Elder Watkins Japan Nagoya Mission: Snot'chyo Nachos

The country

I had a cold this past week. I'm fine now, but most of the preceding days were just terrible. At least the weather was surprisingly sunny and warm, which is good if your out dendoing all day as opposed to the usual rain. I did my best most of the week to work in spite of the cough and stuffy nose, but on Saturday I could barely walk around the apartment. I had a fever. I'd originally thought that it was just bad spring allergies. I called sister Yamashita and she instructed me to rest until I felt better.

There was a cooking activity going on at the church that day, the relief society was learning how to make Mexican food (something I haven't seen in ages). The Bishop's wife called me and invited us to come over and have some, the other Elders were there already after all. I informed her that I wanted to but I have a cold so I'd better not, she told me it's okay and to take a rest. So there I was on a sunny day being robbed of Mexican food and dendo all thanks to the common cold. This makes the 5th cold I've had on my mission.

   I felt bad because I couldn't go out and work. The Lord once said to his disciples in the last week of His mortal life; "Are there not 12 hours in a day" indicating that we should work while we have time. I have 24 months in my "day" and only 8 more to go, I didn't want to let a moment pass me by. I thought "What did the Lord do when He was sick?" Then I thought "Well He didn't get sick. He healed the sick, so that's no help, right?" I was able to watch some church movies I recently got on my iPad including President Monson's Biography "On the Lord's Errand" (Y'all should watch it). One of the stories recounted is actually the one he mentioned a few weeks back in General Conference in which he uses the missionary handbook to give a blessing to his fellow officer in the Navy. I'd been thinking of asking for a blessing all day. I live with 3 elders who all have a copy of that handbook (2 including the iPad one). But I didn't want to trouble them, for whatever reason I was hesitant. I still am just new to these guys after all. But as I remembered recent experiences, letters I'd received recently, the time my missionary friend asked me for a blessing not long ago and how surprised I was at his request, I gathered the courage to do the same.

So I asked Elder Miranda if he'd ever given a blessing in English and he responded that he hadn't. I said "Do you wanna try?" to which he said "Uh... okay." When the other companionship returned I asked the bean chan to do the first part of the blessing and my companion for the second bit. It was I think, one of the most simple and nice blessings I've gotten. I was very thankful to have representatives of Christ with me.

The next day at church, I was feeling much better. To my surprise, many of the members asked how my health was, if I'd taken medicine, etc. I guess if you tell the Bishop's wife the whole ward is in on it. It was very nice of them to be concerned for me.

   Sunday afternoon we were able to find 2 new investigators and receive and contact 2 referrals from a member. Wow, that's really unusual for a typical Sunday, I think the Lord helped us to make up for our lost time the day before. What a great end to the week.

   This week we celebrate Showa day on Wednesday and the ward is having a big Bar B Que party. Lots of folks will be there. I'm way excited. Love y'all lots!

Love,
Elder Watkins

Elder Smith had been looking far and wide for this "Bickle" drink. He wasn't having any luck. One night I thought wouldn't it be funny if I just randomly found some? Then I looked over and found a big bottle of the stuff. It was so funny, so I brought some back to share with him.