Week 36 - "You know, Wally, for a minute I really thought I was going to die."

Hi, everyone.

The quote is from The Man Who Knew Too Little, and I may be getting it slightly wrong, but it's something James Ritchie says to Wallace Ritchie (Bill Murray's character). Its relevance will be clearer as you read the email.

So this week has been a little weird. There have been some great, awesome moments and some less awesome moments and not a lot of getting out and finding people to teach (which Elder McVey and I are working on). There was sort of a confluence of weird events that took place.

First, on Sunday one of the sister companionships in our district asked us if we could come and dedicate their apartment. We weren't able to do it that day, and we didn't have transportation, so we ended up going Monday evening with the help of our zone leaders, who gave us a ride there. I ended up being the one to give the dedication, and the Spirit was very strong. I think the Lord has a lot of love and care for those Sisters. I felt to speak about how the apartment would be a place where the Spirit would dwell and that other people would feel it when they came there and that it would be a place of refuge from the difficulties the missionaries experienced outside. Basically I felt to speak about the safety they would feel there and that it would be a place where they could gather strength. Then Elder McVey gave one of the sisters a priesthood blessing. It was a good experience.

Second, I've had a rash on my arm since I left Warren, and I wasn't sure where it came from, but it seemed like it was just getting more and more itchy and worse and worse. Sister Stratford is the first person we call if we have a medical problem, because she has experience in medicine, and she thinks it might have been poison ivy from somewhere (side note: There are so many things you learn in Boy Scouts that seem absolutely unapplicable in Idaho but are totally relevant out here in the Western states, like identifying plants like poison ivy). I left my towel in Ashtabula on a training visit, so I started using a travel towel I bought, and part of me wonders if that was the reason for the rash. Who knows? Anyway, the rash kept spreading and getting worse, so we talked to Sister Stratford about it, and she advised us to go to an urgent care place on Thursday morning. It was a little weird sitting in a doctor's waiting room as a missionary: There were a bunch of magazines around, and the TV was playing an interview of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson that was difficult to ignore. Anyhow, they took Elder McVey and me back and took a look at me and prescribed doxycycline, which is an antibiotic. They said they treat everything that looked like what I had like it's MRSA, which was sort of a disconcerting thing to hear: There was a member in Warren who dealt with all sorts of debilitating medical problems and infections who had MRSA, and I didn't want to end up in his shoes, and I wondered the rest of that day whether I was going to be sent home for medical problems or something. I know someone (she may be reading this email) who had health issues on her mission and got sent home just at the time that she had learned to enjoy missionary work--the stress that she felt was preventing her from getting well. I also know someone who came back from his mission with permanent health problems. I began to wonder if I had somehow contracted MRSA and if those experiences were about to happen to me, too. I wondered about it a lot, and then I felt a very, very strong sense of peace for a good 10 or 15 minutes. It was a wonderful feeling, and I knew because of it that whatever happened, things would end up being OK. So that morning after we went to the urgent care place we went and picked up my antibiotic prescription and were waiting there for a while, and then later that afternoon we had to get our personal study in (we left for the urgent care place before our study time), and there were a few routine things we had to do that made it difficult to just get out and talk to people. In a way, I don't mind that, but I feel a little guilty about it. However, I do feel like I'm getting a little better at just striking up conversations with people. I have a long way to go, but I think I am improving.

That next day we had zone conference, and that was awesome. Zone conference is like a trip back to the MTC for a day. We get to just sit there and soak in the Spirit and learn and be inspired and refreshed and strengthened. It's awesome. Some of the things that are happening in the mission now are that the mission culture is being retired, and every transfer we as a mission will be memorizing and focusing on specific scripture to help us become more like Christ. 3 Nephi 5:13 is the scripture this transfer. Also, there will be a new missionary handbook for all missionaries available in November! There will be one for all missionaries and an additional one for missionaries who are able to use digital tools. We've heard that it's more principle-based rather than specific rules-based. At Zone Conference we also talked about our conversion to The Book of Mormon and how important that is. One of the assistants, Elder Bench, pointed out something that I thought was really insightful. We talked about how if The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, what makes up the rest of the arch? Some missionaries pointed out that if The Book of Mormon is true, that means that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, Christ visited the Americas, we have a modern-day prophet, and the Atonement is real. Elder Bench pointed out that in an arch, "The more weight we put on the keystone, the stronger the arch is." So as our testimony of The Book of Mormon is strengthened, so, too is our testimony of these other truths that make up the rest of the arch. President Stratford also had us do an activity where we read Mormon 7:8-9 and read it aloud and replaced "this" with "The Book of Mormon" and "that" with "The Bible" (the books of scripture are what "this" and "that" refer to in those verses). It was a powerful activity. It was a great reminder of what The Book of Mormon is meant to do: Support the truths of the Bible. The longer I've been out the more I've seen that the false doctrines people use the Bible to try to assert are not, in fact, supported by the Bible if it's read holistically and with the help of the Spirit. The more I've studied the Bible on my mission the more I've seen that it teaches the same things that The Book of Mormon does. It all just makes sense. You can delve so deep into the scriptures and just continue finding more and more evidence that they're true, especially as the Spirit whispers to you that they are. It reminds me of what Aslan says when the Pevensie children are finally in his country at the end of The Last Battle. He keep saying "Further up and further in!" and somehow, the further up and in they go into Aslan's country, the larger, the more real, the more detailed everything is. I feel that way about the scriptures. There's no end to what they can teach us. They surpass all other writings in that respect, and a diligent, sincere, prayerful study of them can only end in one conclusion: That they are true.

So after zone conference I talked to Sister Stratford and let her know that my rash seemed to be spreading still, so she and President took us to the mission home and split up and Sister Stratford took us to an emergency room. Basically the people at the hospital told me I have some kind of contact dermatitis and perscribed steroids and Benadryl, so that's what I'm on now, and it seems to be helping. The swelling and itchiness seems to be going down now, which is a relief, but the combination of those two medications is a little weird. Benadryl makes you sleepy, but steroids can increase your heart rate. They seemed to balance out for the last few days, but as I've tapered off the dose of steroids, as I've been asked to do, I've found myself alternating between feeling really wound up and feeling dog tired. But I'm feeling better, and that's the most important thing. It's also a huge relief to find out I don't have MRSA.

Because of the doxycycline the urgent care place prescribed, which apparently can give a person a bad reaction to sunlight, the hospital advised me to stay inside the next day, which was fine by me: We were able to get the apartment more clean and organized and do a few other helpful but menial tasks. The next day we went to church and had some great meetings and connected with the members a little more. We're starting to get to know people better, so that's good. Also, mom, I gave copies of your books to the Johnsons, and apparently it led to a little missionary moment for them. So good work!

Then there was today. While we were at Kroger (the grocery store), a recent convert from Worthington who knew both of us saw us and came and said hi and offered to pay for our groceries. We really appreciated it. It was very helpful.

Speaking of groceries, today we visited the Pepperidge Farm outlet across the street from the apartment and got a bunch of snacks for a total of about $7-8. So I'm pretty happy about that.

It's getting about time for us to leave: We're going to eat dinner with a part-member family tonight, and we need to leave by around 5:20 if we're going to catch the bus and make it on time. I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. Keep emailing.

Elder Davis

Pictures: The rash, the snacks, a sign we saw on a street lamp, and a bunch of produce someone gave us in return for our helping them weed their garden.