Monday morning the 9th of December, just as Bob was finishing the letter from last week. Sister Lochhead called saying that her son, an orthopedic surgeon, was on line from Washington State and that he wanted to do an evaluation on Sister Preece over Skype. We made the connection and he had her do a few things. His decision was that she needed an x-ray and an MRI to determine what was really going on. If it were a simple bruise, she should be feeling better by now. Sister Lochhead called around to set up an MRI in Donetsk, but the machine is broken and there is a back log of patients. Sister Preece can’t be seen until the 28th or later. Sister Lochhead suggested we go home to have it evaluated and repaired. She even called Doctor Christensen, the area doctor from the church, who said he would approve a medical release to get this done. Elder and Sister Preece discussed this at some length and agreed with the doctors and Sister Lochhead. We need to be headed home. We got Bonni on Skype to see if there was still room in the house for us. There is.
While travel was arranging tickets, it was decided by President Lochhead that we should stay for the couple’s conference on Thursday and Friday. We prepared for and held a very good Family Home Evening on Monday evening. This meeting had the best attendance ever, some of the branch members came to fill out the group. We had a lesson on Christmas and the family of Jesus and the importance of families. The challenge was to collect all the information you could find about your family before Christmas.
Christmas here is a bit of a mix. There are those of us – a great minority - who think Christmas should be celebrated on December 25th. Many do not celebrate Christmas at all, thinking New Year’s and New Year’s Eve is quite enough. Then there is a fairly large group who celebrate on the 7th of January. When we were told this, the definite end of the data collection effort was a bit uncertain, but there it is.
We packed most of the day on Tuesday. There is no scale to weigh our bags, so we hope they are all right. We know the carry-ons are supposed to weigh less. There are a lot of presents, but we are leaving the cooking gear and measuring cups and so on. Hopefully, that will turn out right. In the evening, there was an investigator lesson at our apartment. It went well. It begins to be hard to find things. We decided, a bit late to pack needed material for the couple’s conference in separate bags.
Wednesday was our last day to pack and clean the apartment for final inspection. Alice is a bit under the weather, but she is doing all she can to help. Bob thinks she is doing too much. He dusts, mops, cleans the corners and she heads the project and is the final inspector. We end by meeting a pair of elders, who need a small break from being out in the cold all day. They are packing too. Four of our six will be transferred on Thursday. They bring some more candy for us to take home.
On Thursday, it is more important to get the new missionaries from the airport and the transferring elders and sisters from all over the mission than to get us moved early, so there is more time to clean and make sure everything is ok. Bob uses super glue to repair things that were broken before we moved in. Alice polishes all the faucets so there is no water stain. With the water as hard as it is, there are always water spots of one sort or another. There are none by the time she was are finished.
The mission driver arrives at 2:00 to take us to Donetsk. And everything is ready. About half is going to the mission office supply room. All the dishes, all the pots and pans, the hot water pot and the iron all go there. The pillows, the blankets, the food we couldn’t give away, and the cleaning supplies go there too. The office table and four chairs, the pads and report books are added to the pile. Wow! It is a lot. Then there are the six bags we are taking home. Four are going to be checked and two are for living out of Thursdayand Friday, and then become carry-ons for Saturday. We find out that the mission driver has accepted an assignment from the landlord to be the final inspector. He does a 10 minute video of the place with emphasis on things that were broken before, or are normally areas of problem. There are no problems.
Since we are ready, it takes only about ½ hour to get everything down four floors and loaded into the mission van. The Van is full with just what one couple has for themselves and their apartment. We are on our way to the couple’s conference. We drop the material at the mission office, our bags at the hotel and arrive, a bit tried, but happy at the mission home for a great dinner and an evening full of ‘getting to know you’ games. All the couples in the mission are there. This is one of the fun times we enjoy as couples. The president talks about families and our families. He gives a quick outline of the status of the mission and allows the sisters to check on where all their favorite elders are. Aren’t they all favorite elders? Seems they are. By the time the evening ends, the mission driver has been sent home and the president, as the only other driver in the mission, takes the out of town couples to the hotel and the in town couples to their places. We will meet early tomorrow for more conference.
We skip the free breakfast at the hotel and join everyone for breakfast and more visiting at the mission home. Visiting turns into prepared reports by the couples and the mission president and his wife. It is a spiritual experience to hear of the daily miracles the Lord is pouring down on this mission. It seems that hastening the work is going on not only on earth, but on the other side of the veil as well. We have a light lunch and go to the World War II memorial. This is a combination of those who were in the military and those who were killed as the front lines and purposes of Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Russia were carried out in Eastern Ukraine. The battle lines crossed here three times. There were resistance forces fighting all the time. There were more civilian casualties than military. There were millions of military. The memorial does a good job of explaining the situation here. We can be very happy that other than the civil war, there have been no wars fought on the American continents.
The afternoon is full of continued reports and experiences. We are convinced that our being here is not happenstance. This is where the Lord wants our skills and abilities.
As a special cultural event, we have tickets to the opera Aida for the evening. After that we said good bye to all and got in by11:30 for the night.
The president has already explained that we have tickets for Moscow bright and early in the morning. The plane leaves at5:05am. (Oh, it’s winter – forget the bright part.) We have to leave the hotel by 3:15 to get to the airport by 4:00, so after final packing, we are in bed by 12:30. The plan is to catch up on lost sleep on the plane flights. That doesn’t happen. It is to Moscow. Since we have a long layover, Aeroflot puts us in the lounge for the waiting time. The flight to Los Angeles leaves at 10:30. We arrive at 3:00pm (Remember you have to add nine hours due to time zone changes). We meet two missionaries from Samoa on their way to the MTC on Tuesday. They have places to stay for the weekend. There is a ticket hassle. It is solved. The last flight is only 90 minutes and we arrive in Salt Lake by9:30pm of the same day we left Donetsk. And bed time here? No, not right away. Everyone wants to hear all the details. Alice is hurting since it has been a long day with the flight over the pole taking 12 ½ hours. WE ARE HOME.
Sunday seemed like a dream to two jet lagged missionaries. There were so many family members who stopped by to say hi. We love them all and missed them all for over a month. We try to convince them to spend more time with us. We visited with the stake president so he would know we are home. This is officially a medical release. We are assured that as soon as we can get Alice better and have an MD sign-off the missionary department and the Donetsk mission both want us back to finish our mission. That is what we most wanted to hear.
Monday is medical day. We get Alice to Insta-care since it is covered under our still existing insurance. Doctor Stanley was doing his turn in Instacare. He is the one who signed Bob off to go on the mission to begin with. He is surprised to see us. He listens to our history, and the diagnosis of the three doctors how have seen us and does exactly what each of them wanted to do and couldn’t – he sends us to get an x-ray. Looking at the picture it is not difficult to see the problem. Alice’s shoulder is dislocated and has been for four weeks. The radiologist report confirms the obvious and we are scheduled for an MRI early Tuesday morning with a visit to the surgical suite at McKay-Dee hospital to get it put back where it belongs later in the week. Dr. Stanley says it will probably be six to 12 weeks of therapy and strengthening before she is fully ready to return to Ukraine.
By then, our Russian will be better; we will pack the right stuff and be ready to serve the remainder of our mission.
Sorry, there are no notes for this week. Too much has been going on. We will keep in touch as soon as we get e-mail hooked up and a phone. We are anxious to start the rehabilitation.
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