Many forms of Adversity

This week has brought adversity in many ways.  A sinus infection came upon me very suddenly and kept me down for three days.  I had to try and sleep sitting up because laying down made it impossible for me to breath.  I was, however, able to use much of the time to finish the book "The Standard of Truth", which I know almost everyone but me has already read.  

We have had an extraordinary amount of rain this week also. (Probably not unrelated to my illness)


After I recovered, we went proselyting with two Elders.  The teaching appointments were falling through, so we tried to think of other contacts we could visit.
Sister Roberts suggested that we go to visit the Ribao family.  We had taught them two weeks earlier.  They were a young family; a very sweet mother and father with 4 small children who were amazingly quiet and listened to the lesson we gave them on the Plan of Salvation.  To our shock and dismay, we learned that the beautiful mother had died suddenly of Tuberculosis.  She was still lying-in-state at their home in a white casket.  We met her extended family who was there mourning, but words failed us.  We noticed a Book of Mormon placed with some other things beneath her casket.  Her husband told us that she requested it.  Accompanied by the Elders, we sang "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" then departed expressing our condolences; still in disbelief.

 The Elder on the left in this picture got an eye infection that left him unable to see in that eye.  The doctor who examined him suggested that he might never regain use of it.  The Area Medical Advisor (AMA) instructed us to get him to Manila ASAP so that he could examine him and see a specialist.  Sister Roberts and I drove immediately to their area, which is about an hour away from the Mission Home.  He and his companion packed their bags and we closed their apartment.  We left his companion with the Zone Leader and I purchased a bus ticket that would take him to Manila in about 10 hours.  He arrived there at 5:00AM the next morning and was met by a shuttle driver who took him to the Area Recovery Center.  They still don't know if they will be able to restore his sight.  They will perform a surgical procedure in the morning which should answer many questions.  The entire Mission was asked to fast and pray for him today.

A young man in our Naguilian Branch is confined to a wheel-chair.  Each Sunday, we drop the Missionaries off so that they can bring him to church.  He is in desperate need of a new chair.  The ward has performed service hours which should qualify him for a new one. They only have to get him to Tuguegaraou, a large city to the north, so that he can be fitted. As of yet, his family has not been able to make the trip.