When the spirit comes raining, it doesn't just rain revelation, it pours!

It sounds like you have had a good week! I'm happy that you confused
my companion with the birthday anniversary thing, because I got two
laughs from that story instead of just one, and I enjoy laughing. It
probably is just a dad thing, but I enjoy using it to, and seeing
people's reactions... I should figure out how to say that in Japanese.

This week has been so crazy and fast! I don't really like how fast
time is already going by in my mission, because everyone says that it
only gets faster, and at this point, I can't imagine that!

Monday we visited Paula, and we were sad to find out she hadn't been
reading. But we found out she wants us to give her specific homework,
so we did, and we will find out how she did today. She is still taking
everything super literally, so hopefully we can help her to learn how
to learn from the scriptures, and not just take literal meanings from
it.

Tuesday I went to the hospital again for rehabilitation, which is
getting easier, and faster... My hand is just as stubborn as the rest
of me some times, and I have to force it to do what I need to do so
that it will fully heal. We also taught eikaiwa, and it turned out
great. Something that had really been bugging myself and mills Shimai,
was that despite doing self introductions a couple of times, we had
been unable to learn all of our students names, mainly because they
said them so fast... So we came up with an ingenious idea. We taught
them about holidays, and then included birthdays, because birthdays
are your own personal holiday, right? So then we had them all practice
writing in English, by writing their name, birthday and favorite
season on the board all in English. And while they did that, I wrote
it all down, so we would be able to actually learn their names. Evil
plotting success! We then taught them two truths and a lie, and I went
first, and got everyone! I put: I'm a missionary, I don't like dogs
(because of traumatic childhood experiences, thou I out hate for my
eikaiwa students, because it is simpler for them to understand), and I
love peanut butter. For those of you who know me, you know which one
is a lie, but it was hilarious when I revealed the truth. Almost
everyone thought I had lied about dogs, and one of the students who is
a member and teaches English, said "are you American?" After i
revealed, which made me laugh.

Wednesday we went back up the mountain, to visit inoue San. And when
we got there, a guy was there selling medicine, and she introduced him
to what we were doing in Japan. He seemed interested, and we gave him
our contact info, but since he hasn't contacted us, we aren't sure if
he was just being a good salesman or not. But we had a good lesson
with inoue San, and it was funny, because she kept on complimenting
me. Told me I was always happy, and I had a great aura, and that I
really brought the spirit whenever I came, and called me an angel
several times. She is very sweet, but mills Shimai didn't get an
opportunity to straight out in Invite her to be baptized, because she
kept on interrupting us, including when I was about to hear testimony,
as I had just started it, but she know the church is true, she
believes the Book of Mormon is true, and she is even asking us to
teach friends and family, but she refuses to get baptized. We didn't
get to ask her straight out, but she told us an experience she had
with a previous missionary to make it clear she didn't want to get
baptized. I kind of got the feeling that she doesn't want to give up
her freedom... It is super sad, and mills Shimai and I both got some
revelation during stake conference this weekend, that if she does
refuse, we are going to have to drop her. It is sad, but she knows
everything, and us coming every week isn't going to help her if she
won't take that step right now.

Thursday we had a kokan! I was with Itabashi Shimai, and she helped me
check the prayer I had written for zone conference, and since she is
basically fluent in both English and Japanese, it was a huge help! And
we also went and visited less actives with the takatas. It was funny,
because some of them recognized me, and I talked a bunch with them,
and they talked with me, fully expecting me to understand, and the
wonderful thing was that I did for the most part. The last time we saw
these less actives was a month ago, back when I still had the cast,
and they remembered the sister with the borked hand, but most of them
didn't remember that it was me, my broken hand was more memorable then
my face, but that's ok. They remembered, and enjoyed our visit I
think.

Friday we had zone conference, and that was amazing! I loved learning
what my fellow missionaries had been learning from the Book of Mormon,
and also receiving counsel from Welch kaicho, Welch Shimai, and the
APs about being confident, focusing on the right this, and how the
doctrine of Christ is truly centered on love! It was an amazing
conference, the only hard part being praying to close the first
session, because I was super nervous, and I just prayed following the
spirit as best as I could. I guess I did a fairly good job, because
everyone said I did, but all I know was that it was a relief not to
have to pray during the afternoon session. I just really loved zone
conference!

