Let There Be Shonan!

(Strawberry "mission" fields forever)

Elder Mumford's E-mail, dated January 25, 2010:

Dear Everyone,

I would like to share a quote off of a notebook cover in japan. Normally they always have some funny, poorly written english on them, but for some reason this one had a really deep quote on it.

"You can't do much about the length of your life, but you can do a lot about its depth and breadth."

:)

(Elder Mumford ponders "depth" and "breadth" and the general meaning of life.)

Anyways we had an amazing week in Shonan. We saw a lot of changes.

First of all there are some interesting things happening here:

1. Manabu-san is still a way funny guy, comes to church and enjoys meeting with us and learning more about the church. However it's really hard for him to try to pray. If you could pray for him that he might get the courage to try. It's a really difficult point.

2. Higuchi family. We met them twice this week, and they are doing great. She used to be Jehova's Witness, but because of some ill treatment she left. Her husband has a mental sickness - you know the movie, '50 first dates'? He essentially has that. It makes lessons very interesting, but he is always kind and friendly and excited to learn, its just that he always forgets. He tried to read the Book of Mormon, but he always forgot what he read the day before, so its hard for him. They are both wonderful, kind people, and she especially enjoys learning about the gospel. She says when we pray it always makes her feel better.

3. Monica and Marcos - a Brazillian couple that we ran into recently. She has been looking for truth her whole life, reading all religious books searching for what is best for her life. She accepted the Book of Mormon and loves our message. He also wants to hear more. It's in portuguese, so I dont have a whole lot to contribute, but at the very least I can always have Elder Matias translate my English for them, and that way I can be useful. They are a very warm family.

So these people we are the most excited about right now. There are great things happening in Shonan at the moment. The ward has used that Ward Mission Plan (which unfortunately I forgot to bring again, but those 8 things I mentioned last week were essentially the gist of it) to really boost Ward Missionary Work. One member asked us for some pass-along cards to give to a friend at work. Also, President Albrecht's hope is that with the new websites, mormon.jp and goeigo.org members will be able to share information about the church and english classes more easily with their friends (via email instead of face-to-face).

I remember recently hearing another quote from (I forgot):

'If you want results you've never seen, you have to do things you've never done'.

And that is absolutely true, I think. I want to think really hard every day, to find new ideas that might work. Helping people to share what they know with their friends. I want really bad to help the ward here, even if that is my only impact, I hope that I can make it a better place when I leave then when I started, and that's why I want to stay here as long as possible.

(Eating LIVE octopus? Hmmmm.)

(Speaking of "doing things you have never done before," click here see a video of Japan missionaries doing something they had definitely never done before.(Eating LIVE octopus) - Video is from the Japan, Sapporo Mission.)

(OK, It's missionary mom here, and I have to say that this is truly the freakiest thing I have ever seen Japan missionaries do!)

We are having many great experiences recently. Here are a few;

1. We met an old man on the street, named Akira. He loves the bible and his favorite part is 'revelations' because "it's exciting, lots of drama!" and his favorite author is Isaiah. Wow. Anyways, he is going on a trip to Indonesia starting today, but is coming back February 2, and really wants to hear our message and have the Book of Mormon. But unfortunately we tried exchanging phone numbers and couldnt do it be infa-red (its kind of tricky to do it), so he got our number but it didn't give us his. So pray that he will remember to call us when he returns to Japan on the 2nd. He would LOVE the Book of Mormon.

2. 1 minute after saying goodbye to Akira, we ran into Tatsuya, a man from Bolivia. He is a new father, and he sais he doesn't really know how to be a father (he's 24). He would love to hear our message about families this week sometime.

So there are lots of people out there that are ready to hear what we have to say. However, finding them seems to be a matter of attitude. If we think, ah, that person probably doesn't care about church or family or life... and we skip them, then we may have just passed a great chance to share. However, if we talk to everyone that we can, there starts to be more and more people in our path who are ready.

(Elders and from Martin's MTC zone reunite at a Burger King, to enjoy some much appreciated, good ol' American food- 'Such a rare treat in Japan, that it is worth taking pictures. You might recognize Elder Draney on the left, Martin's former companion from the MTC.)

