The Shonan Report

(Elder Mumford and his district have fun with "stick on" mustaches.)

Now, for Elder Mumford's e-mail from 4-26-2010:

Dear Everyone,

First of all, thank you for the wonderful letters/emails.

1. Our phone number for Shonan is actually it's the exact same as our last Christmas call (weird! It's been that long already).

2. I will be emailing again at the Fujisawa Geneology center next week as well, so no worries there. I dont think there will be any problems emailing next week, even though it's the Golden Week Holidays, so we can set up a time just fine. Also, its nice to have a companion with parents in the same time zone as mine again so we can coordinate well.

Oh, and as for the honey and peanut butter, we actually have a full jar left of peanut butter so I think we'll be ok. Perhaps if instead of the peanut butter, if you replaced it with either tortillas or refried beans, we can have another mexican night :) Thanks to you and Elder King's mom we were able to do it once already.

(District Meeting with Mustaches!)

Some updates:

1. The Higuchi Family is doing great. They just finished their 1 week challenge of living (part) of the word of wisdom and they are slowly overcoming obstacles one at a time.

2. Manabu has been consistently reading the Book of Mormon every day now, which is great!

3. Sato family had us over for lunch, and they are a very kind family. I hope that we will be able to teach them a lesson soon.

(Elder Matias poses here with the Higuchi Family)

Some cool experiences this week;

1. We were just waling along the street, saying hello to people, and we said hello to this high-school student passing by, but because he had his headphones in he didnt hear us. However there was also a little old grandma who thought that we were talking to her. So she stopped and thanked us profusely for greeting a little old lady such as herself. That was just a heartwarming experience.

VIDEO:

Click "PLAY" to view:

2. While riding though a park, we found this giant glowing egg-statue thing... with a wierd illuminated granite ball dedicated to world peace. We took pictures :)

Anyways, sorry for the brevity, but we're about out of time. Thanks for everything, Good luck! Ill be praying for all of you.

Love,

Elder Mumford

TOKYO JAPAN

It's Getting Hot In Here!

Dear Everyone,

The long, long winter is finally over. So much for global warming! This year was a whole lot colder than the last one. I remember last time about this season, all the Sakura was in full bloom and it was already starting to get hot. But this time we really weren't able to see much because it was still icy rain and hail last week.

But despite the last little bit of winter, we had a great week.

Elder Clark, who is one of our Zone Leaders, stayed with us for 3 days. He is going around to each area in the Zone for 3 days each. He gave us some really cool ideas for all kinds of missioanry work here. We also met several times with the Higuchi Family, who is seriously considering baptism. They both are having a really hard time quitting smoking, so if you could always keep them in your prayers, I think it would help. Just yesterday, we met with them to help them set up goals to quit. So for one week they are taking a challenge to give up part of the Word of WIsdom, and also try to cut down on smoking, and see if God doesn't help them.

Also I have to apologize, because I'm taking a while to get the 3-transfer newsletter done. I will finish today, and send it along with the SD card. You'll be happy to know that there are almost 400 pictures on it :) Just bundles of fun.

Basically, to prepare for the coming of Elder Clark, we bought a few more groceries than normal, and made a super-breakfast the first morning. Then, using Elder King's delicous beans and tortillas, plus the great cheese you sent us, we had a way good spanishy dinner. The next day was chineese day, and we had gyoza (potstickers), chahan (fried rice), Mabudofu (mabudofu), and... that's about it. We also had a lot of fun together.

The Elders attempt to make a birthday cake for a member.

Attempt 1: Bread pan in the toaster oven.

Results: Very badly burnt on the top.

Attempt 2: Cake batter in the Rice Cooker

Results: Done on the top, but surprise! -completely undercooked on the bottom.

Attempt 3: Baked in a tupperware in the microwave oven. (Not shown.)

Results: Completely destroyed the tupperware, and the whole thing was thrown out.

Elder Matias decides to make the best of the situation, and stick in the birthday candles anyway!

