While I was serving in the Idaho-Twin Falls Mission, I had quite a few unfortunate situations occur. I left for my mission in September of 2013. In February of 2014, I tore my ACL during a P-Day activity. I had to return to Minnesota for about 6 months for surgery and recovery. I decided to return to Twin Falls in August of 2014. About 3 weeks later I was teaching a member how to make gumbo for a party they were putting on. One of our investigators was helping us and we were planning to have a lesson with her after. I dropped the pot of roux (oil and flour that had been boiling) and instinctively tried to catch it as it was falling. When the pot hit the floor, the roux splashed up all over my face, right hand, arm and leg. I was taken by ambulance to the Twin Falls ER where I spent the next 6 hours waiting to hear if I was going to be life-flighted to the University of Utah.
I ended up with second and third degree burns over 20% of my body. I was in the hospital for 3 days under constant observation for fear of infection. It was decided that I could be driven down to the hospital in a few days. I stayed with some family friends that had completed their residency at the Mayo Clinic and who now live in Salt Lake; Stephen and Angela McKellar let me stay with their family for a few weeks while the doctors decided when I would need skin grafts. The doctors told me that I would need skin grafts; however, they weren’t sure how much I would need. I was told that if I needed skin grafts, I would have to go home again and probably would not be allowed to return to my mission. I was instructed to wait 10 days before they decided. In those 10 days, I had to go through the very painful process of debriding my burns every day so that they wouldn’t scab over. When I returned to the University of Utah Burn Center 10 days later, they were shocked. My third degree burns had started to heal (even though there was nothing left there to grow back from). I was cleared to go back to my mission.
During this time I had so many people praying for my recovery. There were so many miracles surrounding this event besides just the burns healing. I had multiple investigators join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints directly relating to these events.