Speaking of soccer, I have a couple stories about that this week. There’s a brother in the ward, Hermano Olave (for those who don’t speak Spanish, hermano is brother), who is a soccer fanatic. He watches and plays and is really, really good. He has a lot of stories of past experiences. But a few weeks ago he was playing and got hurt pretty bad. Another player slid into him, and he just jumped over. But then the guy reached up and pulled him down. When he landed he basically destroyed his knee. I think the bone was broken, ligaments, cartilage, everything, goodbye. It was pretty bad. They operated and put some metal in his knee. He’s really bad. We visited him the other night and he was in a lot of pain. Supposedly they had talked to someone else in the ward that was going to call us to go give him a blessing. So when we showed up they assumed that he had called us. I gave him the blessing, and afterward he climbed back into bed. He looked calm and said that the pain all went away. His wife was really surprised and said that he had been yelling like a woman in labor (she knows how it is, having three children) and that it was way bad and everyone was really worried. Then they realized that we had gotten there really quick after the other brother had called us. The thing was he never called us. We were in the street walking and suddenly decided to visit them. They were surprised but happy. It was a good experience.
That is interesting because now I am in a similar situation as Hermano Olave. Saturday we were playing soccer on a concrete court outside of a church. Another Elder had the ball in the goal area and I went up behind to kick it out to stop him from scoring. We crashed and I ended up on the ground. Lucky for him he didn’t fall. Unlucky for me, I landed directly on my elbow. It hurt pretty badly, but I just thought it was a stinger and the pain would go away. So I kept playing, favoring my left arm to not hurt it worse. The thing is the pain never went away. Actually, in the shower, and during studies it got worse. So we talked to the office and ended up going to the mission doctor, Elder Limburg. He sent me to a medical clinic to get X-Rays, for which we requested a copy. Then we returned to him so he could look at it. He isn’t sure exactly what it is. He thinks it’s a fracture in the bone in my elbow, but he couldn’t tell how big. And the clinic needs the copy we have in order to do a report. So we have to go up and wait for the report, hopefully tomorrow or possibly Wednesday or Thursday. Then we’ll be able to know if it’s something serious or not, if I need a cast or not. So for now I have an Ace bandage, a sling, ice, and Ibuprofen. It doesn’t hurt too badly anymore, but it still does give me problems if I move it wrong. I can’t bend my elbow, or straighten my arm too much, and also my hand is partly out of commission as well. Fortunately, I am able to type. Also fortunately, I didn’t have to play the piano in church yesterday. I missed it a little, but it was a nice little break from playing. So for a couple days I have had and will have a sling, which of course attracts a lot of attention and questions. I was going to count yesterday how many times I said "I fell down playing soccer" but I lost count pretty quick. It’s been an interesting experience. Another day before the elbow incident, I fell playing soccer and scraped up my leg pretty bad. It hurt for a day but then stopped. But it looks pretty cool. I’ll include a picture.
Well, enough soccer, time for the spiritual stuff. There’s a sister in the ward, Sister Manriquez, that we’ve been working with for awhile. A couple weeks ago she introduced us to a friend, Eliana. Sister Manriquez´s daughter and Eliana´s son are in the same class, and the son, Diego, stays with Sister Manriquez after school until his mom can pick him up after her work. We’re actually not sure if Diego is 7 or 8. We know he’s on the line. Hopefully 8. :) We’ve taught her a couple times. The problem is that they rent what’s called a pieza. Here in Chile a lot of times there are houses that rent out individual rooms, and the majority share one or two bathrooms and a kitchen. That’s how Eliana lives, and supposedly it’s a big mess and she feels shameful to invite other people to her house. So we have to teach her in the house of Sister Manriquez. But Eliana is really great. Golden. She basically has the same question that Joseph Smith had. She’s had contact with a lot of religions, and none of them caught her attention. But she doesn’t know which one is right or how to know. We shared the movie The Restoration with her as well as giving her a Book of Mormon, which she promised to read. The Spirit was really strong; she really enjoyed it. Yesterday she and Diego went to church, and they both loved it. She is a great investigator and should be able to get baptized in July.
Patricio, the 19-year-old we’ve been teaching, is progressing really great. This past week we talked about baptism, and he really wants to do it. He will probably be baptized this Sunday. He is really humble, really calm, which is strange for 19 year olds here in Chile. But he’s really great and is progressing well.
Adela keeps progressing in the church. She’s in the book of Helaman right now, almost at the end. It’s so crazy. It takes some people a year to read the Book of Mormon. This morning I finished, but I’ve been reading since last July. Well, granted I’ve been reading in Spanish. But she started in March! She’s read through Helaman in four months! She’s crazy!! Plus, how she does it is she reads a few chapters straight through then goes back and reads the same ones again, sometimes looking up footnotes in D&C, the Bible, etc. So basically she’s reading the Book of Mormon TWICE! She is really great.
Well, this last week was a tough one. A lot of appointments fell through, and we had a rough time most of the days. Not to mention my elbow, which made us loose a whole day of work Saturday. But this week is just starting, and we’re going to work hard and do everything we can to end this transfer on a good note. Crazy how this is the last week of the transfer. It seems like just last week Elder King got here. Wow.
Well, the days count up and the temperature goes down. It’s getting colder, and July gets even colder. We just have a little electric stove that throws fits every once in awhile, and warms up the room a little. Then we leave the house and realize that it’s warmer outside than inside. How does that work? We’re still looking for somewhere else to live but not having any luck. Just gotta keep looking.
Well, that’s all for now. Talk to you next week.
Elder Murdoch
Soccer Owie!!
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