Unplanned event

We have not posted in quite sometime so I thought it was time to catch up on our activities.   On May 5th we were in Kingston to attend the monthly PEF comittee meeting and then stayed overnight with the Schaefermeyers. On Friday we drove to Ochi and had lunch with Elder/Sister Smith then on to Montego Bay where we presented the inservice lesson to the complete institute.  We had a CD copy of Elder Oaks talk from the Caribbean Area Stake conference, held in January that we presented.  We had around 25 in attendance and Sister Andersen (Fran)conducted a review afterward and as it turned out it was a very spriritual meeting with President Lee participating and sharing his enthusiasm for the gospel and especially the law of tithing.  We stayed that night with Elder/Sister Sorensen who graciously host us monthly while in Mo Bay.  We always enjoy being with them and Elder Sorensen and I scheduled a golf date for May 23rd at Manchester Golf Club in Mandeville.  The course was built and opened in 1865 and is the third oldest golf course in the world. On Saturday morning we traveled to Savlamar and at 11 am presented a PEF fireside at the branch for six wonderful girls interested in furthering their education.  We left Sav around 12:30 and headed home.  Since we would be passing the Brick Oven Pizza place we planned on stopping there for lunch. As we continued our journey toward  home we were on a spiritual high with the success of the past three days and the wonderful association we have here in Jamaica and felt really good about our service.  While travelling Fran reached in the back of the car to retrieve something and when she turned around she said "my arm hurts" and I asked if it had come out of the socket (as that had happened servral times even to the extend that I knew how to put it back in the socket) She said no and then nothing more was said until Sunday after church when the pain increased.  She suffered through Monday and finally on Tuesday we went to Dr Singh and she did not have any mobility without intense pain so it was imposible to xray.  I will not bore you with the details other than to say we had a very difficult time acquiring proper medical attention and finally after much effort were able to get a cortisone shot on Saturday morning which by Sunday had begun to offer some relief from the pain.  Unfortunately she spend  6 nights and seven days sitting up as there was too much pain to lay down and Dr. Singh would not give any pain pills strong enough to eleviate the pain.   After the challenge of treatment and consulting with the Orthepedic specialists in Utah as well as Pres. Hendricks it was determined that we would be wise to persue discovery and treatment at home.  It was with much mixed emotions that we cut our service four months short but felt like for the sake of proper treatment it was necessary.  Therefore, on May 25th we returned home and with prosfessional diagnosis it was determined that while some damage exists in her shoulder the rotator cuff is not torn and the surgery is not immediately required an she is involve with physical therapy to restore a full range of motion in her shoulder. We are very pleased with the improvement and the therapy will hopefully conclude in mid July.

While it is nice to be in our home and have our family around we were quite taken back with our reaction to having left the wonderful saints and missionaries, Pres & Sister Hendricks and Bro Kevin Brown our wonderful supervisor, mom and dad Schaefermeyer, the other Senior missionaries.  We instantly missed our missionary associations and our opportunity to be of service and our hearts go out the Jamaican Saints who faithfully live the Gospel and try to serve one another even in difficult financial circumstances. The mission has truly had a very positive impact in our lives and we will forever treasure our relationship in Jamaica. We were fortunate to complete the PEF firesides for the entire island the Thursday prior to our departure and feel bad about missing Seminary graduation in June.

Over all our mission was a wonderful experience and when we reported to the Stake High Council we both had a hard time controlling our emotions as we shared some of our mission experiences.

If any Jamaicans read this blog know that we love you and miss you and wonderful voices and warm friendliness.  Thank you for how you accepted and treated us.  We love you.  For all those missionaries we have grown close to we look forward to our continued association her at home.

Elder/Sister Andersen (know known as Jack and Fran)

P .S .Sorry this has taken so long but life outside the mission field is extremely hectic!!

Also in reviewing this I notice I forgot to apologize to Elder Sorensen as the events I have posted caused us to miss our golf in Mandeville so I have committed to him meet in St George after he returns home for the golf experience.