A rough day, paparazzi, mac & cheese, Costco soup & rolls, and new house mates

Well, this will be short. Not much happened. Besides transfers and cleaning.

Tuesday: well, it was a weird day. My food got eaten by a bird. My bike helmet was stolen ((Who would even steal a helmet? No one uses them here?!?) Which means we can't bike around. Although, one of my STL's [sister training leaders] just went home and she's giving me hers so I don't have to buy a new one. But I won't have it until Thursday next week. Walking everywhere!) We were told they didn't need us to come dendo with the new missionaries in Fukuoka. Well. There's always bad days on a mission.

Wednesday: well, since we were upgrading to a 4 man apartment (yeah!) we cleaned the apartment all day. We threw out lots of random junk. Did a lot of reorganizing. In the small dendo [missionary work time] time we had we met this really nice lady who had a really cute dog and spoke English. We chatted with her for a bit. Then we had Eikaiwa! [English Class] No beginners came so we stayed with the advanced class. Eikaiwa is probably one of the most fun things to do as a missionary.


Thursday: transfer day!! We said good bye to an elder and hello to an elder and 2 sisters. Of course it was pouring rain but we figured out a ride for everyone and their luggage. One of the rides gave us Mac and cheese. It tastes like real Mac and cheese. It was beautiful. Then we gave the new sisters the run down of the area (and the new elder
called and asked for a rundown of the area (I've been in this area the longest (only 2 transfers) so yeah, I'm the one who "knows everything")) We had a lesson with T in the evening. She getting ready to go to the temple in 2ish weeks. Hopefully it all works out. She still needs to figure out a way to get off work. We're praying. The we ran to a return appointment with someone on the street who was a no show. Bummer. It even stopped torrential downpouring so she could have got there with out getting wet (like we prayed for). Well, agency.

Friday: we weekly planned in a park for a bit. Then while we were dendo-ing we met 2 fun people. One was a guy. We just said"konnichiwa"to him as he was biking by. We kept walking. Then he bikes back up to us and starts talking to us in English! His English
was really good but his voice made everything sound way dramatic. So it was hard not to laugh. He made everything sound like it was on a trailer for the next superhero movie or something. He was way nice. The next one was a lady on the phone we said "konnichiwa" [Hello] to. She said "konnichiwa" and then did a double take and then said "bikiri shita"
(which is a word to say you are very surprised). I don't think she expected to see 2 Americans at all. We scared her a bit (we do that a lot actually). But the funny part was as she was as she walked away (and still talking on the phone) she just yells "cute!" It probably doesn't sound as funny as it actually was. But it was really funny. Then we had a lesson with the K family and the long lost son came! Well, he's come to the past 2 or so lessons but this time he actually acknowledged us. It was crazy! And we almost got him to pray at the end of the lesson. Next time.
Random strangers wanted to have a 
Picture with the American Missionaries


Paparazzi taking pictures 
With the Missionaries
Saturday: W shimai wasn't feeling good so except for kodomo Eikaiwa [childrens English Class], we were inside all day. We finished weekly planning and she slept a lot. But kodomo Eikaiwa was fun. There was 6 missionaries and 2 kids. It was pretty funny. But it was an oddly small week so next week should be better. Not that it wasn't fun. It's always a blast.

Sunday: church! It was ward conference so it was unusually packed. After church they had a


lunch. Costco soup and Costco rolls!! I. Was. In. Heaven. It. Was. So. Good. Then we came home and everyone fell asleep. Except me. So I just read the BoM in Japanese. It was so funny. The apartment was dead quiet and so I went to see what people were doing. They were all passed out on the floor. Then we dendoed for 4 hours! It was way fun (even though we had to walk). One time, when we ping ponged (the door been with camera and speaker), a dog answered and barked at us for 5 minutes. It was way funny. We also met a really Monica [no idea] lady who had gone to a Protestant middle school and she wanted to learn more about Christ! We got her phone number and she told us to call her! I'm excited! We don't have any investigators right now, but we are planning on 3 baptisms so... She's going to be a kinjin! ["golden" investigator who is excited to learn about the Gospel]. I know it.


There are 2 new sisters in the apartment! I forgot how fun 4 man is. J shimai and R shimai. R shimai is half Japanese and lived in Japan for most of her life. But she's fluent in both the English and the Japanese. She's way cool. J shimai is a red head and loves ice cream on the same level as me. She's hysterical. This transfer should be way fun! I'm excited. Today, we're going to Tenjin eki which is a train station and a huge underground mall/food court.

