The long awaited appendix story

Well hello, long time no email! Haha so I have about a billion things to email about, not surprisingly, so sorry if I forget anything.

Okay, so here's the long awaited appendix story: (It's funny cuz at first I was like, ugh I can NOT tell Mom this story till post-mish but then you got a phone call so now you get all the juicy details! Sister DeRuvo literally photographed the entire thing so one day I'll show you the slide show of it lol) So it's funny because actually either Sister DeRuvo or I were sick every single day that week, but I guess it started Thursday night at a dinner appointment, my stomach was killing me which was pretty standard so I went to the bathroom just to relax for a second and keep up the happy face for the members and I ended up getting sick. I didn't tell Sister DeRuvo till we left and got home, she almost killed me haha then the next day my stomach was again really upset so I decided I needed a nap after lunch and ended up getting sick again and finally decided to just take the day off. It was kind of a weird decision since I usually sleep till I can function again and go back to work that night but I think I was just exhausted from feeling sick constantly so I finally listened to Sister DeRuvo and took a day off and just layed around.

Then Saturday morning we had our studies and towards the end of our training hour my stomach started hurting again but I decided I wasn't going to tell Sister DeRuvo because she'd make me stay in again and I didn't want to take 2 days in a row off. But then over the course of the next 10 minutes it went from hurting to being kinda excruciating so after we closed training I went and layed down, and 10 minutes later was curled up in tears on my bed and throwing up from sheer pain. Thankfully right at that moment my district leader called, he said he had thought about calling the day before several times but never did and then felt bad when he found out that night I'd been sick so when the thought came to call us he decided he better not ignore it. So he and his companion drove over and gave me a blessing, and then Sister DeRuvo and I went to the ER.

I got really lucky, it was only like a 2 hour wait and the pain was coming and going in waves so I was able to survive until I got an IV in my arm. The funny thing is everyone kept asking if the pain was on my right side and it wasn't, it was in the center right under my rib cage. But the doctor came in and was pushing on my stomach and when he pushed on my appendix it literally made me cry. So he said it was probably my gallbladder, possibly an ovarian cyst, and maaayyyybe my appendix so he booked me to come back Sunday morning for an ultrasound (When I told that to the mission nurse she encouraged me not to change it to keep the sabbath holy and even though it's too bad go ahead and get it done in case they can't do it for a few more days and I was like, are you nuts?? I"M NOT DOING THAT!! I hurt here! I'm getting looked at NOW! lol she thought I'm way more righteous than I am....)

So Sunday we went for what we thought was just an ultrasound and maybe get some drugs, and at this point I felt a little silly cuz the pain was gone unless you pushed on my stomach and I was worried I was over reacting, then after I got the ultrasound We sat around for like another 2 hours waiting for results and feeling bad we were missing church. Then finally a nurse came in and was like "Well it's your appendix so let's get you on some antibiotics and prep you for surgery!" and we were like WHAT?! Haha and I think that's when Sister Scott started calling you. They said just one end if it was swollen on the ultrasound, but after surgery the doctor said the whole thing was really infected so good thing they got it out. (Sadly no, no one showed it to me or offered to give it to me in a jar!) I'm just lucky they even found it, I've heard so many horror stories this last week from people who's appendix burst and I'm so grateful the doctor found that despite my claims that my right side didn't hurt.

Side note, Sister Scott told me my parents seem very obedient and now they understand why I'm such a good missionary :)

And I've seriously been a walking miracle ever since then. I got home from the hospital Monday afternoon, went to Branch Council Tuesday night, and have worked almost a full day ever since then. We usually have either spent some time in the apartment working where I can kinda rest as we do stuff, or I've had to come back and nap for about an hour, but other than that I'm back up and running and yesterday we did totally full day so I'm pretty happy. In fact President and Sister Scott came to Woodstock for church this Sunday (that was a major shock haha) to check up on me and Sister Scott told me I was looking better than President so don't worry about me at all. I'm still a little tender sometimes but I'm pretty much fine. I get my stitches out on Thursday.

The really crazy thing is how amazing this week has been, it's seriously been like the best week I've had in over a month and we spent half of it in the apartment! But God's a God of miracles, and I told that to President and he said "Well you're doing what you're supposed to so he's going to bless you!" And so true. Mostly though I'm accrediting the awesome week to my new rockstar companion, Sister Wester, who's just this giant ball of faith. She's a convert, she joined the church about 2 years ago and is the only member of her family. (In fact, most of her family is pretty anti the church and her being on a mission). She came out with Sister DeRuvo and was actually trained in my zone so I knew her a little bit. But she is so excited about everything and wants to baptize everyone we meet- the branch presidency is already calling her a "firecracker".

We had some amazing miracles this week. There are 2 part member families Sister DeRuvo and I tried to see the entire 3 months we were here and couldn't, and we saw both of them this week and are now teaching the non-members in the family. One of them would have not happened if Sister Wester wasn't here, we invited the husband Ryan to meet with us again like 5 times before he said yes, and after time number 4 I was like fine so what you want stinker and ignore the Spirit I know you're feeling, but she asked AGAIN when we could come back and he finally said if we came back on Sundays he'll listen. It was a cool experience! The Spirit was crazy strong, he doesn't believe in God but there were several times when we were talking he would really focus in and his face would change and you could tell it was hitting him what we were saying. He's just trying to play it cool and not admit it, but we're really excited about him.

We're really pumped now to go work with more part member families more seriously, I love seeing families be united through the gospel. And Sister Wester seems to have a special passion for it, especially because she came from a YSA ward and hasn't ever worked with families before, so I think we'll have alot of success with her faith.

This week we also moved up Robin's baptismal date to this Sunday, the 23rd! And Kelsey reset a date for December 30th, assuming she gets work off- if not January 6th. Both of them are doing so amazing, Kelsey is the cutest. We asked how praying has been and she said "I can just feel now God is with me, and never understood why people said they knew things about God but now I get it because I know this is real!" We were beaming, to say the least.

Did I tell you Sister DeRuvo went up to Owen Sound? So she'll spend Christmas where I did, I'm so excited for her! I gave her a list of my formers with instructions to pray about and baptize them.

Well, this is now crazy long, I think that covers the gist of these last 2 weeks. I won't even get in to everything that's coming up the next 2 weeks, I'll just update you on skype/next email. Love you all! Talk to you on Christmas :)