Since we wrote last we have been home for Lauren's wedding, have returned to Chile, and are back to work. To be home for that special event was a real blessing. We are truly grateful for all those who helped make it such a wonderful day.
Wedding
On June 5, Lauren married Patrick Huffcutt from Elmwood, Illinois. They became friends at Utah State last fall and by May there was a noticeable twinkle in her eye! Most of you know what Lauren would bring to a relationship, but when Patrick cooked her gluten free pancakes, made jam from whatever fruit was on special at the store, kept up with her on climbing routes, and then proposed with a coral and meteorite necklace he made for her, she knew she had found the person just for her.
Her dress, which was the biggest project, turned out beautifully. She wanted to be able to wear it after the wedding to dance in, so April made detachable long sleeves and skirt so she could wear it in the temple and then as you can see it in this picture. I made her the bouquet and ribbon belt. We are so glad it was finished in time (about 10 minutes to spare) and that she looked so pretty in it.
Lauren, Eliza, Clara, and Pickle twirling in the dresses made especially for this day!!
Baptism
Last Saturday the Zone Leaders called us to come help with a baptism of a 13 year old girl. The only priesthood holders there were the two elders and the mission leader. One elder performed the baptism and one was a witness. The mission leader could not be a witness because he was blind, so Elder Jones was needed to be the other witness. It was a sweet baptism. Her name is Nemesis, which means the same thing in Spanish as English. Not sure why someone with such a sweet countenance would be given that name. This is a picture of her and her mother.
YSA
Our work with YSA is really starting to move forward. Missionaries from the entire zone are working our plan and bringing us names of less actives who want to come back. We are working hard on improving the JAS activities and helping them set goals to take family baptism names to the Santiago Temple (6 hours away) in November. It will be a wonderful experience for any who participate.
This story will make Ben and Andy smile & President Ghiz cringe!
Last Monday, Sister Cluff (the mission nurse, the wife of the couple who live in the same apartment building and work with us in the Family History Center and are helping us learn Spanish) called in a very distressed voice and said she had fallen in the bathtub and needed my help. I went down and found that she had a deep gash in the back of her head. It had bled a lot, and was still bleeding.
I cut her hair down to the scalp in the area around it, and cleaned the wound as well as I could. In trying to steri-strip it, I found that an artery had probably been cut because the force of the bleeding was so strong. After a few attempts I got the bleeding under control, cleaned it again, put steri-strips on, then a gauze bandage, and and left her to rest.
Soon after that the bleeding started again, and she told me that she prayed and told Heavenly Father that she would put pressure on it for an hour with a cold pack and asked Him to make the bleeding stop.
He did. When I went to see her later that afternoon the swelling was almost gone and the bleeding stopped. Being a nurse, she was wanting it to heal right, so she sent her husband to town to buy a suture kit and said she wanted me to put stitches in it.
I will spare you all the details, but after cutting more hair, cleaning off more blood, emptying about a half a bottle of betadine on the wound, I managed to put four stitches in it and get it bandaged back up. After five days no infection, and the repair job looks good. Lets just say I learned a lot. Her husband bought her a knit hat to wear until her hair grows out. Stitches come out next week. That's the easy part. Sorry, no pictures!
Love to you all. (Can anyone on the property tell us how the baby ducks are doing?)
Elder Y Hermana Jones
