The Time Is Far Spent

(Elder Mumford proves that even at age 20, It's still more fun to play with the box, than with the toy in the box.)

Now, here is Elder Mumford's latest e-mail, dated 3/8/10:

Dear Everyone,

It was another fine week. Unfortunately, I had a lot of frustrations trying to get the email to work again this week, but from now on it should be fine. Ill continue emailing from this new one (all the wierd password issues are solved now). So I have to apologize but this week's email may become a bit brief now that the clock is ticking.

So, Ill share some cool things that happened this week.

1. We had a 'Music Night' at the Fujisawa stake center with all the zone's missionaries singing. But as we practiced right before, there was a problem. One of the sets of missionaries hadn't come yet, and said they would be very, very late. Since one of them was the ONLY Tenor, we had to stall the concert a bit. So we had everyone pick their favorite hyms and sung the first verse of each one. I think we pretty much sang every single hymn. Eventually we just started picking funny ones, like 'The Time is Far Spent', or 'Now the Day is Over' as we waited...

The missionaries arrived late, but it turned out great, we all sang and had a great time. I also brought 3 of the little mustaches you sent me, and took some good 1920's style pictures with Elder Sainsberry, Elder Gerber, and myself.

(How do you think that Elder Gerber and Elder Mumford will look with a mustache? I guess we will find out as soon as the next batch of pictures arrives in the mail.)

2. We met with Yuji san agian. He is the high school student that loves the Book of Mormon and is just plain awesome. He said that he thinks he wants to get baptized when he is older, maybe 18 or 19, but right now he is too young to make that kind of decision. (he's 16). We're meeting with him and having a good time, and he loves to learn about the gospel. Every time he has great questions. We explained that he can get baptized whenever he feels it is right (whenever he has faith and repents), and if his parents give permission. We're hoping to meet his parents soon. (his mom already came to english class once, and she was really nice. So she knows that we're nice people, not scary).

(The Book of Mormon: The Keystone of our religion!)

3. Me and Elder Matias have made a goal to speak a lot more Japnese, and also read and listen to it a lot. However, we think something that would help us a lot would be to have a CD of Japanese talks (general conference or other). Im not sure how, but if you could get ahold of some good Japanese talks, we will incorperate that into our language study, and probably listen to that all the time :) Thank you by the way, for all the great CDs throughout my whole mission. I have so many I've filled the entire case you sent, so I think I will start to give away a few christmas ones, if someone wants them. (since they will be here for next Christmas, but I probably won't) :) I really appreciate all the great things you send. Not many missionaries recieve so much in the mail, and so I always try to share everything (music, food...). Im glad that our family is in a situation where you are capable of sending so much. We're really blessed :) Thanks for everything.

(Click on image to Enlarge)

4. This week we were knocking on doors, and we came to one with no address or number, just 'Dr. K.' written on it. IT turns out he is a psychiatrist, and (like a good psychiatrist) he listened to what we have to say. He had an appointment, so he couldnt talk a lot, but we are meeting him this Saturday to talk more. SO this week, maybe if you pray for 'Dr. K' that he will be prepared to hear the message, he will think about it. Just a cool experience we had.

Also, thanks to Madison for the letters. It makes my day. I might not have time to send them a letter, but the Gilespie family also sent me a Book ('Drawing Upon The POwers of HEaven'), which I dont think I have thanked them for yet. If I dont get around to writing a letter today, I hope that you could thank them personally for that gift, for me. That was really nice of them. Also, ask them if they have any good advice for missionaries that are nearing the end of their mission, since they served in Mexico and probably met a lot.

(Elder and Sister Gillespie, serving as missionaries in Mexico.)

Well, that is about it. Sorry for the short time this week. Ive got to go soon, but I love you all very much. Its good to hear from everyone, especailly all the cool things that are going on at home. I hope everyone has a great week.

Thanks!

Love you,

Elder Martin Mumford

-Tokyo, JAPAN.