Pheeling much better!

This week was good. We got a lot of work done and hopefully made some progress with some of our investigators. On Wednesday, I got really sick…fever, stomach problems, body aches, etc... We went out to work in the morning and I almost died. It was awful. Then I went home and laid on my bed for the entire day. It was absolutely horrible. If I even slightly elevated my head, I felt like I was going to throw up. Then the next day I was kind of better, although I still had stomach issues a lot and felt pretty bad. But we went and worked and that's how Thursday and Friday were. Then I still had stomach problems on Saturday, and people started to tell me that I had amoebiasis. They’re all like "Yes! Those are the symptoms." So to be safe, I went to the hospital. Things you should never ever do-- go to a hospital in a 3rd world country. It was disgusting and terrifying. Private hospitals here aren't that bad, but in Agoo there are only public ones... the chairs in the "waiting room" were like seats taken out of a minivan. It was probably one of the worst experiences of my mission... I had to give a stool test. Awful! And the women’s restroom was broken so I had to go in the men’s and the urinals reeked and no soap, no toilet paper, and had to flush it with a bucket. It was super dirty. Then they analyzed everything and discovered... good news! I don't have any parasites! Hooray! That was a big relief. They don't know what the cause was, but they gave me some medicine to stop it and it's gone now. I’m totally fine right now. But it's probably good we went there because they discovered I was dehydrated so I had to drink all this nasty stuff to get me hydrated again. They wanted to admit me, but I wasn't about to let that happen haha. But I’m hydrated now and I don't have parasites so life is great!

Don’t worry mom, I’m being safe and healthy. I am very diligent about my vitamins.

[Editor’s Note: We were emailing back and forth with Allyson and after we read about her illness, this was what Tom wrote to her: “I just forgot about this until now. When I was saying my prayers one morning early this week, (I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday) I had this distinct impression that you were struggling with something that was very difficult. I didn't know what it was, but I knew you were going through something difficult. I prayed fervently that the Lord would help you through it. I felt a sense of peace and then forgot all about it.

Now that I think about it, I'm glad The Lord gave me the chance to exercise some extra faith on your behalf.” Allyson responded with: “Dad, that's a really cool experience. Thanks for your prayers and faith! Turns out I'm ok now. I'm glad Heavenly Father let you exercise your faith for me.”]

Our investigators are doing ok. Missionary work…same old same old. Two of our investigators with baptismal dates have all sorts of concerns. They are just a mess, but they have really strong testimonies and really want to be baptized so we are working on that. The H family is doing great. We have another investigator that is really progressing. He’s been to church 3 times now and is doing well. He is only 20, but we got permission from president to extend a baptismal date. We’ll do that this week. It’s a little hard though, because he struggles in Tagalog. But luckily he understands Tagalog really well; he's just a little slow at speaking it. So we're going to bring an Ilocano speaker with us next time.

We also got this awesome new investigator yesterday. Earlier this week, Sister Glori and I were taking a picture in a rice field. It was very pretty there. Then we both slipped off the little path thing into the rice field. That was embarrassing. So our feet and legs were really muddy. So we went and knocked on this door and asked if we could use their water pump. The girl there was very nice and we washed our feet and she said we could come back and teach her. We taught her yesterday. She is only like 17 though, so that's a problem, but she lives there and helps her older sister who is deaf. They do sign language. Her dad lives there too and her mom is working abroad. When we got there she told us that she was confused because she is being taught by Jehovah’s Witness and she doesn't know what to do or what the truth is. She really liked our message though. We had a great powerful lesson with her and I am excited to teach her again!

I’m missing Baguio just a little bit right now... last week I tried to look for some jam to buy. I couldn't find any. Guess I’ll be saying bye to jam, honey, mustard, my favorite hot sauce, and basically every food that isn't Filipino. Welcome to Agoo.

We have a zone conference in Baguio and Sister Smith and I are trying to figure out how to sneak away to the grocery store and get everything. haha.

There are so many missionaries here. In Baguio, probably about 5 times a week we would see missionaries from either Jehovah Witness, Iglesia, or Baptist. We just awkwardly greet each other, "Good afternoon."

You're the best. My time is up. I love you all very much. Hope you have a great week. Thanks for everything.

 

Last P-day in Baguio. [Thanks for the Pictures, Sister Jackson]