February 14, 2011 email

Emily is having a small health issue right now and would appreciate your prayers. She would really like to get this figured out so she can concentrate on the work and not have the pain.  Here is her latest email.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Dear Mom,

So I got lots to tell ya and I sure hope I have the time to tell ya'll what has been happening this week. Well this past weekend has been “Transfer Weekend” and luckily I am staying in La Porte along with Sister Singleton. Elder Walker is also staying but Elder Tracy is leaving our fun District. It's sad, but he is excited to go somewhere new. We found out that Elder Walker gets to be a trainer so on Wednesday we get to meet the new Elder. Hopefully he isn’t from Utah, not that it's a bad thing but we have lots of Utah missionaries; but I must say, they are some of the hardest working missionaries! It would be cool if he was from Idaho or California or Canada or Hawaii or Oregon, some place cool. But I know wherever he is from he will be a great missionary!

So I will tell ya what crazy thing happened to me this week. Friday morning I was doing okay but I was kind of feeling a little weird, like sick but not. Well my stomach started to hurt and I was wondering why. I hadn’t eat anything out of the ordinary, it wasn't cramps because it was higher up and I was just in pain. I took some Tylenol before our District Meeting and during my meeting I was okay. Then as the meeting was getting over my stomach starting to hurt again. We went to go get some food and I got a shake from Jack in the Box and then we all went to Bullritos to get some burritos and my stomach was still hurting so I thought maybe I just needed food so I ate. But my stomach was still really hurting so when we dropped the Elders off, they gave me a blessing. I had actually asked them the night before if they would give me a blessing after district meetings for my wrist that I am still having problems with and so I asked them to also bless my stomach pain. Elder Walker gave me Pepto-Bismol again but it was in pill form this time. Elder Tracy anointed and Elder Walker gave me the blessing. It was a beautiful blessing. It said that he could feel the love the Savior had for me and He was proud of me. It also said that I will get through my struggle and my afflictions and be able to go back to work for our Brethen. It was a very nice blessing; it said more but I can't remember all of it. After the blessing Elder Walker told me to go back to our apartment and to lie down for about an hour. Well we did just that and boy, that was the longest hour of my life. I laid down for 45 minutes before I fell asleep. I was in pain and was tossing and turning in my bed. My right side was really hurting. It was weird. So I slept for about 15 minutes and then I woke up and the pain was gone but I felt kind of light headed. We decided to still go tracking and then we went to a Ward Social. We had an investigator come so that was cool. Near the end I was starting to have stomach pain again so when we got home that night, I got on my pj's and I laid down in bed. I got to talk to Sister Smith on the phone with Sister Singleton but I was still in pain. I took some more Tylenol before bed but I was still tossing and turning. About two hours later I woke up and I was in a lot of pain on my right side. I woke up poor Sister Singleton and I felt bad for having to wake her. She sat next to me and I was just grabbing my right side and I was crying in pain. I really wanted to call you so bad mom. Well I asked Sister Singleton to call the Elders and ask them what to do. They told us to go to the Hospital. So we got up, put shoes and socks on, and were using my gps to find a hospital when I was starting to feel better. I then just felt like I shouldn't go because of money and because the pain was dying down. By this time it was 1:30 in the morning so we went to a grocery store and bought some ibuprofen because Tylenol wasn't working. When we got home Sister Singleton fixed the couch so I could sleep lying up. I took the ibuprofen and slept through the night.

Well the next morning I felt kinda better with just a little pain but not a whole lot like during the night. We tried to call Sister Moldenhauer but there was no answer. Elder Walker called to check on me and see how I was doing and told us to keep him updated because he and Elder Tracy were worried. By the way, Elder Walker is our District leader. By 3:00 p.m. we had still not heard from Sister Moldenhauer so Elder Walker called the Assistants to the President to get a hold of Sister Moldenhauer. What a very caring District leader. Sister Moldenhauer called and after talking with her she said it could be one of three things: I could be on the verge of getting appendicitis, I could have a stomach intestinal flu or infection, or I could have an a cyst on my ovary. She said we are in a waiting stage. So the last two days haven’t been too bad; a little pain here and there but not bad like it was Friday night. So isn't that pretty crazy stuff eh? Ya, so that is my struggle right now. We are keeping a watch to see what's up and we will see if it acts up again this week.

