BLUE BERRY PANCAKES!!!!

Well I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas!

I had a great time hearing from all of you. (Jaren had the opportunity to call home for Christmas) It was fun to hear that everything going on is really great there.  

Let’s just talk about the hospital experience I had with my companion for a second. So this last Monday, December 19^th, is when we decided that enough was enough.  We went into the doctor for my companion. When we arrived there it was totally packed. This was the first time in my entire mission up to this point that I have seen so many gringos in the same place. The hospital is a US hospital basically. I am sure that you can assume that things there aren’t exactly the same but it was pretty dang sweet. We had to keep going back to the hospital for exams during the week.  Wednesday night we slept in the hospital and then at 8:00 in the morning on Thursday my companion had his operation. It was pretty strange for me because almost the entire time I was by myself. I was sitting by myself in the surgery lobby when the Mission President and his wife showed up. They came in pretty stressed out I think. They had been looking for where Elder Lucas was being operated on.  Quickly we were laughing and just relaxing while we waited. After about a few minutes Sister Blunck asked me if I had eaten.   I told her no because I hadn’t.  The President then took me to the cafeteria. WE ATE PANCAKES TOGETHER!!! It was really cool because we just talked and talked. He asked me how everything was in life.  He asked how my family (you guys) is, and we talked about what we can do to be a better mission. I really feel like I was privileged to talk with the president for so long.  After we ate we came back to the waiting room and there was Sister Blunck waiting for us. She was writing in her journal and she had just finished when we came in. Then I played a question and answer game with her. She was asking me questions about my home, about all of my family at home, what I want to be, what I am studying, what I like to do, and everything about me. Just when that was all winding down, my companion came out. I stayed with him in the room the whole rest of the day. The President and his wife were with us for just about an hour or two more and then they had to go. The strangest part of it all was that the president gave me permission to go and eat when I wanted to and go where I wanted to by myself. I mostly stayed in the room but when I got hungry I just went to the cafeteria.  We were there in the hospital all day on Thursday and we slept there again. On Friday the doctor came in the morning and told us that we could leave. We waited another hour and thinking that we could go we started to make preparations. We had to go and check out, but they wouldn’t let us go yet because the insurance company hadn’t checked in yet. We went back to the room and we waited there, and we waited and we waited and we waited. Until around 5:30 in the evening. We were finally let go. I guess there had been a battle between the insurance company and the hospital. The hospital used things in the operation that the insurance company didn’t think was necessary so they didn’t want to pay for it. What ended up happening is the president had to make a few phone calls and after a few hours it all worked out.  We then went to the president’s house. When we were there the president’s wife cooked us up homemade AMERICAN STYLE HAMBURGERS. I just about died!!!.... After every bite!!!! She had all of the condiments including mustard, and barbeque sauce. MMMMMMMMM!!!!! Then we watched a movie together about President Hinckley. We studied scriptures together … AWESOME!! And then we went to bed. The next morning we got up, we got changed and what did we eat? BLUE BERRY PANCAKES!!!! This is one of the moments when I literally thought that I had died and gone to heaven. We had cheesy eggs and we had HASH BROWNS. I wish I could just go back in time and eat that same food every single day for the rest of my life. After that we came back to area or in other words…Rice and potatoes and chicken.

I had a good time this Christmas but just like last year it is just not the same. I am looking forward to spending all future Christmases with my family because that’s where the real magic of Christmas is. Thanks for another great call and thanks for all of the laughs.

Amor,   Elder Harris