Birthday dinners, baptisms, conferences,miracles, o-sushi galore!

Tuesday: for the most part, people didn't want to talk to us. We had 5 minutes left so we decided to find one last house. We prayed and in the prayer asked to find someone who would listen to us for more than 10 seconds. So we walked around a bit until we found a house we liked.  We knocked and the lady answered and said she wasn't interested in talking about religion and started shutting the door. As she shut the door she said thank you in English and we like basically shouted in
unison "we teach free English!"  Well that got the door opened again.  She was way good at English and was going on a trip to NYC soon. We talked about Broadway. She said she wanted to come to our English class when she got back. Miracle. She was the only person we actually talked to on Tuesday. We also had some lessons. J (Taiwanese) for the first time in forever. She wants to come to conference. And
T. We watched Meet the Mormons with her. It was way fun. But way good for her to see how the church can bless all sorts of people in all sorts of situations. I think the Nepalese guy was way good, because he talked about his family not being Christian and how it's ok.

Wednesday: not much. W shimai was feeling under the weather. We cleaned the baptism fount. Printed pictures. Did lots of baptism preparation stuff. Then we had Eikaiwa! [English Class]. I looped teaching the beginner class. There's 2 high school girls. Both 15. We have a blast together.

Thursday: was nuts! We had a zone conference in Fukuoka (different than the normal zone training meeting we have every transfer because it was 7 hours long and Kaicho (president) was there with the AP's [Missionaries that are leaders] and Shimai [Wife of the mission president]). Anyway, we woke up and left at 7. Had an awesome training for 7 hours. I learned so much. And Kaicho [Mission President] is just the greatest. Then we train-ed back, ran home for a quick dinner and then went to the church to start baptism set up. And then my beloved T-san was baptized.  She was glowing. I've said that a lot about her but it's so true. She had to be baptized 3 times because the dress wouldn't stay down (of course) [In our church, the person and their clothing have to be fully under water after the baptism prayer for it to be complete]. The 3 transfer [missionary out for 4.5 months] baptizing her felt so bad. And was mainly terrified because he had to try to remember the prayer and her name again. And again. All well, all that does matter is it was done correctly eventually. And everyone was way happy. I was way happy. The best part is when she went up to bear her testimony and we forgot to remind her to close "in the name of Jesus Christ amen" and she remembered anyway.


Friday: we had 3 nice things happen today. 1) we made a return appointment. I haven't made a return appointment since I was in Naha. This 13 year old girl came out to chat and we showed her the the Easter video (she had never even heard of Christ) and she said Jesus is a really cool guy. It's seems like He makes everyone so happy. And she wanted to meet again to learn more. Yeah. It was awesome. We may
or may not have had a dance party after that. 2) we had a lesson with our Korean less active, A. We had a Japanese member come along who knows some English. She was WAY nervous. The only reason she agreed to come was a) she wants to got to BYU some day so she needs practice and b) it's the same situation W shimai and I are in
everyday so she figured it was possible. She did awesome. She told awesome stories and simple strong testimonies. After, she apologized for being so simple. We just laughed and said it was perfect because that's the same thing we do in Japanese. We stutter, forget words, lose track of where our sentence/story is going all the time. And somehow we manage to bring people closer to Christ on the way. It's all the spirit, we assured her. And it was a nice reminder for me. 3) we met a nice Christian Japanese lady(!!). We just got to chat about Jesus and it was so lovely.


Saturday: kodomo Eikaiwa (kids English class) is literally the best part of my mission. Well one of. It's easily the funniest thing we do. Who doesn't want to play around with a bunch of adorable Japanese kids for an hour every Saturday morning? Then we went to a 8 year olds baptism. We were hoping an investigator would come. But no one showed. It's alright because the baptism was adorable. Then we weekly planned. 

