Come What May and Love It

Well, I'm sure you all are quite curious as to what has happened to me. Honestly, I'm curious as well. I have no idea how it's happened, but I'll tell you everything that I know, so as to answer your unasked questions.

About 6 weeks ago, while still in Frauenfeld, I started having this weird pain in my hip. Odd. But I didn't really think much of it; I figured I had probably just slept in a funny position or something. Once I was transferred to Richterswil, the pain got worse and I suddenly had pain shooting down my left leg. I felt it a great deal in my calf, and as I went throughout the transfer, the pain rapidly grew worse and spread throughout my entire leg, over to my right leg and continued spreading up my back. It became so bad I couldn't even walk. It was frustrating because we couldn't even go out and work, the pain was so bad. Taking stairs or walking up and down hill, and honestly, just even walking, was incredibly painful. Pain medications weren't working and I was speaking with the area doctor and doctors in my area for weeks trying to figure all of this out.

Last week, I met with other doctors and they, after doing a couple of physical examinations, determined that the reason I had so much pain was due to a herniated disc. Another doctor thought it was possibly something to do with my Sciatic Nerve. All I knew was that I was in horrible pain and prayed I could get all of this resolved so that we could go out and work.

As I spoke with President Condie, he asked a couple of questions and said he would call me back later. I was hoping to work in the mission office for the rest of the transfer and the next one so I could heal. Unfortunately, when President Condie called me, the first thing he said to me was, "Sister NeSmith, are you sitting down?" My goodness, those are the worst words to start out any conversation with! He told me that, after praying about it, both he and Sister Condie feel it best to that I be sent home. He said that there's clearly something serious wrong and so he said they would try to take me to the mission office to work there and then send me home at the end of the transfer. 2 days later, President Condie called to tell me I would go to Munich on Monday the 6th and fly home on the 7th.

The past week has been extremely emotional for me. I don't know what Heavenly Father has planned for me. At this point, I'm just going with it. He has a plan for each and every one of us and so I figure I'll just follow his plan instead of trying to make up my own. President Condie said that after I've been treated, I need to allow at least a month after I've healed to make sure I don't have any pain whatsoever, should I try to go back out. I don't really know if I will. I would love to, naturally, but I don't know what Heavenly Father has planned for me. When the time comes, I'll make that decision very prayerfully.

It's such a blessing to know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of His children. Doesn't that provide so much comfort? Believe me, it has been a huge blessing of comfort for me throughout this whole process.

So, now I'm back home. I'm being released tonight by my stake president. And we'll just see what happens from there.

I'm sad to have left. I didn't want to, but I trust President Condie and I know that he wouldn't have sent me home unless it was the right thing to do. So here I am in Kansas, back much sooner than expected. But just as Elder Wirthlin said in his wonderful talk, "Come What May and Love It." That's my motto and that's what I'm going to do.