Final Missionary Email, First of Other Posts?

Dear Family and friends,  

So, I’m back in America for the first time in a year. America is a weird place. For all my friends on missions- I returned home early (and it was absolutely terrifying). I’ll give you a rundown of how the week went.

Sunday: Really bad back day

Monday: Really bad back day part 2

Tuesday: Went to the doctor in the morning. I had my native companion who is FLUENT (who knew), talk to the doctor and get the scoop. The real very detailed scoop. She gave me the very real detailed scoop in missionary Japanese so I could understand. I had understood what the doctor had said the problem was but because of the language barior, the urgency of the problem was missed. He said the only way to recover was to rest. And resting is not something a missionary has time for. I talked to Kaicho [mission president] that night and we decided to each pray about the decision and talk about our answer in the morning. It was the hardest thing to pray about. Because I wanted to stay so bad. But I wasn’t praying to tell God what I wanted (He already knew); I was praying to know what He wanted for me. And I got the strongest feeling that it was time to go home. That I was needed there.

Wednesday: Kaicho called during studies. He asked how I was. And then he asked the Big Question: did you get an answer. I couldn’t answer his question- I was crying. I finally said that I felt like I needed to go home. He answered that he had got the same answer.

The next two days were a flurry of packing and doing everything I love about Japan. It was nuts. But I was fun. I flew out on Friday (a day that was actually 36 hours long). It was so sad to come home. But IT was cool to see how I could still be a missionary as I was flying home.

I met five really cool people on the way home.

On my flight from Fukuoka to Tokyo I met this really cool guy named S. I sat next to him and he tried to say his piece in English. And I think I surprised him by answering in Japanese. We chatted the entire 1½ hour flight. It was so fun. He knows the Mormon church. Even though he’s not necessarily interested in church and religion he love taking pictures of religious buildings. I told him to go check out the Tokyo or the Fukuoka temple when he had time because they’re pretty awesome buildings to talk a picture of.

Then going though immigration I met a nice lady named B. She’s from Oklahoma but was living in Sasebo on a base. She was holding a book about the power of prayer. So we talked about that for a while. When we got on the plane she said “if you pray in the front of the plane, I’ll pray in the back and our journey will be super safe!” She came and gave me a yummy Japanese snack during the flight.

On my flight from Tokyo to Dallas two absolutely adorable Japanese girls sat behind me. Half way though the flight I decided I needed to pass them a note saying they were cute (because they were. Come on, they’re Japanese. That’s inevitable). I think it made their day. They passed me a note back. When we got to customs I was able to help them know where to go (they had no idea where the English signs were pointing them).  They asked why I knew Japanese and I said “well…” and of course went all missionary on them. I’ll miss Japanese people.

On my last flight I sat next to a nice guy who does business in Japan so we just talked about how awesome Japan is. It was great.

Let me tell you, I got off the plane in Baltimore and I was super nervous to see my family. Who knows why. But I cried when I saw them. Well, all of them except Josh. He decided to run off to Seattle. Because he doesn’t love me or something.

Now I’m no longer a full-time missionary. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still a missionary. I can still share God’s love.

I think the biggest thing I learned on my mission was that the most important choice have is to trust God. Because when we do that everything else works out. Life (or missions) never goes the way we plan. I had no plans on coming home early. And when I realized that I would be going home, I was devastated. But because I trust God, and know He has a plan for me, I wasn’t worried. When we trust in Him it will all work out. That’s a promise.  

Love love love

ベアマン姉妹^_^

Editors Note:  I am working on convincing Emma to keep on blogging.  I will let you know how that goes.  Feel free to encourage her ;).  She thinks she won't have anything interesting to say now that she is here in America.  I think she is always interesting, but she doesn't believe me since we are related.  Either way, thank you for your love and support!

Halloween, Parties, and an upcoming transfer back to Maryland

Hello my beloved people, 

Happy Halloween 👻🎃 Eat lots of American candy for me! 

This week went by crazy fast. And we had lots of fun Halloween related things. 

