Moving and Conference

Dear kazoku and amigos,

As always, I'll start off by saying this week was CRAZY! I say that almost every week but every week is crazy in a different way. Never a dull moment when you're serving the Lord. 

Right now I'm up in Higashiku, Fukuoka with S shimai. It is probably 105 degrees cooler than Kumamoto. Kumamoto still feels like D.C. in late July/August. Fukuoka is more like mid September. I'm sweating a lot less. The elders (thankfully) did an amazing job cleaning the apartment [They moved into an apartment that used to be used by male missionaries, typically not the cleanest]. Although when we first got there we didn't know where the apartment was. So we just wandered around. Fortunately my Japanese companion can read a map it took about 20 minutes to find our place from the train station. Turns out, our apartment is less than 5 minutes away from said train station. We arrive in our apartment and are pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness but soon realize as we decide to start lunch, that there's actually no food. At all. So we leave the apartment and start wandering around, looking for a grocery store. We come back, eat, and start planning for the week before realizing we can't because our area book hasn't synced [they have electronic records of who is being taught, and they didn't sync with their ipads yet]  and the elders didn't leave a note about the people. And that about sums up my time in Higashiku so far. No one knows what's going on or where anything is or who anyone is. 

As for my companion: S shimai. She's from Tokyo, Japan. She's 19 and the oldest of 3 siblings. She loves dancing. Transfer 5. She speaks a little English and understands a bit too. 

This week we had a cool miracle. It was the day after transfer day and we realize we have no iPad chargers in the apartment. And no maps either, to tell us where we're going. So we trained to Fukuoka Shi and picked up S shimai's charger. On the way back we took the wrong train and ended up in the way wrong place. So we were waiting for the right train and a cute girl walks by with English writing on her shirt. I said "hi" and she said hi back. And we started chatting in English. She's Vietnamese and moved to Japan 2 days before. She asked what we were doing in Japan and I said teaching about Jesus. She got really excited and said she wanted to learn more. She said she wanted to come to church that Sunday too. She didn't end up coming become she lost the map we gave her but we've had daily contact since we met her. We gave her the address to the church and she plans on coming next week. God really puts us in the right place at the right time to meet the people we need. 

Saturday night we were dendoing [knocking on doors] a massive apartment and most people slammed the door pretty quick. But I kept thinking about Preseident Uchtdorf's talk about continuing until the 4th floor, last door (although in our case, we started on the 13th floor and went down). Then we met someone REALLY COOL. It was cool because when we got to the area we planned on there was 10 huge apartment buildings but we both felt we should do the same one. We went to that one and it had 4 sections and we felt like doing the same section. The Spirit. It's real. He guides us. Anyway, we met someone named A. She's Chinese and a mom and works. She was really interested in learning about how Jesus strengthens family. She told us that she has had interest in Jesus before in her life but she didn't know where to look and she didn't have enough time to figure out. Coincidence we showed up? I think not. We are meeting with her next week :)

Today we went to a ward BBQ. Fukuoka ward is HUGE. Shimizu ward had 30 people in it on a good day. Fukuoka ward has almost 300. Yes. Wow. They're all super solid members though. There's 14 missionaries in the ward. AP's, office elders, Fukuoka shimai, Fukuoka elders, Fujisaki sisters, Nakagawa sisters, and us! I don't think I missed anyone. Oh, President Egan and his wife come when they're not traveling. Fukuoka city is huge but I live north of the city. We have some of the outskirts of the city so it seems. Haven't spent a ton of time in our area yet. With conference and stuff. Our church building is over 30 minutes away by bike. If we go really fast. That will be interesting with lessons. We'll have to have them at McDonald's or something.  

Well, this week should be interesting. My back is doing a lot better. Still bleh but a better bleh. I'm going to the doctor again this coming week. 

Have a wonderful week. I love you guys TONS. TONS OF TONS worth of love coming you're way. 

Love, love, love

ベアマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad

Well, Elder Rasband committed me to do it so here I go. Testify time!! To start off with I know that we are God's children. And He loves each one of us individually. He has a plan for each of us. That may a plan completely different from one we expected but it's the one that will make us happy. That's what He wants. Our happiness. Part of His plan, to make us happy, He gave us a Savior. Jesus Christ. Through Christ we can overcome weakness, trials, mistakes, death and eventually leads us to eternal life with Him, God, our family, or friends. In the ultimate state of happiness. Because that's what God's plan is all about. Our happiness. The path that leads us there is Jesus Christ. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we learn about how to follow Christ. It is His church on the earth today. I know that's true. I know God's love and Christ love is what keeps me going during hard time. Times I don't know why what is happening is happening. But I know that when we trust in Christ, whatever does happen will ALWAYS work out in the end. I have experienced that on my mission so many times. With members, with investigators, with my self. We don't know God's will, but God knows God's will and sometimes that's all that matters. 

Sent from my iPad