Also, another random experience;

On Monday, we met a man on the street that had a grand total of TWO fingers. He was holding an umbrella, which occupied pretty much both of them, so I didnt feel it was a good idea to try and give him a flyer or anything. The good news is, that if he rode a bike (which I wouldnt be suprised if he did), he would only have to ever change one set of brakes. :) I guess there's always a silver lining.

We met a woman while knocking on doors who was a 'shufu' or housewife, she said. I told her that my mom was also the same, and from what I recall of my childhood, it seemed like a very difficult thing to do, more than a regular job even. And then we shared with her a rather complex summary of the restoration, which she had some interest in. She wants to hear more, but she wants her husband to be there (which is good, because so do we :). And so if she has that time she will contact us. But I think that someday she will have the chance to hear more about this message.

We also met a man on the street, and asked him for directions, because we were looking for a particular store, but at that time I didn't talk about the gospel at all, just thanked him and we went on our way. I kind of felt bad about that, but we continued. Much later, on a completely different part of the city, we ran into him again! This time we didnt want to leave without telling him about the restoration, so we talked to him for a bit and found out that he was currently out of a job, and had just come from a work-finding place and was returning home. He is hoping to find a computer programming job which gave me something to talk aobut. (I just have to say, I love Japan for this - pretty much a good 40% of the people you meet are computer programmers, and the rest are office paper-filers/receptionists, and so I love to talk to them about it. They often have helpful insights on that sort of job). We then told him about the book of mormon, showed it to him, and offered to explain more later when he had time. He seemed to have some interest, and so I think he will someday.

Also I just remembered, something from the previous Zone Conference. While listening to President ALbrecht's talk, I felt the spirit very strong, and I realized that it is very important for me to be in Japan at this time. Part of the reason is so that I could meet and listen to the advice of President Albrecht. His advice is helping me a great deal in seriously considering my future, my job, the path of my whole life. God really does call each missionary where they need to go. Just like that talk in the most recenet General Conference, how every single missioanry is assigned specifically where they are required, by the spirit.

This week I have really gained a greater appreciation for the spirit and the ability to know more than we know, and understand more than we can understand on our own. Who wouldnt want help like this? Who woulnd't want the answers to every question of life, general or specific? I love having a sytem of guidance that is always available, as long as we live up to it. It reminds me of the note you made of the Stake Conference, that it is so important that we ask. What things might we be missing out on simply because we didn't ask for them?

I hope everyone has a great week, and keeps up a good attitude. If there's anything I learned here, it's that your attitude will actually determine a lot more than you think. Attitude can even eventually determine outcomes.

Thank you all! Have fun!

Elder Martin Mumford

TOKYO JAPAN

Mochitsuki- (Mochi Making Ceremony)

Mochitsuki is the traditional mochi-pounding ceremony in Japan.

Mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time.

(These pictures were taken on January 16th, at a ward Mochi party in Japan.)

How mochi is made:

1. Polished glutinous rice is soaked overnight and cooked.
2. The cooked rice is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a traditional mortar (usu). Two people will alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi. They must keep a steady rhythm or they may accidentally injure one another with the heavy kine.
3. The sticky mass is then formed into various shapes (usually a sphere or cube).

VIDEO:

Click on the "PLAY" arrow above to view.

Elder Matias tries his hand at mochi pounding.

Japanese children take their turn, pounding the glutenous rice, with the heavy mallet.

VIDEO:

Click on the "PLAY" arrow to view:

Even the older ward members enjoy testing their strength using the heavy kine.

The mochi is finished, and the ward members fill it with sweet red bean paste, for everyone to enjoy.

Now, for Elder Mumford's e-mail, dated April 13, 2010:

Dear Everyone,

Thanks for registering me for Fall classes at BYU. I really like how this schedule is looking. Mom and Dad, you have done so much for me already, and I've had a lot of potential disasters here (bike problems, lost wallets) that you helped me get through, so thank you. Im excited to see you all again.

Ok, about the wallet. Like I said, someone found it, and turned it in. Last week we went to go collect it. We waited in the lost and found office for a few minutes, and they brought it out, with everything still inside! (except the cash) Even the coupons for MacDonalds, temple recommend... everything was inside! So that was exciting. So we were about ready to leave, and the lady said something to me about money... and I thought 'oh no, maybe there's a collection fee for taking my wallet back. So I was about to pull out some money, but she brought out a little plastic bag with cash in it and said 'this was in your wallet too'.

