I promise I didn't forget about you (AKA Happy Thanksgiving!)

At sea wall with wind from Monsoon coming off the ocean

I forgot to tell you my preparation day [Day she gets to write letters and other fun stuff] was on thanksgiving was this week. Mainly because I forgot thanksgiving is this week. Next week my p day is on Tuesday because we have a mission conference on Monday (well, an Okinawa conference). The mission president is coming down. It's pretty serious seeing we're a plane ride away. Special training awaits. But I'm sorry about no telling you this week! I really do love you all and kaicho [president] commanded us to email our family every p day. I have to be exactly obedient.

So lots happened and I'll try to write as much as I can. But I'm in Okinawa Okinawa right now at a members house near base to have a REAL thanksgiving. So everything's a little hectic. But we're like 3 seconds from the beach (actually a sea wall) and it's sweet. 



Last Monday: I bought some Shisa (some dragon lion protector things. The one with the open mouth brings blessings in. The one with the closed mouth keeps the blessings from escaping). I also bought an Okinawa shirt. They're like Hawaiian shirts but more subtle. Everyone wears them here, even to work. We wore it dendo-I got and all the old ladies thought it was hysterical.

Last Tuesday: I don't remember. I forgot to take a picture of Tuesday's journal entry. I think we wrote a simple version of the thanksgiving story for our eikaiwa [English class] party this coming Saturday.

Last Wednesday: We had a lesson with G. Then we walked home with her and her kids (she lives close to the church). When we saw the state of her house we took it upon ourselves to clean. We cleaned all day. We didn't go to eikaiwa because we hadn't eaten dinner. After dinner we dendo-ed for like 45 min. We met his cute Christian lady. We've met a few Japanese Christians recently. It's odd to crash into one. But they're my favorite people. They love Jesus so much. They love talking to us about Jesus (probably because most people won't talk to Jesus with them because hardly anyone knows who Jesus is). They always love taking (literally grabbing) the BoM from us because they just want to learn as much as they can about Jesus Christ, their Savior. You can tell as you talk to them, that their life is so much different and so much better because they have found Jesus.
Emma's room
Last Thursday: L shimai (my beloved trainer) got hit by a car. It was the funniest thing. She was fine. She just kept riding like nothing had happened. We went to M shimai (a member) house. She has a son and I played with him for an hour after eating yummy Japanese food. It was funny playing with him because he knew I didn't
understand him so he spoke super simple Japanese so the we could play. It was great. Also, my iPad works again! L shimai made us yummy Japanese food for us- takoyaki- balls of dough with whatever you want in them and Japanese mayo on top (which is way better than American mayo).

Blue Bike is Emma's
Friday and Saturday: We had 2 miracle meetings. They're fairly similar so I'll describe them together. S and M. They are so cute and were prepared to meet us. In both cases, we weren't planning to be in the area at that time and neither were they. We had plans that took us to the area we found them in and they both just felt like they needed to take the road that they met them on. We had 20 minute conversations with each about the gospel and even prayed with them (on the road! How
crazy is that?!?!). They're both busy with work for the next week but we're calling them next week to set up appointments. I'm so excited for them. I'm sorry I don't have more time to explain how awesome it was. I actually talked to them!! Like, my own thoughts!

Sunday: Church was long as normal. During relief society, I didn't sit near L shimai. I sat next this cute 20 year old girl. She tried so hard to help me know what was going on. The only problem was I couldn't understand most of her help! All well. Sometimes I caught a word here or there.



Monday: Not p day. We pretended it wasn't Monday so we didn't go through withdrawal. I mogi-ed the 1st lesson in under 5 minutes! With no notes! In Japanese! It was only to L shimai, not like a real person. We talked to a lot of foreigners today. No Americans but Chinese, Taiwanese, Nepalese, Filipino, literally every nationality
except Japanese. All the Japanese people we did talk to were from mainland. It was sort of weird.

Tuesday: After district meeting we went to a Shaba shaba which is like the dimsung place dad and I went to in China. We taught a random lady how to pray too. She didn't care to learn more about our church but was fascinated by prayer. A way to talk to God directly.



Wednesday: I taught my 1st totsuzen (which is like a short street lesson). I spoke Japanese about the Book of Mormon and SHE UNDERSTOOD! And took the BoM I offered. It was really scary and veeeeery slow but it worked! [See video at the end] I had my first eikaiwa [English Class]. It was so fun. We taught the advanced class so we just practiced talking in English. I understood everything perfectly. They're all so cute.

