The Light
Japan Kobe Mission: August 2000
"Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the son of God. I am the Life and the Light of the world." --D&C 11:28
Dear Missionaries,
I love you and want you to know how much I appreciate your efforts.
Periodically the mission reaches a time of particular challenge and opportunity, usually as a result of large numbers of outstanding missionaries returning home. We have arrived at such a time now. Just since the May transfers, 28 such missionaries have returned, including many district and zone leaders, as well as assistants to the president. Eighty-four percent of our current senior companions were still junior companions at the time of the O-shogatsu Taikai. This means that we have youth and energy among the majority of our senior companions. It also means that we need to focus on and hone the skills needed to bring investigators through the conversion process and into the waters of baptism.
We will be talking about conversion at the August Zone Conferences. Conversion is a key word in our lives as missionaries. It is our calling. It is the reason for everything we do. Conversion means change, change in what people believe about who they are, change in their understanding of the past and their hopes for the future, change in their daily behavior, their attitudes and their lifestyles, change in their views of family and other relationships. This change that we call conversion is a personal thing. It happens in each life individually. Conversion is based on interactions with the Spirit which are acknowledged and understood. These interactions become the foundation for understanding the doctrine of God's plan for us and for making the personal changes needed to live in harmony with that doctrine.
Satan understands these interactions and opposes them skillfully and vigorously. His goal is to prevent conversion and his method is to cloud and confuse people in their interactions with the Spirit so that they will not act on what they are being taught. He works particularly hard once someone begins to seriously think about keeping commandments, especially baptism. Our role as missionaries is to protect those preparing for baptism with all of the energy and skill we can, calling on the support and inspiration of the Spirit for assistance. We resolve concerns by helping them recall acknowledged spiritual experiences and by using the scriptures to teach them the meaning and significance of those experiences. This helps them to resist Satan's confusion and deception and to find the courage to live the commandments that are required by the new spiritual knowledge they have received.
Personal conversion is not just for investigators. It begins with ourselves. The process is the same, building on spiritual experiences and studying doctrine that teaches us the meaning of these experiences and what God wants us to do as a result of this knowledge. Many of you have had such personal spiritual experiences. I can bear testimony in my own personal life and will do so in more detail at Zone Conference. The important aspect of these experiences, both for us and for our investigators, is captured by Joseph Smith in his history, verses 22-25. At this time he was reflecting on the growing persecution he was experiencing. He says, "I was led to say in my heart: Why persecute me for telling the truth? I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen? For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation."
Joseph Smith's experience was singular, in that the Father and Son visited him in person. Even without such a personal visitation, the Spirit gives us, and our investigators, experiences that are equally real, equally tangible. These become the foundation for the faith and testimony that carries us throughout our lives. Once we have had such a direct communication through the Spirit, we are never the same. All other things in the Gospel build upon that communication and are supported by it. We need to understand this in our own lives and then teach it in clear, simple terms to our investigators, so that when Satan tries to cloud truth, there is a solid, undeniable experience on which to stand and from which to discern truth. Then we are able to take those steps required to implement these truths in our lives with full confidence in our decisions and in the support of the Lord.
May we understand these things ourselves and may we teach them fearlessly to our investigators, I pray.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
President Robertson
Dear Wonderful Missionaries,
I've been lucky enough to speak with some of you (wish it were all) about your allotments in life and your responses to them. Frankly, you inspire me with your disciple-like diligence, regardless of the weather or your circumstances. Speaking of weather, however, please don't ignore the need for water and occasional shade. Even though we try to gambaru through any kind of weather, we need to learn how to work around the 3 H's (hot, hazy, humid). Do balance your dendo so that you do something in a shady place after being out in the hot sun for a while.
August is a great month for finding because schools are on vacation and so is almost everybody sometime during the month. Ocean Day (July 20th) is the last official holiday until Keiro-no-Hi on September 15th. But, my favorite Japanese celebration occurs mid-August. O-bon Odori is a wonderful, "all participate" kind of matsuri. (See #8 in the Japan Times article re: Obon.) The chochin (lanterns) and the magic of summer nights and big drums combine for a feeling of warmth and friendliness. There are good opportunities to BRT and to use the heightened focus on the spirits of ancestors to build on common beliefs and teach the plan of salvation.
For your Eikaiwa classes, you may want to do units on travel vocabulary since so many people travel during this time. Or, you could teach about families since this is one of the times during the year that families tend to gather together for reunions. You could even teach the song, "I Have a Family Tree" from the children's songbook. I have taught this successfully to adult classes two or three times after a lesson on "relationships" vocabulary. They loved it and many asked for copies Advanced classes might have some fun doing "mad-libs" after a brief review of the 8 parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, articles, interjections). Call me if you need an explanation or sample of "mad libs".
