Overcoming Health Issue to Serve Mission

While serving in the Singapore Mission office at the end of our first mission, Elder Boyter experienced a severe headache, dizziness, and loss of hearing in the right ear.  Two neurologists in Singapore determined after a MRI that he was suffering from a small stroke.  Perhaps brought on by stress.  The effects they found were loss of strength and coordination of the right side, loss of hearing in right ear, and slight fogginess in cognitive functions. They could not figure out why so many symptoms which would range in many different locations of the brain occurred.

Once home and after submitting papers for our next mission, the Missionary Department requested that Elder Boyter see a neurologist in the United States and have another MRI done.  The US neurologist after viewing the Singapore MRI felt that the Singapore Neurologists missed a "spot" on the MRI in the brain stem that would account for the multiple symptoms that he suffered.

After a new MRI was performed in the USA, it showed that his brain stem was clear and that his brain was more reflective of a 40 year old. The spot that the Singapore neurologists saw and the spot the US neurologist saw in the first MRI was gone in the second MRI.  He recommend Elder Boyter could go any where in the world for a mission.

This stroke resulted in our Singapore Mission President's decision that we should return back to the United States one transfer early.  Two new senior mission couples had arrived and we had trained them to take over the office leaving no apartments in Singapore available for us to live in.  We had planned to go back to East Malaysia to finish our mission  but medical care in Malaysia is poor.  President Mains did not want us to go back to Malaysia in case Elder Boyter suffered any more health problems.

Serving in the mission office in Singapore brought many blessings and answers to prayers in how to handles computer, housing, transportation, visa, missionary insurance, referrals, baptism records, ordering supplies, shipping bikes, mission autos, and mission budget problems to name a few of our responsibilities.  We were able to meet and work with amazing young single missionaries and President and Sister Mains (Mission President).  We were the only ones working in the office where we worked 14 hour days, 6 days a week.  Elder Boyter also worked some 42 hours straight due to picking up missionaries arriving or taking missionaries who were departing from the airport.  We also took care of the Pajang Home where we would house 20 missionaries at a time as they came in for Mission Leadership Council, Zone Conferences or arriving and departing missionaries.

Ten days prior to entering the MTC for our second mission, Elder Boyter had an unplanned hernia surgery to repair a hernia surgery that was done when he was a young missionary in 1974.  Elder Boyter healed well from that surgery.  He could not lift anything over 10 pounds for 8 weeks after the surgery.  Which gave Sister Boyter the opportunity to lift suitcases, packing and unpacking the car.

The lesson that we learned through these experiences is that obstacles to serving a mission does happen but we have been blessed as we have moved forward to serve.  Just like Sister Boyter's auto immune episode that happened before our first mission.  The Lord has blessed us and helped us.