Many of you have asked us about Kenny's health. Thank you for your love and concern!
Before Kenny left on his mission on July 20th of last year, he was suffering with sporadic knee pain that was aggravated by athletic activity (not that it slowed him down or stopped him from participating in sports!). He had been to doctors before his mission, but initial x-rays and blood work came back clean, not showing any problems that concerned the doctors. After arriving in North Carolina, the pain continued in his knees as well as his feet, especially after long days of tracting. By December, the pain had spread from his knees to include pain in his lower back. By February, the pain had continued to spread to his elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles. He has been to see many doctors, and has had additional x-rays and MRIs taken, none of which has shown the cause of concern. He has had more extensive blood work taken, which has consistently come back negative for any rheumatic disorder, as well as for any known genetic markers for other auto-immune diseases, such as ankylosing spondylitis. The only thing his blood shows is slightly elevated cholesterol (which he blames on too much southern BBQ and hush puppies!). Though the pain has grown to be intense and even keeps him from sleeping through the night, it has not kept him from working hard and being an effective missionary. However, two weeks ago, the mission doctor informed Kenny that they have tried every test that they can think of, and if he does not improve "in the next two to three weeks" (about the first of August), he will recommend that Kenny come home from his mission early to recover.
Kenny does not want to come home. His previous mission president (who returned home to Utah on July 1st) gave him a blessing of healing, including the comforting words "you will be able to complete your mission." However, the deadline proposed by the mission doctor is fast approaching, and Kenny is feeling worse, not better (the stress associated with the idea of being sent home seems to aggravate the condition). Kenny is praying for healing, and trying to exercise faith to receive the blessing.
We welcome your prayers in Kenny's behalf. In addition, our family will be holding a special family fast for him this Sunday, July 29th. If you want to participate in the fast, we would be so grateful. We hope that he will be healed by the Lord; but if not, we hope he will at least gain an understanding of what he should be learning as well as how to take care of his body at this time.
It is a great thing to be a member of a loving, supportive family! Thanks again for your concern,
Steve & Lynn
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Week 51: Yep... Over the hump. :(
Dear family and friends,
Well... I never thought this would happen. Now I'm officially old. July 20, 2012 was three days ago (in case you didn't know), and that means that I have been a missionary for more than an entire year. Wow! I've gained a lot of fun, exciting, happy, scary, sad, crazy, and amazing experiences so far and I know the future has great things in store. I still feel so inadequate and inexperienced but I know that it's going to be a great next year.
I don't have much time so this is going to be short and sweet.
As far as the work goes, it's been really interesting. Our most solid investigator, John, dropped us, and he dropped us hard. He told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that he needs to be baptized and that the priesthood is restored and all of that. He knows Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's Church. But he said he can't get baptized because of some other obligations. It crushed us. After that, our teaching pool kind of blew up in our faces. In about a week we went from having 14 or so investigators to having 5. And 4 of those 5 are close to getting dropped.
On the bright side of things, this gives us way more time to find more people to teach and re-evaluate what's been going on in our area. It's like a new start that is exciting and refreshing and we know there's a lot of potential. We found a new investigator this last week and, even though we're still not too sure how interested Julia is, we are seeing things going in the right direction, and we're really happy about that. We know the Lord is blessing us as we seek out His help. Also, Destiny is on track for baptism on 4 Aug and her family is excited for her and we think they will be more serious about taking the lessons once she sets the example. (Plus, they're taking us out to Golden Corral tonight. I can't wait to get a hold of their chocolate "wonderfall". Haha)
We had some fun experiences, some more interesting than others. We had a couple doors slammed in our faces, which is actually pretty rare. And they happened on the same day! Oddly enough I get a kick out of it when that happens. I'd obviously rather have them let us in and be willing to learn, but it's pretty humorous how that happens. Also, we've killed three massive brown spiders throughout the week, one of which was hiding in the corner on the wall about 4 inches away from Elder Simmons pillow at 10:30 the other night. Fun stuff. Another funny instance was the end of our first lesson with Julia, our new investigator. She's a really nice but very confident and rambunctious middle-aged lady. We ended with a prayer. She reached out to hold hands so the four of us (her, us, and one of the young men who came with us) held hands in a circle while she prayed a very unique yet kind prayer. She paused as she began to close the prayer, and I thought the next word out of her mouth would have been "amen", but instead I heard "I just love you boys!" I looked up and saw her inches away from me in just enough time to be ready for her to give me a big hug! Haha that's not something we're used to out here. We hug the other missionaries all the time but I haven't hugged or been hugged by a woman in over a year. Haha good times. I'm sure I've got quite a good amount of other stories I could share but I gotta run!
I know that the fulness of the gospel has been restored and that the church of Jesus Christ is founded upon Prophets, Seers, and Revelators (Ephesians 2:19-22). I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Christ lives and loves us. His Atonement is perfect, saving, and eternal.
