So, I wasn`t going to share this information until I talked to my 20 year old half-Japanese friend named Josh who is staying in Japan for an away from home experience before college at church yesterday. My companion started to go into the `guess what Elder Hall came down with last week` which, according to my Interal Organ Council Notes from last week, I thought was a flu but the story goes a bit different. I went to the doctor with Uema Choro on splits last Monday so he can tell me what the doctor is saying and help me out with all of the weird Japanese stuff and vocab and it was interesting. It was a small clinic that had the small feeling as an American hospital just without any cute wall paper decorations on the side. The doctor asks me medical questions, Uema Choro asks me them in broken English and I try to answer best I can. I lay down on the table and he feels around my stomach and comes to a conclusion, MEDS!!! We get the receipt, then the meds that I am suppose to take after each meal for four days and then go back to the apartment. `What do you have?` `Benpi` replys Uema Choro. `Elder Hall, you have constipation!` Well, that was news to me.
But, I tell this to Josh and I assume him to laugh at my unfortunate mishap but he is like, `Yeah, I had that problem too. All this Japanese food is totally different and messes with your body.` So I am not alone. I am constipated, and I AM PROUD! Okay, it is over now with the medicine but now I can say with a straight face, yes, I was constipated. So as you go on dates with your Valentines this week, remember that I officially dubbed February Gaijin Constipation Awareness Month. (Caijin is just a termed used by the Japanese referring to those who are not Japanese) When living in foreign countries for a period of six months or longer, make sure you eat lettuce, fiber, and if there is a problem with certain things dropping, it is okay to talk to your companion about it. But anywho, I am completely recovered physically but the emotional scarring is still in the process.
This week was pretty crazy, especially yesterday. Everyone we talked to on the street spoke English which was really weird talking in your native language for once. The last guy we talked to said he would come to church next Sunday since he had a break even though he didn`t believe in God. So pretty solid even though the whole conversation was in English. We also went yesterday with our branch president to a city called Gero, not Ghetto, which is an hour car ride from Takayama. There we met our new recent convert that moved there but we learned she is moving to Nagoya next month anyway. Then we went to a less active who is, guess what, an American from Logan, Utah! He married Japanese and his company sent him back over here for some work. We met him and talked with him for about an hour and the branch president even tried out some English! I guess Arata Kaicho coming to Eikaiwa is really working out!
I realized something this week, that it has been a year since I got my mission call. It is crazy to think that just a year ago, I got back to my apartment in Provo to see my roommate had got the call from the mail and put it back on my desk. I remember seeing it and freaking out, putting it under all of my stuff on my desk and ran over to the apartment over to play Call of Duty and try to not stress myself about it until I opened it up later that night. My view of a mission was a lot different back then and I remember being really nervous and anxious about where I was going to go. I never even thought of Japan. It was so much excitement mixed with fear. I had finally grown a foot and two and my call was here. I opened my call with my parents on Skype, my college friends all around me with my grandparents and Aunt and cousin there. I mispronounced my mission which wasn`t even in hard Japanese and I remember thinking, `Crap, I haven`t even watched any anime.` And now here I am, eight months into my mission. It is a lot different from what I thought it would be. I am not even close with the language, I haven`t seen a baptism, and it is freezing cold here. I am grateful for making that choice to come out even though it was a hard one. I`ve been able to help a lot of people and myself too. I`ve gotten a lot of support from mission leaders, other missionaries, members and those of you back home. I am truly grateful for the opportunity and challenge of being a missionary. I like to reflect on what I felt about my mission that day I opened my call. I wish I would have written my feelings down somewhere and brought them with me to remind me of why I came out and what my goal and purpose of being a missionary is. I have grown a lot from that time I opened my call. I have had to say a lot of good-byes but I have got to meet a lot of great people too. This mission and other mission others will go on will be worth it, because it is not the worldly things that I am leaving behind, but the eternal truths I am learning out here and teaching others.
I hope everyone has a great week and I love you all!
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