Sapporo temple and famous Japanese singers

Hello my beloved family members (and friends),


This week was all over the place. I discover that when I'm speaking as dad in my stories I always use a British accent. So my comp thinks your British dad. I didn't even realize I was doing it until she turns to me in the middle of a story and says "I know your dad isn't British but the way you tell your stories had led me to believe he is British." I don't know what that's means dad, I haven't got a clue why
you always talk in a British accent in my stories. Analyze that and get back to me.

This week is also transfer week (that went too crazy fast) which is why I'm emailing on Tuesday. Sorry I forgot to remind you. As for transfer news, I don't know yet. You'll have to find out next week 😉 I hope I'm staying with my comp.

On to this week, it was an amazing week although I'm not 100% sure what happened. My brain was in a weird place all week.


Monday: I got acupuncture again (by the guy in our ward, he's way nice). In the evening- even though we were only out for a little bit, we saw some cool miracles. We got to talk to a family from Syria and a family from Sudan. They were really nice and got to talk to them in English. My favorite most cute part of the night was when we were talking to this cute old lady. We were chatting with her when she suddenly reaches into one of her 500 bags and hands us each a thing of ice cream. She said that we had make her heart so full of nice feelings that she wanted to give us the ice cream to say thanks. It was cute. And much appreciated because it is crazy hot.
Notice sleeping beauty
in the background

I finally figured out how to describe the heat in Kumamoto. You know in August on a sticky sunny day when you return to the car that's been sitting in the sun for 3-5 hours. You open the doors and sit in the car and it feels like an oven and you're just suffocating in heat? That's summer in Kumamoto. We got into a members car that had been sitting in the sticky sunny weather for 3-5 hours and there was no temperature difference or humidity difference from the outside to inside the car. Crazy...

Tuesday: Nothing really happened today. I think. I chatted with Kaicho [mission president] a time or 2. Talked about how my back is doing. Kaicho is a nice guy.
He made me feel better. (Kaicho=mission pres).
 
Wednesday: We dendoed to a grocery store, bought things to make 1000 cookies, and then dendoed back. Then we proceeded to make 1000 cookies. We studied a bit. And practiced Japanese. Then we decided to write all the missionaries in the area lymrics and haikus. So we did it. It was way fun. We took them to Eikaiwa with cookies and gave them to all the missionaries. It was really fun, they were all so
surprised. 


Thursday: We weekly planned at Joyfull again and I drank WAY too much hot choco. No regrets. In the evening we went to do a family home evening (FHE) with a part member family. The wife is a member (of 1 year), the husband is taking lessons from the elders, and they have a 3 year old son. Doing FHE with them is way fun. We talked about the stripling warriors and being strong with the son. He wants to be big and strong like people in the Book of Mormon now. Then we talked about how the stripling
warriors had amazing parents and that's how their kids turned out amazing. The most exciting part was the father (who has not prayed out loud for the 3 months the elders have been teaching him).  [story of the strippling warriors found here]


Friday: We had 3 lessons today. And a crazy miracle. To one of the lesson we had a ride. The member asked where we wanted a ride back to. We wanted to say to the apartment but felt like we should ask her to drop us off at this train station. So she drops us off and we're sad because we're no longer in an air conditioned car. So we're walking home and all of the sudden this guys who's biking by comes chasing
after us. And it was the high school guy we had met the night before and set a RA with. He came and chatted with us for a bit and was really excited to see us. Way cool miracle to see him again.


Saturday: We studied in the morning and then hauled butt over to the stake center to practice a song as missionaries. Then in the afternoon, we had a concert with 4 very professional singers (all members). We sang a song with them. It was actually quite fun. They were way talented. Then we ran and got dinner before the Sapporo temple cultural celebration. It was so cute. And sad as they talked about Japanese history and how during the war, members were far and few between and were punished for being part of an "American" religion. It was so sad but then all the youth came and sang hymns. This church is fairly new in this country, most of the members are either converted or their parents converted. But they are strong and as the youth sang I could just see what a bright future Japan has. Also, they had some fun Japanese dances. It was sick.


Sunday: We went back up to the stake center after studies and got to watch one of the dedicatory sessions.  [once a temple is "dedicated" only members can go inside since it is now treated as a holy place.  Information can be found here] They had English headsets for all the missionaries with translation but as it started I realized that I'd rather listen in Japanese. It was a cool moment to realize I would understand more listening in Japanese than following along with the translation. Elder Stevenson spoke in Japanese and Elder Yamashita (he's came to our mission 2 times and talked to us. We're basically friends) also spoke. It was cool to hear them speak about how the youth of Japan will lead their family and friends to the gospel.


Monday: yesterday we went back to the member who is an acupuncturist. It really makes my back feel better. After, the wife bought us a bunch of bread because she's an angel and was a sister missionary and knows how important food is to living. We ate and then went out to dedno. We dendoed near my favorite spot in Shimizu. It's this beautiful bridge over a river surrounded by green and mountain. It's lovely. After dendoing a bit we went and played down in the river for a while. Well it was way cooling. It had a way cooling effect. (how do you even say that?) It cooled us off. Then we went to McDonald's to have some peach shakes sent straight from heaven. Then we had a FHE with the bishops family. We shared 3 Nephi 5:13 with them. It really like that scripture. It talks about how as disciples of Christ, we should share His happy message with everyone when we decide to be a disciple of Christ, we are promising to always remember Him and share His love with the world. I'm glad that I am a disciple of Christ and that I have this amazing opportunity to remember Him daily and share His love daily to the Japanese people.


Well, that's this week. Have a lovely week. Isn't school about to start? That's CRAZY. Evan'll be a senior. What has even happened to time?!?! We're hiking Aso (the volcano) today for Pday. It should be 






fun. I'll take pictures.

Love love love
ベアマン姉妹

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