Next week, I might have pday on Tuesday. Temple pday! I'm excited.

Love love love
ベアーマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad

Earthquakes galore

Hello!


Well, this was an exciting week. Every day since Thursday,  we've been having earthquakes over here in Japan (as you've probably heard). They happened all night Thursday and Friday. And then randomly ever day since. We are ok (as hombu [Mission Office] told you [They emailed within 20 minutes of the two big earthquakes letting us know all the missionaries were safe]). The earthquake wasn't as big here as it was at the epicenter. Down in Kumamoto it was pretty bad (so I've heard (like a 7 I think)). It was really big. But it was a fun 2 nights of no sleep as earthquake after earthquake and their aftershocks hit us. That's the really exciting news around here. But here's the more normal parts of this week.

Monday: we made reversible book covers for our scriptures as a district. Like, we sewed them our self. A member taught us how. They are so awesome. I feel really legit now. After pday we decided to train dendo [Do missionary work on the train?]. So we trained somewhere. Well, we go off the train and it was just farms. Sooooooo, we trained back and that was our night. Because we got a little lost on the trains. It was bound to happen.

Tuesday: was a rough day. We stayed in the apartment almost all day. We did get out and teach T a lesson and then went to a relief society service project. We walked around and chatted as we picked up trash. We also had district meeting which means we had our weekly indo curry! Nan.  [Bread?] It's so good. There were some kids in the restaurant who just thought we were the coolest so they kept on coming and talking to us. Their moms were very apologetic but they were adorable. So we didn't mind.
Emma finds a "Date" in Japan
Wednesday: we showed someone a Book of Mormon and she asked us if she could have it! That's nuts. It never happens! We hadn't even explained what it was. We only showed it to her. Then we biked up a huge mountain to dendo [do missionary work]. The view was amazing. It started to rain as we were praying so we prayed that we wouldn't get
wet (mostly as a joke) but then it stopped raining! Gotta love mini miracles. Then, like 30 minutes later it started to pour rain. We were soaked so we puddle jumped in between every house. We were so wet the puddles didn't make us any wetter. It was way fun. Then we had Eikaiwa (English class)! We had so much fun. We teach the beginner class and there 2 high school girls come and we just have a really fun time
doing pronunciation, making up silly sentences, and playing English games. This week we played telephone pictionary. They were so good at drawing it was ridiculous.

Thursday: we weekly planned. Yup. We also randomly dropped by the K family house because we haven't seen them in a while. We shared a quick message with them. It was crazy. We finally got through the scripture. Then, somehow, the kids got ahold of my iPad while I was praying and took 1000 pictures. So yeah.

Friday: we talked to a TON of people today. And the weather was lovely. We had Eikaiwa (English class) at a members house with their kids and their friends kids. We played Simon says (which they are pros at). And then we tought them "down by the banks" (the hand game). They loved it. In the middle of the night, there was a huge earthquake. It woke us both up and since we were half awake and half asleep we were
way confused and had no idea what to do. Stuff started falling off shelfs and out of cupboards and that woke us up. We ran to the doorframe asap. Because that's all we know how to do in an earthquake.

Saturday: Kodomo Eikaiwa!  [Childrens English Class] My favorite. My favorite family came. Me and their 12 year old daughter are best friends. 「ともだちだよ」  In dendo news- WE MET A CHRISTIAN LADY! We taught her the restoration on the street. It was nuts. She told us "I'm Christian yo!" And we were like "Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Now what?" So we whipped out the restoration and the good ole BoM. And she was way nice. Then we found another lady while housing and we gave her a BoM and after we testified, she asked "can I have this?" Yes!!!!!!! I also tried a really good ice cream from a konbini [convenience store]. It was strawberry raspberry. Amazing.







Sunday: we went to church and my Japanese brain was just not on. Who knows why. But it managed to start slowly chugging by the time we started dendo-ing which is a relief. Because that's what we did all day. But it was a really funny day of dendo. Not because it was any funnier than usually, we were just really tired so everything seemed way funnier. A old lady (who talked our ear off for 20 minutes) gave
us these small drinks in glass bottles. Of course we had no idea what was in them, we can't read kanji. We we like "there might be tea or alcohol in here but we should open it and smell it." Since it smelled like berries we figured it was ok. It also listed what looked like vitamins on the side (in the English alphabet so we could read those). So we tried it. It tasted like cough syrup. We didn't finish them. I know what your thinking mom "I can't believe you drank a drink a stranger gave you!" Well, I'm still alive! And they seem to do it all the time (well, normally it's the old ladies. Who just think we're the nicest people for stopping by to chat) Candy, snacks, water bottles, umbrellas, the works. We also went to a park to swing. 2 times. One time there was a random bear statue in the park. The other time, the park may or may not have been someone's backyard. Also, when we rang someone's ping pong (like a door bell with a camera and speaker), we would sing while we waited for them to answer. Everyone in those houses heard us singing. Not even real songs. Just Japanese words to the tune of a hymn. Man, this paragraph is a hot mess. I think on to 

