Fiji Suva Mission

Fiji Suva Mission
July 2009 - December 2010

Nasinu 1st Ward

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Sister Seare's weekend in Salt Lake City

Here's the story of how Sister Seare ended up in Salt Lake City for the weekend.  23 hours to get there, 23 hours to get home.  Way too long for such a short stay.  This is how it happened.


One of our great elders on the other side of the Island had a weird episode while sitting in Sacrament meeting the Sunday of the Hurricane warning.  He was just sitting there and had a period of blacking out and his entire left side went numb.  When he called Sister Seare that Evening there was really nothing we could do so he asked if they could go to the ZL's flat incase something else happened and so they could give him a blessing. 

For the next couple of days he was fine and there was no way of getting him medical help anyway because the entire country was on Hurricane warning.   



On Wednesday after the Hurricane had passed he called Sister Seare and said he felt that something was really wrong and could he come to Suva and get checked out.  We immediately had him get on the bus and come to Suva.  The next morning Sister Seare took him to see Dr. Craig.  The doctor couldn't really see anything wrong and suggested that maybe he was just dehydrated.  He wanted the elder to stay in Suva for a couple of days just to be sure. That afternoon he had another weird black out episode.  Sister Seare called the doctor back and he scheduled him for a CT scan the following morning. 

The CT scan showed something very concerning to the radiologist so he asked him to come back in on  Monday for another CT scan with contrast.  That CT scan showed an accumulation of fluid in one of the ventricles of the Brain.  He was very concerned and it was recommened that the Elder go to New Zealand for an MRI  (they don't do MRI's in Fiji).  Sister Seare returned to the office and called the Area Medical Advisor who said he wanted the Elder to go to Salt Lake for the MRI because it sounded to him like he had had a mini stroke.  He didn't want to waste time by going to New Zealand.  He immediately called the Main Mission Medical Advisor in Salt Lake who was immediately on the phone with President Ostler.  They wanted the Elder on the next plane to Salt Lake and they wanted him to be accompanied by the Nurse (that would be Sister Seare!).   

The next thing we knew Sister Seare was on her way to Salt Lake.   All went well with the Elder and the Trip to Salt Lake.  His parents picked him up at the airport and took care of him from there.  We haven't heard yet the outcome of the MRI but the President said he would stay in touch and let us know what they find. 

When we heard Becky was going to SLC we made the decision that it would not be a social visit. Reservations were made for her to stay at the Radisson in downtown Salt Lake.  We did however decide  that she should take  advantage of the opportunity and meet Cassie (our soon to be Daughter-in-Law).  The president and his wife agreed due to the fact that we have never met her and that we would not be home for the wedding. 


Sister Seare met up with Cassie and  went shopping for things people wanted her to bring back to Fiji.  They had a great visit and dinner at Mimi's Cafe.  Becky felt like they had  known each other her whole life and she felt the comfort and reassurance that she would make a wonderful wife for Jeff. 

She asked for Freddie's help on Saturday, Freddie brought her a suitcase to take all the stuff she had bought back to Fiji (by the way,  Everything she bought were requests from all the other Senior Missionaries including HoneyMaid Graham Crackers and Wheat Thins for us, which they do not have in Fiji!) they had lunch at Cafe Rio and then Freddie took her to the airport.   Next thing we knew she was back home in Fiji. 

The fast trip took it's toll on Sister Seare physically but emotionally it was a great experience.  She was really glad that she had just stayed in a hotel and that nothing distracted her from our mission.   We feel sure that everything happened the way it was supposed to. 

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