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Weird, weird dream last night/this morning, friends.

I'm never sure who reads this blog, so whenever I mention anything that has to do with LDS theology, I feel a need to explain it. I imagine most people know that young men in the LDS Church (specifically 19 year-olds) are asked to serve as missionaries for a two year period. Mission assignments are determined by revelation, so these young men can be assigned to go nearly anywhere in the world. I went to Japan for my mission. It was a wonderful experience, but no one warned me beforehand how intensely difficult and demanding it was going to be. I found out firsthand. Robert Poste and I used to joke about how we would probably refuse to serve a second mission if we were asked to.

On to the dream.

A companion from the mission (aside: LDS missionaries work in sets of two; said missionaries are referred to as "companions") came to talk to me. He was one of my Japanese companions, and said that he was heading back to Japan to serve a second mission. Admittedly, he was on his way out, but he was stopping by to see if I wanted in. "Why not," I thought to myself, and packed up a few white shirts and ties. Off we went to Japan.

After a couple of months of missionary work, I began to wonder about the logistics of my decision. I realized that I hadn't actually told anyone at home of my decision. I just threw some clothes in a duffel bag and jumped on a plane. All of my things were still in my apartment, too, and I only had a contract through August. I didn't know how the people moving into my apartment in May were going to deal with all of the things I'd left there. On top of that, I was quickly realizing that I wasn't especially enthusiastic about full-time missionary service anymore, to say nothing of the fact that I was far less than excited to serve for another 22 months.

How to get home, though? I hadn't really considered that, and I didn't have the money it was going to take to get back home. However, I quickly remembered that Genuine Draft was going to a foreign exchange school in Japan, so I decided to pay her a visit. (Of course she was in Japan. Why wouldn't she be?) I tagged around with her for a while, curious to hear what her Japanese sounded like, since I didn't remember her speaking any Japanese the whole time I knew her. I settled into one of her classes and sat down next to her, only to find that I was actually sitting next to Uffish Thought. Also, apparently the school was an American international school, so the whole class was conducted in English. I never got to hear either Genuine Draft or Uffish Thought speak any Japanese.

Clearly emblazoned in my mind when I awoke, however, was the thought, "What was I thinking? Why on earth would I want to serve a second mission?"

Dreams. What bizarre things we subject ourselves to every night.