The Brooklyn Bridge

Christmas Day was magical! I am so grateful for Wi-Fi at the church and my iPad and Skype (OK we are way too lucky), so I could talk to my wonderful family in the morning! I receive so much power from your testimony and support, thank you times eternity. After that we went with Matsuno Shimai and our investigator Kobayashi San to a very short orchestra concert. It was two lovely women one who played the piano, the other the cello. my two favorite instruments! Such a special treat. Afterwards we went to thank them for bringing the Christmas spirit to our hearts, and they got talking about our purpose, and they thought it was so cool how we were teaching about the real meaning of Christmas. They were even more excited when we said that they would that we would teach their kids English for free. So it turned out to be a great finding opportunity! After that Matsuno Shimai took us to a café to visit her friend who runs the place. Her daughter actually just returned from...

Merry Christmas from the Matsumoto District! Okay, finally I will write a letter. On Tuesday we met at the golden clock at Nagoya Station with way too many missionaries to all exchange companions and go to our new areas. It's always a fun time! I met up with the one and only Sister Lima from the Amazon in Brazil! She lives near the Manaus Temple. She is so much fun. She also has an incredible testimony, every time she bears it to me each day and such a simple way. I feel the spirit so strongly. I can tell, as always, but very specially, we are going to see a lot of miracles together in Toyohashi. As we arrived in Toyohashi on Tuesday night, we were welcomed to our brand-new apartment. Not just new to us, literally brand-new. We are taking the stickers off of furniture and everything. We are so lucky! Sister missionaries have not been here for 17 years. The ward has been so welcoming and loving. I'm overwhelmed with the amount of love that I'm drowning in....

ブルーワ姉妹 Hello! I love Jesus and I love missionary work! This week I am transferring from Matsumoto to TOYOHASHI! it's right next to Okazaki, in the same zone I started out in. So excited for a new adventure. I learned how important preparation is this week, especially in 3 Nephi 4:18. We can prepare for all battles this life will bring by studying and acting upon the words of the prophets. So, be more ready than I was in this Zone Photo for whatever's next! Love you! Sister Brewer

Courtesy of Elder Hansen's mom. I swear my companion was in this photo. ブルーワ姉妹 HELLO! Whoa. *Adjusts mic volume, nods in apology.* Hello, fellow saints. This week was great of course because I'm a missionary. Too much happiness and blessings. Y'all should try it. Sister Gunn and I had some great adventures going to really really really far places. We went to cities like Azumino and Yamagata, such beautiful night skies and long country roads. All the rice is harvested and the fields are bare now, just like when I first arrived in Japan. Weird! All creatures of our God and King are stunning! I'm so grateful to be in a biking mission, enjoying all the outside has to offer. I am also extremely grateful for the spirit, which like a fire is burning and keeping us warm. On Wednesday we had a fun Thanksgiving party at our English class. It was fascinating trying to describe the concept of stuffing to everybody. They were convinced that it was disgusting a...

We are definitely neglecting the picture taking recently, sorry. So this is an accidental screenshot of our weekly report video we send to the area presidency each week. Enjoy. (なさい？笑) Hi fellow Organism samas. This week was a lot of up and down, of course! Quite a few cancelled appointments and a couple no-shows. We set a baptismal date with our investigator Manami, which was so exciting, her desire is so pure! She has been progressing wonderfully lately. Unfortunately, the meeting with her parents did not go well and the date has been cancelled. Another one of our investigators has been an investigator since 1945. Yes! She is 91 years old, going very strong. She spoke at a public event for seniors on Wednesday, and she talked about her experiences with missionaries. We got to go listen which became excellent language study and city introduction to the church! No, we can't figure out why she hasn't gotten in the water yet. Thursday I got to go on a companion e...

And that's what companions are for, taking secret pictures of your back in scenic Japan. Hello! This week I've have a new favorite food. It's called オムライス(omuraisu)、which is rice and vegetables in an omelette. SO GOOD. I crave it all the time. Don't worry though, I am still fully faithful to my kitsune udon and Mac and cheese favorites. (I'm coming up on one whole year without eating mac and cheese, can you believe it? How is she surviving. Faith, that's how). Speaking of foods, we visited a really awesome member this week whose house is hidden away in a secret beautiful mountain of smallness. I swear we bike 200 years backwards into this little yamavillage she lives in. That's was great! Her testimony is rocking. Japanese members are like celebrities. They have sacrificed a lot to become members, and they way they show their faith and pure love of Christ is exemplary. And she fed us tsukemono. Japan has this food called tsukemono. What wou...