Also, I've been thinking, and usually the only reason that any one person would willingly stop a complete stranger and start talking to them would be if they want something from them. That's the way it usually is. Even missionaries sometimes get trapped in that attitude, that when they talk to someone on the street they are asking something FROM the people, to listen to them. However that attitude should change:

1. If you met a stranger on the street, who came up to you and began talking, there is a big difference in your reaction if they want YOU to give THEM something (like listening to them, money, directions... etc) than if THEY want to give something to YOU (a present, help, the gospel). If you can tell that they want to GIVE something instead of TAKE something, it feels so much better.

I need to work on that. Sometimes I worry that people automatically think that because I stopped them, I WANT something from them. And occasionally I get caught in the same thought process - I want them to listen to me, even only for 5 minutes. However, they need to know that we are GIVING something to people, we dont want their money. We're not selling anything. We are giving something immensley valuable to everyone that will take it, like handing out free cakes. Anyone who has the courage to listen for a few moments will be able to tell it's a good thing, and if they take it it will make them happy.

We get no tangible benefits for giving someone the gospel, but they get innumerable benefits for their entire lives. That is the attitude that we need to have, and especially SHOW that we have.

('Not sure what this sign is trying to tell us, but be careful anyway!)

Anyways, thank you so much everyone for the kind support in every way. I hope that this last 1/4 of my mission Ill be able to accomplish even more than the rest of the 3/4 so far. I think it will be very good.

Thanks so much! (Ill remember to keep track of all the dates when I recieve letters)

Have a great week!

Love,

-Elder Martin Mumford

-T o K y O, j A p A n

A Man on a Mission!

(Special Agent Mumford reveals his ingenious 12 part plan to increase member missionary work in the Shonan, Japan Ward.)

The secret details of this plan were uncovered in a recent e-mail, dated 1/19/10, and posted below:

Dear Everyone,

It's been an exciting week.

As for the 12 points that the ward is challenging everyone to do, Ill try to name them off the top of my head,

1. Give a Book of Mormon to a friend

2. Write your testimony about the Book of Mormon and give it to the missionaries

3. Invite the missionaries over for a meal/message

4. Invite a friend to Family Home Evening

5. Invite a friend to Church

6. Invite a friend to Other Church Activity

7. Give a passalong card to a friend

8. Introduce yourself to new people or non-members at church

Hmm... I can only remember 8, but next week Ill write them down so I can email all of them to you. Anyways, its just sort of along those lines. Everyone will pick one thing to work on each month. Some things are relatively easy, some things are much harder, but because you have 1 entire year to do them all, it seems a lot more reasonable. Everyone can probably find 1 person among all the people they know sometime in 2010 that would like a Book of Mormon. I think the difficult part is not many people know how to talk to their friends about it.

(When Elder Mumford went to his calendar to schedule one goal per month from the new ward mission plan, he found these curious words, written in the mysterious "ENGRISH" language. (Japanese English) Hmmm... more clues to be solved by Special Agent Mumford.)

However, there is one thing for sure.

1. The better friends you are with someone, the EASIER it will be for them to listen to you when you talk about the gospel. The better relationship you have with someone, the more seriously they will take you when you talk about your beliefs. They will be more likely to seriously consider what you say.

2. Don't ever think that 'If I talk about it with them, they will stop being friends with me'. Someone that you know closely will know you as a person, and already know you are not crazy or wierd, and won't think badly of you if you try to explain to them something that is important to you. They will continue to be your friend even if they have no interest in the gospel, so it's always good to see :)

3. Sometimes I think that the nervous or akward feelings are put into our hearts unnessecarily. Explaining what is important to you, and what you think is only as akward as you make it :) Sharing the gospel is like sharing your opinions on something else, explaingin why you think the way you do. There are probably many opportunities that will come up naturally - friends asking you questions about the church, clarifying what we believe. People will be curious.

