This morning Elder Thorup had to go to the clinic to be tested for parasites. When he got back he had bad news. He has two parasites; Blastocytos Hominis and Giardia Lamblia, they are nasty buggers! He has been given medication by the clinic and Dr. Kilgore in the Area office. Hopefully they will do the trick and he will be better soon. I was surprised to learn from Elder Thorup that this is the third time he’s been treated for parasites.
Elder Thorup says he has been sick for weeks and none of the usual diarrhea medicines Hna. Almonte has given him have helped. (Now for the really icky part.) He said that when he was in Bani they always bought purified drinking water from the local Colmado (neighborhood store). However a couple of weeks ago he and his companion were half way through one of the 5 gallon bottles when they noticed the water was full of live mosquito larvae! The eggs must have hatched overnight, Yikes. The Colmado owner said they would refund his money. It would have been better if he had sold them safe drinking water in the first place so… Well, thanks for nothing!
Elder Thorup started asking around and found out that not all “Purified” water in sealed bottles is really purified. They found out from reputable sources that this particular bottled water company uses regular tap water and does not purify it before sealing the bottle and putting their label on it. This is really bad news. It makes all of us wonder just what bottled water we can trust here. At least we know for sure not to buy bottled water from this company.
Elder Thorup isn’t one to let something like this get him down. After he finished telling me all of these stories, he put a bright smile on his face and with a glow in his voice exclaimed, “I love my mission!” It’s going to take more than a couple of parasites to keep this Elder down.
And speaking of hard working great Elders, Hna. Johnson and I received an e-mail letter from Elder Conway today. He has been home for a week now. It was great to read what he has been up to since he got home. He has some tough choices coming up, he has to choose which University to play football for and very little time to make up his mind. I’m hoping for ASU, but he has been highly recruited by others including the UofA. Good luck Elder Conway.
Before FHE tonight we had dinner with the Joneses. Elder Jones is the Area Executive Secretary and Hna. Jones is the assistant Secretary. Elder and Hna. Mehr, Area Public Relations missionaries, were invited too. For dinner they served my favorite, baked salmon! Mmmm Goood! We had a wonderful evening together. We are truly blessed to have so many good friends here in the DR.
For FHE tonight we had a special craft night. Elder and Hna. Whitaker, the office couple in the East Mission, were in charge and they brought tons of sea shells they’ve gathered from their many trips to the beach (See April 24, 2010). They glue them on to the frames of church pictures. They give the finished pictures to the missionaries in their mission so they can give them as gifts to their Ward & Branch members as well as to their investigators. The missionaries love the pictures adorned with the sea shells.
Hna. Johnson and I have really taken a liking to this idea as well. We don’t have the time to make hundreds of adorned picture frames like the Whitakers do but Hna. Johnson has plans to make gifts from sea shells. She has seen some remarkable sea shell Christmas trees and nativity scenes she plans to make herself. They are easy to make, it’s a lot of fun collecting the sea shells and the hardest part is waiting for the glue to dry.
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