Elder Andrew Gwilliam: Craig's News

So, here goes for the crazy week. After we emailed, we met up with our new convert friend. He was doing well, we got some burgers and went to St. Isaac's cathedral. We didn't get to go on top, but we saw the inside and it was very pretty. We then went to the institute building with him again and had a talk about home teaching and callings. He doesn't have a calling yet, and his home teaching companion works out too much and doesn't have time for it. So we told him that we would be his companions and we hope to go with him sometime this week. Tuesday we had district meeting. It may have been the longest district meeting of my life. It was a good solid three hours. We've got a few yappers, and man when they get going it's really hard for them to stop. So it was a lot of talk. Wednesday is when this week went nuts. So during our staff meeting, we got a call from an elder in the city saying that his companion was being checked into the hospital. This elder, who was sick, had been having a hard time breathing and when they were out that morning said that it felt like he was running a marathon. So they went to the doctor and immediately got into a hospital. We didn't have many details, so our meeting continued. They called back and said that he had pnemonia, but they didn't know how bad it was. Then the meeting continued. Then they called back and said that his left lung was full of fluid. Man oh man! They immediately drained it and that's when people here started losing their minds. We had a meeting with President, talked transfers and MLC, then we ran to the hospital with President and Sister Childs (It's where I got my tooth filled. Coincidence? Also this elder's companion got a cavity filled at the same place the same day as me. Coincidence? I think not). President went into his room and talked to him, he seemed to be doing well. They stayed with him for a while then told us we could leave, and we did. We got a call later that night from President saying that they had done a CT scan and found some tumors near his left lung, they needed to do tests to see what they were from and if it was tuberculosis or not. Crazy crazy day! Then we had MLC the next day. We had a schedule, but we didn't really follow it. It was a really good meeting. I think the best one I've been too on my mission. That night we had a lesson with a former investigator who is an artist, but I quickly realized that he wanted us to buy his art, not learn about the gospel. We had a good chat, taught a quick lesson and left. His wife was very uninterested but we were bold with her and told her our reason for coming and she seemed to be more ok with it after we told her that we wanted to baptize her. Huh. That night we found out that the elder was doing well, does not have tuberculosis, and would soon be going home to get better treatment. He went home early morning yesterday. Sad to see him go, but it was good to hear that he was having fun and seemed to be well. Friday we had zone training. It was actually really good, seeing that we had two brand new zone leaders who had never taught before. We had english group that night and a member from Nevsky got his mission call! He opened it after english group and was kind enough to let us stay. He's going to Ukraine! Not Kiev, but the other one. In April. It was really cool to see that. We had planned on going to Petro this weekend but cancelled the trip due to the craziness and well... the last few days were pretty ugly. I'll just say that we had weekly planning and a lot of addresses.

That was the week. I'm loving it here. I'm glad to be on a mission learning the things that I have learned. For those of you who have not gone yet, GO! It's one of the best things you'll ever do, and it may be the best for your development! Love ya all!

Andrew