Monday, September 14, 2009

My first Sunday in Belize

Today is Sunday. The ER is currently empty and I’ve got nothing to do. I figured writing in my “journal” would be a good Sunday activity. I flipped on the tube first and thought I might watch a show, but Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure was just getting over and I was sooo disappointed that I missed it. Hopefully it will come on again later. J
I have tried to make today feel like the Sabbath as much as I could. I found out from one of the employees here that there was a branch not too far from the hospital. Grant and Ardis were nice enough to let me borrow there truck to drive down there. Believe it or not you can drive in Belize with a U.S. driver’s license, legally. I thought that was pretty cool. I found the church and entered the humble building. It was a small “chapel” as you can imagine. The minute I walked through the door I had members shaking my hands and welcoming me. They were all super nice. I was grateful that it was an English speaking branch, the only English speaking one in the area. As sacrament was about to be passed I thought of how grateful I was that you can be about anywhere in the world and find a church nearby with the same meeting, sacrament, songs, and lessons as home. What a huge blessing that is that the church is truly a world church. I was so grateful to be able to take the sacrament and participate in the lessons. Being so far away from home it made me feel at home.
Funny story: It was kind of funny because, they had planned on 3 talks with an intermediate hymn for the meeting. Two of those talks were youth talks, so you knew they would be short. The final speaker got up there and had about 35 minutes to kill. Well, he spoke about 5 minutes and sat down. I thought that was pretty funny. The 1st counselor said he would take a few minutes and I figured we would get out early. Well, to my surprise we actually got through with sacrament a little late! He spoke for a few minutes on about every topic there is in the church. You could say he was rambling quite a bit. I started dosing off a little, but I couldn’t help it as he just kept rambling from topic to topic. I think he covered all the gospel doctrine lessons in 30 minutes! I kept thinking he was about to stop, but he didn’t. When it was five till 10 after and he was still talking I thought, “You got to be kidding me.” I don’t know how one can have 25 minutes to kill off the cuff and then accidently go over. Luckily, he wrapped it up shortly thereafter.
The meeting was great and the classes were really good. I met some of the members. One missionary there was from Highland, UT of all places! Who would have thought the one branch I would be going to in Belize would have an Elder from where I live. It threw me off a bit because he looked Hispanic and had a bit of an accent, but when I was talking to him he said he was from Highland and went to Lone Peak high school. I’m not sure where the accent came from, but I guess he probably isn’t originally from Utah. I met another member named Kib. He’s the elders quorum president and originally from Salt Lake City. I asked why he moved here and he said, “Well, I just felt like moving here.” That’s pretty odd I thought to myself. He said he was a retired dentist and that shortly after he retired he just packed all his stuff up and drove down. He wasn’t wearing a wedding ring so I’m assuming he’s not married and I didn’t ask about family, but maybe he didn’t have much back in Utah to keep him there. He spends most of his time helping the missionaries. One thing lucky for me was that he gave me his phone number and said to call him any time if I wanted him to take me around the area to see the tourist sites. I think I’ll take him up on the offer.
Not much going on in the ER today. Just a guy came in who totally crushed his heel bone, calcanous. He broke it bad and had a severe looking displaced fracture. The ortho guy is coming tomorrow so I splinted it, gave him some anti-inflammatory and instructions and told him to come back tomorrow. I’ve never seen an ankle so swollen. It looked like it was on the verge of exploding. I hope he doesn’t lose circulation in the foot. Other than that the ER is DEAD!!!!

This is where Jessica will be delivering our

next child. Dr. Lazo said he would do it for free!!!

It's only a 2000 mile drive.

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