Letter - July 28, 2009

Hey there it was great to hear from you. I am amazed that mom is playing so much golf. That is a miracle. I guess our family has been blessed while i have been on my mission. Haha. I love you mom. Well not a whole lot has happened since the last email. We have probably done about 4 or 5 hours of work since i last emailed. I guess i should explain. So on Tuesday the 15th i woke up and my foot hurt. It was kind of painful to walk on but i kept walking on it and i was going to see if it would go away at all. It didn't and it stayed there for a week. I couldn't run on it at all and it was very very painful to walk on. I didn't talk to Sister Ogden until transfers which were last wednesday and she told me to see how it was for the next couple days and then call her and talk to her more about it. So Friday morning i was walking on it and it hurt more than usual and so i went home and called Sister Ogden and she told me to go get it checked to see if i had an infection. I definately knew it wasn't an infection. My foot was swollen pretty bad and it hurt to do anything. So we went to the hospital Friday afternoon and i ended up walking out of the hospital on crutches and with a cast on my foot. They took an x-ray of my foot and they found out that i had a hairline fracture in my foot. I was laughing the whole time the doctor was explaining it to me and telling me what i would have to do. I couldn't believe that they were going to put me in a cast. So yeah now i am on crutches and i have to stay in the flat pretty much all day and can only go to set appointments. I AM BORED OUT OF MY MIND!!!! But after the hospital experience on Friday we had to go see a lady who wanted to be baptized and we taught her the law of chastity and we told her that either she or her boyfriend needed to move out. It took about an hour for me to get there and it started to rain and i can't get my cast wet so we knock on this random door and this lady answers and we ask her if we can come in for a second to get out of the rain and she said that she didn't want to talk about religion or anything and she started to shut the door. Then i said i need to cover my cast because my foot is broken and i can't get it wet. We won't say a word about our church. Then she let us in. But i am so sick of crutches. It is no fun. So that is about all that has happened this week. Nothing too exciting missionary work related. Although we did manage to do some tracting yesterday. We had a member come pick us up and then we went to the street we were going to tract and i sat on a chair on the sidewalk while Elder Bedke went and knocked doors for 2 hours. It started to rain. Pouring rain and there i was sitting on a chair with an umbrella. It was crazy. I keep thinking to myself that it is a dream but then i wake up and i still have a cast on my foot. We are getting a wheelchair though that we can push around so that will be nice. An old lady in the ward called up the red cross and got us a wheelchair. I told you that i would get old ladies to do things for me. Haha. Well i love you all and i hope that you have a great week. We won't be doing much again but hopefully we can still find people with the little amount of time we have. I know that the Lord will provide a way. I love the mission and i love the gospel. I know that Jesus Christ lives. O that reminds me of a story that happened on Sunday. We had a dinner appointment on Sunday after church. We went to the house and the member wasn't there yet but her husband was. He used to be a member but he had his name taken off the records of the church about 5 years ago. So we go in and we start talking to him. Wow what a guy. He told us about all his beliefs and how there were 18 aliens in America. Most of them were good ones but some of them were bad but they got rid of them. Also he said that he has been reincarnated 3 times and the first time he died he just was laying there and he died. The 2nd time he died he was riding an elephant and he hit a branch of a tree and fell off and was trampled to death. I asked him how he died the 2nd time and as soon as he said he had fallen off of an elephant me and Elder Bedke just busted up laughing. We couldn't help it. It was crazy. This guy was nuts. Then he said that he has seen Jesus twice. I was like "Really!? What does he look like?" So we pull out a restoration leaflet and show him a picture and he said he looked similar to the picture but he has jet black hair. We told him that he was pretty special then because all of these things have happened to him and we haven't had anything happen to us. It has just been a crazy week. But i love all of you and the gospel is true. I love it so much. You are the best family in the world. I hope to hear from you all soon.

Love Elder Sam Rudd