16 - 22 February 2016

The temple was teeming with patrons this week.  It is school half term and that frees up many from work and a school schedule.  It was great to be busy and seeing so many.  Saturday brought in mini buses from various places and two coaches from Cardiff.  The locker area was stuffed with baskets on top to hold the extra clothing, etc.  There were wedding sealings and family sealings.  At one point I heard a baby's cry and it was music to my ears!  I love it when families come.  By the end of Saturday, there were 987 endowments completed for the week.

A nasty cold virus has been swirling through the ordinance workers, office staff, and presidency for a week or more.  Some go down with it harder than others.  It makes for interesting days with reassigning workers here and there.  Most are out for 3 -5 days when it hits.  We were trying to stay healthy and worked at avoiding crowds, getting too close to others, and washing our hands often.

We had temple recommend interviews with President Johnson on Wednesday.  Wow, it is two years since our last interview and that means we are really getting close to coming home.  Each day just seems to fly by.

We did the usual with laundry, cleaning, shopping, rotas, posting letters, and Bob had blood tests.  We called Caleb on his birthday and remembered Halie & Jason's wedding anniversary.  These family events fill up our diary and that is perfect!

Monday was the big day with Bob having the procedure to remove the kidney stones.  Brother Walters and Brother Orton gave him a blessing and the Walters' took us to Spire Gatwick Park Hospital.  Bob checked in at 3 p.m. and the surgery was at 5:50 p.m.  He did well but the doctor was able to only break up and remove the large stone blocking the ureter.  We were disappointed to learn another procedure will need to be done to remove the rest of them.  As Juliann said:  ". . .breathe, pray, and all will be as it should."

Bob before surgery.  They asked if he brought a dressing robe with him.  When he said he didn't they gave him this one.

Story:  During the three hour wait for the surgery, several nurses and doctors were in and out of the room asking all kinds of questions and going over Bob's file.  They had lost the questionnaire he had filled out last week when we were in for his assessment.  It was a four page document and we were not too thrilled to have to write it all out again, but we did.  Well, an hour or so later the nurse came in laughing and saying they had found the first questionnaire; the anesthetist had it!

It wasn't long until they were back in the room asking Bob if he had been given a nasal spray.  We couldn't figure out what that was about so I asked what it was for and they started looking at his file and realized they had someone else's file!  Wow, did they ever gather things up and high tail it out of the room.  They stayed gone for quite awhile and then came back in apologizing to beat the band.  I guess someone's head was rolling somewhere.  They showed us a red sticker they placed on Bob's file indicating there was another patient with the same or similar name.  Go figure.   Needless to say, we were happy to see Mr. Swinn when he came in.  We recognized him and he recognized us.  The anesthetist came in next and before long Bob was walked to theatre.