Having A Ball In Kunitachi

(The missionaries enjoy their p-day activity: Bowling with the district.)

(Click on picture to enlarge.)

Exerpts from a letter dated 10/6/09:

Dear Family,

Things are nearly the same in Kunitachi. We have been trying really hard to find people to teach. The good thing is, we are both having fun trying to do so, and it's not nearly as difficult to muster up the courage to talk to people. No luck yet, but we will keep trying.

(In Japanese, "DENDO" means tracting, or missionary work)

Random story though: We were walking towards the church, and we met a man named Nakamura. He said he had lessons before, and had read all of the Book Of Mormon. So we let him in the building, and started talking. It was amazing! We explained about Joseph Smith's experience and asked him how he felt about it. He believes it happened! Then, he looked at his watch, got up and booked it out of the church. He didn't even have time to take our phone number. He said he would come back sometime, then rann off. So.... that was a really weird experience. I'll update you if we ever meet that guy again.

(The Elders met this mysterious man, who, after seeing their name tags, lead them to this Christian Bookstore.)

Also this week will be General Conference. It's a week later than America, and so of course the information about the Sapporo Japan Temple has already been leaked all over Japan. I don't think there's a missionary anywhere in Japan who doesn't know at the point.

(Sapporo Japan: Home of the famous Sapporo Ice Festival, will now also be the site of a new LSD Temple.) (However, the LDS temple will not be made out of snow or ice. )

It's finally cold and rainy, so for the first time we had to break out the heavy raincoats. They worked like a charm. It makes me miss Washington weather. I really love the rain here. Well I'm sorry for the briefness of the letter. We had a strange appointment with an SGI man that went long, and the mission recently changed p-day hours so that we leave the apartment at 5:00 instead of 6:00. So I've got no time left.

("What? It's time to go back out already? But we just finished cooking our takoyaki dinner.)

Thank you for the unceasing flow of letters. I love your pictures with commentary, they are great!

I hope everyone is having fun, wherever they may be!

Good Luck!

-Elder Martin D Mumford

Tokyo Japan!

(In the shape of a typhoon!)