Springtime in Tokyo

Dear Friends and Family,

We are behind schedule on sending letters home. We have been busy. We want you to know that while we have been busy, we are really enjoying this experience. It’s an amazing life.

Here’s an update on the latest happenings here in Tokyo.

Spring Has Sprung

We finally got some warmer weather and the much-anticipated cherry blossom season finally came through Tokyo about two weeks behind schedule. We went and visited a lot of great spots. Most of them were crowded with tourists from all over the world. The tourist boom during cherry blossom season was huge this year. Millions came. The trees were beautiful and breathtaking.

Recently, Sister Low decided that the neglected flower box in front of our church building will be neglected no more. She worked with the sister missionaries in our branch to dig out all the weeds, prep the soil and plant it full of fresh flowers. The flower box is fairly large – about 40 feet long – and it appears it hasn’t been used for many years. Nobody could remember ever seeing flowers in it. But now it looks beautiful and Elder Low is sure our neighbors are happier with us.

We hope it will spark some joy to those who walk by the church.

Transfers and New Missionaries

Before last week our mission stood at about 100 young full-time missionaries. That’s a big increase from the 80 that were here when we arrived back in September. And it’s a massive increase compared to the 17 the mission was down to 18 months ago when visa restrictions kept foreign missionaries out of the country.

But this past weekend we welcomed 18 new missionaries into the mission. It was the single biggest group of missionaries President and Sister Node had ever seen. This was a busy time for us. Sister Low prepared all the documentation needed to make them legal and safe in the country. That’s 18 forms per missionary that have to be filled out by hand and about 28 places where the missionary has to sign their name. Elder Low created a slide show for the orientation session that showed where missionaries need to sign on each form and then we did a massive form fill session that took half a day.

Then Sister Low took a huge pile of forms to city hall and submitted them all on the missionaries’ behalf. Meanwhile Elder Low prepped new phones with the proper software for each new missionary, then helped them get the phones setup and running. Overall, it was about three full days of work, but we got it all done and it went smoothly. We’re so thrilled to have so many new missionaries. They’re all excited and are already working hard.

We’re impressed with the Japanese skills of these young missionaries when they arrive. Now they come straight from the MTC without a visa delay en route and that helps. But also, we’re noticing that missionaries are working hard to master this difficult language, and we’re trying harder as a mission to be better with Japanese. President and Sister Node never spoke English during the onboarding of the new missionaries this week. They picked them up at the airport, drove them to the mission home, fed them, interviewed them, did the orientation with them, and assigned them – all in Japanese. We don’t think they know that President and Sister Node can speak English, because they never did. That’s not easy to pull off, but it’s impressive to watch – especially when the missionaries can keep up a conversation and know what’s going on.

A New Institute Semester

The new school year starts in April in Japan and that goes for institute classes as well. After a break for a couple of weeks, our institute classes have started back up. We teach Friday nights now and wow – we’re really surprised by the number of kids who are showing up. For the last two Fridays we’ve had over 60 students and it’s becoming hard to find places for them to sit. The room is packed. We are humbled and grateful as we see this steady increase in institute attendance every week. We hope and pray they all go home uplifted. We think the hot meals after class help, but honestly, these are wonderful students with amazing strength and testimony. They’re not coming just for food. We’re teaching Come Follow Me – Book of Mormon and we try hard to make each night feel happy and safe – like coming home to Grandma’s house. That may be part of why attendance is going up.

Every week we make a point to tell personal stories that have happened in our lives and relate them to the lesson. This week, as we studied Enos, Sister Low told a story about how Heavenly Father answered a very personal prayer for her that blessed her family. The kids were enthralled by it. They didn’t blink while she talked.

We also taught that while Enos is a story that is primarily thought to be about prayer, it’s really much more than that. The story of Enos is one about receiving direct, personal revelation from God, because of Faith in Jesus Christ. The way to getting answers to our big questions in life, as well as obtaining forgiveness, is to have faith in Him, and act on that faith.

Next week we start another online institute class, this one in English, and we already have over 35 students signed up from 4 different countries, but we expect a lot more will sign up before the class starts.

One thing we make a concerted effort to do in every lesson: promise blessings. This has become a common theme of our mission. We feel strongly that the Lord expects us to promise blessings to those we teach. So we do.

Branch Conference – Loaves and Fishes

Last Sunday was Branch Conference, where the stake leadership spent the day at our branch and met with members and branch council leaders. We planned a meal after the block of meetings, and we did a Costco run the day before in order to have all the ingredients we needed. We planned about 50 to 60 members of the branch would come to church on Sunday and about 15 stake leaders. But our estimate was way off.

Once again, we had to go into Loaves and Fishes mode when 70 branch members showed up and about 30 stake leaders came. We had to carefully portion out the food for 100 people and we ran out of places to sit in the cultural hall. Why do we keep thinking like this? It’s time to just accept the fact that more and more people are coming to our after-block luncheons, and we need to prepare more as the numbers continue to grow. We’re not sure how much longer we can call this unit a “branch.” Last week we welcomed three more members who moved in, and we have another baptism next week. The work rolls on.

Family Home Evening Powerful Moments

On Monday we had three recently baptized members come to Family Home Evening. They hung out together like they’d known each other their whole lives. The missionaries also brought two investigating friends. They joined in like they’ve always been coming every week. In addition to fun and food, we all read and studied the Book of Mormon together for a half hour. It’s so powerful to read, study, teach and testify to such a great group of young single adults – some who are members, some who aren’t – all together. The Spirit fills the room every time. After that, we sat back and watched the crowd laugh and socialize. It’s so gratifying for us to watch. The time we set aside as free time, where they do nothing but chat with each other may be the most valuable time of all. Some stick around for quite a while to talk and socialize and we hope that Monday night brightens the spirits of all who come.

 

Temple Attendance Boost

If you remember, when we first got here, we strategized a plan to try and get more of our YSA members to attend the temple more frequently. The branch hadn’t been holding any kind of temple night or temple activity. That’s why we’re ordinance workers in the temple on Wednesday nights. Every week, we send out an announcement to our branch members and institute students that we’re waiting for them in the temple on Wednesday nights.

Before heading to the temple, we usually buy some treats and set them in the break room in the temple annex with a note that says “for YSA members visiting the temple.” Then we send a post telling everyone to come and get a snack and go to the temple together.

Lately, we’ve been seeing a great increase in young people coming to see us on Wednesdays. This week we had 5 members from the branch in our session. Two weeks ago we had 12 of them at the temple. It looks like we’ve started to turn the corner and YSA Temple Night has become a weekly tradition. They’re now coming every week. We’re so thrilled.

The kids are so cute. Before entering the temple they post pictures online of them eating the yummy snacks.

 

We love it. We love them.

We pray for all of our family back home. We hope all is well. We pray for blessings on each of you. We’ll continue to do our best to serve over here, and we hope you’ll pray for us that we can be as effective as possible to bless the lives of many.

Dear grandchildren: Grandma and Grandpa Low love you! We miss you! Don’t forget to pray for us.

 

Love,

Elder & Sister Low