4. Finally, know that it is true. :) We have nothing to fear, because we know that what we believe is true, and it will always do good for us. Because it's not just a mere belief or opinion, it is something that we have recieved an answer about. We can know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, beyond just hoping that it's true (or believing because that's what someone told us to believe), we can take assurance in the fact that we can know for ourselves, completely unrelated to the influences from others, by asking God, and he will tell us. Everyone can do this. That's why there is no reason to fear, because we know it's true.

"The field is white, already to harvest!"

(Japanese homes stacked on a hillside, overlooking fields of rice.)

Some may want to learn about it, some may not. That's OK. We all have choices and we're not going to force anything on anyone. That's a critical point. However, everyone needs to be offered a chance at least. So, find one person this year who you want to give that chance to. If they dont accept, they will still be your friend. They will respect you for having strong beliefs and reasons for believing them.

The view from Elder Mumford's apartment window in Shonan.

(Talk about tight parking! How do you suppose that little white van is going to get out?)

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful letters and packages. I just got in the mail, the camera, cheese, and posters, and everything else. I've already taken a LOT of pictures and I still have space for about 1000 more, but Ill take a lot of pictures of Elder Matias and send it home right away so you can give them to his mom. Elder Matias also is about ready to send home a very full SD card, with pictures of his whole mission.

We have been making lots of good omlets with the sharp cheese :)

Elder Matias' mom asked him to tell me to tell you thank you so much for praying for her. She loves having you as a friend. I was also very touched by her letter. It sounds like she is having a very hard time right now, but is still so strong in the gospel and extremely grateful.

Elder Matias is also a great person, we are having so much fun here, and he loves being a missionary. He plans on going back to Brazil after the mission, working for a few months, then coming to BYU for college. So maybe we'll be able to see each other again :). Elder Maitas has been out for about 1 year now, this is his 6th transfer in Japan. His brother recently finished his mission in Nagoya. He is now back in Brazil. His city (Guaruja) is a surfing city, its actually a small island right next to the capital. Its kind of cool because, Elder Matias' brother actually served in Shizuoka, which is actually pretty close to Shonan, but in a different mission.

Hamamatsu is probably only a 1 or 1/2 hour drive from here. (Hamamatsu is where Ryosuke Kato lives.)

(By the way, tell Seth thank you for trying to secure that apartment for me. I really appreciate it. Also I got the cat calendar from Madison! It arrived the day after Seth's birthday, so sorry for missing it, but go ahead and wish him a happy birthday from me).

Scene from the OTHER window of the Shonan Apartment. What a great view of Mt. Fuji!

Anyways, I think you will enjoy the pictures, we had lots of fun with the new camera. We have to cut it a bit short today, because we got to the email place a bit late, but thank you everyone for the great support!

Keep up the great work wherever you are. Make sure to have fun!

Enjoy it, you only get one life!

-Elder Martin D Mumford

-AAJKN, OOPTY

Shonan Times.

(What's this? The missionary version of the movie "Avatar"? No, it's just two Japanese sister missionaries meeting two American Elders!)

(Pictures from the Japan, Sapporo Mission)

Now here is Elder Mumford's e-mail, dated January 12, 2010:

Dear Everyone,

We had a great first week in Shonan! Elder Matias is way cool and has been teaching me a lot of Portuguese. I know about 400 words* now. :)

* OK, actually, he taught me a trick with Portuguese where there are about 400 words that are spelled almost the same as english. Anything that ends with "TION" turn into "CION" and that's the only difference. Im not actually so good that I could learn 400 words in 1 week :) Maybe Dad remembers that trick too?

(One of Martin's Brazilian companions taught him to cook authentic Brazilian food!)

Some cool things that are happening in Tokyo. We had a huge Zone conference yesterday in Kichikoji. It took about 2 hours by train, so we essentially woke up, went to conference, and then went home and straight to bed. But it was really good. They talked a lot about setting goals this year, and just how powerful goal-setting and planning can be, and that they can really make a huge difference. So this year I've been thinking a lot about my own personal goals. I want to do a lot better and finish off stronger than ever before.

