Rising

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s time for an update from Tokyo. We are staying busy every day. We have plenty to do and there is work to be done. And we love what we do. Every morning we wake up to a new challenge.

We continue to do our best to support and strengthen the young single adults here, teach institute classes, cook meals, serve in the temple, help missionaries with their studies, and do our part to keep the mission running, phones working, and missionaries legally documented. It’s a lot of fun.

New Members at the Temple

Our little YSA branch has had three new members get baptized and join the church in the past few months. (That’s great!)

Last week, we met with our young missionaries and decided to make an effort to get those new members to the temple, help them do baptisms for the dead and enjoy their first temple experience. We suggested we invite all our new members to come to a session together on Wednesday night, since that’s the night we serve there. We told our wonderful branch president and together we coordinated with the branch council and invited everyone in the branch to come and be part of the session if they were available.

Then we called our shift supervisor at the temple and asked to be assigned to the baptistry on Wednesday night and told him why.

He was very excited and assigned both Elder and Sister Low to be the Baptistry Coordinators for the coming Wednesday.

So that night, the young missionaries escorted our new members into the temple. When they walked into the Baptistry, there was Elder and Sister Low, dressed in white, waiting for them with big smiles. Then the branch president and other friends and members they know well walked in.

We helped them get clothes, showed them how and where to change, and got them a list of names of people to get baptized for. Then we all sat down together and Sister Noda, our assistant temple matron who we love, came in and spoke to our new members for a few minutes. She told them they are going to be Saviors on Mount Zion tonight and ancestors from beyond are celebrating. She asked us all to be reverent and listen carefully, because we may feel their presence.

Then we started performing ordinances. It was beautiful. First the young elder who had previously baptized the new member escorted that member into the water, reminded him how the ordinance worked, then pointed to the list of five names and taught that this time, he’ll be getting baptized on behalf of those people. Then the missionary baptized that new member for those five people.

What happened next was amazing: When he was finished, Elder Low gave the young elder a hand signal and young elder smiled and said, “OK. Now let’s switch places.”

Then the new member stood as the baptizer, using recently acquired Aaronic Priesthood he held, and baptized the elder on behalf of five people who have already passed.

We repeated this process for all of the new members that night. One of them has been a member for just two weeks and was ordained a priest only four days before. And now he was performing ordinances in the temple.

It was incredibly humbling for the rest of us who watched this happen. We stared in silence, our mouths were hanging open. A powerful, sweet feeling rolled into the room.

“Yea, blessed is this people who are willing to bear my name; for in my name shall they be called; and they are mine.

Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep.

And he that will hear my voice shall be my sheep; and him shall ye receive into the church, and him will I also receive.

For behold, this is my church; whosoever is baptized shall be baptized unto repentance. And whomsoever ye receive shall believe in my name; and him will I freely forgive.”

-Mosiah 26:18-22

Walking home from the temple that night, Sister Low said, “Today was a very good day.” We’re still talking about it.

Family History for Missionaries

In addition to all the incredible things Sister Node does for our mission, she has also taken on a special task of helping missionaries who have come to Japan from overseas and have Japanese ancestry. She knows that it’s a rare opportunity for them to search for family records of their ancestors while they’re here.

So she has sat with those missionaries and done some digging on where in Japan their grandparents came from. From there, it’s possible to go to those local government offices and search for records.

Because she’s so very busy, we have stepped in to help with this, and we’ve also asked for help from Elder and Sister Aikawa, the family history missionaries in our mission. We’ve worked with them and sent off requests for records to small towns in far places on behalf of some of our missionaries. And records have come back.  

Once they come back, we review them with the Aikawas. The records are old and handwritten and difficult to read. But the Aikawas are experts.

This last week, we coordinated with two young missionaries, shared their family tree info with the Aikawas, and then the Aikawas went into FamilySearch on their behalf and entered a bunch of names of grandparents, aunts, and uncles into those family trees. One missionary saw over 10 new ancestors show up. Another saw 70.

It’s pretty fun to tell them, “OK, log into FamilySearch and tell us what you see.” And it’s really gratifying. God bless Elder and Sister Aikawa for the incredible work they do.

Rising Generation

In our Friday night institute class this week we talked about the conversion of Alma the Younger. Before every institute class we teach, we try our best to sit down together and carefully prepare what we’ll talk about. During our preparation this week we noticed something unique in Mosiah 26:1 :

“Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the words of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did not believe the tradition of their fathers.”

– Mosiah 26:1

In the Japanese translation of this verse, “rising generation” is translated as “young people”. So, we decided to point that out and then teach the difference in meaning. Rising generation infers that the person has great potential ahead of them and probably has inherited great things from their parents or grandparents. Because they are a rising generation, we can assume that an inheritance could be waiting for them. The same is true for our young institute students. They are Rising. Almost all of them are second or third generation members.

Then we asked, “But can you inherit a testimony? From your parents? From your great heritage?” No, you can’t. Testimonies are a personal thing, and gaining one is done by yourself, no matter what your heritage is. Then we read:

“Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;

And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God.”

– Mosiah 27:25-26

We asked the students to ponder the situation of Alma the Elder. He was converted and then established the church among his people. He taught his children the gospel and did his best. And then his son turned away from that and went the opposite direction.

What could Alma do then? Only pray. That’s it. We told our young friends that as parents we watch our children and grandchildren grow, learn and make choices, and that causes us to worry and fret. But what can we do? Only pray. Sometimes late into the night.

Elder Low said, “I can promise you that no matter your situation – tonight, you have goodly parents who are praying for you. It may be about your education, your career, an illness, a breakup, your finances, anything you’re struggling with. But I promise they’re on their knees tonight, praying for you. And because of that, everything is going to be all right.”

And everything really is going to be all right! We are so blessed and so grateful for this opportunity to be here to serve. We pray that our family will be blessed as we do so.

Dear grandchildren: we miss you! We love you. Don’t forget to pray for your missionary grandparents.

Love,

Elder and Sister Low