I know this letter is a day late but
our new mission President had his First Zone Conference yesterday and it was
with our Zone and the two Des Moines Zones so.... Our P-day got moved.
Now to the real letter.
What a week.... this one has been a
real emotional roller coaster. We were out of town every day except half of
Wednesday and Saturday, and Sunday so no real work got done we had like 3
lessons set up with Liz, including a meal with our Branch Mission Leader (Blake
White), She had major Migraines all week long and canceled on us with
everything including Sacrament Meeting.
The high point of the week was
seeing our new mission president. He is AMAZING!!! He specialized in Remote
Sensing (analyzing Satellite images and GPS stuff) he has like 3 different
TEXT BOOKS to his name and has taught college for over 30 years, we
totally talked about Remote Sensing together during our lunch break. He is a
super spiritual guy and has a Great heart that we have all seen now, I will
explain more about how we know this in a moment. He has 3 or 4 kids and 14
grandkids and all are active in the church.
Now for the low point of the week.
=( Last Saturday we were at our branch Mission leader’s house for
coordination and dinner. At the end of it we got a call from our DL they had
just finished a WONDERFUL service project of helping a member cut his hay after
he had gotten really sick and it absolutely had to be done on Saturday. They
had had a Blast running the swather and were traveling home now. They called us
all excited and worked up, we were just talking back and forth with the
Co-driver E. Brewer and E. Dutson was listening via Blue tooth in the Car.
At the end of our call we were just
finishing it up and saying goodbye. when E. Dutson said "What THE???"
Then the phone hung up, he is a funny person and we took it as a joke. At 10:30
that night we got a text from our ZL to our entire Zone " EMERGENCY
PRAYER! E Dutson and E Brewer were in an accident tonight. E Brewer is in the
hospital in Chariton and E Dutson is being life flighted to Des Moines. Please keep them in your prayers!"
They didn't stop in time for a stop
sign fully and a Dodge truck hit them in the front right quarter of their Ford
Fusion. E Brewer was just lightly bruised and he even
called our Vehicle coordinator while the paramedics were working on him and
told him what happened. But E Dutson's head stopped moving because of the
door being pushed up against him and the air bag, his brain didn't stop moving
and he got 5 or 6 bruises on his brain that were decent size, luckily they
haven't swollen and that is a wonderful miracle.
Our presidents first conversation
with our vehicle coordinator started like this "Hello Elder Simmons it is
good to finally hear from you" " President nice to hear your voice
but we have a problem" President didn't sleep for the next 36 hours, he is
63 years old and he just sat next to an Elder he had never met and held his
hand and talked to him for almost 6 hours straight without him saying a word. This
man is a walking spiritual GIANT of a man, I love him with all of my heart for
what he has already done for our mission. I will follow him where ever he takes
this mission.
Needless to say Zone Conference
yesterday was an emotional time for all of us as the APs and Sister Jensen told
us all of this. Nearly every face had a tear in it at the end.
After Zone conference our Zone was
allowed to go to the Hospital and see Elder Dutson. He is progressing. On Sunday all he could do was squeeze a hand
on command and respond to pain-- that is part of his therapy. Yesterday he was
still only subconscious and only partially aware of his surroundings. But
he did have a thumb war with one of the Elders and he tried to hug the Sisters
in our zone.... They freaked out almost.
He has multiple large deep
lacerations on his left side of his face that took the doctors almost
5 hours to stich up in surgery. He was really beat up.
Everyone please pray for him and his
family who just arrived today from Utah. He does have an aunt that lives in Des
Moines, who has been with him since midnight Saturday so he is not alone. Pray
for them and that he will one day be able to achieve all of his dreams.
Hope your week was better than mine,
Elder Daniel Keeley
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