As a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon in English, and personally I want to try and read it one more time in Japanese before I go home. That goal is a lot more achievable than last year, because I can read a LOT more fluently now. A long time ago (4th transfer), I tried to read the Bible in Japanese, and while I was able to make some progress, I stopped because it wasn't worth it for the time it took. I made it to about page 40. I want to read the whole thing once I'm back, but for now there are more important things to focus on in our limited study time.

(Elder Mumford completed reading the Book of Mormon in Japanese last July.)

Which reminds me, I think I will have a lot of fun at BYU, because they have a pretty good-sized Japanese library that I can go to and study. Speaking of BYU though, I think the best sounding option is Montecello Apartments. I think that being close to campus (especially the computer lab) is going to be even more valuable than being close to the store. Also, I remember that duck pond. I used to pass it every day when I ran in the mornings. Sometimes the ducks get out and wander around campus, and sometimes some wampaku students catch the ducks and put them places. (To be honest, I never really used the wireless internet much, simply because the wall-plug in was more reliable, and there wasnt ever really a need to use wireless - the Library also has plug-in places).

About the pictures, I apologize for the long deay. I had them in an envelope ready to go, and I barely missed the deadline for Shogatsu mail (they started messing up the mail schedule around December 25, and they eventually stopped delivering outgoing mail. Instead of the normal mail-slot, they replaced it with a special slot only for sending money to family members).

Actually a funny story, because every single person stops working durring Shogatsu, (including all the mail people), they hired a whole ton of 14-16 year old kids on part time jobs to deliver everything on bikes. So durring Shogatsu we DID recieve mail (which was very happy) and they were all delivered by really young kids. I thought that was interesting. But now everything is completely back to normal. I sent the SD card last week on Wednesday, so it might arrive today or tomorrow).

Japanese mail delivery bikes, set out to deliver the day's mail. (I now understand why the mission office asks us not to send large boxes.)

Im going to take TONS of pictures of everything as soon as the camera arrives. I feel bad about not being able to take pictures of Shogatsu and everything, so Ill make up for it soon. Thanks so much for the quick response and generosity.

Kind of interesting, but Elder Matias' brother recently returned from a mission in Nagoya mission. In fact, he served very close to where we are now! Both Elder Matias and Elder Matias served close to Mt. Fuji, but on different sides. Mt. Fuji is actually really huge (I was suprised), and we can see it very clearly durring the winter. Ill send you some good pictures.

(This picture of Mt. Fuji is from the camera of Elder Goes, taken from their apartment.)

As for our experiences this week, some new things have happened:

1. We were housing a building, and after talking to a few people, we ran into a really old lady who turned us down immediately. Later, she came out and down the stairs, and asked us if we were the ones who knocked on her door. She was so confused at why in the world two gaijin from a different city would come all the way to introduce themselves to random people here. She said that sort of thing is simply not done, and that at first she thought that we must be bad people, but when she came out and talked to us she felt like we were good people, but were 'too innocent'. It was a really funny conversation, and eventually she went back in here house. Just one of those things that makes us laugh and brightens our day. We had to go after that, but we later found out that had we kept on housing, we would have accidentally ran into one of the members who it turns out lived in the same building complex. That would have been wierd. :)

2. Manabu-san is really the only person left that we are still meeting with. He comes to Eikaiwa, and we were able to meet him and have another lesson. He likes it a lot, but he's not sure if he really wants to know whether God exists or not. We talked a lot about that, and eventually gave him the 'Testaments' which might put a bit more background on what the Book of Mormon is about. He's such a cool guy though.

3. Our ward met together and we put together a new mission plan. This is really cool, because some members took some of the ideas and really ran with it, and now people are getting excited about it.

We're trying a program where everyone has 1 year - 2010, to try and do 12 things. Each month we pick a thing to work on (i.e. greet new people at church, give a book of mormon to a friend, invite someone to an activity...) so that by the end everyone has done everything once. I think it will really help. We've also been visiting a lot more people recently. We went to the bishop's house on Saturday (which is REALLY far away, but it was worth it), we wanted to introduce Elder Matias and show that we care, because I dont think they get visited often (because it's so far away). Im glad we went.

