Some good news!!!

Ok, quick update... I'm doing really well. The good thing about Anaphylactic Shock is that people tend to recover really quickly. I came home Tuesday at about 3 p.m. (They actually let me vote in the hospital!!! It was a pretty interesting experience concidering it was my first presidential election. I don't know how much my vote should have counted though because I was so drugged up I could barely read the words on the paper! he he) I took of Wednesday and today and tried to mostly relax. Thanks to all of you who have visited or called or prayed... I know it's all helped me so much. My mouth is a little scratched up still because of tubes and I have a lovely scrape above my left nostril because of the tube the had down my nose to pump my stomach, but other than that I'm doing pretty well. My arms are banged up too because (and this may not surprise soem of you) but I guess even when I was knocked out, I was fighting the nurses and DID NOT want to tubes in my mouth or nose. They had to tie me down that night so I wouldn't hurt myself. Needless to say, I bruised my arms a little.

Now, Here is a little update from Moscow... seems like life over there is a little better than here... FOR ONCE! "Last week I said that on Friday we would be having a 'Fall carnival' to celebrate Halloween. I am happy to say it turned out great. Unfortunately someone forgot to pass the memo around that missionaries were, to a degree, allowed to dress up. So I had to find something at the branch to wear as a costume. I found a hardhat so I did the best I could to be a missionary and builder (Missionary and builder are kind of the same. We are building the kinding of God lol). We had more than thirty people show up which was great because at least 20 of them were investigators or people from English Club. There were also a lot of inactive members there. And oh did I mention, THERE WERE LOT OF KIDS!!!! It was awesome to have the little kids there. It's not to often that there are more than two kids at a branch function but on Friday there were about 10 kids atleast. We played a bunch of games after we watch Elder Wirthlin's latest conference talk. It was a great time for me to mingle and mix and get to know the branch members and everyone that came. It was a great night!!

Elder Gunther had to show the little kids how bobbing for apples is really done in America!!!

This is Elder Cannon with some of the kids from the branch who dressed up for the Halloween Party!!!

"On Friday, for our weekly planning, Elder Cannon and I set some high goals. We set a goal to have four investigators at church. Sunday was great because there is a family that has four kids. One is amost nine, so we are trying to get him baptised. His dad is a member but him mom isn't. They are a sweet family and we tried really hard to get them to come to church on Sunday. And they came. It is really hard for them to come to church because the dad is crippled and really can only come to church if someone comes and picks them up. So they came because we got the branch president to pick them up. The kids were very loud though lol during sacrement meeting. We actually ended up taking them into the primary room and watching them the last 15 minutes or so during sacrement meeting because of how roudy they were. I had to run but in before sacrement meeting ended to play the piano. I am also the 2nd counselor in the Elders' quorem. Then my favorite part was that because I'm the only one that knows how to play the piano in the branch, I was asked to play the piano during primary. I LOVED IT!!!! It was so fun to play the primary songs and to sing with the kids and watch their big smiles. I love primary. I am hoping we can work it out somehow so I can continue to play the piano in there because it really invites the spirit and it really calms down the kids!

"The work is picking up as we are focusing on being 100 percent exactly obedient and we are seeing the hand of the Lord in helping us in His work."

Scariest day of my life...

OK so instead of telling the story a million times, I'll just tell you all here. Monday I came home on the bus between my 3-5 break. I was going to take the car out to BYU for my class so that I could hurry home instead of having to wait for the bus. Well, I got home about 4 and my mom started to make those peanut butter rice crispie treats. She made them before and I've been fine before. Well, I stated my laundry and decided I didn't feel like going back to BYU. So i was sittin at the counter and started to have what I thought was an asthma attack. Well, it came on really quickly and my chest got really tight and I went outside to see if some fresh air might work, but it didn't. I got my mom and we hopped in the car and started driving to the hospital. I tried to keep sucking on my nebulizer, but it wasn't working. I stopped and just started praying. I didn't realize it, but my mom said that I was using every breath that I had to pray outloud to my Heavenly Father. My mom said that I was asking Him to give me strength and bless the doctors and to protect me. The last thing I remember was passing the cemetary (which is about 2 miles from my house) and looking out the window in the rear view mirror and seeing my white face and completely blue lips.

