John Cooper was 22 and a member of the Hodgett Wagon Company, one of the two wagon companies following the Martin Handcart Company in 1856. On his journey he fell in love with a young woman who was also traveling in the Hodgett Wagon Company and they planned to be married as soon as they arrived in Salt Lake City.
When the wagons were unloaded at Fort Seminoe so that the people with frozen limbs could ride in them into the valley John Cooper was asked to be one of the 20 young men to stay the winter on starvation rations to protect the goods. This he did saying goodby to his sweetheart. Two days after he arrived in Salt Lake City in June of 1857 they were married. There was a difference in John though because when John left England he weighed 160 pounds and when he arrived in Salt Lake City he weighed 80 pounds. John had a motto in life that hangs on a little sign in our motorhome (thank you Elder and Sister Black) and that motto was; "We must not expect everything to run smooth." This is the saying that ran constantly through my mind this week.
These two showed up and spent a couple days hanging out with us, they were sure cute and it was hard not to fall in love with them.
On Tuesday Elder Lindsey finished the last of his second round of antibiotics but was so much worse that we knew we had to get him into a doctor. We were able to get an appointment in Valentine at the clinic attached to the hospital so we headed over there. After blood tests and a CT scan they made arrangements for Elder Lindsey to be admitted into the Rapid City Regional Hospital. The doctor in Valentine did not know what was wrong but felt he was too sick to stay at their hospital. After a quick stop back in Rosebud to pack a few items we were off. It was a three hour drive, mostly in the dark with lots of road construction but we made it. The clinic was nice enough to give Elder Lindsey a shot of a pretty strong pain medication before we hit the road so he rode in relative comfort.
We were a direct admit into the hospital and we saw doctors immediately. They did a full workup and did a clinical diagnosis for Polymyositis Rheumatica. They then gave him a huge dose of steroids, more pain medication and several potassium pills as his potassium was dangerously low, and moved us to a room. We got settled around 2:00am and managed to doze off and on until about 5:30am when the day started in force. The steroids worked wonders as the terrible muscle and joint pain he'd been experiencing for the last three weeks began to subside.
Wednesday morning President and Sister Anderson visited with us and offered the mission home if I or we needed to stay in town for a few days. All of the members here have been wonderful, checking in on us, praying for us and offering help. President Allen even fixed our sewer hose while we were gone so Elder Lindsey didn't have to crawl under the motorhome again.
We can't say enough about the wonderful care that Elder Lindsey (and I) received at this hospital. Everyone was kind, compassionate, and knowledgeable. They worked hard to keep both of us comfortable and to figure out the puzzle of his illness.
Wednesday evening the doctor decided that they would do a temporal artery biopsy to rule out a more dangerous disease. They did this on Thursday afternoon and we were discharged about noon on Friday. The biopsy was negative which was a relief. We now have an appointment with a Ruematologist on Friday, October17th back in Rapid City. By then all the blood work will be back and hopefully the tests will back up the original diagnosis.
After three days in the hospital we were anxious to get home so we headed out immediately. The drive home was much nicer...I could see where we were. This country is really quite beautiful. We decided to stop in Wall for lunch...home of the famous Wall Drug Store. We spent a few minutes looking around then shared a buffalo burger before getting back on the road for home.
Elder Lindsey outside Wall Drug.
Friday night we were in bed early and Saturday we slept late! It was wonderful. Ever since Elder Lindsey got sick he hasn't been able to sleep laying down but would instead sit in a chair in the living room with a small electric heater blowing warm air on him. He hasn't had a good nights sleep in over three weeks so for him to have gone to bed in our bed and slept long and hard is a wonderful tender mercy and blessing for both of us.
Saturday Elder Lindsey spent time puttering around outside doing a few things that need to be done before winter. I decided to clean the chapel and foyer of the church in preparation for Sunday. After I finished at the church I made two apple crisps with the apples President Allen gave us. I baked one and froze the other. It was lovely to be home.
These last three weeks certainly haven't been what we expected but we have had many tender mercies and blessings that continue to remind us that Heavenly Father is in charge and is mindful of us and our circumstances. The first night in the hospital when I was feeling discouraged the song "Count Your Many Blessings" came into my mind and each time I woke up the words would still be there and they were a great comfort to me as I was reminded that even in the midst of trials when things aren't running smoothly our Heavenly Father is still there loving us and guiding us.
Church in a small Branch is very different than what we are used to except for the Spirit which is still there and witnessing the truthfulness of the Gospel to all who will listen. We are feeling very blessed. Elder Lindsey is stronger every day and we are so grateful that Heavenly Father is allowing us to serve these wonderful people here in Rosebud.
We love you all,
Elder and Sister Lindsey
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