Thomas News

The most recent letter from Sister Watterson:

"I visited Elder Fulcher in the hospital today at about 2:00. He was considerably more lucid than when I left him last night. The orange arm was a source of amusement now, rather than distress! He was grateful for the cinnamon rolls, fruit, and water I brought. Hospital food here is the very bare minimum in both quantity and quality, and he was hungry.

He has 3 roommates, all with arms and hands in casts. One of them had brought his computer from home and was playing non-stop movies, much to the delight of the other patients. Your son was valiantly trying to study, but it was hard for him with all the noise. The other patients all spoke varying degrees of English, and they were all 'nice guys', according to your son.

I told him his job was to make sure they all had contact cards by the time he or they left the hospital. He's working on it.

We also worked on quick comebacks for the inevitable ribbing he's going to get about this. I suggested , 'Yes, this does look awful, but you should see the WALL.' He's going to try to have a few comments ready for if/when he needs them.

The doctor had Elder Fulcher's hand x-rayed this morning, and everything is where it should be. They had just given him a shot for pain before I got there, so he was quite comfortable when we were visiting. He did mention that it was pretty sore before the shot. The plan is to release him from the hospital tomorrow (Thursday) at 1:00 pm. Leadership Council is right at that time, and I will be in the middle of feeding 26 hungry men, so I'm going to have Elder Rasmussen, Elder Fulcher's companion, pick him up.

We'll have to wait and see how he feels to determine how fast he can get back up to full missionary speed. We've found in the past that a cast is a good conversation starter, so he can use this to his advantage in the work if he's careful. He's bored and ready to go, but that hand is going to be sore for a while, and he'll have to take good care of the wound so it will heal without problems. I'm going to give Elder Rasmussen a list of questions to ask at the hospital about follow-up care. I already gave the list to Elder Fulcher over the phone, but he can't write (!) and was afraid he'd forget what to ask.

The final bill was 718.54 lati; the exchange rate is roughly 2 to 1, so in US dollars it would be about $1400.00; expensive, but probably much cheaper than if he'd hurt it at home.

So rest easy - he's doing well physically and is in good spirits. Love, Sister Watterson"

The Missing Link

Jesse claims that is what her english teacher will be calling her - this teacher taught Thomas for Extension English where he was a bit of a star, and Alec for the most basic English - where he was not a star (except that he was a pet because he's so nice). Jesse reckons she falls in the middle - hence the missing link.

Mozzies

Since we cut the grass and messed up all their hiding places we are inundated with mozzies - and as the flood waters have gone down in central Queensland there is literally a plague of mozzies and sandflies.

Lee & Joan were remembering the mozzies in central Queensland from their droving days and had some horror stories:

• Wearing long pants, coats, hat with fly screen tied into the neck and gloves to try to keep the mozzies from biting - in January!
• Lighting fires for the cattle to try to keep the mozzies away and having to literally push aside the scrubbers - cattle who came in for the fire but had never been handled before.
• Not being able to tell the colour of a horse because it was covered in sandflies.
• Wiping the neck of a horse and leaving smears of blood all down the neck.

Truly - with that in mind our mozzies don't seem so bad - and as Max observed that our screens are actually working.

Thomas News

The latest from Tom's Mission President's wife (the photo captions are hers too):

"First of all - It's over, and all is well.

Now for the details -

We (Your son, his companion Elder Rasmussen, and I) met at the hospital this morning at about 9:30. We waited, filled out papers, went to a different building through an underground tunnel, and waited some more. They brought us a medical history paper to fill out. Of course, it was in Latvian, but they brought a Russian translation of it. Elder Rasmussen's Russian is great, and he brought his English, Russian dictionary, so between him and and my limited knowledge of Latvian, we managed to inform the staff about Elder Fulcher's epilepsy, his medication, that he doesn't smoke or drink, is not allergic to anything, has no internal diseases, and is not pregnant.

When we completed the papers, Elder Fulcher practiced signing his name left handed for a while and then autographed the forms. Next it was off to another room for a blood draw - not his favorite part of the day. Then we waited some more before they brought him the inevitable plastic cup with orders to fill it up. He complied as best he could, considering he hadn't had anything to drink that morning except a cup of juice. Then a nurse handed Elder Rasmussen a copy of the hospital contract, which he translated for us. Basically it said that Elder Fulcher had to do everything they told him to do, to not cause a fuss, don't try to run away, and recognize the chief nurse as the main authority in his life while he was there. He signed.