Sunday: HAPPY EASTER! It was a wonderful day, even though our return appointment stood us up and everyone ran away from us as we tried to talk to them. Because A (Korean less active) showed up to Church for the first time in over 10 years. And she loved it. Even though she had to rely on W shimai and I's faulty translation. In the last hour, we had a member who speaks better English than we do Japanese
translate for her. Also, T shimai got the Holy Ghost [After Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost is given by the laying on of hands]. She also told us a huge miracle. Before baptism, she was worried because she couldn't come to church every Sunday because of work. But she decided to have faith and be baptized and a try her hardest. Well, it turns out, her work schedule changed for all of April so she can come every Sunday in April! What a miracle. It goes to show, miracles come after
the trial of our faith. When we wait around for a solution we won't find one. But if the mountain isn't moving, we need to go up there and start throwing rocks until it does move. But the fun times don't stop there. We were invited into the 8 year old primary class to answer questions about being a missionary. It was the bomb. They had the greatest questions:
What do you eat as a missionary?(curry, nabe, gyoza, rice, pasta, tuna sandwiches, yakisoba, okonamiyaki, granola, not natto)
How did you pay for your mission?(a combo of pool jobs and my lovely parents)
Is a mission fun?( what a silly question Yes!)
How long is it?(1.5 years)
Do you sleep on futons?(yes and they are the best)
What was the biggest shock of coming to Japan?(not being able to read anything. Signs, food labels(we never are completely sure what we are buying when we go shopping), directions on the maps, addresses, people's names. The works)

So yeah, church was fun. For dinner, the Y family had us over. It was the bomb. They have 5 daughter (ones on a mission) and the youngest (twins) were having a birthday dinner. And they think the sister missionaries are so cool they begged their mom to have us come for their birthday dinner. So we came. And had so much fun. We were
part of a family again! We were goofing off and having fun and eating lots of food which is definitely what I do with my family. It was such a nice feeling to be part of a family again. We ate make your own sushi. And I have to say, raw salmon is way good.

And since yesterday was Easter (even though it didn't feel like it) I feel like I need to say a thing or 2 about Jesus Christ. Because He's the reason I'm in Japan. And the reason I'm still in Japan (even though it's way hard). I learned how to say this in Japanese the other day and I really liked I. Not only is Jesus our Savior but He's also our friend. He loves us perfectly. He know us perfectly. He knows how
to give perfect help. I've been a recipient of that help. It helps me get through things that are hard and seemingly impossible. He's helped me in my life, and I know He can help you-the reader- in your life. Even if you think you think you've left the path for too long or you wandered to far off. As soon as to call His name, he will be there. He will be on your right hand and on your left. He will send His angels to bear you up. Because He suffered, I don't have to. You don't have
to. Be it's He died, and lived again, death is not the end. My family is an eternal family. I was thinking, if my family wasn't eternal, would I give up a year and a half, having minimal contact with them? No! That would be nuts. But I have them for eternity, so a little year and a half break for them isn't so bad. I know Jesus love me. And he loves each of you perfectly. And if you call out to Him, He will help
you find new life. #ハレルヤ (see the Easter video at followhim.mormon.org/jpn if you're confused, or go to the English site).

I love you all! Have a great week and get ready for conference. You lucky ducks, conference is this week, I have to wait a week for translation. Consider yourself lucky!

Lov love love
ベアーマン姉妹

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Upcoming Baptism, Japanese, and Food

Sister T passed her baptism interview last Monday. The interviewer said that he's never met anyone more prepared for baptism. And he'sright. She's so ready. And so amazing. She gave up coffee the day wetaught the word of wisdom. When she went to go see her boyfriend up in Nagoya, she stayed in a hotel instead of his apartment (her own idea). She works so hard every Sunday to get someone to switch shifts with
her so she can come to church. And she just glows. She is so excited. She loves talking about baptism. Whenever we bring it up, she says "my baptism date is so far away! Can we move it up?" She's precious. I'm so excited for her. She will be baptized on Thursday evening. I'm dancing up and down I'm so excited (and she probably is too). I'll send a picture of her. She's so cute

Tuesday: we went to a Japanese class. It was WAY helpful. And it was an awesome missionary experience. We headed about it from 2 of our Eikaiwa [English Class] students who run the class. We talked about grammar and words and why I was in Japan. And we chatted about what I do as a missionary. All in Japanese of course. It was way good language practice. And it was way nice because they were just there to help me improve my Japanese. Three of them to help one of me. A major accomplishment of today was I made like 1000 phone calls. W shimai [Sister W, her companion] was feeling under the weather. So while she rested I called every number in our phone. Unfortunately not many answered but I did talk to a few people and left messages. Don't worry dad, when I get back I'll still hate making phone calls.

Wednesday: we had district meeting. When we went out to eat (indo curry and nan), everyone ate with chopsticks... except the nihonjin [Japanese missionary], she ate with a fork. The waiter thought it was hysterical. We also mogied (role played? Practiced a lesson?) with a member. She's 18. And we challenged her to give a BoM [Book of Mormon] away to a friend. It was way funny. She looked terrified as soon as we said it. But she accepted our challenge. She also gave us kanji [Japanese Characters/Pictograms with meaning] for our first names. I'll send you a picture. We had Eikaiwa [English class] and we had a surprisingly big turnout. We played games. I helped teach the beginners again. It's so fun to teach them!


