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