I almost wish I never have to get on a train again.

Dear family and friends,

So in case you didn't know, Japan has a train system, that goes
everywhere, and anywhere, and is really convenient. That is how lots
of people travel, since it is pretty cheap, and having a car is not.
This week, we were on a train almost every day, and though I love that
they have the trains, dendo took a hit because of it. But we still had
a lot of fun.

Monday was pday, and we went to yoga again, and it was so much fun. I
apparently looked a lot more comfortable this week, probably cause I
decided that I just didn't care if I did it right/ couldn't do it
right. That night we tried to set up appointments with members to no
avail, but we were able to get our service for Friday figured out. We
had some service planned, but the members husband did it before we
could, so that got canceled.

Tuesday I had a kokan, and it was a lot of fun. It was hard, because
that was when I started to realize I was pretty stressed, but we had a
great day of dendo. Taught investigators, members, less actives, and
finished up with eikaiwa. It was a lot of fun, and definitely good to
see little miracles. Like one twelve year old girl we met, she showed
us where she lives, gave us a referral, and is planning oncoming to
church soon. It was Crazy!

Wednesday we came back from Akashi, and since we had still been on our
kokan, we didn't get a chance to plan, which I did not like. Newly
strengthened testimony of the importance of planning! But we were able
to visit yanagihara Shimai with the other sisters, borrowing the
elders bikes, cause there isn't a bike shop in our area, so the new
sister hasn't gotten one yet, but that was a lot of fun. Yanagihara is
super sweet, and she was able to come to church this past week, and we
are working with the ward to get the sacrament to her.

Thursday we found a new investigator. She lives right next to Senke
Shimai, and since we got there early, we did some housing, and she was
interested! Senke Shimai was shocked to hear that, but it was way
cool. Had a great meeting with Senke Shimai, and then went on a train
to the miyakes. They picked us up at the eki, and we also had a great
meeting with them. The members in this branch seriously have dendo
Fire, and it is so much fun to work with them. Unfortunately they
don't know our investigators, cause we are still working on having
investigators, but they are so willing to help, and work a lot with
the other missionaries.

Friday we went up to fukuchiyama for district meeting, and had a great
meeting, our district meetings are now supposed to be only Japanese,
and it is cool. Brings a special spirit, because we are all striving
to understand eachother, though the nihonjin don't have a problem. We
then went to the place that Aoba Kyodai works and cleaned out their
gutters or them. It looks a lot better now, and we proved to them that
Shimai can do hard things too, and so that was a lot of fun. I also
got to try my hand at pottery, and the boss offered me a job. He was
even more shocked when he found out it was my first time. That night
we taught eikaiwa in sasayama, and that sasayama is doing way well,
almost every week there are new students, and most of them are or are
becoming investigators. It is way good. And the member who runs it is
also really sweet, and has started feeding us before every eikaiwa.

Saturday we went back up to fukuchiyama, and had interviews with Welch
Kaicho. It was amazing. I don't know how Welch Kaicho does it, but he
knows all his missionaries so well, and is able to help us learn what
we need, even when we don't know what that is. He seriously gave me
exactly what I needed, and I was so grateful. Came back to doing SKK.
Hadn't had a chance yet this week, so we did it then, and inished it
Sunday.

Sunday was good. I was way tired, but right before I could drift off,
and lose the battle to sleep, whatever member was talking would have a
powerhouse testimony, that just kind of shook me awake. After church,
we had a long talk with murata Kyodai about how we can help his
daughter who isn't coming currently, and learned a lot from that
experience. The rest of that day, we did SKK, and studied. I like
Sunday's when we don't have to do SKK, so we are going to change that
this week.

A thought I wanted to share from my interview. What is the atonement
for? Our sins? Our weaknesses? Of course. Through the atonement, we
can overcome all of these things, but is at really all the atonement
is for? Isn't it also for our strengths? If we are not careful, the
things that are our strengths can be one weaknesses, either by not
using them, or by not using them correctly. In order for us to return
to our Heavenly Father, we need to now only be getting rid of our sins
and weaknesses, but strengthening our strengths. Which do you think
takes longer?

Just some food for thought. I definitely learned alot this week from
Welch Kaicho, and my companion. I have started to realize that
admitting your weaknesses and when you need help is. Strength, one
that I am working on developing, because it has been a weakness of
mine. I love you all, I miss you, and I hope you are striving to use
the atonement every day of your lives, for we all need it. Love you!

Love, Sister Makin

Malo e Lelei! 'oko ou fiema'u 'aisikilimi!

Dear family and friends,

This week has been crazy, and way unexpected. Transfer calls came
Monday night, and workman Shimai transferred away, and went to
Takatsuki. And my new companion just came from Takatsuki. Her name is
Fa'aumu Shimai, and she is from Tonga. Which explains  the title of
this email. It means hello! I want ice cream. We have a lot of fun
together, and she is always making me laugh, and I guess I am doing
the same.

