You don't realize until its gone...

Before the surgery =)

A few days ago now, I had to get a surgery on my shoulder.  If you are wondering, yes it hurt haha, but pain meds are a great thing God has blessed us with for the first couple of days, and now not hurting too much at all. I'll explain a little of why I needed it and what all was fiddled with and fixed.  My shoulder has always been really loose, and by simply moving my arm, my shoulder would sublux (meaning it would pop out the back of my shoulder).  It didn't hurt all the time, but was something I was just used to.  When I swam and played water polo a few years back during high school, it was sore often and I had to ice it after a lot of use.  And since I have been here on my mission, I have been playing quite a bit of volleyball (ya, I'm getting pretty good at it haha).  About 2 weeks ago now, while playing, I swung my arm super hard on a spike (yes, it was a great hit lol) and it made my arm way sore. So I went and saw a general card doc about it, and asked what he thought.  Upon seeing how loose and crazy my shoulder was, he referred me to an orthopedic surgeon.  I went and saw the doctor and he was saying it was pretty bad and I needed to get surgery, and asked how soon I could do it; my mission president told me that if I needed to, get the surgery, so I told the doc as soon as possible works with me.  The doctor stepped out and came back about 5 minutes later and asked "how about tomorrow?".....
 So I saw the doctor a week and a half ago on Monday and had the surgery on Tuesday. They has to scope my shoulder first, which is only 2 small incisions, on the front and back of my shoulder, through which they cleaned up the torn cartilage that I had.

3 days after, when the bandages were removed

 Then to make it so I won't have future injuries of hurting it by use, they cut open the front of my shoulder and went in and tightened my capsule, so pretty much to hold my shoulder in tighter.  Its been kind of weird; the first couple of days I could not use my right arm whatsoever, and I have a sling that I have been wearing.  Now I am able to use my arm a little bit, but not supposed to really move my shoulder and such.  In the next couple weeks it will be back to full movement, and then just a month or two until I can have strenuous use of it (like lifting weights, and hardcore volleyball).

This was basically my attire for a couple days haha

It was crazy the first couple days to simply have no use of my right arm, and realizing how much I really use it.  Having that has made me to look at the same concept that I have noticed in my life and of those around me; when you don't realize what you have until its gone.  Such as friends or family and having them taken away, even as simply as them moving and no longer having them there.  When you no longer have someone important to you close in your life, and seeing the difference they made.  And I have seen many people that have had the gospel in their lives, and they in choosing to straying from that, and the blessings of the gospel being taken from their lives.  And more so of a blessing being here as a missionary, is getting to see those and help teach people who have not had a knowledge of their Heavenly Father and His love for them, and no realizing the difference that not having the gospel made in their lives, until they had it.  I know that following our Heavenly Father, that being in Christ's church that has been restored to the earth being led by Him through His chosen prophets, has been an amazing blessing in my life.