Elder Martin D Mumford: Kawasaki Continues:

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Kawasaki Continues:

Dear Everyone,

I'm enjoying Kawasaki more every week!

(Elder Martin Mumford with Elder Jacob Meline, who is from our home ward in Washington. They met up with each other at a Mission conference.)

This week I have been studying Japanese REALLY HARD. I'm just tired of not understanding what people say, or not being able to recognize anything that's written. I've been plowing through the book of mormon in as much detail as possible. I'm in 2Nephi (the Isaiah part) which is rediculously frustrating in Japanese. For example "Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury-- thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup trembling wrung out", takes a really long, LONG time to read in Japanese.

I'm reading through without using the furigana (the little Hiragana-helpers written to the side of the Kanji), so I can begin to recognize Kanji. It actually is really helping so far. I'm learning a lot!

Japanese is interesting, because the Kanji adds meaning to the words. For example, 'repent' in English is easy to misunderstand. Most people have no idea what repentance actually involves. But in Japanese, 'Kuiaratameru' literally means 'to regret and CHANGE'.

English 'Prophet' has no real meaning to most people, but in Japanese 'Yogensha' means... well here's where Kanji can be a disadvantage as well. Hearing the word 'Yogensha', people assume it means 'a predicter', a fortune teller. Every Japanese person I have explained this to so far tells me about Nostrodamus. However, the 'Yogensha' we use has a few more strokes in the kanji, and means someone who sees ahead and warns.

(These are some of the flyers that the Tokyo missionaries hand out to advertise the free English Class they teach each Thursday. Eikaiwa (English class) is a free service they provide to the Japanese community , and is also the number one tool for generating investigators.)

To answer some questions:

1. We ordered rolls, muffins, bagels and Martinelli's via TheFlyingPig.com They should be delivered to your apartment Tuesday March 3rd, between 9-12 AM. Are you going to be home then? Tuesday should be fine for the flying pig. We usually leave the apartment at 12:00 so we should definitely be home in the 9:00-12:00 timeframe. Thank you so much! I am shocked! That's a lot of food for two Elders, but, I'm sure we will somehow manage :)

2. Did you get the "test" letter I sent you? I opened up the mailbox today, and there were 3 letters inside! One of them was the test letter, it arrived with no problems! The other was all the Valentines notes! Thank you! I haven't read them yet (we checked the mail right as we left to email), but I will definitely read them all to day.

---Also, I sent a little package yesterday containing the SD Card and poems for everybody. It usually takes 8-11 days to get there.

3. Are you sure your companion didn't just SAY that i-pods weren't allowed, because he didn't like new "wake-up" music? You didn't use the "scottish bagpipe" music on him, did you? That's what I was wondering too. It wasn't the scottish music. We woke up to the Tabernacle Choir singing "The Lion King". I thought that maybe it just irritated him, but then I asked the Zone Leaders and they agreed, iPods arent allowed. Apparently, they used to be allowed, but then they were having problems with some missionaries playing games on them. So, rather than spending all his time approving or disapproving individual i-pods for 160 missionaries, President Hill just said no i-pods any more. I'll send them home with the next package.

4. When does the New Mission President arrive? I'm not sure, I think the new Mission President comes after 1 or 2 transfers (6 or 12 more weeks). When do you get the new Japanese Books of Mormon? President Hill says the new Book(s) of Mormon(s) are supposed to arrive in march, but he would be shocked if they ever came before June. Apparently it's a very slow process. There's no doctrinal differences or anything, it's just supposed to have a nicer looking cover and be a little smaller.

5. We pray for your investigators by name, every day! Do you have any new investigators that you would like us to add to the list? We also are working with Izumi-san, who has a baptismal date! I dont know much about her, but your prayers will be appreciated.

6. What kinds of music would you like me to send you on CD, since the i-pods are no longer allowed?

For some reason I like instrumental music better than vocal ones. I really like the quiet reflective songs. Creative songs are always nice, like all the neat renditions of 'if I could hie to Kolob'. (not that that song needs creativity).