Funny Engrish!

Businesses in Japan will often use English words on their signs, to make them appear more modern.  But sometimes the translations come out a little unusual.  Elder Mumford  has taken pictures of some of the funny "Engrish" signs that he has encountered.

(Want to see some more Engrish signs?  There is actually a web site, Engrish.com, where people send in their pictures of funny Engrish signs from around the world.  Click here to see them.) ( Thanks to Aaron for finding this web site.)

And now finally, here's Martin's e-mail, dated March 18th, 2009:

Dear Everyone,

Sorry about the lack of information from last week, but I now know my transfer call!  I am staying in Kawasaki, with Elder Kowalk.  He was companions with the late Elder Cook in Shibuya a long time ago, and he's way funny.  He hails from South Jordan, Utah and is just about done with his mission.  3 more transfers I think (4 1/2 months). 

A lot has happened recently.  In 2 weeks our investigators have been dropping like flies, cancelling lessons, stopping coming to church and we simply aren't finding any new people.  It's very difficult right now, but we are trying WAY hard, praying and fasting to find more people, and we are working a lot with the people we are currently teaching.

Recently I have had two Japanese people call my Japanese 'Umai', (excellent) which goes a little beyond the standard 'Joozu' (good) comment (which all people are required to say no matter how bad your Japanese is).  It made me feel way good, but I'm not that skilled yet.  It's just that there were two conversations I had where I said everything correct, and everything they said back simply happened to be in the list of words I know, I shared the one Japanese joke I know, and essentially exhausted the entire supply of words in my head.  Every so often I have those perfect conversations where everything goes right.  And then there's other times that I mess up a lot, so I still need some serious improvement.

Actually, there's all these ads on the trains in Japan for the Broadway musicals.  Theres always big ads for "Wicked" and "Lion King" everywhere.  I also saw an ad for the Twilight series in Japanese.  Very interesting.

(Ad for "Twilight")

Anyways things are looking up.  We have some good lessons scheduled, and we're going to meet this really nice old man that we found last week on Friday. :)

I still have no idea how this transfer will go, I dont really know anything about my new companion, but we'll see this week.  I think it's going to be a good one!

I saw Elder Meline in the Temple! (Elder Meline is from our home ward in Washington)  He's going home this week!  Make sure to say Hi for me!

Thank you for everything that you do!  The letters, the pictures and little updates from home, the music and things!  Thank you for keeping me in your prayers, it helps me every day.

Thank you for supporting me out here.  There are many missionaries whose families won't have anything to do with them because they joined the church.  It has really showed me how lucky I am to have a family that not only accepts what I am doing out here, but wants me to be here.  Thanks for all the great help!

Love, Elder Mumford

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