Monday: which was not a pday which is always a little rough. We had lunch with A. She made us Korean food. It was way good. Then we dendoed for 5 hours. Which would have been mind numbing, but we took a lot of fun breaks. We stopped and took pictures of a funny house. Then we went into the middle of a river on stepping stones. We had a break in a park and ate snacks. We went to Cosmos and bought bleach. For dinner we had Sushiro. A dollar for a plate of sushi. Yummmmmmy. Ate some good salmon and shrimp. And more shrimp and salmon. Best of all, it was only ¥600. Total score. When we got home there was a cockroach the size of my pointer finger in the sink. There was some freaking out. And we called the elders. Then I killed it with a shoe.

Transfers!!! We are staying together, W shimai and I. But we're going 4 man!!!!!! [The two sister missionaries that were in Kumamoto are moving to their apartment] Way exciting!!!!

Tomorrow will be exciting. New missionaries will be at hombu (mission home), and on their first day in Japan, they go out an dendo with missionaries in the area. I did it when I first got to Japan. It was absolutely terrifying. Well, since I'm "in the area" (an hour away but that's ok), we get to go to Fukuoka tomorrow and dendo with a new missionary for 4 hours! I'm way excited! And it won't be as terrifying! It'll be so fun. It was so fun when I was a new missionary.
What Emma found on her Desk when 
She ended her month Chocolate Fast
So yeah, that's my week. Way fun. A little crazy. All normal in the life of a sister missionary. Living in Japan. You know, I love Japan so much I might not come home guys. You should just all move out here.

Love love love
ベアーマン姉妹（＾∇＾）

Sotaikai, 4 dinners in 1, and junkai

Sometimes I realize, when I wrote these letters, that you don't know some of the words I use. But I
Conference (2 days of listening to our church leaders advice from God), Junkai= when I go dendo (see?!? (missionary work) for a day with some of the leaders in the mission). I will try to be better about using English. But so many of the phrases in my head are Japanese so you'll have to forgive me when I use Japanese. Wait until you talk to me on Mother's Day. I hope you'll understand. Working, I'll make weird noises. Lots of them.
think their normal. And have a hard time coming up with the English  equivalent. Sotaikai=General

Anyway, it was a fabulous week but we didn't have much time to go dendo (sorry)

Tuesday: We had 3 scheduled lessons. 2 happened. We waited for one to show up. She never did. She called us 30 min after the lesson was supposed to start and said she was too busy. That was sad. But then I got another blessing (wait, did I tell you about the last one?) for my back because its rebelling against me at the moment. Then we had a lesson with the amazing basically an angel T (real recent convert). She so gold. We talked about the temple. And Sister K jointed (I want to be like her when I grow up). It was a stellar hour. We talked about the temple. We set a temple date with her. She said she might have work that day but she said right after "but I know the Lord will help me change my work schedule". She's amazing and I just leave her lessons beaming. Then we had a lesson with the K family (recent converts (mom and 9 year old daughter are member, 12 year old son came and he's not). We were way surprised when her son walked in. He's not a fan of things relating to church. But we played commandments jeopardy (heyyo dad) and had a member and her kids joint and it turned out really well. Fun was had by everyone. That was a miracle.

