Elder Britten Schenk leaves the hospital

We saw some great news last week from the family of Elder Britten Schenk. We have posted a couple of stories about Elder Schenk here on Elliot's blog (here and here). He was seriously injured back in March when he was hit by a bus while serving his mission in Brazil. His family has written about his recovery on their blog.

On May 31, the Schenks posted the news that Elder Schenk has been released from hospital and allowed to return home. What a great day that must have been! Please read the story here and check out all the fun pictures, one of which I have posted here. Congratulation to Elder Schenk and his entire family, and best wishes to him as he continues with therapy.

Elder Britten Schenk returns home

Three weeks ago, we featured a story on Elliot's blog about Elder Britten Schenk, a missionary in Brazil who suffered serious injuries when he was struck by a bus. We've followed Elder Schenk's blog ever since, monitoring his slow and steady progress. It's been gratifying to see him begin to return to health through the tremendous efforts of medical staff in Brazil and the emotional and spiritual support of his family, friends, and fellow missionaries.

Today, we learned that Elder Schenk has returned home! Today's blog story describes a wonderful reunion of a return missionary and his family, although certainly not under the usual circumstances. There will undoubtedly be much more medical treatment and therapy for Elder Schenk, but it sounds like he's an incredibly strong young man with a great family. We're sure everything will work out well for him and we wish him and his family all the best.

Elder Britten Schenk recovering in Brazil

Elder Britten Schenk, from Hyde Park, Utah, serves in the Brazil Sao Paulo East Mission. Like every other missionary, he has family and friends back home who worry about him and pray daily for his safety. But accidents happen, even to terrific young men and women serving on missions.

On March 16, Elder Schenk was hit by a bus while waiting to cross a street in Sao Paulo. The Deseret News has a couple of news reports on the accident and its aftermath (here and here). Elder Schenk suffered serious injuries and has been hospitalized since the accident. His parents traveled immediately to be with their son and, with others in the family, have been providing daily updates on his condition on a blog they created in the wake of his accident. The blog can be found here. The reports are promising, as Elder Schenk appears to be recovering well and making good progress. The outpouring of support from friends, family, and complete strangers has been tremendous, as can be seen in the comments on the blog (many of which are written by Brazilians in their native Portuguese).

Our thoughts are with Elder Schenk and his family. You can keep up with his progress by following his blog. We'll plan to provide occasional updates here as well.