Leaving the Amazon

Vaña actually progressed so quickly that she wanted to up her baptismal date and i baptized her 2 days ago along with Jose Luis. And his dad received the priesthood yesterday too. Its a bit of a sad story there because he electrocuted his pointer fingers to the point where you can see the bone on both of his hands. He can’t work right now so we’re trying to help him through the branch. (question how does the branch interact with recent converts-ed) As to the recent members, we take on that job, but we frequently use other members to help us. The branch doesn’t really have much of a missionary program within itself, and we’re focused on trying to turn it into a stake. (question-how does the world economy effect your area? Ed) And the recession has no affect here. Most people go to the mountain to mine (for gold), or to do other things for work. Actually a girl just got back from 2 months in the mountain and we’re starting to teach her.
But as to everything else... conjunctivitis sucks, but after that started to heal up I got a massive headache and started throwing up so I had to go to the hospital, which is not the best experience. Jungle doctors aren’t the best doctors in Peru, and Peru doesn’t have the best doctors anyway. I actually just got back from the hospital again where they told me I have a pulse of 48 and it’s a little bit irregular, so President might be sending me to Lima to see a specialist, which is a bit of a bummer. And by might I mean probably tomorrow. I love the jungle, and the people here. The environment is a little difficult, but I hope I get sent back here.

Mary and I received a wonderful call from Coulsons mission president assuring us that Coulson would be just fine. He will stay in Lima for at least a few weeks to be checked on. His mission president is a respiratory specialist doctor in his civilian life, and confirmed what Coulson told us about the jungle doctors. They try hard but just are don’t have the equipment or training for treating most stuff. I am sure that Coulson did not have that low a blood pressure, and his next email confirms that he is doing great. His blessing from President Larkin is comforting in times like this. Part of this amazing blessing was concerning his health based on his being obedient (he is) and this blessing is proving prophetic.

Coulsons next email from Lima - Ed

Yep, Elder Peterson (Coulsons new companion – ed) is from Snowflake Arizona and speaks English, but he is also half Mexican so he has been speaking Spanish for more time than he’s been speaking English. Its great to be able to talk with him a little bit in English just to get to know him a little better and he’s helping me with my Spanish way more than my other companion did. By the way, he’s a Suns fan too, he’s favorite player is Nash and he’s very upset that they didn’t make it to playoffs and that the Cardinals lost the Superbowl. Its way funny to go out tracting and have people say stuff about me being a gringo, but they don’t say anything about him because he’s a little bit darker. It’s funny because the people here really like the people from the states, and he always has to say that he’s from Arizona so that they know. I’m way happy to be here, and my eyes are doing fine, just a little bit red still. My heads fines, nothing wrong accept a little cold. Lima is definitely a bit different than Puerto, but I like it here too. For the first time in my life someone tried to rob me. We were just sitting outside the church (cause all the churches have gates and spikes around them) waiting to interview someone because my companion is also the zone leader, and a guy came up asking what would happen if he pulled out his knife and cut me to the bone. It was funny cause he was scrawny and we could tell he didn’t have a knife, but it was an interesting experience to have right outside of a church building. The work here is a lot harder than the work was in Puerto. No one wants to let us in, it’s harder to find people in their homes even if they say they’ll be there, and because my companion is zone leader so we have to do a bunch of other stuff too. Sadly, because he’s a zone leader I’ll be getting transferred on the 6th so that he can have someone that can help him out, but it’s exciting to think about where I’ll head off to. It’ll probably be in Lima, but you never know.
And geez, Calder and Ivy are having a baby and they don’t even email me to let me know (yeah, what’s with that Calder - Ed)? What is that? Wow, right when I leave all this stuff starts happening. I’m going to come back to a completely different family.
Oh, and I left my camera cables in Peurto, so they’re sending them to me now, and i still can’t get any photos to you, I’m really sorry about that, and I can’t take photos here in Lima cause my cameras dead, but I’ll send them when I can. And just so you know, if you send letters through the pouch its a lot quicker, let everyone know that, cause I got my first letters, and some were from the middle a February because they were sent in the mail. Grandma knows how to send pouch, and I’m sure aunt Zan does too. Give Grandma and Grandpa my love, Becca and Davis too. Let me know how the plans are coming for the wedding. Both of them, cause that’s amazing that Chandler and Karen (Chandler is Coulsons cousin – Ed) are finally going through with it (engaged - Ed).