of minutes but when he finished he had tears rolling down his cheeks. This is Valentines Day so we stopped in traffic and bought him a red heart balloon. The thought came to me to turn on some calming music so we turned on the CD we drive with in this traffic all the time. Up came the Janice Capp Perry music that Bro. Perry had given us in the MTC. "This Life is a Test, A Child's Prayer, The Army of Helaman", many of her favorite songs started to play in Spanish. The thought came to me that this is a tender mercy of the Lord for him to hear these songs and know that Heavenly Father is aware of him and loves him.
He stayed the afternoon with us. That evening we had planned a birthday dinner at a restaurant with Bro James. This elder was asleep but woke up just in time to say that he would like to go with us. The doctor had told us he could eat anything he wanted to, it just had to be soft. So we get to the restaurant and there sat the 3 dentists and their wives who diagnosed him, one of those being Elder Call who had spent most of the day before at the hospital making sure everything went well. He was greeted and cared for and spoiled by them.
The Lord truly does know us and is aware of our every need. This is a testimony to us of that.
Elder B.... is a zone leader in our mission from Nicaragua. His companion spent the night in the hospital with the above elder, He was talking with us and Dale was sharing some of his mission experiences with him. He uses his mothers name because his father left them when he was about 4 years old and has had nothing to do with them. His grandmother married his grandfather when she was 15 years old and he was 45. They had 13 children and they all get together once a year for a reunion. His grandparents still love to dance together. His grandfather is 97 years old now.
He asked if he could share a story with us. When he was in secondary school there were many contests and he participated in several and never won anything. Someone asked him to participate one more time. He had 2 days to prepare. He participated and won on his school level, then on a district and department level, finally winning on a national level. The first prize was $10,000, second prize ? and third prize was $1000 and a computer. Fourth prize was 2 years of education in the USA and a computer. He won fourth prize. He was considering going on a mission and when he asked his mother what he should do, she said that she didn't know but that he better go ask the Lord.
He was supposed to got talk with an official the next morning at 8:00 to accept the prize. He started to pray that night, trying to decide. The next morning he slept right through time to go to the interview. There was a man assigned to help him who would earn plenty of money if he accepted. This man called him. "What happened? Are you sick? Why aren't you here?" When Elder B... told him that he had decided to go on a mission instead, he called him dumb, told him he was stupid for not taking it. He had a very difficult time understanding why he would choose a mission. He did get the computer but lost the education in the states..
He had a year before he could leave on his mission so he wanted to go to school. He took a test (PECA) to see if he could get his schooling and books paid for. He passed the test and was able to go to school for a year but the administrator was Evangelical and when Elder B... told him that he was going to leave to go on a mission, he was told that there was no way that they would pay for him to go to the university when he came home. He worried about that but said that he chose to come on the mission anyway. He recently baptized a man who is over a company here in Guatemala who promised him a job in Peru and the opportunity to go to school there when he finishes his mission.
When he put in his papers for a mission he was 18 and his Branch Pres. told him that he probably would not get to go. His Stake Pres. also told him that. His reply was "Is it only the bishops and stake president's sons that get to go at 18? Why wouldn't I be able to go? We are all equal in God's eyes."
He joked about getting a call to Guatemala. When his call came for Guatemala, he was very excited.
It got to be about 2 weeks before he was to leave and he had no clothes. The people in his branch saw that he had nothing and helped him get the clothing he needed.
He said when they set him apart, he was told many things that he wondered about. One was that he would be a zone leader. He thought, "How can this be?" He had gone out with the missionaries and he had been Aaronic Priesthood leader and such but he didn't know much about the discussions and teaching the gospel.
He has about 5 months left now, and he has been a zone leader for about 6 or 7 months now. He is a wonderful young man. He has gone through a lot on the mission. He is one of the elders who had H Pylori and went through such a hard treatment. But he has a wonderful testimony of the gospel.
What a privledge it is to get to work with these wonderful missionaries and see their faith and commitment to the work. We are very blessed to be here.
