January 28 - Week 33

Hi Jon -

I guess you had a pretty exciting week going to the hospital or maybe a completely boring week I don't know. Sister Williamson contacted us and told us you were in the hospital and not to worry but we're parents and are always going to worry. I hope you'll tell us the whole story. And I hope you are feeling better and can get back to doing missionary work again soon.

Bishop Faux said you need to eat a lot of probiotics (I guess yogurt?) in Mexico. He was surprised they were giving you IV antibiotics because the oral antibotics are pretty effective. He said c-diff is super contagious though so maybe being isolated in the hospital is a good thing. I read this about c-diff on wikipedia:

Fecal bacteriotherapy, also known as a stool transplant, is roughly 85% to 90% effective in those for whom antibiotics have not worked. It involves infusion of the microbiota acquired from the feces of a healthy donor to reverse the bacterial imbalance responsible for the recurring nature of the infection. The procedure replenishes the normal colonic microbiota that had been wiped out by antibiotics, and re-establishes resistance to colonization by Clostridioides difficile.

So did you ask your comp for a stool transplant? Hahaha. I thought that was pretty funny. Hey comp would you mind sharing some of your fecal matter with me? You'd be doing me a real SOLID! hahaha Caring is sharing! It's better to give than to receive! Oh such good times...

Yesterday was Kathryn Eyring's missionary farewell. She is going to Irvine, California spanish speaking. President Eyring spoke at the end of Sacrament Meeting and said some powerful things about missionaries. He said your call came from Heavenly Father and that Jesus promises that He will be on your right side and on your left side to bear you up. President Eyring said that there are still trials and difficulties and chaos on your mission but that Jesus will carry you through all of the hard times. I really needed to hear that because mom and I had been pretty worried about you.

I want you to know that we've been doing our 3rd hour family home study all month and it's going really well. Chance and Javi pay attention and Chance all but gives the lesson every week. We don't assign him to but he understands the scriptures and the gospel really well and feels like he needs to teach Javi. I really like the time we spend together studying our weekly lesson.

As you've been in the hospital I hope you realize how many prayers are sent up for you each day. I sent out a text to my extended family and we've been talking about you on Slack so there have been a lot of extra prayers from the Carrs and Poultons this week. You will have more prayers offered for you during the mission than for rest of your life put together. When you start to feel down and you are not sure about what’s going on in the work and you wonder if Heavenly Father is listening, just think about this. You are having more prayers offered on your behalf than you will ever have for the rest of your life. The prophet prays for you every day. That will not happen later. All of the apostles meet each Thursday and the first thing that they pray for in the temple is you! When every little kid in every Mormon family in the whole world gets on their knees each day, they pray for you. When every session in every temple is finished with prayer, they always pray for you. You have literally thousands of prayers going up for you. 

So get your body healthy, get back to work, and let the prayers work for you.

Love,

Dad