Signs Of Life

(The Armies Of Helaman! "We have been taught in our youth")

From Martin's letter dated September 29th, 2009:

Dear Everyone,

We've had an enjoyable week here in Kunitachi. First of all, there have been some signs of life as far as investigators go.

1. Mano (Family) It's a husband and wife with 2 daughters. One day, she called us and said she wanted to come to church again. (She and her husband were both going to receive baptism about 1 year ago, but for some reason did not.)

From what I can gather, they were all set for baptism, but on the day of, there were issues with The Word of Wisdom. So, they have waited all this time, and now they might be able to come back. They say that they are still not ready to meet us or attend church regularly. Just keep this family in your prayers. They can do it, but they need a lot of help.

(Coffee Flavored Cigarettes. Now there are even MORE ways to break the Word of Wisdom!)

Also, yesterday, we had a great "practice" lesson with the Kii Family (members.) Their sons do not come to church, because they don't really believe it is true. Brother Kii works at a company that makes all the missionary name tags in Japan.
Technically, it was a "mogi" (Practice) lesson for Elder Remington to improve his Japanese, but in the end it turned out to be an important chance for the Kii parents to sit down with their son and discuss faith. (Something that cannot be easily done simply by sitting down and saying, "Son, I wan't to talk to you about faith." which would likely be ill-received.) Instead we presented a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it naturally turned into what he really needed.

Simply, we talked about WHY we believe what we believe. Elder Reminton and I shared our own personal experiences with receiving an answer to our prayers, and the Kii parents also testified and encouraged. We promised that anyone at all who tries the promise written in Moroni 10, if they truly WANT an answer about the truthfulness of the church, and if they are actually willing to ACT upon that answer if they receive it, then they WILL get that answer.

It was very powerful experience. I hope it made some sort of an impression or impact on him, that if he really wants that answer,he has to TRY first and see.

Also, my bike broke down. Fortunately we weren't too terribly far away, but I did need to give it to the bike shop to repair. So today I took out some personal money to cover whatever it may cost. It turned out all right. The problem was serious and beyond my ability to repair, but it ended up at $50.00 (kind of expensive, but I don't know enough Japanese to haggle)

Anyways, that's about the sum of our week.

I hope everyone is enjoying life, wherever they happen to be! Have a great week! Have fun! And don't do anything that I wouldn't do!

Love,

Elder Martin D Mumford

T O K Y O

JAPAN