So even the cash was still inside! About 60$. I was way shocked, because I thought there was no way that anyone would leave the cash, and when I got the wallet back without the cash it confirmed my fears. But no, this is Japan. The safest country in the entire world :) Everything, including the cash was still inside!

Ok, well this week has been exciting. We got to hear President Albrecht speaking about Christlike Attributes at Zone Conference, as well as hearing all of General Conference!

Now that was fun! Every time, it always seems like there is a general theme at Conference, and this time it seemed to me like everyone was talking about Family and the Youth, and the home. Which in general wasnt so much personally applicable to me as it was applicaple to the people that we teach. There were also many points that were direct answers to what I needed to know (as Conference tends to do :).

(Click HERE to listen to General Conference in English, and HERE to listen in Japanese.)

In any result it was an awesome Conference. We made pancakes on sunday morning so that we would have lunch :) I followed your ancient Pancake recipie of putting sprite in the mix (but since they dont have sprite here I used Mitsuya Cider which is essentially the same thing).

I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk on patience. Also when Jeffery R. Holland started out by warning us of how bold he was going to be, you cant help but start looking for your seatbelt, because you know this is going to be an intense talk. Especially if it's anything like last Conference :)

Unfortunately I forgot my conference notes today, but Ill try and summarize them and bring them next week. I did manage to pull out a lot of good quotes that I heard. I put them on little sticky notes and now they are all over the apartment.

(Engrish Notebook)

Also, me and Elder King are having fun in Shonan. I have a feeling that this is going to be a rather nerdy transfer as we both draw out our vast knowledge of games :) He's probably not going to BYU after his mission, but Im sure we'll be able to hang out someday.

We met with the Higuchi couple last week, and we gave them 'prayer rocks' to remember to pray. Except they are a little more jagged then the round ones that we used as kids. But they still accomplish the same purpose :). Actually the wife says that she generally prays in the bath, so she put the rock in there. Kind of funny, but whatever works. We also gave them the story of the rock, Im not sure where it comes from, but in English it goes something like this;

One day, a man was approached by the Lord. He said,

'Go up to the top of the mountain and push the large rock you will find there'.

So the man went immediately, climbed the mountain, and began to push the rock. But after some time it still did not move.

Then Satan came to him and said,

'It is impossible. You cannot push that rock by yourself, give up!'

The man became discouraged and stopped pushing the rock, and returned to his home.

Then the Lord came again to him, asking,

'Why did you stop pushing the rock?'

The man answered,

'I did push the rock, I pushed with all my strength, but it did not move at all. That is why I gave up.'

The Lord replied,

'I did not ask you to move the rock, I only asked you to push. If you continue to push with all your strength, then I will move the rock.'

We've actually been sharing this story with all the members of our ward. Especially with little kids, they love to hear it. But notice some important points:

1. Satan tempts us not only with falsehood, but often with truth mingled with deciet. Sometimes he simply tries to trick us by omitting the truth or changing it. It's true that there are some things in our lives that we actually cannot physically do or overcome on our own. He reminds us of that fact, and as a result we sometimes get discouraged. But we have to remember that Christ can do anything. He has the power to remove our obstacles. However, this time is the time for us to be tested. It is important to remember that he will NEVER ask us to do something unless he has prepared a way for us to succeed. (1 Nephi 3:7). Sometimes we don't recognize the real purpose of what we have been asked to do.

2. One thing that we can be certain of is that by obeying, we will always find happiness. The last line is important to me, because it says that even if we fail, the Savior extends that wonderful promise to us still. If we continue, he will provide the power that we can't. We will grow through our tests, and he will work the miracles for us. All he asks of us is our best, and he will never require more. We in turn have to do our best, never resting or slacking. Even though it's not our power being exercized, our own dedication to the task will determin to what degree we will see miracles.

