Japanese hospitals, finding jobs in Japan, mustaches

Well family. This week was nuts. We were supposed to go to the temple today but now we are not. My back is broken [figuratively] and I've been sentenced to bed rest and limited movement for the next few days. The other shimai [sister missionaries] in my apartment rock. They decided to stay back from the temple too so that I could have a fun pday [preparation day]. If that isn't charity I don't know what is. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday: after the pday festivities ended we pray dendoed [proselyted]. All 3 of our lessons canceled and we didn't make back up plans so we walked out of the apartment and prayed at every single corner to know which way to go. At first it seemed silly, but it worked out real well because we crashed into some awesome people and got some phone numbers from people who want to meet again. The coolest lady was towards the end of the night. She loved the idea of baptism and was asking all sorts of questions about it. Her mom came out was like "who are you talking to?!?" And she chatted to her mom a bit and we were afraid she wouldn't come back out to talk to us. But she did. She said "my families Buddhist (of course, everyone is. And that's the excuse people use not to meet with us) but let me give you my number so you can call me. And then she took our phone out of hands and put her number in. It was beautiful. Prayer works guys!


Tuesday: we went to the helpful Japanese class. I was paired with another student from China. We learned how to find jobs in Japan. I know all sorts of Japanese work laws and how to call for an interview and workplace vocabulary and I figure out what stuff means on a paycheck. Well, if I ever live in Japan, I'll be set. It was pretty funny. We dendoed in the afternoon. No one was interested. But a couple of dogs answered the ping pongs. Obviously, they wanted to learn more about the gospel. Then we went visiting teaching with the relief society president. And the relief society president found an old missionary helmet for me to use!!! So we can bike again!!! Hallelujah!!! Walking is the worst.


Wednesday: today was a sister in the apartments birthday. It torrential down poured for the first part of dendo and then it was sticky and hot. So we sort of dried off. No one was in a listening mood but we did run into a lady who meet with missionaries 20 years ago. Unfortunately her up husband came and picked her up before we could make an appointment. But she was fun to talk to. Then us, the elders, and the other sisters went out for a birthday dinner. Right before the dinner (we got there early) we talked to this lady who was currently going to a Christian college. She was way nice and totally willing to take a BoM. Eikaiwa  [English class] was fun (as usual). We taught beginners and our 2 high school girls came and we just had a blast with English and playing fun games.

Thursday: we had zone training. Over in Fujisaki. W shimai and I went early so I could pass off a lesson mastery. Lesson mastery is a program to help us non-Japanese people get comfortable teaching in Japanese. We teach each lesson in a 5 minute time limit, a 15 minute time limit, and then a 30-45 min time limit. In Japanese. And you
teach by yourself, no companion. I have only 2 left now. I passed off one to my zone leader and one to my district leader. Soon I'll be a lesson master! And I'll get a cool Moroni pin to wear. And a kanji PMG to study from [Japanese Preach my Gospel]. I'm Finishing them all this week. Seriously, I love lesson mastery. At first it was so hard. But now I can whip a 30-45 minute lesson out at anytime. Man, Japanese is the best. Warning: family, I'll probably talk really weird over Skype. And make weird sounds. And speak some Japanese. We had a lesson with T(recent convert) in the evening. She's stellar. We retaught her the plan of salvation. I used a fun ice cream example/lesson/analogy (I know the word in Japanese and I don't know which one fits best in English). The plan of salvation is my FAVORITE lesson to teach I think.

Friday: we weekly planned in a restaurant with a drink bar that included the most delicious and fluffy hot chocolate. No one wanted to talk today but the last girl we talked to was way interested in Christian history. We chatted about it for a while and gave her a BoM (because it is a great book on Christian history). I complimented her jacket as she was leaving and she tried to give it to me. It was way cute. Don't worry, I didn't take it.

Saturday: the start of the back problems. Well, not the start. I've had them for at least 2 or so transfers. But it was the first time they were so bad I couldn't go out. We went to kodomo Eikaiwa (kids English class) in the morning and after that, I laid on my futon because it hurt too much to sit or stand. I got a blessing from the
elders. In it, here was no promise of healing. Only that I would be able to endure. But God said things that I needed to hear. It was a weird day. I didn't do anything. I took hot baths and stretched. I felt like I needed to be doing something but there wasn't actually anything for me to be doing. It was a weird weekend.

Sunday: went to church. My back wasn't doing the greatest. I was siting next to the K family (recent converts) during the fast and testimony meeting. I felt like I should ask K shimai if she wanted to bear her testimony. She said she was too nervous but I should. So I made a deal. I would bear my testimony and then she would
bear hers. She agreed! Which was absolutely terrifying because Japanese. So we went up together and I bore my testimony. And then she bore hers. And she was so happy when she came down. After church, T shimai (recent convert) got a temple recommend! [She's doing so well it makes me so happy. Then I was spent. My back died. So me and
J shimai (one of the other sisters who was feeling sick) stayed in all evening watching church movies and talking about Jesus. It was good. But also weird to not be doing something.

Monday: not pday but we had district meeting. I passed off another long lesson mastery. Then me and R shimai went to the ER. Because my back was not happy. But we only went to the ER because it's a holiday week and every single other Doctor is closed. Since R shimai is half Japanese and grew up in Japan she speaks English and
Japanese fluently and she translated for me. She's an angel. We were in the ER for 5 hours. Nothing's wrong with any bones. Just really inflamed and irritated muscles. I was ordered to rest. So I called Shimai (presidents wife) to see what that meant about dendo [doing missionary work]. She told me to call the mission doctor in Tokyo. He told me to call Kaicho (president). So we chatted. It was a rough phone call. For lots of reasons. But I know what he said was inspired. We talked about dendo and how I felt. He told me I couldn't go to the temple and had to stay
in all night on Monday and Tuesday as well. Then he would call again and we'd go from there. I was a bit of a mess after that phone call, so we called the elders and asked for another blessing. And after that blessing, I felt ok and at peace with my situation. Then they stopped by later in the evening and dropped off ice cream (they even brought my favorite kinds).

So yeah. This is a sad email. ごめんね。who knows what will happen but I know today will be fun at least. My awesome apartment planned an awesome pday that includes forts, splurging on pizza (it's so expensive), playing games, and watching church movies. They rock.

Well fambam, I'll see you next Saturday or Sunday (your time) via Skype. Get excited to see super awkward me.

Love love love
ベアーマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad