Hello dear family and friends,
Here’s some more news from the mission field in Tokyo. We continue to do our best, try to learn and grow, and hopefully provide something good and helpful to others along the way. We love where we are and enjoy the adventure every day.
YSA Conference
Last week was a nationwide Young Single Adult Conference here in Tokyo. Young single adults from all over the country showed up for the three day event. It was held in the old Olympic Athlete Village in Yoyogi. The facility opened in 1964 and it feels that old when you walk in. It’s almost as old as Elder Low.
The conference staff asked us to conduct a workshop for the event. Our assigned topic: Marriage. This really caused us to worry a lot. What do you say to hundreds of single adults in Japan about marriage? How do you help them feel happy and confident about it? Most of the attendees are trying to figure out how they can get married and are worried if there’s anyone out there who would marry them. As we’ve said before, it’s sometimes a very heartbreaking thing to watch. (Our previous explanation of the difficulties around marriage in Japan can be found here) There are so many beautiful, smart, strong, talented young single adults around us who want to be married and we want the best for them as they continue to fret with this challenge in their lives.
The conference is a way for YSA members to extend their circle of friendship across the country, with the hope that some good matches can be made. So, it that context, “OK Elder and Sister Low, please teach them about Marriage.” We really prayed and prepared for this one – for many weeks.
There were three different workshops during the conference and all were held at the same time. Ours was one of them. It turned out that over half of the attendees attended our workshop. About 100 showed up and we ran out of seats. Standing room only!
The first thing we did was tell the story of Saori’s conversion, how we met and married. Then we showed pictures of our family, including our sons when they were little, all the way up to where they are today. We showed pictures of messy high chairs, Saori’s “ugly” birthday cakes, Halloween costumes, and Disneyland trips. Then we showed pictures of our extended family – our daughters in law and our precious grandchildren. We think all the attendees were enthralled with those pictures and our story.
We titled our workshop: “We Found the Ultimate Joy.” We explained that the story of our family was not always an easy one. We dealt with many challenges and difficulties, and as parents we made plenty of mistakes. Sometimes we made hard choices; other times we made the wrong choice altogether. But now – look at us. The ultimate joy.
Then we covered some key points when it comes to dating, marriage and family:
- #1: Choose to be happy. No matter our circumstances, we can choose to be happy and live a joyful life. Happy people are attractive.
- #2: Live the Gospel. Blessings come when we live the gospel, and it gives us the tools to deal with challenges in life.
- #3: No Fear. The opposite of faith is fear. Don’t be afraid to date or move forward in life.
- #4: It’s just ice cream. Going on a date is not a marriage contract. It’s just ice cream. Go on dates, lots of dates, have fun, and see what happens. Don’t overcomplicate it beyond that.
Then we promised blessings to all of them. We promised all of them that joy and happiness is waiting for them. We promised them that all will go well in their lives when they remain faithful and live the gospel.
Making those promises has continued to weigh on us. We talk about it constantly since the event ended. We really worry about and love these young singles.
As missionaries, we did our job and promised blessings. That is the hard part of our calling. It scares us every time we do it, and sometimes it’s overwhelming to think about. Yet we go forward with faith, because we know we have power and authority to promise blessings and the Lord expects us to do just that. We worry and pray for all these YSA youth. If you feel you have room in your prayers, we invite you to join us in praying for them, that they will realize the blessings we promised.
The Temple
Two weeks ago, we were interviewed, called and set apart as ordinance workers in the Tokyo Temple. We told the temple president that we want to work on Wednesday nights. Our goal is to drive more young single adults to the temple on a regular basis.
When we arrived in Japan, we asked the branch how often they have temple night and they told us they don’t have any. “Well, that’s an area we can improve on,” we thought. The temple is a mile and a half from our church building. After counseling with the ward council and the temple staff, we’re now designating every Wednesday night as YSA temple night and telling our YSA branch that “the Lows are waiting for you at the temple.” We met with the institute staff this weekend to plan classes for next semester, and we told them of this Wednesday night temple plan. They got excited about the idea and have now cancelled the planned Institute classes on Wednesday night and will be encouraging students to go to the temple during that time instead.
