November 30 - An unexpected turn of events

On the evening of November 13th, I (Merri) received a phone call from Elder Fish, the Mission Physician. I was notified that Jacob had been sick since the beginning of October and he had been to the doctor twice with no diagnosis. He told me that Jacob had been throwing up, some days feeling so bad he stayed in bed. Since they found nothing wrong, he was thinking that Jacob must be having some anxiety or depression and and we talked about ways to help him overcome that. I told him that just didn't match Jacob's personality. He has never had problems with being anxious or depressed before. Not that it couldn't surface after being away for four months, but my gut feeling was that it was not that. We ended the call and I started brainstorming how I could help Jacob. Without having the entire information of all of his symptoms and what exactly was going on, I was helpless. I wrote Jacob a long letter with a few suggestions of things I thought could help if it was anxiety or depression and sent it off in the mail. The following Monday, I wrote him an email with some questions and he wrote back telling me those were not a problem and explained a little more that he was weak and had no energy because he had been throwing up several times a day. Some days it just drained him completely and they did very little Missionary work. After more thought that week, I had an impression come to me that maybe it was a food allergy. I looked up some symptoms for gluten allergies and without having the complete information, it seemed like a possibility. I called my sister who has Celiac Disease and we talked about how she was so sick until they finally tested her for that and she changed her diet. I was feeling more confident that may be the issue. I wrote Jacob an email with a lot of that info and how to change what he was eating to try and see if that was possibly the problem. He got the email on Monday and said he'd try, but I found out later that day that it was already in the beginning stages of getting him home since he was getting worse. By Wednesday night, I received a call and we were told he would be coming home in the next few days. Thursday at 1pm, I got the call he would be landing at the Phoenix airport at 6:17. I was shocked at how quickly it all happened, but relieved that I would be able to see how he was, talk to him in person and be able to take him to the doctor and help him myself. So we met him at his gate at 6:15, hugged, (I may have cried a little) and got him home. The Stake President and our Bishop came to the house at 8pm and Jacob was honorably released from his mission. He was told that the length of a mission did not matter, only the fact that he was willing to go and served his best. I was so thankful for that and for kind and loving leaders. He told us that his Mission President had told him the same thing. He was exhausted when they left and he went to bed.

 

This is right before heading to the airport. He is with his Zone Leaders here.

 And here he is with President & Sister Bartlett.

Friday morning after losing his breakfast, we were able to talk a little bit about trying that diet change for the time being until we could get him into the doctor. It couldn't hurt. He was really dehydrated so I went to the store and bought Smart water, since it has electrolytes in it, and peppermint tea to try and soothe his stomach a little. I told him to sip that all day and just work on replenishing his fluids for now. I left for work. Later I checked on him and he said he had been keeping most of it down. A win in my books! That evening he ate a quarter of a yam and a little turkey.
Saturday we worked on rehydration again and it is going well with that Smart water. He ate very little again today, but everything stayed down.
Sunday was the same. Drink, drink, drink and eat a little. Everything stayed down! His stomach is still hurting quite bad but his headache is less, so that at least is good. He has had a bad headache for weeks which I figure was from dehydration. He had many family members fasting for him today. We are so thankful.
Today we will work on getting an appointment with a doctor so we can figure out what's going on hopefully. 
Jacob has since told us that he started feeling really terrible in September, but was ignoring it the best he could. He had barely gotten to Boise at the end of August. By the beginning of October, he started randomly throwing up and his stomach was feeling much worse. By November, he was throwing up several times a day and had no energy, but kept pushing on the best he could. It escalated downhill by the 2nd week in November and some days he would have to sit by the toilet for hours or be so exhausted he'd stay in bed. He went to two doctor appointments there and also two counseling appointments. When they couldn't figure it out and he was getting worse, that's when it was decided he should come home to get medical attention. He doesn't feel like a failure for coming home early, which is really good. He is feeling relieved that he isn't holding back his companion anymore. He is always thinking about other people. Our Stake President also told us that the reason Jacob didn't tell us he was sick was because Missionaries are told not to write home about problems or when they are ill. They want them to stay positive in their correspondence. It makes sense and Jacob was diligent in doing that for sure. 
Wish us luck on figuring out the problem. Love all of you!

November 27th email

Hello everyone!

Sorry for not emailing you all last week; I wasn't able to send out a mass email! So in here I'll include things about the last two weeks.

So there's a new Elder here in our area, Elder Ixtlahuac! That's pronounced "Esh-la-wok". Sounds like an Arizona name. WHICH speaking of, he's from Chandler! Is that not cool? He and I got to spend time together on exchanges; he went to Harvard for a year before coming out! ...he's really smart, as you may imagine. On Sunday, there was an event called a "Face to Face" that the church has been putting on; where people basically ask church leaders questions. It was awesome! If you want to watch it (which, if you haven't, I highly recommend) you can view it at 
https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/face-to-face/oaks-ballard?cid=HP_SU_19-11-2017_dPFD_fBCAST_xLIDyL1-B_&lang=eng

That's a long link!

