October 28

We attended all of our meeting in the Samabula (Sam a mbula) Ward today.  That is our ward.  It was lovely meeting with people we know.

After church I was visiting with two sisters when they informed me that government health care workers were coming to the church at 11 to distribute pills.  Fiji has mosquitoes that pass the elephantitis parasites.  These mosquitoes bite mostly in the afternoon and early evening.  Because elephantitis is on the upswing in Fiji the government is sending these workers around to give out the pills that prevent one from getting the disease.  Generally one has to go to a chemist shop, pharmacy, to get them.  Well we waited until 11 and they had not come.  We had an errand to run in Lami Town so we decided to go there and hope that we would find the workers after our errand.

Well, it worked.  When we arrived back at the chapel, the workers were across the street banging on someone's gate.  They climbed into our car--to get some relief from the heat---and we got the pills we needed to take.  We asked if there were any side effects and the answer was no.

We took the pills--all nine of them--at home, finished dinner, and ate.  While we were doing the dishes, I told Scott I was not feeling well.  I went into the bedroom hoping to rest.  The longer I laid there the worse I felt.  Scott wasn't sick so I figured it wasn't the chicken I had cooked for dinner.  I just kept getting hotter, more nauseated, and clammier.  An hour later, I called to Scott.  I needed a blessing.  It is interesting in the blessing, he said that "my body would react appropriately." Not ten minutes after the blessing I was sleeping peacefully.  I am just sure that it was the pills for the elephantitis.

How grateful I am for the priesthood, the power of God on earth.  What a wonderful blessing.