I had head surgery in a third-world country!

Hola familia,

Well, yes this week has definitely been interesting.  Sorry that I have been keeping secrets from all of you (family included) but to catch you all up: for the past few months I have been having weird bumps growing on the back of my head around the base of my skull.  Now, these things keep getting bigger and aren’t going away so, finally, they decided to chop one off on Thursday.

Yup, that is right.  I got surgery in a third world country.  It was pretty traumatizing. 

It involved a whole bunch of little Guatemalan nurses and doctors talking to me in "tu form" and calling me by my first name.  Then, they forcefully separated me from my companion, tried to make me take off my garment (yeah, THAT WAS SO NOT HAPPENING), then they shaved my head and chopped a lump out of my skull.  This was the conversation between the two doctors during the operation (translated into English)

Doctor 1: "wow... This is a whole lot deeper than we thought!"

Doctor 2 “Yeah, this is really gross.  Ew! How gross!"

Doctor 1:  "wow, we still haven’t found it yet! This is REALLY going to hurt.  Will you pass me the saw?"

Gee, THANKS HOMIES.  I CAN UNDERSTAND YOU THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

But when all was said and done, they pulled this lump out of me, stitched me up and sent me on my way.  I had 4 lessons that day and 43 contacts.  There just isn’t time to rest in the mission :)

I feel like I have learned so much about my own potential being here as a sister missionary.  I have been pushed, molded, beaten down, and tried during my 6 months of service here.  But I have also been supported, loved and carried through the hard times.  I honestly don’t know what The Lord wants me to learn from all of this.  But, I am learning how to trust Him.  I know that He knows better than I do who I need to become.  He knows my potential.  He knows who I need to be.  He is guiding me to become that person. 

I pray that whatever this is doesn’t complicate or disqualify me from serving here in Guatemala.  I love this place.  I love being a missionary.  Thursday they will take out my stitches and give me a solid diagnosis.  I trust that Heavenly Father has this all under control.

I love you people.  Thanks for your prayers and your support.

NO, the twins didn’t come to church on Sunday... DARN YOU SATAN! But they will come next week.  I have complete faith that they will be baptized soon.

Lots of love!

Hermana Wise

[Editor’s note: We purposely didn’t send this email out until we heard the results of Sierra’s biopsy.  ALL IS WELL!  It is just some kind of weird infection.  She will take some medication and have a little battle scar on her head to remember her mission (and for awhile, a little patch of baldness where they shaved her head for the surgery!) She was pretty stressed that this would force her to be sent back to the states to finish her mission…or worse, would send her home.  She has come to really love Guatemala.  But everything is just fine.  We spoke briefly to her after her doctor’s appointment and everyone is breathing a big sigh of relief.  Her mission president’s wife was there to be “the Mom” figure through all this and we had a very nice conversation with her about all this afterwards.  Thanks for all your prayers in Sierra’s behalf!  The mission continues…]