At about noon they assigned him to a room with 3 other men. We knew that his surgery wouldn't be until after 3:00, so I left to take Elder Rasmussen back to their apartment to retrieve Elder Fulcher's toothbrush, and drop E. Rasmussen off at the mission office to work with another companionship. I went back to the hospital and stayed with your son until 6:00, when they came with a gurney and wheeled him away. He was gone for about 1 1/2 hours. He had planned to opt for the local anesthetic, but the plan changed and he had a general anesthetic. He was very groggy and confused when I first saw him, and wasn't quite sure who I was for a little while. After he finally recognized me, he couldn't figure out where he was, and was a bit distressed about the fact that his arm was orange (iodine anti-bacterial scrub). I reassured him that everything was normal, that his surgery went well, and that he wouldn't remember any of this in the morning! His hand was hurting quite a lot, so I told the nurse (in limited Latvian and lots of Charades) that he needed some pain meds as soon as possible - she agreed to take care of it.

At that point I said goodnight to him, and went in search of someone who spoke a little English so that I could make sure that the Drs. and nurses remembered about his tegritol, and that he HAD to take it before he went to sleep for the night. Everyone was up to speed on that item, so I headed for home. I spoke to the surgeon, who told me that they put 2 metal plates and 4 mini-screws into his hand. He assured me that the surgery was a success. They will x-ray the hand tomorrow just to make sure that all is still well, and then, if the wound is healing as expected, they will release him on Thursday. Depending on the pain factor, he might end up here with us in the mission home for a day or 2, or, if he's feeling great, we'll let him get back to limited work.

I took pictures of the events of the day, up to when they wheeled him into surgery. I didn't take any when he came out out of respect for his privacy. I plan to go back at noon tomorrow with some homemade cinnamon rolls. I watched what they fed the patients for dinner tonight at the hospital. I've never actually seen gruel, but I think this was it! It looked like wallpaper paste as the nurse ladeled it into the bowl, and then slapped a chunk of margarine on top. It is served with a tepic cup of black tea. Probably nutritious, but not too interesting or tasty. The doctor said I could bring in food, so I plan to spoil the lad a bit. I will also bring cinnamon for the nurses - that should insure that he'll get plenty of TLC!

Elder Fulcher is a great young man, and has handled this situation like a champ. Love, Sister Watterson

Elder Rassmussen translating the contract

Wheeling him into surgery:

Going to a different building through an underground tunnel:

Elder Fulcher and Elder Rassmussen mugging for the camera:

Elder Fulcher practising his left handed signature:

Having blood drawn:

Fill 'er up:

A missed opportunity

Driving home from school today Max said 'I can't believe you said no to Tom coming home."

When the Mission President's wife phoned to tell us about Tom's hand she said that they had checked the injury with various mission and US medical staff who felt confident the operation could be done in the Baltics, but if we weren't comfortable with that, they would fly him back.

Max thought I should have taken the chance - I explained that Tom wouldn't stay - he'd still go back to the mission - Max said 'at least we'd have seen him.'

First for Peet

A day of firsts for Peet:

• First day at high school.
• First day at any school other than Pine.
• First uniform.
• First homework diary.
• First teachers he has called by their surnames.

And there are lots more firsts to come. He loved the day.

Thomas News

There will probably be no letter this week because Tom is in hospital having an operation to put pins in his hand - he broke his hand - playing soccer! He was the goalie and missed a shot, got frustrated and punched a brick wall! The big kids are laughing at him because he has had people threatening to kill him, been beaten up, had kids chucking snowballs at him, been sworn at numerous times - and through all of that he's fine - but miss a goal in soccer and it's all too much to bear.

This letter is from his Mission President's wife:

"Elder Fulcher, Elder Rasmussen ( your son's companion), and I went back to the hospital today to get things moving forward for Elder Fulcher's surgery. We visited with one of the surgeons - he and his colleague specialize in hand surgery - and they have scheduled Elder Fulcher for tomorrow (Tuesday) sometime between noon and 8:00 pm.

