27 February 2012

The Mullen family, Jim and Sheila, put us up for the weekend in their spare bedroom in Boyup Brook.  Several of the members from the branch and a couple of nonmembers joined us on Saturday evening with Elder Peter Meurs, of the 8^th Quorum of the Seventy for a BBQ and a casual evening together.  Then he and his wife spoke in our tiny little branch and stayed for lunch after the block at  church.  I went with Sister Meurs  over to the Ellefsons to visit with the ladies while Elder Meurs went with Elder Ashby and President Ellefson to see Les Williams and then our non-member investigators, the Stuarts.  What a wonderful church, that reaches out to its members in the farthest corners of the world!

The Prime Minister of AU has just won a party election which ousts her top contender, Rudd, who would have been a more conservative choice.  According to our sources, she is controlled by the labor unions here; they are, in fact, the Labor Party.  The other major political party here is the Liberal Party, which is really the conservative party.  The citizens here don’t vote for a person, but for a party.  Then the winning party runs the whole government.  I don’t know much about it other than that.

I’ve finally been in to see a good doctor this morning.  He is not a neurologist, but a general practitioner who has had experience with TN.  He took a lot more time with me than the neurologist did.  He also was an Asian man, but unlike the other two I’ve seen since I was in the hospital, he was very kind and helpful.  He explained that my TN will most likely worsen from now on, and that I am taking the best medicine I can get for it at the maximum dose.  He said that beyond this, if it cannot be controlled, there are several surgical procedures they can try.  Because of socialized medicine here, we could not get a date for a surgery very easily, even if I wanted it.  But I’m sure I will be scheduling something as soon as possible after I get home to the States.  For now, he said I can take one of my Carbitrol capsules daily in addition to the Lyrica to try to keep it in control.  In this way, hopefully I can make it through my mission successfully.  I will probably be taking lots of afternoon naps. 

This is not a temporary thing.  It will probably be with me for the rest of my life.  I wouldn’t choose this for my future, but I have to learn to be positive in spite of it, and to accept cheerfully what has happened, like so many others whom I love and admire.  This is life—the bad along with the good.  I am thankful to a loving Heavenly Father for my life, which is full and rich.  He knows how much I can endure.  He will make a way for me somehow.