The First (and Hopefully Last) Hospital Trip

Hey friends! Guess what I did this week! I went to the hospital! Wait, don't panic, it wasn't for me. I just had to take someone there. 

Goodness gracious it has been a week. Last Monday feels like a transfer ago, Tuesday feels like a month ago, Wednesday was a week ago, Thursday doesn't even exist in my memory, Friday was the great flood followed by miracles, and Saturday and Sunday are one long day of General Conference. If that doesn't give you a summary of how this week felt I don't know how else to help you.

Hospital!

On a lovely Wednesday morning I was awakened by a frantic tap on my shoulder followed by a very slurred, “I need to go to the hospital.” “Uh yeah you do” I thought. I rolled out of bed, grabbed my phone and called President's wife while putting shoes on and throwing my things in my backpack. She picked up on the first ring and I barely gave her the chance to speak before saying “I am taking Elder Kubik to the hospital.” Our phone call lasted less than 50 seconds and after that we were already on our way out the door. Let me just summarize. In three minutes I had been woken up, called President's wife, gotten ready, grabbed my wallet and tag, put a few extra things in a backpack, called an Uber, gotten the Elder's documents, and was headed out the door. Adrenaline and the power of God does crazy things. It felt like a movie.

We proceeded to get stuck in rush hour traffic for 35 minutes. I started teaching our Uber driver the second half of the plan of Salvation and getting his number. We made it to the hospital and I thought the Elder had gotten better because he wasn't throwing up anymore. Come to found out he just didn't want to throw up in the Uber. We got in the hospital and he went sprinting to the bathroom. Spoiler he came up short. While he was dealing with that I got to do all his paperwork and then it was waiting. After a little bit they took him away, got him on an IV and gave him a bunch of drugs. He was returned to me a little high. Got some prescriptions and headed back to the house and that was that. 

I learned a little but from this experience, one of them being that I don't know medical Portuguese. And more significantly, the importance of wearing my tag. I will admit I don't remember putting it on but it made a difference in the day. We left the house in comfy clothes, nothing that we said we were missionaries besides our tags. Our Uber driver noticed and asked about the gospel and made sure we would get to the hospital safely. We walked in the door and two members noticed us because of our tags and offered their help. An inactive member working security noticed us and asked if we needed water or anything. All of this only happened because of our tags. As we wear his name on our heart, physically and spiritual, he protects us and sends angels to help us. That is what I learned from this experience.

Conferência da Zona

Tuesday we had zone conference which was vibes. The training that President gave was good. He talked about controlling ourselves and doing what we can but not controlling the work of the Lord. I got to share my testimony of what happens when we submit ourselves to the Lord’s work rather than do what we think is better by sharing the story of Ana Clara and Thaís's baptism. We talked about miracles that happen when we change ourselves to be more like Christ rather than try to change the acts of others. President also cooked us for singing awfully. It was super funny. Lastly the ZLs trained about responding with love. Any of this sound familiar? It's basically the entirety of what General Conference was about. I will talk about that in a bit. 

After all the trainings I got to talk to a bunch of missionaries and most importantly, Elder Bingham for what could have been one of the last times (don't worry we will live together at BYU). He shared some good scriptures with me and gave me a blessing. It was an offer he had made me my second day in the field that I declined until now. It gave me some good guidance that I needed. I talked to some friends and then it was back to the area. It was a good day.

The Great Flood

Friday it rained and rained and rained some more. I was sick of online work so I made the decision to go out and knock doors anyways. We also got one of the youth to go with us. We got soaked. My phone may or may not have broken. Clothes were see-through. Our door knocking wasn't heard over the pouring rain but we were having fun so that’s what matter. A lady saw us soaked and invited us in with hot chocolate and crackers ready. Blessing. After the rain stopped the real work started, followed by miracles. We took turns knocking doors and turned one of the worst weeks in my mission to one of of the better. I have never had so much success knocking doors, especially in the rain. We were still soaked by the end of the day but with the smile I had and the blessings we saw it was all worth it.

Random

• Got a Book of Mormon restock and saw the change in size #nolongercarryingthebible

• The nurse that attended to us in the hospital could not understand my Portuguese pronunciation of “Tylenol” so I wrote it out and then proceeded to repeat exactly what I had said.

• Termites made a doggy door in our door

• Ran into my barbers brother at a pastel trailer

• Made the worst cookies I have ever made

• A member promised us cake but forgot to make it so went out to buy one… on a Sunday… smh

• Bought the world's comfiest hoodie

• Taught my son a lesson on what happens when you by a water gun and decide to use it on your trainer. Let's just say orbeez beats water.

Quotes

“I said a prayer of repentance because I thought I was going to die” [Elder [redacted] after the hospital, 4/1/2026]

God's Hand

• Guidance and blessings from elder Bingham and the APs

• Portuguese and situational awareness in the Hospital 

• A members car broke so he walked from his house in the middle of nowhere to the store and back to his house to make us food when our lunch fell through. Angel.

• Friday's miracles 

• The sunset after rain

• Chocolate pastel (iykyk)

• All the General Conference messages directed at me

General Conference Thought

I loved General Conference. I can't say that has always been true but for the past few years it has been. Everytime I listen something new sticks out. This time that was our mission to emulate Christ. To emulate him we must act with the same desire that he does. Love. Loving others, ministering to the one. It is through these acts that we follow in His footsteps on the path he set for us. The path that is the only path back to our Heavenly Father. A blessing we can receive from doing this is understanding the meaning of loving all. Elder Renlund explained, “All means everyone, if everyone than anyone, if anyone than even one, if even one than even you.” His love reaches everyone individually. It isn't an overall love, it is a unique love. We should strive to be a mirror of His light, life and love. This is the message I loved from General Conference and that I know to be true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

That's my adventure of the week. I hope you enjoyed. If you haven't listened to General Conference yet I encourage you to go listen. There are some great life lessons to be learned. I would love to hear your favorite messages from this conference and life updates! Miss y'all!

Até a próxima,

Elder Urbano