Ella se desmayo!

Oh man, I have a great story to share with all of you this week.

A week ago saturday, a member of the bishopric called to see if I would be willing to give a brief talk on missionary work. Of course I agreed, and the next morning during my study time I crafted a nicely written talk on missionary work and on being examples to others (in spanish of course). We got to church, and I sat in the back with my companion and one of her recent converts until it was my turn to get up and speak. When the time came, I walked up to the pulpit, and began to speak. I introduced myself a little bit since I'm still fairly new to everyone, and then got to the main topic of my talk. Everything was going well, I felt good and was excited to be able to speak to my ward and share my testimony a little bit. A couple minutes went by and I began feeling really hot and started to sweat. I figured it was just a result of being up in front of people, and continued speaking. Maybe thirty seconds after that I started feeling kind of nauseous, and then I started having trouble breathing. My reading of my talk slowed as I continued trying to catch my breath enough to speak, but it wasn't helping. Not having the breath to continue speaking I stopped all together for a second to try and recover enough to continue, but that didn't help either. I started feeling dizzy, and the next thing I knew my companion was up on the stand right next to me and the bishopric was asking me if I was okay and setting me down into a chair on the stand.



Haha... I totally, and completely passed out while giving a talk.



Apparently after I stopped speaking my companion thought that I was just having trouble reading the words in spanish (which she thought was strange because we read together often in spanish and I never struggle much) and started giving me the "come on, you can do it, keep going" motion with her finger... until she saw me start swaying. Once she figured out that I was going to faint, (this is one of my favorite parts of the story), I guess she stood up in the back of the chapel and yelled (in english :s), "SOMEBODY CATCH HER!!!" Hahahaha... luckily the bishopric speaks english and got up quick enough to grab me and keep me from falling all the way to the floor, after I had hit my head on the microphone or pulpit or something (I've heard various versions of this part of the story) meanwhile Hermana McMurtrey ran up the aisle to get up to the pulpit and help.

I was sweating profusely, and sitting up on the stand looking out into the worried faces of the congregation as I tried to figure out exactly what was happening. The next speaker had gotten up without missing a beat (luckily) and drew a little of the attention away from me, nevertheless, most of the eyes were still on me.

uagh i'm out of time. This story is to be continued...

But just to make sure my family members don't freak out and think I'm horribly sick, I will say that I went to the doctor, and he did several tests on me and says that I AM hypoglycemic, and need to be more careful about the sugar content of what I eat (I had eaten a lot sugary stuff that morning, and my blood sugar plummeted while I was speaking). Anyway, I'll give the rest of the details next week.

I promise I am fine and totally back to normal now and no one needs to worry. My mission president's wife and my companion are taking fabulous care of me.

Sincerely,

Hermana Austin Hollenbaugh