It's another day in the neighborhood. This past week has been an
interesting adventure. It all began last week on P-Day after getting
back from doing service for our ward mission leader at his house. We
came back to the 本部 and we decided to head out and go shopping and
right as we were about to leave Jones forgot his wallet so I waited
for him downstairs while he went up to grab it. While I waited I got
kind of bored and looked above the door and there is an awning that
sticks out over the door. When I saw it two thing went through my
mind;
1. "If Jason Bourne can do it then I can do it"
2. "It would be really funny to climb this and wait for Jones on top and surprise
him."
I have climbed several 団地 (danchi) buildings with similar
awnings so I jumped up and grabbed the ledge. The thing I didn't
realized is that on top of the ledge was a thin runner of sheet metal
that wrapped all the way around the edge. When I grabbed the ledge it
hurt so I let go, but I must have pulled off funny or something with my
left hand because when I was back on the ground I noticed that I had
just sliced through my left index and ring finger. It looked pretty
bad and I immediately started putting pressure on it and waited for
Jones to come down. When he came down he thought I was joking with
him, but I wasn't. Next we started calling members to find out what
hospital to go to because upon further inspection my cuts were deeper
than I thought. Since it was Saturday all the close hospitals were
closed so we had to go to an emergency room and after about an hour of
calling members to take us we finally went to one 30 minutes away and
I got to experience social medical care at it's finest. I don't want
to bore you too much with the beauties of waiting in line for an hour
at the emergency room, or that the operating room looks like a storage
room, or the fact that I have seen cleaner vet clinics. In the end I
got four stitches in my index finger and three in my ring finger. I
get the stitches out, this coming Wednesday, leaving me with two
lingering thoughts: "How did Bourne never manage to cut his fingers?"
and "Always look before you leap."
That day we had two lessons planned but 椿 (Tsubaki) canceled and
rescheduled for the next day, but after the hospital we were still
able to meet with David, even if it was an hour later than planned.
In our lesson he asked us why we decided to go on missions and kind of
what our personal conversion stories are. It was a really cool
opportunity to just testify of what we know and the blessing of God's
hand in our lives.
On Sunday we started teaching 椿 some of the commandments which
included the Ten Commandments, Law of Chastity, and Keeping the
Sabbath Day holy. It was a solid lesson and she committed to keeping
all of these commandments and that night after mailing us thank you's she
said, 「私は戒めを守りたいと思います。もっと良い人になるために頑張ります。」meaning, "in order to become a better person I want to keep the commandments." She is so golden and such a sweet lady. Today we finish teaching commandments and start
preparing her for her baptism in a couple weeks.
This week has been a lot of travel to zone conferences in 金沢
(Kanazawa) and 松本 (Matsumoto). Those were my last opportunities to go
there and say goodbye to those missionaries. It was pretty weird to
say goodbye to so many missionaries, some of which I will probably
never see ever again. I'm going to miss these missionaries. While in
松本 I realized how much I love 長野県 (Nagano-ken) and loved working in
that zone. I was only there for five months, but I love it up in the
Japanese Alps. It was hard to work there sometimes but the atmosphere
and the missionaries are the best!
On Wednesday when we got back from 松本 we had to prepare to send off
two missionaries going home, one of which included Tommy Eadie. He is
now currently home safe and sound after two years of service here in
Japan. In a couple of weeks he will be re-entering back into USAFA for
ESET in about two weeks. It was such a blessed opportunity to be able
to serve together in the same mission and then to become companions was
an opportunity that we had dreamed of from the beginning. Oh well,
we'll see each other soon back at the Hill.
That's about all the excitement for the week. It's getting nasty hot
and humid here. I can't wait for the dry heat!
スピードと天使
堅城長老
Pictures
Pic 1- Holding onto my fingers
Pic 2- All sewed up
Pic 3- For reals, how could I have known?
Most true pic of Japan ever
Pic 4- Eating in 瀬戸 (Seto) with Elders Klein and Graydon at a しゃぶしゃぶ
(Shabu Shabu) place that I ate with Klein when I was only week three in the mission.
(Shabu Shabu) place that I ate with Klein when I was only week three in the mission.
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