Chewbacca, rain, rain, rain

Happy day guys! Life is good. Japan is the best. The longer I'm here, the less I want to leave. But that's another story. This week!

Tuesday: In district meeting we had a eating contest where your companion was your arms and had to feed you from behind you. I have a video. We were the second fastest companionship. We went out and dendoed after and everyone just seemed to want to listen. Which was amazing. Recently, as a zone we have been focusing on the standards of excellence. And the crazy thing is, as we focus on the standards of excellence, we actually meet them. Who knew (do you know what standards of excellence are? They're our mission wide goals for things like how many people we talk to, how many lessons we have, how many people came to church, how may BoM were given out). And because we are focusing on the standards, we are so much more effective missionaries because we are prioritizing our time better. In the evening, we went up to a cello concert at the stake center. It was WAY pretty. The cello rocks.

Wednesday: My comp was feeling sick so we took a chill day. Did go out and dedno for a while. We also had an awesome lesson with our recent covert, M. We had a member joint and she brought us homemade bread and guitar to serenade us. It was awesome. This 60 year old lady rocking out on the guitar.


Thursday: we planned a lot of the day. And made phone calls. But when we were out in the evening, my lovely comp had to go to the bathroom but the only close place was this really fancy sports club. So we went in. And asked to use the bathroom. They thought we were so funny- these soaking wet foreigners who can speak Japanese who are asking for the bathroom. But they bowed pretty low to us.

Side note: our phone has an alarm for everything on the earth. "5 minute until" alarms and "2 minute till" alarms and "time to" alarms. But the sound of our alarm is chewbacca screaming. It's the best. It makes me happy every time.
Sign on apartment door
to motivate missionaries
Friday: we met this nice deaf lady and we had to write things out to communicate with her. Which was hard, seeing our Japanese writing skills are limited. But at the end we just we love you and God loves you and see just started grinning. It made me happy because we couldn't reach her much but we could share God's love with her. And that's my purpose. That's why I'm in Japan. Saturday: Was a power house of a day. We called people for 2 hours (from a list of past investigators and potential investigators) and set up 4 return appointments. It's nuts. We then went out to dedno and we talked to each other ALL DAY in Japanese. We chatted and told stories while we dendoed but no English. It was very fun and very rewarding. It was way good language practice. By the end of our day, our Japanese sounded so much smoother because we practiced thinking in Japanese. Because we spoke all day in Japanese, when (at the end of the day) someone answered the door and started speaking to us in English, we didn't really understand them! We were so shocked to hear English. It was funny.
IndoCurry after District Meeting
Sunday: The only day this week with sun! And it was way strange not to have to get dressed up in our rain gear to go out. Today was just an amazing Spirit filled day. Church was amazing. During the sacrament part of sacrament meeting the cutest thing happened. There was a 3 year old who was busy playing under the chairs so he missed taking the water as they passed it around. And the people we handing back their trays and the little boy started crying because he realized he missed his chance to take the sacrament. One of the people passing the sacrament realized his little boy hadn't taken the water so he hurried to give him some. The little boy, realizing what was happening hurried up off the floor to sit in his seat so he could take the sacrament. It was really touching to see him calm down one he realized that he could still take the sacrament. He's 3. He doesn't really know much about church yet except that Jesus loves him and that the sacrament is important. But he taught all of us something. I think I really realized how important the sacrament is. And I'm very grateful for this little boy's example. After church we biked up a mountain only to realize we weren't in the right place. We were very lost on the top of a mountain. But we were supposed to be there. We met some amazing people. People we were definitely supposed to meet. God works then our weaknesses for sure! While we were dendoing today, B shimai and I talked about deep religious things. It was way fun. This gospel is just SO COOL and makes soooo much sense.


I love you fambam.

Sister Bearman
Houses with blue tarps were damaged in earthquake

Dads, Phantom of the Opera, the Japan life

English Class Sign

This week has been a strange week. It has rained like nuts. I think rainy season has hit. It's torrential downpour all day everyday. It's refreshing because it's so hot out but it does make handing people paper products (fliers, pamphlets, BoMs) a little difficult. But we still had a ton of fun. Lots of weird things happened.

