The day I almost died.

Today I was on MSN messenger and someone contacted me from my mission that I haven't heard from in over 5 years. It was a boy who we baptized in my first area. His family wasn't active, but he had an aunt that would stop by on Sundays to bring him to church.

He's still active and now goes to church by himself. I was EXSTATIC to hear this good news from him. :) There's a lot of people that I taught in Brazil that I no longer have contact with....many letters that I send just get returned to my apartment with "Endereço não existe" (address doesn't exist) written on it. So, its always encouraging when I hear from someone and know that they're still active in the LDS church.

So, I busted out my journal and starting reading some of my entries from my mission (the entries unfortunately decreased in frequency towards the end of my mission). I read a particularly lengthy entry that goes into immense detail of a growing mission experience.

I'll spare you the mushy details and get to the good stuff:

So, Brazil has pretty crappy storm drains, so when it rains, it usually floods the roads. One day it rained so hard and so long that the road was almost 2 feet deep in just water. Well, when the storm drains overflow, they flow into the sewer...and then the sewer flows into the road. Long story short, we were trudging around in 2 feet of sewage and rain water one day.

So, something (by "something" I'm suggesting an object most likely very disgusting and probably something you don't want to think about) got into my foot and the next day my ankle was all swollen. It just kept getting worse. I walked on it that day. The next, I could barely even make it to the shower. I went to the "doctor" (in Brazil, healthcare is free...but it also ROYALLY sucks) and he said I just had a skin infection and that I'd be fine in a few days. 3 days on my bed and it just got worse. The next day it was transfers and my companion was going home so I got a member to take us to the mission office so that I could drop him off.

When the mission president saw my foot he said, "Elder George (for those of you who don't know...missionaries are given the title of "Elder" during their 2 year service) why didn't you tell me it was this bad?!?" I responded, "I DID!"

He stuck me in his car and rushed me to the Albert Einstein Hospital (the best hospital in South America) and that's where I stayed for the next 18 days.

A lot of stuff happened, I threw up almost half of my body's blood (about 4 pints..I think), had a cardiogram, MRI, multiple endoscopies, a few x-rays, over 100 pages of bloodwork, and was stuck with an IV so many times that I literally couldn't extend my arm all the way.

I remember being really scared when I wrote this journal entry. Being alone and dying in a foreign country is no fun. I called my parents a few times to tell them what was going on...but I'm sure that just made them worry more. My mom later told me that she went a few days without sleeping because she was so worried. Being in intensive care for so many days didn't give me too much reassurance either.

Well, I'll stop boring you with my story and get on to the pictures!

This is what my foot looked like when I started to notice that something was wrong:

This is day 1 in the hospital. The deep red is an allergic reaction. My left foot you can see is pretty swollen:

This is me in intensive care...all those machines are pretty intimidating:

Here's a fun one of me running around in my hospital gown :)



And finally, a nice closeup of the allergic reaction on my feet. Also note that this reaction spread all over my entire body....even you know where:

It was a really tough experience but I really learned a lot from it. One of the hardest things that I had to do was to put my trust completely in the Lord and know that whatever happened, it would be for my benefit. I ended up getting better and finally returned to my area. I finished the last year of my mission and lived to tell the tale.

I'm so grateful for my LDS mission experience. It was the most difficult years of my life but I look back with gratitude for all the people I met and the chance I had to share my beliefs with others. Missionaries leave their homes for 2 years because they have a message that they feel is so important, that dating, college, cars, everything can wait. That message is that God has called a prophet in our days just as He did in biblical times and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth once again. Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and we can all know it by reading and asking Heavenly Father for ourselves, if the book he translated, The Book of Mormon, is true. I know it is true and I invite you to learn more about it.

Please visit: http://www.mormon.org/
Or if you're already a member, please watch a few of the video testimonies and then share this link with someone you know.

