メリディアン
日本語
帰還宣教師から
From Returned Missionaries
Dwayne N. Andersen-Excerpts from Autobiography
Mission President continued
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Most of the Japanese branches had local branch presidents. The rest of the branches had missionaries as branch presidents. Many of the branch, district, and mission leadership positions had been called, but they had very little understanding of what they were to do. I felt the direction of the Lord in setting up two hours of leadership training meetings at district conferences and area conferences. For each district, we had two conferences, which included the whole district, and two area conferences, which included only half of the districts. This made four leadership training meetings for each district in a year.
When we started these training meetings, they were filled with complaints. They said that their requests to mission headquarters were either ignored or very slow in a reply. The other major complaints were concerning the fact that they were unsure of their responsibilities of their callings. I promised the local leaders in each training meeting that I would personally follow up their requests and see to it that they were filled or send them a note explaining why we were unable to fill their requests. The rest of the training time was spent in my teaching them concerning priesthood and church government. (I used my counselors as interpreters. I was blessed to find two wonderful members whom I could call to be my counselors...Goro Yamada, and Kan Watanabe.) Things began to run very smoothly with these men as my counselors. I had complete confidence in the accuracy of translations with these two men. They were men of great ability and able to carry out their various duties. I spent time with them helping them to understand church government and also how to interview properly. Goro Yamada lived in Tokyo, so he would help me in district conferences from Tokyo to Hokkaido. Kan Watanabe lived in Osaka, so he would assist me in meetings from Nagoya to Okinawa on the south. We would go over our goals as we traveled to the conferences, then on our return trips, we would review the successes and shortcomings of our recent conference.
At the Japanese leadership training meetings, I took about an hour to discuss training items and then would leave the rest of the meeting to my counselors to continue the training and interview all the Japanese members who had been approved for branch or district leadership positions. My counselors also interviewed all those who had been recommended to receive the Melchizedek priesthood or to go on a mission. These individuals were later sustained in our Sunday conference meetings. After the meeting, the ordinations and setting apart took place. I had a profound gratitude for Goro and Kan, who carried the largest share of the local Japanese leadership development and the supervision of the Japanese branches and districts.
The Okinawa District was so far away from mission headquarters that they felt a little neglected. I checked and found out that I could take ten mission leaders to Okinawa, by taking a train to Kagoshima and from there to Okinawa by a ship, for the same cost which it took for Sr. Andersen and me and one counselor to go by airplane. I asked Elder Hinckley if I could use the mission president’s travel fund to take eight mission leaders to Okinawa by train and ship. He said: “Don’t ask so many questions.” When he said this, I remembered that I was told in our training sessions before coming to Japan, that I had free reign in Japan. So I proceeded to take eight mission leaders to Okinawa, for a leadership training meeting for the Okinawan saints. Sister Andersen and I took our children along for a little vacation for them. The group left Tokyo on May 12, 1964, and arrived at Kagoshima the next evening. The next morning our group boarded the Hime Maru ship at noon. The ship was not very large. We were put into a large tatami room with all the other passengers, having to make our beds on the tatami floor. We hit heavy storms, both going and returning. The ship bobbed like a cork on the giant waves. All the passengers in this large room would slide from one side of the room to the other, as the large waves rocked the ship from side to side. Sr. Andersen had given our family some travel sickness pills as a safeguard. The Japanese saints and others became seasick, so we ended up trying to help with babies and others during the storms.
We arrived at Okinawa on May 15 at 8:30 a.m. On the dock was a large group waiting for us, comprised of servicemen, missionaries, and anxious Okinawa saints. The servicemen took our children to care for and entertain them while we were there in Okinawa. The Okinawa saints took mission leaders into their homes to house and keep them for the time we were there. The mission leaders conducted training sessions on Friday evening and Saturday. They held individual sections on home teaching, fellowshipping, Sunday School, MIA, Relief Society, priesthood, genealogy, and Primary. This was more successful than we ever dreamed it would be, for both the mission leaders and the Okinawan saints. It built a bond of love and trust, as well as increasing the spirituality of both groups. On Sunday we held an Okinawa District Conference in the morning, and a Servicemen’s District Conference in the afternoon. Monday, at 6 a.m. we held an inspiring testimony and training meeting with the Okinawa District missionaries. In the afternoon we boarded the ship for our return to Tokyo. The dock was filled with a multitude of people. It seemed as if all the saints, missionaries, and servicemen of the island were down to bid us farewell. There was a special spirit of love and excitement that radiated from the dock to the ship. Streamers and confetti were thrown down on the departees, just like the tourist ships when they leave Los Angeles for Hawaii. Many tears were shed by those staying as well as those leaving. I looked at our children and they were in tears also. I said to Doug, who was about six years old: “Why are you crying?” He said: “Because everyone else is crying.” This boosted the spirits of the Okinawa saints and built lasting friendships between the Okinawa members and the mission leaders. It increased the spiritual dedication of the Okinawa members, to work harder to build the kingdom of God in their homeland.
During my mission, I received most of my inspiration and new ideas in the early hours of the morning before arising. One morning I felt the impression to call some of the best missionaries to be “shadow” leaders, spending as much time as they could, working with branch and district presidents. A pair of missionaries would be assigned to each branch president and each district president in the mission. They were to help these men understand priesthood and church government. They would also sit in on the leader’s meetings, as well as help the Japanese leader to make an agenda for the meetings. This built confidence for Japanese leaders. Another inspiration that came was to call all the district presidents to Tokyo for a training seminar on two or three occasions. This increased their interest and desire to work harder to prepare for establishing the full program of the church in Japan. The local Japanese leaders prepared and carried out two very successful all Japanese youth conferences. This helped to build bonds of love and fellowship among all the youth of Japan.
On two different occasions I sent two missionaries who were trained in specific messages to visit all the branches and districts. One set of missionaries was to work with the branch presidents on the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood development. The other set was sent out to explain to the members of branches and districts and their leaders the blessings of having a stake and wards. They explained the organization and responsibilities that would come to them by having a stake of Zion. The members were instructed that a stake in Japan would come only after the members had prepared themselves to take on these responsibilities. It is interesting to note when stakes were organized in Japan, all the stake and ward leader positions were filled with local Japanese members. To my knowledge, these were the first stakes to be organized outside of the United States and Canada where expatriots (foreign leaders) were not brought in to fill some of the positions. I think this was a tribute to the strength of the local Japanese leaders.