Well, a final word on what we're all doing. In July, President Robertson and I had friends stop by briefly with their son who had just been released from the Taiwan Kaochung Mission. While we visited, I asked him the same questions I ask our returning Kobe missionaries. I asked him to share with us one of his most memorable experiences. He told us of faithfully dendo-ing for several days and only experiencing whatever the Mandarin word is for "kekko". When, determined to do their duty despite the response, he and his companion approached one more man fully expecting .... you know what. And, that's what they got until they felt inspired to say, "Our church is also called Mormon." The man then lit up and began to ask them if this was the church that had a book about Nephi and Lehi, etc. Several questions later, when it was obvious the man had been reading the Book of Mormon, he said, "My favorite part is where Nephi tells his brothers that he was certain God would prepare a way for them to keep all the commandments he gave them." He then told the Elders that he knew that was true, but, he didn't know God's commandments. He wondered if they could help him learn them.
Faithful attending to duty does precede the miracle. I did ask Paul (our friends' son) where the man (who was baptized the following month) had gotten the Book of Mormon originally, and he said that he had never found out. You never know who is out there or how they might be prepared. Use the spirit and keep trusting the Lord. And, please don't forget we love you!!!!!!!
Love, Sister Robertson
This month's wisdom comes from a very recently returned missionary who had the benefit of being very schooled in the manners and social graces expected of refined people (like missionaries) in Japan. Thanks to Uchida Choro (and his Mom) he left us with a list of hints that will be helpful as we try to make a good impression upon and build a good relationship with those we meet. With the best of intent for us to "mind our manners" here's Uchida Choro's pointers:
When eating:
Other good manners:
Editor's note: Some of these important manners remind us of things other countries and cultures do (or used to) teach too. Good idea to review the list and then we can all fix anything that may have been amiss with our manners and thereby avoid offending others.
Thanks, Uchida Chore, for sharing these with us.
Giuseppe Taranto first heard about the LDS Church in the fall of 1843 as a 27-year-old Italian immigrant to the US. He was baptized in Boston, and in 1845 sold his business and moved to Nauvoo, assuming the Americanized name Joseph Toronto. One of his descendants reported, "When Giuseppe went to Nauvoo, he heard Brigham Young say temple construction would have to stop because the tithing funds had run out... The next day, he went to Brigham Young, gave him about $2,500 in gold and said he wanted to give everything he had to the building up of the church and kingdom of God. It was everything he had." Brigham Young blessed Toronto that because of his generosity, his posterity would never want for bread.
From a recent letter from Elder Toone:
"I actually did get to participate a little in some missionary work. I went on a split with some missionaries and we went to visit the home of a couple in the ward who had been going to church regularly for the last 20 years, and paying their tithing for 10 years, but had never been baptized. We talked for a while and this missionary was very new in the field. After we had talked to them for about 15 minutes just about the weather and wind type of stuff he burst out with "So why haven't you been baptized yet?". They just politely laughed, maybe at my expression, and explained that they hadn't felt the time had come just yet. I was now ready for the choro to ask them to read and pray about it again or something or read a scripture at least, but he got so scared that he just said, 'OK, well, we have to go now.' My jaw dropped. But just as I was about to try to take over his lesson, I had an impression and it hit me kind of hard. Leave it at that for now. I hesitated for a split second, and then the moment was gone as he stood up to leave. I felt I had betrayed myself, not done my job as a missionary, but I also sadly realized that although I was still a missionary, I was not a full-time one, and maybe he was getting inspiration I wasn't. About a month later, that couple stood up at their baptism and talked of how they had had experiences in the last months which had expressed to them that it was time to get baptized, one of which was that missionary's untrained yet sincere challenge. It was great to know that I got to be there, and just watch the Lord do his work through the simple and weak things of the world."
"Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them" (Alma 57:21). This is Helaman talking; about his warriors in a time of war and strife, a time when the battle between good and evil was so real that it left blood on their swords every night. If these people didn't follow every command from their God through their leaders they would lose their wives, children, and even their own lives, The battle is still the same. We are in a battle and Satan is still here. He doesn't want us to baptize and will do everything in his power to stop our investigator from putting on white clothes and entering the baptismal font. But we know who will win. Like it says in Doctrine and Covenants 88:110, 'and Satan shall be bound, that old serpent, who is called the devil.' How can we 'bind' Satan and keep him from affecting our work? Follow our leaders. Do the things that we've been taught in the White Handbook from the President, and our Zone and District Leaders. We need to contact our yoteisha's, help them read and pray, and make sure that they progress. We need to do these things everyday. Just like in Helaman's time, we are warriors in a very important battle. We need to 'perform every word of command with exactness' and we will win. It's such a blessing to watch the miracles and the victories that we win everyday in the mission. Thank you for all your work and obedience. Let us go forth!