And then Saturday and Sunday we had stake conference, and elder Choi
of the seventh came to reorganize our stake presidency. He is very
straightforward, and spoke in English with a translator, and it was
awesome! Often Japanese people use a round about way of speaking,
which becomes confusing, but he is Korean, and definitely didn't do
that. I learned a lot from that man, and also from the other speakers,
who spoke in Japanese, because even though they are politely round
about, which at times for me is hard to understand, they still bear
powerful testimony of what they know to be true, and teach the truths
of the gospel, and it is amazing! Stake conference on Sunday was in
Niimi, which is in my area, but about a two hour drive north of
Kurashiki, so we rode there with members. It was a long drive both
ways, but it was definitely worth it.

I learned a lot on my kokan about just trusting the lord, and
remembering that he has everything under control, and just being
positive and recognizing when I am improving. It was a very good
lesson. I also received tons of direction during zone and stake
conferences, and I am just trying to sort through it all so that I can
act on it at the moment, because revelation received, but not acted
upon, is wasted.

This week I chose 2 Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. I just really
love his scripture. Sometimes, as a missionary, sharing the gospel can
be scary. It is easy to worry about offending someone, or driving away
friends, but sharing the gospel is an act of love. If you reach out
and share with those around you, this wonderful blessing that we have
that has given us so much joy, you are giving them the opportunity to
experience that joy for themselves. That is why we have been counseled
over and over again, that every member is a missionary. This doesn't
mean that every member goes and serves a full time mission, but we all
contribute in the work. And the work never ends. God is preparing
people we just need to open our mouths and give them the opportunity
to hear the gospel, and receive the joy that comes from it. With love,
and with the aid of the power of God on our side, and also having the
knowledge that we have in our sound minds, we need not fear to go out
and share, all we need to do is do it! That was something that elder
Choi helped me see in his remarks, especially for after my mission.
Members should help the missionaries so much, and be so into finding
for the missionaries, that we don't have to go finding, and truly
effective member missionary work, working together, can begin.

I love you all, and miss you tons! I am loving learning the language
though, and realized last week that I can tease, though simply, in
Japanese now, and that has been lots of fun. My companion and I are
tryin to nihongo dake (just speak Japanese), and it has been super
helpful in showing me what I know, what I don't know, and how I can
improve! I am doing very well, and love hearing from everyone! Lots of
love!

Love, Sister Makin

Fall is amazing, fallen leaves are beautiful, it's the best season

So my title is a haiku I wrote at inoue sans house this past week. It
was originally in Japanese, which explains the simplicity, because I
used words I knew/ could look up. For all you Japanese speakers:

秋���� (Aki wa sugoi)
��葉��れ� (ochiba wa kirei)
一番時候 (ichiban jikou)

I love hearing about how the family is doing, and it is good to hear
that they are doing well. Sounds like you got to see almost everyone
this past week. I'm glad dad enjoyed his birthday anniversary so much,
and that he got the dinner that he wanted. I told Mills shimai about
his anniversary thing, and she was so confused as to why that was
funny, but I really enjoy it, it is hilarious, and it gets people
every time.

This week was fabulous. But I can't believe that pday is already here
again. These weeks are going by so fast, and I can't decide if I like
that or not. Japan is beautiful, and we are definitely into autumn,
though some days are hot still, but for the most, it is nice and cool,
just the kind of weather I like. Some days it's almost even cold, so I
am happy.

Monday after emailing, pday ended, and we went and visited Paula. We
only had a short time with her, but we followed up on the Book of
Mormon, and she has been reading. She had lots of questions, so we did
our best to answer them, unfortunately though, a lot of them were
about word choice in the Book of Mormon. She teaches English, and
never really turns the teacher off, so she was kind of analyzing the
Book of Mormon, but it is only literal meaningsthat she uses. It is
just kind of funny, we explain what they meant to the best of their
ability, and she seems to accept it, so whenever I am with her I just
have to be careful of the words that I use.