Anyways, just some thoughts on rocks :)

K, one last thing, Elder Matias asked if you could find a talk for him. It's done by W. Cleon Skelson (or some name like that, not sure how to spell it), about the 10 (maybe 12 or 13?) points of the atonement. Its basically a talk about the atonement and the power of Jesus Christ. If possible if you can find that talk in english he really wants to read it. If you want you could send it to him, or simply include it in the next package to me and I'll just give it to him at the next conference (we see each other at Zone Conferences). Thank you so much.

Thank you also, for the package! I just got it today! It had the Kanji cards and the oh so delicous Almond Joys! And the CDs which we are now enjoying. We bought a cheap CD player and we have been going crazy listening to all of them.

Thanks everyone for the prayers! They really keep me going. I love to hear about all the exiting news. I hope everyone has a great week! Good luck and have fun!

-Love,

-Elder Martin Mumford,

TOKYO, JAPAN.

Miracles

(Elder Mumford gives "Flat Stanley" a tour of important landmarks in Japan)

And now for Elder Mumford's e-mail dated April 5, 2010:

Dear Everyone,

I hope you have been having a great time. I certainly have been!

So sorry about the crazy mishap last time, I didnt really get to put my heart into a normal email because I was actually trying to cancell the credit cards as fast as possible. But I have some exciting news about that...

So I got everything cancelled, and talked to the police and the train station people, and got it all sorted out. So the process to get new everything has already been started. And then... I get a post card in the mail saying someone had found my wallet! Some really nice person had found it and turned it in. Which by itself was shocking, but apparently its very common in Japan.

This is the safest country on the face of the earth. So now we are going to Tokyo this week for a Zone Conference, at which point Ill be able to simply go and pick up the wallet. It doesnt really do much now, because I already started to get replacements, but at least I can feel safe and sound about it, and I dont have to re-get some items. So no worries. :)

(What Japan missionaries do for fun, in their spare time!)

This week has been really fun, namely because Elder King and I have a lot in common and we have a LOT to talk about. We're both Washingtonians, and we both really like books and games. So it's been really strange at some points because it feels like I'm talking to myself sometimes. We're very similar people. Which means that we have the same strengths but also the exact same weaknesses.

We're both sort of shy people, so there are many times when it's very, very difficult for either of us to muster up the boldness to teach people what they need to know. With Elder Matias it was easy, because he had no fear about anything. So right now that is our challenge. We both have to take on more responsibility than we have had before.

VIDEO:

Elder Matias: Completely uninhibited!

(Click the "PLAY" arrow above to view video)

SO I was thinking about giving everyone a little peek into the daily life of a missionary here in Japan:

Our apartment in Shonan is huge (4 people used to live in it), but that also makes it really hard to clean. It gets dusty very fast. We eat almost exclusively 'rice with something on top' meals. Mainly the kind that are extremely cheap at the big stores... Curry, Chahan (fried rice), and Mabodofu (no idea in english). All rice foods, but quick, easy, and cheap, and delicious. So that's pretty much the staple.

To make a meal, we wash the rice and put it in the Suihanki (rice cooker), usually durring study so that it will be ready by lunchtime. Then we fry up whatever goes on top. We have a huge collection of random spices from some missionary a long time ago, so we've been dumping those in to see what happens, like thyme. No idea how to use that but it smells good :)

(You can see the white japanese style "rice cooker". When closed, it looks much like a CD player.)

But recently Elder King has gotten his easter package, which among other things, contained a kit to make soft tacos. So we have enjoyed a couple meals already with refried beans, cheese, and meat. We also threw some chives we had into the mix. So that was a welcome exception to the daily rice meals.

(Common Japanese dinner item, called "Mabodofu." It looks terrible, but tastes great!)

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

As far as shopping, we usually go for the 'Cheapest is ALWAYS best'. Which I think all missionaries do. Especially here, where the cheapest is in no way dangerous, it just doesnt taste as good. Japan has a few thigns that are much better than the US, such as fruit and milk, however, we but the cheap kind so it ends up being about the same. (Although, last year in Kawasaki, I did decide to buy a giant, 5$ Fuji Apple, to see if it was worth it. It was :) ).

