Let my people go!

On August 29, 2009 I got a group of friends together from my ward to help do baptisms for the dead for family names on the Muranaka side of the family.

(L-R: Ann, Buck, Sara, Darren & Me)

We ended up going to the Jordan River Temple because there weren't any openings or either the Salt Lake or Bountiful Temples. What a great blessing to live in Utah - so many temples relatively close by. I was going to try the Draper or Oquirrh Temples next if we couldn't go to the Jordan River Temple. It was a great experience and I sure appreciated my my friends who were willing to help.

Afterwards we invited some other friends over and celebrated my Japanese ancestors' release from spirit prison by having a Japanese dinner - gyoza, somen salad, inari sushi, rice candy, and pocky sticks.

Darren found a lone strawberry on the temple grounds. He was pretty excited to show us. We did baptisms and confirmations for 45 people - 21 women and 24 men, including my Grandma and Grandpa Muranaka! What a great blessing to be able to do temple work for family members!

Just a flesh wound

I got stitches for the first time (not counting those due to surgery) on August 26th thanks to a battle with a glass punch bowl. I was washing it in the sink and lifted it up to rinse it when it SHATTERED in my hands. True story. A big piece came across and slashed the palm of my right hand - only about a half an inch near the palm line right below my pinky. I rinsed it and tried to stop the bleeding. I also had a few minor cuts on my fingers but nothing as bad as the one on my palm. To answer your unspoken question, yes, I did scream when it happened. I wasn't sure whether or not I needed stitches. I thought maybe I'd try to find an InstaCare Center. My friend Lena called me and when I told her what happened she told me that you're supposed to go to a hospital Emergency Room to get stitches. I didn't believe her at first but then when I couldn't find an instacare center close by I decided to head up to Lakeview Hospital since I had bled through my bandaid. I was a little embarrassed about going and told them at the reception desk that I just wanted someone to look at it to see if I needed stitches. Of course, they proceeded to check me in and collect my $45 co-pay. The nurse took my vitals and said that my blood pressure was very high. Could be stress related! She took me to the far back room and scrubbed up my hand. It didn't look that bad after it was cleaned up. I was tempted to check myself out and leave when I had to wait for over an hour for the doctor to examine it. He suggested x-rays to make sure there wasn't any glass still in my hand - I asked him "Are you serious? Do we really need x-rays?" I still think it was an unnecessary precaution because even after the x-rays the doctor still poked around to check for glass. I asked him a couple of times if he really thought I should get stitches and he said he would because of the location of the cut on my hand - it probably wouldn't heal very well because it would likely crack back open. I ended up getting two stitches - one more than he originally thought but still not very many. I thought they would just put a bandaid on top of it but they wrapped up my entire hand and wrist - I told them they were making it look worse than it really was! All that for just two stitches! I had to keep it wrapped for 48 hours to prevent infection. The next day I told people that I had hit a guy - that sounded better than i got in a fight with a glass punch bowl and lost! Lessons learned: First, glass punch bowls are BAD, especially when there's a fracture in the glass. I'm definitely not going to buy a replacement. Second, blue stitches just look like blue ink on your hand but the human body is amazing and heals quickly. Third, there's no free consultations in Emergency Rooms. And finally, if your wound is not life threatening, be sure to take something to read because you're going to be waiting for a while (it took me two hours to get x-rays and two stitches)!