The temple has been closed on Wednesdays until just recently. It started opening on Wednesdays in October. We have already worked two Wednesdays, and discovered attendance is much lower than other days of the week. So there’s room to grow and we’re setting the goal to have the YSA members really dominate the building on Wednesday nights. We’re working with the Institute staff to set up food and snacks in the Temple Arrival Center next door so the kids can grab a bite, make friends and attend in groups. We’ll probably end up advertising this across all the stakes in the Tokyo area.
We were a little nervous jumping into the role of a temple worker. We have ordinances to memorize in two languages, and that’s a little intimidating. But we have really enjoyed it so far. The members here love their temple. Imagine the Japanese mentality toward quality, cleanliness and the need for constant improvement and then put that into the temple. The Tokyo Temple is essentially brand new (see what it’s like here). It had been closed for 5 years for a complete gutting and remodel and when that was finished, COVID hit and postponed the rededication for an additional 2 years. So it’s only been open for a year now.
Our fellow temple workers are not what we envisioned them to be. We envisioned the serious, strict, rule-based behavior that you see in many places in Japanese culture. Yes, this temple runs in perfect order, but these workers are the kindest, most loving people we’ve met. They get so excited when we walk in and they genuinely love being with us. When we leave the temple after our shift, we always say to each other, “Those are the nicest people on earth!” It’s going to be great being with them every week.
Institute Class
We continue to attend and participate in Institute classes at the Shibuya building when we can. We are always there on Fridays for class and “Gathering Time” where we eat food and have fun with the kids. We also continue to teach an English Institute class on Thursday nights online via Zoom. The course we teach is “Teachings and Doctrine of the Book of Mormon.” We have about 20 students every week and they are scattered across all of Asia North, including Korea, Guam and Mongolia. We have one young single sister in Ulaanbaatar who joined the church in June and is just amazing. Another student is one of our BYU Pathway graduates from last year and lives here in Tokyo. We love them all.
It’s interesting to us how close we all have become in just a few weeks, especially when we consider the fact that we are all separated by thousands of miles of ocean and continent. We have had many tender experiences together. This week we discussed “Belonging in the Church” and how the Savior taught in 3 Nephi that all are to be welcomed and included in church. We watched this video by Sister McConkie. If you haven’t seen it, we really recommend it. (Watch here)
After watching the video, Elder Low described how we walked to the YSA Conference last week. We walked to the conference from our apartment, every day, for three days. In order to get to Yoyogi, we had to walk through the center of Shibuya, right through the famous Shibuya Scramble crosswalk.
On two different occasions during those walks, Elder Low noticed a person wearing a T-shirt that is apparently gaining popularity. It read: “I’m lonely.”
That’s it. That’s all it said.
He became emotional as he told our students this story. Here we are in a very busy, crowded spot. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it’s the busiest spot on Earth. Yet in that crowd we have people so lonely that they broadcast it on the shirts they wear.
“This terrifies me,” he said. We all paused in silence as we thought through this. The world has changed. The missing ingredient is love.
8 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another;
10 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold;
We are currently surrounded by millions of people. We walk past them on the street every day. For the most part, they are straight faced, looking down to the ground and keeping to themselves as they pass us. Sometimes we feel like we want to run up to them and hug them and tell them everything is going to be OK.
There is so much work to be done and we continue to try and find ways to spread a little happiness. But we have a long way to go. We pray the Lord will bless us in our efforts.
We love you all and continue to miss you. Dear grandchildren, please don’t forget Grandma and Grandpa in your prayers. We need your help.
Love,
Elder & Sister Low
ロウ長老姉妹
Yesterday, we’d had enough of concrete and high rise buildings, so we took a day trip to Hakone. Here’s Sister Low standing on the Tokaido Road in Hakone. The Tokaido Road is an ancient highway that connected Tokyo to Kyoto. It’s as old as the road to Damascus. Most of it’s gone now, but this part in Hakone remains. The ancient cedar trees you see were planted by the Tokugawa Shogun government to give shade to the travelers. They’re over 380 years old.
Elder & Sister Low 