More Funny Engrish: That's a pretty big expectation from a simple notebook!

Oh and also this transfer, the last of the Shimai in our Doki are going home, its sad to see all the people that we know leaving now. This transfer there are 21 people returning, and very few coming in, so I think the mission is going to change a little bit. President Albrecht is very stressed trying to deal with it, so Im sure he would also appreciate your prayers for him.

Anyways, thank you everyone for the wonderful stories and support. I love being in Japan, and I cant wait till you can all come back with me :) Im excited to see what will happen in the last quarter of my mission.

I hope everyone is having a great day, and a great year so far. Best of luck with all your personal endeavors. Remember that this church is true, and that everyone can know that for themselves. I hope that all of you determine to become a little bit better this year.

Love,

Elder Martin Mumford

TOKYO, JAPAN

Happy 2010!

Japanese Mormons get creative with their Stake Activity:

VIDEO: Tachikawa Stake Sports Day

Click "Play" to view

VIDEO: Even More difficult Sports Day

Click "Play" to view.

Here is Elder Mumford's e-mail from 1/4/10:

Dear Everyone,

We were a little worried about email today, because all the places are still closed, but eventually we were able to email in Fujisawa church in the Family History Center. So here we are.

Its a new year! On the first day, all the missionaries in the Zone woke up at 4:00 to go see the first sunrise of the year. It was amazing.

Also, I have transfer Information!

I will be staying in Shonan, and my new companion is Elder Matias from Guaruja, Brazil! :) This will be my third Brazillian companion now. So Im excited to learn some more Portuguese. If Dad could send that list of places he served again, I think Elder Matias would know all of them.

New years was very exiting, and also very difficult. On the first 3 days of new years, the streets essentially empty. On the 1st, there were literally no people on any of the streets in the biggest city in our area. It was completely 100% deserted. We were also advised not to visit people in their homes on those days, because people get extremely upset and angry. We met more drunk people than we wanted to. So... we felt kind of useless during that time. Fortunately we were able to visit a few members, and once with an investigator.

But now Shogatsu is over so everyone is starting to get back to work and normal life, the streets are slowly starting to fill up again, and by next week all the banks and stores should be open.

(There are only 6 Brazilians serving in Tokyo, and Martin has been companions to 3 of them now. Here, Elder Goes, one of his former Brazilian companions, gets a sudden urge to scratch his nose while knocking on the door of the "ee-chee- no-seh" family)

Some cool things though, that are happening this year:

1. The new English website is up, called www.goeigo.org. Its really funny. (Click HERE to see this site in ENGLISH or HERE to see this site in JAPANESE.) The Missionary who looks like OBAMA, is Elder Furgueson. He is still here. He goes home in March/April and probably has the best Japanese out of all of us.

2. Our ward met together to discuss ward missionary work, and we came up with a few ideas.

Really, we only have a few people we are working with:

1. Manabu-san, he has lots of questions about the gospel.

2. Higuchi family, we are going to introduce the book of mormon to them this week.

(View of Mount Fuji from Fujisawa.)

By the way thanks for the packages! I just got the one with the cheese, and we enjoyed it a lot! Also, out of all the Book of Mormon poster things, I think Samuel the Lamanite was the coolest. Maybe a poster of that would be nice. Thanks for all the interesting things that you send me. Once the Post Office opens again, Im going to send the journal and SD card (I missed the gap, so I have to wait till then), and some other things.

As for the day of going home, Transfers are on August 2 (Monday). Then we spend monday in the Hombu, and get on the plane early morning August 3 (Tuesday) and arrive in America on August 3 also.　　I think the church arranges for all the travel, so Im not sure that you need to buy tickets or anything.

(Pardon me Elder, do you have any Grey Poupon?)

Well, thank you everyone for the prayers, the letters and the support. I am loving being a missionary here in Japan. Elder Matias is extremely enthusiastic. This should be a great transfer here in Shonan. It's good to hear about everyone at home, it sounds like fun! HAve a great year!

Love,

-Elder Martin Mumford

TOKYO JAPAN.