From Karsten Hinckley
Teaching in Thailand
I was very amazed at this last week. We got a call Tuesday
night from a lady in the office. She told us how a man was in a accident and
his parents wanted someone to go and see him. Then we got a call from another
person in the office about [this same man]. So we thought, “Okay, okay. We will go see this guy right after studies…”
After biking about 13 Kilometers, we finally made it to the
hospital. Well we found the room where this man was staying. We got to the door
and didn’t really know what to do. We knocked and [there was] no answer. We
knocked again and [still] no answer, so I just decided to walk in. I thought I
was walking into a hotel from the look that the room had. There was another
room where a man was on a hospital bed and a women sleeping on the couch next
to him. So we decided to leave the room.
At this point we didn’t want to wake the man up, but we knew
someone had called for us to go and see him. My companion said, “Let me write a
note and we will come back when he is awake.” I said that we should wait for a few minutes.
So we waited and, sure enough, a nurse came walking down the hall to [the man’s]
room. She went in and then came out a few minutes later. She looked at us and
asked if we were friends with the man inside, and we said yes. She said, “Okay,
they have been expecting you.”
So then the lady who
was in the room came out and told us to put some masks on and to come in. We
followed the lady to the room where the man was. The man in his mixed English
told the women to leave the room. Elder Chris and I just stood there and
waited. The man looked like he was in a lot of pain. He said, “My parents sent
you here huh?” We answered, “Yep, they sure did!”
He went on to tell us
all that he could remember from the past week. Traveling, playing golf, getting
hot and cold, and getting medicine. So then we just talked about where we were
from, how long we have been here and so on. He told us that when we talked it
caused him to shake and have mini seizures. So at times we had to wait it out
for him to respond.
We came to the initial question, “Eric, what can we do for
you?”
He said, “My parents
want you to give me a blessing.” We asked if that is what he wanted and he said
yes. Elder Chris gave the first blessing and I gave the second blessing. It was
such a great opportunity. We finished, talked for another minute, and went on
our way.
I can’t tell you how
spiritual that was. I had woke up a few days before asking the Lord where He wanted
me to go. He answered my prayer by leading me to this man, Eric. I can’t tell
you how important it is [to be] ready to perform something (like a blessing) on
a seconds notice. It is also important that you are worthy to do such things as
well. I hope and pray for this man and that he recovers. The doctors did say
that he had H1N1 but then tested him again and said he had H5N1 which is not as
bad. I am thankful for the Lord and that He answers my prayers and guides me on
where to go and what to do.
