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."
:)
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.
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.
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
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