An Unexpected Adventure

Armenia #12 to Salt Lake and We Hope Back Again
Monday night, January 4, 2010, we received a telephone call shortly before we retired that we needed to go to Salt Lake as Rog needed to have some tests runs by the doctors there. We had visited the hospital in Yerevan earlier and their tests were sent to Dr Goth in Moscow and on to Salt Lake. As it happens, this little detour in our missionary work will enable me to visit with all our family as we participate in my mother’s funeral service. I think this must be one of the Lord’s tender mercies. Although, I must say, having to speak at such a time will be a challenge. I’m known as somewhat of an emotional “boob” in my family and it’s hard not to be emotional and teary at such times. Just hope I can maintain my composure.

As airline travel goes, it was not uneventful. We flew from Yerevan to London where we experienced a 5 hour delay. London was having the worst weather in 30 years and part of the wait was due to a big long queue for de-icing. When we arrived in Los Angeles we had to wait for a long time as there wasn’t a space for the plane. Apparently there was a plane that the security wouldn’t release to travel, but finally, after what seemed forever, we were allowed to taxi up to the terminal. We missed our flight to Salt Lake so had to spend the night at the airport. I was still pretending to be on Armenia time, so stayed up trying to e-mail to let our children know just when we might be arriving. We talked to JaneAnne via Skype at around 1:30 a.m. She had been asleep until our call. She called Jana to make arrangements to be picked up in the morning. Rog had also talked to John in the same early morning hours so half our children will have a shorter night. We love you all and are glad you’ll take our calls in the middle of the night.

Suffering from a little jet lag after a couple of days on the road or in the air/airport, we have started our first round of tests and doctor’s visits. The first day was good with nothing unusual reported, but we’ll have more tests next week and we’ll let you know how things are going as we go along.

We had a terrifically fun reunion on Friday night (8th of January, 2010) with most of the family being there. This was the beginning of our time together to celebrate the life of Dorothy Watkins, our mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She had 4 children, 22 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren. We carried on the Watkins family tradition of playing Bingo. My sister Kathi had brought lots of “goodies” from home, that were offered as prizes for winning…and everyone was a winner. I think my mother used to use this game as a way of cleaning and de-cluttering her house. We also took some time to do some rehearsing of musical numbers for the funeral and putting together a picture display for the viewing. I was a bit of a zombie, but it was just wonderful to see everyone…and it was all in English.

The funeral on Saturday was a great tribute to a great lady. The family was mostly involved with talking (my sister, Kathi, brother, Bob and I)and singing. A neighbor who lives across the street also spoke. My cousin, Carolyn remarked to me that it was the “perfect funeral”. It was just as my mother would have liked, especially Alisa’s singing of “Stardust”. All the grandchildren and great-grandchildren sang, “I Am a Child of God”, which was touching. I was glad I had already spoken or I might have gotten a little more emotional. I Am a Child of God is a favorite of the family, and every reunion we sing it (members and non-members alike). The Peterson children also sang, “The Lord is my Shepherd” with Sue and Rob accompanying on their guitars, as the closing song. The bishop gave a great address and the whole thing was about an hour and a quarter, so was just the right length.

It was such a wonderful family time and now the cousins are talking about doing another reunion. It’s been far too long since they all have been together. I’m excited because it’s not my generation planning it, but has moved to the next generation.

Well, back to business of why we are back in Salt Lake. Rog has experienced a myriad of testing trying to discover what caused the TIA’s in Armenia. He had several tests and they indicated that he didn’t have anything negative going on. The most recent one he did was a Holter Monitor test and that finally produced something that might be a key to treatment. The test results indicated that he had some arrhythmia and a beta blocker was prescribed. The neurologist had also requested that Rog get his most recent Cholesterol results for him and the doctor thought they might be a little high and Rog should talk with his primary doctor about it. That resulted in Dr. Olsen prescribing something, but Rog is wondering if the beta blocker might take care of things without taking another medication. He has several more tests scheduled including an MRI (the one from Yerevan didn’t have good enough resolution to satisfy Dr. Groves (his neurologist)).

At this point in time (January 23, 2010) he’s had so many tests that he’s lost track. He did start on the cholesterol pill and doubled his beta blocker. They are going to do some electrical mapping of his heart this next week (this may show what is causing the arrhythmia) as well as the MRI.

We don’t mind being with our family, but are certainly feeling like we’re in limbo. It’s challenging to be a missionary and not be a missionary. We’re just praying this will soon be resolved and we’ll be able to return to Armenia to get back to what we’ve been called to do.

Armenia Happenings #11

ARMENIA HAPPENINGS#11
New Years Day was a P-day for the missionaries and they decided to do it at our apartment. I don’t think it was Rog’s choice for what to do on that day, but I enjoyed it because I like movies. All the elders from our district came over, bringing their surround sound, and we watched five movies. I made a batch of chili (Armenian style as it wasn’t the same as what I do at home, but close), which they seemed to enjoy and we had some left-over fudge from Christmas, as well as ice cream, so they didn’t starve.
It’s interesting here that they start their Christmas celebration on the 31st of December and continue on until about the 10th. The banks close and not a lot of other stores are open. I’m hoping that next week we’ll be able to buy bread again. We were invited out to Marietta’s for a feast to help her celebrate the New Year. She loaded us up with food and then we went over to Lala’s for, would you believe, another bunch of food. Whether they can afford it or not, they seem to like to share what they have with whoever comes by. We stopped by to see if Tamara was home and were invited in for more food. I think they put out food on the 1st and it stays out until the end of the celebration. They had a turkey, some fish, some chicken and lots of other things. I don’t think Jana would handle this very well.
I also managed to trip and fall on the way back to the apartment. What a klutz! Other than a skinned knee and skinned knuckles and some loss of pride, I’m fine. My walking friends will appreciate that I didn’t do another wrist fracture. The worst thing was my coat. If you fall in Ararat, the sidewalk isn’t exactly clean, so my black wool coat now is a mottled black and gray (dust). Hopefully, by tomorrow it will shake off. My reason for telling you about this wasn’t because I was looking for sympathy, but to relate it to a gospel principle. I had all the elders (Kyle, Reece and Peterson), who quickly came to my rescue, picking me up and helping me brush off my coat. In the gospel, we have the Savior. When we make mistakes or fall off the path, the Savior (if we let him) will help us, pick us up and set us a right again. How grateful I am for the atonement and the blessing of having a Savior who will lift my burdens, sorrows, mistakes and anything else that is troubling to me, so that I may have peace. But, I do have to turn to him and ask.
Monday (December 4th) we managed to just stay inside and study, read, and study some more. It rained and rained and rained and the great big puddles or small ponds are back. What were lots of holes in the road are now water filled and getting around is more of a challenge. It’s nice to be able to stay inside where it’s warm on days such as this.