Yup thats me… and if your wondering how I got in this situation. Let me explain.
The Best Day ⏩️ Worst Week
It all started with the best start of the week I’ve ever had. Coming of of basically my island vacation last P-day, basking in the sun playing guitar and chilling by the ocean I knew this area and this week would be good. As I awoke on tuesday the day started perfectly normal and without interruption as my companion and I followed our morning schedule, creating a perfectly curated plan for the day, preparing to visit our friends and sending messages confirming our visits. Immediately when we the house the day started off a little rocky my stomach had a little rumble and I wasn’t feeling the best and our friends scheduled for the morning ghosted us but we kept going.
Following the trail of some media references that had basically impossible addresses, we happened to stumble upon one, and her entire family who basically lived on the same block, we taught them all and invited them to be baptized, they accepted the invite. Next we passed the houses of some of our other friends and everything went well and we decided to finish the day of chasing down one more media reference.
The reference lived all the way on the other side of our area, in a part we had never been to, basically to get there we would have to pass through candy cane lane, ghost forest, assault city and finally we’d arrive. As soon as we started walking we realized how far it was (1 hour away) but we kept going. As we continued we realized that “ghost forest” the only way to get there was really dark and scary, but… we kept going, without incident. Next we passed through a strangely deserted large developed modern ish neighborhood with no one on the street “assault city” I’ll call it, but again we passed through without incident. Finally we passed through candy cane lane a long dirt road that was filled with large holes and lined with dark forest.
After passing through all these mere obstacles we were ready to find this person and we entered their strangely orderly neighborhood pre planned with ordinal streets, something you’d see in the US. We approached the number we were looking for and as it just so happened to be the only house with people in front as we talked to them asking if our reference lived there they said no and looked very confused. I looked at my comp we both gave each other a look, “ain’t no way we just walked an hour for this person not to exist” I showed them our references what’s app profile picture and a light clicked in their eyes and they all immediately pointed down the long straight street and said go that way over the hill and when you get to the other side ask anyone for ____ (insert strange nickname that I forgot) they’ll know. So thats what we did we got to the other side of the hill and asked for our person and in some confusion they kind of look around all puzzled and pointed to a group of kids playing in the road and said there she is. I was about to get disappointed, as sometimes little kids take their parents phones and mess with it and end up sending a reference. Again exchanged looks with my comp, but before i could say anything out of thin air a older lady appeared and when we told her about the reference she remembered and invited us to talk to her whole family who lived in one giant house together. We taught all of them and put them all on date for baptism in disbelief, the hike had been worth it. To put icing on the cake she told us where we could catch a bus and return way quicker. This was the best day of the mission, helping so many families in one day.
Pause ⏸️
I know you’re definitely wonder at what point did I get stabbed? I’ll just answer right here. In the hospital three times in my abdomin as the doctors gutted me during my emergency appendicitis operation. Yup thats right the next morning a awoke at 3 in the morning with pain in my stomach thinking it was parasites or something as I began vomiting and my fever began to rise. We called an uber to the only credible looking hospital 2 hours away.
Anyway we took the uber through the most traffic I’ve ever seen and finally after hours we got to the city and the rest is history. In stark reality without any dramatization the doctors there were really good and the mission has used that hospital for this same operation more than once. So no need to worry ya’ll I’m all right. They did the surgery using a machine that was operated by the surgeons using cameras and the result was 3 small incisions. (Or how I stated in the title stab wounds, I just didn’t think “I got three mechanicaly precise incisions done by trained medical professionals in a steril operating room and was immediately stiched up while on anesthesia” had a nice ring to it.🙃)
Anyways thats how I eneded up here. As I’ve been sitting doing basically nothing I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the reason we face hard things in our lives, I found generally people will categoroze them in 2 sections, 1. You must be an extremely horrible person and you did something bad to deserve it. 2. You must be a super strong person that God chose to give this to because he know you could handle it. As I’ve thought more about these, the more I realized how neither of them seemed to fit. I realized, the reason we have challenges doesn’t depend on our obedience to God or disobedience, or some sort of Job like test the reason we have trials is because this life was paid for, every single unjust experience or trial was paid for by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This earth was never meant to be a simulator that if you do xyz right you get all the the money and easy life. It was a life where we could experience joy and experience sorrow, but at the same time experience the life here after when every thing unjust, every trial, every burden unlifted, will be made up in the only way that makes sense to me, “Romans 8:16 …we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
(Just to recap, no I did not get brutally assaulted and stabbed on the street, and I am fine (more or less). I just got my abdomin opened up by trained professionals and their knifes)
Love Ya’ll
-Elder Gist