Tuesday: we had an amazing district mtg. I learned that wasabi filled cream puffs are absolutely disgusting. It was an example out district leader used. It was really good. We didn't know before hand there was wasabi in them. It was REALLY startling. Then we were given another cream puff to eat. We did NOT want to eat it. But when we did it was a yummy cream puff. But because we had a wasabi one before and because it was pretty traumatic, we didn't really enjoy the second one. We then related it to meeting people on the street. Sometimes you have a bad experience. Sometimes, all the people you talk to are bad experiences. But it we let the bad experiences linger, when the good people come, the good experiences come, we aren't really prepared for it. It was a good meeting. Something I definitely needed to hear. Plus it was funny.

Wednesday: we had a lesson with our recent convert, M shimai. We talked about service and how family history is service to your ancestors. Mom, thanks for being awesome and rocking family history. I used you as an example with your trip to Montreal and stuff. [Dana went to some small churches up in Montreal to find birth, death, and marriage records of her Dad's great grandparents and families]. We had Eikaiwa in the evening. I taught the kids class. It's the best place to be. We play English games and sing songs all night. Sounds like my kind of party.
Damaged Restaurant
Thursday: so we have this potential investigator named S. He's an Argentinian born Italian who was raised in Australia. And now is raising a family in Japan. He owns a huge restaurant up by the volcano here and it got damaged during the earthquake. So we went up to his restaurant and made chairs and helped clean for a while. It was way fun. And pants were worn. Also a happy making thing. After, he gave us huge bowls of ice cream from the freezer that we ate. I'm always game for free ice cream. However, there was basil ice cream. I wasn't a fan of that so much.

Friday: we had the strangest lesson you could ever imagine. We were supposed to have
After Service
a lesson in a car for 10 minutes before she had to run errands. But we get in the car and she drives away. We had no idea what was going to on but we taught a solid lesson (as solid as you can get when the persons driving). We drive for 30 minutes and we are pretty sure we are not in our area. So she get to the place (and we are still way clueless to what's going on) and says to wait in the car for a second when she does something. We wait. We wait for a good half and hour or more. Not knowing what was happening. Then she came back and drove us back. It was a strange lesson but she wants to meet again so that's a plus! While dendoing we crashed into this road that was surrounded by a bamboo forest and cats were everywhere. [See video below, or that might be a different bamboo forest] We couldn't bike because the road was literally covered. It smelled so bad. It was disgusting. But we lived and found a KINJIN! (golden person). She is going to a Christian school. We shared a scripture from the BoM with her (Ether 12:27) and she was like "shoot, this is my new favorite scripture. Can I take a picture of it". We were nice and let her have the BoM. She was so excited. People who know a little about Christ and Christianity are SO rare and are the best.  [And if men come unto me I will show unto them theiraweakness. I bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my cgrace is sufficient for all men thatdhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make eweak things become strong unto them.]

Saturday: 2 funny things happened. 1) You know in Phantom of the Opera when he lady screams because a guy got hung from the rafters in the middle of the production? It was really piercing and startling and scared me when I watched it for the first time when I was like 10? Imagine that scream. Imagine knocking on a doors down thinking
everything is normal and that there will be a golden investigator on the other side. Then the door opens and a woman is there and as soon as she sees you... *play scream from the Phantom* Needless to say, it was a little startling. My heart may have stopped for a moment. 2) we were cat called as we biked down the hill. It was really funny mainly be issue that lady had just screamed bloody murder at us and then we
elicit the opposite response like 3 seconds later.

Sunday: we had a stake conference. One of the special broadcast ones that come from Salt Lake City. We got to listen in English. It rocked. Then, we went to a return appointment who ANSWERED THE DOOR. And we got to teach him again! We met him last week. We were really goofy with him again. And he was really happy after us meeting with him. He reminds me of you dad. So I was goofy and made jokes with him like I
do with you and I think it made him happy. He hasn't seen his kids in a really long time and I think we made his Father's Day a little less rough. We're seeing him next week and I'm so excited. 

Sorry, these's letter are getting shorter. Awesome amazing things happen by the bundle. But it's really hard to describe them adequately. In writing. I'll try harder next week. But to sign off, yesterday was a holiday. And I'd like to make a shout out to my father. He's the best dude in the world. And he encourages me to be the missionary and human that I'm capable of. He's so filled with love. And is a peacemaker. I want to be more like my dad.  [And I am so proud of my Emma] I am so grateful for him and his example to me. And I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who sent me to live with my dad. When I think of my Heavenly Father, he has lots of the same traits as my dad. And if my dad is wonderful and amazing and inspiring, how much better is my Heavenly Father at blessing and inspiring me. I know His love for me is perfect. I know He lives. I am so grateful for the 2 amazing fathers in my life. Thank goodness for dads (the heavenly and earthly kind (watch Heavenly Father, earthly father-mormon message LINK  )

Love love love until next week!
ベアマン姉妹


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Rain, heat, lots of ice cream, breaking down walls

Hello lovely family! And friends!