Monday we found out about transfers, had a lesson with Fukuyama over
the phone, and worked on some of the online training. Fukuyama has a
desire to learn, but she is just super busy working two or three jobs,
but we had a good lesson over the phone with her about the Book of
Mormon. That was when we found out what was happening with transfers,
and we were both super shocked, but I had kind of been feeling like
something was going to change.

Tuesday we went and visited Yanagihara Shimai, and that was an amazing
lesson. She is super sad all the time, and doesn't believe that God
could love her, or that she could feel the spirit. I felt the spirit
take over in a way, and I testified of gods love for her, that she can
always feel the spirit, she has that right, and that the atonement has
power to help her. My sweet trainee workman Shimai really just drove
that message home with her sweet, simple powerful Japanese. It was an
amazing lesson. We then visited the takeuchis again, and they gave us
watermelon. It was so good, and they are a way sweet couple. Ended
that night with eikaiwa, and workman Shimai is just so awesome! I love
her!

Wednesday we went to the ryoujin home, and did some dog therapy with
them. I'm sure you all know how much I loved that one, but it wasn't
too bad, and most of the time the dogs were fairly calm. I'm just glad
I got over that fear earlier. I'm reminded of one of my companions,
she would always say I love dogs for Jesus, and then go tell someone
there dog was cute. Great motivation. The rest of that day, we got
workman Shimai ready to transfer.

Thursday was transfers, and it was a good thing they arranged it the
way they did. Workman Shimai and I went to ibaraki together, and then
switched companions, but we were utterly lost for about an hour,
because we were both at different train stations, but luckily we all
had phones, so we got it figured out, and then I came back to
Nishiwaki with Fa'aumu Shimai. We taught Okura san that night with
inoue Kyodai, and her interest is strong, she is just a little busy,
but we really want to teach her more, and also her mom. Inoue Kyodai
was one of the best dosekis ever, he was just bold and loving, and it
was so good.

Friday we visited Fukui Shimai, and talked with her, which was a lot
of fun, and we were also able to make it to eikaiwa in sasayama, which
was a blast. Taught some lessons on the train, and that was just a lot
of fun. Sasayama is a great place, wish it was possible to go there
more often than we do.

Saturday we taught tsubaki lee, mizuhos daughter, and she was super
sweet. Not very talkative, but we were both new. We should've prepared
better for that lesson, but I was just so unsure what to expect, and
how to do it, because we weren't sure if mizuho would be in or out of
the lesson. Guess we just need to prepare for both situations. We also
started SKK.

Sunday we saw a great miracle. The murata so daughter, Haruka, who is
currently way less active decided out of the blue that she wanted to
go to church, and so I was able to meet her and build some kankei. She
was super sweet, and it was a surprise even for her parents. Just
shows what a great miracle that was. We also had ward council, and
finished SKK, so we didn't have music opportunity to get out and
dendo, but we will be changing that. I'm excited for this week, it
will be great, but as always no spoilers. Can't do that! Love you!

Love, Sister Makin

My new companion. She is funny.

So much I don't even know what!

Dear family and friends,

This week has been such a great week, and so much has happened. I
don't even know what to mail about cause there is so much, and my
focus is gone. Transfers are soon, and the other sisters in Nishiwaki
are becoming trainers, but still don't know what's happening with us.

Monday we went to himeji, and it was so much fun! The castle was
beautiful. That night we visited a less active, takahashi Shimai, and
that Sunday she came to church! It was a way great meeting with her,
plus on the way we met a sweet couple, that told us where they live.

Tuesday we met yanagihara Shimai, a less active who lives in a
hospital. She is super sweet, and has a strong testimony, but just
can't come to church very often. She's physically healthy, but has to
be in a hospital. We really want to meet with her, and help her out,
and members took us this time, so now it is ok. We then visited
Takeuchi fuufu, the grandparents, and they invited a friend over, and
told us to teach her about God. It was way awesome, she had questions,
and was way awesome! We are excited to be working with her more, her
name, also Takeuchi.

Wednesday we had a kokan in Akashi again, and I had two meals of
sushi. It is a good thing that I like sushi. But saijo Shimai cannot
have rice, and so at one of the meals I had to eat her rice for her, I
did it, but that was an adventure. I also ended up dancing with one of
their investigators, trying to help her open up, and it kind of
worked. But that kokan was a lot of fun.

