So Monday night I woke up with a lot of pain in my toes of my left foot and then in the morning they were all swollen and a little red. During the day it got so bad that I couldn't even walk so we went to the farmácia and the doctors said that it was just a bug bite. Well, Tuesday I hobbled around a little bit but then Wednesday I could barely walk so we hobbled along to Xeca's house and she looked at my foot because my toes were kind of purple-ish and swollen. Xeca was concerned so we called Sister Marinho who's in charge of the health of the sisters in the mission and she was all concerned and upset so she sent in a guarantee of payment to the hospital and then on Thursday morning we went to the emergency room because my foot was all funny. The best part is though, that my foot looked normal by the time we got to the hospital in Porto so they just thought we were crazy. :) Pois... The nurses and doctors were all very nice though and I was abnormally happy so it was a pretty good opportunity to talk to every single person there about the gospel... I actually had a lot of fun going to the hospital. People loved talking to me and it was probably one of the more successful days of missionary work I've had in my mission. :D I enjoyed it. It was also a huge blessing because it turns out I had misplaced my health insurance card. I had to find it so that we could go to the hospital, and now if there's any real medical emergency I know where I have my health insurance card and my residency card. I also made sure that my companion knows where I keep those things as well. Hooray! I think I actually had too much fun going to the hospital... I was too happy so the doctor didn't take my medical emergency very seriously. Oh well. He said it was just inflamation and I've been taking medicine for it. It magically healed the next day, so I figure that Heavenly Father sent us to the hospital for reasons other than my foot. Hooray for opportunities to share the gospel!!! :D (It was so much fun... I just can't get over it. It's one of the best parts of my mission).
Anyway.... that was really the most exciting part of my week. I've literally been waiting all week to tell you about the hospital trip... but now that I read it, it sounds really boring. You'll just have to take my word for it and trust that it was fun. :)
This weekend we had three baptisms in our district. Elder Camper (who is actually going home tomorrow) and Elder Kreutzer had a family get baptized. The mom is the sister of a member and they got baptized on Saturday. They are super cute. Then on Sunday Elder Brown and Elder Pedro had an investigator named Silvia get baptized. She was marked for baptism last year but for some reason she just stopped talking to the missionaries. She got baptized yesterday after church. It was really cool to watch her though. The Spirit was so strong and she started crying before her baptism and then afterward she couldn't even talk. Her cousin was there and her cousin felt the Spirit so strongly that she went up to the Elders and asked to know more. That never happens!!! It is literally the coolest thing ever when people come asking the missionaries about the gospel! It was a really good week. We have a little old lady that we've been teaching for forever that is going to be baptized this weekend. Her name is Maria José. She's pretty sick and we just feel very strongly that we need to baptize her as soon as possible... yeah. So she's getting baptized on Saturday. She was supposed to be baptized last year, but never showed up to her baptism because she just didn't feel like it, but this time that's not happening. I will carry her on my back if necessary. Little old ladies are so stubborn sometimes... and lazy. Gee... that kind of describes me sometimes, stubborn and lazy. Hmmm.... :)
On Sunday the lesson in Princípios do Evangelho the lesson was about Caridade. Nothing makes you feel worse than having a lesson on Charity... I think I've got a fair bit of work to do in that department. Actually, I believe that developing charity is a lifelong pursuit for almost everybody. We're all in the same boat.
The library closed early.... again. We haven't figured out how to tell when they close early or not. Oh well. Someday we'll figure it out. I'll send Mom all the pictures and then she can distribute them. I love you all!!!
Love,
Little Sister Smith
P.S. There's a picture of me in front of the hospital and then a picture of the couple that was baptized on Saturday, José e Liliane.
Ana Cruz and her daughter and then on Sunday we were all invited to Xeca's house for dinner.
The elders had a lot of fun at Xeca's house. They had fun with her hats and her African drums. It was pretty fun.
Sister Runyan's Mom here. I miss reading Sister Smith's blog posts. It's interesting to read a different perspective of their shared experience. This week, Sister Runyan sent her letter through her camera. She writes on the white board, takes a picture, then email's it to me directly from her camera. This usually works fine. But for some reason, I only received the first part and the last part of her letter. The middle of the letter never showed up in my inbox:(
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