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| First Zone Conference with President and Hermana Garrett! |
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| Hermana Castro with her "grandpa" Fidel Castro's BFF Che Guevarra (just kidding, her dad is actually Japanese. I had to BEG her to take this picture) |
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*INSERT 10/27/21: Looking back at my mission blog, I realize just how little I disclosed about my infected bug bite in my emails to home. So here's some pictures and the story as it was described in my journal at the time:
7/4/19
"I will now recount what I like to call
The Unabridged Saga of My Leg ☺
It all started last Saturday? Sunday? (well NO, it all started when I scratched my mosquito bites, but we're not gonna talk about that cause I have vergüenza)
The point is, it all started not so long ago when I noticed a bug bite on my leg was unusually red, and I said "Oh? What's this? Hermana Castro?" and she was like "Oh? Maybe it was a chinche?" and then we spent like 5 minutes trying to help me understand what a chinche is (*drawing pictures and trying to make sense of the spanish/english dictionary) but I just didn't know so at the end I just said "welp, tomorrow is P-day, maybe I'll just ask my parents to google chinche and then tell me or send me a picture or something" and that was that.
So then P-day comes and I'm talking to my parents (and by "talking to my parents" I mean I was listening to my parents because the microphone on my computer wasn't working so I was just typing things into a chat and then listening to their responses) and I was like "Hey can you google what a chinche is?" and then I made the grave mistake of sending them a picture of the bite on my leg. My mom was like "Talk to the mission nurse!!" and I was like "yeah yeah, I'm gonna be in the mission office this week for a conference so I'll just wait til then to ask so it can be face-to-face" because the mission nurse was Hermana Current (the mission president's wife) but now it's Hermana Garrett and I didn't know if she knew she was the new mission nurse and I didn't want to call her and be like "Oh hi nice to meet you, I'm sure you're not feeling busy and overwhelmed on your first couple days in Panama so I'm just gonna complain to you about my leg".
So anyways. P-day ends at 5 and we get back to work and in the last cita of the night the woman we were teaching saw my leg and goes "sweetie you need to go to a clinic" and deep in my heart I knew it to be true cause it was starting to hurt really a lot.
So then the next morning we called Hermana Garrett and she didn't answer and then later, like an hour into proselyting, the phone rang and we thought it was Hermana Garrett but NO, it was one of the APs calling me back from her phone and telling me she was in a conference and asking me what I needed. But the trick is, it wasn't the white AP, it was the OTHER AP who doesn't speak english and I got flustered and stumbled my way through explaining my leg in Spanish and then he was like "ok yeah I'll tell her to call you back when she can" and so we kept working but OOF it hurt so bad. I said "Hermana Castro, can you say 'Stop being a baby!'? and she'd go "Stop cry! You are a strong woman!" (*in english) and it was just like that all morning while we were climbing stairs. And then finally around lunchtime (*at this point I was starting to really stress cause it looked worse and was more and more painful), Hermana Garrett called us back and said "Yes, good heavens, go get some medicine".
So we went to the doctor and they gave us a BUTTLOAD of antibiotics and some ointment and called it good. It's funny- the doctor would say a bunch of stuff and then I'd turn to Hermana Castro and she'd respond for me like my mom when I'd go to the doctor as a little kid. The thing is, my bodily vocabulary is very limited in Spanish so when stuff like this happens I just get really lost. Anyways, yeah.
We kept working and I took my medicine.
Then on Wednesday we had the Conference to meet the Garretts. I took a bunch of ibuprofen and wore a long dress to cover my leg but then we were at the conference, sitting on the front row with the other hermanas and President and Sister Garrett come in and start shaking hands/hugging everyone cause it's our first time ever seeing them and when Hermana Garrett comes to hug me she goes "Oh HI, how's your leg?!" and then right after that Elder Johnson, the Senior missionary who's a classic Dad (actually he reminds me of my uncle Creighton?) comes to shake my hand and goes "I heard about your leg, are they sure that was a mosquito?" and makes this really disgusted face and the point is everyone was talking about my leg super loudly and in front of everyone so I was embarrassed. (*looking back, I laugh that I was embarrassed so much by people simply caring how I was doing, but in my head at the time it was not cool to be sick or injured in any way. It meant other missionaries thought I wasn't working as hard/was looking for attention).
And then later President Garrett was like "Tell me about some of the miracles you've witnessed here on your misisons" and just after my Zone Leader finished telling us his inspiring tale about how he swore he'd work every day of his mission so even when we was throwing up every 10 minutes he kept going, Hermana Obaco started telling this story that had to do with an old woman with a nasty infection and when she said infection she paused and looked at my leg and everyone laughed.
Then after the conference I was in the office getting reimbursed for my doctor visit and heck ton of antibiotics and I found out that apparently my mom had eMaIlEd ThE sEcReTaRiEs and posted the picture of my leg on the PaNaMa MiSsIoN FaCeBoOk PaGe and I wanted to DIE. I never want to show my face in the mission office again but I'm in the Panama City zone now so I literally have to go back every week for District Meeting.
