Dear family,
This week was so much fun, and I now know how to make paper cranes...
More details as this email goes.
So Monday we had youth FHE again, and we played more card games, and
then finished with the Mormon message gods greatest creation... They
don't have it in Japanese, but all the people who came this week could
speak English, so we went for it, and then I got to explain it in
Japanese, because the English was pretty complicated to understand,
and I don't know how it happened, but I was able to do it! And it made
sense, I love when that happens. First we had had them make some
origami, which was a cool activity, and then we tied it into the
video. It was an awesome FHE. Though we are moving it to Tuesday's
from now on, so not really FHE anymore.
Tuesday we used paper cranes to contact people. It actually works,
kind of. It is a good ice breaker, but we are still struggling to keep
a conversation going, and to tie cranes to the gospel, we have an ok
connection, but it made lots of people smile, and made some people's
days, so that is all that is really important. But it was a lot of
fun. We also taught a less active, who isn't really all that less
active anymore, she just loves meeting with the missionaries, and
needs some support. And then we went to the yoshioka's for dinner, and
it was so good! Lots of food, but delicious. Yoshioka kyodai makes
kimonos, the really expensive hand painted kind, but they are
beautiful! We had to book it back home though, because it took too
long, and we ended up being late, but we turned a normally hour and a
half bike ride into about 40 minutes, and we were safe, so it was all
good!
Wednesday we taught inoue, and Itatani kyodai came as a member present
for the lesson. It was pretty good, we taught the entire plan of
salvation, but she is old, her less active friend who is always the
with her is old, and they just want to talk about anything and
everything, so it was hard to keep the conversation on track, but we
managed fairly well, and Itatani kyodai helped, since he actually
fully understood the Japanese. And we also had eikaiwa, with a new
student whom the elders met, he had really good English, and we played
pictuonary with them, which was lots of fun.
Thursday we had a four hour lesson. We did some housing and crane
contacting first, and then we visited our recent convert with the
elders. She wanted a blessing, though she didn't mention it until the
elders had to leave for another appointment, so they ended up coming
back after that, and we taught her about missionary work, patriarchal
blessings, the temple and a lot of other things during that time. It
was such a long lesson, but she loves speaking in English, and is
actually pretty good at it, so it wasn't that bad... Though it just
sucked up our day!
Friday we had district meeting, which was sooo good! And I realized I
need to be using PMG so much more than I have been. And we also did
SKK, and called and made some appointments, and checked on some people
that we haven't been able to meet recently. Sadly that is the case
with almost all of our investigators. They have been so busy because
of Christmas and New Years, and New Years so still going on. In Japan
it is the entire month that they celebrate, only the first few days
are actual holidays, but there are more activities and things
throughout the entire month, it is crazy!
Saturday we went to the relief society activity, a mochi tsuki, rice
cake making, which was fun, but not the traditional way of doing it.
But we still had fun, and then we made more cranes as we strengthened
the same less active we met earlier in the week, and also our recent
convert. Oswald Shimai, my companion, hasn't been feeling too well, so
she wasn't up for much more, and it was a good use of our time since
that was the case. We also had ping pong activity that night, and the
building was packed, because the stake high priests were also doing an
activity, and so were the young women, but it was ok, we made it work.
The high priests were talking about how to work with the missionaries
better, and from what we heard, it was a really good meeting.
Sunday we had to meals with members, the first was for lunch, and it
was the entire ward, having a luncheon at the church, there was so
much food, and it was so good, they had something similar to your
Danish dessert mom, just without the fruit, and the crust wasn't as
good. But it was still good, and then we hiked up the hill again to
visit the misoguchis, that was definitely a workout, it was so cold
outside, but I was so hot by the time we got up there. And we taught
them about reading the Book of Mormon with a purpose, or with a
question, and that when we do so, we invite the spirit, and will
receive an answer to our question. I know that that is true!
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary, and to be
serving the lord. I know that he protects his missionaries, I have
seen it all the time. I had another small bike accident coming home
last night, because it was slippery, and had just started raining, but
I was able to land so much better this time, slash mainly jump off my
bike, and then hop right back up, and catch up to my companion who
didn't see it happen. I am 99% fine, just scraped my knee a bit, but I
know that as we do our best to serve others, the lord will look after
the things that worry us. We are so blessed, each and everyone of us,
and the only thing we need to do is look for it, and we will not only
see the blessings, but we will see the love of the lord in our daily
lives.
I love you and miss all of you, and hope you are all doing well!
Love, Sister Makin
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