July 21, 2009

We leave in 3 weeks. I'm super excited, but also kind of nervous. The last two weeks have been really good. The English elders we have this time are really cool and two of them have become some of my best friends here. They leave tomorrow morning though. They were all good at hoops so it was really fun playing with them. They both played in college. One at Weber State, he's like 6'4 and the other and some juco. He's 6'9. I blocked his shot once when he went up to dunk. I came from the weak side and timed in perfectly. Everyone gave him a really hard time for that. We got each other's info, and we're planning on staying in contact throughout our missions and afterwards and stuff. They're both awesome.

My knee started hurting like 2 or 3 weeks ago and I thought I had just tweeked it. But it got to the point where I could barely walk or kneel down, so I went and saw the trainer at the gym and she said that she thought it was Osgood-schlatters. And so I went to a different trainer the next day and he said the same thing. And he told me to go see the doctor. So I did yesterday and he said that it might be Osgood-schlatters, but he's not an expert on it. So now I have to catch a shuttle today and go see some sports med specialist and do physical therapy because they don't want it holding me back from leaving on time. But they said that it most likely is Osgood-schlatters. They said that most kids get it when they're like 12-15. So the doctor said that I must be a late bloomer because in order to get it you have to still be growing. And it’s where the growth plates in your knee grow too fast and the tendon that runs across the front of your knee can't keep up with the growth. So when you run around, since the tendon isn't big enough, the tendon pulls on the bone causing a lot of pain. So I didn't do anything dumb. I just happened to get it because I'm still growing I guess. The kid who is 6'9 said that he had it bad at one point. But you eventually grow out of it. And it doesn't bother him anymore. So they've told me I can't do anything for the rest of the 3 weeks. So maybe me telling you that while I'm on my mission I'm going to grow to 6'7 wasn't a lie after all? Haha.

I've hit a bump in the language. It’s getting so hard to memorize words. Me and Elder Hermann taught a really, really, really, really good lesson on the Plan of Salvation to our investigator at the TRC on Saturday. It went super well.