Elder Thomas Jensen: 瘀傷 October 21, 2015

I have no time to write my emails yet again. Terribly sorry. Elder Dong and I are just outside having too much fun to take time to be on the computers anymore!

Bike thugs. (pre-wreck)

This week was epic. Of course we saw some miracles with all our people we are working with. And of course we had some fun out on the streets. But this week wasn't epic because of the usual missionary life occurrences.

I wrecked so hard.

Good close up

My arm was locked in this position for a good two days.

I don't bruise easily. But the fact that I wrecked last Tuesday, 8 days ago, and my entire right arm is still straight up yellow and black up and down should suggest that it wasn't some soft landing.

Angels caught me. Nothing broken. Really absolutely no damage at all. Just a friggin SWOLE right arm. At first glance, you'd be like, "Woah, have you been working out lately?" but at your double take you'd notice that it ain't muscle. lol

The story goes like this:

Last Tuesday we had a lesson set for 7:00pm. We had tried to move it to 6:30, but our investigator couldn't make that work. Expecting it to be at 7:00, we didn't rush to eat dinner, until at 6:30 we got a call asking where we were. We were forever away. We got right on our bikes and started booking it! Good news I remembered to put my helmet on. (I've never ridden without it, don't worry mother.) The only thing missing on my bike was a light on my handlebars. So as we were HAULING down this nearly empty alleyway, which happened to not be quite as lit as they are normally, I didn't expect much to happen. There was one parked car on the side of the road with no sign of life in it or near it. Expect the unexpected. The timing was so perfect I don't think Hollywood could reenact it. (Note: Taiwanese people usually crack their door open and peak before they slowly open their door to avoid traffic incidents.) But this man must've swung his door open because I didn't even see anything until there I was lying on the ground with the wind totally knocked out of me. I didn't slam into his door perpendicularly (as if it had been all the way open), no, I hit into it as it was still not even halfway open yet. My feet flew up over my head as I front flipped and flopped onto the ground first landing on my head and then my poor back. When I realized I hadn't died and opened my eyes again, I was staring into the eyes of a frantic man who had me cradled like a baby and my companion's face next to hit with his eyes wider than you'd think Asians are capable of going. I went to stand up, fully expecting to have multiple shattered bones, but fortunately all I had was feeble knees! I wanted to throw up, but I managed to keep my dinner down, saving me the $100 it would've taken to replace that food. :-) And even more fortunate, I was given $500 to go see a doctor (ended up buying desserts with it instead lol) and then was still able to get right back up and ride up an 89 degree hill to get to our appointment at 7:00 on the dot.

Elder Dong and I got a kick out of it afterward. I probably the best bike wreck stories of most missionaries these days, not to brag.

Love you all! Have an amazing week!!!