My sick week journal. I felt your love - thank you.

This week we saw a lot of miracles.

Lessons. The first time I hit 20 lessons was twice with W. shimai on the Rock (missionary term for Shikoku). With G. shimai, we hit 18 twice, then jumped above it and taught 20+ for every week that I'd been her companion. We've kept up that trend, here in Abeno with M. shimai. Now, it certainly doesn't mean every lesson is a 5-star lesson--it certainly isn't. But we're doing our best to bring our beloved brethren home, and that means talking to everyone.

Whenever we have something that sets us back from mission standards, I try to think (remember the stoplight?) that God knows I'm sick. He also knows mission standards. So as long as I remember who I am, and by whom I am called, God will provide a way for us to accomplish them.

And this week, he has. I'm very grateful to have a wonderful compassionate companion like M. shimai. She's the bomb, and every time I'm sad she mourns with me and not just beside me. There's a big difference, and she does an amazing job of halving my stress. (The cup, my throat, our darling E-chan's baptism being shot down AGAIN, I want to lay on the floor instead of eat lunch. I do that last one no matter what mood I'm in. But I still eat lunch. Missionaries can't mission without lunch.) It's taught me a lot about commiseration. (By the way, everyone, I felt your love, too. Thank you all for being sad with me.)

And she does the dishes. All the time. I love her.

1/11 月

Today we began our preparation day by teaching T-shimai, I-shimai, and K-shimai at S-shimai's cooking class. It was cold on the ride over and pretty much killed my voice, but when we began the lesson, I coughed once or twice, and my voice was back to normal for the remainder of the lesson. It was incredible.

We weren't hungry, but we picked up a meatbun, emailed, etc. On the way home, we stopped at the nearby shotengai's crepe shop, and talked with our friend for a bit on life in general. Afterwards, we went home, napped, then shoved off to the M family.

The wonderful gofuufu (senior couple) gave us tonkatsu, curry, and a bunch of things to take home, then discussed the Abeno seminary, what we can do for the ward, and things like that. (M-kyoudai was a previous bishop of the ward, so we asked him what we could do to help the current bishop.)

Then I retired to bed early.

1/12 火

Well, shoot. I'm sick. I took measures yesterday to keep it from worsening, but I am definitely sick.

But I slept. We did study, ate lunch, then I went back to bed while my incredible companion texted 45 people. What a champ.

(Here, I'd like to include a note to any sister missionaries reading my letter. When you're sick, you have two options: Man up and dendo, or rest up and sleep. Please, be wise about which one your body can handle. Better a day of 0% dendo than two weeks of operating at 50%.)

After I woke up, we had cereal for dinner, sat in a daze for a few minutes, then went to and taught English class.

1/13 水

So, today I improved the quality of my life today by leaps and bounds. That's right, I bought an iPad stand! We also got pens, tape, and cards while we were out at Seria buying paper for the referral box.

But, other than that, we were vastly unproductive.

I'm still sick.

But, on a brighter note, we got to have a good lesson with T-shimai, and that was really good. She seems to have finally realized her role in fellowshipping her brother.

We also did interviews. It was really nice seeing mission president W and his wife.  He filled me in on Okayama (which apparently is on fire! :DDD) and Imabari (the senior couple is leaving a transfer before I do, and there's not another senior couple coming in...).

I thought for sure that I was transferring, but after that interview... I'm not sure what is real and what isn't. There's apparently a possibility that I may die in Abeno. Not a bad thing.

Today, we met K-kyoudai (the elders’ investigator) again, and I think I freaked him out with how fast I jumped out of my seat. He came into our room while we were evaluating our Seria boon and shut the door. I was like "MISSION RULES!" (In my broken voice) and flung the door back open.

Him: “Oh..” *offers bread*

Me: “I'm good!”

Him: “Okay...” *ducks out of the room*

That's it, I think.

1/14 木

Today I felt so loved :D

I started out feeling GREAT. I actually felt so good that I stayed awake all of study time, and actually got a little ADHD during companion scripture study. My nose was still stuffy and my head was still a little achy, but other than that, I felt fantastic.

We walked to the church today, because we needed more lessons (and I had energy to burn), and we got a couple! God really does look out for his missionaries :D We teach with the intent of bringing others closer to Christ. I hope that they really do come closer to Christ.

After taking, like, an hour or so getting there, we finally reached the church. We began SKK and E. chourou and his koukan buddy come in.

E. chourou, "Hey, are you doin' okay?"

Me: 8B Yes.

Later, S. chouroutachi came in and were like, "Hey, how are you?"

Me: 8B (the 8 is my glasses, btw.) I feel so loved 8D

There were like, four missionaries there who were concerned about my wellbeing all in the hall at once.

On that note, we got some C.C. Lemon because it's supposed to be super high in vitamin C (its claim is "THE VITAMIN C OF 50 LEMONS") so I got it, looked at the Vitamin C dosage, and it said 200 mg. So the lemons they use must have about 4 mg each of vitamin C, (about 90% less than most.)

Disappoint.

But. The best part of the day was when N-shimai came with us and drove us to E-chan's house to visit. It was so perfect. N-shimai was the bomb. She is still unsure how to share the gospel, but she had a whole lot of love and the fact that she was there meant a lot. And she promised to give E-chan her alarm clock, since she uses her phone now to wake up.

I was so happy. N-shimai really wants to help the missionaries, and more than that, really wants to help E-chan.

But. Ureshii.