Hidden blessings and funny stories to share

Hello all, Sorry, I have no pictures to share except those you can create in your minds when you read. :) Hidden blessing #1: As many of you know, beginning several years ago, I started getting bruises on my forearms and the back of my hands--really big, ugly bruises. Because of them the doctors told me I should no longer use ibuprofen or aspirin products since they cause more bleeding. That was tough because I relied on ibuprofen for my back. Instead I had to start taking Celebrex (very expensive). Last week when I was working in the temple, the thought came into my mind that in reality the bruises were a HUGE blessing, because at the same time I had gastritis going on, which I was unaware of. The endoscopy I had done a few months ago shows major trauma on the inside of my stomach and some in the esophagus and duodenum. The damage has been going on for years. If I had continued taking the other meds I would have probably had major bleeding. Heavenly Father knew what was going in, even if I didn't, so the bruises actually protected me. Hidden blessing #2: We live up the hill from all shopping and church. Early on I made the trek with great frequency. But it started bothering my back more and more. The spasms were such a problem, that I finally decreased significantly my treks up the hill. I not only had back spasms, but lots of shortness of breath. Well, since then, I have learned that I have a heart problem (which I will get worked up when I get home). The cardiologist told me the symptoms were chest pain (which I haven't noticed), shortness of breath and dizziness. I have had increased episodes of light headedness and shortness of breath. My guess is that my heart issue would have been much worse, it I kept walking up that hill at this altitude (7,800 ft). The back spasms protected my heart. Interesting, huh? Funny story on Spencer: One day in Sunday School class, Spencer was asked to read some scriptures about when Peter, Andrew, James and John were called as apostles. He misread fishermen (pescadores) and instead said "pecadores" which means sinners. There was a chuckle around the room and I whispered what he had done. He didn't miss a beat. He said they might have been fishermen, but they were probably sinners, too, since we are all sinners. Funny story on me: You probably needed to be there to really get the humor on this one, but here goes anyway. One night in the locker room, I asked the coordinator and two other workers about the pronunciation of "-ie" at the end of a name. We all agreed that it should be two syllables (-i-e), since it isn't a diphthong. My observation is that the sisters do that with names like "Sophie", but with "Marie" they always leave the sound of the "e" off the end. One sister suggested that maybe they were trying to make it more like the English pronunciation of Mary. I explained that Marie and Mary are different names in English, Then the coordinator suggested, "Hermana, why don't you just say to them, 'Please pronounce it Mar-i-e' when they say is wrong." My eyes just got big and I incredulously blurted out (in English),"You have GOT to be kidding!!" They all started laughing, even though only one of them understood the words--they all understood the meaning. In fact the bilingual sister mimicked me right back "You have GOT to be kidding." I told them that was NEVER going to happen, I wasn't going to be the gringa that came down from the USA and started corrected their Spanish pronunciation! We could hardly stop laughing and kept shushing each other to be more reverent. What a fun, choice memory.