The first month is tough for everyone. I had several people
here bring this to my attention this last week. I must’ve looked hassled. I
have to admit that I did feel overwhelmed. They were all trying to be nice by
letting me know that this feeling of being overwhelmed was common.
Let me go into detail a bit regarding the points Helen has
made. Driving has been a challenge.
Google Maps is a help, but can get us into trouble also. If we take a wrong
turn, it is very hard to figure out how to get back on tour route because of
one-way streets that aren’t always correct on Google. We can usually make it in
heavy traffic to the Temple in one hour but coming home is a different story.
We have never made it home without getting lost and taking at least one and one
half hours. So we basically don’t get much else done on Tuesdays and Fridays
when we go to the clinic at the Temple. So driving the car in bad traffic isn’t
the trouble, it is just finding our way. Once we learn all the routes and a few
key intersections, it should become easier.
The issue that has caused me the most concern is that of receiving
phone calls. If the caller is English-speaking, I do fairly well, but even then
it can be hard to understand what is being said. I think it’s due to the
ambient noise and my tinnitus and high-frequency hearing loss. If they’re
Spanish-speaking, I usually only catch a few words. I have learned to reply to
a call with a text message that I am not able to take the call and if they would send me a text message with
their name and mission, I would return
their call later. I use this especially when I am driving. Dr. Stevens appeared
to be able to take a call anytime and understand the situation perfectly. I am
getting better understanding the caller. I am supposed to get a new iPhone 6
this week and I wonder if that will help. That’s the other problem. The phone I inherited had been wiped clean of
all it’s phone numbers and so incoming calls are never identified. It will be a
big job when I get my new phone to put in the several hundred telephone numbers
that I need to use. I will create an iCloud account and so that the next AMA
will have all the phone numbers at hand in the cloud and not lose them.
Another aspect of the learning curve is that of medical
terminology in Spanish. The names of the medicines, lab results, procedures,
etc. are not as familiar as I thought they would be. I have problems both
understanding and trying to come up with the Spanish words. This isn’t too
difficult when I’m speaking face-to-face, but over the phone, it has been
difficult.
We had to send 16 missionaries home last week for health
reasons. This requires a lot of communication and paper work. I was up till 2:30am Monday last week filling
out my weekly report to SLC. I had as
much work to do, or more, on as many missionaries that we kept in the
field.
Add to this, we need to review 10-15 missionary applications
from Mexican Stakes every day to see if there are health issues that would keep
them from coming on a mission. Helen has
really taken on this job and has been a great help.
Our next big job is to start training the 17 new mission
presidents and their wives that will start here in Mexico on July 1. That’s half the total number of missions in
Mexico and the day they start taking over they will get a dozen phone calls
regarding sick missionaries that they will have to deal with. Who do you think they will call for advice?
Ten calls x 17 missions per week!
I know this sounds like whining, and maybe it is, but you
can get a sense of why we are a bit over whelmed. You need to understand that
there are other LDS Mexican doctors that provide tremendous help in their local
missions and I need to learn to use them.
I’m not alone.
Today marks three weeks since we have arrived and two weeks
since we have been on our own. I am doing better now then I did my first week
and that gives me hope. I know that
Heavenly Father has provided us the opportunity to serve in this capacity. As
Helen and I struggle and strive to fulfill this calling, we will draw closer
together and become more dependent on each other and the Lord. These are good
things to learn at this time in our life as we prepare for the next stage in
our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Happiness. Please keep us in your prayers. Love, Dad/ Jim
3 comments:
Know that you are certainly in our prayers. Also know that from our distance (and from our full nights of sleep) we know that while you will always be flooded with things that must be done, at some point your body and your mind will recognize that as normal with only a few unexpected, truly frantic, times--and that's when the spirit will get even stronger. It always helped me to remember that from every temple, practically every hour, prayers were being said for the all the Lord's missionaries. Lynne W
You and Helen are loved by lots of us, and lots of us are praying on your behalf. Hang in there, friends!
I so relate to this. Talking on the phone in Portuguese was a nightmare for me because of my tinnitus on top of the bad hearing. English was not much better. People who spoke up and articulated were much easier to understand, but those who slurred and used lots of slang were impossible. One missionary told me to tell them to talk to me as though I was a 5 year old. Didn't do a lot for my ego, but it surely helped in understanding them.
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