Out of coma into baptism/ Coachroach story

O my goodness, so Natalie's ok? Gosh that is a crazy story and I didnt really pay attention to the medical side of the letter but wow im glad shes ok. [Austin's sister Natalie went in on Saturday night for an emergency operation due to an ectopic pregnancy: the fertilized egg attaching to the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. We all are sooooo sad that she lost her little one, but are very grateful she is ok. In happy news the doctor said that all of Natalie's organs look very healthy and she can still look forward to getting pregnant in the future. She is now home recuperating] Special prayers for Sessions family this week.

Maria is the lady I did that contact with and I felt a love for her and her son that felt like family. As it turned out this week, I didn't get to see her but I did see a couple other youth and families that remembered me. So it was unfortunate I did not get to see her or Alan. They are both very active and she is preparing to go to the temple :) Hopefully next transfer ill get to go over there again, but we´ll see i guess. I am very sorry to tell you that I took pics this week but the computer I am on refuses to accept my camera. However I am preparing to send a package home with all the pics or almost all of my pics as soon as I can find the temporarily misplaced memory card that has all the pics. Ha! So ill look for that then get it to you.

While I was in Ezpeleta this past week I had an interesting experience one night. I was sleeping having a good dream until I woke up to a very large cockroach straddling my lip and touching my nose. I woke up because he kept touching my nose. I instantly grabbed it and threw it across the room and heard a thud where he hit. I had mixed feelings of anger, nausia and tiredness. The anger told me to get out of bed and burn the jerk, the grossed out feelings made me pull the covers over my head and the tiredness told me to go back to sleep, so I pulled my covers over my head and went back to sleep... after about 10 mins of being grossed out. Later that night at like 3 in the morning my zone leader woke me up talking to me as he was starting to get dressed. I was so confused and just told him to go back to sleep. Ha! So ya that was one of the more interesting nights during exchanges Ive been on.

Oh we also baptized a man named Raimundo who is 53 and who just came out of a coma. He couldn't really bend backwards cuz he was still very weak from being in his coma and he has very large scabs from bedsores because the nurses didn't move him the entire time he was in the coma. So he woke up and his skin pretty much peeled off with the sheet. So ya it was interesting. Both Elder Palmer and I were dressed in white. He did the baptism and I helped him go down and up. He doesn't walk well either so when we got to the bathroom he fell. O my gosh, I was so scared his scabs would open up and blood would start going everywhere. Luckily he was OK. He was hurting but not much else happened. We were very grateful for many blessings that day.

So ya that's pretty much what happened this week. I am very tired. Elder Palmer is working me hard.

Your all in my prayers give my love to Nat.

lvlv

elder schupple

One of the best weeks of the mission!

No I don't have a problem with going to UVU. I heard it was really expensive but whatever... you know better than I do. Oh and thanks to the heavy influence of Utah/ Arizona friends down here, my opinion has gone up about 8 fold about moving to Utah, so ya that sounds fun. Mom you should meet Elder Gublers mom. Hes a funny kid and we have been in 2 zones together already. You'd probably like her. OH also ask Steve how many elders were in his mission. And that's funny that Brad is dancing with Jackie and that shes making him work out. I also hope grandma starts doing better. Thats interesting that you said that about dad always trying to be fun/funny because I got to know this new elder and he told me what I appear to people that don't know me. It made me very content to hear what he said. He just said that I always appear happy and trying to have fun. That made me happy for some reason.

As for this past week, it was great we only found 5 fechas but had 31 other lessons and almost 10 with members. We took out another baptism date and are going to take another one out tonight, then 2 more tomorrow, and we should be baptizing this upcoming sat hopefully. But that's not even the best part about this past week. So we found this MARRIED (thank goodness) couple on a contact we did, so we entered their house and began to get to know them, the lady began to tell us that she had a dream a while ago where she was with a couple of her friends and the friends started doing weird things like smoke and do drugs and for some reason she said that meant the church of Jesus Christ wasn't on the earth anymore, then later on in the dream there was a boy from the united states that came down to visit her to tell her that the church of Jesus Christ had been restored again on the earth.

O my goodness I was just all smiles and couldn't believe what she was telling us because they had never talked to the elders before. Then she continued to another dream she had where she met God and began speaking to him, and he told her that she was one of the elect and that she was saved to come to the earth in the last days. She asked God what that meant and if she was supposed to be a pastor or something and He said "No dont worry I have a plan for you."

OH my goodness when i heard that I was ready to shout with joy. I could not believe what she had just told us. I was in such shock, I didn't even know what to say, so I took off my name tag and showed her the name of our church and how everything she had just told us were things that we teach in our church. We have a return appointment tomorrow where Elder Palmer and the zone leader are going to take out a bap date with them. I'm kinda bummed that I wont be there but at the same time I'm soooooo excited because tomorrow I get to do what I've wanted to do my entire mission-- I'm going back to Ezpaleta! (very near to my first area-- Quilmes) They tell me Maria is still active and sometimes asks about me and is preparing to go to the temple :)..... I am sooo very excited.

