Side Trip To Germany
"Germany" you ask? "Weren't you assigned to Spain?" That's a fair question. As we shared a couple of weeks ago, I had some chest pain that landed me in the emergency room of a local hospital for several hours. I had hoped that this would be the end of my troubles, but the mission nurse, the area medical advisor, and my Cardiologist Mission President, decided that I needed to have a full cardiac workup done. President Heckmann is very successful Cardiologist with his own clinic in Germany. His son is also a cardiologist and is taking over the practice for his dad. Since the trip to the emergency (2 blood tests and an x-ray) cost me 600 Euros, President Heckmann said that the mission would pay for me to fly to Germany. I could rent a car in Stuttgart and drive the hour and a half to Heidlberg where his clinic is. We could get the workup done, for way less than it would cost in Spain. We would stay the night in his house, and then return early the next day. We also took a sister who needed an injection in a herniated disc in her back, and an elder who needed outpatient surgery on an ingrown toenail. So, there was a whole group of us.
The trip started WAY early. The mission secretary and his companion drove us to the airport at 4:00 AM so we could catch our flight. Once we reached Stuttgart, we went through security ("give me ze papers!") and I picked up the rental which ended up being a full-sized, 9-passenger, van/tank. We started our drive only to find out that our Spain phone plan phones weren't working so we didn't have Google Maps. I figured out how to switch my phone to allow roaming (which I am sure probably cost a pretty penny; we shall see), and we were off. It was a beautiful drive and we arrived at the clinic almost on time. They poked, prodded, EKGed, radiated, exercised, and basically tortured me anyway they could dream up. The end result was that I seem to have some blood vessels in my heart that are partially blocked. It's not bad enough for them to install stents, and they told me that it was ok for me to exercise, so long as I have some spray to spritz under my tongue if my chest starts hurting. They also gave me some more cholesterol medicine to take in conjunction with the other cholesterol medicine that I'm already on. I always was amazed at the numbers of pills my sister had to take because of her many medical conditions, and now I seem to be starting to compete with many of my own. YUCK!
We got out of the clinic at about 7:00 PM that night and grabbed a bite to eat before driving to the President's house. He lives up in the hills surrounding the city. The problem is that the roads to get up there are super narrow, and very winding. At one point I had to do a 3-point turn to get around one corner (way fun with that gigantic van I must say). We got up early the next morning to leave at 6:00 so that we would have plenty of time to make our 9:30 flight back to Barcelona. What we didn't anticipate would be the 4 accidents on the freeway that turned our 1.5 hour drive into a 3+ hour drive! Prayer was involved, and prayers were definitely answered. Want proof? Have any of you ever in your flying experience got to the security lines to see that NOBODY was in front of you?!?! It was freaky. We also found that our gate was about 100 yards away from the end of the security lines! Again, that doesn't happen. We made our flight and it was a miracle.
What have I learned from this experience? First of all, I know that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. He knew that I would need special attention on my mission. That is why I was assigned to Spain. Let's list the details. 1. Mission President is a cardiologist, 2. We have a functioning mission nurse, 3. they both would not take for granted what the emergency room doctors said, 4. The mission president has his own clinic, 5. The mission president's son is also a cardiologist who is taking over the practice, and was willing to take me in with virtually no wait. 6. We were also available to make sure that the Elder and the Sister would have travel companions that could get them to the clinic as well. 7. The mission president's house was available for us to use (his daughter had everything ready for us), 8. We were able to make our flight. (absolute miracle), and finally 9. My mission president can supervise my care for the rest of my mission. No one is going to be able to convince me that these are all just happy coincidences. Heavenly Father is in the details. The older I get, and the more I look for Him, the more I see His fingerprints all over the place. It's truly amazing.
We got back to Barcelona just in time to walk into the middle of Zone conference. It was kind of wild, but again the timing was perfect so that we could dive in and help feed 100 missionaries and clean up. We didn't get to bed until late that night, and boy did we need sleep! Neither one of us is as young as we used to be, and keeping up with these kids is a real challenge.
On Friday night, the director of all of the institutes in Europe came and had all the kids together. He was great. One of the things he said in his talk really stuck with me. The word Covenant in latin is two words. The first one word means "with" and the second word means "journey", so when we covenant with the Lord the blessings don't just wait to come until we have reached the end of our journey. He is there taking our journey with us the whole way if we will let Him. Look for Him in your journey, and you will find Him there.
We love you all billions, and hope that you have a great week.
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