Calling people: We were going through a list of people and making calls yesterday evening. Lots of weird things happened. One was a miracle. We called this guy named R. He's from Nepal and we chatted in English. We asked if he had time to meet and he said he was busy with work and school. I thought it was going to be the normal "I'm too busy but I'm actually not interested" call but right after he said "but I'm free on Friday afternoon. Can we meet then?"  Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. Yes. What? Huge miracle. The next person I called was named S. From China. So I put the number in and hit call and it was ringing forever so I looked to see if I put the number in right and I was calling a member! We were so confused why a members number was in under an investigators record. We laughed for a good 15 minutes after that one. 

Specialized training from the mission president and crew: all sort of crazy things happened- I sang a special musical number, bore my testimony, took lots of notes, caught up with my MTC companion, ate pancakes and ice cream, and danced to "happy" from that Disney/Pixar movie (despicable me?) with my mission president (????). Overall it was a fun and spiritual day. My favorite part was from a video clip we were shown. The lady said that she realized she didn't need to be healed to help. And everything seemed to click into place. I don't need to be miraculously healed to serve and love with the energy I do have. It was so relieving to hear that I guess. 

Halloween Eikaiwa: we taught them how to have Halloween. In Japan, Halloween is kind of new so they don't really know what to do. So we taught them Halloween words and what trick-or-treating is. Afterwards we danced to "Thriller" and had a Halloween party. Everyone stayed for it! Normally people try to skip out on our game/conversation time but they didn't this time. 

Halloween party: the ward held a Halloween party for kids and asked all the moms to invite their friends with kids. There was 97 kids total. Chaos and candy ensued. It was too much fun. And too much cute. Japanese moms know how to make killer cute family themed costumes. And Japanese kids are literally the cutest creatures in existence. When they were planning the party they called me up for American Halloween games. So we played them (except Japanese style). We played the donut on the sting game, but instead of donuts there were rice crackers. They also had piñatas but they had them on the ground. And whacked them with plastic bottles. I guess it's safer that way? 

I bought a $1.50 jar of peanut butter and $.75 quality ice cream. Nuff' said. 

K san: she's a referral from some other sisters who had been teaching her because it was an elders area. She's this older lady who lives 30-45 minutes away by train. She lives amongst the rice fields and mountains. It's beautiful. She is basically perfect. She just focuses super hard on the tiny mistakes and problems so she has no confidence. But when we taught her about faith and repentance she knew exactly what they were. She taught us what they were. Towards the end of the lesson she got off on a tangent about how terrible she is and the Spirit had left the room. A thought came to mind to share the part from Elder Holland's talk that says "To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle--and all will--I say, 'Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth.'" As we shared that quote, the Spirit came back into the room and testified to all of us that we were doing what we needed to do. It was really cool. 

Last pday, one of the zone leaders taught me how to kick-box a bit. It was fun ☺️

Hospital miracle: while I waiting for S shimai in the bathroom after my doctors visit, this nurse came up and started chatting with me. We chatted about church things and she was really nice. Sometimes, as a missionary, you're lucky enough to see that you're in the right place at the right time. 

Even though Halloween hasn't happened yet, all the Christmas stuff it out everywhere. And at the big train station in Fukuoka they've started hanging up Christmas lights. How is it Christmas already?!?!

Well, I think that's about it. You guys are the best. Have fun. Good luck in school and stuff. I love you guys ❤️️💕😘😍

Love love love 

ベアマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad

Post Script:

Emma's back has flared up again.  The mission president decided it makes the most sense for Emma to come home to rest and recover.  We anticipate that she could be home this coming weekend.  As much as Emma wanted to stay, we think she is at peace with coming home.  We are super excited as a family to have her home for the holidays!   Thank you everyone for following her adventures with us. 

The week everyone decided to make me a Broadway star

Hello beloved 愛する fambam,

The cooler weather is starting to creep in here in Higashiku. And some leave are starting to change. I was sad until I realized at home it hit that point a while back. #blessed. Anyway, how is Maryland? I met a lady the other day when I was on junkai (splits? Companion exchanges?) in Fukuoka city and she has a daughter living in D.C. right now because her American husband is a spy. It was fun to talk to her about D.C. 

