Two weeks ago yesterday I fell coming out of Church. Many people were around as I approached the door. Quickly, two or three people came to my aid to help me down the step at the door. It is impossible for me to step down by myself. After stepping down I turned to my left following others going the same direction. I didn't notice another step and my legs buckled when I took a step and there was nothing under my feet.

There are two reasons I didn't notice the second step.

1. I usually am riding my scooter and go out a different door where there is a ramp.
2. The floor outside the door is all tiled and it looks the same. Others told me they have missed the same step because it is difficult to see the second step.
   

Since the beginning of March. We have been going home with different members of the ward to have lunch with them. Someone has to drive us to church and bring us home after and some of their cars cannot accommodate the scooter, so for the last two or three weeks, I didn't bring it.

As I fell, my legs crumpled under me and I felt something snap in my front right thigh. The pain in that spot was severe. Because the pain was so severe, I thought I might have broken something. Everyone gathered around me but I couldn't bear for them to touch my leg or move it. One lady, Hermana de Escobar, kept trying to straighten out my leg and I couldn't get her to stop. Then I noticed that lady had been replaced by Dr. Mari Soto, Annette's doctor and our Relief Society president.

She didn't think anything was broken but insisted I have x-rays. She and her husband, Raul Villugron agreed to take me when I asked the others not to call an ambulance. Many of the brethren picked me up and carried me to the Villugron vehicle. The put me across the back seat and then I was able to maneuver into a sitting position. Annette got in the seat beside me and we started off for the emergency ward of the Clinica Indisa, where I have been treated before.

I felt like such a wimp or baby because I couldn't stand the pain. I bit down on a hot pad that Annette had been making so I wouldn't cry out. At times the pain would be bearable for a few minutes and then it came back just as severe as at first. The twenty minutes it took for us to get to the hospital seemed to last forever.

At the hospital, some aids came with a gurney on which they moved me. At first the slid a board under me and then dragged me out of the car to the gurney. They wheeled me into the hospital and put me in one of the emergency rooms. Annie and the Villugrons were with me. An emergency doctor checked me out. He mentioned that I was not the first LDS person with a missionary tag to enter that day. He said he had also treated another missionary named Lynn. We could only think of our neighbor across the hall, Elder Lynn Hoppie. We later found out it was President Ted Lyon, our mission president who was having his own problems having passed some blood.

We had x-rays taken of my knees, legs and hips. The emergency doctor told me that nothing was broken. He told me to stay off my feet for a few days. He instructed me to take an anti-inflammatory for seven days. Like an idiot, I turned down a prescription for pain medication, a decision I regret to this day, two weeks later. The pain in my thigh had subsided somewhat. I thought I could walk back out to the car but they wouldn't let me. They wheeled me out on a wheel chair.

The pain really didn't bother me for the first few days. There were no signs of bruising. I stayed in our apartment for the first few days. I didn't go to the temple on Tuesday or Wednesday even though I felt pretty good as long as I stayed off my feet. I went in Thursday, when I serve as the veil coordinator in the temple. I served the first couple of hours greeting people at the recommend desk. I had to stand to do my duty as veil coordinator of the first veil about 10:30 AM. I was on my feet for perhaps twenty minutes. By the end of those twenty minutes, the pains rushing into my right thigh were so severe I thought I might vomit. I went home after that veil and kept my leg elevated the rest of that day. I stayed home all day Friday with my leg elevated. As long as I kept it elevated it didn't hurt. Any time I stood up, pains would rush to my thigh again.

I returned to help in the temple on Saturday, because I only work at the front desk on that day. As much as possible, I kept my leg elevated along with ice packs and was able to work at that desk from 5:30 AM until about 10:30 AM, when I went home. For the next few days, I laid around the apartment. I became very good at finding how to watch movies or TV shows on the internet. I didn't feel good enough to study or do anything around the house.

I was able to work all five days in the temple but was careful not to do anything that required me to stay on my feet too long. I was even able to do my duties as veil coordinator on Thursday.

About the middle of this second week, bruising started to appear on the bottom sides of my legs. It is as though there has been bleeding inside and it drains to places on the sides.

My problem is not during the day but at night. I can only sleep for a period of time in one position and then I need to move. When I move positions, there is an extreme pain that hits near the places where the bruises have appeared. The pains lasts for about ten to twenty seconds. Apparently I groan when this happens, even though I don't usually wake up. It awakens Annette so that between the groans and my snores, she has not been getting enough sleep.

We had the discussion last Sunday about whether or not we should go home. We have completed the assignments we have here. In my opinion, we have become more of a burden to our ward rather than an asset. I have worried out loud so much about the burden of having people drive out from the Tobalaba ward to pick us up and then drive us back after church that the High Priest Group leader took me aside and asked if I wanted to quit coming to their ward. I was embarrassed they thought that as we love the people in the ward and love to be with them. I just hate to be a burden. He and the brother who picked us up in the morning both emphasized that the members love us and need the opportunity to serve us. I learned to keep my mouth shut about that subject.

I thought Annette would love the opportunity to go home early. She has such a hard time communicating in Spanish. Her health requires one full day of rest after each day she works in the temple. I was surprised when she said, "We were called for twenty-three months and we will serve for twenty-three months." So, we will be here until the end of July.

I had thought, when we began our missions, that perhaps the Lord would put our illnesses in remission and we would be able to serve in relative good health. That has not been the case. Annette cannot serve more than three days in the temple per week. Even on those three days, she often has to come home early to rest. I can no longer walk any distance at all. Everywhere I go I must be on my scooter. I know I can walk but everytime I do, I take the risk of falling again. Each time I fall, and there have been numerous here in Chile, it takes longer to recuperate than it did the time before. If I am not careful, I could do damage for which I cannot recover. When I fell two weeks ago at church, a brother walking behind me grabbed my head and kept it from hitting the pavement.

I have had to realize that the mission I thought I was coming to serve is different from the one the Lord has me serving. Many people have told us what an example we are to them. Many are serving in the temple because they see we do so even though it is so difficult for us. President Lyon says I am his best advertizement for new temple workers because when someone thinks they can't serve because of health, they are reminded of me.

I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love serving in the temple. When I had to stay home those days, I felt I was missing something important. Even on the days when the only thing I can do is work at the recommend desk, I realize that is important and someone needs to do it. If I am there, it frees someone else to work in another spot. I can no longer play the organ in Sacrament meeting and now members are doing that assignment. We have helped a number of people learn to lead the music and they can now do those assignments. A member is now teaching the gospel essentials class that I was teaching. We still have a number of piano students who now come to the apartment for their lessons instead of us dragging a number of keyboards to the church each Sunday for group lessons. By having two at a time in our apartment, we were able to divide the students up by their abilities and that is working much better.

We trust the Lord know what He is doing. We are doing our best to serve here and we hope to be able to finish out the last few weeks of our mission. We have learned that we do not need good health to be happy because this mission has been such a happy period of our lives. We know what we are doing here is important and we are so grateful for the opportunity to serve.