November, but a lot of the time it is hot! Definitely not looking
forward to summer, t thankfully I still have a while til then, and I
only have to survive the summer once in Japan.
Monday we taught one of the sweetest members ever! We found that she
ipexisted as we were going through our phone, and her email was
Jesus.baptsim, so we had to try and contact her. Turns out she is a
shut in, which is super sad, cause she is so young, but her faith is
super strong! And she reads the Book of Mormon in Japanese and English
side by side, which is a huge rarity in Japan, for non missionaries at
least, and she is definitely getting a lot out of it I think. Needless
to say, I think the fact that we happened to find her was a miracle,
and she was very happy to see us. It was pouring buckets of rain when
we were done, so she calls takata kyodai, and he and takata Shimai
came to our rescue and took us home. We had trained out there, since
the map said it was close to the eiki(train station), but the map
lied. I felt so bad for making them come out of their way, but they
seemed really happy to do it, and we just ended up strengthening our
relationship with them, which is awesome!
Tuesday we visited a recently returned less active who has been
extremely helpful with getting me to the hospital during this time,
and it was so much fun. Two hours worth of bike riding for it, but it
was a blast, and she loved it! We also met with our dendoshunnin
lesson, and mogid with her the new pamphlets I mentioned last week, I
think, it went really well, though I definitely need to get more
familiar with them in Japanese, so if I read a portion, I can let my
testimony show more, and not just stumble over the words.. They don't
have spaces in Japanese except after commas and periods, so it is
definitely a skill to be able to read Japanese well.
Wednesday, we taught inoue San again, but it didn't go to well. We
were able to help her, but she didn't want to talk about what we were
talking about, and just derailed us. Mills Shimai was doing her best,
but she got me by using hard Japanese, and then asking if I
understood, which I didn't, cause no one uses old Japanese except old
people,cal the struggle is real, and then she would explain it and go
off on another tangent... At least I have more words for my vocab
study now, right? But it was lots of fun. After that we did SKK,
because we were going to have way to much to do e rest of this week,
so we weren't going to be able to do it, and then Thursday happened.
Thursday every lesson that we had planned during the day canceled,
which was super sad, but there wasn't anything we could do... We did
go to the hospital, and everything is still going well with my hand,
it hasn't been as stiff lately in the mornings, so that is good. Most
mornings when I wake up is when my hand is stiffest, but it is getting
better. Still get to do lots of hand exercises though. So we really
got cracking on the less actives list during the time that we had, and
though we haven't been able to visit all of them yet, we are ready
with their addresses, and pictures of directions to their homes, so we
can work more effectively, and it was awesome. We also went with the
takatas and visited some less actives. It is crazy how much a simple
visit really does help, one of the sisters we visited has started
coming to church again, and it really is just super important to let
people know that you still care about them and love them.
Friday we had district meeting, and it was my first one in Japanese.
It is definitely a lot harder to learn in Japanese, but I did
understand a lot, but I don't know how much it helped me. I was
probably to focused on trying to understand what was going on, so I
only got some things from he spirit, but it felt good to be able to
understand, and I will figure it out soon I am sure. We also went to
sushi roll again, and I had some interesting sushi, pictures to follow
of course, just jot as many as last time. And then we had Kokans! It
was great. I was with Merrick Shimai, and it was her first kokan, so I
got her first ever kokan as an stl, which was cool. I definitely
learned a lot about myself, and we had a miracle.
We were housing, after trying and failing to visit one less active in
an area we had biked out to, and ended up ringing the doorbell of
another less-active, whom I didn't even know was in the area! I was
shocked, and I think she just really needed to talk, because that's
what she did. I did not understand a lot of it, but I think she
thought I did, because I just smiled, and made agreement noises as I
tried to understand. She is so sweet, but it is really sad. She
recently got offended by a member, and the saddest part is that she
knows she needs to change, and not let it get to her, but she doesn't
feel ready at this point. She asked us not to visit for a while, and
we won't, but we will still love her. We also taught Paula in Friday,
and my eyes were opened. She loves reading the Book of Mormon with us,
not because she doesn't try on her one, but because she has a hard
time understanding it most of the time, and being able to talk with us
about what is going on, and having us clarify the difficult English is
really helping her. She is still a bit stubborn about loving the Book
of Mormon being called another testament, but I think as she continues
to read, at will fade away. We also had our dendoshunnin meeting, and
though it had to be quick, and went really well, and so that was
awesome.
Saturday was crazy! I got mills Shimai back after the kokan, and then
we were off to takahashi to visit Imai San. She is doing better, but
is still struggling in the hospital. It is so sad. We shared a message
about God being our loving Heavenly Father, and invited her to pray to
feel gods love. It was sweet, she said she had never felt gods love
before, but then said maybe us coming and visiting her was a
manifestation of that love! She is so sweet, I really hope she gets
better soon! We also visited miyazato Shimai as a yonnin, the less
active who we visit with the takatas who recently started coming back
to church. I definitely messed up here. We were talking about snowball
fights for a little while, and then I got lost, and in two minutes the
subject had changed to people dying, and I did not realize this... So
I said ã�„ã�„ã�, (that's good), and everyone was shocked, until they
realized I had gotten lost, and then they just laughed, but it wasn't
as good as mills shimais mess up of the night. She said ������ (don't
have a bathroom, basically), but she wanted to say ������ (it's not
far), which really got everyone laughing, so it was all good. It is
definitely hard having a basically Japanese district leader (he's
Brazilian, but was raised in Japan), because I still struggle with the
language, and I don't think he fully understands that, like he gets
it, but he doesn't, you know? So that has been fun trying to deal with
that this past week.
Sunday we had the primary program, which was adorable. In this small
ward, all of the children had tons of parts, basically,can't they were
so cute! Definitely love primary programs! We also got to see the less
active I found while on kokan, she is still having a hard time, but i
think she is going to try and push through it, the church is a
hospital after all. We also had ward council, and we now have flyers
for the ward Christmas party, so we can start helping with that and
handing those out, they want lots of people there, 100, which in Japan
is a ton, so we are goi to go crazy, and make it happen... :) we also
went and visited Ono Shimai, and had fun with her and her daughter.
Her daughter decided to have us be her students at one point, and was
having us try to read kanji that she wrote, and that was hard! I
barely read prayer and such now, and she was thinking I would know
skull and such. I utilized my dictionary, which made her laugh,
because i would often get the stroke order wrong, so we have a better
kanse I with her now, and I could learn some probably not useful
Japanese words if I wanted to.
I've decide to reponderize Moses 6:34, because I didn't really have
time this past week to really think about it with all of the crazy
stuff going on, and I've also decided to start reporting in hat at the
end of the week, so I will let you know how that one goes in my next
letter, but I am thoroughly convinced that my missions them scripture
is amazing! I love it!
Japan is wonderful! I am definitely going to miss having a real
thanksgiving dinner, though. It you find a way to package the smell,
please send me that package, I'm sure it won't be very expensive,
smell is lit, right? It has rained most of the week here, of and on,
though Friday and Saturday were the real downpours,can well as Monday.
Friday it was coming down so hard, that sitting inside you almost
couldn't tell it was raining, because it was raining so hard and so
fast,chat it just looked liked very cloudy day, but the rain was
definitely coming down. Maybe one day we will get snow, but from what
I hear, it doesn't last long in Japan. Love and miss you tons! Hope
all is going well with you!
Love, Sister Makin
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