July 6

July 6, 2011,

I had the priveledge of going to the temple today with the missionaries from the MTC, last week I went with the English speaking group so I thought this week I would go with the French speaking group.  The missionaries seem to love seeing people they know in the temple, and it is a neat experience to see people all dressed in white in this unique setting.  So I rather figured that I was going to support the missionaries.  It turned out that the Lord wanted me to go, not for them, but for me.  I had a very sweet, very spiritual experience that the Lord wants and needs me to learn to speak this language.  I KNOW I can do it.  I have been really struggeling with this language.  It is not an easy language to learn, or maybe I just don’t have the talent it takes to learn languages easily.  I also really wanted to learn Spanish, not French, so I had this back mindset that French is stupid.  Lots of excuses, and not very good progress.  (duh, I wonder why?) 

Then this last group of missionaries came into the MTC and half of them only speak French.  I found it very frustrating to not be able to communicate with their sweet spirits past “hello” and “how are you”.  So I determined to start studying my French again.  Then I had this sweet experience in the temple today, and I remember what President Greenhalgh told me in my blessing when he set me apart as a missionary.  He blessed me I would be able to communicate with these people.  I just have such a sense today that my Heavenly Father is mindful of my limiting factors and he is letting me know that I won’t be doing this alone!  With God all things are possible.  Even me learning to speak this language!  So hold on to your hats cowboys, cuz “J’suis parle Fransai”!  (now, if only I knew how to say, “I’m gonna learn to speak French”!)

July 9, 2011

Thursday morning we got into our office at our regular time about 7, with a full list of things we wanted to do for the day but the phone rang right off the bat.  There’s a conference call from Salt Lake and can Todd join them?  At the end of the call, Todd tells me rather stunned, that one of our missionaries had just died in Nigeria.  Our job was to find out how and why and report back as soon as possible.  We didn’t even know we had a seriously ill missionary in Nigeria!  So we had a rather frantic morning trying to call the Mission President over there, the phones are tricky here with all the different codes you have to add to the numbers when dialing and then the phone system itself isn’t that great so half of the time it doesn’t work.  So you don’t know if it’s because you aren’t dialing it right, or if the call just didn’t go through!  When we finally got a call to go through to the mission home, we are informed that that number had been disconnected.  Frustrating to say the least, when we are really feeling already behind in the game!  Hours later, we have finally gotten a hold of the Mission President, spoken to the attending physician and have a report written and sent off to Salt Lake.  In a nutshell, he got malaria, the medication wasn’t working so they admitted him to the hospital.  After trying a number of different meds, it looked like he was getting better finally, then bamm, he wakes up, hollers and dies.  They are doing an autopsy and I’m sure Todd and the big wigs in SLC will figure it out, most likely it was cardiac problems caused by the malaria.

Two days later I still think I am in shock.  One of our missionaries died?  How does that happen?  I feel so deeply for his family, his parents, his companions, his mission president, etc..  Mostly my prayers concern comfort for them, I am so sad and I didn’t even know him!  Yesterday we were invited by the Stake President to join them in meeting with the family members so we could help explain maybe the why.  We met with 3 of the uncles, they gather all the information and then will take it back and inform the family.  They were amazing, they are not LDS, and so our beliefs are strange to them, but they have a very strong testimony of God.  The elder uncle said to us a few things that I am still marveling over.  He said he was proud of his nephew, and honored that he had died while on his mission.  (This surprised me)  He said that this young man had died as a soldier for the Cross, as a warrior for Christ.  He wishes that his death could be so honorable.  What faith and wonderful insight!  These people and their faith are amazing and I am so glad I have the privilege to be here and associate and learn from them.  To be proud and honored at the death of a loved one, how inspiring,  how comforting. 

So can we take this very, very sad thing and use it?  I feel a little guilty but that’s what I want to do.  Malaria is preventable!  We know it comes from a certain mosquito who only comes out at night, sleeping under a mosquito net cuts your chances of being bit by over half, taking your Doxy (anti-malaria medication) takes care of the other half.  The problem is that Africans have lived with malaria all their life, they know when you get sick, you take the medication and it makes you better.  They get malaria like the rest of the world gets the common cold.  Only malaria is much easier to fix.  The problem is that they take the medication so often (every time they get sick, whether it’s malaria or not) they are developing an immunity to the medication and sometimes it doesn’t work and people die.  I read somewhere last week that the leading killer of children in Africa is malaria.  I might not be able to fix the whole country, but by dang it! My missionaries are going to start taking their doxy and sleeping under their nets!

Today I woke up feeling very blessed and comforted, how does that happen in a time like this?  I think my Savior is once again touching my life.  (This is becoming a daily thing here)  I hope those who are mourning feel this way as well, but for me I feel very much at peace this morning.