Thursday I saw a miracle. We missed the train we were supposed to get
on, which meant we had to wait an hour and a half to get back to
Nishiwaki, which made us late for our luncheon with tachibana Shimai,
but I was able to talk to a lady on the train, who started out with no
interest, but then her interest grew as we just talked. The miracle?
She normally drives, but just randomly decided to talk the train that
day, and since we were late, I got to meet her. It was amazing! We
then had an awesome lunch with tachibana Shimai and that night visited
the komurasaki family. We got lost, because we went to her less active
daughters house without knowing it, but we eventually made it there,
and had a good time with komurasaki Shimai, she is the only member
besides her daughters, who are currently less active. Today was
tanabata, the star festival, and lots of people were celebrating, kind
of.

Friday we went up to fukuchiyama for ztm, and it was amazing! Super
powerful, and full of the spirit. Our zone leaders made a video, about
rising together as a zone and a mission to see miracles, it was such a
good zone meeting. Then we went to sasayama and met with Aoba Shimai,
and tied knitting into the gospel in an analogy. It was lots of fun,
and then we taught eikaiwa. After eikaiwa we finally had time to eat,
but not much, just stopped at a conveni in the eki, but we at least
got more than breakfast that day. :)

Saturday our plans got all canceled, so we did SKK, because we hadn't
been able to get to it before, that turned out pretty well. That night
we had music night, and I played fur Elise on the organ, I wouldn't
recommend it, I had to use both keyboards, and switch the octaves on
it... It was a struggle, but I did it. It was a way fun music night.

Sunday we had church, and it was way good. We go to he youth Sunday
school class, and Aoba Kyodai includes us in the lesson. That night we
visited the himis, and they invited their friend mike. I had a great
time just fully testifying, and just saying what I feel. He was way
open, and asked a lot of questions. It was such a great time.

Sorry for an all over the place email, but I can't focus, and there
was so much this week! Love the mission, and love the gospel! Have a
great week!

Love, Sister Makin

Success in meeting people!

Dear Family and friends,

This week has been a great week, we were finally able to actually
meet/talk to some of our referrals, and it felt good to do that. There
were some rough patches, but it was an all in all great week.

Monday we met Fukuyama San, who is from Peru, so she speaks Spanish
and Japanese, and she is super sweet. Makes me wish I knew some
Spanish. But she really wants to learn, and I am so excited to meet
with her. That pday we had actually had some free time, so i pulled
out the journal, and got some work done there.

Tuesday morning we went to short tennis , which was a lot of fun. The
ball is soft, and the rackets are short, and a bunch of grandmas and
grandpas were a lot better than me, but it was lots of fun. That
afternoon we went to the old folks home, and got to spend some time
with them. This week we dug some potatoes, most of them were tiny, but
it was fun. We then ran into the other sisters investigator, and were
able to support her, the timing was just perfect, and then we taught
eikaiwa. Lots of fun as usual.

Wednesday we got lost, but not on purpose. We were trying to find a
members home, and though I knew where we were, I couldn't find it. But
we set up an appointment for this week, so it is all good. We also got
to douseki for the sisters investigator Andy, who is from Britain. He
isn't sure about the Book of Mormon, but he plans on reading the whole
thing before saying no, which is awesome!

Thursday we went and visited the inoues again, we have been doing it a
lot, but they love it, and we are encouraging them to do dendo. Then
after that we went and visited two less actives with them, they drove
us out to some pretty far places, not driving, but biking wise, so it
was a great opportunity. That night we started SKK, and it was good.

Friday we had district meeting, and it was great. Iverson choro taught
us that success is truly not about numbers, it is about doing your
best. If you can feel the spirit, you are being a successful
missionary, and that just struck a cord with me. No matter what we are
doing, if we can feel the spirit, no matter how slight the feeling may
be, we can know we are following gods will, it truly isn't
complicated. After that we went back to SKK, but workman Shimai was
struggling with some emotional things, but couldn't figure out what,
so we took some time to do that, and then finished SKK. Took a good
time, but then she felt better, and that is the important thing.

Saturday we finally met with mizuho, we have had a couple of canceled
appointments, both on our side and hers, and so finally getting to
meet her was awesome. She is super sweet, and really wants what is
best for her kids. I am excited to keep meeting with her.we had
volleyball night tonight, but it wasn't as good as last time, in other
words, it flopped, but a member had spent money to rent the place, so
we built him up through that activity. It was good to focus on the one
in that case.

Sunday was fast Sunday, and I loved it. Fasting isn't hard, unless you
are focusing on the fact that you are fasting. We got a lot of
appointments with members coming up, and did some phone dendo, and
then we headed out and taught some lessons, and met more referrals,
this week was just a great week for meeting people, and it was a lot
of fun.

I definitely prefer meeting people. Finding wasn't as big, but we
still did some, and found some people with potential. I am excited to
see what is going to happen next! Love you! Have a great week!

Love, Sister Makin

P.S. My hair has gotten way long, decided to take a pic to show you, plus a
sister in my apartment can cut hair, so I will be getting her to cut
the dead ends of soon.