Monday last week, our district, comprising of eight missionaries; four companionships, played a game they have lovingly dubbed as "slaughterball." It is, in essence, free-for-all dodgeball, with only one ball. We ended up playing it in a racquetball court. Imagine with me, what that was like... 8 guys, all bursting with the energy of 18-20 year olds, crammed into a small racquetball court, throwing a rubber ball at each other. It was...hectic, I'll say!

After that, nothing too much happened for the next few days. Thanksgiving we were invited for dinner to a Brazilian family's home! They're a fun, bubbly family. While there we went around the table and said what we were thankful for ('cause that's what we do!); the wife said some things, and her husband made fun of her jokingly, and said, "You didn't say you were grateful for your family!" She said "I did! I said that first! Didn't I?" She then looked at Elder Carlsen. He shrugged and said, "Yeah, I think so...?" She looked at him sternly with the look only a mother can give and said "Say yes!" He threw his hands up in the air and went "Okay! Yes! She did!" We all laughed! (and for the record, she did in fact, actually say family first. I am a witness!)

The next day we ended up having dinner with them as well; Thanksgiving leftovers! We did survive! (Well, Elder Carlsen was ready to pop, but besides that...)

Then Sunday we gave a lesson to the members of the Columbia Village ward, on the new Light the World initiative the church is putting on this year. It is, in essence, just doing a small act of kindness for someone, from now until Christmas. If you'd like to learn more you can here: www.mormon.org

Thank you everyone, for all that you do! You're all awesome. Hope you have a wonderful week!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

Here is a picture that was taken at the Face to Face broadcast. I found this picture on his mission Facebook page. The Mission President and his wife are so good about taking pictures of the missionaries. I love it! 

 

Here are a few more pictures Jacob sent.

 

 



November 13th email

Hello everyone! 
Hope all is going well for all of you all! 

So, last week, right after sending my email out to you all, we sent my companion, Elder Barton, out of the country! Kicked him outta here, off to Portugal! Later Monday, it actually snowed! It was snowing lightly for about a half hour. No idea where it came from; and it didn't stay. But still! Ah!

Then, later, Tuesday, we stacked wood for a man here, we're planning on going over again later this week to chop and stack some more.

Nothing much too exciting happened then until Saturday, when we were able to help a different man in the area. He made a ceramic fountain, and needed help pouring concrete to make a sturdy base. So we were able to help him with that, it was quite interesting! I've never mixed concrete before! 

Then, while we're out walking around, we were going past this park, and there were SO many geese! More than I could really count. We had a stare-down as we passed by...they won; but only because there's more of them than us...

Besides that, I don't have much else to report on! Oh, besides that I'm still with Elder Carlsen. We'll be together for the next 5 weeks or so!

Love you all!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

Last week, he said he had pictures of visiting the Capitol Building. Here are his pictures he sent me of that visit. It's a beautiful building and the fall colors are just gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

I have no words for this picture except for... boys.

 

November 6th email

Hello, everyone!

This past week went by just like *that* which is weird because we didn't do a whole lot!
On Monday we visited the Capitol building, pictures will come next week as I am on an unfamiliar computer and have no idea how to put an SD card into this computer! Later Monday evening, we were able to teach several families; we were rushing from appointment to appointment! It was lots of fun.
Then on Halloween we had to be inside of our apartment by 7; in the past there have been issues where people have caused problems for missionaries on Halloween, so we had to be in early! We played a movie, called "The Testaments." It's about the life of Jesus Christ, sorta. I can't really explain it too well in a short email.
Then on Wednesday my companion got his visa! I don't know if I've told you all, but my companion is waiting to fly out to Portugal; he was waiting to get his visa. So he got it on Wednesday, and is flying out today at 2pm our time! That's crazy.
Friday we did exchanges, where we switch missionary companions for about 24 hours. Ours were cut short because we went through the Meridian Temple open house! For anyone who doesn't know what that is; whenever an LDS temple is finished being built, there's an open house for it and the public is able to go through and learn more about what we do there.
No cat stories for you all this week!
Love you all! Thank you for all of your continued support.
Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

These pictures are from Monday, before the Elders left for Portugal.

I've also been busy trying to put together a birthday package to send to Jacob. His birthday is next Tuesday and packages are delivered to the missionaries on their Pday, so he should get his package the day before his birthday. Perfect!

I put thermals and thick socks in for him to sleep in, a package of blueberry fig fruit bars, trail mix, microwave popcorn, hot chocolate and some vitamin C drink packages. Kevin and I also made Rolo cookies and mini pumpkin muffins, individually wrapped them so hopefully they'll stay fresh this week and put them into Pringles cans. We also have some letters and notes in there. I hope he has a great 19th birthday!

