"Hey everyone! Well..another week has passed and I'm so grateful this past week is behind me. Well..the reason I couldn't write much last week is that I honestly felt too weak to write much. I'm better now and wanted to wait until I had passed through that difficult time to tell everyone what happened. I didn't want my family worrying about me. I got bit by a mosquito carrying a virus called Dengue. Its very similar to malaria and causes a ton of problems in the body. It even kills people of older ages since its so hard on the body. Last Tuesday I was called to come into the city in order to receive my 4th rabies shot. Their original plan was to send me to the Guatemala MTC for a day since they had the injection there. For some reason, they couldn't find the rabies injection here in Panama. Well..that same day we traveled to the city I started feeling the symptoms. I had an intense migraine but didn't think much of it. Brushed it off as a sign I should just drink more water. When we got to the city I started having these weird episodes where I would feeling freezing cold than burning hot after. That was probably the first time in my life I have experienced that. Note..I didn't see chills as one of the side effects but I did experience it. I quickly went downhill and got a terrible fever. The mission nurse told me to go to the hospital that same day. They canceled the plane ticket they had already bought me to fly to Guatemala by myself. When I got to the doctor I knew something was wrong. I gave them the few side effects I had at the time and they did a blood test since I demanded one to see if I had malaria or dengue. I had a fever of nearly 104 degrees. That's high. I usually never fever. The tests came up negative and they sent me away that night criticizing me saying that I was just dehydrated. I went back to the house of the assistants of the president. From Tuesday night until Sunday I just layed on a mattress in the heat suffering from all the problems that follow dengue. I maybe ate about 2 crackers over the period of 5 days. I tried drinking a ton of water but it just made me sick. I had studied into the mosquito viruses prevalent in Panama during my time here in this country and self diagnosed myself with the symptoms of dengue. Sunday I wanted to go to church but I wasn't physically able. I stood up off the mattress and nearly fell over. I told someone I had to go to the hospital again because I have never seen myself so weak before in my life. Even after surgeries. I got my companion and we went to the hospital instead of church. I felt bad I caused him to miss church. I demanded another blood test. They usually would just brush us off and tell us to make an appointment but seeing the way I looked they took me right away. I explained the symptoms. I had had nonstop fevers the past 4 or 5 days around 103. I felt like vomiting and couldn't eat, I had pain in my eyes, pain in my muscles, joints, and body in general. I also had super bad headaches. Some other stuff too. This time that I went he saw that I also had rashes under my eyes and on stomach (I didn't realize those until he told me.) This time the results came back positive for dengue. The doctor apologized to me for the last visit. What happened is that dengue has an incubation period of like 3 to 14 days where symptoms aren't visible. I probably caught dengue from a mosquito while in Ukupa (right next to the jungle with massive mosquitos. Ukupa has a history of giving missionaries problems. My trainer Elder Perkes may have gotten malaria there. Other missionaries got a different disease called Zika while there). Sadly, there is really no medical treatment for Dengue. You have to just suffer through it and pray it ends quickly. My white blood cell levels were super low. I think I had blood drawn over 5 times this past week. The doctor wanted to keep me in the hospital for 10 days pumping fluid through me to keep the fever down. They admitted me into the hospital that night (made me put on the gown and everything) and I slept there. At about 5 PM the following day I got a hold of the mission president and asked him to help get me out of the hospital. They were just running a bill up and not doing anything other than attempt to keep the fever down. President sent the church doctor that ended up flying to panama to give me the rabies shot to rescue me from the hospital. He agreed there wasn't much the hospital was doing for me and got me out. Surprisingly, I didn't get one more headache or fever. Though I still feel week now I haven't had a fever again. God sent me a tender mercy in that aspect. Some people have fevers and all the problems for nearly 2 weeks. My body fought off the worse side effects in less than half the time. Approx 6 days. I wanted to go back to my area on Tuesday since we had spent an entire week out of our area. President let us return on Friday after I had shown that I could work a little in the city. Friday I spent part of the day resting and we started trying to set up some appointments. These past few days we've gotten a reasonable amount of work done. We got to teach this one investigator named Yari a lot. She doesn't speak a ton of Spanish but her cousin is doing a pretty good job translating. 5 of Yaris family members including that cousin (The Martinez family) got baptized by my companion Elder Ricks and my friend Elder Green about a week before I got called to Carti Tupile. This Sunday we took our small cayuco to their separate island called Yandup and picked them up to take them to church. They really like going but have no way to cross the water. Luckily it isn't too far. Elder Ricks and I also took another trip to an island called Coibita after we dropped off the Martinez family. We went to Coibita to pick up 2 investigators that we were teaching there. I was really surprised at how many people showed up to church. There was nearly 80 members there and nearly all stayed for 3 hours. We were lucky in Ukupa if we had 40 people show up that stayed 2 hours. Oh..funny side note. While in Coibita I mustered up enough strength to pick up some random pig I saw walking around on the island so I could mess with the little kids. It was worth it. haha!! I will send pics. Oh..another funny thing. I love the kids here. They crack me up. One of their favorite things to do is get on their hands and start fighting each other with their feet. Some are actually REALLY good. Its like boxing and some can take hard hits without falling. I dont know how they do it. Well..I think that's everything that has happened. Tomorrow I hit the two week mark of symptoms for dengue. I will have finished for the most part the duration period of symptoms. I still feel pretty weak in my body but have been able to help us get around a little via cayuco so I guess I'm not too weak. I feel myself getting stronger both physically and spiritually. Those times when I was truly suffering I honestly thought back to how I missed my family, friends, and comforts of home. Then I felt comforted. I knew there and then that I would never be alone. I remembered how Christ suffered all of the pains both physically and spiritually that we experience. I know without a doubt he did that sacrifice for us out of perfect love and that we can overcome any trial with his help. I was reminded of why I'm here in Panama. Its because I'm doing something much greater than myself. That I'm searching for those that have a desire for happiness. Only when we have the desire that this gospel and the blessings that follow exist, can we have the faith to do what is necessary to receive those blessings. Friends and family...trials exist to make us stronger. We must never think badly of our heavenly fathers plan. It is perfect and though we don't understand everything its what was best for us. I continue to find myself surprised at the obstacles thrown before me. However...
I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
1 Nephi 3:7
(I included a website above to show a little about Dengue)
I'm also attaching a photo here. Its some of my friends I made here in Carti Tupile. I love these kids. Most even where clothes. Except for the one I'm covering with the Book of Mormon I was carrying around with me. haha!!
I hope all of you have a good week! Love you guys!!"
-Elder Hawes
"One of the pics here is me with my companion and friend Elder Ricks in our wooden boat that we use to get around to different islands (called cayuco)."
"A picture of two kids doing handstands. The way that little kid is..is how they fight. Usually they do it relative to size."
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