Disclaimer** You will need tissues for this post if you have children.**
Hello Hello,
I don't quite know how to start this letter, but here it goes...This
past week has been one of the most exciting and frightening weeks of my life.
We had a lessons with a lot of wonderful people. We have met with people that
we haven't taught in a long time who are so excited to get back on track. We
have been through the most up and downs than I ever have been before. Here's a
little bit about our week:
On Tuesday we attended an all day meeting in Longview. That was
really interesting because it was my last big meeting as a missionary. It
really hasn't sunk in yet. It really seems like I just KNOW I'm getting
transferred, but President hasn't told me where yet, ya know? Anyways, the
meeting went wonderful. I got to see a lot of missionaries that I saw when they
first got into the mission field. It's weird to think that they have all been
out for a year now. I still feel like I have only been out for a year or so and
they are just fresh off of the plane. Apparently that's not true anymore.
Wednesday morning we got to go and do some service out at Brother
Thomas' ranch. Yes, this is the same ranch where I assisted in the birth of a
cow. Our task that morning was to ween the calves from their mothers. Sounds
pretty easy right? Well, let me tell you, it's definitely not as easy as it may
sound. We started off in the pasture. Brother Thomas said that he would drive
the tractor out there with some hay and the cows would follow him all the way
into the corral. Sure enough those stupid cows followed him into the corral.
So now it is our job to take them through all of these different gates and sort
them as we go. My job was to man the gate. Great. We had three guys going
around in the herd prodding the cows toward me. My job was simple. Let the big
ones go by and stop the little ones. Brother Thomas gave me this piece of water
line and said, "Okay, don't let any of the little calves go by you." I'm
thinking...umm...so you want me to stop a cow with a hose...got it. Don't ask
me why, but for some reason those cows listened to what I said when I was waving
the hose around in the air. No hose in the air= no movement of cows. Hose in
the air= cows run where you want them to. Okay...I got this. We had a ton of
fun helping Brother Thomas. The really funny thing is that he really did need
our help. We just felt like we were playing a game, sorting cows and what not,
but it meant a lot to Brother Thomas. I think that the hardest thing about
sorting all of those cattle, was trying not to step in the BIG piles of crap.
Little ones= you can still walk. Big ones= you sink.
Friday morning we went and got two of the marriage licenses taken care
of for our investigators. We got everything squared away and were so excited
for their marriages on Sunday. The other couple that needs to get married,
planned on getting married Tuesday the 24th, but there have been some recent
changes. That leads us to Saturday.
Saturday afternoon we were informed that our investigator and his
family were involved in a car accident. We were in a lesson when our Branch
President called and told us the news. He said that their vehicle had rolled
and they were all taken to the hospital. We rescheduled the rest of our
appointments for the day and went around trying to figure out which hospital
they had been taken to. We stopped by our good friend who told us that the car
had rolled twice and two children were thrown from the vehicle, and one of them
was their one month old baby. My heart sank. I had a million memories of these
children flash through my mind. We asked where they were, and our friend did
not know. We called the hospital in Idabel and found out that that is where
they had been taken. They told us that only 3 members of the family were listed
there. They wouldn't give us any information over the phone, so we rushed there
from Broken Bow. The whole way praying that the family would be alright. The
thought that two of the children were not listed with the other family members
made us extremely worried. We arrived at the hospital and were taken directly
to the ER by one of the sons in the family. Elder Sproul went to see the mother
while I went to check on one of the children. She was laid out on the
stretcher, still strapped in. I asked if she was alright and she wouldn't
respond. I asked if she was scared and her eyes welled up and she nodded her
head slightly. I promised her that everything was going to be okay. Deep down,
wondering if that was true. She was stable, no apparent broken bones or
anything, so I joined my companion across the curtain. The mother was in the
same circumstance. Her vitals were okay, though she seemed to be short of
breath. All she kept asking was, "Where's my baby?!" We went to check on dad.
Dad explained to us what had happened. We found out that there were only two
children involved in the accident. The young girl was the one whom I had just
seen and the other was the one month old. The baby had been life flighted to a
hospital in Louisiana. The Dad kept asking, "Is the baby okay?!" I didn't
have any answers. My heart felt as though it were going to burst. I felt every
pain in that man's eyes. Wondering if his child was going to be okay. His eyes
filled with tears as I told him that I did not know how the baby was. He
reached down into his pocket and pulled out a tiny white and blue sock. He
wiped his eyes with his baby's sock and then proceeded to pray. We got news
from the nurse that the little girl was going to be taken off of the stretcher
and cleared for release. About at that time we were giving blessings to both
the Father and Mother. Both were promised that their family would be safe and
heal quickly. It was a waiting game for about three hours. In that time we
found out that the Mother had a fracture in her neck and was going to be air
lifted to a hospital in Tulsa for surgery. The Father was going to be released
as soon as his CT scans came back clear. Meanwhile I was playing tic tac
toe with the little girl. Finally the Father was cleared and we received word
that the baby was in stable condition. We saw the Mother air lifted to Tulsa
and the Father released to go home with his little girl. Those were miracles in
and of themselves. Our day ended waiting to hear about the baby.
Sunday we were informed that the baby was okay, and was going to be
released today (Monday the 23rd). Wonderful news! On top of that we received a
phone call from the son in the family telling us that the Mother had already
been released from the hospital and was home. Miracles. I love this work. I
love the Lord. I love all of you.
-Elder McNinch
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