Tuesday: G shimai and I went on splits [trading companions] while our lovely companions were at their fancy STL meeting [Leadership training for sister missionary leaders]. We are both new to the area. We didn't even know the boundary between our borders. We got way lost but saw tons of miracles along the way. One cray thing was we taught a lesson on the street. We stopped a high schooler and taught her a short message and asked if we could meet again another day. She said "I'm free right now, can we talk now?" So we found some trees to sit under and taught her a lesson 0 (God, Jesus, baptism). She said yes to baptism and gladly took a BoM. It was crazy. We also talked to a lady who was scared to death of us. Because we were foreigners and we were talking about religion. The most scariest thing in the world. But we started talking about English class and showed pictures of our families to show we were normal people. I think that helped. It was a fun day. G shimai and I came to Japan at the same time so it was fun to spend the day with her.

Wednesday: the whole apartment helped plan for ZTM [zone training meeting - where the leaders train the rest of the missionaries in the area]. G shimai and I made games and handouts while our lovely STL companions prepped their training. However, me and B shimai (my actual companion) had a lesson with a recent convert. She was baptized in between the 2 huge earthquakes. The water was green and the ground wasn't stable but she was so happy she did it then because the next day the water shut off. I love teaching recent converts. It's was fun. You don't have to worry about messing up someone's salvation.


Thursday: good ole ZTM. It was a lovely ZTM. Lots of inspirational things were said. I think my favorite part was when a Japanese elder got up, told a story in Japanese and then bore his testimony in English. As I listened to him bear his short, very basic, grammatical incorrect I realized why they send so many people who can't speak
Japanese to Japan. Because short, basic, grammatically incorrect testimonies are so powerful. If you bring the Spirit. It was a really powerful thing for me to realize. That even though my language skills are minimal, I can touch people's hearts.


Friday: some former investigator took us out for fancy dessert. Like way fancy dessert. It was so fancy. We were supposed to meet her at her house. We met her at her job and she drove us to this fancy restaurant, not her house. Yeah, we had no idea what was going on. Well, it tasted delicious. We have another lesson with her this week. Hopefully a real lesson this time. Then, when we were out dendoing [knocking on doors], literally no one wanted to talk. So we were soaking wet (from sweat or rain, who knows) and sort of sad. But then someone answered and said they wanted to meet again. The rest of the night was back to now one talking to us. But we were on the top of the world. Because of that small miracle. That's missionary work for you. A small miracle makes your whole day the best day ever. When we look for the miracles God gives us everyday, it's hard to be sad.

Saturday: we had service! I wore pants all day. We went to this volunteer center that people can call and ask for help. As we drove over there we went through the area of real bad damage. House everywhere were collapsed. Tons of abandoned homes because they were leaning funny. It was crazy. Anyway, an old woman called in to the
volunteer center. Her house had been completely destroyed. She needed help picking us trash and rubble and trashing it. We tore down a crumbling wall. We picked up glass and chunks of house. We cleared all the junk out from the yard. It was way fun. And so hot. The hot here doesn't move. At home, it's hot and humid but there's a breeze or wind. The air moves around. Not in Kumamoto. The air sits on you and
presses down real hard. I was so sweaty. But you always feel so good after service. In The Woman's General Conference someone said "He [the Savior, Jesus Christ] asks us to be His hands. I have come to know that it is the love of God and neighbor that gives meaning to life."   [I think this speech]  I know that that is true. You feel more of the Saviors love for you and others as you serve.