As you know, Halloween is my very favorite holiday so I was so excited ALL week even though it's not a very big deal in Japan. However, we had successful Halloween parties for both Eikaiwa and the Branch. A lot of people came, it was so great! We didn't get the OK on costumes from the assistants until right before, so we had to run to the dollar store and see what we could do. We had a lot of fun and met a few new people with potential for gospel investigation. Yay! Monday we had a lesson with a newer investigator who brought one of her friends! Whoo-hoo! He was listening the whole time, the spirit was strong, then we asked him to read one of the passages in the Book of Mormon. He did, then flipped through it a bit and asked, (the first thing he has said all lesson) "Hm. I need to buy myself one of these books."  WAA! So then we gave him that one and exploded internally with joy (I feel like I type that a lot, but it happens a lot on your mission. Very hard ...

ブルーワ姉妹 Had a great time here, and even better time in the Book of Mormon this morning. Check out 2 Nephi 25. Much love!

And by that we mean rice fields, not just the mission field, because that is a lot of what we did this week. Our Ward Mission Leader gave us a list of Less Active Members to visit, which was very much appreciated! We have spent the week looking for them. We ventured to one of the valleys of Matsumoto about two hours from the church. We got off the train and followed our all-loyal, sometimes-accurate phone map to her coordinates. The map led us up some forested hills, around a highway, and through many beautiful rice fields hovered by cascading skies of stars. Because, there are no street lights in the country, as you are aware. Or many buildings for that matter, so we were counting the rice fields on the map to try to know where to turn. But the spirit led us along, we found her house AND she was home. We taught a short lesson and were able to give her a Book of Mormon, which she hadn't seen in a while. A miracle! I'm grateful for the warm experiences I have with the spirit he...

Not as sophisticated as you might think.

Hello! It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here, feels like a month since last Pday! I've been on the train more than in my futon, but now we are all Nice and settled here in beautiful 松本！This is the largest area in the mission, so overwhelmingly large, but it's in Nagano Ken so it's beautiful! The weather is very slowly beginning to cool down as well. Monday was so crazy right up to the last minute trying to move out, create the please-take-out-our-garbage-because-they-won't-today-since-it's-a-holiday Trash Schedule for the Elders, cleaning, packing, appointments, blah blah blah (or in Japanese-nani nani nani). Tuesday we had a great session of Trainers' training in Nagoya, then I stayed with beloved Takaku Shimai (my trainer) and Barazza Shimai in Kasugai that night. Back to Meito in the morning where I met Sister VICTORIA GUNN, from Jacksonville, Florida (shoutout to Alyssa). She is so genki and fun and loves the people in Japan so much! We are going t...

Hello, humans. Here's a bit of this week, the last of the transfer! First of all, we had EIGHT investigator lessons this week! *crowd cheers* that is about seven more than usual, wit was really thrilling. A lot of new investigators, so Rogers Shimai and I made a goal to invite everyone to be baptized. It was scary, but the spirit was so much stronger, and I felt like a real missionary! Two said no, four said maybe, and two said YES!! They have set the date for October 25. They are so beautiful!!! God has prepared them, and I am so grateful he led us to them. Their desire to follow Christ is there, it's so beautiful! On Friday we went down to Amori for the Branch President's family Home evening. His granddaughters, age six and four, were way too cute and seemed to enjoy the magic show. It was so refreshing, kids are so magic! Sister Takei also made an immense amount of delicious food, including lasagna, it's been a while since I've eaten that, it was...

This week the report comes from my dear companion, because she took the time to wrote it. Please enjoy, have a radical week and be missionaries! :)  We have found more investigators this week than we have the whole transfer combined! On Monday we were talking people near Nagano eki when we saw a girl in shorts coming our way and we knew we had to talk to her!  The experience we had was kind of like Alma 32:34,"And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant." We didn't have to have faith the she would become an investigator because we knew she would. We meet with her on Wednesday!  Here in Nagano, we have three levels of Eikaiwa and Brewer Shimai and I teach the middle school level. Usually this would be fun, but our students refuse, REFUSE to talk. And if you ask them a question, they look at each other and whisper-discuss what their answer is for five minutes...only to not say the answer. Example: Us : ...

