stained futons are standard....?

Dear friends and family.

My companion is Elder Abe. He is THE first Finnish missionary ever to serve in Japan. He is one enthusiastic man. I love him to death. I’ve learned a LOT from him already. it’s interesting, I had this special training with my Zone leader (ZL) and one of the Assistant to the President (AP) and two other younger missionary, and we would do もぎs (role play) and they all just kinda nodded along saying *yeah thats Abe*s bean* Hahaha. they would also refer to me as the Japanese Protege so I feel honored.

Like i said my companion is Finnish so im learning Finnish almost daily. its been pretty sweet. I can formulate sentences in my mind from all the words ive learned so far, so its been pretty amazing learning it.

When i was in the MTC, I got this thing called Epstein Barr Virus. Another words an adult version of mono as they say it. I can’t tell you how miserable that has made me feel both physically and mentally. But it has served me well. Its has toughened me and made me rely on the lord more. I have just barely gotten over the Epstein, BUT right after that I caught a cold….. so I was really convinced that god wanted me to realize something through these sicknesses hahaha.

And when I came to Japan I was feeling so sick. And Elder Abe and I were assigned as companions and we were going to be whitewashed to Mito Ibaragi (where I am at right now). Took us almost three hours to get there and we were also dendo-ing too. He didn’t know that I was feeling really bad. I didn't tell him that i was ill. I just wanted to dendo as much as I could. ( I ended up telling him when we got to the city). And after all the things we did that day, we finally arrived to the apartment for the first time, only to find out that we were going to be living in a pigs hole. It took us Full 3 days to clean it. But I was just feeling miserable both physically and mentally and feeling SO overwhelmed with the work, even though I would have been mad at the situation, I just didn't have the energy within me. That night, I decided to just sleep. Our futons were also just laid out (not folded and put away) and both stained yellow with sweat and who knows what-- just horrible. I ended up crying myself to sleep that night from the physical exhaustion and feeling so overwhelmed with the things that needs to be done and to top it off, I was sleeping in a garbage apartment that was so called "missionary standard apartment"

SO, a day or so has passed by and I figured I would stop thinking negatively and get to work. Which is what I did. Or what we did. I’m glad Elder Abe is a great person. He has helped me learn and grow a ton.

When we got here、 there was 0 investigators. Now we have so many investigators we are just too busy. We are also bringing incredible change to the Mito ward. Giving genki and making church a good experience for everyone.

I am having the sweetest time in my mission. As long as we keep being faithful and trusting in the Lord, everything will be fine. I testify that THAT is true.

The mission has been truly great. I can’t explain all the things that had happened so far, but I’ll try to write these weekly mails to continue my story.

じゃーね～

Elder Young