I’m not sure if I’ve ever fully explained the potential that Japan is headed for. Over the time of my mission, even, there have been major developments and I’ve witnessed this country prepare for the miracles to come. I’m part of the fulfillment right now.
Prophesies: including President Eyring, Elder Holland, the dedicatory prayer, among others. President Gay of the Area Presidency is set on fulfilling these prophesies.
An excerpt:
“Your children will live in a Japan which is very different from the Japan you see now. This is because the Church will begin to achieve a marvelous expansion. It will obtain a prominent place and people will want to know about it. They will be interested and come. Your children will grow up not feeling embarrassed to testify of Jesus Christ in their schools and in their regional societies. They will tell their friends they go to school with and even their teachers that they are Latter-day Saints. They will have no fear. Not everyone will join the Church, but many will become members.” —President Eyring
Youth: I see it so many times, the current generation has no fear or prejudice against Christian churches. Many, even, went to Christian pre-schools or colleges. More often than not, parents' determination to remain in Bhuddism tradition prevents kids from learning more. But with increasing global perspectives and ways of thinking that are creeping into Japan, hearts are opening and the youth are key to the future.
English: Just expanding off the last thought, many Japanese people plainly recognize that English is a necessity for advanced positions in the work field now. More people than ever are striving for at least a basic understanding of, or else encouraging their posterity to learn English.
Foreigners: there are so many! A population decline caused the government to encourage limited numbers of foreign people (who must prove Japanese lineage) to move in to fill the vacant worker positions, mostly lower level work. Japan is increasingly an interesting diversity of races, mostly Asian + South American but also the odd “other.”
Some survey I heard about: it’s true, only about 1% of Japan is Christian, currently.
But, in an NHK survey, roughly 50% of Japanese people attributed religion to feelings of peace, comfort, and fulfillment, and maybe 40% said to have prayed for something before.
And now Hygge. Japan's Society is renowned for its work, work, work type policies. Recently, there’ve been movements to increase personal time for relaxing. Many companies are letting people off early on Fridays, so now we have a bunch of workers loafing around the stations because they don’t know what to do with themselves. They’ll go to arcades, or read more manga, or idk.
Denmark is reportedly the happiest country in the world, and they attribute it to this Hygge (fu-gge) thing. In a nutshell, people who don’t know each other get together for fun. They eat dinner, play games and such with a seat open for the next stranger to sit down at.
So we’re running with this idea and setting up a TGI Friday at the church for these people. It’s been successful thus far, and I bet the more we spread the word the bigger it’ll become.
There are so so many ways that Japan is progressing, I love it.
愛しています！
カードん長老より
Elder Cardon
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