Tuesday the main thing hat happened was eikaiwa. I really enjoyed
eikaiwa. Mills shimai drew a picture that we then copied, and then we
taught family words. They actually didn't know some of these, so it
was awesome. I had just recently learned the words for nephew (甥
ー��:oi) and niece (姪ー��:mei), which turned out to be really helpful,
cause they didn't know one words. Then we used the picture, and had
them discuss what they saw in the picture in English. They did a
really good job of it, and tried so hard. I was able to kind of
explain the thing from last week, but teaching the why of English to
non English speakers is kind of hard.

Wednesday we went up the mountain, and I took the lead on the lesson.
We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ, using the tree of life
story. We related the iron rod, which is the word of God, to the
doctrine, and that this life is the path, and if we want to make it to
the tree and aorta i.e. Of the fruit, we need to choose the straight
and narrow path. However, due to the mists of darkness, if we don't
hold onto the iron rod, we will lose the paths, and not make it to our
destination. Inoue San is doing so well! She is such a sweetheart, and
knows so much, and has a lot of faith, though she doesn't think that
she does... Which is definitely our next step, helping her see that
she has faith.

We went to the hospital Wednesday and Friday this week, and my hand is
definitely getting better, I'm not quite to. A normal fist, and
completely straight either, it I'm a lot closer than I was, and I am
exercising my hand a lot, so I think that is helping. Wednesday we got
to fill out a survey for the hospital, and thankfully we had a member
there who could read all the kanji, tell us what it was asking, and
help us answer. Mills shimai did that, and I focused on my
appointment, and doing what the rehabilitation doctor said to do.
Friday we saw both doctors, and this time the main doctor didn't try
to force my hand very much, I think he saw the improvement, and knew I
got that I needed to get it back to normal, so he didn't need to push
it.

Funny thing, Sheri especially will probably think this is funny. My
rehabilitation doctor keeps telling me to relax, (I almost know that
word in Japanese now), and so I have to remind myself to relax the
muscles in my hand as he works on it. Almost every time I go, and I
don't even realize that I've tensed up.... It's funny, cause I would I
the same thing back home when getting a massage from Sheri. Apparently
I still haven't learned to relax, maybe I will one day.

Thursday we tried to visit some potential investigators and less
actives, but they were either busy, or not home. We also did SKK, and
I just love that experience, I learn so much from it. About who I am.
This week as we discussed each others strengths, we went to PMG, and
the Christlike attributes checklist, and picked two things that we
felt the other person did really well... It was really nice, and I
liked that way of doing it a lot!

Friday we had district meeting and the hospital, and during district
meeting I taught humility for the second time in this district... I
wasn't really sure what to teach, but I prepared, and then gave the
lesson, just relying on the spirit a bunch, and I guess it went well,
they seemed to enjoy it, I just felt a little all over the place
during that lesson.

Saturday we went to takahashi and had lunch with mitsuki and Haruna.
Haruna helped us out a bunch, because she was able to make small talk
that tied into the gospel really well, and talked about how much she
missed being a missionary. Hopefully we can help mitsuki, and she will
de elope interest in hearing the lessons again, but for now we just
see her every once and a while, and try to become her friend. We also
visited Imai San in the hospital. She fell this past week, and broke
some bones, but she is still fairly happy. She wasn't feeling very
well when we came by the hospital, so we were only with her for a
couple minutes and prayed with her, but I think it made her happier
that we stopped by. As we went into the hospital though, we were quite
nervous about finding her room. The nurses told us to go find the
nurse room on the third floor and ask them, so we went up to the third
floor, but we don't know how to read the kanji for nurses, so we
didn't know how we were going to find that, and then a small miracle
happened. Yamashida kyodai, a member of the bishopric, actually
happens to work at that hospital, and he arrived at the third floor
about the same time we did, and he spotted us. He figured we were
coming to visit Imai San, so he took us to her room, and we didn't
have to worry about finding it. E en though we weren't able to visit
for long, it was a blessing to not get lost in the hospital, even
though at one is smaller than the one we go to for my hand.

We also did more heart attacks on Saturday with the elders, and got
the bishops help in finding a house, because we didn't know where it
was. But it was a success, the funny thing was that Sunday, Yanai
shimai, one of the people we heart attacked, kept on apologizing that
we had to go out so far, and was really concerned about it, but it was
our pleasure.

