We just passed the two-year mark, but who is counting – besides our kids and grandchildren?

One of the reasons we haven’t updated the blog is mostly time, but as we think back on the last two months, we are afraid it might be content that would bore you. That is one thing about a mission: it feels a little like you live the same six weeks over and over.

We did have what we think will be our final Sisters Conference. We have had so few sisters that it was easy to get together every year for a little conference. With so many additional sisters arriving, it will become more difficult to host them in the future. We have some wonderful Sister missionaries, and because of the age change, we will be getting 50 more by the end of the year.

The Missionary Department informed us that our June missionaries would be arriving one week earlier than usual. We didn’t get an explanation, but wondered if it might have to do with the new Mission Leaders coming out. That made it necessary to condense our six-week schedule into five weeks. With the transfer shortened, it would give us an extra week in the next transfer, basically a ‘free’ week that would have nothing scheduled. We talked about how it might be fun to get away for two days and see some of Japan that we have never been able to see. Before we could make any decisions, that week began to fill up with speaking assignments at Stake Boy’s Camp and other unexpected events.

One of those unexpected events started the week before transfers. On Tuesday, one of our Sisters called because she wasn’t feeling well (she is the sister sitting next to Laurie in the picture above). She is an amazing Shimai, small in stature but with a giant spirit and a very great missionary. That morning, she began to feel very dizzy. After a few hours, they went to a nearby clinic where she received medicine to help her. She began to throw up and couldn’t keep the medicine down. She complained that her right side ‘was seizing’. She couldn’t sleep or get comfortable. Her companion called the bishop, who drove them to the hospital. She was given IVs and told she was just stressed but could go home. She was too weak to even go to the car, so the bishop asked the doctors if it wouldn’t be better to allow her to stay overnight and be observed until the next morning. The next morning, Wednesday, when her companion arrived, along with the STLs, they called to let us know she was even worse than the night before. She had a difficult time talking, couldn’t open her eyes, and was like a wet dish rag as they changed her out of her sweater into some pajamas they had brought. (It is social medicine in Japan.) The following day, Thursday, there was no improvement; in fact, there was more concern. The hospital was running several tests but couldn’t diagnose the cause. At one time, they even told us she was pregnant, which we knew wasn’t true. They had begun to believe she was having seizures as her eyes were acting a bit off. Our schedule had been so packed that we had been unable to visit.

Friday morning, Laurie awoke with a very strong prompting to get dressed and catch the train to check on this Sister. When Laurie arrived, she was shocked to see an almost lifeless girl lying in the hospital bed with an IV. She became quite concerned and sent out a mission-wide text asking everyone in our mission to please pray for this Sister. She called the Area Medical doctors who live two floors above us, and asked them if they would be willing to come down ASAP if she could find someone to drive them to the hospital. Within 90 minutes, they arrived. Through an MRI, it was discovered that this Sister had experienced a Cerebral Stroke. We were informed that the stroke affected the area of the brain that controls balance, vision, and breathing. They told us that she could stop breathing at any minute! It was then that we knew God was very aware. She had been lying there for over three days, and if God wanted to take her, there had been plenty of opportunity. We knew He had a plan and things would work out according to His plan. She was quickly moved to the ICU and attached to many monitors. They began to give her steroids to shrink the inflammation in her brain.

A couple of days later, on Sunday, we drove down with the Area doctors and were surprised to see her smiling and alert. We felt so much relief! She couldn’t move her right side, she couldn’t swallow, her vision was still blurry, and she said she still felt a bit dizzy, but she looked amazing compared to Friday. We visit her each Sunday, and each time she has a new surprise for us. The first Sunday, she lifted her right arm. The following Sunday, she moved her fingers and tried to squeeze. One night, Laurie received a video from her; she was moving her leg, pulling her knee up. After a little over three weeks, when Laurie visited her, she found her sitting up in a wheelchair, eating her meal with her left hand. It really is a miracle. Her faith in Jesus Christ is so strong! She doesn’t know why this happened to her, but she knows there is purpose in it. She shares with the nurses (who adore her because she is so kind and always expresses her thanks to them).

Through it all, there have been too many spiritual experiences to share. The prayers and fasting offered by our missionaries have carried her, along with those of her family and stake in the Philippines. We have seen miracles! She told Laurie this week that they had told her she would be in rehab for three to five months, but they are wrong. She exercises all the time in her bed, and she is going to go home on her release date in September. After one month in the hospital, she was moved to a rehabilitation facility closer to the mission offices. This allows us and several other sets of missionaries to visit her. She is walking now and everything is improving – just not as fast as we all want it to.

Blessings of Senior Missionaries

We have twenty Senior couples in our mission. Ten of those couples support the Asia North Area Office, and the other ten couples serve in various capacities such as Military Relations (we have four military bases in our mission), Institute, Medical Advisors, and Member and Leader Support. So much of our time and attention is focused on the younger missionaries that we sometimes neglect the senior couples. With the extra week, we decided to have them over for dinner. There are too many to come in one evening, so we had the Area missionaries come one night and the other missionaries another evening. We wish we had pictures to post, but “photojournalism” is something neither of us is any good at. So many times after an event, we look at each other and say, in exasperation, “We forgot to take a picture!” We have had so many of our missionaries return to Japan with their families for a visit. We usually forget pictures of those times too, unless the missionary suggests it, and then we thank them profusely for reminding us.

Happy Birthday America! Every year, several of our grandchildren attend Patriot Camp to learn more about the great country they live in. We are so grateful for freedom and all those great things that America represents.