Today I'm having one of those days where all you can do is say "Thanks God for giving me this wonderful day!!"... and it's only 4:00!

Every Thursday I have an English class with some ladies from a nearby church and then we eat lunch together. After lunch I have a one hour Japanese class with my Japanese teacher and then I take the train home, stop by a bakery and then ride my bike home... and then teach another class in the evening.

This morning's class was ok... it's not really much of a class because we just visit the whole time. We had a good lunch together and then I had my Japanese lesson. Today I just wanted to throw myself a little party because I felt like I understood and remembered a lot more than usual! (it helps that this lesson was a little bit easy, but hey, I am excited any time I understand something!) I was even able to converse (in Japanese) a little bit with my teacher as she drove me to the train station!

After my train got to the station where my bike is, I stopped in at the bakery and picked out a few treats. There's this one girl who is working almost every time I go and she is just so sweet! She is always smiling and she just seems like such a nice person! She looks pretty young so I decided that I wanted to invite her to our "Friday Night" ministry next week.

As I've mentioned before, each time I go to the bakery, I'm usually only able/brave enough to say nothing more than "this looks delicious" or "it's hot today isn't it?" so obviously I had a challenge ahead of me! I had been praying about it and God certainly answered my prayers today!

I handed her the flier and told her in Japanese 'this is my church. please come.' She understood and asked if we were making tacos and I said yes, we would make them together and then play games after. Unfortunately, she can't come because she works until 7 and then has to clean up after. I told her she could come later, but I think she said she is very tired when she goes home. but... I'm pretty excited that we actually had a conversation and we understood each other!!

I know, I know, my arm is going to get sore with all the back-patting I am doing, but I just had to share my 'small victory' and treasure this day while it lasts!

Language learning is full of ups and downs and I've certainly experienced plenty of days where I couldn't feel any dumber and I just feel like curling up in a ball and crying. Japanese is HARD!! That's why I've learned it's so important to cherish these kinds of days when they come! I'm sure tomorrow will be another challenge, but for now, I'm just going to spend a little time thanking God for answering my prayers and giving me this day to encourage me to keep pressing on!