Sister Picard is doing much better! The mission doc prescribed some medicine that helps her sleep and relieves the headaches. We were doubting Thomases the first time she took it, but the next morning she woke up and said, “It’s so weird not to have a headache!” She is much more chipper and happy—much more like the Sister Picard I remember. By the end of the day she might start to get a headache again, but every day it gets a little bit better. She’s getting better at knowing when she needs to eat and balancing her diet with everything that she needs. I’m still adjusting to the healthier diet. I have a harder time giving up the “good” stuff than Sister Picard, she was a really healthy eater already before her mission, so she hasn’t found it difficult.
We finally had an investigator come to church! His name is Ariv. He’s from India, his English is…not good, and he only reads Hindi—but he loves “the Christian religion”, as he says, and he said he enjoyed church. He stayed for all three meetings! All I can figure is that the Spirit was talking to him the whole time, I don’t know how he could have understood it otherwise.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Holly's Letter 1/11
Sister Picard is much better, I was able to take her home from the hospital last Monday evening. She looked and sounded much better, and even though the doctors hadn't figured out what was wrong, they did eliminate stroke, seizures, and bleeding in the brain, so that was good news. They diagnosed her with "severe migraines and acute dilirium" (we had a good laugh at that) and told her to take Tylenol. That night we stopped at a library so she could email her family and let them know she was alive--apparently they'd been notified of the situation, but all they knew was that she'd been hospitalized, eek. Sister Picard had told her mom about the symptoms the week before, and in the meantime her mom had done a TON of research. After talking to a nurse on a follow-up call and analyzing the symptoms more, we are almost 100% sure Sister Picard has hypoglycemia. SO- she has been following a hypoglycemic diet for the last week, and the symptoms improve every day. HAPPY.
Since then we have been trying really hard to get back on track. Our numbers last week were pretty poopy despite my efforts to keep things going. I probably could have done a much better job, but after this experience I will be much better prepared if something like this ever happens again, and I think I understand better now than before all of my responsiblities as a missionary. We had a really good Zone Conference on Thursday (President announced that baptisms for 2009 TRIPLED from the year before!), we had a lot of good speakers and some great training on planning and accountability. We talked a lot about how important it is to plan and set goals, to be continually stretching ourselves and increasing the boundaries of what we can do and the standards we can reach. It was tough to hear sometimes, especially because Sister Picard and I often feel like we are doing everything we know how, and yet we continue to fall short of our goals. So we have repented a lot this week and have been working really hard to make our planning more detailed and more effective. It's hard, but we already feel a difference.
Since then we have been trying really hard to get back on track. Our numbers last week were pretty poopy despite my efforts to keep things going. I probably could have done a much better job, but after this experience I will be much better prepared if something like this ever happens again, and I think I understand better now than before all of my responsiblities as a missionary. We had a really good Zone Conference on Thursday (President announced that baptisms for 2009 TRIPLED from the year before!), we had a lot of good speakers and some great training on planning and accountability. We talked a lot about how important it is to plan and set goals, to be continually stretching ourselves and increasing the boundaries of what we can do and the standards we can reach. It was tough to hear sometimes, especially because Sister Picard and I often feel like we are doing everything we know how, and yet we continue to fall short of our goals. So we have repented a lot this week and have been working really hard to make our planning more detailed and more effective. It's hard, but we already feel a difference.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Pray for Sis. Picard!
Tidbit from Holly's letter this week (1/4):
So things are a little crazy right now. Sister Picard woke up the day after Christmas not feeling well, she said she was very nauseous and had a headache. We chalked it up to overeating on Christmas, worked most of the day and let her have a nap, but the next day it didn't improve, and every day her head has hurt worse and worse and other strange symptoms have cropped up. We spoke a lot to the Bahrs and the mission doctor, she's had two blessings--finally I was told to take her to the ER on Saturday.It took a long time and a lot of questions and examining from the nurses before the nurse practitioner and ER doc decided to bring in a neurologist. She was admitted that night and is still there today undergoing lots of tests. For the time being I am in a trio with the Spanish sisters and have been going to all their appointments with them. So this week has been hard. It's been difficult to see her suffer and not be able to help. The hardest part was when Sister Bahr told me that I had permission from Salt Lake to leave her alone at the hospital and go home. I tried to refuse, but was basically commanded to go home and stay with the Spanish sisters. It was very strange to walk out of the hospital without her. But she's been blessed that she will be healed, so I am confident that she will. I'm only sorry that she has to go through all of this in order for it to happen. We're planning to go see her today and the Bahrs have been pretty good at keeping me up to date (President Bahr was a neuroradiologist, so he's been talking a lot to her doctors). Please keep her in your prayers! I hope that I can keep the work going while she's recovering. My one comfort is that the transfer fax came last night (can you believe it's time for transfers already?!?), and we are staying together! My anxiety would be so much worse if they transfered me before she got better.
So, not much else to report. Taking care of Sister Picard has been the focus of nearly all my time, but Sister Erickson and Sister Bushman have been taking good care of me, we are hoping to visit some of my investigators this week.
Holly would also appreciate any letters, notes, etc, that you would send her! Also, any comments on her facebook page I try and pass along. For example, I was logged on to her account recently and a friend popped up trying to chat, and he asked if she was a nun. I didn't have time to respond, but thought it was funny so sent the question on to Holly. Her response? "Tell whoever made that comment that for all intents and purposes I AM a nun. :D" Gotta love her!
So things are a little crazy right now. Sister Picard woke up the day after Christmas not feeling well, she said she was very nauseous and had a headache. We chalked it up to overeating on Christmas, worked most of the day and let her have a nap, but the next day it didn't improve, and every day her head has hurt worse and worse and other strange symptoms have cropped up. We spoke a lot to the Bahrs and the mission doctor, she's had two blessings--finally I was told to take her to the ER on Saturday.It took a long time and a lot of questions and examining from the nurses before the nurse practitioner and ER doc decided to bring in a neurologist. She was admitted that night and is still there today undergoing lots of tests. For the time being I am in a trio with the Spanish sisters and have been going to all their appointments with them. So this week has been hard. It's been difficult to see her suffer and not be able to help. The hardest part was when Sister Bahr told me that I had permission from Salt Lake to leave her alone at the hospital and go home. I tried to refuse, but was basically commanded to go home and stay with the Spanish sisters. It was very strange to walk out of the hospital without her. But she's been blessed that she will be healed, so I am confident that she will. I'm only sorry that she has to go through all of this in order for it to happen. We're planning to go see her today and the Bahrs have been pretty good at keeping me up to date (President Bahr was a neuroradiologist, so he's been talking a lot to her doctors). Please keep her in your prayers! I hope that I can keep the work going while she's recovering. My one comfort is that the transfer fax came last night (can you believe it's time for transfers already?!?), and we are staying together! My anxiety would be so much worse if they transfered me before she got better.
So, not much else to report. Taking care of Sister Picard has been the focus of nearly all my time, but Sister Erickson and Sister Bushman have been taking good care of me, we are hoping to visit some of my investigators this week.
Holly would also appreciate any letters, notes, etc, that you would send her! Also, any comments on her facebook page I try and pass along. For example, I was logged on to her account recently and a friend popped up trying to chat, and he asked if she was a nun. I didn't have time to respond, but thought it was funny so sent the question on to Holly. Her response? "Tell whoever made that comment that for all intents and purposes I AM a nun. :D" Gotta love her!
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