(News anchor voice) Hi, I'm Sister Egelund, reporting straight from the MTC, and you're reading my email! *super cool montage*
Greetings loved ones. I have had quite the week! Let's just take a moment now to mentally prepare ourselves for a fairly long email...are you ready? Now let us begin.
Let's go back to the past Wednesday. As you know I had been sick for a few weeks with a cough. No big deal, right? Wrong. Around 5 o'clock I started to have a really sharp pain in my ribs every time I coughed or laughed. I ignored the pain though in hopes that it would go away soon. At dinner it became worse, but I am a fool and continued to ignore the pains. My companion, Sister Litchfield kept suggesting that we go to the medical center, but I'm not really into going to the doctors. I'm not about that life style. Following dinner Sister Litchfield and I taught an investigator, Co Nung. I estimate that I said four sentences the entire lesson. I spent the rest of the time pressing on my ribs and began to freak out while Sister Litchfield was teaching. Once we had finished teaching Co Nung I ran to the bathroom to check out the spot that was hurting...it was darker than the rest of my skin. No big deal or anything though. That was a lie, it was a really big deal. I showed Sister Litchfield and she told me we had to go find the doctor. She thought that it might be my appendix that was my problem...so that really calmed me down... So we ran to the classroom to grab our bags and we had to write on the board where we were going. She wrote "Cac Chi di seek medical attention #NBD." Well Cac has a tone over the top and while we're walking out the door she turns around and asks if you put the right tone on the word. Haha I'm nearly crying because I'm in pain and she was worried that she didn't put the right tone on a word. It was classic.
Once we got to the front desk and explained to the lady working what was happening, she slowly grabbed a piece of paper and started questioning me. ARE YOU KIDDING? I was in tons of pain and this lady thought I was lying about it. Once she called a doctor and he said I should go to the hospital, we had to wait 20 minutes for the MTC van to come back. Sister Litchfield and I had to sit on the couch listening to the people at the front desk talk about their smelly feet while I was beginning to see the light. Haha Finally the van came back and we went to the Instacare in Provo. Once we got there there was more waiting. Once I was taken back to the room I was told there was nothing they could do to help me there, but based on where my pain was it might be my gallbladder. Great. If I wasn't feeling like a 10 before he said that, I definitely was now. Not. We then had to wait again for the shuttle to come back and take us to the emergency room. Fifteen minutes passed and the shuttle came back to take us, just to find out that the emergency room was right around the corner and I could have easily walked there.
Well we get to the emergency room, checked in, and guess what we had to do? Wait. This was definitely a test of patience. There was a movie playing in the waiting room, and Sister Litchfield and I were so good and faced away from the television. We were really proud of ourselves for not being worldly, then felt bad about being prideful. Sister Litchfield's aunt works in the O.R. so we had someone call for her and she came down and visited with us while waiting - that was fun for Sister Litchfield. She only works on Wednesday nights, so Litchfield owes me big time for getting sick on the only day her aunt works. About a half hour later I was taken back to a room to get an IV, and because I have the best luck in the world the IV didn't work - the needle wouldn't separate from the tube, so know I have a knarly bruise on my arm. I just tell people I have an abusive companion.
So then they took me to my own room. They gave me a hospital robe to wear, it was kinda fun. I felt weird not having my missionary tag on my shirt, so I put it on. Haha the doctor thought I was a loser. The nurse came and said they were going to try and give me an IV again. Umm. No. This was the worst. So while the nurse gave me the IV Sister Litchfield made me bear testimony in Vietnamese. Cons to an IV: Needles, bruises, pain. Pros to an IV: MORPHINE! They gave me morphine and it was spectacular. I was feeling like gold hopped up on morphine, so when I went to get x-rays they pushed me on a bed through the hospital. If that's not first class I don't know what is. I got some x-rays, got pushed back to my room, then lied there while Sister Litchfield and her aunt talked in the hall. I was pretty bored so I tried holding my breath to see if my pulse would change on the monitor. It didn't, so that was a bust. Later Sister Litchfield came in and read scriptures to me while her aunt went and performed a surgery. That was the best part of the night for me! She read from Mosiah 3 & 4 - my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon! The spirit was really strong in the room! It's so cool that no matter where you are or what situation you're in you can read from the Book of Mormon and feel the Spirit!
Well following that the doctor came in and told me the diagnosis. It wasn't my appendix, it wasn't my gallbladder, it wasn't my respiratory system, all I had done was pulled a muscle near my lungs from coughing too much! Seriously, five hours at the hospital, just to find out I pulled a muscle. No, the pain was really bad though. They gave me a prescription for ibuprofen and I planned on filling it the next day at the BYU medical center. Once the MTC van came and picked us up again the driver asked if we wanted to go fill the prescription. We asked where we could fill it and she said we could go to Riteaid or Walgreens. Sitting in the dark van Sister Litchfield and I look at each other and fist bumped. WE WERE GOING TO A STORE IN THE REAL WORLD!! We stopped in the parking lot and literally ran into the store. I went and picked up the prescription and started buying anything and everything I could. Seriously, I was going insane! I was in a real store, plus it was like 11 o'clock! I have never felt so liberated in my life! Haha.
We finally got back to the MTC around 11:30 and when we checked back in they gave me a voucher so I could call home for seven minutes. Yes, seven whole minutes of talking on the phone! I called home a couple days later and when I talked to my mom I spoke Vietnamese the whole time. It was pretty sweet!
So that is a story I like to refer to as the Emergency Room Fiasco on 2013.
Hmmm what else happened this week?
The Hmong Elders gave me a healing blessing and it was awesome! The Priesthood is awesome!
Our investigator, Chi Mai got baptized!
The two Thai districts left for Thailand.
Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and spoke to us!
Our zone moved buildings. The desks in the new building are the whips and we're all upset.
We sang Silent Night in Vietnamese and it was THE most pathetic thing ever.
And last but not least, being a missionary is the bees knees!
We got our new name tags with our Vietnamese names! Apparently Trinh means virgin, so that fun.
(Reported voice) Reporting straight from the MTC, I'm Sister Egelund. Until next week - back to you at the news room, Joe!
Sister Litchfield drew the Elders on balloons while we were bored...we are easily entertained.
The entire South East Asian zone the night before the Thai's left.
New name tag!
Wearing my name tag on my hospital robe! Haha.
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