Sunday I was asked to lead the music, and I wished I had had the words
big like you make them, because they were Japanese, I didn't know
them, and the positioning of the stand was awkward. They use a baton
in Japan, and it was just kind of weird, plus they were trying to tell
me something, but I couldn't understand... I often understand some
people and not others, it's probably because they use different
Japanese. More complicated or a different dialect. There are tons of
dialects in Japanese. It will be fun to try and just learn Japanese,
when I also have to learn the dialect of the area I am in. We also
visited some less actives on Sunday, but it was sad, we couldn't find
one, and the ones we found, are deaf, so they couldn't understand
anything we said... Don't really know how to help them at that point.

This weeks scriptures is: Proverbs 3:5-6 - Trust in the Lord with all
thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

I already love this scripture. I'm sure everyone recognizes it, but
just because it is well known, doesn't decrease its value. Sometimes
we forget to look to the lord, and just trust him. We want to know how
everything is going to all work out, not just that it is going to work
out. We struggle, because we are human I think, to just let go of our
own will, and trust in him and his timing. We need to let it go. He
truly does know what is best for us, and he can make more out of our
lives than we can. He knows all, in comparison, our own understanding,
which we have a tendency to lean on, is almost pitiful. We are given
specific trials that help us to grow, and often we don't know why. We
can choose to trust in the lord, and accept our trials and learn from
me, or we can lean on our own understanding, which often leads to
complaining, or in other words, murmuring. God is in everyone we can
and do do. He knows how we can improve, he know us, perfectly. When we
need guidance, ask, he wants to guide us. As we acknowledge the lords
influence in our lives, we can see things as they truly are, from a
more clear perspective. He is there, and he shall direct thy paths! He
knows what you need, and if you recognize that, openly and willingly
admitting your need for his guidance, he will guide you to and through
he things and experiences you need, no matter how difficult.

I love you all! You are amazing, and I am so blessed to be an eternal
family with you. You are all children of God! He loves you! Don't
forget it! Love and miss you!

Love, Sister Makin

Two is better than one!

Dear loved ones,
Funny thing about which brake is which.... I actually don't know,
everything happened so fast, that it was just instincts that kicked
in, and so I can't remember which one i squeezed, probably due to the
adrenaline, but I will definitely figure that out before I get back on
my bike again, cause I don't want any more accidents. I'm still not
allowed to ride bikes, and I'm not sure when it will be ok, we asked
at my last doctors appointment, and all the doctor said was soon....

It sounds like you had a fantastic week, and will seems to be
pampering you. That challah bread is delicious according to my memory.
I'm glad you get to enjoy it again.

The blanket looks beautiful! You did a really good job in it! Did you
have to start it a lot of times? I am sure it was a lot of fun to do
once you got away from the middle. Thank you for the pictures! They
are beautiful! And very realistic of my nieces and nephews.

This week was so amazing! Though I don't know how much I would
remember if I wasn't keeping a journal, because so much happens in
each day that it feels like a week most days, and time goes by so
quickly! I can hardly believe it is already another pday!

Monday we had a nice relaxing pday because some plans changed, so it
turned out to be a great day, and we tried to locate a potential
investigator after pday ended, but didn't succeed, so we went back on
Tuesday.

Tuesday we went to the hospital for hand rehabilitation. The doctor is
really good, and I can tell my hand is improving, especially since I
do the exercises he gives me, but slowly... I just want all my
strength back in my right hand, but I get to be patient. We also went
and contacted the person we tried to visit yesterday. Her name is
yajima, and she was busy, but she was really sad that she didn't have
time to talk with us. Apparently October is going to be really busy
for her, so we will go back and visit in November. We also had
eikaiwa, and we taught about adjectives and adverbs. It went fairly
well, and we have a new student, so that is awesome! We also played do
you know your neighbor, and that went well, and a lot better than last
time. After class people had questions, so we did our best to answer
them, but it is hard to explain why something is a certain way in
English, because they don't have that in Japanese. The sentence that
stumped me was 'we will get home before it is getting dark', mainly
because I'm already losing my English skill... At first my thought was
that's wrong, and I stuck with that, mainly, but then I also thought
that it could work... So yeah, I'm losing my ability to speak real
English... If anyone knows how to explain why that sentence is
incorrect, simply, please shoot me an email as soon as you can,
because I need to get back to him on that, and haven't had time to
think about it too much... And I'm pretty sure it isn't correct, but
they want to know why, so I have to try to remember that now. I laugh
at myself, but I'm sure I'll remember it one day when I really do need
it... I just don't need it much now, and we don't really use that kind
of phrasing in normal conversation anyway, which is probably why that
was the first to go.

