October 21, 2013

 So I had the TB test, they insert a bit of liquid into your arm and it makes a little bubble. I don't know what it is, but it makes a reaction if you've been exposed to TB. You wait 72 hours and then go back and check. When I went back, I had a sore on my arm that measured 12mm. Normal standards say that if it's bigger than 10mm, you've been exposed. The standards of the church are a conservative 5mm, just to be safe. This friday we are going to Talca for a chest x-ray to see if I have latent TB (since I don't have any symptoms). The 12 is just the measurement of the sore on my arm that will go away. It's actually still on my arm but it's fading away. If it turns out I have TB, it's latent because I don't have symptoms and i will need to take a medication for the next...6 months, I think, to control the TB. I think, but am not sure, that the medication will make the TB go away and I won't have to worry about it again. But we're not at that point yet so I'm not even going to worry about it.

At this point, we don't know if I have TB or not, just that I've been exposed. On the 26th, we're goint to have a mission fast for Hermana R. She has a test on the 28th to see if she still has TB and we're hoping the results will come back clean. 

So this was the craziest week of my life. So last Monday we were in Santiago right? Well we got back super late that night. The next day we got a call from our mission nurse confirming that we had to got back to Santiago for the test results. So we travelled to Talca for our district meeting as usual on Wednesday. After our district meeting, instead of going back to Conti, we took a bus to Rancagua. Travelling to and from Santiago is a bit pricey. We barely had enough money to get to Rancagua. We stopped by a grocery store called Jumbo. It's officially my favorite store in Chile becuase it has Dr. Pepper. I was the happiest little missionary when I saw it. I also bought an Arizona fruit cocktail that's watermelon flavored. (it's the same brand as Arizona Iced tea, but its not tea) It was DELICIOUS. I found some Watermelon flavored punch at the store today. You bet I bought it. the only sad thing is I have to wait until December to enjoy the real thing.

 

But i digress.

So we were in Jumbo looking at Cup Noodles for my companion when suddenly we found President W! Long story short, he bought our drinks and took us to the mission home. Chuta! The mission home is beautiful! And there was a piano. Needless to say, I played for the 2 hours that we were there. It's was wonderfully stress relieving.

 

Anyway--President W took us to the sisters' apartment that we were going to be staying with. We spent the night there and got up early to catch the train to Santiago. We did the same thing all over again...with the metro and the MTC and the temple. Except this time the temple store was open so I got to buy churchy things! 

 

When we got back to Rancagua, we stopped by the mission office to drop off our reembersements so we could have money for the rest of the month (DON'T WORRY, I HAVE PLENTY OF MONEY NOW). Hermana J, the nurse was in the office and she wanted to have a meeting with us to talk about TB and what the next steps were. Then Pres. W came. It was kinda funny, they were talking to us like we were all terrified, but to be honest I'm actually pretty chill about all of this. I know that the church will take care of me if I end up having TB. Did you know that Elder Russell M. Nelson is aware that there is TB in Chile? Around conference there were several emails that got passed around in the mission health office and Elder Nelson was included in those emails. Apparently he is the head of the mission health committe. So for the reason and many others, I'm not worried in the slightest.

Then we made the long journey back to Conti, getting back at 10 to midnight.

We didn't have very much time to work this week, but we managed to still have time to teach several lessons and even do some service! It ended up being a pretty successful week!

I hope you're all doing well! Don't worry too much about me, everything will be fine. Hopefully I'll have the results of the x-ray by next Monday, but I'm not sure. the following Monday for sure!

Love you all!

Hermana Hutchinson