With love,
Elder Schank
Well... I never thought this would happen. Now I'm officially old. July 20, 2012 was three days ago (in case you didn't know), and that means that I have been a missionary for more than an entire year. Wow! I've gained a lot of fun, exciting, happy, scary, sad, crazy, and amazing experiences so far and I know the future has great things in store. I still feel so inadequate and inexperienced but I know that it's going to be a great next year.
I don't have much time so this is going to be short and sweet.
As far as the work goes, it's been really interesting. Our most solid investigator, John, dropped us, and he dropped us hard. He told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that he needs to be baptized and that the priesthood is restored and all of that. He knows Joseph Smith was a Prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's Church. But he said he can't get baptized because of some other obligations. It crushed us. After that, our teaching pool kind of blew up in our faces. In about a week we went from having 14 or so investigators to having 5. And 4 of those 5 are close to getting dropped.
On the bright side of things, this gives us way more time to find more people to teach and re-evaluate what's been going on in our area. It's like a new start that is exciting and refreshing and we know there's a lot of potential. We found a new investigator this last week and, even though we're still not too sure how interested Julia is, we are seeing things going in the right direction, and we're really happy about that. We know the Lord is blessing us as we seek out His help. Also, Destiny is on track for baptism on 4 Aug and her family is excited for her and we think they will be more serious about taking the lessons once she sets the example. (Plus, they're taking us out to Golden Corral tonight. I can't wait to get a hold of their chocolate "wonderfall". Haha)
We had some fun experiences, some more interesting than others. We had a couple doors slammed in our faces, which is actually pretty rare. And they happened on the same day! Oddly enough I get a kick out of it when that happens. I'd obviously rather have them let us in and be willing to learn, but it's pretty humorous how that happens. Also, we've killed three massive brown spiders throughout the week, one of which was hiding in the corner on the wall about 4 inches away from Elder Simmons pillow at 10:30 the other night. Fun stuff. Another funny instance was the end of our first lesson with Julia, our new investigator. She's a really nice but very confident and rambunctious middle-aged lady. We ended with a prayer. She reached out to hold hands so the four of us (her, us, and one of the young men who came with us) held hands in a circle while she prayed a very unique yet kind prayer. She paused as she began to close the prayer, and I thought the next word out of her mouth would have been "amen", but instead I heard "I just love you boys!" I looked up and saw her inches away from me in just enough time to be ready for her to give me a big hug! Haha that's not something we're used to out here. We hug the other missionaries all the time but I haven't hugged or been hugged by a woman in over a year. Haha good times. I'm sure I've got quite a good amount of other stories I could share but I gotta run!
I know that the fulness of the gospel has been restored and that the church of Jesus Christ is founded upon Prophets, Seers, and Revelators (Ephesians 2:19-22). I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Christ lives and loves us. His Atonement is perfect, saving, and eternal.
With love,
Elder Schank
Monday, July 9, 2012
Week 49
Most of Kenny's letter this week was answering family questions. Below is some news on his health that he asked us to pass on. Thanks for your continued love, support and prayers!
Lynn
Transfers are on Tuesday, but I'm going to be staying here in Hope Mills. These will probably be my last 6 weeks here, and then I'll probably be off to a new area. Elder Simmons and I are really happy we're staying together for one more transfer.
Alright, I know you're anxious to hear about my health, so naturally I saved it for last. The blood tests came back, and showed nothing was abnormal. (Except my cholesterol is just a hair high... daggone hushpuppies. But even that isn't a logical factor.) The internist says he knows of nothing else to do, but he does know that it's not a rheumatic disease or disorder. I talked again with Dr. Smalley, the area medical advisor for the mission (he's an orthopedic surgeon by practice), and he reaffirmed that the internist was correct. ... I'm kind of just ranting so I'll cut to the chase. Basically if things don't start improving in the next three weeks... I'm coming home. Dr. Smalley says that the Lord doesn't want my mission to mess up my health for the rest of my life. Since it's just getting worse, he says that I will need to try to take care of it in Utah. So these three weeks are essentially what determines if I'm staying. Thank you for fasting for me... please keep me in your prayers. I'm doing the best I can to let the muscles in my back relax, and Elder Simmons is going to be helping me, but I have to admit I'm a little skeptical about it working. By myself, that is. I know that the Lord's will will be done. I don't really know what He would want me to do more than be a full-time missionary right now, but I have definitely learned through my mission that He works in some super mysterious ways. I'm going to be praying and trying hard to have faith and doing my very best to heal up, but with the attitude "Thy will be done." Unlike the last time I was worried I might go home (when Pres. Cotterell gave me that priesthood blessing), I feel comforted and at peace. I hope I get to serve longer, but I am proud to say I don't have any regrets... except I could be better at writing in my journal. I'm working on it.
Spiritual thought for the day: Moroni 7:33.
"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."
I know that that is true.
Elder Schank
Lynn
Transfers are on Tuesday, but I'm going to be staying here in Hope Mills. These will probably be my last 6 weeks here, and then I'll probably be off to a new area. Elder Simmons and I are really happy we're staying together for one more transfer.
