Life Lesson from Marufuji

Here is Marufuji, a little Japanese grocery store not far from our apartment. After shopping at the commissary (so comfortable and safe!), we decided to venture into the unknown and see what this little store had to offer. The English signs on the front were about the only English we saw. We wandered up and down the aisles, put a few items in our cart, completely guessing in some cases as to what we were buying and estimating the value of yen in dollars. At the check out counter we tried to ask for garbage bags. The Japanese people are meticulously clean and quite detail oriented as a rule, and the way they handle trash is no exception. We needed to purchase specifically identified blue plastic bags for our burnable trash. They're kind of expensive, I guess that's how we pay for our trash pickup. The woman working at the counter spoke little English (more than our Japanese, which isn't saying much), and she bowed and hurried to find someone else who could help us. She got a couple of other workers involved and we were eventually able to make ourselves understood and we got our blue plastic trash bags. As she rang up and bagged our purchases, she apologized for not understanding us and said, "Sorry. I must study." I immediately responded, "Oh no, no, no, I must study!" And we gathered up our grocery bags and left the store.

I've thought a lot about this little experience. As soon as we knew we were going to Japan, and especially in the MTC, we had so many people tell us how much we would love it. These were people who had served missions here, or in the military, or traveled or lived here because of their employment. They told us the Japanese people were so kind and so polite, and how clean and safe Japan is. This was very encouraging and reassuring to us and we've been excited about being here.

With all that, I was still surprised and touched at this woman's response. How many times have I spoken with someone in, say, tech support, or at a convenience store, who actually speaks English but with a heavy accent that I find difficult to understand? Have I ever apologized for not speaking or understanding their language? No, my thinking is more like: "If you're going to do business (or visit, or travel) in the United States, you need to learn English!" And here's this sweet Japanese woman, apologizing for not understanding my language when I am a visitor in her country.

Our missionary assignment is with the English-speaking ward at Yokota, a U.S. Air Force base. We will work with mostly American families and American missionaries. But we are learning to love the Japanese people already. From what we have observed in the short time we've been here (all of one week!), they are friendly, don't want to intrude, but would do anything to help if needed. We drove a sweet Japanese investigator couple to lunch where we met up with the young missionaries in our district--sort of a farewell lunch as transfers are this week and several of them are leaving. This woman had volunteered at an elementary school on base to help teach the children about Japanese
history and culture. She had been given a certificate of appreciation by the school, and she carried it in her purse and proudly showed it to us. We couldn't understand her explanation, but we could feel her enthusiasm and happiness that she'd had something of value to share and that it was appreciated. When we got to the restaurant (on the base), she laughed and played and shared joy with a little smiling American baby in his car seat in the waiting area -- and you don't have to speak English to do that!

I'm reminded of something Scott shared after his mission. He said one of the things he learned is that "Everyone is, in some way, my superior, and I have something to learn from every person I meet." I love that thought and it changes the way I view the people and the world around me. It helps me immensely as I try to see every person I meet as a child of God.