Junkai in Fukuoka: a little about Higashiku: it's the outskirts of the outskirts of Fukuoka city. So it's not city. Then we went on junkai (I can't figure out what this is called in English) with the STL's in Fukuoka city, the largest city in our mission I believe. It was so much fun. It reminded me of Naha. I was dednoing with W shimai, a missionary from Australia. We had TOO MUCH fun. We met so many cool people including a lady from South Africa. She's in Japan to teach English and we just chatted with her in the English language and it was so refreshing. There was so many young people to talk to. We went to a huge underground shopping mall and we dendoed by asking people for directions. It was so fun. We met a ton of super cute nice people. 🔸🔸🔸🔸

Becoming a broadway star: So we have a training with Kaicho this week and I got a call on like Friday and one of the sister was asking me to do a musical number. I laughed and asked if she called the wrong sister. Nope. I'm aiming a musical number. Me and another sister and 2 elders. This a first. We'll see how it goes. Then an elder who is a stellar dancer decided he wanted to teach us all the "Thriller" dance for us to sing at Eikaiwa on Wednesday for our Halloween party. And he asked us to dance. So this week I will preforming in a dance and in a musical number. What the what? 

J: she's the Vietnamese girl we met our 2 day in Higashiku. We went out to dinner with her and talked about life and Jesus. She loved it. She came to English class with us after. She said she wants to come to church on Sunday because she always feels good when she is with us. She came yesterday but late so we weren't outside to greet her. She was brace enough to come in to the chapel herself and the biggest miracle happened. She sat down in the back next to a member married to a Australian so she speaks perfect English and was able to translate for her. We had a lesson with her  after sacrament meeting with the Fukuoka sisters to pass her (she lives in their area...). And one of the office missionaries at the missionary home is Vietnamese so she came and helped us with the lesson. When the office sister missionary started speaking Japanese to J, J started to cry because she felt so alone moving to Japan on her own. We had a powerful lesson with her about God's love and prayer. At the end she prayed in Vietnamese. She's so sweet. It was sad to give her to the other sisters to teach but I'll still be able to see her at English class and church. 

Sister H: she's the Vietnamese office missionary that helped with J's lesson. She's a BEAST. She was born in Vietnam and in school studied English and French. When her family was 16 her family moved to the D.C. area for her father's new job. She lived in Silver Spring, Maryland and went to Blair high school. She graduated, went to the University of Maryland for college and taught French there for 3 years. When I met her before the lesson yesterday, she asked "Sister Bearman, are you from Silver Spring Maryland?" and I freaked out because no one knows where Maryland is let alone Silver Spring. We both got excited and it was wonderful. She's such a cool lady. She's serving a mission with her husband now. I translated for her in Relief Society. 

M san: we found her in our area book and we called her up one day during phone dendo. She answered and said "I'm Christian. I love Jesus. Let's meet, eat, and talk." So we did just that. She's this cute old grandma with more energy than I've ever had. She was so fun to talk to. She showed us pictures of all the oil paintings she's made and then pictures of her famous j-pop star daughter. It was hilarious. Then we chatted about Jesus and how we all love Jesus and it was so nice to teach someone who loves Jesus as much as we do. 

Chikushino Ward: so we were greeting people in the foyer to the church and I look up to shake the next persons hand and it's Brother Y, the father of my favorite family in Chikushino. We both got really excited and I couldn't give him a hug but I gave him an air hug. He came to the Fukuoka ward with his recently returned missionary daughter. As I was greeting people, several other people we from Chikushino and it was a joyous reunion. 😊 I also gave a short introduction and testimony in sacrament meeting and I was a bit nervous because it was in front of 300 people I didn't know in another language but I looked out in the congregation and saw my favorite people from Chikushino ward and it made me less nervous. 

Tuesday: was just a solid day of dendo all around. We met a plethora of kind people. One lady, as we talked to her, said that she has a friend who goes to our church and wants to talk to her friend about it now. It was really cool as I talked to people I was using Japanese that I had learned but never used before in order to teach and talk to their needs. It was amazing to see the gift of tongues work over and over as I talked to people. I'm definitely not fluent in Japanese, but the Holy Ghost is so I'm covered. 

That's about the sum of it. 