I've been thinking recently about L shimai and trainers in general. I rely on L shimai for everything because I really cannot do anything by myself. Without her I probably would have died. Or at least starved. And had way more mental breakdowns. She helps me do as much as I can do and then picks up the slack and makes it work. How similar to the Savior that is. I cannot return to God on my own. There is no way. But when I do as much as I can do, Jesus Christ picks up the slack and makes my hard work (even when it's a really small contribution) enough. He's excited at my little victories, just like L shimai is when I manage another Japanese sentence. This thanksgiving, I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ's grace. Through Him I can (and have been able to) do everything that seems impossible. I'm speaking Japanese (not at all by my own power). He gives us power whenever we need a quick energy boost to overcome a trial. I am so grateful for Him!!



That's all for this week. I'll send pictures in a second. I love you all (especially the family people because their so awesome). Have a fun thanksgiving because it hasn't started for you yet!!

I'll write again on Tuesday!!

Love love love love
Bearman shimai

Sent from my iPad

I crash 2 times on my bike and walk through a monsoon

HEY!

It's been a great week here down in sunny and warm Okinawa (despite the crazy subject line). Loads

happened so I'll try to type as fast as possible.

Tuesday- We ran to the ocean in the morning. We still haven't found a beach to run to though. But the oceans and rivers here are this really pretty teal color that is sort of unreal. I love it. Everywhere we planned on finding ended up being a casino or a hotel. It was actually pretty funny. We were disappointed at the time so we had an ice cream break. I had this chocolate waffle filled with chocolate ice cream which sounds so weird but is so delicious. 

[Ohaya Japanese Waffle Ice Cream Chocolate Monaka]

Wednesday- I testified of God to a random person on the street and testified of Jesus Christ in a lesson. A fairly successful day. Our lesson with a recent convert - S - went awesome. She studies the gospel in her spare time because she really wants to understand what's going on. She knew every little detail about the Fall (which is weird in Japan because their not generally Christian). Tender mercy of the day- I hadn't said much in our lesson with S and I wanted to say more. The member who was jointing [Helping teach] with us turned to me and asked me to testify of Jesus Christ (which is something I'm capable of doing in Nihongo). It was great.

Thursday- We had a Zone Meeting in the morning  [meeting for all the missionaries and the leaders in the geographic area] which was good and also really long. We had to leave before the end because we had a lesson with S. She taught us some oragami stuff at the end of the lesson. It was really fun. We had dinner at a members house. M and her 4 year old son. We had Japanese curry (yum) and taught a short lesson for her son and then talked to her about the temple. She hasn't had the chance to go yet. We talked a little about the blessings that come for the temple. She was super cute. I felt comfortable talking (in Nihongo) with her because she was very patient. So I talked more Japanese to her than to anyone else I think (except maybe my doryo). 

Friday- Lots happened but the most important thing is-- I HANDED OUT MY FIRST BOOK OF MORMON. BY MYSELF. IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. It was so fun. And it made me want to dendo (missionary work) even harder. I think it may be a turning point. Before I was just doing and expecting not to understand. Now I try to understand and even when I don't, I smile and say like the 4 sentences I know. So Friday might be the best day of this week. I've got some dendo fire! At night, we went with S and a member to this fish aquarium art exhibit. It's hard to explain but it was art, with fish aquariums. It was so Japanese. And super interesting. Probably the coolest art I've ever seen. 

 Saturday- Now to address the subject line. I crashed twice on Saturday. Once was in the morning on my bike. It was raining pretty hard and we were going down a hill and I totally slip thunked. The ground was so slippery that I slide like 10 feel. It was pretty funny. I escaped with just a few cuts and bruises. Then, after lunch, Lowe shimai made a sudden turn and I tried to follow and crashed into a pole. My hand took most of the impact so it has a sick looking bruise on it. I'm amazed I didn't get more seriously hurt though. The Lord really does protect His servants. I gave out another Book of Mormon and we got a baptismal date. We had our first lesson with a lady who had been meeting with the missionaries 6 months ago. WE called her and she said she was planning on calling us. So we met and (I) asked her to be baptized on Dec 12 and she said YES! Our mission has a goal to have 2 baptism dates by Thanksgiving and 1 baptism by Christmas and I may have thought it was impossible because we came into the area and we had no investigators (no potential ones either). But the Lord works in mysterious ways, that's for sure. 

Now for the monsoon. We were out dendo-ing at night and heard this announcement go over these hidden speakers they seem to have all over the city. Anyway, we didn't understand the message so we kept biking. 5 minutes later we were hit hard. Apparently (out resident Nihonjin told us) the message had been warning of a monsoon that was going to hit the area. Anyway, we didn't know so we kept riding until it was so bad we couldn't ride anymore. We were completely soaked and it was hard to stand straight because of the wind. It was raining so hard I could see better without my glasses. Anyway, we ditched our bikes and walked 3 miles home in ankle deep water. We sang the whole way home. It was so much fun! Dad, I would like to let you know that despite the amount of water that hit my bag you got me, everything inside remained completely dry. It was magic. I was fairly amazed. It really is water proof if it kept everything dry in a monsoon.