 





October 30th email

Wow, Halloween is tomorrow. I don't know about the rest of you, but that crept up on me so fast. Where did October go?

So this week we had another cat experience...We were just walking to an appointment, and there was a white kitten sitting on the curb. (No collar) It looked at us, we looked at it. It meowed and we meowed back (no judgments, now. We speak fluent feline. I think.)... then it proceeded to follow us! We walked all the way down the street with it; it absolutely refused to leave our side. Or, rather, my feet. As we were going along it stayed basically between my feet, going all around walking circles around me (Still trying to determine if it was "protecting" me, or mocking me). I tripped so many times over my own feet trying not to step on it!

When we finally got to the door, it wanted in with us. I had to pick it up, and hold it outside the door while someone else closed the door behind me!

When we got out the door an hour later, there it was. It saw us and we saw it, then it darted out and followed us again! Same exact story; tripping and everything! We went about twice the distance as earlier though, and at one point it was suddenly gone. We turned around and it was behind us, staring intently up a driveway, in a pose like it was going to pounce (kittens are fierce beasts after all). Then it dashed up the driveway and we lost sight of it. Just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared! 

Also this week, we got a tour of a building downtown where a member of the church here works as a secretary to a State Justice, got to see his office and all sorts of things around it, he had an awesome view of the city.

Sorry for not too much this week, but things are looking like they'll be picking up this week, so hopefully next weeks email will be longer!

Love you all!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

 

 Jacob sent me some pictures today! There were no explanations again, so enjoy figuring out what's going on in a few of them.

 

 

This is a picture from last weeks Zone Conference where they did a silly pose. You can see Jacob holding a Book of Mormon high in the air! It looks to me like a lot of the missionaries have a great sense of humor!

October 23rd email

Hello everyone!

This past week was great, if a little hectic. We got a text from our zone leaders (they're in charge of about 20 missionaries, essentially) Tuesday evening, telling us to cancel every single appointment we had the following day, because we were going to tell as many people as possible about the Meridian Idaho Temple that just got built; they're having an open house for it right now. So Wednesday we knocked on about 80 doors and talked to about 40 people! Met some interesting people, one lady whose door we knocked on yelled some not so nice things, then told us to leave before she called the police...so, despite having only knocked on the door, we left! 

Then, almost right after that, we talked to two people who were quite interested in us and were very nice! It was great, made us forget the previous experience almost right then and there!

Then on Thursday we had a Zone Conference, when our mission president talks to us and we learn quite a bit from him! He showed us some new and upcoming changes that were soon to be going about, but not for a while; we were among the first to see them. That's left vague on purpose (mwuhaha)

Friday we had exchanges! My companion and I swapped with another companionship for the day, I got to meet and be with one Elder Sparkman. He's almost at his two year mark, leaving in early November! He was quite fun to be with, the people we met were very kind- it was a good day (aside from the 18 miles biked total that day)

THEN we had something crazy happen- someone approached us and asked to take the missionary lessons! (Well, sorta. They asked someone else who referred them to us. But still!)

One last thing for all of you. I got a few emails asking for the address to send mail to, since I mentioned it last week (and I forgot to include the address. Whoops!). If you want to send me any mail, you can send it to our mission office and they'll make sure that it gets to me, since we move around frequently. Just address it to me, and send it to the address.

Idaho Boise Mission office:

1111 S Cole Rd

Boise, ID, 83709

Thanks everyone! Love you all. Have a great week!

 

Here are a few pictures I found on the mission Facebook page from his Zone Conference.

 

 

 

 

 

The address to send mail to Jacob is at the top of this blog on the right hand side. It will always be there. His birthday is in the middle of November and I'm sure he'd love a few birthday cards next month. Thank you all for your love and support for him!

 

October 16th email

So I realized that I accidentally left the story about the cat unfinished... (Thanks for letting me know everybody!)

So after I got down out of the tree, we gave this lady who told us about the cat, who my companion was talking to, the collar. She called the number on the tag, of the owner. (The address wasn't listed) She left a message as they didn't pick up, and then we left. There wasn't much else for us to do!

So this week, we were knocking on some doors and had this great experience- the last door we knocked on one night, this dog starts barking. So I'm thinking, "oh no great... they're not going to be happy because they have to deal with their dog" Then this lady opens the door, hops out quickly, and shuts the door behind her swiftly to prevent her dog from coming out.

When the door is shut, she looks at us and goes "You're not my pizza" my companion says, "Nope, but we're much better!" And from there we launch into a conversation with her, and, long story short, we're visiting her again this Thursday! 

