Rescued by a couple of good Samaritans (Week 35)

Hello everyone! 

So.....This might be one of the most boring emails that I have sent since my first transfer, because we spent half of the week inside ): haha.....

My companion sprained her ankle on Wednesday and has been crippled for the past 4 days.  Let me just say, we've gained an appreciation for being able to stand and walk and just being able to do those basic things.  Let me start at the beginning of the week, though, before I get to Wednesday.....

On Monday for dendo time, we went housing at night, before an appointment with an investigator, and I got yelled at for the first time! haha  This lady came out and yelled at us for ringing the doorbell so loudly (we only rang once, and we could hardly hear it, just for the record), and she stuck her head out and yelled at us again when we had moved down a few doors.

It was really just sad to see someone so angry at nothing, but it was also really hilarious because I had just told someone that I had never been yelled at before.  I guess there's a first to everything!

That same night, I also got rejected by a hand.  That's right, a hand.  The door was just cracked open and it was really dark inside with an orange light glowing in the background, and I could see someone's hand on the doorknob, keeping the door open, but no face!  Usually when people answer the door they stick their head out a bit, but no matter how hard I stared at the darkness behind the door, I could not make out a body or a face or anything!  And the voice sounded like it was coming from further back in the apartment.  It was just really wierd and creepy, haha!  I hate housing at night!

On Tuesday we spent all day in Shimizu-ku, which is over an hour bike-ride from our apartment, visiting investigators, less actives, members, etc.  We were so tired by the end of the day, we just about died! haha  And all the time that we spent in Shimizu turned out to be pretty ineffective (people weren't home, people ignored us, etc.), so that didn't help us feel better about being dead tired either..... :P

That evening, though, we had a cool 15 minute lesson with an investigator, Warashina-san, where she basically taught herself the role of prophets and the importance of modern day revelation!  Warashina-san is apparently super busy and only has time for short 15-minute visits, but it was cool to see what a meaningful conversation we can have in that short amount of time.

We left her with the talk "The Moral Force of Women," so hopefully she will read it and feel the Spirit from it (:

At the city hall

Wednesday was pouring rain all day and we had absolutely no appointments, so we decided to head off to the city hall to see if we could find some information on volunteer work that we could do!  Long story short, we got kind of lost in the city hall and encountered an art exhibit, sat outside the Shizuoka city chairman's office after we finally found someone who could help us, got sent to the Shizuoka city international office place, who sent us to the prefectural volunteer agency, who got us connected with an old-folks home (not what I was looking for) and finally sent us to the city volunteer building, which had exactly what I was hoping to find!

I don't know why we had to go all over the city to find the last building, but we did get to talk to people on the way and we found someone who might be interested in Eikaiwa!  She works for the prefectural volunteer agency and she's accompanying us to the old-folks home next week (which happens to be a Christian facility), so we're hoping that we will be able to initiate a gospel conversation (:

Night of the accident

Wednesday evening, though, as we were biking in the rain, Sister Thompson's bike got caught between the road and the sidewalk and she fell from her bike and sprained her right ankle and scraped up her left knee!  Luckily, there were two really nice women walking by and we were right outside a convenience store, so they picked her up and took her inside the store, put ice on the ankle, bought some bandages for us, and one of them drove us home in her car!  So cool, right?  I really really wanted to get their numbers, but I realized that I didn't have the phone on me, so I handed the lady that drove us an Eikaiwa flyer and a mormon.org card.  I'm praying that she'll contact us, because she was the nicest person ever!  Ahhhhh, I'm still so mad that I couldn't get her contact info, though..... ):

So, yah.  Ever since Wednesday we've been almost completely immobile.  We went to the doctor on Thursday, and they gave Sister Thomspon some crutches, but she can't really go too far on them, since they hurt a lot.

Poor Thompson Shimai

Thompson Shimai on crutches

Soooo.....we've been doing some cleaning, studying, practicing, cooking, singing movie themes, drawing, telling book/movie/anime plots, etc.  It hasn't been too bad, we just feel incredibly un-missionary-like, because we can't go out and do anything.  We were able to get some rides set up this week, though, so hopefully we will be able to actually dendo this next week!  And hopefully Sister Thomspon will be walking and riding a bike by Wednesday again.....!

I think that's it for the week!

I love you all and I hope and pray that everything is going well!!

Sister Michelle Papenfuss

This is what the spiders are like in Shizuoka, haha(but ti's kind of ture)

Marisa-chan from Gifu ward.  She came to the Shizuoka ward building as a youth counselor for a seminary activity.