I Scream for Ice Cream

So, you may have caught on to the fact that I like to cook, bake, and just do things with food in general. Especially the eating part. For Christmas last year I got an ice cream maker. It's the most amazing thing ever, and it's so easy. I don't have to worry about ice and salt and the mess that comes along with all that. This ice cream maker has a bowl that you freeze in the freezer and then when you add the ice cream mixture the machine just mixes it and the cold bowl freezes the ice cream. It's clean, simple, and it only takes about 20-30 minutes. This is the one I have. The only draw back is that it is small, 2 quarts, so for a large family, or a big lover of ice cream, this one might not make enough. I've had a lot of fun experimenting with different recipes. So far I've made Chocolate, Vanilla, Cherry Garcia, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Cake Batter ice cream. I've also made Red Raspberry gellato. And there are still so many I want to try. I think my favorite have been the Strawberry Cheesecake and the Cake Batter, (very close to Coldstone's), so I thought I'd put the recipes on here for anyone that wants to try. You can make these with any ice cream maker you want, mine is just better.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream:

• 8 ounces cream cheese


• 1/2 cup sugar


• 1 tablespoon lemon juice


• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla


• 1-2 cup fresh chopped strawberries


• 1 cup half-and-half

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Chill ingredients for about an hour, (I usually skip this step and it turns out just fine). Pour into ice cream maker and turn it on. If you're using an ice cream maker like mine it only takes 25-30 minutes.

Cake Batter Ice Cream

• 1 cup whole milk, well chilled


• 1/2 cup sugar


• 2 cups heavy cream, well chilled


• 1 teaspoon vanilla


• 1 cup cake mix, (I used butter recipe yellow, but I'm sure you could use any cake mix, I might try the rainbow sprinkles one.)

Mix the milk, sugar, vanilla, and cake mix in a bowl. Once the sugar is dissolved and there are no lumps from the cake mix, add the heavy cream and stir. Pour mixture into ice cream maker. Again, it only takes 25-30 minutes for me.

Enjoy!

The Best Mom Ever

This post is dedicated to my wonderful mother. I know it's a bit late, but it doesn't really have to be Mother's day for me to appreciate my mom. My mom is a great woman and seriously the best mother I could have asked for. I wouldn't be the person that I am today if it weren't for her. To prove that to you all and tell you how just how amazing my mom is here are my top 10 reasons that I love my mom.

1. She gave birth to me, she gave me life. This kinda goes without saying, but still, I appreciate it.
   


2. She gave me my good looks. Just take a look. You have to admit it, we're both extremely attractive.
   



3. She read to me when I was younger. My siblings and I used to sit and listen to my mom read to us. She would read books like The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, not just children's books. And if the books ever had songs in them she would make up her own tune and sing the songs to us too. She's amazing. I loved sitting there and listening to my mom read and it instilled in me a love of books. I love to read, it's one of my favorite pastimes. She also taught me to love Pride and Prejudice, the book and the movies.



4. She taught me the joys of shopping and how to shop. When ever I'm upset or depressed, buying something seriously makes me so much happier. It really doesn't matter what it is. I spent a lot of time shopping for groceries with my mom. To this day I still walk through the grocery store the same way my mom did. I've even perfected the correct speed for shopping. When I was younger I walked much more quickly than my mom did but, I practiced keeping pace with my mom and now I can walk slowly like all other good shoppers. The slower walk gives you the chance to see any and every item that is available for purchase. :)



5. She taught me how to cook. I love cooking and experimenting with different meals and I owe that in part to my mother. She would always have me helping her in the kitchen and I watched and learned from her.



6. She taught me to love math. I was home schooled so my mother was my teacher and I remember sitting down one day to work on my math and I really didn't want to do it and my mom said to me, "You can either love math or you can hate it. If you hate it, you still have to do it, so you might as well love it." From that day on I decided to love math, and even though sometimes I didn't LOVE it, my optimistic attitude and that decision to try and love math got me to where I am today. Because of my mom I do love math and was able to become an engineer.



