Quarantine!

This past Tuesday (24th, I believe?) Whenever it was I last wrote) I began
feeling sick during chior practice. I was able to make it through the rest
of the night just fine (including an amazing talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of
the Council of the Twelve!) but the next morning I couldn't concentrate on
my morning study. I went to the clinic and spent about five hours waiting
to be seen (they are very busy right about now). Eventually I was seen, and
they shoved some instrument up my nose to essentially scrape my brain, and
they tested that to see if I had swine flu.

The test came back negative, but it's only 50% accurate anyways (or so I'm
told) and I had lots of the symptoms, so swine flu, regular flu, or
whatever, they decided to quarantine me in order to keep the other 2,500
missionaries from getting sick too. Understandable, considering how crowded
the MTC is, but oh boy. Quarantine. That's not...a happy word.

So they put me in the "sickbay", aka quarantine, which is half of one floor
of a particular dorm. The other half of the floor is for those who are
confirmed cases of swine flu. We have no physical contact with them or with
anyone in the outside world. I put the stuff down they let me grab from my
room and slept for pretty much the rest of the day. I was also prescribed
TAMIFLU, which I was supposed to take at breakfast and dinner. Dinner was
always cold leftovers from the cafeteria, which in reality isn't all that
bad since we had a microwave, but when you're sick the last thing you feel
like eating is a cold french dip sandwich. That's alright though, they
provided us with whatever they could.

That included virtual classrooms. Through a desktop computer in my room and
a camera I could video chat with my classroom and try to keep up with the
curriculum. However, the sound wasn't working out at all on my computer, so
I only tried it a couple times and concentrated mostly on personal study.
My time was dedicated to reading, watching church related video content
(mormonads, general conference, seminary videos, MTC videos), sleeping, and
doing things like building archways out of the boxes our food came in.

Overall it was actually a pretty good thing that I was able to spend some
time really reflecting on what's most important to be thankful for and what
really lasts, since I was there for thanksgiving. possessions disappear,
good days can turn sour, and even good health isn't always something you can
be thankful for, which is why we should be so grateful for it when we DO
have it. What really lasts, however, when time has passed and things return
to the dust from which they came, be they possessions, money, or even our
current mortal bodies, certain things will never disappear. If I live my
life right, I can have my family forever. I will have my relationships with
others. I will have what I have learned. Finally, I will have who I am.
I'm eternally thankful for that, and for this gospel that allows me a chance
to obtain eternal happiness. That's what I'm here to do, after all...share
the greatest gift any of us could ever possibly recieve. I ask that those
of you who don't know what that is look into it. It will change your life.

/I will address everything else in my letter home, because my time is up
now!/