Sunday- Sorry this is so long. Sunday was good. All the members think I'm hilarious. I'm not. I just don't speak the same language as them so I make a lot more faces and do ridiculous gestures and make sounds. It's my only way to communicate. But they think it's the funniest thing. Miracle moment- While biking in the evening, I prayed to find someone who was interested enough to invite us back of a lesson. We got lost and decided to house [knock on doors in] this random apartment. The 3rd door we knock on was this cute lady. AND SHE WAS INTERESTED. She was the first person we've talked to this transfer that was interested enough to meet again and promised to read out of the Book of Mormon. Holy cow, God does answer prayers. And I've found out the more specific you are, the more likely it will happen (with righteous things of course)

Anyway, it's been a great week. Today we're going to this super famous street in Okinawa that's 3 minutes from our apartment.  [maybe Kokousaidori Street?]

I love you all!! Don't forget to pray (about really anything). He will listen. 

Love love love

Bearman shimai

HELLO FROM JAPAN

What? Emma is the
tallest person in this picture!

I am in Hawaii 2.0 aka OKINAWA!!!! How lucky am I? The weather here is nice and hot and sunny and my type of weather [high 70's, low 80's for the next 10 days]. Meanwhile the rest of Japan is getting cold. Im living the high life. Im in Naha (I cant find the apostrophe key), the biggest city on the island. I live in a apartment with another companionship; M and K shimai. My trainer is L shimai and I love her to pieces. She makes me do hard things. But it's ok, I can do hard things (especially in this weather).

Before Okinawa- I was up for like 27 hours straight. When I met my Mission president for the first time I probably looked like a zombie. We spent a couple days at the mission home (which happens to be right under the temple and right next to a zoo). On of the days we were there, we went out dendo-ing [contacting and talking to people on the street] with missionaries in the area. It was my first time talking to people and let me tell you, 100% of the time I had (and still have) no idea whats going on. That's ok, I have my assigned lines. God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. He loves us. 

Getting to Okinawa- was a mission. I almost missed my flight becasue the APs [Assistants to the President]  forgot to buy me a ticket. I had to sprint to catch it. It was a 2 hour flight and I slept the whole time. The day I got there we didn't do much because my trainer wasn't there yet and we had to go back and forth to the airport to pick people up.

In Okinawa- I've had so much fun doing missionary work. I can't say much but I'm getting better. I invited someone to baptism (I think she said no) and gave away a BoM [Book of Mormon] (well, my companion did). I have a bike now and it has a sick basket to throw everything in. My doryo doesn't have her bike yet so we walk for the most part. I gave a talk in sacrement meeting. Now everyone thinks I'm fluent in Nihongo. Actually no, I opened my talk with I don't understand Japanese. But then I said that through Jesus Christ I can learn Japanese. For the most part, we've been streeting and housing because we are currently investigatorless [people willing to sit down and have the missionaries teach the lessons. That should change soon. I think that in the 3 day's I've been here I've talked to 35 ish people. We do have one person we're teaching after baptism lessons. She got baptized on Halloween and is so cute. But she talks a lot. We've had one 2 hour lesson with her where she talked and I had no clue what was going on. It's ok becasue at church she wanted to sit next to me. 

My doryo- L shimai, from Illinois, is amazing. She makes me yummy food, is way encouraging about my less than stellar Nihongo, and we have a good time together. She's been out for like, 7 months I think. I love her. 

One funny thing that happened was (we can only approach women in Japan) I was taking the lead (we had bikes at this point).We were riding along under a bridge and I saw what I thought was a woman so I started to get off my bike (which is a mission in a skirt) but as I got closer I realized he was not a woman so I had to awkwardly ride sidesaddle forever. Lowe shimai thought it was hysterical. 

You know, it's been a really rough week. Between the jet lag and the not understanding anything, it was pretty hard not to start crying. But, in a weird way, looking back, it was fun? even though it's so scary, I really am happy to be sharing God's love with others. I love this gospel and so do the people of Japan (they just don't know it yet). For the most part, people here don't know who God is. And when we stop to talk to them, most of the time they don't really want to listen. But we testify that God loves them. So we give them a little bit more knowledge than they had before. And a little bit more happiness because that's what this gospel brings. I've really realized that in the last 3 days. Even though everything I do is hard, I'm happy. And that's because of Jesus Christ. 

Sorry if this email is a bit disjointed. The keyboard is weird so it's hard to write. I promise to do better next week. Also, next week I shouldn't be as jetlagged. 

LOVE YOU

Bearman shimai