Golden Week

Dear Friends and Family,    We teach the English-language gospel doctrine class each Sunday, except on the first Sunday of the month when we combine with the Japanese class.  Then we alternate the teaching so that once every two months we teach in English with a Japanese translator.  It is an awkward business, much like a dog walking upright on his hind legs: it isn’t done often and when is, it’s not done well.  Last Sunday we taught the lesson on the Remembering the Sabbath Day and Keeping it Holy.  We tried to argue that this commandment, far from being incidental and mundane, was absolutely essential to our spiritual development. Without it, we would never have taken the necessary time to nurture our spiritual natures.  It would likely be improper to assume, that occasional violations of this simple rule will lead to the Lord’s condemnation.  What they lead to instead is a loss of blessings and retardation in our eternal progress.  However, the scriptures make it clear that to consistently ignore the Sabbath Day Commandment is to discard a valuable tool which might otherwise be used to sustain our spiritual lives.  As those in Old Testament times were put to death for violation of the Sabbath day, so also in these modern times, for consistent desecration of the Sabbath, the sentence is death. For it is to invite and in time to suffer spiritual death.

 The Japanese saints provide extraordinary examples to us of selfless service, love of the Savior and commitment to the gospel and we love them dearly, but they are reticent to respond in class and it’s very hard to tell how a message comes across in translation. We were blessed by the very able translation support of Elder Nakamoto, and if the doctrine came out wrong, then we’re quite certain he is to blame.

Meanwhile, we have survived Golden Week, the highest holiday season in Japan. In a 7-day period, it combines the emperor’s birthday (that’s the former emperor, Hirohito, who reigned for 63 years - some of us will recall how we hated him and all things Japanese during the war), Constitution Day (that celebrates the post-war occupation-enforced constitution which includes Article 9 prohibiting an act of war by the state) and Children’s Day (that’s a day to celebrate the happiness of all children and to express gratitude toward mothers, also previously known as Boy’s Day, marked by the flying of the carp flags).  Golden Week launches the Japanese into a frenzy of travel unparalleled any other time of year, and unlike Thanksgiving- and Christmas-obsessed Americans, the Japanese wisely scheduled all this in the Spring when the weather is always great.

Golden Week mostly found us busy in the office, but on a beautiful Saturday, Children’s Day, we

joined our son, daughter-in-law and two lively grandchildren in the huge Yoshinogari Park and Cultural Village in the neighboring prefecture of Saga for a picnic and romp in huge open fields of the park.  It was a wonderful day and we returned to our apartment exhausted but rejoicing.

 We are having a wonderful time and again with gratitude for all the blessings we enjoy, we send greetings and love from your faithful far-eastern correspondents, the Beuses