Yellow Corn

Hello everyone! Long time no email! These past three weeks have been insanely busy, so I have a lot I want to talk about. But due to time restraints and the fact that you have other things I'm sure you need to do, I'll stick to the highlights. 

First, let me explain this weeks title. We were driving to Yokkaichi last weekend and a motorcyclist passed us on the highway. Not very unusual in Japan. But this one was wearing a leather jacket that said "Yellow Corn" across the top and had two criss crossed corn cobs instead of guns, haha. The members driving us were very confused when we burst out laughing in the backseat, but sometimes it's the little things in life that keep you going. 

Next, a belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you all gorged yourselves on lots of turkey and potatoes for me ;) Since Thanksgiving is not really a holiday outside of America, we just went about our normal business as missionaries. But I look forward to eating lots of food next year 

Anyways, on to the other exciting adventures! Tomorrow is actually transfer day and I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone by! Six weeks literally flew by in the blink of an eye. I've seen so many miracles and I'm so excited for the transfer to come. That being said, it won't be without some changes. I will be staying in Tsu for another transfer, but Inouye Shimai has been transferred to Suwa. My new companion will be Watabe Shimai! We were actually in the MTC at the same time and came to Japan together, so it will be fun to see her again! Plus she's super fluent in Japanese, so that should make my life a lot easier ;)

So, probably the highlight of these past 3 weeks was Maegawa Shimai and Kendrian-kun got BAPTIZED!!!!!  It was a crazy experience and preparing involved a lot of kinda intense learning experiences, but it happened and that's what matters! I've been able to teach Maegawa Shimai this transfer and she gives me hope that Japanese people really can understand the gospel. She has such a strong testimony and it was so touching to see her enter the waters of baptism and take that first step to live with Heavenly Father again. I've also been teaching Kendrian since I came to Tsu. He's 8, Filipino, but grew up in Japan (so speaks Japanese), and his mom got baptized earlier this year. We were able to teach them together and even though he didn't fully understand everything, he knows about God and Jesus and he was excited for baptism. Children are so special and watching him get baptized was a humbling experience. I feel so blessed to have been a small part in them making a huge step towards eternal happiness. 

We have been extremely blessed lately actually. We've found quite a few promising investigators lately. First, there's Saori. Young and Japanese, in college and trying to figure out her purpose in life. She has her own ideas on religion and how things work, but we're working hard with her to help her understand. She's made such progress and I'm so excited to continue helping her. Next, Machiko. I randomly talked to her on the street and she didn't seem that interested, so I gave her a flyer for our English class in a last ditch attempt. We moved on not expecting much, but then she came to the class and we were able to start teaching her about the gospel as well. She's had a rough life, but she's been truly humbled and has been making good progress. She's so sweet! Next there's Pau-pau. She's a Filipino member's cousin who is only in Japan for a few months. We've been teaching her and it's SO DIFFERENT teaching someone with a Christian background, haha. We have moved super quickly and she's genuinely praying for an answer. It's truly amazing to see how genuine her desire to know the truth is. We are continually praying for her to find her answer. And finally, Tou. She's Chinese and was a referral from a Filipino member. She speaks some Japanese, but the language barrier is very real, haha. However, she recently had a baby and so really wants to find the true church. She has agreed to be baptized if she finds an answer and so we are going to slowly work with her to help her do so. But...yeah. The Lord has really been pouring out His blessings lately and I am so grateful!

This email is already really long, so I'll wrap up with a few interesting facts/ funny stories. 

We've been teaching a Japanese class to the Filipinos after church, but we recently had the branch president take over (he is a teacher for his job) and it's gone much better, haha. I do NOT know enough Japanese to teach it. Speaking of the branch president, we actually got a new one a couple weeks ago. Kawasaki Kaichou is our new one. He's actually Brazilian and served a mission in Japan. His wife is Bolivian and they have 3 kids. Nothing like a Brazilian being branch president of a branch comprised of Filipinos and Japanese people, haha. But it's actually been really good because he can speak Japanese and English, so can communicate with both sides. He's super nice and we are so excited to see the branch progress through this change.

Inouye Shimai was sick last week with something in her throat so we went to the doctor's office. They proceeded to tell her she had a cold, and then have her do some weird humidifier thing. Haha, I'll attach a picture, but know it was one of the most ridiculous doctor visits I've ever seen.

We had a spur of the moment district activity last Monday and it was super fun! We ate soba (the elders told us it was ramen, it was not...), saw a random shrine, and went to store called "Don Quixote" (like Walmart but weirder), haha. It made for some good laughs and on the bright side I walked away with a kapa (rainsuit in english, photo attached) so I will no longer get soaked during typhoons. Whoot!

So many other things have happened, but I'll wrap it up here for now. Thank you for all the emails, letters, and prayers  

愛しています！

アルマー姉妹
Sister Armour