Alright, I know you're anxious to hear about my health, so naturally I saved it for last. The blood tests came back, and showed nothing was abnormal. (Except my cholesterol is just a hair high... daggone hushpuppies. But even that isn't a logical factor.) The internist says he knows of nothing else to do, but he does know that it's not a rheumatic disease or disorder. I talked again with Dr. Smalley, the area medical advisor for the mission (he's an orthopedic surgeon by practice), and he reaffirmed that the internist was correct. ... I'm kind of just ranting so I'll cut to the chase. Basically if things don't start improving in the next three weeks... I'm coming home. Dr. Smalley says that the Lord doesn't want my mission to mess up my health for the rest of my life. Since it's just getting worse, he says that I will need to try to take care of it in Utah. So these three weeks are essentially what determines if I'm staying. Thank you for fasting for me... please keep me in your prayers. I'm doing the best I can to let the muscles in my back relax, and Elder Simmons is going to be helping me, but I have to admit I'm a little skeptical about it working. By myself, that is. I know that the Lord's will will be done. I don't really know what He would want me to do more than be a full-time missionary right now, but I have definitely learned through my mission that He works in some super mysterious ways. I'm going to be praying and trying hard to have faith and doing my very best to heal up, but with the attitude "Thy will be done." Unlike the last time I was worried I might go home (when Pres. Cotterell gave me that priesthood blessing), I feel comforted and at peace. I hope I get to serve longer, but I am proud to say I don't have any regrets... except I could be better at writing in my journal. I'm working on it.
Spiritual thought for the day: Moroni 7:33.
"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."
I know that that is true.
Elder Schank
Monday, July 2, 2012
Week 48: Welcome, President Bernhisel
Dear family and friends,
It's been a hot one here in North Carolina. Over the weekend it hit
114 degrees! No joke. And that's not even taking the humidity into
consideration. The overall heat index was probably around 120. It was
blistering all week until Sunday. The heavens opened and raindrops the size of
paintballs fell hard for a few hours while we were in church. Actually, during
the last hour, the church lost power for a few minutes and after it came back
on the lights would flicker every once in a while. Mass chaos ensued and
primary children were screaming and running through the halls into doors,
walls, and each other. Our assistant ward mission leader was in the bathroom at
the time and it was pretty funny. Luckily, the temperature dropped from above
110 to the mid 70s during the rainstorm, but it seems that the temperature drop
didn't last very long, seeing as it's really hot right now, less than 24 hours
later. Over the weekend there were also a lot of winds that took out a few
small trees, but nothing too serious here. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that
our air conditioning unit under our house doesn't work when the heat gets much
higher than 100 degrees out... which is exactly when we need it to work. We
called the member who owns the lease and he crawled under the house to try to
figure it out and also noticed that the insulation under the floor was missing.
So that answers the question why we've been sweating during our prayers at
10:30 at night. And all this time we thought we were just praying really
intensely.
No news to report on my back/joints. I still haven't gotten any news
from the doctor as far as what the last blood test showed. Hopefully I'll hear
from him today.
We did a lot of teaching today... since Elder Simmons showed up I
haven't taught so much in my whole mission! It seems like when I was with Elder
Farr we worked hard to find a lot of people to teach, and now with that
preparation taken care of we have been able to teach a lot of people.
We're still finding 2-4 new people on a weekly basis, too, so that's good. But
there's not really a whole lot of new stuff going on with our investigators.
John is doing great. He mentioned in Sunday School class that he
knows the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's true church and
that the Book of Mormon has helped him through his conversion. He proudly
announced in priesthood meeting opening exercises that he is going to get
baptized on the 21st and that he's living the Word of Wisdom. It's been amazing
to see how all of his questions are being answered by the Spirit through us. In
our last lesson with him, at least three times we directed him to some
scriptures and with each one he had a "Eureka" moment in answer to
some questions he's had for a long time. It was so great getting to watch his
face as the Book of Mormon answered the years-old questions that have been pent
up inside his mind.
Things with Robin are still going good. She is getting interviewed
for baptism by our new mission president on Thursday.
Speaking of him, we had the opportunity of meeting President and
Sister Bernhisel the day after they arrived at our zone leader council meeting.
They are great. You can tell they don't have a few years of experience under
their belts quite yet, but it's very apparent that the Lord is with them. He
seems pretty determined to help me recover medically because he is a doctor by
profession; although, he is an OB-GYN (not too sure he'll be able to help me
out that much, then).
So... yeah. That's pretty much the big news. I'm trying to think...
oh yeah! We had this referral from a Filipino member. Her friend invited us to
a dinner. When we showed up we realized we were the only people who weren't
either Filipino or related to one. It was pretty fun. They taught us a few
Tagalog words and were impressed with my pronunciation (it uses the same kind
of vowel sounds as Korean, it seems like, so I learned them from Dad). Haha...
So "como sta bo" means "Hello, how are you?" and
"Salamat bo" means "thank you"! One of our members who
served in the Phillippines has been teaching his son (who can't even speak
English) yet a few words in Tagalog, so I also picked up "mata"
("eye"). I forgot how to say "nose" and "mouth"
already.
Well, I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!
With love,
Elder Schank
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