Thursday: we weekly planned in 70 degree weather in a park. It was beautiful. I have an awkward farmers tan now. We had another lesson with T. We planned out the baptism. We left her lesson glowing because she was beaming so much. Smiles really do make all the difference. Our dendo [missionary work] was so effective after that lesson because we were smiling our heads off.

Friday: we dendoed [did missionary work] all day. I think it was fairly normal. We had a lesson with the K family. It was a train wreck. No one could understand each other. Our joint [local church member who was with them to help teach] saved the day. We just talked to her who talked to the K family. And vise versa. We need some
serious help with them. We've talked to the relief society president so hopefully she'll figure something out to help us.

Saturday: we had 2 kodomo Eikaiwa's!! Kids English classes. What the what? I love kids Eikaiwa. We play games. And talk about goofy things. It was basically the best. We met a lot of nice people today. None with interest but they were all saying things like "you are such hard workers" and "good luck" and "when you have faith in something it's good to work hard for it. Keep it up". It was nice. People were just
telling us we were awesome. The next step is for us to be awesome and for them to want to listen. It will come.

Sunday: we planned a baptism today. I felt way accomplished because it was all in Japanese. Then, after church, we went out and handed out tons of Eikaiwa fliers with primary kids. It was the cutest thing ever. At first, they were way scared. But as soon as they gave the fist one away, they were running to give away more. It was precious. I want to dendo like them.

I realized today, that I no longer dread leaving the apartment to go dendo. Which is crazy. And really nice. I like actually, like dendo now. For like real. Life is good. And so is the Japanese. And the food. So much good food.

Love you tons. Stay tuned for baptism pictures next week!

Love love love
ベアーマン姉妹

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Crippled legs transfer day, no chocolate, and translating

What a week. This whole week has been nuts. I'll start out with the end of last Pday. I could have been running

around Japan in a different area with a new person and you would have never known.

Tuesday: went to the zoo. It was a great zoo but cost money (what? Normal museums and zoos you have to pay to get into?)  [For non-Marylanders - the Smithsonian Museum and Zoo are all free]. My favorite exhibits were the Japanese black bear and the sea otters. The sea otters were playing around and having a blast. The bear was dead asleep. We anxiously awaited out transfer call. We anxiously waited until 9pm. After Pday! After like our normal day! It was nuts! They never call that late. We found out the news. I was staying in Chikushino and O shimai was leaving for Beppu! After we got the news we decided just to go to bed. I was way sad O shimai was leaving. She literally taught me Japanese. I can speak Japanese because of her.

Wednesday: a day full of lessons and squeezes get in packing in between. For one of our lessons, with A (Korean less active), we read "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" together and discussed how Christ could specifically help her (shout out to Sister Banks and her awesome laurels lessons). Packing was fun because we ate lots of food and acted goofy.

Thursday: transfer day! I hung around Hakata Eki [Hakata Train station?] for a while, waiting for my new companion. About my new companion. Her name is Sister W. She's transfer 6 (been in Japan for 7 months), 24 years old, love onions, is from Utah, and is my first companion taller than me.  And she's like quite a bit taller than me. She's my first companion who's Japanese isn't like 80 levels above me. It makes missionary work way interesting because we both HAVE to contribute because neither of us are fluent yet.

Friday: I was an idiot. We were running for Asa undo [Morning exercise] and I crashed into a concrete box on the side of the road. In my defense, I saw it but it was farther in the road than I expected. My quad hit it full on and now I have a huge muscle bruise and normal bruise that make it hard for me to walk or bend my knee. [Graceful as usual] Typical Sister Bearman. I can't bike. Or walk fast. And I have a wicked looking bruise lump on my leg. It's at least a 12 as far as bruises go dad.  [I have asked for a picture to see if its really a 12]

Saturday: we had a relief society activity and 2 of the less actives we invited came! One is Korean. So I sat next to her and the Canadian member during the meeting and translated (what?!?!?). It was probably a rough translation. But I did it. I should say God did it. As soon and I started speaking to explain what I understood, more words came to my mouth than I actually understood. But if I waited for that help, I didn't understand. But as soon as I opened my mouth to explain what I did understand, I understood the rest. It was nuts. God is a god of miracles. It goes to show that sometimes your gifts doesn't show until you use them up to understand others. After the relief society activity, we had high tea as a fundraiser for the youth. A member paid for us and our less actives. We ate hot chocolate and scone and cream and mini sandwiches. The young men served us drinks. The young women served us food. It was way cute.