Have a wonderful week. And have a fun Halloween. Wait, I think that's next week. Don't have a fun Halloween. Yet. But if there's parties and you dress up take pictures. 

I love you guys!!!

Love love love

ベアマン姉妹より

Sent from my iPad

Voting, Fire flowers 💥, fire balls

Hellooooooooooo family,

What's cookin'? Lots of stuff is cooking in Higashiku. Including pots. We were getting ready to make lunch and we put a pot on with some oil in it. Then we started chopping up veggies when suddenly the inside of the pot caught on fire and here was a crazy fire ball. Turns out there was a hole in the pot (thanks elders) and so the flame went through the hole and caught all the oil on fire. It was exciting to say the least. 

Well, on to this week. It was a crazy stressful week. Lots of not knowing what's going on. Because of whitewashing [neither Emma or her companion being in the area previously]. Because me and my companion are from different countries with very different cultures. Because we don't know the area at all. Because all the people who we contacted previously are male (and guy Japanese is so much harder than female Japanese). But despite all the "I don't knows" we still saw miracles. I am so grateful this is the Lord's work and not mine. 

Fire flowers: on Saturday we were talking to a lady on the street and she told us there would be fire works (which are called fire flowers in Japanese) that night over the river. We really wanted to go but we  got told in the early afternoon so by the time evening swung around we had forgotten. By the time we remembered we assumed they were over. So we went and started knocking doors. Then we heard the sound of fire works. We sprinted back to our bikes and started biking toward the sound as fast as we could. And we found them! We got to watch them from a bridge for 5-10 minutes get lit off over a river. It was beautiful. Afterwards we still had a little time left to dendo but we didn't know where we should go. So we prayed to know where to go and I felt like we should go to this one apartment that seemed to have a lot of lights on. So we went over and knock on the first door and this really chill guy answers the door and we just casual talk about Jesus with him. He was way nice and even though he didn't want to learn more I know we went there to meet him. 

Phone dendo: one of the days this week when my back wasn't too happy, we called people on the phone who had met with missionaries before. A surprising amount of people answered and lots of them were willing to chat on the phone. Two guys said they had interest but were too busy because of work. One guy said that he was grateful that missionaries were here trying to help people in Japan. That phone call made me feel better. Then I called a guy named Andy who turns out to be British. Yeah. That was confusing. I had like, a normal English conversation with him. Weird. It's been so long. Like actually, I haven't spoken normal English in about a year. Phone calls are so different in English! 

Voting: so I voted for the first time. For the president of the United States. From Japan. While eating food. With chop sticks. While explaining to my Japanese companion in Japanese what I was doing. It was a strange moment. Especially to see the options listed in English and Spanish. Like who even speaks Spanish? Everyone speaks Japanese! 

Enrique: our Peruvian recent convert. He was baptized 2 months ago. It's hilarious because we teach him in Japanese but he acts and speaks very much like a Latino. Too bad I forgot ALL my Spanish since learning Japanese. He is so humble it's unbelievable. All he wants to do is follow Jesus Christ. And he'll do anything he has to to follow Him. It's cool because his brother's wife is a member (they live in Peru). And his brother recently converted. He found out his brother had converted and met the missionaries on the street soon after. Man. God has a plan. For everyone. It's so cool! 

Zone training meeting: I met so many missionaries that I haven't seen in forever. People from Okinawa, the MTC. And then I realized how old I am. I got to talk with the Chikushino missionaries and they caught me up on all my people in the Chikushino ward. There's one Eikaiwa student that me and my companion saw all over Chikushino. So one day we casually invited him to church and he came. Then I transferred but apparently he's been attending church and is preparing to be baptized in November! And my recent convert- T shimai- got married!!!!! Now she has to convert him. Lol. So I can go to their temple sealing. 

J: she's the Vietnamese girl we met last week on the wrong train. She spent 3 hours trying to find the church. But because she can't read or speak Japanese and because I don't know the city of Fukuoka, we couldn't help. She showed up at the end and we gave her a BoM. We plan on meeting on Wednesday as a dinner date/lesson and then go to Eikaiwa together after. It was cool to see how her desire to go to church continued through 3 hours of being lost in a foreign county. Satan can't stop her!