Monday, we took the two-hour train ride to meet our awesome new investigator who cancelled five minutes before. Cool! Not phased, we rode the train right back home and ate dinner with all our might. Tuesday we went looking and looking and looking and FOUND A NEW restaurant we want to try. So we'll probably go there today. Wednesday was the epitome of awesome! We had a practice lesson with a member is the sweetest! Hearing the members' testimonies is always so refreshing and strengthening. Little did we know her husband (who came to church the Sunday before) isn't even a member yet, but she said, I'm going to go home and teach this to my husband! It was so exciting. THEN, because of the beautiful and blessed faith Of the member, we talked to a woman on the way home who agreed to meet with us the next day to learn English and about the Gospel. And yes, there was a choir of angels lined up in the tiny Japanese road, singing "Hallelujah" as that occurred. We were ...

Greetings, Fellow Hitos. On page 156 Preach My Gospel so lovingly lets us know that "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach." I can therefore, confidently tell you that n o t h i n g  happened this week! Uuuuuuuunntillll last night of course! Because end of the week miracles are definitely a thing.  We decided to go streeting near the Nagano eki! Not because we had nothing else to do, but because that was our definitive choice. Yes. So after a couple hours we headed back toward the front of the eki, and talked to this really tall and pretty woman. She was definitely not Japanese. So we asked. She was from Morocco! And you know what they speak there? ARABIC. And what does my most radical companion speak? ARABIC. Needless to say, she accepted to meet with U.S. Tonight to hear about what happens after we die. HOORAY!  As I have testified of before, the Lord answers our prayers. My testimony of that grows and strengthens each week is this remarkable fi...

And it feel so good. SHO, after tragically saying goodbye to the Papenfuss  Shimai Monday I stayed he night in Meito and picked up Sister Rogers in Nagoya Tuesday. It was so weird and cool to be back together again. She described it as, "being born (trained) for two transfers, dropped off at to the babysitter (new companion), and then back again now that her mother (me) is done vacationing for the summer up North (Nagano)." But we've been having way too much fun cracking the lame jokes we've saved up and making new goals to ROCK as missionaries. We hope.  We taught a total of FOUR lessons  under  15 minutes this week. Hooray! Ha ha no one. NO ONE could/wanted to meet because it was a holiday this weekend called O-bon. It is to respect the ancestors who has passed on. Really cool! HoWeVeR, we went back down to Nagoya Thursday night for Mission Leader Council on Friday. It was definitely the highlight of the week! President and Sister Ishii gave great lessons on the Ato...

Greetings, Blog Reader. Please submit your guesses now for transfer announcements! I woke up this morning after having the strangest dream. I had finished six really short transfers and only had six left. It was quite startling! Luckily I woke up, realized I was still a Beanchan.  Phew! This week was full of exciting and emotional appointments on account of this being Sister Papenfuss' last week in the field. WHAT. NO AUGUSTUS WATER HAZEL WE ARE  NOT  OKAY. She has been working so hard right up to the end, which is inspiring. She loves the people here from the sincerest part of her heart. She has given it all her courage, effort, patience, and love in six blessed areas. And I've been soooo exceedingly blessed to partake in her companionship. Tears were shed and we closed our planners on the final Weekly Planning Session together (do cue 1980s soap opera elevator music). The point is I'll miss her a whole lotta much! We are on the train right now heading to Honbu. What is th...

Hey guys, iss me Miranda-- Ehem, oh, no I mean Sister Brooklyn Brewer, reporting live from Nagano Japan.  Tuesday, we had to do some major iPad training for the area book app we dont have yet. Wha hoo, so fun. We also taught the Eikaiwa! We teach the junior high students and they are so good. As hard as I sometimes think learning Japanese is, learning English from Japanese is way harder. Seen on T-shirts in Japan: "Exceptional dispose immensely, its lovely to see you" "Catharsis Staunch Lovely Eulogy" "Blowing" "Wreath" "Fact the truth is Boat" On Wednesday we left our rice fields to visit the ones in the far away land of Matsumoto for interviews with President Ishii. It was a wonderfully uplifting time. He is such an energetic, dedicated man. Good news: Despite being an imperfect missionary, I get to stick around for the next six transfers! Hooray! Sister Ishii is also very cool. She made us experimental anko cookies (yum) and even wen...

