This Is My Brother Son. Please Ask Him.

This past week has been one of the funnest on my mission so far and I could probably write for hours, but we actually are super busy today and so I will write as much as I can in the next twenty minutes.

First, to explain the title of this email. Every day for companionship study we quote the First Vision. (A passage of scripture from when the church was restored. It's so that we can quote it if needed in a lesson.) Normally we only do Japanese, but because I have a Japanese companion now (Nomura Shimai), we do it in English as well. The last line of the First Vision is when God gestures to Jesus Christ and says, "This is my beloved son. Hear Him." And it's really awesome, BUT my beautiful Japanese companion is still learning English and so she mixed it up and said "This is my brother son. Please ask him." Let's just say Cope Shimai and I still laugh about it today. Haha, Nomura Shimai is so cute and I love her English so much. She tries really hard and always talks in a low voice when she speaks English and it's the best thing in the world. I feel so blessed to have both an American companion and a Japanese companion. It's literally the best of both worlds, haha.

On top of that, my companions right now both love Pokemon as much as I do and it's probably one of the biggest blessings I've received on my mission ;) Haha, we discuss our favs over meals and always point out the pokemon stuff at stores when we go shopping. It definitely makes the hard days a lot more fun, haha.

Funny story: for valentines day the "Pocky" candy put out special versions with anime men on the fronts. I thought they were hilarious and so bought almost all of them. There was one I was missing and they had already discontinued them in most stores. But when we randomly stopped in a convenience store one day Nomura Shimai came running around the corner with one. And it just so happened to be the exact one I needed AND it was the last one in the store. #miraclesarereal Haha, it was a great bodning moment and also a sign that the Lord really does care about literally everything we care about no matter how silly it may seem. I seriously feel so blessed every day. (Also enjoy the pictures, they're so funny!)

On a more serious note, we had zone conference last week (super early, we were all surprised) and it was amazing. Literally everything they talked about was something that I needed to hear. The day before the conference I made some goals for things I wanted to improve this transfer and then they literally talked about ALL OF THEM during the conference. If I didn't think revelation was real before I definitely do now, haha. I'm so grateful for the wonderful leaders that we have in this mission and the wisdom they share. I'm grateful that I have so many chances to learn while here in Japan. Side note: the training we received from our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leader was all in English. Nomura Shimai (bless her heart) isn't that great at English. So I finally got to play translator and try to translate everything from the meeting into Japanese. It was...hard, haha. There's still a lot of words I don't know in Japanese and when you translate you don't have time to think because then you miss things, haha. It was a learning experience for sure, BUT I tried my best and I actually managed to translate most of it. The Zone Leaders and STL thanked me afterwards and praised my Japanese, but I can assure you it was not that impressive, haha. Most of the time I just summarized what was said anyways. Nevertheless it made me realize that--through the power of God--my Japanese is improving. There's no way I could've translated a few months ago. I'm excited to see how it will improve this transfer as well (since I have a Japanese companion I can ask her ALL THE QUESTIONS.)

On Friday night we had a Ping Pong Party at the church and it was awesome. So many people came! (People in Japan LOVE Ping Pong, haha) Even some people that we randomly invited at the train station came! We're hoping to do another one soon to introduce people to the church in a very chill, fun environment. And we get to play Ping Pong so that's a big bonus ;)

We met with a member last week and she taught us how to make paper flowers and it was incredible. I'll send pics. She's magical.

We as missionaries are now using tablets/ipads/facebook/LINE/other technical things, and so there's lots of technical questions and problems floating around. In order to help with these the mission has now called "Mission Techs" who are in charge of fixing all the problems that people have, haha. There's generally about one in each zone, but it depends on where the "mission techs" are assigned. Why am I telling you all these random facts? Well, because I was assigned as one of the "Mission Techs" and this transfer I'm over 2 zones (since one doesn't have a mission tech in it). So I will randomly be receiving phone calls from people with tech problems. I feel pretty confident about my computer skills, but any and all prayers would be appreciated ;) 

Okay, this email is already way too long but just know that my companions tried to make "okonomiyaki" last week and it went horribly wrong, haha. (See photos) Since we didn't have all the right ingrediants we ended up using pumpkin flakes and other random things. They were awful. Literally "garbage pancakes" haha. Laughed a lot though! I also gave another improptu talk in church, so that was fun! But Ichinomiya ward is amazing and I love them all so much already and I'm super excited for this transfer. 

Thanks for all the prayers/emails/love/support! You're the best!

愛しています!

アルマー姉妹
Sister Armour