The Elder who reminds me of my cousin, Kellen Cribbs: if you haven't met my cousin Kellen Cribbs, I suggest you fly out to Washington state and meet him. He's a chill dude. Anyway, there's this new Elder in Fukuoka. He arrived from the MTC 2 weeks ago. Fantastic guy. I've chatted with him a time or two. The reason I bring him up is because he gave me a priesthood blessing on Sunday. My back had been hurting and crazy stuff, you know. So I asked for a blessing. Well, of course they let the newbie do it but the coolest part was to see him prepare to give the blessing. He stepped of to the side and said a prayer. And then he gave me a blessing. And it was one of the most powerful blessings I've received. And I think I really came to understood how we can use God's power. All worthy men over the age of 12 hold the priesthood. And women have power from God too. But there's a difference between using that power and exercising that power. Both get the job done. But when we exercise that power, opposed to just using it, we can do so much more than we could ever think of doing on our own. And how do we exercise power? Prayer (if you listened to conference, it talks all about it)!  It was a cool "aha!" moment. I don't know about you guys but I'm going to start praying to exercise my power. 

Bike home: in the pouring rain ☔️. Despite it being chillier and cold rain it was fun. Add to the fact we didn't know where we were going was fun. But there's something liberating about biking in a skirt on a bike in the pouring rain. Like "if I can do this I can do anything" sort of liberating. 

Fukuoka Ward: is huge. There's 18 missionaries in the ward (I miss counted last time). The ward is 8 times larger than my last area of 30 members. It's split into 5 areas so members and missionaries can actually work together. It was a little overwhelming. Also, since its right next to the mission office and all the office missionaries and people go there, it is run very different than a tiny ward in Kumamoto. But is fun. O shimai's (my former Japanese companion) older brothers family lives in the ward. I hope she comes down for a temple trip and stays with her older brother and then maybe I can see her! 

This will be a good week. Also, just found out there's a Costco in my area so it has to be a good week. Y'all have a good week too!!

Love love love,

ベアマン姉妹

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Moving and Conference

Dear kazoku and amigos,

As always, I'll start off by saying this week was CRAZY! I say that almost every week but every week is crazy in a different way. Never a dull moment when you're serving the Lord. 

Right now I'm up in Higashiku, Fukuoka with S shimai. It is probably 105 degrees cooler than Kumamoto. Kumamoto still feels like D.C. in late July/August. Fukuoka is more like mid September. I'm sweating a lot less. The elders (thankfully) did an amazing job cleaning the apartment [They moved into an apartment that used to be used by male missionaries, typically not the cleanest]. Although when we first got there we didn't know where the apartment was. So we just wandered around. Fortunately my Japanese companion can read a map it took about 20 minutes to find our place from the train station. Turns out, our apartment is less than 5 minutes away from said train station. We arrive in our apartment and are pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness but soon realize as we decide to start lunch, that there's actually no food. At all. So we leave the apartment and start wandering around, looking for a grocery store. We come back, eat, and start planning for the week before realizing we can't because our area book hasn't synced [they have electronic records of who is being taught, and they didn't sync with their ipads yet]  and the elders didn't leave a note about the people. And that about sums up my time in Higashiku so far. No one knows what's going on or where anything is or who anyone is. 

As for my companion: S shimai. She's from Tokyo, Japan. She's 19 and the oldest of 3 siblings. She loves dancing. Transfer 5. She speaks a little English and understands a bit too. 

This week we had a cool miracle. It was the day after transfer day and we realize we have no iPad chargers in the apartment. And no maps either, to tell us where we're going. So we trained to Fukuoka Shi and picked up S shimai's charger. On the way back we took the wrong train and ended up in the way wrong place. So we were waiting for the right train and a cute girl walks by with English writing on her shirt. I said "hi" and she said hi back. And we started chatting in English. She's Vietnamese and moved to Japan 2 days before. She asked what we were doing in Japan and I said teaching about Jesus. She got really excited and said she wanted to learn more. She said she wanted to come to church that Sunday too. She didn't end up coming become she lost the map we gave her but we've had daily contact since we met her. We gave her the address to the church and she plans on coming next week. God really puts us in the right place at the right time to meet the people we need. 