Their system is to put all the surgical candidates on a list, start at the top and work their way down until everyone is done or 8:00, whichever comes first! The doctor said the list for Tuesday isn't too long, so Elder Fulcher's surgery should be done tomorrow - if not, then it will be Wednesday.

This type of surgery typically takes about 40 minutes to complete. I asked whether they would do a general or a local anesthetic. The doctor said that would be up to Elder Fulcher. At first, your son said it might be interesting to watch the surgery as it progressed, but then decided that maybe sleeping through the whole thing might be a good idea. We'll see how he feels about it tomorrow!

There is a 3 to 4 day hospital stay expected. As I mentioned, Baltic medical tradition is to keep people in the hospital MUCH longer than what we're used to in the US - This would be out-patient surgery at home. I don't know about how it's done in Australia - at any rate, Elder Fulcher should get caught up on a lot of sleeping and reading for the rest of the week.

The great thing about this surgery is that Elder Fulcher will be able to use his hand almost immediately after the surgery. He has to give it a little time for the surgical wound to heal, and then he should have normal use of the hand. The doctor said that the pins and screws should be removed in about a year.

The hospital we are using is the chief trauma hospital in Riga. The facility itself is not new, but appears clean and equipped with modern technology. I was pleased with the interview we had with this doctor. He spoke Latvian, Russian, and fair English, so we could communicate with him quite well. He seemed very capable, professional, had a good wit and a sparkle in his eye. He teased Elder Fulcher lightly about the nature and cause of his injury, and assured us that they do a lot of this surgery, with all the drunken fist fights that occur! His colleague will be doing the surgery tomorrow, but he will be in again on Wednesday to check up on your son. I feel confident that all will go well. We'll make sure Elder Fulcher receives a blessing before the operation.

I asked Elder Fulcher why he chose to punch a cement wall, and why his frustration level was high enough that he took that course of action. He replied that he wasn't really mad at anyone else, just frustrated with himself. Punching the wall seemed like a good idea at the time - but he promised that future frustrations will be dealt with less self-destructively.

He's in good spirits, but feeling a little silly at being in his present circumstance. He's taking a good deal of ribbing from his fellow missionaries, but it's being given and received in a spirit of camaraderie ."

Work Day

We spent Saturday - Australia Day - working on the yard. All the kids got stuck in and weeded, mowed, tidies, swept and so on. Now - even though an inexperienced eye may have trouble seeing it - the yard looks heaps better - and I can replant the herb garden.

The herb garden was in such a sorry state that it took almost all day to weed. We even tied the clump of lemon grass to the back of Alec's forerunner and pulled it out - along with three of the sandstone blocks that made up part of the garden bed.

Louisa's garden got weeded too.

A full day of everyone working and being able to see some progress at the end is my idea of a good day.

Jesse made a wreath from some of rosemary that we pruned.

LilyRhadika came out and slept over on Friday night. Lily, Louisa, Max, Peet & Jesse stayed at home while Roger and I went to the temple and Alec went to a party (which Max tells us is the right thing for him to be doing at his age). Nobody went to sleep till after midnight - they were all up racing around the yard till then.

Louisa and Lily woke up early for a swim then helped with the work and played all day. I made Lisha's lamb roast - which was declared the best lamb roast ever made - and we had a fire at night for s'mores - which Jesse is a bit addicted to - and finally took Lily home at 8.30 pm. All of which made for some exhausted people around here.

Jesse also taught Lily to ride the postie bike in the middle of all that.

After Lily and Louisa left, Max and Jesse were still sitting around the fire. Max told Jesse that he feels a bit lonely when Lily comes over because Louisa mainly plays with Lily. He said it was fun playing on Friday night - but he felt lonely the rest of the time. Jesse assured him that she would play with him if he was ever lonely - so Max hit her up for a sleepover in the lounge room that night. So Max, Jesse and Peet slept in the lounge room- and Louisa slept with us - she was so tired she couldn't sleep alone!

Ice, animals that kill and ironing

Max claims that ice is one of his favourite things - that are see through - I'd like to know what the others are.

Max asked me what my favourite animal that can kill people is - I said an elephant - he looked nonplussed and said that his is an Eastern Brown Snake. So there you go.

Max also ironed his own clothes for church this morning - dressed himself -and tied his own tie. It was an interesting look.

