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.