The "Sublime Audacity of Faith"

Dear Family and Friends,

     Last week was transfer week, new missionaries arriving, old ones leaving, many others

moving around.  It is intense and interesting. We said good-bye to four missionaries going home. We are impressed by these young men and women who have given two years of their lives at their own expense to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Two are returning to the US, one to Korea and one to Tokyo.  Elder Nagafuchi told of a recent experience he and his district of missionaries were involved in called “suicide dendo.”  Dendo is the Japanese term for missionary work. Almost all of the contacting here is done on the street. Unlike in America where we all get in our cars and drive off, most Japanese take to the streets on foot or bike, or go to the subway or the bus stop and so the streets are teeming with pedestrians much of the time. And the missionaries spend time each day speaking to people on the streets. In “suicide dendo,” they start street contacting at 9:00 am and go non-stop until 9:00 pm.  The rules are that they must contact as many people as possible, teaching where they can on the street and making appointments.  There is no stopping for lunch and no walking, and they must run from person to person. Who but a bunch or energetic youth would think of such a thing? We were enthralled with the excitement he expressed and the tales he told, and we were worn out just hearing about it.  Pat seems to see a grandson in each of these departing missionaries. She was in tears the whole day when they left. I’d be jealous, but hey, they’re gone.

     The “beans” (as in green) as they call them here, arrive with such sparkling enthusiasm and eager anticipation.  The all hit the ground running and speaking the language, beautifully prepared in attitude and spirit, with a mixture of innocence and confidence, calling to mind the words of Longfellow…

How beautiful is youth, how bright it gleams

With its illusions, aspirations, dreams,

Book of beginnings, story without end,

Each maid a heroine, each man a friend.

 Alladin’s lamp and Fortunata’s purse

Hold all the treasures of the universe

All possibilities are in its hands

No danger daunts it, and no foe withstands.

 With its sublime audacity of faith

‘Be thou removed’ it to the mountain sa’th

And with ambitious feet secure and proud

Ascends the ladder leaning on a cloud.

There is joy in being associated with these, our young coworkers. There is something about them that speaks of rejuvenation, renewal of heart, something that makes us feel younger (we aren’t) and jump-starts our spirits (our bodies lag behind) whenever we are in their presence.  Maybe it’s the sheer power of their testimonies. When the youth of this Church speak from the heart, there is nothing more eloquent. We love them like the Lord loved Hyrum, “…because of the integrity of their hearts, and because they love that which is right before God.”

               We home teach a couple (he’s a post doc researcher at Kyushu University, she a recent convert to the church form China). We counted it as quite an accomplishment just to find their apartment building.  They don’t have street addresses in Japan, but rather a coded set of block numbers, unintelligible even to most Japanese. The young wife, Que Min, is in the first few months of her pregnancy and very excited. They live a minimalist existence in a small apartment. When we visited there last week, they insisted that we sit in the two chairs, she sat on the waste basket and he on a stack of books. They don’t seem to realize that they aren’t supposed to be happy with so little.

               So goes life according to the eyewitness account of your far eastern correspondents. Love, Pat and Steve, The Beuses