Wednesday was awesome! Up the mountain, again, and we might be doing
even more of that soon. We were almost to inoue sans house, and met
her as she was cutting a neighbors hair. We were introduced, and the
neighbor told us to come visit her sometime, so we might have another
investigator up the mountain soon. Everything was very quick, so we
kind of forgot her name, but we will rectify that soon, it was a quick
meeting though, and right after we taught inoue San, and expounded on
what we taught last week, except we didn't really have to, because she
expounded on it herself. She is keeping her commitments, and right
before we were going to give her another commitment, she asked for
homework, which made that really easy. I had been nervous about it,
and mills shimai was going to do it, but she asked me, so I ended up
doing it, and it was just fine... Don't know why I was nervous.

We also visited Donna on Wednesday. And also did some follow up about
what we taught last week. We had looked up some Portuguese words for
her, so that helped her to understand better. She is so amazing! She
didn't keep all of her commitments, but she is keeping some of them,
and she is doing things on her own that we hadn't even asked her to do
yet. She is determined to follow the word of wisdom completely, and
only has one more addiction to overcome and she will be there. She is
so sweet, and just loves to have us over. We haven't met her husband
yet, and I don't know when we will, because he is very opposed, so
hopefully his heart will be softened.

Thursday we had our SKK, and that was a lot of fun. I love doing SKK
(weekly planning session/ shu keikaku kai), because I feel so
especially inspired during that time, and I get to plan how to best
help these people that I have come to love so much! After SKK, we went
with the takatas and visited less actives again. It is always amazing
to me how wonderful those who are less active are. One we visited this
week gave us bananas and goba... Not really sure what goba is, but I
will be trying it soon. And another gave us cookie dough and cake. It
is nice now that I don't have to explain my hand, but I still get to
talk with them, and just love them. After the takatas took us to eat
at a steak shop... It was so good, but at first I was nervous... They
bring the food out to you as it is cooking on little mini bbq things,
and then you get to eat it at whatever level of crookedness you
prefer. It works really well, and once I realized that's what was
happening, it was all good... And I enjoyed it.

Friday was pretty crazy. We had the hospital in the morning, as early
as we could get it, which wasn't as early as we had wanted to, but it
was the best we could do. Found out that full rehabilitation for my
hand is going to be about 6 months to a year in order for it to be
straight again like it used to be... I'm just grateful to have two
hands again high I can kind of use fully, because two is definitely
better than one. As soon as the hospital was over, the member dropped
us off at the eiki (train station), and we hurried to zone conference
as fast as we could. We were late, but we were able to make it for the
last portion, and the testimony meeting, and just that portion was
amazing. I wish Thursdays worked for my doctors, but that is their day
off, so we just have to make things work with our schedule, but we are
going to start doing it on Wednesdays if we can. After zone meeting,
we headed back to kurashiki, and then we went to a bbq, because one of
the chorotachi so investigators wanted to meet us. It was lots of fun,
and the meat was really good. Japanese people are all just very
generous, and always want to give.

And now we are at my favorite part of the week! General conference
weekend! After the Saturday sessions, we had a sports night, which was
lots of fun. I played volleyball one handed, keeping my right hand
safe, and I was actually able to hit the ball pretty well, and scored
a couple of times for my team, but I did sit out for dodgeball... That
ones a little more dangerous.

But conference! It was amazing! I took a moment to write down
questions that I had before conference, and then listened. It was
amazing, because I received the answers to those questions, and also
the answers to questions I didn't even think to write down or ask. I
was taking notes as fast as I could, switching between my left and
right hands, which works really well with spiral bound notebooks. I
could spend an entire email just talking about how wonderful
conference was, but you know how wonderful it was, so there is no
need. I am just so grateful that we get two days of conference and two
sessions each day, because two is definitely better than one. I
especially loved the talks of President Monson, Jeffrey R. Holland,
President Nelson, and Devin G. Durrant. I am taking the invitation of
brother durrant, and will include my scripture in my weekly email.