Mt Warning

After much toing and froing over where to go we finally settled on Mt Warning. It seemed to have most of the requirements - somewhere we hadn't been before, fresh water to swim in, campfires allowed at the campsite, toilets, and not too hot.

And the camp grounds advertising banner said 'tranquility and beauty'. I can't vouch for the tranquil part - it may have been before we arrived - but it was beautiful. There was a stream running right near our campsite. We suspect that most of the time it would be more of a rocky gully but with all the recent rains it was running beautifully and sounded like it was raining all night.

Max was so pumped up by the whole idea of camping that he got stuck into all the setting up straight away.

As soon as we were set up the three little ones went swimming in the creek - which was cold. Max's swim didn't last long.

We went on a little bushwalk and settled in for the night with a campfire.

The campground had a snake show - which I think was designed to scare everyone away from bushwalking. It sounds like snakes are everywhere and ready to leap out and attack you and kill you. Jesse didn't want to go to the toilet without a compression bandage from then on - just in case.

Everyone except Jesse and Alec held the snake - they claim they weren't scared - they had just held so many snakes they didn't see the point.

The snake - Janey - loved Max and coiled itself right around him. Louisa was the first to try - very brave I think.

We drove into Byron Bay for lunch - where a butterfly took a particular liking to Louisa and was happy to just sit on her face while she walked around - Max had a go too. Sadly, but hilariously, when they let it go a minor bird swooped down in front of them and ate it.

We also had a swim, and a walk to the eastern most point of Australia - which is at the Lighthouse.

Since we mucked around so long we were late getting back to the campsite - so dinner was very late. While we waited for it to cook Roger gave rope tying lessons to Louisa, Max, Peet and Jesse. Then Louisa gave a lesson to Alec.

We left on Thursday - Australia Day was on Saturday - and apparently the campground- which was not that big - was expecting 400 -500 people for the weekend. Mt Warning is the first place to see the sunrise in Australia, which is cool I'm sure, but we were glad to leave early.

We had a lovely time -and this was the first time that it was pretty easy for me. Though we all noticed that we didn't really have a very little kid anymore - and that was a bit sad. We also missed Tom - he wrote not so long ago that he missed and appreciated camping trips. Funny that it's still so much fun even though we have no one living near us and have all the peace and quiet at home - and even have a campfire very often. There's just something extra nice about sleeping in tents - we always remember Nephi writing about his father Lehi in the Book of Mormon saying 'my father dwelt in a tent' and think about how calming it is to be in a tent - albeit a lightweight, weatherproof tent.

Thomas News

Yes, I now have gloves and a hat. I got them last week and am now very warm. But really, it's not even below 0 degrees at the moment (positive 1 to be exact). And really, not cold at all, considering the fact that there is snow around. It's actually the warmest winter on record. It's really somewhat surreal.

To make things even stranger, a couple of days ago, Elder Rasmussen and I are getting ready to leave the apartment, and we see a light in the kitchen. Presuming that we left a light on, we proceeded to fiddle with the light switch to try and turn the light off. We later found out that this light was actually... the sun. Yep, we've had so much cloud cover the last few days that even natural sunlight seems alien to us.

I should clarify last week's analogy, the man we were teaching spoke in English. I agree it would have been really cool to have done that in Russian. But to me, the fact that I pretty much pulled that one out of the air was enough for me. I still believe the spirit lead me in that incident. The sad part is, we had him saying he was going to come to church but on that day his mother went into hospital. He came after church and we had a talk to him, but since then it has been difficult to get in contact with him.

Well, a couple of good experiences this week. To answer your question about seeing President Watterson, he even joined us on a teaching appointment. That man is a spiritual giant. Every zone conference I see him give the same teaching example. More than once I admit, I have found myself thinking "can that example actually work? I'm not so sure." Then in our appointment, he uses that exact model. The spirit was strong in that lesson, one of the two people we were teaching- a teenage girl who just happened to be there that night- was staunch in her atheism. After everything said, she replied with "I don't believe". What was strange, though, was that as we went through the lesson, she seemed to become more desperate in that claim. Something was penetrating. Something was breaking down the so-called "invincible" barrier of atheism. I think something very potent was planted in her heart.

That night I learned so much about teaching with the spirit and inviting it into the lesson than I ever had.