Hello loyal readers! I'm still in Japan and the gospel is still true and I still love it all. Thank you so much for letters I have received! They are so wonderful to read. Post a scripture you have like decently and recently below! :) mine is Doctrine and Covenants 68:6. Smile be happy be missionaries! 6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come. 6 元 気を​出し​なさい。​恐れて​は​ならない。主​なる​わたし​は​あなたがた​と​ともに​おり、あなたがた​の​傍ら​に​立つ​から​で​ある。あなたがた​は、わたし、すなわち​イエス・​キリスト​に​ついて、わたし​が​生ける​神の​子で​ある​こと、わたし​が​かつて​おり、今おり、やがて​来る​こと​を​証しなければ​ならない。

We have just come down from Togakushi Mountain for a magical Party Day! I mean...preparation day. *coughwink* we had an AMAZING hike to Mirror Lake, then through the old ninja village, and through the cedar forest up to this super historical Shinto shrine. It's been a beautiful, spectacular day to say the least. きれいでしょう On Tuesday we had Welcome-to-the-Mission Conference for President and Sister Ishii. They are so fantastic! Of course. But truly, I am so excited to work with them now. President Ishii says he wants to focus on the missionaries having a good balance between spirituality and fun; teaching and service. It'll be stellar time! Wednesday we had such a good, full dendo day! Thank you for your prayers, we really feel them. One of highlights was the lesson we had with one of our long-time investigators. She is really great, but isn't confident she's ready to be a member. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her and were surprised to he...

Konnichiwa 😄 Mina wa genki? It's been a beautiful week in the Nagano Japan. Full of Olympic history, lush mountains, and very kind people! Monday our beloved President Yamashita completed his assignment as our mission president. I am going to miss him and Sister Yamashita a lot! I learned from his example, very strongly about the pure love of Christ and dedicated discipleship. But President and Sister Ishi have arrived and we are excited to meet them at Hello Conference tomorrow! In Fukutoku! So far, everything is far in Nagano. Ha ha. とい On Tuesday we met a less active member with a really cute nine year old! The mom also made us scrumptious apricot jam. Apricots and Nagano soba are currently in season. Yum! Other food ventures this week has included tomato gelato, basil shrimp sushi, and Sister Papenfuss's "inside out" chocolate chip cookies. :) You can infer for yourselves which of those I enjoyed most thoroughly. おいしい😋 On Thursday we went housi...

After seven months in my beloved Okazaki and I transferring to NAGANO! Transferring requires a lot of...to do list items I didn't know about, so sorry for the short post. But smile all day long and be missionaries! Please read: 1 Nephi  11:17 , Book of Mormon Love, Sister Brewer Some of my Okazaki Favorites.

For the report today, here are some questions I have received from a lot of people! And my that I mean...questions I was asked by myself and faithful letter-writing uncle. What does your teaching pool look like?  Currently our teaching pool is eight women we found by a wide variety of means: Housing, talking to them in parking lots, member referrals, back of the area book, and the occasional self-referral miracle. We are very blessed with investigators! Teaching is my very favorite part of missionary work. Here you get to see children of God realize that is what they are, and that is so beautiful! A few of them are what's called 30/30 investigators, meaning we teach them English for thirty minutes and a gospel lesson for the latter thirty. Depending on your definition of progress, typically investigators progress very slowly; there are willing to listen to what you have to say and sometimes even read the Book of Mormon. But, they will develop interest, ask questions, and keep commi...

