Of Blisters, Staples, and Conniving Teachers

I’m pretty sure that I forgot to mention my fiasco on Sunday. I wanted to wear a particular tank top, but discovered that the straps were a little long and would make things kind of uncomfortable during the day…so I decided to fix them. I had enough time to hem them up before we had to leave for the train to go to church…so, I pulled out the needle and thread that I bought, planning ahead for such a calamity, and went to work. I folded over the strap and began to stitch the bottoms of the loops. I was feeling very proud of myself at that moment until I finished both straps and found that the loops now stuck straight out from my back…I would have to attach the other side of the loops, but I had no time. Suddenly, a memory of something mom told me from a coworker flashed into my mind and I grabbed a stapler and stapled the other side of the loops. It worked…and held all day. I had my first epiphane of being a real missionary – making due with what you have – and boasted of it to the women on my team…they laughed and thought that I would be proud of my sewing my top…nope, I was proud of the staples.

I believe that my trek up Oinoyama Park and back again, on Monday, and then our tour through Moji and then even under the ocean, has made a blister come up deep under my skin between my toes. It’s kind of painful…but after a while, it won’t hurt as much…but I’d appreciate your prayers for my recovery. My flip flops are feeling kind of lonesome and I’m going to be walking all around Karato this Saturday and they will hate to be left behind.

I had my Wednesday class with the school teachers. We were covering “should have/shouldn’t have.” We were given a situation and then we had to come up with a “Well, you should have…” “and you shouldn’t have…” The situation was, “My parents are very angry with me. I almost failed my English test.” It was Miwa’s turn to answer, and her response was, “Well, you should have studied harder and you shouldn’t have shown your parents.” I could not help but laugh out loud…she chuckled, kind of surprised at herself…and then the other figured out the English and laughed as well. It was a really funny moment…the kind we don’t have very often in there.

With Misa, we were going over idioms and proverbs again. I printed out a big list of common idioms and as we went through each one discussing the meaning, she pointed out that there are the sameones in Japanese too. She thought that was really interesting that we could be so different and yet have the same proverbs. She has always been very open to the Gospel so I tried to introduce some thoughts. Proverbs are meant to convey a truth about mankind through an illustration. Even though we are halfway around the world from each other and have completely different cultures, truths about humanity are the same. Truth doesn’t change, only the subjects do. She completely agreed on that point…and then moved on to the next idiom. I wanted so badly to say, there is only one Truth because there is only One God who made us all. But she is open and I feel like God could not be allowing her so much exposure to the Gospel without her receiving it at some point. Pray for her. I only get a half an hour with her, but we share so much in that time. Her English is great and we have a great time together.

PS. I am now a legal alien in Japan. Here’s my proof: