Gratitude

Dear Family and Friends,

Here’s a short update with a report on our amazing and fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.

This year we scheduled our annual branch Thanksgiving dinner for Saturday, November 30. Our branch has a tradition of putting on a big Thanksgiving Dinner every year, which is an unusual thing here in Japan. And this year we wanted it to be the biggest and best one yet.

The branch made a flyer to pass out to members, friends, strangers, anybody. “Please come to our traditional American style Thanksgiving Dinner.”

Our great missionaries hit it hard, passed out flyers and invited as many people as they could find. The sisters even setup a whiteboard in Yoyogi Park and asked people passing by to write down what they’re thankful for. Then they handed out flyers.

We made a big Costco run where we bought turkey, potatoes, corn and a bunch of other stuff. President and Sister Murakami also made a Costco run and showed up with a car packed with food.

We started prepping and cooking for this one on Wednesday. We spent all Saturday morning and afternoon cooking. We cooked a lot of food – turkey, potatoes, gravy, and more. We had pie and ice cream. Sister Low made her amazing hot rolls. Elder Low made a pot of chili.

We wondered and worried about how many would show up. But in the end, we think we had well over 100 people attend the dinner. So many people were coming and going all night that it was hard to count. There ended up being a long serving line – the longest line we’ve ever had. And yes, it all got eaten. Of course it did.

Because of all the effort made to get friends to come, about half of those attending were not members of the church. For many, it was the first time they had been in our meetinghouse. And they were from all over the world. We had people from the Congo, the Philippines, China, Peru, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Korea, and some homesick kids from the United States who managed to find the only traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Shibuya. Three of the nonmember visitors came to church the next day. Once again our missionaries have a fresh, long list of people to teach.

But here’s the important thing:

This Was So Fun.

It was wonderful. It was amazing. It was noisy, crowded, happy, and hectic. Everybody was talking and laughing and eating and having fun. And making friends. The new visitors instantly fit in like they’d always been here. Everybody was happy together.

Please watch this video. It illustrates how great this event was:

For us, this was incredibly rewarding. It’s rewarding to prepare a big meal for a large group of people we love, and then see how much they love the experience. The love is reciprocal and exponential. What we give comes back to us in greater amount.

Once again, we’re reminded of how lucky we are to be here, and how grateful we are to be able to have this experience. We are grateful to represent the Savior, Jesus Christ, and we believe that if He was visiting Shibuya last Saturday night, He would have done exactly what we did. Come with us to church, enjoy a hot, home-cooked meal with good company, take a few minutes to ponder the blessings in your life that you’re thankful for.

It’s hard to put it into words. It’s overwhelming. We love these people. They are part of us now. We are blessed. We are thankful.