Nothing and Everything.

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 field. I didn't know it was like that. I thought you just gained a testimony of something and that was that. But no, Doctrine and Covenants chapter 50 is so true,

24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

That's how it works, when we work on it and towards it, our light of Christ grows brighter and brighter and we receive more knowledge and experience. I love this thing. 

Love,

Sister Brewer

REUNITED

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 Atonement. The Assistants also prepared some very motivational training. The. We had an Atonement testimony meeting which was so special! The spirit was reallyreallyreally strong. I love the missionaries I serve with! I am so grateful they and other people around me have the light of Christ and His attributes, so I can learn a little about Him, through them. The Atonement is real, and it's for all of us!

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Alma chapter 7

Love you, thank you for being missionaries!

Sister Brewer

Stripes on stripes on stripes.

Sent from my iPad

Goodbye to You, and Oh, Hello Again

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 that in English? Mission Headquaters?

We had a good week with the two investigators. #1 is getting closer, but she still doesn't have the feeling that baptism is right yet. #2 did well in her second lesson, too. She is so sweet. She wants to believe in God but...can't yet? She will get there. She has a lot of faith!

Sister P wanted to go streeting for her last few dendō hours last night, so we did! It was almost refreshing to be rejected that many times in an hour again. Makes you feel like a MISSIONARY! Yeah!! We even met a sweet woman towards the end who exchanged phone numbers with us. Yay!

Friday was our last District Training Meeting with Elder Bills, who is also going home today. He always teaches a good thing through the spirit! He even bought the Shimai ice cream because it is near our birthdays. Hooray for the Nagano-Ueda District.

I'm grateful we could take the sacrament yesterday. The priesthood is a very special blessing. I'm  so happy the truth and authority has been restored. We truly have the tools to prepare daily for our return to our Heavenly Home. So letting everyone know about it is so important! Reading in the Book of Mormon about the Restoration is so powerful. I love Alma's words to his son Shiblon, who is such a great, humble example. 

"2 And now, my son, I trust that I shall have great joy in you, because of your steadiness and your faithfulness unto God; for as you have commenced in your youth to look to the Lord your God, even so I hope that you will continue in keeping his commandments; for blessed is he that endureth to the end." (Alma 38)

Book of Mormon people are very cool, I recommend highly getting to know them.

I almost forgot! Transfer calls came this Saturday! President Ishii called to announce that I am staying in Nagano! (Crowd cheers). And that my new companion is...Sister Rogers! (crowd says, wait what? But then begins to applaud, and eventually cheers). Yes, Sister Rogers and I will be reunited after a long seven weeks apart. I'm so excited! This is really rare to get a companion back. Yay!

Everyone, have a genki week!

Love,

Sister Brewer

The Nagano Four. I do peace sign for me AND my companion. #unity

Missed Trains and Knowledge Gained

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 went to the combini when she felt the meeting was getting a bit long and bought us all a tomato. Tomatoes and eggplants are major in season right now! We eat them every day. So then I swapped my Powerfuss Shimai for the Tyler Shimai! We did a koukan and had lots of fun streeting. We pulled our gaijin (foreigner) card approximately many many times, trying to speak comprehensive and spirit-led Japanese. We just...usually cannot understand what the people answer back to us, so we attempt to give the most general but energetic response we can think of together and encourage them strongly to visit Mormon.org where there are videos in actual Japanese. We also visited a long-time-no-see member, who lives about five minutes from the apartment. Thanks to my excellent navigation skills, we arrived there in just under thirty minutes! 

Speaking of which, the next afternoon we rode along to the eki where I put us on the wrong platform for the train back to Suwa. In good old Nagoya this would be no big deal, just hop on the next one. But here where the fresh crops highly outnumber the amount of humans, we needed to wait and hour and a half for the next train. So the other shimai scurried back to Suwa instead to make the appointment, and we got there around 8:00, for Suwa Sleepover party of four, where Tyler shimai so kindly lent me her pajamas. 

The next morning Papenfuss Shimai and I jumped on the 5:30 train (because waking up at 6:30 is for sissy missionaries) to catch our 10:00 appointment back in home base Nagano. We made it! She was a cool new investigator. A yoga teacher, who did yoga while we told her how to teach in English. And then she listened to our spiel on prayer, and said she would try that out kureru. Yay!

Then a most lovely Eikaiwa student had us over for a delicious dinner of rich, creamy cold potato soup and luscious bread. Perfect for the 40 。C weather! Yum! But then she seemed to  have forgotten she had done that and fed us a delicious dinner of rich, beautifully seasoned blue cheese pumpkin pasta. Next was the summer vegetable cheese casserole, for health.Then she was under the impression she was feeding a sumo army, so out came the "American-style" biggest-steak-I've-ever-seen and abundance of vegetables. And don't forget dessert! Two lovingly large scoops of scrumptious ice cream, complete with dressings of french toast, berries, apples and peaches. I had busted into every nook of the second breakfast/fourth dessert stomach I thought I carried with me always, but alas, I exploded completely and the poor woman and my companion had scrape pieces of me off the walls and ceiling.  Oishikatta!

The Saturday involved the famous Japanese festival with an awesome member bringing her friends to introduce to us because she is awesome! What an exciting bit of culture!

Sunday was a wonderful fast Sunday where I recieved an unexpectedly delicious fulfillment of spiritual light. What a wonderful day, to be a missionary in August 2015, in this blessed dispensation. Christ is the light. Looking to Him will bring us the joy we cannot fathom the portion of here in this earthly moment. He will lift you, help you, guide you, bless you. He loves you.

22 The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eyebe single, thy whole body shall be full of light. (3 Nephi 13)

29 Therefore, ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shallbe opened unto you; for he that asketh, receiveth; and untohim that knocketh, it shall be opened. (3 Nephi 27)

I love you. 

Be happy and safe, be missionaries. Let me know what I can do for you.

Sister Brewer