Halloween, Parties, and an upcoming transfer back to Maryland

Hello my beloved people, 

Happy Halloween 👻🎃 Eat lots of American candy for me! 

This week went by crazy fast. And we had lots of fun Halloween related things. 

Calling people: We were going through a list of people and making calls yesterday evening. Lots of weird things happened. One was a miracle. We called this guy named R. He's from Nepal and we chatted in English. We asked if he had time to meet and he said he was busy with work and school. I thought it was going to be the normal "I'm too busy but I'm actually not interested" call but right after he said "but I'm free on Friday afternoon. Can we meet then?"  Yes. Yes. Yes. Of course. Yes. What? Huge miracle. The next person I called was named S. From China. So I put the number in and hit call and it was ringing forever so I looked to see if I put the number in right and I was calling a member! We were so confused why a members number was in under an investigators record. We laughed for a good 15 minutes after that one. 

Specialized training from the mission president and crew: all sort of crazy things happened- I sang a special musical number, bore my testimony, took lots of notes, caught up with my MTC companion, ate pancakes and ice cream, and danced to "happy" from that Disney/Pixar movie (despicable me?) with my mission president (????). Overall it was a fun and spiritual day. My favorite part was from a video clip we were shown. The lady said that she realized she didn't need to be healed to help. And everything seemed to click into place. I don't need to be miraculously healed to serve and love with the energy I do have. It was so relieving to hear that I guess. 

Halloween Eikaiwa: we taught them how to have Halloween. In Japan, Halloween is kind of new so they don't really know what to do. So we taught them Halloween words and what trick-or-treating is. Afterwards we danced to "Thriller" and had a Halloween party. Everyone stayed for it! Normally people try to skip out on our game/conversation time but they didn't this time. 

Halloween party: the ward held a Halloween party for kids and asked all the moms to invite their friends with kids. There was 97 kids total. Chaos and candy ensued. It was too much fun. And too much cute. Japanese moms know how to make killer cute family themed costumes. And Japanese kids are literally the cutest creatures in existence. When they were planning the party they called me up for American Halloween games. So we played them (except Japanese style). We played the donut on the sting game, but instead of donuts there were rice crackers. They also had piñatas but they had them on the ground. And whacked them with plastic bottles. I guess it's safer that way? 

I bought a $1.50 jar of peanut butter and $.75 quality ice cream. Nuff' said. 

K san: she's a referral from some other sisters who had been teaching her because it was an elders area. She's this older lady who lives 30-45 minutes away by train. She lives amongst the rice fields and mountains. It's beautiful. She is basically perfect. She just focuses super hard on the tiny mistakes and problems so she has no confidence. But when we taught her about faith and repentance she knew exactly what they were. She taught us what they were. Towards the end of the lesson she got off on a tangent about how terrible she is and the Spirit had left the room. A thought came to mind to share the part from Elder Holland's talk that says "To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle--and all will--I say, 'Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth.'" As we shared that quote, the Spirit came back into the room and testified to all of us that we were doing what we needed to do. It was really cool. 

Last pday, one of the zone leaders taught me how to kick-box a bit. It was fun ☺️

Hospital miracle: while I waiting for S shimai in the bathroom after my doctors visit, this nurse came up and started chatting with me. We chatted about church things and she was really nice. Sometimes, as a missionary, you're lucky enough to see that you're in the right place at the right time. 

Even though Halloween hasn't happened yet, all the Christmas stuff it out everywhere. And at the big train station in Fukuoka they've started hanging up Christmas lights. How is it Christmas already?!?!

Well, I think that's about it. You guys are the best. Have fun. Good luck in school and stuff. I love you guys ❤️️💕😘😍

Love love love 

ベアマン姉妹

Sent from my iPad

Post Script:

Emma's back has flared up again.  The mission president decided it makes the most sense for Emma to come home to rest and recover.  We anticipate that she could be home this coming weekend.  As much as Emma wanted to stay, we think she is at peace with coming home.  We are super excited as a family to have her home for the holidays!   Thank you everyone for following her adventures with us.