Snarr-shimai: Happy New Year's! 明けましておめでとう！

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

こんにちは!

Today is New Year's Day, and also our All Day P-Day in Tokyo South Mission. It's only been in this past week that I've realized how big New Year's really is in 日本, way bigger than Christmas.

Spiritual Stuff:

This week we learned a lot about trusting God's timing. For example, one day we were getting ready to visit a member and deliver an origami ornament plus chocolate, and we just could. Not. Get. Going. It was one thing after the other. First was messaging several people and setting up appointments. Next was forgetting the ornament. Then was getting downstairs to our bikes and then realizing it was raining. Then debating whether or not we should go back up and put on rain gear. Then going back up and putting on the rain gear. It took a while to get on the road, and we were kind of frustrated because we were "wasting time," and Augustus姉妹 was like, "it's Satan." I responded by saying, "maybe it's God," but she was like "nah its Satan."

We got to the members apartment and rang the doorbell. That was when we remembered the fact that almost everyone goes back to their hometowns and we had no idea of they were planning on doing so. We waited, and then decided to hang the bag on the door handle. As we began to do so, we heard a "Hello!" The member had been out shopping for お正月 (oshougatsu= New Year's) and had just come home to drop some stuff off before going out again. The timing was perfect. She loved the gift, and we were able to show our appreciation for all she's done for us. As we were biking back, we turned to each other, realizing, "it really was God's timing!"

That experience is helping us be patient with our friend Natsuki, who knows that "the principles are good for other people and for me" and wants a family like the ones she sees at church, but is not yet ready for commitment. We know that her desire is there, though, so we simply need to be there for her as she is being prepared.

Daily Life/Fun Stories:

As it got closer and closer to お正月 (oshougatsu= new year's), we started seeing the signs of a big holiday that I previously associated with Christmas. For example, when we did an hour of allotted grocery shopping yesterday, the place was way more packed than we'd ever seen before. The reason being partly because of last minute food preparation and also today almost nothing is open. And by that I mean barely anything. We even saw gas stations roped off and closed. Convenience stores and a few restaurants are open, but that's it. Almost everyone travels back to their home towns and so 伝道 (dendou= missionary work) is kinda hard but we make it work.

Starting yesterday at 4:30pm, we're not allowed to 伝道 until the night of the 2nd, and we can't house until at least the 3rd. Last night 5-9 we had "pondering time," today is our All Day P-Day, and tomorrow is cleaning until 6pm. Definitely a unique experience.

It is a Japanese tradition to watch the first sunrise of the New Year, and because our 伝道部会長 (dendoubu kaichou= mission president) loves it when we experience 日本's culture, he strongly encouraged us all to do it too. Which means we got up at 5am and headed to where we could get a good view... We were kinda dead, but not as dead as the 宣教師 (senkyoushi= missionaries) who got up at 3am to get there! It was far too cold and kinda disappointing at first, but so fun and it turned out to be so worth staying beyond the first few seconds!

Our 伝道部会長 also told us that we all had to visit a shrine on New Year's Day, so we did just that! We ended up going to 明治神宮 (meiji jinguu), a very famous and large shrine in Harajuku, which is one of the bigger parts of Tokyo. It was crazy how many people were there and we had to wait for at least 30, 40 minutes, but it was pretty cool.