But other than that, this last week has been good. We committed two people to baptism and we are hoping we don't lose them. The adversary works super hard on the investigators out here, but Sister Singleton and I have the faith that things will be good! I don't know the investigators too well since we just met them but we are getting to know them. Their names are Nadia and Christina and one of them we found and the other was a referral from the Spanish Elders. So it's going good out in the La Porte area.

Today it's sad because it's Sister Smith's last day as a missionary but she gets to have lots of fun at the Mission Home with all the other missionaries and they get to go to the Temple with President and Sister Moldenhauer and they get to enjoy spending lots of time with them. I will really miss her mom. I don't think she knows just how much she has helped me as a missionary and as a person. She has helped me become more like my Savior. It's gonna be hard to not see her out here at meetings or on exchanges. For my last exchanges this week, when she went with Sister Singleton and I went to Fall Creek, I left a letter and a picture that Sister Frasier from Jennings had taken of us and asked them to give it to Sister Smith. In my letter I thanked her for all that she has done for me. Sister Singleton called Sister Smith this morning to say goodbye and she said she had gotten my note. She said she loved it. I'm really gonna miss her. It bites to say goodbye to the dear friends that I am making on my mission. It's getting harder because I am just getting so attached to missionaries who are becoming my friends and to the areas that I am serving in. But that is a fact of life isn’t it.

Well I met this cool family that I get along with really well. They have a girl who is 14 and she totally reminds me of myself and acts like me and looks like me when I was that age. Her and I get along so well. When she see's me she gets a big smile on her face and gives me a big hug. I just love this family and the mom has such a strong Testimony of the Gospel! The parents are struggling and are separated. I haven't met the dad. There is also another daughter and Sister Singleton gets along great with her because the both love the singer Michael Jackson! So I just love this family. I hope that we can see them more often! They are so much fun. We went over last night and got to shoot some hoops with the girls and then ate dinner with them. It was cool; I shared a scripture in Mosiah 7:33 and it totally was relevant at that time for the mom and she was just like in shock that I happened to shared that kind of scripture. She told us a story of how a year ago she was having a hard time with work and with marriage problems and when she was talking to her mom, her mom told her to write it down on paper, fold it up, wrap it in a napkin and put in a drawer and give it to the Lord. She told us she had just looked at it recently and said it was cool to see how her life has changed this last year and how she did just that, she relied on the Lord! I thought that would be a cool story to share with ya'll today.

Well mom I hope things are going well and that you had a safe trip home and that the Kitchen project is going okay. I bet it's almost done and that there weren’t any problems; but if there was, it's just a stepping stone that we just have to cross and we need to just rely totally on the Lord like is says in Mosiah 7:33.

Oh I almost forgot, Sister Singleton is getting Sister Smith’s bike and since our area is kind of like a bike area, we get to start to ride bikes!!!! Yikes!!! So we are gonna see how that goes. Hopefully it will help me lose weight because my shirts are just getting tight and they are not lose anymore and it bites to eat so much in Texas!! They just love food down here.  The cold weather is passing now because they don't have much of a cold season and it's getting hot again. So pray for me that the biking, jogging in the morning and the crunches morning and night will work for me okay. Well I love you and I miss ya'll lots! I hope to hear from ya'll soon! I hope you got my NASA pictures and saw the fun time I had last week.

Well I have to go, we have to drop off Elder Tracy now. But I love you mom and take care okay! You’re the best ever. I love you!

Love Sister Hawkins (Lady Bird)