Dang Dengue!

A few items of note this week:

1. Bicycles.

My companion went to Asunción on Tuesday, leaving me with Hna Salcido and Hna Barragán in Hernandarias (a city to the north of Ciudad del Este).  Their area is one of the few areas in the mission with bicycles.  So I got to spend all day on a bicycle!  Super fun! . . . not.  Bikes and cobblestones are not a good combination.  Also, I'm super out-of-shape.  So by the end of the day, I thought I was going to die.  I couldn't feel my legs!  

. . . okay.  Maybe I'm exaggerating a little.  Bicycles are actually super fun.  Everyone should ride bicycles everywhere!  World obesity epidemic solved!

2. Dengue.

So there is this disease called dengue.  It is spread by mosquitoes, and EVERYONE is getting it.  (I think it's kind of a precursor to yellow fever.)  Our branch president and pretty much half the branch have caught it.  It starts with a fever, and then a lot of pain in the whole body, especially behind the eyes, and if you start vomiting or your nose starts bleeding, you have to go to the doctor ASAP because you might die.  

Friday night, my companion came down with a fever.  It got really high, and we spent all Saturday in the pension.  Saturday afternoon the fever went down and she had a normal temperature, but about four hours later the fever started up again and worse than before.  It lasted all through Sunday.  We only made it to sacrament meeting, and then the elders came to give her a priesthood blessing.  This morning we went to the doctor, and they had to do a blood test to see if it was dengue, and according to the doctor and the analysis, she has all the symptoms of dengue, but her defenses are really good and it's not dengue.  We have to do one more test on Wednesday just to be sure, but for now we can go back to work.  Yay!

3. Ana.

We have a golden investigator named Ana.  She lives with her boyfriend Eddy and their two young children Tobias (age 2) and Dana (11 months?).  Eddy is a less-active member and the brother of one of the more active families in the branch.  He and Ana are eager to put their lives in order and raise their children right.  They have been attending church faithfully the past few weeks, and Ana has accepted a baptismal date!  

Is the hand of God not apparent in our lives?

Love,

Hermana Watts