The Return

Well, everyone, that was my mission.  I have successfully served a 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints.  Did I think I could do it?  Well, at the beginning I figured if some of the other return missionaries I saw could do it, then for sure I could to.  In the middle there were times when I wondered, but it was easy to power through the end.  I feel like I can check that off the list of life accomplishments.

The plane ride home was a pain.  I don't know what was worse - the 6 hour layover in Tokyo or the 10 hour plane ride across the Pacific.  Either way I somehow managed to stay awake for about 3 days on about 4 hours of sleep.  Thursday was transfer day, with the lovely bullet train (I will miss that), exit interview with President, and the temple.  Of course, as it was our last night in Japan, several of us stayed up all night Thursday.  I kept thinking I was going to go to bed, but Sister Fluckiger kept coming up with reasons to stay up.  In the end, I slept for 2 hours, and still had to wake up for the early plane to Tokyo.  On the plane to Tokyo I was out like a light.  We left Tokyo in the late afternoon and arrive in SLC in the late morning.  Don't think about it too hard, or the time dilation might explode your mind.  So of course I stayed up all Friday because I had family to see and things to do.

So jet lag?  Well, after sleeping 12 hours it hasn't really hit me yet.  If you stay up for 3 days in a row I think your body goes into a hard reset.  Well, I did fall asleep exhausted today for a 2 hour nap, but I think that's pretty mild for my jet lag.

Oh, and to fight airsickness I used Bonine.  And it totally worked.  I probably should have taken that today since we went to Park City to ride the summer rides and I got a little sick on the alpine coaster.

I will be heading down to school on Wednesday, to start the life of the returned missionary.  I expect that it will be full of Japanese popping out, forgetting English, having others proof-read my reports, and other problems.  My purpose as a missionary was very simple.  It was written on page 1 and we repeated it every day in companion study.  Unfortunately, my purpose now is not so clear.  It seems I must balance school, work, friends, and family (and not exactly in that order).  It was so much earlier to just focus on the salvation of souls.