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