Second highlight of this week was zone conference. The whole day was focused on the one word: Vision. What do we want to bring to the Baltics? The answer being: Stakes and Wards. But something that I found really interesting was to do with perspective. Particularly when it comes to contacting and tracting. Asking yourself "is this person going to change his life with my help? Or the help I can give him with the spirit?" It really helps me to think hard on what I am going to do, and helps me to pick my street contacts better.

Third highlight: We now have a flat. It's lacking an Ironing board amongst other things at the moment, but it is our home, and Elder Rasmussen and I love it. We're very close to a couple of Tram stops which is convenient as trams are one of the major forms of transport here (along with buses and trolleybuses, a sort of bus/tram hybrid, which I will have to show you in a picture one day).

Final highlight: English class. Elder Rasmussen has been feeling VERY sick lately. So last night, he bunked up with a sick Latvian missionary while the other Latvian and I took care of English. It was a good class, and the spiritual thought was amazing. Only one woman, Irena, early 30s, stayed back, but the spirit there was incredible. She asked many questions (sign of one who wants to understand) and in the end she said that she thought our religion was really good. A good start, considering that she isn't technically an investigator.

Floods at Clermont

Clermont is flooded-in a big way. Properties are flooded in and needing airlifts of food etc. Helicopters are doing runs with graziers to cut fences to let stock through to dry ground. Alinya (which was my grandparents property) has knee deep water through the house- and they have no way out. Sam & Ross are fine though Ross's sorghum paddock looks like a river. Matt & Floss had water right through their paddock and under the house, but it's receding now.

The old Alinya homestead was close to the Belyando River so it flooded often and Grandma Thomas would just keep cooking on the wood stove - wading about in the flood waters.

These photos are from friends of Sam & Ross:

This one is Glenmore (Sam & Ross's place). Their house is the smaller of the two homesteads.

Power of Positive Thinking

Jesse had an engagement party to go to on Saturday night -flattered as she was by the invitation she was a bit nervous about going since she didn't think she'd know anyone. So she spent the day at Cedar Creek wishing she could hurt herself. She should have wished more specifically - when she and Peet were at the top waterfall Peet asked for a push and Jesse obliged - and broke her toe. Not badly enough to stay home from the party - but pretty sore.

Toothless

Max lost his third tooth today - in the middle of sacrament meeting. He was practically cheering and caused quite a stir.

Note the blood on the collar.

Before we left for church we were reading 1 Nephi 3 - 5 for Louisa's Primary Class- when we got to the bit where Lehi discovers he is descended from Joseph and that Laban is too, Louisa was aghast - 'you mean Nephi killed his own relative!' Max sagely answered 'Louisa, he was really wicked and he was going to die sometime anyway.'

Cedar Creek Falls - again

Since Jesse did my school working bee for me on Thursday we had time to go somewhere on Saturday - so after much deliberation (which seems to be our family specialty) we decided to go the Cedar Creek Falls again.

This time we all walked up the creek together - which was a bad idea. Peet was determined to lead the way - which would have been fine - except that he is a bit more nimble than me and kept telling me the way was easy - when it was not. The kids, of course, are like little mountain goats and go up and over anything, while the more mature members of the family lag behind. We made it to the falls exhausted and hot which was lucky because the water was like ice - so you needed to be desperate to cool down to get in at all.

Peet and Jesse went straight into the waterfall - Jesse reckons it felt like Everest! They were both gasping for breath when they came out.

The rest of us made it in - eventually - and it was truly crisp and refreshing. Max got out pretty quickly - he feels the cold more than anyone else.

Louisa saw an eel - apparently it was a beautiful one - if there is such a thing.

Roger and the kids climbed up to the next level where they saw dragonflies..

tadpoles...

and another waterfall to slide down - Max wouldn't go down because he didn't want to get cold again.

There were idiot teenage boys jumping off enormous cliffs - entertaining for us even if they were risking death. I was thinking they were stupid when it occurred to me that in all likelihood both my husband and my brother had done the same thing - Roger later said that yes he had done it. And I suppose that if Alec was with us he would have been up there too.

Alec went 4 wheel driving on the forestry tracks at Kenilworth. In spite of Rogers warnings that his universal joints needed replacing soon he went up and down 30 degree slopes, through heaps of mud and over creek crossings - and went to bed that night a very happy boy.