Sorry for not writing on Monday. I was sick and couldn´t go to the cyber. It´s been kind of a rollercoaster of a week. On Tuesday I started feeling nauseous and later I got the chills and a fever and we had to enter the house an hour early that night. The next day I didn´t have a fever anymore, but I had really bad stomach pains. I tolerated it for most of the day, bu around 7:30pm it was so bad I could hardly walk and had to keep taking breaks to sit down and wait for the pain to ease. I decided to ask the Bishop for a blessing so we walked to his house. When I was about to ask for the blessing I start crying thinking about all the times my Dad gave me Father´s blessings when I was sick and wishing he was there to give me one then. The bishop gave me a blessing and we went back to the house. The next day I woke up feeling better and all Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I was totally fine. Saturday we had the baptism of Roxana and were able to see a miracle. We found Roxana had been crying in the bathroom right before the service began and realized she was having doubts. We tried to help, but she only wanted to talk to her Mom. That worried me because her Mom was the one who had said she would only give Roxana permission to get baptized if she demonstrated that she was really commited to this religion and was really sure about her decision to get baptized. Now that Roxana was having doubts, I was worried her mom would convince her to cancel the baptism. But she didn´t! When Roxana came out of the bathroom, we took pictures, and then proceeded with the baptism. Wow. Roxana´s mom is the LAST person I thought would be encouraging her to move forward with her baptism. That was really cool. It was a great service. So everything went well witht that. Sunday morning in sacrament meeting I started getting chills, but thought it was just from stress, hoping that our investigator had a good first experience at church, but by Relief Society I was visibly shaking from cold. I took some ibuprofen and hoped it would kick in soon. After church, at 1pm, wad the baptism of Janina and that 1 hour between church and the baptism felt like one of the longest hours of my life. By that time I new I had a raging fever. My skin felt like a thousand degrees. But I had to stay for the baptism. As the service started, I was sweating and my face was bright red. I was breathing deeply and was miserable. After tolerated the fever until Janina went under the water and then couldn´t stand it anymore. I went and laid down on a bench in the hallway. The members start noticing I was sick and that made me cry. One member brought me a wet rag to put on my forhead. We decided to leave right then and took a taxi back to the house so I wouldn´t have to walk in the scorching heat. When we got back to the house, I took me temperate and had a fever of 103 degrees! Up until this point I hadn´t called the mission nurse. My comp and the other two missionaries in our ward kept telling me too, but I refused because I hadn´t once had to call the mission nurse in my whole time here and even before when I got sick at the start of my mission I was able to take some medicine that I brought from the states and was able to get better. I knew the nurse received lots of calls from whiny missionaries with trivial conditions so I didn´t want to add to her stress, but my fever was so high that I gave in and told my comp to call the nurse. I took some tylenol, started drinking lots of cold water and kept a wet rag on my head. Then I took a cold shower and my fever started to go down. But then came the awful stomach pains and the diarreah. (Yep, it´s part of life when you´re serving in Centro America). I think I went to the bathroom like 12 times. I stayed in bed all day. My comp and the other two sister missionaries took care of my all afternoon and into the night. Some elders even came to give me a blessing of health. That night, I didn´t sleep well at all and had to get up several times to use the bathroom. The next day (Monday) I wasn´t any better. I still had wrenching stomach pains and diarreah.I also threw up twice and had a headache when I sat up or started walking. I had absolutely no appetite and it seemed like everything just went right threw me. I stayed in bed all day again and the mission nurse finally arrived around 6pm to give me some medication. The members kept asking how I was doing and some of them made us food and brought it too us. The next day, I felt a bit better, but the stomach pains continued, a little less strongly. I threw up a couple more times as well. The mission nurse called and said I should go to a clinic to have some tests taken. So my comp and Hermana Juanita hauled me to a clinic. We took a bathroom sample and when I got there, they took a blood sample. It scared me to receive medical care in a third world country, but I felt so sick that I knew it was necessary. Anyway, it turns out from the results of the tests they took that I have an intestinal infection and dehydration. I´m taking medication and have been staying in the house and resting and it´s helping me. So don´t worry, I´m on the mends! Today I felt a hundred times better than yesterday and I think tomorrow I might be able to go back out and work. It´s been a tough week, physically, but I know God has been strengthening me and my comp has been a lifesaver. She made me food and brought it to my bed and just took care of me when I was suffering in my bed. I´m so grateful for her. All I know is I will be sooooo happy to be healthy once I get over this sickness completely and I will be ready to dive into the work and give it my all. And what a miracle that during all of this, we saw two baptisms! I´m happy God has a perfect plan. Philippians 4:13
Happy late 4th of July! I´m so grateful to have been born in a free country where we enjoy so much liberty and peace. I love you all!
Hermana Hawkins
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