11th Day Christmas Past Story

On the 11th Day of Christmas Past, Richard Scott (MHA Tour Guide) shares a treasured Christmas… 
Question: Can you think of someone you haven’t contacted in a while and thank them for the difference they helped spark in you?

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Nobuko’s Best Christmas – Tokyo, Japan
By Richard Scott, MHA Tour Guide

I served a mission in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is one of the most densely populated cities on earth, so in our mission, the direction given to us by Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi, our Area President, was to not waste time going door-to-door but to go face-to-face by contacting people on the street. We would try to strike up a brief conversation with people as they buzzed through busy train and subway stations on their way to/from work or school or home. We were encouraged to stop every 18-30-year-old male but were prohibited from street contacting females. If they had 30 minutes, we would actually take them to our apartment which was conveniently located near high-foot-traffic areas, give a brief self-introduction and invite them to return to our apartment at a later time to hear more (our apartments doubled as the church…see why we weren’t allowed to approach women?!).

One day in late November 1980, my companion and I were out street contacting. We had had a fair day in the number of people we had been able to talk with and set up return appointments. Suddenly, a bent-over old woman with gray hair and a broad smile approached me and in surprisingly good English said, “I’ve been watching you and your friend for the past two days and I just can’t figure out what you are doing! What are you doing?” I told her that we were American college students taking a break from school for two years to bring a special message to the people of Japan. She asked me what my message was. I told her that we were Christian missionaries and were in Japan to teach people about Jesus Christ. Her face lit up, and she said, “I too am a Christian and would love to learn more about Jesus!” I told her that we lived nearby and that on Sunday we would be holding a small group church service in our apartment if she would like to come. Nobuko Ogaki enthusiastically accepted my invitation to come to church on Sunday.

Sunday came and Nobuko was knocking on our door at 8:30, before any of our few members had arrived for church that started at 9:00am. She was so excited to be among fellow Christians and to hear more about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. She attended Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School and even sat through the Relief Society lesson that I taught that day (as missionaries in a “proselyting unit” (smaller than a branch, where you start with zero members and try to build up enough members to fold into a nearby branch), we missionaries did everything). Normally, if there was a female friend or referral, we would pass them to a set of sister missionaries to teach. We did not have any sister missionaries within an hour of us so we received permission to teach the discussions to Nobuko with another female member present (we had two).

Nobuko ate up the discussions. During the second discussion, Nobuko revealed to Elder Campbell and me that she had had a dream about us the night after our first discussion. She knew that my companion had sold his beat-up car to help fund his mission. In her dream she saw Elder Campbell and me riding in the car that he had sold and in the back was a massive book covered in gold. She immediately recognized it as something of great value and desirable and she wanted to know if either of us had a “gold book.” As it happened, we introduced and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon, which was of great value and had once been a gold book. She cried when we gave her a copy of her own and before reading even the first page recognized it and us as a gift from God. We outlined a couple of parts for her to read. In the next discussion she said she was half-way through the Book of Mormon and knew that it was the word of God and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She also asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon in English, which we gave to her. In the few days after that discussion and the one that followed, Nobuko completed reading the Book of Mormon in Japanese and had started reading it in English. She told us a heart-breaking story of her 19-year-old daughter who had been fasting for her father, Nobuko’s husband, to repent of some things that were breaking their family apart. She wanted him to change so badly, that she actually died of starvation from fasting so long and intensively.

We challenged Nobuko to more fully accept Jesus by being baptized, and she readily accepted. On the morning of December 24th, Nobuko Ogaki entered a freezing cold home-made baptismal font (we literally had to break the ice) and realized the wish of her heart and became a member of the Lord’s restored church. Afterward, she invited Elder Campbell and me to her home for a “baptism party.” She had written out, in both English and Japanese, her favorite Book of Mormon scriptures and had them pasted on the walls of her home. She had made lots of scrumptious Japanese treats and I was so humbled to have been a small part of introducing her to the Church of Jesus Christ. It goes to show, if Nobuko Ogaki can find, recognize and act upon truth at age 80, it is never too late for any of us to change, to grow and to let the light of Christ change us for the better. Seeing Nobuko’s conversion over those few weeks surrounding Christmas was by far my most memorable, and maybe most meaningful, Christmas ever.

Nobuko became an enthusiastic leader of righteousness and an anchor of strength to that small unit which later was folded into a local branch of the church. She was always smiling, she never let a few missing teeth stop her from expressing her zest for life. She was always outgoing and inclusive of everyone. Had she not been outgoing to us, we never would have met her, and this beautiful sister never would have tasted the joy and peace that the Gospel brings in this life. I was able to visit her after my mission ended and introduce her to my parents. At the faithfulness and unfortunate sacrifice of their daughter, her husband had changed his ways, though I don’t believe he ever joined the church. Nobuko and I wrote a few letters after I returned home and I heard she passed away in about 1986, at the age of 86. I look forward to seeing Nobuko Ogaki’s broad smile again in the hereafter and feel very blessed for that special Christmas spirit that she gave me at this time of year over 40 years ago.