Okay so let's start with the good news. Prayer works!!!! Thanks to all of the prayers on our behalf, we were able to have a REALLY cool experience the other day.
Tuesday we woke up with an extra determination and faith to dendo (do missionary work). We literally felt and extra zeal for the work and we know it is because of the many heartfelt prayers that have been offered on our behalf. One of our goals this week was to talk to every single person, no matter what, at all costs. So Tuesday we set out literally running to catch up with people so we could make sure we could talk with them. Before we left the apartment we also decided that since "you get what you go for" today we wanted to go for giving out many copies of the Book of Mormon. In about an hour and 45 minutes from when we left our apartment, we had given out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. Almost everyone we offered the Book of Mormon to to read more about Christ, accepted. By the time we returned to our apartment, we had given out a total of 8 copies of the Book of Mormon! Also as we were walking by the eki (train station) to catch a bus all the sudden we heard a woman's voice say, "excuse me, are you Mormon missionaries?" we both turned around surprised, and were approached by a woman who told us she has met a Mormon from her work before who gave her a Book of Mormon and this is the first time she has seen sister missionaries. She ran off quickly after we were only able to hand her a chirashi (flier) but we pray that she will call and we will be able to meet her again soon. There is power in the Book of Mormon! It is true! Thank you for all of your support and prayers!! Seriously that was one of the best days ever. Where I had no time to think about anything but sharing the message of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ and I felt the kind of joy that in indescribable.
So that was Tuesday. Let's move on to Wednesday. It was a little bit rainy outside and my companion and I had to take a bike ride to one of our investigators houses but first we had to stop by the church. We hopped on our bikes, and I (like an IDIOT) put my umbrella on my bike handle. Well, you can probably guess what happens next. Umbrella gets stuck in the wheel, the bike does a full on flip forward, I flip with it, my face skids along the asphalt, I sit up, and my companion rushes over and we look around, see I'm okay and then the first thing I say is, "take a picture" and then we start laughing our heads off. Hence the first attached picture, bike in the background. Minor scrapes and bruises. My first real bike wreck on my mission. I made it over a year! Woo!
Now this is the story that you need to not freak out about. Okay so two days later, my companion and I set out on our bikes in the morning to go see a less active girl's school music performance. It is about 8:15am. We are riding down the hill pretty near our apartment coming up towards a light. I am leading, the light is green, we are going full speed ahead. We get to the intersection (we are riding on the sidewalk) and out of nowhere comes a man on his bike turning to go up the hill. We collide head on, I fly off my bike, land really wrong on my ankle, slam my head into the ground (thank you now dented helmet), sit up in excruciating pain and the man and my companion come running over. This time there is no laughing involved. They are yelling are you okay are you okay?! In a mixture of Japanese and the man's broken English because he thinks I don't speak Japanese. I reply with I AM NOT OKAY. I am sobbing. My ankle feels like one thousand stabbing knives plus a steam roller. He asks me first if I understand Japanese. Then he tells me to try to take my now completely broken boot off (thank goodness I was wearing boots) so I try and feel something POP out of place then back in. Weirdest sensation ever. So I quit trying and make them take it off for me. We take off my socks to reveal my already HUGE ankle. There is no way I could even stand up. So I call the mission home, they tell me to call a member to come so I do and the man (who is thankfully 100% okay and so is his daughter who was riding in the child seat on the back of his bike) asks me if I want him to call an ambulance. I of course say no because I don't want the church and or my parents to have to pay any more money then needed. He calls anyway, the ambulance comes and I tell them it is okay I will just ride with the member to the hospital. The police come, I am still sitting on the pavement in undescribable pain, filling out papers and talking to my mission president and such. As everyone is making 100 phone calls and filling out 900 pieces of paperwork (it was probably no more than 20 or so minutes but it felt like an hour to me) anyway, I grab my purse in which I always carry stickers to give little kids and ask the little girl if she wants some princess stickers. She takes them with joy and then I FINALLY get into the car to go to the hospital. We get there, they put me in a wheelchair. (picture number 2) and I wait. We get an x-ray, I wait, they tell me its not broken (which is a 100% miracle from above), but I can't understand all of the other medical diagnosis Japanese I have never quite gotten around to studying so I am pretty sure it is just a really bad sprain but not positive, I wait, then they put a half cast thingy on it and made me stand up and put my ankle like normal while it hardened. (worst pain EVER), I wait, then they take me to rehabilitation to learn how to use crutches while two members, my companion, and the elders in my area are watching. (this was all SO Japanese it hurts). Then I wait, still in horrible pain. As I am sitting down waiting I start talking to the lady sitting next to me and ended up giving her a copy of the Book of Mormon. I don't think she really was happy with her life. I told her if she read the Book of Mormon she would be happier. Then they give me my perscription for the legit childrens tylenol strength pain killers. Then I finally got to go home and it is about 2pm now. It was all very dramatic but fast forward to right now, I am stuck in my apartment for the next couple weeks. I think my ankle is sprained but still not positive. I am trying to figure out what the Lord is trying to tell me in all of this, and I feel so bad for my companion who has to wait on me hand and foot.
That's my story. I am so dumb. I am glad I had a helmet on. Don't worry about me, I am pretty sure with all of the praying going on for me, I will be back and dendoing in a jiffy! The Lord has a plan. I am not sure what it is but I am determined to find out!! I WILL make this work our for the best.
Thank you for all the prayers!!!
Again, please don't freak out. I am fine. You know I have to write things in a very dramatic way.
I LOVE YOU ALL!!
LOVE,
xoxo
gimpygg
Ariel
ps picture 3 was taken today. (still got my summer tanline! woo!)
