Monday, April 7, 2014

I will never be a nurse.

well, as you can obviously see in the pictures, I spent a lot of time in the hospital this week. Hna. Macahuachi is a missionary that was serving in Ecuador, but had to get surgery, so she came back home to get surgery and recover. We had to take care of her until she got released. She is now released (super hard for her), so we got to leave for a while to get stuff done. like shower.... and change our clothes haha.
We have been so busy taking care of her, that we had NO time to get anything done. literally none. We taught zero lessons, and were crutches for a number of days. (she´s too short to use the crutches from the office) I have learned so many valuable lessons of how to be a mom, and have real charity. One night she was sooo sick from the altitude. She called my name and just help my hand between hers and cried. It was 2 AM, but it didn´t matter. she said "don´t leave me" so i didn´t. I stayed there for 2 hours until she fell asleep. 

To any parent out there that has a severely handicapped child, a child with cancer or other types of diseases, or a spouse with the same problems, I truly 100% give my respect to you. It is hard. It´s hard to watch someone suffer and not be able to do anything. It´s hard to sleep in a hospital while nurses are running around poking people with needles (remember how EVERY time a needle comes close to me, I faint?). It´s hard to not have time to do anything for yourself. So to you parents who lovingly and selfishly take care of your family, thank you. You are stronger than you know. 

Luckily, my companion and Hna. Macahuachi got to watch conference in the hospital with the Assistant´s laptop while I escaped to watch it in English in the stake center. I don´t know why, but the first hour of the first session was switching inbetween Quechua, portuguese, and spanish. I didn´t get a lot out of that hour. It finally switched to English, and all the gringo missionaries cheered. I LOVE CONFERENCE. I heard so many things I needed. 

I don´t know why but when Elder... I forgot who it was... But he was talking about his wife and how she said "When I marry, it will be with a faithful return missionary." It hit me so hard. I WILL marry with a faithful return missionary. I will not settle for less. I understand when medical things get in the way of finishing, but there´s a big difference between choosing not to go/finish, and not being able to go/finish. I know what life can be like, and missions change boys into men and teach them so many valuable life skills. I know missions are not for everyone, but they are for me, and they are for the person I will marry. I love every single exhausting difficult moment of my mission. It has changed me. I am never going to go back to my old standards ever again. 

I love where I am. I am not going back. 

LOVE YOU ALL more than you know. 


Love, Hermana Allred

1-- Chopping off my awkward melt.
2-- surprise! it´s short now. 
3-- me, hna thompson (my daughter´s last companion), my daughter, and my daughter´s daughter. I am a grandma!!! haha. 
4-- Eating at PINKBERRY! (we have one of those now.) Nutella and coconut cone. I about died. 






1-- The baby section of the hospital. 
2-- Waiting with Hna. Macahuachi (I know... it´s almost impossible to even THINK her last name) to get surgery.
3-- our home for 4 days.
4-- the incredible view from our 7th floor "suite" 






1-- all ready to get her knee cut open.
2-- holy cusco. It is beautiful here. if you look closely, you can see cristo blanco. 
3-- our beds. better than the air mats we ususally sleep on. 
4-- the elders brought us breakfast. SO MUCH BREAD






1-- Norelly from Sicuani! The zone leader´s pension´s daughter. (did you follow me?) We loved her and she always came with us to visit people. We didn´t get to say goodbye to her either. We saw her walking out of the english conference classroom.
2-- take out for DAYS. 
3-- once again, Can´t get over the view
4-- Sacsayhuaman on the left, cristo blanco on the right.
5-- she got altitude sickness really bad, so they put her in an oxygen tube while she watched animal planet haha. 






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