Gospel Simplicity.: Medical Day... New perspective.

Wow, what another amazing day. I'm happy when we can go go go with the service and not have breaks, but since I forgot my journal, it's been nice to have some time to record our India happenings on my blog each day. Today was medical day and man was it humbling. We went to a leprosy colony, to a little church where we set up the stations to do the medical exams of the leprosy affected people. Some of the stations were: finger nail and toe nail cutting, blood pressure, blood testing, cleansing wounds, etc. I took their blood pressure and it was a blast. It was fun to meet them all and it was humbling to see their gratitude for being able to be examined every 2 weeks. My dad and I were talking and we said it was so neat (especially just having celebrated Easter) to watch their wounds be cleaned. We imagined that's what our Savior did in his ministry here on earth. We always hear the stories about the lepers from the Bible, so sitting there watching these people made what we've read in the scriptures even more special. We also walked around the colony. We met some small children and their families. The ones without leprosy were especially grateful to us for helping their family members out. The GREATEST thing for me is that many of these parents have children at the Rising Star school, where we're staying. Some of them told us who their kids were, many of them ones we had met. Their faces just lit up with excitement as they asked how they were, wanting us also to tell them hi. Many of them looked like they wanted to cry. All of the kids are going home for summer vacation this Sunday, so I can only image their excitement. However, at the same time, I know they feel soo blessed to have their children in a safe and healthy environment where they are being well taken care of. All of this experience is so rewarding, as I've said so many times. I can't stop saying that because besides my mission, I don't feel as fulfilled as I do when I'm serving the people here. It's amazing. Here's what I captured from medical day.... :)

This sweet girl was a tender mercy of the day. Her sister goes to the Rising Star School and she and her family met were soo excited that we know her sister. You can tell that they love each other soo much. It made me even more grateful for my family and the importance of family.

Jeremy was in charge of giving eye drops to the leprosy affected people.

This woman is a saint.

Abraham and us were laughing soo hard together today. We told him to smile for the pictures and this is what he gave us every time. Love it :)

Children upon children upon children.

Had to take a picture at the boomba. It reminds me of my mission in the Philippines.

Leprosy colony.

Took peoples' blood pressure today.

Ella and I at the blood pressure and blood testing station. So fun.

More of the colony. It was so fun not only to do medical work, but to walk around, get a feel for where they live, and talk with them and their families.

Afterwards, we went to the zoo! It was HUGE. We actually didn't see too many animals, but the fun part is that we rode around the zoo on bikes. It was soo fun and we had some good family bonding time. I've loved this trip because I've been able to spend so much time with my awesome family. I'm grateful for them. I really do miss them when I'm down in Provo all the time.

Sorry, we just had to.

Last of all we had 2 awesome hours of play time with the kids. It was the BEST one yet. Usually not all the volunteers come but today EVERYONE came. It was a cool site to see all of us with around 200 kids just running around everywhere. I had been kinda nervous all week about remembering names of the children. I'm already soo bad at names, but on top of that add all the tricky Indian pronunciations. Today was awesome, though, because all the little kids would come running up to me and I remembered mostly all of them. At the end of play time, it was time to go and it seriously took 30 mins to leave because all of the cute kids wouldn't let us leave. They'd come running up to me saying, "Erica, Erica, Erica"! Or I would see a kid that I've met or a new kid and play with them soo more. I've been able to feel this awesome love the children and people here in India and it's been such an amazing experience. I've truly learned how to love people more. This morning I woke up in kind of a funk. I was worrying about some things, like having finals in just a week and some other things. I realized that I just needed to focus everything that I have in me to this trip. It's been one of the greatest blessings in my life, but I was a little consumed with school and other things. Today I 110% participated in everything and just lost myself in loving the kids and leprosy-affected people we helped. It felt great. I think it was a test that Heavenly Father gave me, to see how grateful I would be for this opportunity to learn to love others and just serve them with everything I have. I think the past few days, I could have done better, but man, today I felt on top of the world. Today was AWESOME. I'm soo excited for another 3 days of this trip. I'm learning a lot and I've felt true happiness in serving others more each day.

This was probably the coolest experience of the whole day. We met this little girl's baby sister earlier in the day. I showed her the picture of her sister and I. She grabbed my phone held it to her check, kissed the phone and almost started crying. It almost made me cry. These moments make this trip so rewarding