Week 26 January 5, 2015 It was a rough week :(

  Well to start Happy New Year everyone and best birthday wishes to my mom turning 29 this Thursday!! I hope you all had a good year last year and now it is time that we hit the ground in 2015 running. It is crazy how fast time flies and I can't believe what all can be done in just a year. I mean I was in high school just last year! The year of 2014 was a big one for me. From starting my senior year in high school, to graduating, then to heading off for the MTC. Lucky for me not much thinking needs to be done on my part this year because I know what I will be doing for the 365 days of 2015. Duh duh duh...... yep, thats right! Missionary work. Woo hoo!! 2015 is the whole year I have where I will be on a mission. Pretty cool huh? It definitely won't be an easy year but I will be able to learn lots and grow so that's good. All I know is time is very important and definitely not endless. I learn more and more about this concept as a missionary on the daily. Every minute counts. We should always be trying to improve ourselves while also helping others that become discouraged or in need of comfort as Our Savior Jesus Christ would do. 

     I don't know where to start this week was probably one of the roughest weeks I have had on my mission. We had interviews with President and those went fine. I just wasn't really feeling 100% at the beginning of the week so it was hard to actually be alert. I had a really bad headache and I could feel a cold coming on. A few days later after a lot of rest and taking it easy I thought it might be a good idea to go to the doctor. I had a dentist appointment on Friday and told the dentist, who is a member, that I wasn't feeling too hot. So he took me right across the hallway to his friend's office who is a doctor. I sit down and the dentist translates what my symptoms are to the doctor and then he checked me out to see what I had. At this time I had a really bad sore throat, runny nose, and a headache. The doctor looked and told me that I had tonsillitis and that my tonsils were pretty swollen... Since in Korean words, I am big size, I am more prone to having my tonsil swell up because they are a lot bigger than most peoples'. I was pretty confused on what was going on because it was all in Korean and the doctor spoke a bit of English but was just really hard to understand. Turns out that I needed a shot. Can you guess where I needed that shot? Yep you guessed it... right smack dab on the rear. Let me tell you wasn't that quite the experience getting that shot. I go into the room and a Korean nurse comes in. She motions for me to lay down on the bed and pull down my pants. Then she spanks me, rubs some stuff on my behind, and then prick goes the needle. It was extremely hard too stop laughing because it was just weird but hey not everyone can say that they got a butt shot from a Korean lady on their mission now can they? I don't know if that is something to take pride in or what but hey I can say it now haha. I mean I can't think of a better way to celebrate 6 months on my mission than that. To top it off after we went to the first doctor we called an English class member who speaks English extremely well to see if she would suggest doing anything else. She insisted that we go to a different doctor with her and her brother, who was a specialist. The specialist stuck this camera down my throat and in my nose and stuff. They had it all on the screen so I could see everything which was kind of cool. He took a picture to show of my tonsils and the first doctor was right, they were pretty swollen. The doctor suggested that I get an IV for quick recovery purposes so I did. So yeah everyone reading this don't get too jealous of all the fun I had this week. They prescribed me to antibiotics that I am taking right now and I am getting better so don't worry Mom :) 

       On a lighter note. This week I got a Costco card so now my companion and I can get the hook ups! I bought some speakers so we can jam to church music and also a blender so I can make some yummy breakfast smoothies. Transfer calls were supposed to come Saturday night but they ended up getting moved to Sunday morning. I guess I am just destined to stay in Gangnam for at least one more transfer #GangnamRichBoy4Life #GangnamStyle. This will be my 4th transfer in Gangnam so I will have been in Gangnam for around 6 months or maybe even longer if at the end of this transfer that starts next week I don't move areas. I am still with Elder Knapp and we are doing well together so that's good. It is crazy though because this is my trainer Elder Hastriter's last transfer then he goes home. Only 6 more weeks left for me with my trainer still in Korea. Last night we went over and taught a practice lesson at a members house and did FHE with them so that was good. So yeah this week was pretty long and definitely a learning experience for me. Sometimes on your mission you just get sick and you don't have your mommy around so you just gotta figure stuff out on your own. The work in Gangnam is still pretty slow and hard but the Lord needs me here for some reason so I just have to trust Him and keep on keeping on. 

Happy New Year!!!! 

Love, 

Elder Picard

(He only sent one picture, obviously he was really sick because we usually get 5 million)

​Sometimes on your mission you have to get some suspicious yellow juice injected into your blood stream!!