Missionary Interupted

After conversations with Utah doctors and California doctors and President Joyce and Sister Joyce, and Elder Ty and Mom and Matt and Jeff, it looks like Elder French will take a short break and come home to have surgery to repair his shoulder (torn anterior labrum, with fragments causing the pain, plus ligaments re-attached in the wrong place?!?). Sister Joyce assures us that, post-surgery and rehab, it will only take a telephone call from our good Stake President to get him back to Ogden in a couple days. We think he will be home by Monday the 25th, maybe even earlier.
The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes. Tyler has a lot of faith and sets a good example for all of us. He and Elder Dove received baptismal commitments from two people tonight.
We will be happy to have him here for a little while, but happier for him to return quickly!

June 14, 2007

Mailing Address:
Elder R. Tyler French
UTAH OGDEN MISSION
2133 Washington Blvd.
Ogden, Utah 84401

Email Address: rtfrench48@myldsmail.net

I had a nice long talk with Sister Joyce this evening about Tyler and his companions and life in the mission field. She is a sweet lady who cares deeply for her missionaries. She said that Tyler was a little frustrated with his current situation, but that he generally has a great attitude. He was recently transferred and has a new companion, Elder Schwartz. At the moment they are both staying at the mission home for health reasons. Although they are working from there, they are a bit impatient to get out on their own.
While we are lucky that Ty has good insurance, Sister Joyce said that the amount of money the mission spends on medical care is huge, $20,000 in the last couple of months (mostly on sports – interzone competitions on P-Days). $340,000 for apartment rents and $250,000 for gas for the mission cars.
Anyway, as soon as the reports are done, she will call and let us know. We, and Ty, are just waiting right now…

The Wrecked Shoulder

OK, here's the situation.

Ty’s shoulder has been getting worse and worse for about 4 weeks now. You may remember that he dislocated it pretty severely playing football in high school. They had been tracting for about 6 hours straight most days (carrying a heavy backpack) along with going to appointments everyday. Sleeping was becoming difficult because it hurt pretty badly. So he finally mentioned it to Sister Joyce. She arranged for him to have it checked out by an orthopedist. He moved the shoulder around every which way and then pushed on it. Without fail, Ty says, there was a loud POP. He said the doctor would smile and say "that was nice." So they ordered an MRI. That MRI was done and then the doctor went out of town for a week.

He is now back and has had a chance to read the films and he says that they are not clear enough to read properly so he wants to do a new MRI.
Tyler’s attitude is great and he is doing his best under the circumstances. The President moved him from his hiking/biking area to an area with a car so that he would not have to lug the backpack around so much. He loves his new area and companion, Elder Arnegard from Sweden. He is in the Harrisville/Coldville Stakes area.

Aside from loving his missionary work and his comp, Ty is particularly grateful that the Jazz lost so he doesn’t have to listen to all the Utah Jazz fans bragging!!!I will try to include some of his more spiritual stories and update his investigator info soon. Just know that he is doing well and appreciates all the support he gets from family and friends.