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:

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Elder Matias tries his hand at mochi pounding.

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

VIDEO:

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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.