Christmas Eve and Yokota Missionaries

We've been blessed to work with the stake president, John Madsen, of the Tokyo South Stake (English=Speaking) - he lives and works here at Yokota and so is a member of the Yokota Military Ward. His wife Annette is a counselor in the ward Relief Society presidency and is the personification of the RS motto: Charity Never Faileth. She was responsible for leaving fresh groceries literally at our door when we arrived, late at night and exhausted, from the airport on December 9th. In visiting with them since our return, we've learned they been called to serve as mission president in Korea, beginning June 2016. President Madsen served a mission in Korea as a young man. They're excited and terrified and will be wonderful -- our loss is Korea's gain!

The Madsens invited us to have lunch with them on Christmas Eve day. Sister Madsen teaches English to three Japanese women who have become her dear friends, and we were able to meet them. They are delightful -- sort of elderly (you know, probably my age... ), and one of them is a professional story-teller. She visits elementary schools, libraries, etc. to tell stories, mostly Japanese folk tales. She shared one with us -- her accent was so strong I missed a lot of it, something about a bird and singing, but she was so animated and cute, it was really fun. Then Bruce told them I had a Christmas story to share .... so I told them Davey and the First Christmas. I was just a little way into it when one of the ladies asked me to slow down, and that was hard -- I had to think to remember it all instead of just moving along at a fast enough clip that it flows without thinking! But they loved it, they laughed and clapped -- and now President Madsen wants to put me telling the story on a DVD to keep with the book!

After a lovely American meal of ham, au gratin potatoes, salad, and rolls, we rolled out gingerbread cookie dough, cut out, baked, and decorated cookies. I expect this was a first for our Japanese friends and they loved that too. Then Annette had planned for us to sing Christmas carols around the piano, but Bruce and I had to leave to go to district meeting (silly missionaries who think you should have a meeting on Christmas Eve!).

Those silly missionaries were even nervy enough to ask us to provide the training, which is taken from Preach My Gospel and is a part of every district meeting. Our assigned topic was on finding people to teach through member referrals. The missionaries assigned to the military bases have a unique challenge in that we don't proselyte on base -- the young elders and sisters can't even freely get on the base, they have to be signed in by someone with a military ID. So they really rely on members to even attend Church (now that we're meeting in the base chapel) and visit members of the ward - you know, the people who invite them and actually want to see them! :-)

Just an aside -- Elder Thunell who serves with his wife as the senior couple at Yokosuka Naval Base, said they seem to function like sharks. When they're walking on the base or in the community near base, it seems people around them refuse to make eye contact and just scatter, like little fishes avoiding the predator! We had to laugh at this description -- it's a bit of an exaggeration, but there's enough truth to it that it's pretty funny!

Anyway, we are trying to help the elders in a variety of ways: providing transportation when needed, signing them onto the base, because it's often inconvenient and a hassle for the members to do it, helping them to find service projects for individuals, families, or entities on base, like working at the post office during the Christmas rush, helping them be better connected to the ward mission leader, ward missionaries, and ward council; and we feed them from time to time. They asked us to help build better relationships between the military ward and the Fussa Ward, because President Wada tasked them with this. We're not at all sure what to do here, because (1) the Fussa Ward doesn't even meet in Fussa anymore, they meet some distance away in Kunitachi, and (2) we don't speak Japanese and are pretty much limited to nods and smiles in communicating! We did go Christmas caroling with the elders to some Fussa Ward members, and that was really fun. We just can't do much without them, because we need translators!

I hope I'm not making it sound like the missionaries here are lacking in independence or resourcefulness. We love these elders so much, they work so hard. One of the best parts of our mission so far, in Fussa and in Kichijoji both, has been working with the missionaries. Elder Dalton is the district leader here at Yokota. He's from Charlotte, NC, although his family moved to Heber, Utah while he was in the MTC, so that'll be his new home after his mission, and he's good with that. He'll be going to BYU and he's glad they'll be that close. He's the oldest of six children and had told us a little about his family before he Skyped with them the day after Christmas at our apartment (since we have reliable wifi). His father also served a mission to Japan, and it was so touching to hear them speak Japanese to each other. (Elder Dalton told us when he Skyped with his family last Christmas, his Japanese companion told him his father's Japanese was much better than his own!) The family sang together, and Elder Dalton shared his testimony with them -- in English, so his mother and siblings could understand. I was sitting in the next room, trying not to listen but couldn't help it -- so then I was trying not to sob. I'm overwhelmed by the goodness of this elder and his family.

Elder Gutierrez also Skyped his family from our apartment -- well, all four missionaries did, but we only heard Elder Gutierrez and Elder Dalton. Elder Gutierez' family live in Provo, he also plans to go to BYU after his mission and study linguistics. His parents are from Mexico and he speaks Spanish fluently, which has been put to good use among the Spanish speakers in our ward. So his conversation with his family was a mix of Spanish and English, and ended with them praying together, Elder Gutierrez offering the prayer in Japanese. Again, I was moved to tears at the faith and testimony of this family and their missionary, and the love and pride they feel as he serves.

I have to smile as I look at these pictures that the elders posted on Facebook. President Wada's instruction to the missionaries regarding Skypeing with their families on Christmas was that they were given about 40 minutes for the call -- but the most important thing was that their mothers were happy with their visit! So if they had other family members that took a lot of time, or technical difficulties, or whatever -- it was okay to take whatever time was needed to make Mom happy! What an inspired mission president -- and these moms look pretty happy, don't they?

Elder Lunt is from Arizona and is the youngest of six children. I didn't eavesdrop on his conversation -- we left him and Elder Jennings at our apartment to Skype while we took the other two elders to the base for a service project. Here's Elder Lunt's family, including his happy mom!

And Elder Jennings didn't post his family Skype picture on facebook, but I met them -- eight children, four of them by adoption. They live near Fresno, in Auberry, California. They were so happy to talk with him. Elder Jennings has a unique assignment here -- he is to learn Spanish from his companion, Elder Gutierrez -- he has two transfers to become trilingual before Elder Gutierrez goes home. Talk about a challenge -- he'd had two years of Spanish in middle school, and that was all. But he'd been here at Yokota less than a week when Elder Dalton had him praying in Spanish at district meeting. It was a short prayer, but he did it!

We have just these four elders serving in Yokota now, compared to six elders and four sisters in Yokota and Fussa when we first arrived. The Fussa missionaries now live in Kunitachi, since that's where the ward meets, and the numbers throughout the whole mission have reduced from over 200 when we first came to about 160 now. There's plenty for them to do, and how we love them as they rise to the occasion!

Here's Elder Jennings, Elder Gutierrez, and Bruce volunteering at the base post office during the holiday rush. Pretty great guys, all of them!