Cancellations galore. What happened to meeting investigators?

Dear family,

This week has been a rough week, but for some reason I have strangely loved a lot of it, so that is ok. Still working hard.

Monday we met our recent convert, Tomoko, and she is doing well. She has forgotten a lot in the time she was off the map. We couldn't get in contact with her for about four months, but hopefully we can now restart AB lessons, and get her back on track. She still loves the church, so that is good. 

Tuesday we had Matsumoto San cancel on us, and all of the other people we tried to visit weren't in. On top of that it started pouring rain while we were out, and we were not prepared, so we got really drenched. It was raining so hard that as we were talking to some junior high students, I felt tears fall, because all the moisture just made it happen I guess. The junior high students were cute. They were on a field trip to Kyoto, and had to talk to some gaijin, foreigners, in English. They were really happy when we stopped them, it made it easier for them, I'm sure.

Wednesday we had our new eikaiwa and gospel investigator cancel on us. She has something come up, so she couldn't meet, but she still wants to meet, so that will probably happen next week. Instead, we went and chirashi kubarid eikaiwa, and after doing that, we met the sweetest girl, who gave us her phone number, and we met her again today, but since I'm short on time, you will have to wait till next week to hear about that. We also visited tanaka Shimai, who has a cute less active currently staying with her. We ended up helping the less active with her homework a bit, which was way weird. It was English homework, so we could actually understand, I'm still not fluent in kanji. But that was a lot of fun, and then we taught eikaiwa. This week we went basic, and taught about verbs, and then they had questions, so we ended up teaching a,an, and the. They seemed to understand our explanation very well.

Thursday we didn't have any appointments, but we went down to chiekos again, and had a great lesson with her. She had just gotten home from the hospital, so our timing was great. She has a great desire to learn. We don't know yet if she wants to act on what she learns, but she has really good questions, and the gospel has the answers which is great. That night, we did SKK, and it was great. We were super focused, and I think it was in part, because we only had so much time before planning. I prefer getting SKK done at night now. 

Friday we had district meeting, and we talked mainly about eternal perspectives, and simplifying our language. I have since realized how much I use Japanese filler words, and it is driving me crazy. I didn't like them in English, and I've decided I don't like them in Japanese either. I just need to break the habit of using them. It is harder, since it is almost a natural part of my Japanese now, but I will overcome. I had been thinking a lot about eternal perspectives before the district meeting, and I am definitely working on that. We had a lot of cancellations this week, including last Sunday, but they led to miracles, and that is ok. It is all part of a bigger picture, and though sometimes it is hard, it is good for me. We also visited nakamura Shimai, and she was really happy to see us, and when we asked if there was anything we could do to help, she said we could help pull her weeds, she was reluctant to ask, but we were very happy to help, and had been praying for such an opportunity. Ayako Shimai also canceled on us today, but we were still able to talk with her over the phone, and share the message we had planned. She is struggling to see anything good in her life, and it makes her really sad, though I think she could try a bit harder. She really is very blessed, as are all of us, but she doesn't see it. I need to take a better look at all I receive, I know that. 

Saturday we also didn't have any appointments, so we went finding. I loved it. It turned out to be basically a full day of finding, even though that wasn't what we had planned, but it was so fun. Almost everyone we talked to was at least willing to listen, and some were interested. We didn't get any phone numbers this time, but we did have a cool experience. We stopped to look at a tree that my companion was sure was famous, and a girl was passing by. We said hello, and then she came over to us, and we had a great discussion. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon, and even though she decided not to right before she gave us her number, I think she will read the Book of Mormon, and she has our number, so who knows what will happen. We also had ping pong night, and not very many people came, but we had some recent converts there, so that was great. 

Sunday was such a hard day, but I loved it. Isn't that weird? Miyu didn't get her homework done, so she cancelled on coming to church, which was just hard. Regine was going to come to church, but she decided to go to the matsuri instead, even though it was after church. Ah well. We also got that lesson canceled for tonight, because she was busy. I don't know if we will be able to help her. But church was great. During Sunday school, my companion and I split with different members between the Japanese and English classes, and I went to the Japanese. I loved it. Lately I have been translating for hazel Shimai, and even though I am happy to do it, it makes it a lot harder for me to really understand what is going on. But since I didn't have to translate, I could just enjoy the class, and then when I was asked a question, I could answer without having to switch my brain again. We went out to try and visit Chieko, but never made it there, because we stopped so many people as we were riding our bikes, and some of those lessons were way good. We had to head back, because we ran out of time, and had to get to the mizoguchis. There were a ton of people there this week, and it was a lot of fun, but crazy. We taught about gratitude, which is something that I think we could all think a bit more about. We used a quote from Dieter f. Uchtdorf's April  2014 conference address, Grateful in any Circumstance: "How blessed we are if we recognize God’s handiwork in the marvelous tapestry of life. Gratitude to our Father in Heaven broadens our perception and clears our vision. It inspires humility and fosters empathy toward our fellowmen and all of God’s creation. Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christlike attributes! A thankful heart is the parent of all virtues."

I truly testify that gratefulness really brings us he most happiness we can receive, even in the midst of the hardest trials. I love you all! Have a wonderful week! I love and miss you! 

Love, Sister Makin