A while after that, we were having a tad bit of a tough day, when we got some mail! I don't know why, but there's something about receiving letters in the mail that's just so encouraging when we've had a rough day (like, for example, knocking on a door, a lady looking through the window, going to her door, locking the deadbolt, and walking away.)

Then yesterday, we walked to the church building for church, and it's not far- only about a mile. But it was COLD! 30 something degrees, one person told us. I don't know how accurate that actually is, but it was cold!

Later yesterday someone helped us out, and fixed my bike... I seem to have bad juju with my bikes and get flat tires out of nowhere. Not running over anything, nothing! But oh well.

That was the major happenings of this last week in a nutshell, love you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

October 10th email

Good afternoon everyone!

This week I got sassed by a cat. We were going around, it was early evening. We were talking to people on the street, when this lady approaches us and asks us if we could help her rescue a cat. So we follow her down the road a bit, to this evergreen. We find it (a bright white ball of fuzz amid all the dark brown branches; excellent camouflage), and I climb a few feet up and make my first attempt to get to it- to no avail. I get out of the tree, and reassess, then go back up. It comes up to me, close enough that I could pet its head, but as I grabbed its collar to try and pull it to me so I could pull it down, the collar pops off! And then it gives me this look like "Now why would you go and do a silly thing like that?" Then walks away. I stayed up there for a few more minutes, and it came close again, but not close enough! Eventually it puts itself on the exact opposite side of the tree from me, placing the trunk of the tree directly between us. It perches there, and looks at me. "Haha, can't catch me now!" 

Now, during this time while I'm making a fool of myself attempting to rescue this cat, my companion was talking to this lady. She was extremely nice, but sorta standoffish, like "I don't really want missionaries talking to me" BUT for the sake of the cat she did! ...I'm still pulling twigs off of my jacket!

Besides that, we had to bike back about 6 miles uphill the whole way from a meeting. That was quite the workout! ...that won't be happening again. That sure made your legs burn!

The only other thing I really have to tell about, is that I'm going to be teaching some of the other missionaries here how to cook and bake. They're insistent that I show them my "master chef skills" ...which don't exist, but, we'll see if we have time!

'Til next week,

Love you all!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

 

Since there are new missionaries, they went to a training meeting on the 3rd. Here are some group pictures from that meeting with their Mission President and his wife. I like to call her the Mission Mom. I don't know if that's appropriate, but it makes me feel happy.

 

 

This is a picture that was sent to me as a text message from someone who fed them dinner Saturday evening. I love getting those pictures.

 

Jacob finally uploaded his pictures today. I was one happy mama. I got no explanations of each picture, but that's alright.

 Squirrel!

 

 This one made me crack up. I'm guessing it made him too.

 

 I can tell this was smoke in the air from the many nearby fires in August.

 

 Making dad proud, taking pictures of wildlife.

 

 This looks like an awfully long road to walk. Where are their bikes?

 

 I believe this was transfer day, when they went from the two of them in their apartment to four. He told me they did a massive cleaning. I am assuming something was terribly dusty and being banged out.

 

Along with my comment above about the bikes... Where are their beds???

 

I am so grateful for Jacob to have these experiences. Thank you to everyone for supporting him and writing to him. I know he appreciates it as do we.

 

 

 

 

October 2nd email

Hello everyone! 

This past week was actually pretty darn great! We have two more missionaries in the apartment now, more details on that in a minute!

So we have spent time this week chopping wood, teaching a lesson to a man and his fiance, and doing something called splits- where we go out with another missionary for a time. That was Wednesday; there were some new missionaries that came in and I was asked to go with one of them Wednesday evening and show them some simple things to do around the area, and talking with people.

THEN Thursday came around, and it was a transfer day! Meaning, some missionaries got new companions. I got a new companion, his name is Elder Barton! He's brand new! I'm training him!! (Ah!) 

So, Elder Carlsen (my last companion), is still in the same apartment- but he also got a new companion. So there's four of us crammed into a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. It's all good though!

Sunday and Saturday were largely spent watching general conference, which, for those who don't know what that is, it is a broadcast of talks that the church leaders give, put simply.

I love you all, and look forward to hearing from you!

 

Here are a few pictures from transfer day with his new companion, Elder Barton.

This is from the Boise East Stake President and his wife. They had the group of missionaries over for Conference. Here are the pictures they sent and here is what they said in the email:

We love your sons! Thank you for sharing them with us here in the Boise East Stake! We watched conference together then made some pizza and talked about conference and got to hear about mission life a bit. We love them and appreciate their hard work and positivity! They get it! We love the spirit they bring with them.
 

 

 

This video was also shared but the quality is not great. You can see Jacob flash the "I Love You" sign to us. I love that he does that!

 

 What a great week for him. What a great week for us to receive so many pictures and the video. We are so proud of his hard work!