Anyways, fast forward to that night, we were having dinner with members/a meeting with the Elder's Quorum President because he's the son of the woman who gives us food and it's weird cause he's an RM thats barely older than us and I always imagine the Elders Quorum President being an old dad but it's never like that here. But anyways yeah. They saw my leg and started going off about how I need to drain the puss and then the mom starts getting out all these bottles and gauze and goes "I'm sorry but I just know you girls aren't gonna do it so if it's okay I'm just gonna do it for you right here right now" and then the next thing I know they have my leg up on their table and they've got a flashlight and they're using q tips to squeegee the puss out of it and not to be dramatic or anything but it was basically like the part in the beginning of the Joseph Smith movie when the doctor is operating on his leg and I was SWEATIN so much from the pain (*I remember being drenched in sweat and looking up at the EQ President and him flinching and going "duele mucho??" and I just nodded my head while staring into space) but then afterwards as we were walking home it barely even hurt and I had new hope in my heart that everything was going to be okay.
But THEN. I wake up on Thursday morning and my ankle was super swollen and it was covered in fry-sauce-looking puss and I couldn't walk. pero bueno- I already had my medicine so we just cleaned it up and commenced with our normal routine. But then Hermana Castro, after personal study, told me she kept getting the impression that we needed to go back to the doctor. So we called Hermana Garrett and explained and I started crying a bunch cause I was super frustrated with myself and then we started getting ready to go back to the doctor and I'll never forget staring at my snotty swollen face in the mirror while Hermana Castro fixed my braids while saying "Special day! It's your special day!" (but you have to read it in a super high voice cause whenever Hermana Castro speaks English her voice goes from being super intelligent and mature sounds to super high and child-like and it's so cute and funny) but anyways, yeah. I'd been telling her all week that Thursday is the 4th of July which is Independence Day in the United States and how I was gonna buy a Panamanian-style hot dog to celebrate. Anyways. We went back to the doctor but this time we meant BUSINESS and luckily and new doctor guy meant business too. He studied all the pictures I had of it on my camera and wore headgear with a flashlight and magnifying glass to look at it and then gave us a supermega antibiotic and pain meds and told me I had to stop walking on it for 3 days. And we said "3 DAYS?!" and he said "Yeah. Right now it's not super serious and should be able to heal with antibiotics and rest but if you keep walking on it we're looking at hospitalization with antibiotics in an IV and permanent damage cause the infection is going to spread to the rest of your foot and leg." And we sighed and took the drugs and left.
We called Sis. Garrett and she didn't answer so (*being the dumb kids that we were...) started proselyting again cause we didn't have permission to go back to our house. I was really just a pathetic sight to see because when I walked a bunch of puss and blood would ooze out and then I'd just take out this crumpled up paper towel from my pocket and wipe it off and keep walking.
We left a blessing with this young couple who were financially struggling and weary and then 5 minutes after we left the husband chased us down to give us some homemade mosquito repellent because they'd seen my legs and felt bad.
Anyways.
Then Hermana Garrett called us back and told me to spend the rest of Thursday and and all of Friday at our house and then to call her back on Friday night and give her an update, so that we did and then Elder McGary, my district leader, called us that night to get our indicators and we explained that we hadn't worked that day he was like "Um, what?"
and OOF, I tell ya what, something I don't appreciate about the missionaries in this mission is that they all seem to think that if you go a day without being able to work then it means you don't love God or something. ayiyi. But yeah, Hermana Castro knew I was disappointed about not being able to buy my 4th of July Hot Dog (*it was at a food stand on the opposite side of our area from where we lived) so she made tortillas and put fried hot dogs in them and it was the most tender act of love I daresay I've ever received.
Anyways now I'm here and it's Friday. The Elders came and gave me a blessing (we were bummed to have to put on skirts but it was ok.) When I say the "Elders" I literally mean my entire district cause it's just us and then my district leader is in a trio. I really respect the Priesthood and was really grateful they took the time out of their day to come but the whole thing was just the most awkward experience of my life. (*let's just say friendly, casual interactions between Elders and Sisters was very unusual at that time and to add to that I had a lot of contempt for Elder McGary in my heart and was disappointed that the blessing I received didn't feel the same as getting one from my dad at home).
Really just everything that's happened this week makes me want to die from shame and awkwardness.
But I actually think it was a sneaky trick from God to help me get back on track with my attitude. It's like the one C.S Lewis quote that says "Only real risk tests the reality of a belief".
To be honest, last week I was having a really rough time and questioning how bad I really want to be here but after this little leg fiasco I've realized very firmly how bad I do want to be here and just how much I DON'T want to go home or rest in the house all day (*the house feels like a hellish sauna during the heat of the day).
Also it always feels good when investigators call to ask why you haven't come yet that day. I think everything's gonna be just fine and dandy. God cares about our feelings but God cares even more about our progression.
Thank you for reading my novella, have a great night." ▉
**The next few pictures show the progression of how it healed. Even now, over two years later, I have a bruise-like scar from it.
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| I had a dream of buying a Panamanian hot dog on the 4th of July but then we ended up having to stay in the house that day and so Hermana Castro fixed this festive meal for us. |
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Hermana Garrett took this picture with me to let my mom (who she met at a Tab Choir rehearsal) know that my bug bite was being taken care of and I wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere.
 Over a year later |
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