This is an excerpt taken from President Hinckley's book
Love is the only force that ran erase the differences between people or bridge the chasms of bitterness. I think frequently of these lines by Edwin Markham, which in simple terms endorse the virtue of reaching out with love and kindness to those who would revile against us:He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!He who most beautifully taught this everlasting truth was the Son of God, the "one perfect exemplar, teacher, and embodiment of love. His coming to earth was an expression of His Father's love. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever lasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17). In the ultimate expression of love, He did something for us that we could not do for ourselves.
Now, to all of us who would be His disciples, He has given the great commandment, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34).
If the world is to be improved, the process of love must make a change in the hearts of humans. It can do so when we look beyond self to give our love to God and others, and do so with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds.
As we look with love and gratitude to God, and as we serve others with no apparent recompense for ourselves, there will come a greater sense of service toward our fellow human beings, less thinking of self and more reaching out to others. This principle of love is the basic essence of goodness.
Smiling is infectious, you catch it like the flu.
When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin
When he smiled I realized I'd passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile, then I realized its worth,
A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth.
So, if you feel a smile begin, don't leave it undetected.
Let's start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected.
One night, at 11:30 PM, an older African American woman was sanding on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing min storm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxi cab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him.
Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read:
"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.Sincerely,
Mrs. Nat King Cole."
When you send in the Progress Report and your reimbursables, please put your name in English for we have not learned Nihongo as yet. We can decipher the zone and area, but not names. Please put your name on the mastery sheets. Sister Pyper is getting some without any names on them. It takes quite a bit of detective work to find out whose they are. We both enjoy talking to you on the phone and be sure and let either of know if there is anything that we can do to help you out while you are serving here in the Kobe Mission. Remember that the reimbursement sheets must be in our hands by the 22nd and the 7th of the month to make the deadline that the bank has us on. We love you and all that you do out there. God Bless You All!
| Austin Luck | 8/06 |
| Jeffrey Gustafson | 8/17 |
| Dane Laverty | 8/20 |
| James Sayers | 8/24 |
| Yoshio Sato | 8/26 |
| Candice Kiyabu | 8/26 |
| Jacob Thomas | 8/29 |
Christian Chesley
James Davies
Scott Garcia
Jared Harwood
Dean Hollis
Samuel Howard
Jeremiah Jones
Don Moench
Cory Quinlan
Jerry Shachez
Mark Semmler
Robert Smith
Brandon Trujillo
Jason Ellsworth
Larie Langie
Kevin Figuerres
Jared Pearson
Richard Le Seuer
Blake Clifton
Nathan Carlson
Yoshio Sato
| 1 | package chicken or pork |
| 1 | cup water |
| 1 | cup tomato paste (catsup) |
| 1 | large onion (chopped) |
| 1 | can chunk pineapple |
| 1/2 | cup vinegar |
| 3/4 | cup sugar |
| 1 | tsp salt |
| 2 | Tbs corn starch |
Fry meat. In pot add water, sugar, vinegar, tomato paste, salt, pineapple juice, onion, green pepper.
Simmer. Onion and green pepper may be pre-fried if you are in a hurry. Add meat and pineapple chunks to sauce. Stir in 2 Tbs corn starch diluted in water. Serve over rice and enjoy.
Dear Beloved Missionaries,
Thank you for all your hard work and labors to bring the children of our Father-in-Heaven back to Him. Your example and diligence to the work is truly inspiring.
I hope all the orders for chirashi and BoMs and getting through to you as you need them. One thing that will help us to get them done is if you make sure that orders are placed during office hours, when someone is upstairs. If requests don't get written in the 'Request Book' we can make no guarantee that your need will not be lost among all the paperwork. If you call in the evening, it would be a very good idea to call again during hours to follow up.
I'm very happy with all the baptism and confirmation reports that are coming in. Thank you for making my life easier. DL's thank you for Stats; I realize that it is tough and time consuming job. I do Stats input on Monday morning, so please fax them to me by Sunday night.
As always, if there is anything I can do for you to make your work easier, or help bring someone closer to Christ, don't ever hesitate to call.
Gratitude and Love,
Blatchford Choro
Hello, I'm elder Aoyama Choro. I'm sure there is a lot of you that don't know me yet, How are you all. I'm grateful for you all hard efforts in doing the Lord's work. The reason I am writing this message is to correct an error that was communicated to put Tatami in your apartment. Unfortunately this should have said please remove carpet that is on Tatami. This is because the Tatami needs to breath and if the carpet on top of the Tatami gets wet mold will form between it and the Tatami. So please correct this problem. If you already have Tatami where mold has formed please inform me. We would like you to be able to focus on your missionary work and problems like this would make it difficult. I pray that you will be able to focus on your missionary work
Aoyama Choro..