Saturday night we were dendoing [knocking on doors] a massive apartment and most people slammed the door pretty quick. But I kept thinking about Preseident Uchtdorf's talk about continuing until the 4th floor, last door (although in our case, we started on the 13th floor and went down). Then we met someone REALLY COOL. It was cool because when we got to the area we planned on there was 10 huge apartment buildings but we both felt we should do the same one. We went to that one and it had 4 sections and we felt like doing the same section. The Spirit. It's real. He guides us. Anyway, we met someone named A. She's Chinese and a mom and works. She was really interested in learning about how Jesus strengthens family. She told us that she has had interest in Jesus before in her life but she didn't know where to look and she didn't have enough time to figure out. Coincidence we showed up? I think not. We are meeting with her next week :)

Today we went to a ward BBQ. Fukuoka ward is HUGE. Shimizu ward had 30 people in it on a good day. Fukuoka ward has almost 300. Yes. Wow. They're all super solid members though. There's 14 missionaries in the ward. AP's, office elders, Fukuoka shimai, Fukuoka elders, Fujisaki sisters, Nakagawa sisters, and us! I don't think I missed anyone. Oh, President Egan and his wife come when they're not traveling. Fukuoka city is huge but I live north of the city. We have some of the outskirts of the city so it seems. Haven't spent a ton of time in our area yet. With conference and stuff. Our church building is over 30 minutes away by bike. If we go really fast. That will be interesting with lessons. We'll have to have them at McDonald's or something.  

Well, this week should be interesting. My back is doing a lot better. Still bleh but a better bleh. I'm going to the doctor again this coming week. 

Have a wonderful week. I love you guys TONS. TONS OF TONS worth of love coming you're way. 

Love, love, love

ベアマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad

Well, Elder Rasband committed me to do it so here I go. Testify time!! To start off with I know that we are God's children. And He loves each one of us individually. He has a plan for each of us. That may a plan completely different from one we expected but it's the one that will make us happy. That's what He wants. Our happiness. Part of His plan, to make us happy, He gave us a Savior. Jesus Christ. Through Christ we can overcome weakness, trials, mistakes, death and eventually leads us to eternal life with Him, God, our family, or friends. In the ultimate state of happiness. Because that's what God's plan is all about. Our happiness. The path that leads us there is Jesus Christ. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we learn about how to follow Christ. It is His church on the earth today. I know that's true. I know God's love and Christ love is what keeps me going during hard time. Times I don't know why what is happening is happening. But I know that when we trust in Christ, whatever does happen will ALWAYS work out in the end. I have experienced that on my mission so many times. With members, with investigators, with my self. We don't know God's will, but God knows God's will and sometimes that's all that matters. 

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The modes of transportation this week: bus, train, subway, bike, foot, President E's car

Hello beloved people!  

Happy news! I'm staying in Japan for sure! This week we managed to

travel all over the place. Seriously, this week was CRAZY.

Also, got transfer calls! I've been called as a senior companion- to a Japanese companion, S shimai. I'm whitewashing in to Higashiku.  [white washing is missionary speak for going to area where both you and your companion are new to the area at the same time]  It's been an elders area for quite some time, but they're taking the elders out and putting us in! I'm SUPER nervous. 

Fukuoka: We went up to see the doctor. Thanks mom, for mentioning him in an email because he fixed my back. Again. And becomes of him, I'm staying on a mission 💃🏽 We bussed (is that a word?) up and we're planing on taking a bus back. But Shimai and Kaicho [mission president and his wife] offered us a ride back. NOT NORMAL. It's a 2 and a half hour ride and we chatted for all of it. The first little part was an interrogation. Of me and my back and my situation. That was at the beginning of the trip. He didn't make the decision until towards the end. We were just chatting away with Shimai and he interrupts and says "I've made a decision. Sister Bearman, you're staying." I've never felt so relieved in my life. It was really fun, however, to chat casually with the mission president and his wife. For 2 and a half hours. They're such cool people 😁