Today on my pday, the Okayama stake had an Aki matsuri (fall
festival), so we went, and it was lots of fun. Good food, games, and a
talent show. It was clear up in tottori though, so we had to get
permission, since that is out of our area, and we had to travel a lot,
but it was definitely worth it. I got to try takayaki, which is a
fried ball with octopus in the middle. It actually was pretty good.
But very hot. I'm emailing so late because of that, but because of the
time difference, it doesn't really affect anything for those in
America.

This week is Enos 1:4, which reads: "And my soul hungered; and I
kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer
and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry
unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high
that it reached the heavens."

Just I couple thoughts: his soul hungered, he not only desired to
communicate with his maker, and ask forgiveness for the mistakes he
had made, his soul hungered for it, as we often hunger physically. And
then, he did not hesitate, but kneeled down right then, and asked for
the forgiveness he so desired. How often do we hesitate to ask for
forgiveness or aid, because we are afraid, because we convince
ourselves that we have done to many bad things for too long. But we
can and will receive the forgiveness we desire, we just have to set
our pride aside, and humbly ask. It does not mean that it will be
easy, enos prayed all day and all night, but he received that which he
desired. Also, God never grows weary of us crying unto him. He wants
us to pray always, he never will be dismayed if we pray all the time,
rather he is dismayed when we do not pray at all, and ask for his
help. He loves us! He wants to hear from us, every day, all day in
everything we do. And he does hear and answer our prayers, the voice
of enos reached the heavens! It did not reach the clouds, it reached
the heavens. God hears and answers our prayers, and he listens to us,
even, and especially as we cry out in pain from our trials our
mistakes. He is there, and he loves each and everyone of us.

I hope you have all taken this challenge as well, and if not I would
encourage you to do so. I would love to hear what scriptures you are
ponderizing, and that way we can all learn together.

I love you, and miss you, but I am happy here in this beautiful land
of Japan, and the countryside really is beautiful. I wish you the
best! Love you!
Love, Sister Makin

Another crazy, busy, but oh so wonderful week in Japan.

Dear family,

I am so excited for general conference! I know all of you have already
seen it, but since I haven't, I am still super excited! I do get to
watch all the sessions, both Saturday and Sunday, so that will be a
blast, but I only have to wait an hour between sessions, which is
definitely nice.

New hand news! I no longer have pins in my hand, and I don't even
have to where a wrap or anything anymore! My hand is free, and it is
definitely a weird feeling. I am still being careful, and just working
on getting the strength back in my hand, because it is really weak...
I can't even really make a fist at the moment, so we will still be
walking for a little while until I have enough strength to squeeze a
brake. Even if I wanted to get back on my bike immediately, my
companion wouldn't let me, which is a good thing.
My hand still doesn't look very pretty, but it does look better I
think, not as much dead dry skin, so it should be great by the end,
and I don't think I will get any scars really, so that is fun. By the
way, I DID NOT look as the pulled the pins out, but it didn't hurt, so
it was all good. They didn't numb it or anything, they just grabbed
them and pulled them out quickly, so that was fast.

My bike did not get hurt, which is good. The way I landed, I don't
think my bike even really hit the ground, because I landed with it on
top of me, so it is fine.

I've heard about the RMTC, good to hear that they enjoyed it.

I have a new nephew!! He is adorable, Michelle sent me a picture at
some point last week, though I don't exactly remember the day, but he
is adorable. It is funny that you don't know what to call him, Quade
or Alex. But I would love more pictures, of all my family. Could you
send some, mom? And be sure to include one of your self, because you
are a very important part of my family.

I remember my last session at the Provo temple before going to Japan,
there wasn't a married couple, so they called on just a brother and a
sister, but it was interesting.

It sounds like everyone is having a wonderful week, and that Michelle
and Alex mcquade are doing better, and I'm sure they will get even
better as time goes on.

