Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Last few week's update



Ok for those of who you haven't heard, Shelly's mission President got really sick with pneumonia a few weeks ago. The doctors didn't know what it was, some even told him it was all in his head....right. So Michelle was supposed to go on a traveling assignment
but felt she should stay with President Sloan. At one point she was frustrated, knowing the Doctors were giving him the wrong thing but not knowing what to give him. She said, "I wish I could talk to my Dad right now." and he said, "CALL YOUR DAD." Ha so she has been in contact with my Dad over the past few weeks.
They ended up having to transfer him to a better hospital, get in touch with a U.S. Doctor who happened to be in Bogota, and fly him up to Quito to operate on President Sloan. He ended up having to remove the lower right lobe of his lung because he had an infection and an absess. I'm not sure if this is the exact medical terminology but it was serious and life threatening I promise... Her president is now recovering and expected to make a full recovery but they have been definitely in need of prayers if you are willing to give them!
The selfish but best part of the story is that I got to talk to her one day over Thanksgiving break!!! wooooo hooo. She called my dad and I was standing right there. I may have started crying profusely but it was great to just hear her voice and know she's alive! 6 month mark tomorrow! Here is her latest letter and some pictures:




Hi family!

It´s christmas time! How I love Mo-Tab Christmas music. And the Christmas devotional! It was so wonderful to get to watch that last night in Spanish!

Things here in Ecuador are good. It´s so hard to know what to tell you about, because there are millions of things I could say. We are still working with Teresa and DAvid, come to find out the divorce won´t be able to go through for about three or four months. But by then they are going to be uber prepared. uber is not a Spanish word, just so you know. But, this week we had 9 new investigators. The Lord is pouring them into our hands and I just hope we have enough skills to hold on to all of them and get them baptized! There were 10 investigators at church yesterday, it was crazy. Lots were kids. I stood up to bear my testimony and was really emotional for some reason. When I sat down one of the little girls who is 9 years old (Careli is her name) she said. You´re crying. For happiness though, huh? It was cute. She wanted to get up to bear her testimony but they closed the meeting before she could.

I am really feeling at home in our ward these days. There are some pretty amazing members here. There are sooo many less actives in our ward, but man the ones who are stellar are mega stellar. It is such a blessing to get to know them. I wish you all could meet all of them, our Bishop, our investigators, todos! There are so many amazing people here. It seems like whenever we find new investigators to teach, some awful crisis happens in their lives right after. As the Bishop´s wife Gloria says, Satan is working hard in our ward Iñaquito (that´s what our ward is called). There are interesting economic dynamics in our ward. But anyway, as I was saying, I don´t know why this always happens. Maybe it is all inspired of Dios that we find them right before their crises happen. I just hope we can help them see how the Gospel can help them.

I love this Gospel, it is life-changing. Being the doubtful person I am, I have seen little miracles and lives change for the Gospel. I love the Savior and am so excited to spend this Christmas serving him with all my heart! We are hoping to have a baptismal service the day after!

I am going to try and send photos now.

Love and more love,

Hermana Groesbeck