"Respect For The Elderly" Day

From Elder Mumford's latest letter dated 9/22/09:

Dear Everyone,

The past 2 days have been "Respect For The Elderly" day here in Japan. Thus we have been going around respecting the elderly. We talked to quite a few grandma's and grandpa's on the street.

(The Missionaries show respect for this elderly man, as he walks by.)

Things are as usual in Kunitachi. We're finding ourselves out on the streets quite a bit, looking for someone who wants to hear our message. So far, no luck, but we'll keep on trying. It's a bit disappointing not to have many teaching opportunities, but it does give us a chance to be out among the people finding. We do meet a lot of really nice people, but at the moment, none of the people we meet have a desire to ever meet us again.

I'm not sure what more we can be doing to find people to teach, so we're just continuing to try.

(Tracting the Streets of Kunitachi and Tachikawa.)

All day, every day, we are spending quite literally every moment outside of our apartment finding people. Then we come back each night, and call everyone who has ever met the missionaries before, and ask if they want to meet them again.

VIDEO:

Click "PLAY" to view

(The Elders climb every hurdle placed in their way, to try to find someone to teach.)

We're having some trouble getting past the wall of disinterest. The good news is that people recognize us as representatives of Jesus Christ. The bad news is that they do not want to have anything to do with Jesus Christ (and thus nothing to do with his representatives.) We have been told several times in the past week something along the lines of: "You two are really nice people, but I'm not going to listen to you, because there are so many cults and scary religions in Japan. I simply don't want to have anything to do with religion. Goodbye! We're still trying to figure out what to do.

(Elder Mumford is tracting the most "IUAKA" (middle of nowhere) street in his area.)

There was also a large festival in Kunitachi (Similar to the Tachikawa Festival, but thankfully, this time everyone still had pants on.)

VIDEO: Kunitachi Festival Parade

Click "PLAY" to view

We met a nice man from Turkey selling these meat-pita things. We also met a family from Uzbekistan (wherever that is) They didn;t have any interest, but maybe they will call us sometime in the future.

(The Elders have met many interesting people, including this authentic Japanese paper maker.)

We did have one cool experience though: We were walking along, and said "hi" to a crossing guard. He said he knew us, he had received a Book of Mormon and read it all 3 years ago. We asked him what he thought about it and what his name was, but then he got really uncomfortable, and wouldn't talk to us anymore. He said the missionaries made him read it. People are weird sometimes.

Sorry, this turned out to be a depressing letter. I know this church is true. I know there is someone in Kunitachi who is ready to hear it, and any-day now the timing will be right and we will be led to them. We are doing everything we can, and essentially waiting for God to do the rest now.

With hope,

Elder Martin D Mumford

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