Hello Family and Friends,
Greetings from Tokyo Japan. Here’s an update for you. As usual, it’s been pretty busy since our last update. We’re getting better at planning and using calendar tools on our computers – because we have so many things to juggle. Still, we really enjoy this life and we enjoy doing it together. Hopefully we’re doing some good along the way.
The weather in Tokyo is near perfect right now. The high gets to about 75 degrees and most days are sunny and warm. Rainy days have a tendency to wear us out faster, however.
Young Single Adult Regional Sunday
As you may already know, the third Sunday of the month is unique because that’s the week we invite all the YSA members in our stake to attend meetings with us at the YSA Branch. This past month however, we expanded on that quite a bit and combined three stakes worth of young single adults into one building for a large gathering. It was held in the large meetinghouse in Kawasaki.
We all met together and held Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School, then mingle activities filled the rest of the day and went into the early evening. We had about 350 young singles show up, which is a huge gathering. We completely filled the chapel and ran out of seats. Kids from as far away as Sapporo heard about the event and travelled to Kawasaki just to attend. So it was kind of a big deal.
For Sunday School, we were asked to teach the lesson. And yup, you guessed it: we were asked again to teach on the subject of ‘Marriage.’ We always fret and worry and pray about this topic whenever we are asked to talk about it. This time the two of us spent almost all of the day before discussing and planning how we should teach. We really desired that the Lord would help us teach something that would be effective and relevant and helpful.
We admit it was a little intimidating to stand in front of 350 beautiful young people and say, “Ok, lets talk about marriage.” We started off by asking: “What factors are preventing you from getting married in today’s world?” We took answers from the crowd and got three responses.
- Finances. Not financially able to get married.
- School and Career. Full-time students are too busy to get married.
- Good Match. Fear of finding a partner who really compliments and matches yourself.
All valid concerns.
So then we told our story. When we got married, we had a total combined amount of $500 in our bank account. We got married when we were both full time students and our wedding was the week before finals because of apartment contract end and start dates. We rented essentially a remodeled bedroom for $180/month. And as far as a “match” is concerned . . . have you seen the two of us standing next to each other?? We’re as different as possible, with as diverse of backgrounds imaginable. Sagebrush vs. Shinkansen. That got some laughs. Still, we love each other and have made our marriage work so far.
We told a lot of stories, laughed a lot, showed pictures of our family and grandchildren, and talked about how Faith and Fear are opposites. Then we promised blessings. Once again, we promised them that the supernal blessings of God cannot be held from those who are worthy of them. He simply cannot hold them back. And we promised them that their Heavenly Parents know them very well and are planning amazing blessings for each of them.
When the lesson was over, we took questions from some of the kids. That was a first. Some wanted dating advice. The only advice we could give was “if you like him, and he’s worthy, go out with him.”
“It’s that simple?”
“Yup. That simple.”
We think our lesson went a little better this time, but that’s probably because of practice. We are always so impressed by these young men and women. They really are incredible, and we pray for the best for each of them.
Missionary Study
This past week we met with 16 missionaries for a half hour each to study Japanese together. We have become very close with many of these elders and sisters and have grown to love them. Some still meet with us to study even though they are going home in the next month. Sometimes our conversations extend beyond Japanese and go further into life in general. This week we talked with an elder who has three months left, who knows Japanese pretty well, and can teach comfortably. He asked us what kind of goals he should set for the end of his mission. We told him instead of goals, maybe he should consider the thought of full consecration. As in, telling the Lord, “Ok. I can speak, I can teach. Use me as You will.” And then expect miracles to happen. We reminded him that he’s become a very valuable asset in the work and the Lord will use him to do great things. It’s like how the cost to train a fighter pilot is more than the cost of the plane.
It’s Not All Work
This week is Golden Week – the week in Japan that has multiple national holidays and people take off for vacations. That means many of our scheduled meetings were cancelled and we had some free time. Yesterday we took the train to the ancient city of Kamakura, had a nice lunch, did some shopping, and visited some amazing historical sites, including the Great Buddha (1250 AD) and Hase Temple (720 AD). Kamakura is really beautiful, and we’re reminded of how lucky we are to be here and experience these adventures.
Our thoughts are with all of you, especially our family, children, and grandchildren. Grandchild number five arrived this week. Randy and Maddy welcomed beautiful Clarkson into their family and we are so excited and grateful for his safe arrival.
We’re so proud of him and all our family.
We miss you and love you all. This week our son Sam graduated with his masters degree and we weren’t able to attend his commencement. But we’re so proud of him just the same.
We are so blessed. We are grateful for all that we have and are experiencing. More amazing experiences are coming as well, so stay tuned.
Love,
Elder and Sister Low
Elder & Sister Low 