(Grocery shopping in Japan)

But enough about what we do, I have to tell you about our new district.

1. (SHONAN) Elder King and I.

2. (ATSUGI) Elder Gerber, and Elder Barton (?) He's from Hawaii.

3. (ODAWARA) Elder Peterson (from the MTC, he's from Kelso), and Elder Crapo (from Canada - Alberta).

Elder Crapo and Barton are both beans, so this is their second week in Japan. It should be lots of fun!

Its been particularly rainy, but despite of that we were able to meet with some cool people and have some memorable experiences. Ill share some of them.

1. So we decided to visit every single member of the ward as soon as possible. So our first day here, we went and took a picture of the two of us, (with mustaches), printed it out and wrote a little self-introduction on it, then mass copied them to give to all the members. So we've delivered those to nearly everyone. (For some reason all my sentences start with 'so'). So one of these visits, the family came out and their daughter was really excited to see us (she's 8). She said that since we were doing missionary work around the area, that we should check out the house next to them. And also the house next to that. As well as all the houses in the neighborhood. And if we had time everyone in the next neighborhood too. :)

It was pretty good sounding advice, so we did. One of the houses we knocked on, a nice family opened up. They opened the door, and immediately all of the children (7 kids) ran out and were jumping all over the place and wanted to know what was going on. The mom wasn't particularly interested in the message, but felt bad for us in the rain, and decided to give us an umbrella.

It was actually a really nice umbrella. :) So just a funny story of the kindness of a family we met.

(Elder Mumford enjoys "PAN" or bread from Ja-PAN)

2. We also met with the Higuchi family (a couple), and talked a lot more about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and baptism. They really are at a critical time in their lives right now. They want to know what is true, and they will be praying and reading to find an answer from God. If you could always keep them in your prayers that they might be able to find an answer to theirs.

Also this Saturday and Sunday we are going to see General Conference! Woooo! It really is liek the missioanry Superbowl. So Ill have to give you all a nice summary of what I learned next week. Oh and I also got the letter from the Young Women in the ward, thank you so much! Ill try and put together a letter for them this week and ship it off by the next.

For now that's about it. Thanks for the wonderful letters and pictures. I love hearing about all your adventures. I appreciate your prayers for me. Hope y'all have a great time. Good luck and have fun!

Love,

Elder Martin D. Mumford

TOOKYO JAPAN

A Pictorial Day In The Life Of A Japan Missionary!

Here is the e-mail sent by Elder Mumford on March 29, 2010:

Dear Everyone,

This letter might be comparatively short, because we've been having a lot of drama recently. On the way home from a mission-wide conference in Kichijoji, I lost my wallet. Which caused quite a bit of trouble, because it was already very late.

That Sunday, President Albrecht had arranged a huge conference in the evening for everyone, and the speaker was John Bytheway. He's still funny, and sounds the same. He gave us the classic Book of Mormon story of Ammon, and shared some very important insights about missionary work.

Because everyone was all together at once, it was very convenient to simply grab your new companion and head off to your new areas. So I got to meet... Elder KING! Who is actually form the Vancouver East Stake. So this should be pretty fun. I will be staying in Shonan for another transfer.

So on our return trip, I misplaced my wallet. It wasnt crowded, and there was actually only 2 other people on our section of the train we were riding, and both me and Elder King were talking to them the whole time. So it wasn't stolen, but probably just fell out somehow. In any event, everything has been generally sorted out.

This week Ill fix the remaining details, so no worries.

Actually Japan is usually extremely safe, and amazingly a very large percent of lost items, including wallets are eventually restored with all contents still inside. People are generally afraid to pick up other people's things, or afraid to mess with anything that isn't theirs, so thefts are relatively few. For example, outside the police station, it gives crime statistics. In the entire area of Kanagawa-ken, there were 150 reported thefts in one day. (Which probably contains the population of all of washington state and more). Imagine if in all the cities of all of one state combined, there was only that little crime. Japan is probably the safest country on the entire plantet.

OK that's all the time Ive got. Thank you for your patience.

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Martin D Mumford

-Tokyo Japan