K san: we met with her 3 times this week and finished up all her lessons. She LOVES the commandments. She understands that commandments are a way to show thanks to God and she wants to say thanks to God as much as she can. When we taught the law of tithing, [practice of giving 1/10th income to the church] she understood the purpose before we even explained it to her! She believes everything we say because she knows we are messengers from God. I can't adequately explain how amazing she is! Well, she was supposed to get baptized this past Sunday but on Friday morning we get a call from her. She had gotten way sick. So we hauled butt out there with the elders on a train and had a crazy adventure. We were able to see her for a short time (she did not look too good) and the elders gave her a blessing. The next day (the day of her baptism interview) we get a text from her and she said she had been hospitalized. So we went out with the elders again to try to find her: checked 2 hospitals and her house and she wasn't there. So we left her some flowers at her house. We haven't heard from her since. It's so sad. And frustrating. She's so close! And Satan had to get in the way. Side note: we taught her a lesson at her house his week and her rice cooker is Pooh Bear. When you push the start button to start cooking rice, it starts singing the Winnie the Pooh theme song. 🎶 Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh 🎶 

A and E: 2 sisters from Eikaiwa. They came to church on Sunday and when I asked them after church if they had any questions, they asked if we could teach them more about Jesus. Gladly! We set up an appointment for Monday. They came to dinner at a members house with us on Sunday evening it was a cool experience for them to be in a home filled with the good feelings they've only felt at church. As we talked to them at the dinner (in half English half Japanese) we realized how humble they are. On Monday we had a short and sweet lesson about Jesus. They LOVED Jesus. 

Cleaning baptismal font: With bleach! We were preparing for a baptism (which sadly didn't happen but will happen soon (and I won't be here😂)) and the baptismal font was COVERED in really gross yellow mold. We poured so much beach into the font we lost our sense of smell for a while. But it's all sparkly and clean now. It was a fun time though. We sang to LDS.org songs!! 

Women's conference: watched it from the comfort of our futons. I really liked Pres Uchtdorf's talk about faith. That's something I learned these past couple transfers. Sometime you can't have faith in an outcome, but if you have faith in Christ, the outcome will be ok. 

Bugs in the night: My companion is a hoot. I wake up in the middle of the night to my companion screaming "BUG!!" and then sprinting to my futon and perching there while peering at her bed suspiciously. I went back to sleep because I thought it was a dream. Turns out, it really happened! Found that out the next day. We laughed for 20 minutes straight. 

Family Joke

My companions account: it was sometime around 11:30, and I was in the state of mind when I wasn't quite asleep, but I wasn't really awake. Well, I was looking up at the ceiling and in my groggy stupor I thought I saw a large hairy spider on the ceiling above my head. After a second or two, the spider fell from the ceiling and I thought it fell right on my futon! I was not about that. I woke myself up shrieking "It's a BUG!", promptly launched out of my futon and onto my companion's. Sister Bearman awoke from the noise, sat up groggily and found me perched on her futon peering suspiciously at my sheets. She shrugged and went back to sleep, and I, after a few minutes of sitting on her futon in the dark, figured I was willing to risk going back to sleep and climbed back in bed. The funny part is, yesterday after a lesson, she started telling me about weird dreams she had, and started telling me about how I had been screaming about bugs. We had a good laugh when I had to tell her that her dream was actually real. 

Wild pork: We went on a drive with a Japanese person (an investigator of the elders who was taking us on a trip) and we went though a pretty forestry area. He's trying to learn English so he was speaking Japanglish to us. We asked if there was any wild animals in the forest and he got really excited and was like "there's wild pork!" We thought it was hilarious. Also, we were slightly confused. We soon realize he meant wild boar. We laughed for a while after that. 

Well, these next few days will be a whirlwind of packing and saying goodbye. Which is always sad. But I'll definitely get good pictures!

Have a fabulous week! I will because it's CONFERENCE WEEK!! 

Love love love

ベアマン姉妹

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Big Miracles and a trip to Fukuoka

FAMILY AND FRIENDS, 

This week was the craziest week ever. And I spent the whole week wondering what the heck was going on. It was amazing. I don't even know where to start. 

