It was Sister Cook telling me that because they decided to let Elder Beadle spend the night with the Assistants, he was close enough that when they realized it was time to take him to the hospital, they were close enough to take him to the best hospital in Zimbabwe. She was waiting with him at the hospital for the surgeon to arrive and she would text or call throughout the night to let me know his status. Of course, it was daytime there. Somewhere in that conversation were the words "we thought he had a stomach virus but it turns out he has acute appendicitis." I guess he had been vomiting for a while.
Nothing like the helpless feeling you have when you are 9,728 miles away. I felt okay about it, especially since Sister Cook is a mom and she assured me that she was making sure he got the care he needed. I slept pretty soundly, and I slept right through Sister Cook's call the next morning. When she did reach me, though, she assured me that he was being well taken care of. She had met the surgeon and was very impressed by him. They did the surgery laparoscopically so he only has 3 small holes in his tummy instead of a big incision like I have in mine. He should be home (his apartment? the mission home?) by Tuesday and then he will need to take it easy for a week or so. Only then did she tell me that when she asked him if he wanted to call me himself, he said no, that he'd call me on Wednesday. It was also not until now that she told me that he had been in a lot of pain before the surgery.
Then she sent me this picture of a-cute missionary post-appendectomy:
