This page was removed from the regular blog to respect the privacy of Elder Jimenez and others named in the letter.
no título bastaría para esta semana :) (Sept. 16, 2014)
Well! dear family of mine! in case you havent noticed.... life is insane! and this week has been no exeption, on the contrary! one of the CRAZIEST weeks of my life... i will not POSSIBLY be able to tell you everything that has happened through writing. im Still trying to get it all down in the journal... and im summarizing. so. bear with me through all the parts that dont make sense and all that i leave out. ok?
Yeah... so. monday and tuesday... normal days... mostly man... theres just too many details but we are gonna skip it all... starting on wednesday... Elder Jimenez got really depressed for nothing.... then somehow that depression turned in to anger. so yet again, he wasnt talking to me. nothing new. just a normal day in my life... we had appointments and visited people.
THURSDAY:
We woke up and we went to do our weekly planning session in the morning.. he wasnt talking to me which means i just did everything while he picked at his fingernails or did any other thing to distract himself while i just uselessly talked the plans out loud so that he would at least know what we were planning throughout the week. still, basically normal. ive done that like 4 times now. SO, we finished that. i was being very patient and i didnt say anything to him about anything bad... then we had to go really fast to help one of the sisters in the ward with something in her house, we were there for a bit and then we went back to the pension (apartment) to study a bit before lunchtime... now... he went straight upstairs and wouldnt talk to me. so i studied. we went to lunch got back and i was under orders to call Elder Olsen (mental health advisor) if we had problems, so i asked him if we could talk about it and he told me no, so i told him i was gonna call elder Olsen. (not a threat just letting him know) and he just turned over and covered his head... so i called. Elder Olsen was really busy so he couldnt talk to us right then and he siad i will call you back in a half hour. sounds good. i told him it was time to start comp study and he said he wasnt going to do it. so i went down and started studying... and i heard a loud noise so i went back up to check on him... and he was packing his bags... okkkkkk... i asked "are you going home?"
"no"
, ok... "then why are you packing?"
"because im leaving",
"but not home?"
"no"
"then where are you gonna go?"
"i dont care but im leaving"
"well youre gonna have to talk to president"
"no, im not talking to you, or Elder Olsen, or President, im just leaving"
"elder, you cant leave without talking to president"
"you cant make me do anything"
"Elder, i cant let you leave without you talking to president"
"You cant stop me"
"I have to stop you, you cant leave me without talking to president. or at least wait until Elder Olsen calls"
"im leaving wether you like it or not, i wont talk to him"
This is where i made a mistake... like they say, hindsight is 20 20... so i went downstairs and used to our advantage our broken door, and i locked it from the outside so that he couldnt get out. I should have called president, but the thought never crossed my mind. So then i went back in and said a prayer to try and help my comp... went back upstairs and... he was lying on his bed crying. i just let him know i was ther and sat next to him. then Elder Olsen called and told me to just leave him there, see if he got better, and if he didnt, call president. So he opened up after a bit and started talking, about a million things, first how afraid he was... then about how he was abandoned as a child... then about how angry he was... then about how he just couldnt escape his anger... so yeah interesting... i just listened to him and then when he got done... there was silence for a few minutes and i said. "im sorry your life is hard right now Elder, but i know that you can do it, You are strong, if you need any helpp, im here for you.... nothing, just silence, then i said, but right now, we have to leave to go preach the gospel. so we went downstairs and went to leave and he got angry again, he didnt want to pray because he felt bad. and i said that we had to pray, and he wouldnt so he said he was leaving and tried to leave. luckily... the door was locked and he couldnt. so! at that point i did call the president, and he cut my call while it was ringing... ok. so he went upstairs again and i started praying... then a few minutes later President called. i talked to him, we had a long conversation... and he wanted to talk to Elder jimenez, he said no, and baracaided the door, so president threatened him that he would send him home right there. then after like 5 seconds while the president was instructiong me to shove the door with all of my strenght he opened, i slid the phone through the gap and he closed it again. talked to president, and bam, he was better, then president talked to me and said that if i had more problems with him that i needed to call him right away, I told him i thought that Elder Jimenez was going to be mad at me as we were leaving the pension and he said that if he was, i had to call him immediately. so we were leaving... and he was mad... and i told him what i was going to have to do and that i didnt want to do it. and he told me that i was the one with the problem, he just wanted to leave... ok so i didnt want to call president, i knew that would be sending him home immediately, and i decided to give him to the eend of the block... hoping that something would change... so i unlocked the door. now, the door, if you remember, only locks from the outside... so i had to jump the wall, (thats not quite as tall as me) to unlock. so i got over, and as i let myself down on the otherside... i landed wrong... my knee wobbled, popped and hurt.... ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bad. so i opened the door and he shoved past me to get out, i told him not to leave and hobbled inside. i did a few self tests and it hurt and popped whenever i moved it... then i started balling. i thought i was coming home (disclaimer: im not, im ok) i called the zone leaders to come give me a blessing anddd he came back in. and sat in front of me as i cried for a while... then asked me what was wrong, i told him it was my knee... he sat there for a bit and then after a few minutes started to feel bad... i got a blessing. raised it, iced it, President called to see how we were and i told him my knee was hurt and he was very unhappy, then we waited for a bit, talked to the mission doctor, he gave me a few instructions...and lots of other stuff and ended the night with one of the zone leaders on an exchange, then next day i was with the district leader on a nother exchange, the mission doctor luckily was passing through copiapó so he came to see me, he gave the verdict. its all good. its hurt, but there is no real damage to ligaments or miniscus or anything. a week or 2 of rest, take it eas for another week or so, and were done. then saturday and sunday i was with Elder Jimenez again in the pension... during that time he began to tell me what had been happening and he told me that he had been manipulating me and using me from the very start, playing games with me to get what he wanted... wow.
Then this monday (yesterday) we had a conference with the president for the whole city. it was a good conference, and when it was over we talked to president. he talked to him then talked to me, to explain to me that Elder Jimenez had to go home, that it was better that he left, solved his problems and came back, that i had done everything that i could and that it wasnt my fault. so i felt a little better about it, then he and the assistents came back with us to the pension, i packed a few things and left to go stay with the zone leaders (still limping hard and wearing my brace) and Elder Jim,enez finsished packing... he left this morning with President. My new comp gets here tonight.
So! my life has been CRAZY this week, so much stuff. dont worry about my knee, it will be fine, i will take it nice and easy and do lots of leg exercises and ice it and take lots of care of it... it think that was good in english... so dont worry about that.
Also, i have been learning a TON, every single day! so basically, that was a crazy time, but it made me a way better person i feel like, and i think that we are ok with Elder Jimenez too, i hope so. i still love him, i hope that he doesnt hate me. we got really close through all of this. But i am excited to have a new comp, i think we are gonna tear it up in this sector.. its a sweet sector. there is SO MUCH potential here... we have people to help us find, and teach and we have people that have been prepared and are preparing themselves to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful that through this i have been able to come to know Christ much MUCH more. i now more fully realize that he carries us through our hard times as we learn how to put our trust in him and do what he wants. im am so grateful for his help. He is there :)
I love you all tons! have a great week! im doing just fine, so dont you worry about me :) better than before. love ya!
Elder Gold
We continue to pray for Elder Jimenez as he recovers and prepares to return to the field.