Yesterday Elder Palmer and I had to speak in church and it went very well, but what made it awesome was the fact that a member from Ezpaleta was there and after they came up to me and gave me a big hug and told me how great it was to finally be able to actually talk to me and hear how great my castellano is now. (I couldn't speak the language very well when I was there) Oh goodness it was one of the best weeks of the mission.

Hope everything is going well at home. Some members tell me that the world is coming to an end in Haiti because of the earthquake and the states too, so hope yawl are OK. I love you all so much. You're in my prayers.

lvlv

Elder Schupple

Awesome area, new companion and investigators

Wow holy cow that lots of information in one email. Cool I think I'll try to start from the beginning. First of all that is really weird that Steve will be coing home already. Tell him to shoot me an email and I'll write him a letter or something. Have him tell me what he learned and if he has some good advice or something. And wow that's really cool that Steve Herlin going to England. Yes, I'll write that essay for my college application. I don't know if you just want me to rewrite it next week on my email or send it in a letter. So just let me know... and do I only need to write one of them? I'll get that page to Pres Asay this Thurs because we have zone conference. Then I guess he will send them to you?

As for the family trip I would like to go to BG2 when I get home to see whats going on there if that's OK. I guess things will be different though and thats to be expected now that I'm not in high school anymore and all my friends are at college. Even if I end up in Utah it really isn't a big deal except for not being with my nieces and other family but I guess that's just life. Plus side is that I have more friends out west from the mission so it'll be fine.

As for this past week in my new area, I like it a lot more than Glew and ya I love my companion. I love being with new elders with their intense faith and obedience. Its really been a great week and this transfer is going to fly because the first week has already. So ya I'm way excited for the next 6 weeks. Yes I'll get on sending the pics home. I was going to send a package home with a memory card so it should be coming soon and next week I'll try to send more. Elder Palmer and I get along really well, we work hard together but we seem to always be talking and laughing I love it.

Ok a few questions I would like to know what I can start throwing away, or in other words what would you like me to come home with? The Ecco shoes are wearing down but they will for sure last me till the end, but should I bring them home? I don't know if there's some sort of warranty on them or whatever I just heard that they were like guaranteed for life so just let me know cuz if its that way I'll bring them home and get some stellar shoes. If not no big deal. Just let me know.

In other news, we have 2 different investigators that were in comas recently and have just come out who are both golden. One is this guy with a bunch of holes in his body including in his head the other is the husband of a member...well they actually aren't married... they both need divorces from old marriages then need to get married so we have some work to do with them cuz marriages and divorces are so very hard to do down here, (Oh! random info but I heard from Elder Holladay that Marianna and Edgar (from the house fire/Book of Mormon miracle) got married and she got baptized so that made me happy). We also found this little family in the villa and we are teaching them and its awesome because they are very accepting. We also found this family of 13 so i am really praying for that one... it might be a long shot but lets have some faith.

Well i hope i didn't forget anything. Love you all hope your all doing well

lvlv

elder schupple

11th Transfer, 5th Area (Platanos) , 9th companion (Elder Palmer)

OK well this past week was interesting. Today was transfers and I ended up getting moved from Glew to Platanos. Elder Acuna will be training so that will be good for him. It was kind of unusual that I was only there for a transfer, but oh well the mission is that way. I am now going to an area called Platanos :) yes meaning "bananas" in spanish. It is right next to Quilmes which, if you remember was my first area where I was taken out during an emergency transfer. So when I got this call I got really excited because this means I will be able to go on exchanges with the zone leaders to my first area and maybe see Maria (a wonderful investigator who was going to be baptized) and some other families I didn't get to say good bye to, so ya I'm way excited. My new companion is Elder Palmer from South Jorden Utah. I've only been with him for about an hour or so but he seems like a really good elder. This is his second transfer so I'm really excited to start speaking and practicing my castellano again, yay. So I'm really excited about this transfer. I'll be letting you all know what its like in Platanos. I will miss Glew but thats OK. OHH ha! Funny story this past week, we were riding the bikes and all of a sudden my handle bars came off. Ha! it was absolutely perfect. I like looked at the handle bars then fell. O goodness, so ya it was actually pretty late and we needed to get back to the pinch quickly so I grabbed my broken bike and ran back to this members house and asked them to hold it for me until the next day. So they did and I started running. Oh my goodness I got so tired that my comp told me to hop on his bike and he would carry us both back to the pinch so I was sitting on the frame and we started going and immediately we fell down but finally we started cruisin. People just looked at us like we were so weird and I must admit it was pretty weird but I'd just smile at them and say hi and good evening as we laughed and grudged on in pain back to the pinch. So now I have a bruise on my rear thanks to the frame but o well, life goes on. Hope all is well at home.
love you all.

elder schupple

Recorded Christmas call home 2009