This week we paid some money to the local government to set up shop in a busy part of the city and hand out Eikaiwa (English class) fliers like crazy. We did it all day every day all week. It was crazy successful. We had 15 new students at Eikaiwa on Wednesday. People love Americans. People love English. It was crazy fun- all 8 of us missionaries bringing people closer to Christ through English. 

On the way to the meeting place, one set of elders met K san, the crazy prepared person we set a baptism date with on my birthday. Remember her? She was getting baptized in 3 weeks before some unfortunate things happened. Well, the elders start talking it's her and they end up talking for 30 minutes and she resolves to call us in the evening. 

So we get the call and we were on top of the world. We chat, she wants to meet again and knows that the church is true and has been praying and been reading the scriptures since we last met over a month and a half ago. So we set up an appointment to met with her on Saturday. 

So Saturday comes and we meet with her and she's even more prepared than she was before. She has a solid testimony of God and Jesus Christ and the restoration of the true restored gospel though Joseph Smith. And she told us she know for a fact that this church is the true church and the way back to God and becomes of that she would like to be baptized asap. Our jaws dropped to the floor and proceeded to set a baptism date with her for next Tuesday (she's been to church twice already and has heard half the lessons (and we got special permission from the AP's [assistants to the President of the mission] and stuff as well). It's way fun to teach her becomes she believes with all her heart that we're messengers from God. It makes it really easy to teach, she believes EVERYTHING we say and it's because she has a solid testimony of God. 

Fast forward to Sunday. We went to 10 hours of church meetings. Our ward's meetings were from 8am-1:30pm. Then we went to the other ward (with K san) from 2pm-5pm and scheduled lessons with her for an hour. We got home at 6pm very exhausted but happy. Our ward asked us to move her baptism date to next Sunday after church so more members could attend. We were happy to move it and so was she. AHHH!!!!!!!! 

In Sunday school we learned about the word of wisdom with her [church teaching that encourages healthy eating and prohibits the intake of alcohol, coffee, tea, tobacco, or harmful drugs]. Like every Japanese person out there, she likes drinking her tea. But when she found out that she shouldn't drink it she started apologizing profusely even though she hadn't known about it before. She said that if it's from God, she will do it. It was as simple as that. So cool. 

In other news, on Friday I went up to Fukuoka to see the doctor who helped my back feel way good. We bused there and we went through Chikushino!!!!! [previous area she lived] Once we get to the hospital, we are checking in and a nurse comes up to us and starts chatting with us about dendo and we were a little confused before we realized she was a member. And then I realized what her name was. O. I asked if she was, by chance, related to O shimai [One of Emma's companions who has since finished her mission]. She is!!! They're sister-in-laws! And I gave her a note to give O shimai because she was coming down the next day to go to the temple. It was happy making 😊 

Italian Food!

Anyway, the doctor went really well. He said the problem is the same as before but not as bad. Which is hopeful. I'm going back to see him next week and he thinks after that I'll be good. Happy day! Because of that, we are postponing the decision to go home until after next weeks visit. 

Bear Socks

Speaking of backs, thank you so much to everyone who prayed and/or fasted on my behalf. The power of fasting and prayer is real. For 2 days, I had no back problems- the day everyone in Japan fasted and the day everyone in America fasted. And since then, my back hasn't been acting up. I've been able to get out and teach and dendo. There's less pain. It's a huge miracle. I'm so grateful for everyone's faith. I also know that through everyone's fasting and prayers for a miracle, another unexpected miracle happened. It is not a coincidence that K san was found again the day after all the fasting and prayers. She's getting baptized because of your guys faith in a miracle and I'm so grateful❤️ 

Well, this next week should be exciting. The next pday will be on a Tuesday. Pray for all good things to happen before then (in regards to my back and K san). No matter what happens, it will be an exciting week. Probably full of drama. Lol. Have an AWESOME WEEK!! I love you guys to death. 

Birthday presents from Aunt R!

Love love love,

ベアマン姉妹🏊🏼‍♀️

P.s. side note: I fell off my bike into traffic this week becomes I hit the curb funny but never fear, a Russian guy can to the rescue and saved me. We couldn't really communicate with him but he was way nice. Hooray for angels! 

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