Picture of her area from the
top of a local mountain

Wednesday: While knocking on people's doors and pressing ping pongs [door bells?], we met the sweetest old lady. We had knocked and rung for her several times so we went to the next house. But when we were knocking on the next house she came out to talk. She was 98 years old and practically deaf and really sweet and lonely. One of the few things she did understand is when we told her that she was a daughter of God. She started bawling. She wouldn't stop thanking us for coming. We didn't know that the old lady up in the middle of the mountains needed some love. But God did. And He sent us there to give her the love she needed. Honestly, I think it was the most spiritual moment of my mission. Helping another child of God realize their divine heritage and the love that brings. That moment has made me feel like a successful missionary more than anything else. I know I am a daughter of God. He is my dad. And when I look at my earthly dad, I understand how much my Heavenly Father loves me a little better. (I was actually thinking about this a lot during D. Todd Christoffersons talk [Talk is titled Fathers]). My dad loves me. Like a lot. He's alway willing to help me. Or play random board games with me. He wants me to be happy. He helps me when I'm having a hard time. He's goofy and wants to make sure I have fun. He has lots of ice cream. My dad knows me, and so he knows what advice to give. Heavenly Father is like my dad. Except perfect. If my dad is so good at showing his love for me and he is a flawed human (sorry dad), how much more perfect and eternal is Gods love for me, and each one of us? [Sniff Sniff]

Thursday: It POURED rain and the winds we torrential. Dangerous! We had a practice lesson with a member. It when well. She's way good at English so it was help full to understand almost all of her advice. Then we planned. Weekly planning!! In the evening we trained and bullet trained to Nakagawa for junkai [Proselyting with another group of missionaries]. We got some chips from a konbini [convenience 7-11 type store]. We thought they were sour cream and onion. They were seaweed (edible seaweed, actually. Thank goodness). They were way good! I highly suggest them. Be on the look out. But actually, I found out one of my favorite ice creams is sold in America. At Trader Joes. It's Mochi ice cream. Vanilla ice cream with mochi wrapped around it. It looks like this:

Friday: Junkai! I went with the sassiest Nihonjin [Japanese person] I've ever met. H shimai. She's going home in a week. We walked in the afternoon and biked in the evening. In the morning we decided to walk up a mountain. That was fun. For dinner went to this way good sushi place. The salmon kind is the best. (Because most of us were foreigners) The main chef made us this really fancy sushi with fish eggs on top. It was good. But the salmon? Way better. Our goal for the junkai was to be more bold and more awkward. The more awkward the situation is, the miracles you see. It's been scientifically proven. We had a lot of people that we stopped in awkward places, but because we did it with confidence, it worked out. The coolest person we met was late at night. We really wanted to hand out a Bok of Mormon. H shimai handed the lady the BoM, explained it a bit, and asked if she wanted it. The lady said she was ok and handed the BoM back. Well, we didn't want it back. So I did the only thing I could think of. I testified. I explained how the BoM has helped in my life. And how the lady could feel the same way when she read the BoM. After, the lady looked at the book. Looked at us. And then said "yeah, maybe I want that book." And took it. The power of a simple testimony. It was a good lesson. I noticed that, in conference, the most power part of people's talks were the last 10 seconds. When they were testifying. So testify! The spirit is a way better teacher than I'll ever be.

Saturday: GENERAL CONFERENCE! Finally. I was SO excited for conference. Funny story though, conference was actually really hard to understand. Some of the talks, the English was way too fancy. It was the first time hearing normal English in a while. Most of the English I hear now is people who speak it as a second language or other missionaries whose English is wack because they speak Japanese all the time. For example, Elder Bendars talk. I really liked it. But man. Could he not use more simple English. I'll have to read all the talks again. Reading English is easier than hearing English. My favorite talk on Saturday was Elder Renland ["That I might draw all men unto me"]. Even though I didn't actually understand it all. But I liked the idea that we become less apathetic as we draw closer to God. As we try to follow Him, we will notice more things to be grateful for. But Elder Ballard's talk on family council made me think of you dad. [ Family Councils - We have a family council each week to plan]

Sunday: Mom! I totally forgot you told me that Paul V. Johnson spoke and so when his name flashed on the screen I was way excited. The other missionaries we a little confused. Apparently it's not normal to get excited about Paul V. Johnson. [When he spoke last year, Camille thought it was Pauvey instead of Paul V. so we laugh everytime we hear he is speaking]   And Dad, Elder Holland's funny about ice cream. Rocked.  [He was the last speaker and said "One [problem] is the fact that I am the only person standing between you and the ice cream you always have ready at the close of general conference."  Ice cream is a big deal at our house :)] My iPad is being weird and won't let me type things normally. So I'm going to end this soon. But conference was amazing. It always is. And it's so good to hear advice that's specific for our day and our problems.

Have a great week! Next week pday is on Tuesday because it's transfer week.
Love love love
ベアーマン姉妹
Sent from my iPad

Emma's mailing address

If you want to send her some snail (non-electronic) mail:

Sister Emma Bearman
9-16 Hirao-josuimachi,
Chuo-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka
810-0029
Japan

さくら Cherry Blossoms!

