Day 227 - God is Good

This morning, after finishing my mall walk and getting to work from the car, I came into the elevator entry on the first floor of the building I work in. There is a lady who works security who stays by the elevators to check card keys and such. Her name is Lauren. She is a black lady in her sixties. I have gotten to know her a bit just through friendly conversation while waiting for the elevator to arrive. She is wonderful. Kind. Thoughtful with a beautiful smile and demeanor. On this day, she told me to 'Have a nice day' as I was about to get on the elevator. I told her 'Okage sama de'! and then explained to her what that means in Japanese: 'I will because of you'. She then said: 'Nihongo wo wakarimas' (I understand Japanese). I was surprised, of course, and she went on to explain that she loves Japan and had been over there a number of times. What an amazing thing, to have that connection. She asked how I learned it and I told her I was a missionary there. She said 'that is a wonderful thing. I respect people who go and do things like that. I understand what a sacrifice it is." I then went on to tell her that Austin is serving as a missionary down in Argentina. She thought that was so cool as well. She mentioned that her son was familiar with our church as he had an LDS girlfriend. And so we talked about it for a bit longer. She ended our conversation by stating: 'God is good!'. I agreed wholeheartedly