Hello! So, serving in Okazaki and Kariya feels like playing two roles in a musical. In Scenes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday Act One I play the part of senior companion in Okazaki, trying to do things right and pretend I know how. In Kariya Act Two of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday I plan the part of beanchan trying to meet all these new people with the same names as everyone in Okazaki. Loving not having to read the map but feeling like I didn't read the script. Then the weekends where we may or may not go back and forth here times. Sometimes I cant even remember what costume to wear. But Heavenly Father the director and Jesus Christ our leading star pull it all together and make up for my weak notes and forgotten lines for a great show. We most certainly have a LOT of magic to do here in Japan. I love it!   I am enjoying many fun drinks in Japan: melon cream soda, salt and fruit kirin juice, and mostly water. Japanese people dont drink water. Only me; so confusing. Happy spiritual m...

Yesterday we found two new investigators! Actually, they found us. During companionship study yesterday we received a call from Brother Miura, who informed us that here were two girls at the church who wanted to talk to sister missionaries. We biked over there quickly to discover a former investigator from last summer and her friend. She came asking if she could start hearing the lessons from the missionaries again. We talked about the Book of Mormon, Heavenly Father, and set an appointment for Saturday.  She even shared with  us  her favorite scripture. Truly a miracle! Prayers are answered.  In Kariya we have met exceptionally kind members. The sisters who run Eikwaiwa are amazing! Wonderful spirits and so nice to the missionaries. We also had the opportunity to teach a lesson about modesty to the Young Women on Saturday. It was surreal to see those young girls, doing personal progress and thinking about going on a mission just like I was. That feels like just yesterday!   Peace out ...

Hello adoring fans (Mom and Dad) ! Guess what? Another rather shocking transfer call came last week! Brought to you by: Hastening the Work. On Friday we became and tripanionship! Three sisters, one companionship! We now have Sister Aso from Hokkaido. She is the awesome ^.^ other small plot twist is we are working in Okazaki AND Kariya. Two areas! Two wards! Whoooo! Don't ever get comfortable on a mission folks, you will be turned upside down right when you're not expecting it! Change is awesome. Haha so that has been an adventure, we spent these past few days in Okazaki and tomorrow we are going to Kariya. And because of events going back and forth about three more times this weekend! It really is cool teaching as three! It's kind of crowded but really fun and I am so grateful to be living with a Japanese companion again! Nothing else earth shattering occurred this week but we did get to teach THREE lessons to less active families last night that was a mir...

Hey humans! This week in Okazaki we saw some great miracles as sisters. Our long-time investigator  chan was able to meet again! *celebratory remarks* Last night we saw two miracles! We went to visit a less active member we have had trouble contacting for a few months. However, yesterday she came out, was happy to see us, let us share a message, and thanked us graciously for coming. We were able to give her a copy of the Liahona and pray together. Such a happy moment! Then, we found two new investigators through OYM on the way home! We had sent a goal to give out a Book of Mormon in next hour and we were blessed to meet the perfect person! Then we found a woman who was interested in our message about families and 30/30 Eikaiwa program. The Lord answered our prayers! Sister Rogers is such a great companion! She teaches, testifies and prays very well in our lessons. She is from Ohio and this is her very first transfer. tis the season, for major allergies. But a little wasabi cleared that...

Somehow another transfer has flown by! It is a beautiful Sakura Spring here in Japan! I love it! I am so sad to say my dearest Sister Takaku is transferring away. :( She will be an immense blessing to her new area! I have learned so much from her about how to be compassionate and focus on the needs of people. My new companion is...wonderful but no one here has met her yet! She is a brand new missionary I get to train! I am so ecstatic. She's is coming to the best area ever! Hold on tight Sister, we're headed for an interestingly miraculous adventure. NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Here is a photo of the sushi I devoured prior to gaining another kilogram. Kidding, they are not all mine. One is Sister Takaku's. Hello from Nihon, land of the rising sun and miracles! This week we are just going to lay down some stories, because this week was fantastically packed with them! We visited one of our new investigators. We taught her about the Atonement. She is still a little hesitant on the whole Mormon thing, but she felt something special about Jesus, that was a cool moment. Then, without me even thinking about that direction, Sister Takaku just lays down the baptismal invite! (internal me: 'what? *panic* ohmygolly yes go go Takaku Shimai go go! Whoo!') Investigator didn't say yes, but she didn't say no. So she's thinking about it. So awesome! That night as we were walking home we were just trying to chat with the interesting assortment of folk walking around at 8:45 p.m. and found a woman who agreed to meet with us again!  This is bad, but somet...