Road Rash

Hey Everyone!

So this past week has definitely been a crazy one to say in the least. In summary: I jumped in front of a bus to save an old guy on his bike from getting ran over. Scraped up my leg and arm pretty nice & have to keep ace bandages wrapped around them till they heal. Realized I can pull off the "broken Sister Missionary" look pretty well and can still accessorize around my bandages. The Elders have officially declared me as "The Newest Superhero".

Okay, okay, okay. That might have been the over-exaggerated version of the story that I told all the Elders. BUT there is still a lot of truth to the story! Well, actually it's "stories" since I may have combined 2 different stories that happened on Thursday and Friday...here's what really happened:

Thursday- July 31st, 2014 4:15 pm

Sis Cazares and I have 15 minutes before we were going to meet up with the YSA Sisters @ the Church Building. We decided to go and try one more Less-Active before we left. We park one block away and after some contemplation, decide to be law abiding citizens and cross at the designated Cross Walk instead of jay-walking to save time. We cross over, actually make it into the less-actives apartment complex, find out he's moved & have a super awkward conversation w/ his ex-wife & begin walking back towards our car via the designated cross walk that was a little bit further up the road. As we are walking and are crossing a side street before we make it to the cross walk, we hear a bicycle behind us and watch an older gentleman ride his bike up on to the sidewalk. All of a sudden we see that he had gone too far to the left and his back tire lands in the dirt. He over-corrects it and we watch him hit a bump and go flying over his handlebars and land in the street....on his head...we break into a run and throw our purses on the ground.

We see a large puddle of blood starting to form beneath his head and can see the large gash spilling the blood directly under his right eyebrow. I stood in between him and oncoming traffic to make sure no one got into the turning lane and ran him over. A guy driving past saw us running towards him and quickly pulled over and helped us aid the man. We helped him sit up and gave him a napkin to help stop the bleeding. Quite a few others stopped to make sure he was alright. But us and the 1st guy to stop helped walk the gentleman w/ his bike back to his apartment to drop off his bike, and then into the other guys car so he could drive him to Urgent Care. While we were waiting outside for them to drop off the bike we wrote a note to the kind driver on a mormon.org card and placed it on his dashboard. As they were getting into the car the guy who crashed looked at us and was like "Are you in some sort of club or something? Why do you have nametags?" and we were like "Oh! No, actually we are Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints!" Both of them looked super surprised at first and then guy who crashed was like, "Well, you were Angels behind me!" As we watched them drive away I felt the Spirit SO strongly and we knew that we were in the right place at exactly the right time. Talk about the best feeling EVER.

Friday-August 1st, 2014 6:57 am

WARNING: Preview of my road rashed leg!
Definitely looking worse a few days after...

As I was running down the street during my morning work out I just kept reflecting on that moment right after a good run where you stop to pace around and your mind and your body tells you, "Dang, I feel SO good right now!" We had 5 minutes left before we had to head back into our apartment to start getting ready for the day, so I decided to take one more lap down the parking lot and back before we went in. As I was running towards my "finish line" (a.k.a the super nasty dumpster we have to walk past everyday to get to our apartment) I decided the last 200 feet that I would sprint and finish my run off strong. Right as I make it to the dumpster my foot gets caught on the lip of a pot hole and next thing I know, I'm crashing towards the ground skidding across the gravel of our parking lot. As I'm laying there for a second, my companion looks up at me and says, "Did you fall?" She completely missed the whole thing and thought I was just resting after my run...I look at the damage and my right leg & arm were completely scraped up & bleeding. I limp back to the apartment and begin THE most painful process of cleaning the wounds w/ Hydrogen Peroxide to get all the gravel and dirt out. The Mission nurse is having me lather more Neosporen on my wounds than you would lather icing on a wedding cake. I then have to put these big pad things on and then wrap them secure w/ an ace bandage. This is supposed to help reduce the scaring so then my leg wont look like I have road rash for the longest time. It's been a bit painful, but it hasn't stopped me from doing the Lord's work! But I definitely understand better more of what our poor friend who crashed his bike yesterday is feeling...

So even if the stories were combined or separate, it was still a pretty crazy week! But to make it even crazier we got transfer calls this morning.....looks like for my last 2 transfers I am NOT going to be in Pacific Beach :( I was definitely not expecting it because my companion has to go back to the Mormon Battalion and the 2 of us whitewashed into the area. So either our ward will get whitewashed again or Sis Cazares will take it w/ her and it will become a Battalion area. So we'll see what happens!

This morning was also pretty rough because I had to drop off some of my FAVORITE Sisters at the Airport to head on home to their next adventures. I had to say goodbye to my lovely Mama (my trainer-Sis Sorensen). I can't believe her time is over & it FINALLY hit me that that will be me in 2 transfers from now. I can't believe how fast 18 months truly flies by-I never want this to end! But, I know that when October 28th comes around, that my time will be over as well and I will have to go back home. The wonderful thing about it is I NEVER HAVE TO STOP BEING A MISSIONARY! Even when I'm home and no longer wearing this name tag, I can still stand as a Disciple of Christ at all times, and in all things, and in all places. Sharing the "good news" of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has truly been the happiest time of my life. But I know that I can experience that pure joy even after my mission, as I continue to invite others to come unto Christ.

I'm excited to find out where my new area is and to know who my new companion will be! I know that this is the LORD'S WORK and that I will be exactly where He needs me to be. I am determined to make these last two transfers the best yet and to continue to see miracles happen every day!

I love you all!

xoxo Sister Morgan