Welcome to さくら season (aka: cherry blossoms)!!!!!! This week they bloomed. And it looks and smells like home. I can't get enough of it. I just get to bike around all day in warm weather (it was pretty warm all week) looking at beautiful flowers that remind me of home. It was lovely.

Monday: we went to a zone Pday in Fukuoka. And let me tell you- I got us there without getting lost. On the Japanese train system (actually systems: we took 2 different train systems to get there) where there's no English. Just lots of Kanji I can't read. But I got us there. Actually, I need to thank mom because this transfer I've been navigating and I can actually get us places with a map. That skill did not come from dad. Anyway, there was about 16 of us and we went to this big park in Fukuoka and ate shaved ice and played capture the flag and a had a funny photo contest and looked at cherry blossoms. It was way fun. In the evening we had 5 minutes back before we needed to head home. So we stopped at this apartment. The 3rd door we knocked on opened and this guy comes out. At first, he was NOT interested. But we showed him the Easter video and then talked about how through Jesus
Christ we can find new life. He still wasn't interested. But then we told him that when we find a new life, we are free from our mistakes and guilt. That got him. We had a great conversation with him. After the conversion we looked down at our watches and realized we had less than 10 minutes to get home and we were a little over 10 minutes away. Well, I don't think I've ever biked so fast in my life. Miraculously, we didn't have to stop for any trains or cars so we made it home exactly on time. It was a answer to my prayer.


Tuesday: we went to a nearby park as a district with the elders investigators Japanese class and ate lunch under the cherry blossoms. It was way chill. They set up huge tarps and we just got to walk around the tarp barefoot and eat lots of yummy Japanese food while
looking at cherry blossoms. I was living the high life. When we were dendo-ing [doing missionary work], we met a ton of people who answered the door and just talked to us in English. It was a little weird.

Wednesday: the day of biking up mountains. All 3 areas we picked were up mountains. And not even the same mountain. We talked to quite a few people. Many lots of nice old ladies who had no interest but at least they listened. At least the rides down were rewarding. We had a lesson with J(Taiwanese lady) but she forgot to show up so we just talked to our joint, Kshimai, who is one of the best people I know. I want to grow up to be like her.

Thursday: we weekly planned all day, interrupted here and there with a lesson. We had a lesson with our recent convert, T. She's so solid. Because we had been planning in English, our Japanese was a little wack. Fortunately, she's an angel and figured out what we were saying. She probably had the gift of tongues at the point. Really, I don't think we did much more on Thursday.

Friday: was a nuts day. We decided to focus on talking about and handing out Bok of Mormon for an hour. And we prayed and told God to send us people ready to receive a BoM. Well, he more than provided. In 30 minutes we gave out 5 BoM. Which is crazy! People don't usually like taking a BoM but during that hour were like taking them out of our hands like they were gold. Which, it is. It was a huge miracle. And it reminded me that God wants to help us. We just have to be willing to help Him. We had a lesson with A(Korean less active) and she agreed to come to church again! Two weeks in a row! So exciting! We then went to an Eikaiwa [English Class] at a members house. We played telephone which is really goofy when you play in English, the language they don't speak. The end result is always WAY funny.

Saturday: my 7 month mark. I've been a missionary for 7 months. And in Japan for 5 months. That flew by! We celebrated by watching women's conference with the ward. They set up a huge TV for us missionaries to watch in English. It was way nice. It was such a good conference! I loved every minute. And all my questions that I wrote down got answered. I loved the choir, it made me feel like I was back in good old Silver Spring for a minute or 2. My favorite part (was all of it but) as when Neill F. Marriot said something to the effect of "love is making space in your heart for someone else." I think that's the
biggest lesson I've learned as a missionary. How to love people. I'm not really a people person. I'm not a fan of strangers. Or talking to people. Which, you know, sums up a mission. Add a foreign language to the mix and that sounds like something pre-mission Sister Bearman would freak out about. At first, I did hate it. Really, leaving the apartment each day was a struggle. Talking to people was nervous breakdown worthy. But now it doesn't bother me. Because I love the people. Gah, who knew. Charity.

Sunday: fast Sunday! Always rough but always worth it. Yesterday it rained all day. On the plus side, it was warm so we didn't freeze. Testimony meeting was really good. Lots of youth bore their testimony. So they were simple enough that I could understand. And way powerful.  

Well, I feel like that letter was a little scattered. Enjoy! Well, I love you guys!!! You're the bestest.

Love
ベアーマン姉妹