That is awesome that will could go to the priesthood session, it is
really amazing. Did you watch the womans session? If not, you
definitely should, I got to watch it Saturday, and it was powerful!
The spirit was very strong, and I learned a lot, especially from
president uchtdorfs parable. The keys to happiness are faith, hope,
and especially love. It was just amazing.

This has been a wonderful week! I love kurashiki more and more as each
week goes by, and I am just so excited to work harder once I can ride
a bike again, which will be very soon!

We had a very relaxing pday Monday, and I got to work a bunch on the
music for our musical number, and I am just so excited, I literally
have ideas going crazy in my brain, but I can shut it off, which is
definitely a good thing.

Tuesday, we had one of the best eikaiwas ever! We reviewed a lot of
what we had been teaching of late, and then we got into groups, and
they practiced speaking English to us missionaries, about those
subjects, and we pretended we didn't speak English, which was very
hard for the older missionaries, because they wanted to throw in
Japanese everywhere like they normally do. It was also hard for me,
not to not speak Japanese, but to not understand, because I really did
understand quite a bit when they tried to figure out how yo say
something in English, which they naturally did in Japanese. It went
really well! They really got into it, and it proved to all of us how
good our students are getting. They do use katakana English, but they
are definitely understandable, and work very hard to learn English,
and they also help us learn Japanese, so it is really just awesome.

Wednesday was probably my favorite day of the week. We were completely
booked, and that is so much preferable, though we only had to lessons.
We went up the mountain again, and visited inoue San, and had a great
lesson with her, though I was shocked to find out that over the years
she has met with at least 100 missionaries, and she has meijis for all
of them! Kind of crazy, but I hope we can end the eternal investigator
syndrome for her at least.

After inoue San, we went and visited Donna, who lives another hour
away, in the opposite direction of our apartment, so there was
definitely a lot of travel today, but it was so worth it! She is just
amazing! And we had a wonderful lesson about the plan of salvation,
and readily accepted it, and we gave her a Book of Mormon, and
committed her to read it, and she promised that she would. She also
fixed us some berry smoothies from scratch, which were very delicious,
reminded me of your smoothies, mom, and made me miss them, but that's
ok, because I can make smoothies myself, right? When I can afford
fruit at least, because it is expensive.

We then went to institute, and had a wonderful lesson about the book
of remembrance, I learned some stuff, despite it being in Japanese, so
that was awesome. It is great to have that extra listening practice.

Thursday was also awesome. We met a potential investigator, and the
elders went with us, cause he is a man, and had lunch, and the elders
were on exchange, and it turned out that one of the guys friends who
was there was another elders former investigator that they had lost
because he moved, and so they were able to reconnect him, which is
awesome.

We also got to meet with an amazing member, and really get to know
her, and build a strong relationship. She speaks Portuguese, English,
and Japanese, all basically fluently, so she will probably help us
with Donna, because sometimes it would be helpful to know a word in
Portuguese for her understanding.

Friday we did our SKK, and had our dendoshunnin meeting, and that was
wonderful. We felt really guided by the spirit, and just everything
was great. Sometimes I feel like I can't think of what I can do to
help my investigators, or some are just way harder, but that wasn't
the case this week, we were planning very specifically, and I am just
so much more excited to help these people, they really are wonderful.

Saturday we met with Paula again, and it was really good. She read the
introduction to the Book of Mormon, but not anything else. When we
were making a return appointment, the day that was going to work out
the 'best', since we are going to be really busy, was Sunday, and she
said that we could eat lunch together. My companion and I knew that
she would expect us to pay, because the food is how they make a
living, so we explained about the sabbath day, and she tried to
convince us to break it. We held firm though, and moved the
appointment to another day... We are going to have to help her respect
that, but it was hard in the moment, just because I was kind of
shocked that she would do that, but I'm very grateful that I stayed
firm, and hopefully we can help her change her mind about that.

The highlight of Saturday was watching the women's session, as I
mentioned before, it was awesome, and I felt very inspired. Earlier I
took the time to write down questions that I had, and I found some of
the answers, and I know that the rest will come as I watch the rest of
conference this weekend.

I love you all, and I hope that you are doing well! I am still loving
it here in Japan, and I am happy that I made the decision I did to
serve the lord, it truly is hard, but a wonderful blessing! Love you!

Love, Sister Makin