Oh those missionaries!!!

The following need no pictures! It comes from Doug and Glenda Wilson who were in the MTC with us. He's an MD so they are on a medical mission in Brazil. And we had a great "connection" with them. They watched Sheldon grow up in Washington and knew his family very well!!

........which seems to keep us either worrying or at times laughing. It is so incredible what missionaries will sometimes do! Though they are missionaries, it is hard to remove the childish instincts and actions. Just this week we had an elder who had apparently eaten something under cooked weeks earlier and became infested with pin worms. Some of these made their exit out his back side but under the mucosa and into the skin of his buttocks. The elder made the comments that while walking they did not bother him to badly! But, at night trying to sleep, he could feel them crawling underneath his skin. The aggravation and intense itching was almost unbearable. He said that you could only scratch this site only so long before the scratching would become painful. His companion was an elder from Wyoming, a cowboy who had helped his father brand cows for years. The cowboy elder got the idea that he could burn the sites that could be seen beneath the skin containing the worm parasites and cure the problem! Well, the perfect instrument was a wire coat hanger carefully heated over the gas stove! With the elders bearing all, the cowboy elder fried his companion`s behind!!! The elder with the worms related, `` that the pain and the smoke with the branding was so intense, but not as bad as the deep intense itching that was driving him crazy. There were several sites that need burning. Soon he realized that he could not sit down from all the blisters! As we talked he then told me that this was truly a dumb idea and needed our help.!! I was so interested in this case that I asked for a picture. I have to say, it was indeed interesting when I received it! Indeed he had been severely branded. The problem was, it did not kill the worms! Too bad he did not call us sooner. The medication Ivermectin we suggested soon killed the creepy crawlers.
Another elder decided to climb up on the roof of their apartment in the late cool evening to write letters to his family. His companion was in the apartment and when his companion did not come in around 10:00 went to bed without checking on him. (silly elder should not have been on the roof!!!) Well, on trying to come down, he fell! He lay unconscious for 40-50 minutes until he regained consciousness. Being unable to stand, he crawled to their apartment and was able to wake his companion. He sustained a severe concussion, large laceration to his head, neck and shoulder injuries, and probably a fractured jaw. We are still awaiting some testing and reports. We and Mission Presidents are always teaching the laws of common sense!! There are so many other stories of interest and are filling up our journal!! Ha!....

We inspected missionary apartments this week which was fun. We know Elder Peterson well since he's been teaching the couple we've befriended with them for the last couple months. The lady is being baptized this Sunday. Anyway, I digress (thank you Jo for that). Since we knew this Elder we took pictures of inspecting so we'd always remember this part of our assignment.In giving us the "how to inspect" lesson we learned that others have found dirty clothes in the freezer and in the oven--the elders hide them hoping no one will look!!
But fortunately we didn't find anything but a little bit of frozen food and an OK oven.
Dad found a big lump under Elder Powell's blanket but it wasn't anything......notice his Power Rangers quilt!!!

We didn't find any pictures of girls behind the First Presidency pictures because Elder Powell has ALL his pictures on the wall!!! Not all girls tho----all his friends on missions, family, etc. Elder Peterson goes home March 13. His family moved 45 minutes south of Champaign, ILL when he was in high school so he doesn't have much to go home to but he is so excited to go to BYU in August. He wants to goes there NOW!!!
One set of Elders lives in what is called Mass Mills. It's an old cotton mill that some smart person converted into apartments and is now making a bundle of $$$. The apartments are nice with high ceilings and the original beams and iron poles that hold up the building are still in place. These guys are living much better than us!!! Their one bedroom is on the 4th floor where the little picket fence is.
As you can see the building is huge and wraps around both sides and across the parking lot. Must be at least 500 apartments----or more. So it was a fun day talking with them. We left them fruit and muffins for their treat. They kept the bathrooms really clean altho one shower had early mold and the tubs needed some lime away. One stove was a little grungy and one had some really dirty fan blades. Overall, they did a good job!! We get to do this every six weeks and then have to send a report in to the Mission President. One elder from Idaho and his companion live in the right half of an old house that now has 4 families living in it. He's only been here two months and he still can't get over this multi-family living. In Lowell, where they live, that's all there is!!!
We hadn't eaten all day so on the way home we stopped at a place called Bull Run. It was a fun historic place and the food was good too. This is a picture of the egopantis---a fictional animal that was hunted in the woods behind the restaurant.

We leave for Syracuse, New York tomorrow to teach a career workshop on Saturday. It's a 5+ hour trip and it's supposed to rain all day!!! The workshop ends at 4 and we have to come right back as Diana Alden is getting baptized on Sunday. Dad is speaking at the baptism service and will confirm her the next Sunday during Sacrament meeting. Due to the long distances to chapels throughout New England, they do baptisms right after the block time on Sunday and do the confirmation the next Sunday. That way, lots of people stay and attend the baptism, which is nice. Then Wednesday night we go to Providence, RI to present our song and dance to the Welfare Committee. The one we did last week in New Haven resulted in our being asked to come down and do a career workshop on March 14. Then on the 21st we're doing a Self-Employment workshop and the last Sunday in March we're doing the 5th Sunday combined RS/Priesthood session on Provident Living--particularly employment--in the Worcester Ward. (Now, you know that's pronounced Wus-tah) Interspersed will be meetings with new stake employment people that are being called----finally. So we're beginning to see some results of all our visits which is gratifying. We have our monthly career workshop on Mar 7. So we DO have missionary work amongst our travels!! Actually, our sight-seeing only takes a half day here and there but when it goes down in print, it seems like a lot more time!! Off to study the presentations for Saturday!!!