Sunday: our investigator came to church. She's getting baptized on the 24. She's way cute and way excited. At church she was telling everyone she's getting baptized. Her interview is tonight. But I'm not worried. She has such a strong testimony. Then we dendoed all day in the rain by walking because I still can't bike.

On a side note, I've decided to give up chocolate this transfer. We're doing it together, Wshimai and I. It's been one day and it's so hard. Some one suggested we do it to see how people feel when they stop drinking tea or coffee for the Word of Wisdom. Also, last transfer I sacrificed my lunches and dinners and studied Japanese during them. And I saw such great miracles. I understand Japanese now. So now comes a harder sacrifice, chocolate.
Love everyone. Happy pi day!!!

ベアーマン姉妹

Crocodiles

Samari Shop

It was an awesome week. And a little crazy weather wise. Monday and Tuesday we had snow but the rest of the week it was in the 70's. I'm not complaining! We get transfer calls today, I have not got mine yet.  [Call where they find out whether Emma or her companion are moving to a new location]. You'll have to find out next week. We're also going to the zoo today as a district. I get to wear pants. I'm in heaven. Anyway, this week. 

Crocodile Burger

Tuesday: we had district meeting. After the lovely meeting we want our for burgers again. Mainly because it was March and in March the burger joint has crocodile burgers. We decided it was necessary for us all to eat one. I highly recommend eating crocodile. It it delicious.

Wednesday: we had asparagus for dinner. I felt like mom. Remember that phase mom went through where we had asparagus every night for dinner? Also, here's this new workout app they let missionaries have. I tried it out in the morning. I liked it. I did it outside on the balcony and watched the sun rise and trains go by.

Thursday: happy girls day!!  [Apparently a big holiday, details here] We dendoed [missionary work] all day and then had a girls party at a members. It was awesome. We went up and dendoed in the mountains. We saw lots of rice paddies. Not many people. There was this ice cream shop on the ride that we met a less active member at and had hand spun ice cream. It was delicious.

Emma made these sushi
for Girls Day

Friday: I lead today and scared a lot of people. Everyone I stopped was shocked that a American was stopping them. I think that initial shock kept them from saying no. The weather was so nice people didn't mind to talk. And when we housed in the evening literally every house answered their ping pong. Some didn't talk long but they all answered. Miracle.

Saturday: we had kids Eikaiwa [English Class] and played tons of fun games. There's a girl camille's age and we played tag after. She likes soccer and plays the flute. Dendo was rough. No one answered and those who did hung up right away. But the spirit told me as we were biking home that's it was ok. Sometimes we don't get to see the fruits of our labors. Which can be frustrating but hey, God has His own time schedule.


Sunday: was an interesting day. I love fast Sunday but not eating and Japanese don't really go well together. I was having a rough time at church. Especially when we got to relief society and they were talking about having the sabbath be a delight. And I was just sitting there thinking I do not feel delightful right now. Which made me more sad because I knew I should be happy. Anyway, I was a wreck in the corner trying not to cry and really wanting a hug. More specifically, someone to hug me. The thing about Japan is, hugs are weird. Normal Japanese people DO NOT hug. In the church, it's a little more normal because they have American missionaries all the time. But they never initiate the hug. Normally that's no big deal for me. I'll just hug people because that's seems to speak better than my Japanese. Anyway, there was no way I was going to get a hug unless I hugged someone. But I really felt like I needed someone to hug me. Knowing that I wouldn't get one made me even more grumpy. As we were leaving relief society one of the relief society counselors stopped us and was talking about how awesome my companion is. Which usually I'm game for. My companion is fantastic. But I was just not having it. And then suddenly she turns to me and says "Bearman shimai, thanks for all the hard work you do" and proceeded to hug me. I was so shocked I may have cried a bit. It was so unexpected. But so needed. And I knew God was looking out for me. He knew I need a hug. And He also knows that Japanese people normal don't hug. But He made it work. And it changed my day. And I am so grateful for it.

Well, it's been good up here in Chikushino. I love you all. Have a great week!
ベアーマン姉妹

Monday:

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