Family, physical therapy, mensetsu (interviews)

It was an exciting week family! First off, I chatted with you guys and I think you're basically the best people ever. Thanks for eating that fish Camille.  [There is a really gross dried fish trail mix that Emma sent us]


It might be a crazy scattered letter (the Japanese word for scattered is so much better than the English word).

Tuesday: I went to the doctor again. He still didn't know what was wrong but he sent me up to the rehabilitation center where the physical therapists reside. My favorite! So I saw the PT. He spoke enough English and I spoke enough Japanese we managed (he was way good at English). He moved me around a bit and then looked at my range of motion for different joints. Then he put me on the stretching table and stretched me out for a good solid 20 minutes. But he wasn't stretching my upper back much so I was confused. But when he had me sit up, there was no pain. Magic. Then he explained the science (the fun part). There's a joint in my hip near my lower back that only moves a couple millimeters normal but wasn't moving at all. That obstructed joint caused the rib joints in my upper back also to not move (which explains why it hurt to breath so much). He stretched out that little hip joint and it made everything wonderful. As the days past it has started to hurt again but I'm going back tomorrow to visit. I will now point out that my lower back injury that I got in college happened in the same area he said there are problems now. So yeah. This week, back wise, was a lot better. There is still pain (residuals tight muscles, sitting too long, etc) but I am getting better when before there wasn't any real improvement. I love PT's!  They know what's up. In the evening, our less active we teach hosted a relief society activity and taught us all how to make Korean
food. Yum.


Wednesday: we got to dedno! Not as much as usual, we still needed break time, but it was nice to get out. We stopped by a less actives house to talk to the mom but only the less active son was home. He's Evan's age and we chatted for a bit. We shared a brief message and he shared his testimony and it was crazy cool experience. He said he can't come to church because of school activities but then he said something I really liked. He said "even though I can't make it to church, I never forget Him." He just summed up the gospel so beautifully. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we can't do it, or make it. But if we remember Him, it's ok. He will make up the difference. Then we had Eikaiwa [English class] and my FAVORITE family came. They have a daughter Camille's age and we're basically best friends. We had fun playing
games and teaching English, as always.


Thursday: crazy miracle. I got a flat outside our apartment. And we have this super fancy pump and no directions so we couldn't figure out how to use it. But these 2 guys were in our little area by our apartments putting fliers in mailboxes. They got to ours and we asked if they knew how to use the pump. "No," they said, "but we'll try." So they tried and couldn't figure it out. We were sad but grateful they tried. They drove away. Then, 5 minutes later, they drove back, really excited. They looked up the instructions on their phone for the pump and figured it out and fixed my bike! They were so nice. Then we got on a train and went to junkai (splits with the STLs [sister training leaders]). I went to their area with 1 STL and my companion went back to our area with the the other STL. It was slightly weird seeing as during junkai we normally are in the same area.


Friday: junkai. I got to junkai with H shimai again and it was the best. She made me rest a lot because of my back. She also ordered me to take a nap. On a fun note, we used Star Wars as an example in our lesson. We were talking about agency. We compared like and his choices and Anakin and his choices and the end results. We then talked about how small bad choices lead up to bigger bad choices. It was awesome. Also, I learned a lot more about how to be a good missionary. She's not awkward at all when she stops people on the street. One day, I will be as smooth as her.


Saturday: we were crazy busy. We biked quickly from one place to another. We had kids Eikaiwa (English class) in the morning. Seriously, my favorite part of the week. Then we had another kids English class at a members house with all their friends. Which was also a blast. They made us scones after. It was delicious. Then we had a American cookie baking night (an activity we planned as missionaries). We taught people how to make American cookies and gave the directions in English. The we played card games and ping pong. Lots of our kids English class families showed up and so did the YSA (young single adults) from church. I think it was a successful activity. Everyone had so much fun.


Sunday: I got another blessing for my back. And in the blessing he said that I would be able to dedno without pain. Then we went out after church to dedno and I dendoed all day and there was only a little pain in my back. It was amazing. The priesthood power is truly the power of God.

Monday: not pday. I forgot to tell you guys. Sorry. We had mensetsu's with Kaicho (interviews with the mission president (and his wife)). They are stellar human beings. It poured rain all morning so as we biked to the train in our nicer than normal appearance (we dressed up nicer than normal) got damper and damper. But I got a new kappa (rain coat) so I was drier than expected. 


Interviews was exactly what I needed. Shimai is an angel and Kaicho is an angel as well. They're some of my favorite people. Kaicho and I read Ether 12:27 together. And we substituted my name and her and she in it. It was powerful. Christ promise that IF I humble myself and trust in Him, His grace will be enough to make my weak things strengths. Which is definitely something I'm interested in. I have a lot of weaknesses. I am not a very profitable servant. But God is ok with that. As long as I trust in His Son. After interviews we had some famous Fukuoka ramen. It was delicious. Also, I got a new name tag (finally, I ordered it like 20 years ago). My name has changed. I am no longer ベアーマン姉妹. I am ベアマン姉妹. [I really can't tell the difference] My identity has changed!!! Ahhhh!!!!

Well, this Sunday we're having a conference with Elder Cook [one of the 12 Apostles or senior leaders in our church]. Count me excited!!!

Love
ベアマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad