Hello all –
Here’s a quick note to let you know how we’re doing and tell you that we miss you and love you.
We have decided that missionary life suits us. We are enjoying this lifestyle. We like the simplicity of it. We like not having to worry about cars and lawns and stuff like that. We like that we only own four plates, knives, and forks and only two towels in the bathroom. Less ‘stuff’ and a simpler life is really great. Sister Low is down to only 15 pairs of shoes, which is a sacrifice for her. Much more simplified, less cluttered, less worries.
We are really enjoying working with the young single adults. Two weeks ago we cooked curry rice for the entire branch for an after-church get together. That’s two four gallon pots of curry and 40 cups of rice. Sister Low did a great job fixing it. We hand-carried the cooked curry from our apartment to the church. That was a scene. We’re sure people walking down the street saw us and had stories to tell their families later.
Church ends at noon for us and the kids acted like they’ve never been fed. In their lives. So did the branch president. And his wife. We had hoped to have enough left over to use for Family Home Evening the next night, but no way. They were licking the bottom of the pot. It’s really fun to watch them light up when the food shows up. At the end, the branch president said, “So next week is General Conference – what do you want to make?” We’re thinking this food after church thing may turn into a tradition.
The Branch President suggested a sandwich bar for Conference Weekend. So, the Saturday before Conference we woke up early and ran down to a grocery store and bought all the bread they had on the shelf, fresh from the bakery. 20 loaves. Then we bought ham, cheese, Nutella, peanut butter, jam, yakisoba, cucumbers, cream cheese, mayonnaise, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes. Yes, we made another scene walking through Shibuya carrying 20 loaves of bread.
Then on Sunday, between conference sessions, we made all kinds of sandwiches – including the fancy cucumber sandwiches and even yakisoba sandwiches. We wish we would have taken pictures but it was kind of a crazy time. Sister Low even made the fancy notecards that listed what kind of sandwich was on each tray. By the time the branch president turned on the afternoon session, all the sandwiches were gone and the kids were smiling.
We think we’ve made a lot of friends because of this. The way to the YSA heart is through the stomach.
Conference weekend was wonderful for us. Pretty much the entire branch showed up on Sunday and watched conference together. They’re very closely knit. The missionaries brought three investigators and they watched conference too. We are continually impressed by how sincere and strong these YSA youth really are.
Everyone here was thrilled with the temple announcement for Osaka. We’re also thrilled for the temple announcement for Mongolia. We have students in Mongolia who are now beyond thrilled. This will change their lives. Elder Low actually predicted and told Sister Low before conference that he felt both Osaka and Ulaanbatar would get temples this conference and he was right.
We continue to do all we can to help our missionaries. This week we met with over 35 missionaries individually to try and help them with their Japanese language. We usually start with a quick assessment, then answer any specific questions, then teach a part of the language we think they’re ready to learn. We do that in 30 minutes per missionary via Zoom. Then we follow up with a custom email that contains details on the concept we taught, some vocabulary we think they should learn this week, and a short quiz for them to take to see how they’re improving. On weekday mornings, we’ll do these meetings from 9am to 2pm.
Because of this, we’ve gotten to know over half the missionaries in the mission. They are all amazing. We also do all we can to help the young missionaries in our district. We go to lunch with them, help them teach lessons, and participate in the English class they teach. This week the missionaries in our ward have two baptisms. One is today that we’re running off to shortly. Then we have another baptism next week. So that’ll be three new members this month.
We had zone conference last Wednesday. The president asked us to speak for 30 minutes on “How I found the church.” Elder Low let Sister Low do most of the talking and she told her story. Sister Low was, once again, incredible and when we were done all the missionaries and the president and his wife were in tears. We gave them ideas on how to find people. Elder Low told the story about the last time his Dad went to Disneyland and decided that his favorite thing about Disneyland was standing in line – because he got to talk to so many people and make dozens of friends. Hopefully we did some good with our presentation. The president wants our missionaries to open their mouths more, smile more, and introduce themselves to more people.
There are 26 million people living within our mission boundaries. Holy cow, can you believe it? And that’s just about half of the Tokyo metro area. This may be the largest population within any mission in the church. We told the missionaries we’re pretty sure that among that number are many who are currently pleading to heaven for help, or are in pain and looking for us. We need to find them.
During the zone conference, the missionaries spent about 40 minutes doing role play and practicing how to approach people and introduce the gospel. While this was going on one young sister approached Elder Low and asked, “Can I practice with you?” Elder Low said he’d be glad to.
Her scenario was this: She is in the grocery store and needed teach about the importance of families to somebody shopping for groceries. Elder Low took the role of the ‘shopper.’
In five minutes she had asked Elder Low which kind of sauce is best for the meat she was buying, asked if he thought it would be a good meal, asked for other ideas on easy meals that a single young woman who’s from America and only been here for a few months could prepare, asked how many kids he has and what they like to eat, and then gave a heartfelt message on what a blessing it must be to be a parent, how much she loves and misses her family, how families are eternal, and that she has more about that idea that she’d like to share. Then she asked Elder Low if we could talk about that sometime later. All in near perfect Japanese.
“Ok Elder Low, give me some feedback on how I did.”
“Wait a minute. Sister – you did that so well. How long did it take you to be able to do this?”
“Nine weeks. Not a day longer. I had no choice. Nine weeks after I got here I was made a senior companion and had to train a brand new missionary. So I had to learn fast.”
“That’s incredible. I hope you know that.”
“Oh, I guess so. But it’s just a normal thing now. I can tell you that the Gift of Tongues is real. I never could have learned how to do this on my own. That’s for sure.”
“You do this kind of approach every day?”
“Yup. Every day. For hours.”
“You must get a lot of people who cut you off mid-sentence and walk away.”
“Yup. They do. I’ve learned that parks work better than train stations. There are a lot who do ignore us, but we find people who want to listen too.”
“Like how many – one or two a week?”
“No. One or two an hour will sit with us and listen to an entire lesson.”
“That’s incredible!”
“Umm. Yeah. I guess it is.”
Elder Low was so amazed at the miraculous nature of what she could do, how she could speak the difficult language and teach so well, how she became able to do it in so short a time, and how casually she recognized it was a miracle. She knew it was miraculous, but since she deals with the miracle daily, it’s become a normal thing to her. The miracle is just part of her everyday life. And you could tell this sister loves being here, loves the people, and loves what she does.
While Elder Low was practicing with that sister, Sister Low was practicing with a sister who had been in the country for only two weeks. Yet she was able to speak enough Japanese to ask Sister Low if she had a few minutes to talk and then asked for help with buying bread, and then asked if she wanted to learn how to be with her children forever. Sister Low thought she was absolutely darling.
We went home from zone conference wide eyed. We talked together about how amazing that experience was all night. We just couldn’t believe it. We love these missionaries and want the best for them.
We have decided that we will measure the success of each day by two criteria from now on. First, we need to bear our testimony to somebody every day. We realize that means somebody will hear a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel that they wouldn’t have heard if we weren’t here. If you think about it, that’s a big deal. So it’s important we do that.
Second, since we’re set apart missionaries, we feel it’s important that we promise blessings to somebody at least once a day. We have authority to promise blessings, and we don’t want to squander that authority and opportunity.
We are doing well and love what we do. We do miss our home and family and pray for all of you every day. We know we’ll all be blessed. To our grandchildren: Please don’t forget to pray for your missionary grandparents. We know He is listening.
Love,
Elder & Sister Low
ロウ長老姉妹
Here are some shots from around our neighborhood. Yes, we really live here:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Elder & Sister Low 