Merry Kurisumasu!

(Elder Mumford and Elder Goes wishing everyone a Merry Kurisumasu! (That's how you would spell it out in Japanese. The "U's" are written out, but not pronounced.)

Here is Elder Mumford's e-mail dated Dec. 28, 2009:

Dear Everyone,

Well, this is the last week of the transfer, and we had a lot of fun together. Elder Goes thinks that he is transfering somewhere, and that I will stay. Anyways, It has been a great Christmas, and now it will be a great New Year.

This week fits perfectly into Shogatsu - from Monday, December 28 to Sunday January 3 everyone gets off work. We've already started to see it. Which is actually really good for us because there are so many more people outside on the streets, even on the weekdays. Yesterday, we went on exchanges with Fujisawa, so Elder Allen came to HIratsuka and Elder Goes went to Fujisawa with Elder Reynolds. It was actually a really fun day. We met two really cool people playing basketball in the park, one of which is the owner of a accupuncure clinic. In Fujisawa we have basketball night every friday, so they wanted to come. We also talked to a whole lot of people on our bikes, and one of them accepted the Book of Mormon, and was very interested in it. One young man was on his way to a cram school, and had no time, but after listening for a little while, he said 'I've only heard a little bit, but I'm very interested in it. It sounds amazing'...

Right now the people we know are:

1. Manabu - He just got back from Florida, and he speaks really good english. He's 28 and has a lot of free time now, so he's been coming to sports night and other events. He's a really cool guy.

2. Higuchi - Amazing family, has a lot of interest. The husband has a mental sickness, and so it's actually really hard to meet with them again, because they go to the hospital sometimes. But when we do meet next, we are going to explain the Book of Mormon, which we gave them last week.

(A portion of the long roll of paper signed by each and every one of Elder Mumford's cousins, aunt's uncles, and other immediate and extended family, and sent to him for Christmas.)

Also, thank you everyone for the amazing Christmas. I especially enjoyed the really long roll of paper that was signed by everyone in the family. It actually took quite a while to read. I think someone wrote in 'reformed Japanese' which I thought was pretty cool.

Also, one of the cousins wrote a cool looking symbol and asked if I knew what it meant. Unfortuanetely I dont, but maybe you could explain? It looked like an M with two lines through it.

Thanks for the great presents, we had an amazing Christmas. It was especially good because that night we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon with the Higuchi family. So we were able to help someone that Christmas. We still have lots of Christmas candy left and we are doing our best to finish it :)

(Another one of Martin's Christmas Presents- Book of Mormon heros that are designed to look like an avatar from a computer game.)

(Click here to see some of the other designs.)

In Japan Christmas is actually a very small holiday. The stores put up Christmas sales. Its more of a couple holiday, where you buy some things for eachother, and eat Christmas cake and chicken. Always cake and chicken. But New Years completely blows Christmas out of the water. There's a whole lot of traditional foods and events that are had around this time.

- Mochi - sticky goo made of pounded rice.

- Zouni - a kind of vegetable soup, but what is funny is that if you mix it up and say NiruZou instead, it means 'boiled elephant' which everyone here finds very amusing.

- Daifuku/Anman - basically bread or mochi filled with ANKO (bean mush)

Well, I think this week is going to be full of miracles. Everyone is out and about, and at night everyone is home. So we should be able to find someone with interest. Im looking forward to 2010 and the new year. Ill have to come up with some new year's resolutions as well. I hope everyone at home, wherever you may be has a great year. The best of luck to all of you.

Happy 2010!

-Love, Elder Mumford

TOKYOJAPANTO

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AJOYKOTNAPAJ