Sunday: I gave a talk, as you always do when you transfer. It's literally the most nerve wracking thing in the world. But I lived. In the afternoon we met this really cool guy. He was closing the door on us and we quickly brought up baptism and being free from guilt. He opened the door back up and we ended up talking for 15 minutes. He wants us to come back and teach him more next week. It was crazy. I'm very grateful the Spirit told us to start talking about baptism. Half the time, we don't know what's going on as we teach (especially with the Japanese) but the Spirit does. And he just tells us what we need to say. It's so lovely. In the evening, a family had us over for dinner. The made us SO MUCH FOOD. I ate so much food. They even brought out ice cream at the end because I said it was my favorite food. Members rock. Family, be good to the missionaries. It makes all the difference. Feed them. Joint for them. Give them rides. Refer friends (this is actually the best thing you could do). Members make missionary work.

Well, that was my week. We have an amazing week lined up. Lots of scheduled lessons. Before the week actually started. People are answering calls. Get excited. I am.

I love you all. So much. I love being a missionary. I love Japan. I might never come home...

Love love love
ベアマン姉妹
熊男

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Hello from the city of BEARS 🐻🐻

I am now down in Kumamoto!! In Shimizu. The area that just got hit by a huge earthquake.? That's the one. In my area, most of the damage is clear. But we'll be biking along and see a building with huge chunk missing or bike over huge cracks in the road. There's tons of construction of roads and buildings. Lots of shops and stores are closed. There's also still smaller earthquakes going on. Since I came in on Thursday, there's been about 15. But their small. Don't worry too much. But I'm back in the city!!

Tuesday: I got my transfer call. Then we went to the beach. It was so fun. We could wade in up to our knees and it was so tempting to just jump in. But I didn't. But we took lots of goofy pictures and chatted and threw seaweed at each other.



Wednesday: I mainly just packed. And said goodbye to lots of people. Which was way sad. Eikaiwa was a blast. Tons of new people showed up. We taught the big group of intermediates. We did have a return appointment with a Vietnamese college student AND SHE SHOWED UP. We had an awesome lesson with her and set up another appointment. We spoke with her in a strange mix of English and Japanese.

Thursday: transfer day!! I trained to the meeting train station


and then I got on a nice bus. It was me and another sister going to the same apartment. We were the only ones on the bus. It was a nice 2.5 hour ride. Then I met my new companion. Sister B. She's WAY nice. She's a transfer 11 (almost done). She was in Kumamoto when the earthquake happened and was evacuated. And now she's back in a different area. Her earthquake story is crazy. She's from Idaho went to BYU-I for a year and a half. (Did I answer all your questions dad?). I've had so much fun with her these past couple days. Like so much fun. I am so happy.



In my apartment there are Shimizu sisters and Tsuboi sisters. Our apartment is is in their area. Our apartment is on the 8th floor. We're in the city. The others sisters area is more big city. We have the smaller city and a college. Our ward is on the smaller side. Around 30 people. They're mainly all older but there's a couple of
young couples and really small children. There's not really anyone between the ages of 10-20. Well, besides me and my companion. But they're a nice little ward.
Yes, that is seaweed
Friday: I went for real running. It's been 5 months. None of my recent comps liked to run. And now I have one who loves to run and is WAY fast. She did cross country.

Saturday: we had a lesson with an investigator named K who has a baptism date. I actually don't have my journal with me so I'm not sure if anything else notable happened.  On Saturday we went and did service. Well, we biked an hour and the place was full. But we went out to lunch. Next Saturday p, though, we have service again. Earthquake clean up. I'm excited to do moreservice. We dendoed and talked to a lot of college students.

Sunday: was an interesting day. We had morning church. Then we planned a bit. And then we went to the church for a return appointment. We waited for the return appointment to show and she was a no-show.  We were sad but we went and cleaned up the room and were about to leave the church when a member runs out the door and says "this kid just walked into the church and asked for pamphlets." We were shocked. So
he came out and we said "we have 3 pamphlets. Which one do you want?" Then he said "well, can I have all 3?" We gave him all 3 and we were in a bit of a shock. People never come up to us demanding religious material. We asked him how he found out about our church and our church building. He said he was on the Internet and found our website. Then he had his phone give his directions to the church to find more material. Nuts. Just bananas. We're excited to contact him again. He works for the Japanese military.






Well, that was my week. Crazy. I'm so tired. My brain isn't on quite right. Packing and moving and unpacking in a 2 day span takes it out of you. So this week was so short. I'll do better next week. Maybe. 

I love you all. Enjoy the pool for me. I'll eat a ton of ice cream for you.

Love love love
熊人姉妹from 熊本
(Bearman 姉妹 from Kumamoto)


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