Now the rest is my mom's point of view: She said that I couldn't hold my body up by myself and I had my seatbelt in but was really wobbily. She said I slumped over onto her shoulder and about 30 seconds before she got to the hospital she heard the little "gasps" of air from me and then I stopped breathing. She stopped at the ambulance exit and ran inside telling them her daughter was in the car and wasn't breathing. They brought out a stretcher and two people put me on it. My mom went around and parked the car. She said that by the time she got back in, they had about 8 people around me tryin to get me to breathe. They had to cut my sweatshirt off (sorry hud, it was your soccer sweatshirt). My mom said they let her stay in the emergency room with me. She said even though I was unconscious I was fighting them. I didn't not want the tube down my thoat, but they had to get it down before my throat closed off all the way. She said when I would get really ornery, they would ask her to stand by my head and stroke my forehead and talk to me and tell me everything was goign to be alright. She said it actually helped and it settled me. They got the tube down and then they had to stick a tube down my nose to pump my stomach. I kept trying to pull my tubes out and so they had to strap my hands down to my bed.

See, I was out for the whole night. My mom and my sister Amy Jo stayed with me and switched off watching over me. I was hooked to a breathing machine all night and because my arms were tied down, my mom said i kept sitting up and trying to get my face to my hands to pull out the tubes. I don't remember anything. Tuesday morning I woke up about 7 i think. I don't remember much til about 9, but I do remember one thing. I remember waking up (my mom said I still had the tubes in me) and I had to go to the bathroom. I was hooked up to a machine that I could pee in, but it was clogged or something and it wasn't working. Now, I'm in an ASL class right now and so I couldn't talk, so I signed the sign for bathroom. Of course, nobody could understand me and so I signed J-O-N because my little brother knows a little sign language. He wasn't there yet, so I spelled out B-A-T-H-R-O-O-M and one of the nurses knew the letters. They then unhooked me from all the machines and I was able to go to the bathroom.

From about 9 to 3 I was awake and watched some TV and they let me take a shower because I had throw-up and crap in my hair. Apparently it was really scary and my mom had to watch it all. She's the real hero in all of this because she kept it together. I'm so blessed to have such a great family and the technology that save my life. Anyways, thanks for all the prayers and worries. You guys are the best. I love you all!

Baby Steps Week #3

Let's not really talk about last week's goal... I didn't do so well. But with the help of my mom this week... I'm going to SMASH it! Anyways, the sleeping thing is going well, but I want to add something onto it. As we have all heard "early to bed (which I'm already working on) and early to rise (can you guess my goal for this week?)" Yep, that's right! I'm going to work on getting up earlier. I want to be awake and altert BEFORE i go to my first class. So, for this week, I'm going to wake up at 6:00 a.m. every morning so that I can catch the 7:00 bus in.... I did it this morning and I really do feel great! and I actually learned stuff from my teacher. Waking up earlier will also help my body to go to bed earlier too.

RULES:

1: When my alarm goes off... get out of bed. Whether that's sitting up or rolling off the edge... GET OUT!

2: Turn on lights immidiately so that I can't fall back asleep.

3: After I gain enough consciousness to stand, make my bed.... that way i won't be tempted to fall back into it.

I think this will all help!

P.S. I just wanted to say this real quickly before I go. I've always wondered what I would do when I ran into "him" again. I know i broke his heart, but it was what I had to do. Well, this morning it happened... I walked into the library and there he was... unavoidably. So I went over and said "HI!" He seemed to be doing well, figuring out what he's going to be doing with his life, and I think he's moved on. He did ask a lot of questions about my life and I could tell he couldn't take his eyes off "the ring" but I ignored that subject and figured he didn't need to know. It was actually a really good thing for me because I've always wondered and now I don't. There is nothing there for me anymore and I don't feel anything. I actually kept thinking about a certain Elder in Russia while I was talking to "him." I LOVE ELDER GUNTHER!!! FO SO!!!

Baby Steps Week #2

If I were to give myself a grade for last week and getting to bed on time, I'd have to give myself 50%. Let's not figure out what grade that acutally is....I think the word "failure" is a little too harsh sometimes. I'm just going to do better this week. But along with this week, I'm going to add another baby step.

I've debated on what I really want to cut out/add. And I think that sleep and exercise go hand in hand. SO my goal is to exercise 6 times this week. I don't care if that's running or Wii Fit or whatever... i'm going to do it. (I'm giving myself Sunday off.... :) ) I figure if I can do it for 6 days then going down to 4 or 5 on a regular basis will be easy. I know I can do this.

Rules for this week:

1: Exercise must be completed before 10 p.m. so that I can get to bed on time.

2: I'm going to try and exercise 20-30 mins... no stopping until then

3: Try to talk to my mom and see if a certain time to exercise works for her.... you know, there is power in numbers!

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." -Jim Ryun