27 November 2017

So yeah. My companion went home this week because he needed surgery. Basically, we went into the doctor's on Tuesday to get some more x rays. So, we get those done and sit back down to wait for the doctor to arrive. We knew it was bad when he walked into the room with a weird expression on his face and immediately asked if he had done something to reinjure himself. He then showed us the x rays, and originally he had broken his collarbone but it was still in one piece, just cracked. With the second set of x rays we found out that his collarbone was now two pieces, and the ends weren't even touching anymore. We started walking out of the room to go see them and I saw a computer screen with his x ray on it. He didn't say it was his at first, but the first thing I thought was, "Oh I hope that's not Elder Rolph's bone." Unfortunately, it was. So he got to have a nice chat with the doctor about his options. There were only two. Let it sit there in the sling and heal as it is, which would result in a huge knot of bone, possible reduced range of motion, and possible nerve issues. Or he could have the surgery and have a plate holding the two parts together, which would hugely reduce recovery time and almost immediately regain at least some use of the arm. The doctor very much encouraged the second option. So Elder Rolph talked to the mission president who agreed that it would be best to go home and get the surgery, especially because he only had two weeks left anyways. We had the official call of he's going home to have the surgery on Tuesday at about 2, and his flight was Wednesday at 1:30. The church is very efficient in shipping its missionaries around. So we spent the rest of Tuesday packing his stuff and getting him ready to go. Then we spent Wednesday morning getting stuff figured out and putting me with my new companions. So, I'm now in a trio with 2 elders from my district, and we're covering two areas. The funny thing is that one of those elders is my MTC companion, so we already know each other. The other one is his trainer, so now he's training two elders in Spanish at the same time. He's also going home this transfer. Then on Thursday we had Thanksgiving with one of the counselors in the bishopric. The funny thing is he's one of the only Americans in the ward, so we had an English Thanksgiving. We ended up being the judges of all of the pies, so we had to eat from five different slices. There was a super good apple pie, and we declared that the winner. Mom, you have the pictures of all that, so you are in charge of pictures. They didn't give us them. But it was fun, and after that madness for days in a row the rest of the week was kind of a blur. So sorry, that's all I have for this week. Except for that I relearned how to juggle.