Week Forty.

Hey hey hey!
Happy P day! What are you doing this wonderful Monday? Well I guess when you receive this it will be late Sunday night...
So this week has been quite eventful! The cherry blossoms are finally out! The word for cherry blossom in Japanese is sakura. They are quite pretty! I am so lucky that in my lifetime I get to witness them! They only blossom for about a week so it is really really short. Sister Luk and I spent a lot of time at a local park looking at the sakuras and trying to talk to people. There was a week long carnival thing with lots of food vendors and a little dance program thing happening. Everyone in Akita was there basically with their families picnic-ing and spending time with their friends and families. I wanted to talk to people but for some reason I was having a hard time building the courage to do so. Everyone looked so busy and happy with their familes and friends I didnt want to disturb them. I did end up trying to talk to a few people but the second they saw my badge they were very quick to reject me and Sister Luk. It is really scary you know... to get rejected and all. But after that experience I went home and took some time to look up scriptures about courage and I found some really good ones! I dont have the references right now to tell them to you but they really helped build my confidence.
Instead of going to the park for finding opportunities only we also went with an investigator once and also a potential investigator once in order to build stronger relationships with them. The investigator we went with is named Hitoshi san. I dont know if I have talked about him before but when I was with Sister Tuttle we only taught him once and tried to pass him to the elders but he got flustered or scared or something so we didnt see him for 6 weeks after that. But now Sister Luk and I are trying to teach him again and he came to the carnival with us and it was really fun! He is the cutest. He is a Japanese farmer so he will always show us pictures of his cows. He also plays these really cool Japanese drums and he brought them with him when we hung out with him and he played them for us! He also let me try but I pretty much just looked like a fool as I was pounding on them ha ha. The potential investigator we went with was Natsuko chan! I know I have talked about her before. She is our friends that took the lessons in the past but cant anymore because her parents are against it. I still really want to teach her. I was able to make a really good relationship with her on this day. I will attach a picture of us! I want to try and ask again if she still has interest in the lessons.
Last week at our weekly English Conversation Class we had almost 40 people come! There were so many people! And I just want to teach all of them! Its hard to make appointments with them because we arent allowed to talk about the church at Eikaiwa(English class) but after the class is over you can bring it up as long as it isnt between the hours of 7 and 8 pm. I teach the kids class though and it is a HASTLE so I never get to talk to the people after class because I am stuck babysitting their naughty kids which happens to be a tiny violation of the missionary standards!! We are trying to fix this problem dont worry.. we are working with the branch president.
So this week`s highlight is probably our lesson with Yurie chan. We have been texting her and trying to get a hold of her for awhile but she never replies. But then on Wednesday morning she texted us and said she had time later that day to meet so we did a surprise lesson with her on the hardest topic ever... the Atonement! We had no time to plan or prepare so we were just winging it the best we could. I dont think it would be too difficult if we were doing it in English but in a different language it is kinda hard. Anyways, it was Sis Luk`s first time to meet Yurie chan and they hit it off so good! They are basically best friends now! They had a lot in common and I have never seen Yurie chan connect to someone so well. Yurie chan`s Japanese is really really hard for me to understand so I havent really been able to connect with her even though I have taught her like 5 lessons now or so. But we taught this lesson on the Atonement and it actually went pretty good! Well, Sis Luk kinda taught pretty much all of it but I shared a testimony here and there and asked her to read a scripture out loud and that was it... Sis Luk and Yurie chan`s Japanese was just too complicated for me that I didnt know what they were talking about our where I could contribute! It was really difficult! But the lesson went good enough that Yurie chan actually said the closing prayer for the first time. She asked to know if God was watching over her and that if he was to please tell her. After her prayer she told us that she felt something! She said that when she said those words she got a really warm feeling in her heart and she was really excited about it! I told her it was the spirit and she was really happy! I am excited for our next lesson because I feel like she is really changing and really interested in this church!
Now I dont mean to bother you, my dear family, but I have a few requests...
1. Please please add my dear friend Rachel Worthington to the email list for my emails. She has been wondering about that a bit. rachel.worthington@myldsmail.net
2. We have a big Eikaiwa activity coming up and me and Sis Morgan are going to do a little info booth on Scotland. So I need information! If you havent already sent a package, could you send me maybe some Scottish stuff or visual aids like for example our family plaid? How about some Scottish food recipes for a little snack I could share? Dad you should send me a video of you playing the pipes! Anything and everything youve got on Scotland, send it over here. The activity  will be the Saturday after Mothers day so it is coming up.
3. I am realizing that I am kind of not a very good teacher. I always get the same improvement point after I do practice lessons with leaders and members that maybe using visual aids or an example would make it easier to understand. I am sure if you looked it up on the internet you could find examples or ways to explain the principles in PMG. Could you do that and then send them to me? I came with nothin!

Thank you so much! I cant wait to talk to you in a couple weeks! I will figure out everything for it and send you all the information in next weeks email. I love you!
Love Miranda