7. She taught me to be sassy and how to get my way. If you know my mom, you know it's impossible to win a fight with her. This may not really sound like a good thing, but hear me out. I learned how to make a good argument from my mom. She taught me you need more than one good argument on your side, 3 or more is best. This comes in very handy when writing persuasive papers, and also when trying to get your way. And having a believable argument makes you feel like you're always right, which makes up the sassy part of my personality. If it weren't for my mom, I wouldn't be the sassy, persuasive person that I am today.
   
   
8. I love that I can go to my mom with all my medical problems. My mom loves reading medical books and dictionaries. When ever I have a problem I can go to my mom and she'll have some ideas about what my problem could be or what's causing it. And she makes me feel validated for being worried about the simplest things by diagnosing me with some kind of cancer. I might be a hypochondriac.
   
   
9. She taught me the gospel. We read scriptures and prayed together as a family every day when I was young. My mom taught me how important the gospel is. She taught me to pray. I am so grateful to her for teaching me about the gospel and helping me to live righteously.
   
   
10. She taught me how to be a mom. Now, I don't have any kids of my own yet, so I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty confident I'm going to be a great mother. My mom taught me how to be a parent and how to teach children. She's a great example to me of what a good mother should do and if I follow what she taught me, I hope I can be just as good of a mother as she is. Who knows, maybe soon I'll be able to try out some of those skills. I only hope that some day a list as good as this can be written about me.
    
    

Happy Mother's day, Mom. I love you!

Gran Turismo Prologue

Speaking of video games, have you seen Gran Turismo 5 Prologue for the PS3? If you have a PS3, I'd highly recommend it. I got it a few weeks ago and I love it!

The graphics are AMAZING! I mean, seriously, doesn't this look real?

And just for kicks, here's a real life vs. PS3 comparison....can you tell which is which?

The game is very fun, challenging, yet not so bad that I can't win the races after a few times practicing. I'd highly recommend it! Oh, and I recommend guitar hero III too. :P

Now Katie can't say, "you never post on our blog!" Well, there's 2 and there's more to come so watch out! :D

Ode to Guitar Hero

Oh! What a wonderful Christmas surprise

When we saw it, we couldn't believe our eyes.

We opened it up in a hurry,

It was sleek, black, with 5 colored buttons of fury.

We played Guitar Hero III all day long,

Together, we beat almost every single song!

The day wound down, it was time for bed

Everyone was tired and very well-fed.

As the others fell asleep, we snuck back to the room

And played Guitar Hero until it started to consume.

We were addicted! There was nothing we could do

But play it all day long, even past curfew.

And now we think of shredding chords, even in our sleep

We count notes now, instead of counting sheep!

Thank you Activision and RedOctane for this fine game!

Hopefully we'll play it enough to get make into the Hall-of-Fame!

Family Visiting

So, I'm sorry it has been so long since I've posted a new blog. We've been really busy these last few weeks and haven't really had time for anything fun enough to tell anyone about. Ryan has been busy with end of semester projects and finals. He ended up getting really good grades in his classes, though. I'm so proud of him. I've been busy working on a project at work and taking care of Ryan when he gets home from school. He's not very good at taking care of himself when he gets busy.

Last week my family came out to visit for my sister Sheri's graduation. Here is a picture of her in her graduation robes.

Sheri is going to be getting married on June 21st so a lot of the time they were here was spent getting ready for that. In between trying on dresses and looking at flowers and invitations, they enjoyed playing Guitar Hero at our apartment. Joseph was concentrating really hard in this picture.

The last day that everyone was here we went to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was during the tulip festival and the gardens were beautiful. You all know how much I love those tulips. Needless to say I took tons of pictures. Here's one of Ryan and me looking cute. I loved the color of these tulips.

Here's one of some of my siblings on a bridge. We love taking silly pictures.

Here's one of me, my mom, and my three sisters. We're so colorful.

And us again. Well, it is our blog.

We had so much fun with my family out here. Thanks for visiting.