On my mission, I got to go to few nursing homes and hospitals. There are good memories of them and also sad memories. One that I would like to talk about is this lady I met at a hospital in Culver City, California. I don't remember her name right now so I will have to dig through my journals but
what had happened was (you have to say that with a southern accent) is that we met her through a referral that we received from the HQ informing us that she is a member but is in the psych ward at the hospital. It was a pain in the first place to find the visiting time to see her but once we started going over there, I couldn't stop because it was so...fun! I know that sounds weird to say but I loved visiting the psych ward. The lady we were visiting had anxiety disorder (I think) but we went over as often as we can and read scriptures with her. I even got to use my Korean to talk to a Korean lady who was complaining about a lot of things, but I couldn't really help her with anything because I couldn't do anything she asked me to do as a missionary and as an unrelated person to her. There also were some people who would ask us if we were Mormons. We would just smile and say, "Yes, we are!" Whenever we visited the lady, some people would come sit by us, and I remember this girl who was schizophrenic (but she was taking medication so she doesn't act like it) and she always came by and just sat and listened to us.
When my companion and I found out that we were both leaving the area, we visited her one last time and told her that we would be leaving. She started to cry and told us how she didn't want us to leave. The best gift I ever received was from her: she played "If You Could Hie To Kolob" in a beautiful arrangement (she played piano by listening to different arrangements. AMAZING!). She sat down to play then turned around and said with tears streaming down her face, "I don't want you guys to leave," then played the song for us. I will never forget that experience. I wish I had a picture of her but I doubt they would let us take a picture of anything that is alive (or dead) in that place.
Yesterday, I had an opportunity to volunteer at the Utah State Hospital (OK,
every time I type "hospital," I type "hops" and then I have to go back and fix it) and I was really excited.
"The first day of volunteering at the Utah State Hospital! It was awesome! All the volunteers there were really cool and nice. I only know few names (or remember few names) but it was great to know wonderful people. At first, some of the volunteers were nervous because they didn’t know what to expect, but I was way excited because I’ve been to mental hospitals on my mission so I knew what to expect: not much. I knew people in the hospital are nice people (and also medicated) so there was nothing to worry about.
We were in charge of activities that night so we had some beads to melt to make different shapes, board games, and other activities. One guy was making fun of me for being Asian but I ignored him whenever he did that so that didn’t last. I kept my cool with him because I knew he wasn’t all there (seriously) and I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of making me mad.
When I was making melted beads, one older lady came by and started helping me find the right colors for my "project." It was kind of creepy because she told me that she likes Asians but I didn’t mind too much. I guess we will get along just fine. :)
Overall, the best!" -An excerpt from January 25, 2012 entry-
It truly is a marvelous experience to see how everyone is a child of God no matter where they are or what they are going through. Even if they are not "
normal."
10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; -Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-
Interestingly, I have been getting this pretty frequently recently. This is how the conversation usually goes:
