The End?

(Elder Mumford visits a famous shrine and garden in Japan.)

Now here's Elder Mumford's e-mail from 5/2/10:

Dear Everyone,

Once again, we reach the end of the transfer. Unfortuantely this is going to be one of the shorter emails, because right now we are actually in Odawara. Many places are closed but this one is open (woooo!) but we only have a little bit of time left.

There is a huge festival in Odawara today, and so we went with Elder Petersen and Crapo to see it (so we took P-day on Monday, and we'll just have a normal day on Tuesday). We'll be sure to take lots of pictures! :)

(Beautiful blooms in Japan during Sakura season.)

Anyways, we're having a great week. I very well might be transfered to somewhere else though. Generally people stay in an area for 2-3 transfers, but I've been here for 4 now so it's kind of 'girigiri' as we call it. It will be sad to leave behind all of the wonderful people we've been working with. I wont let them get out of contact, (I plan on continuing to write/skype our investigators even when I get back home). They have become truly great friends.

Anyways, the future is uncertain, but I know that wherever I may end up, in whatever situation, I can rely on the Christ to help me through it. And that I have helped a lot of people here durring my time in Shonan. I hope that they will continue on in the path that they have started to walk.

(Materials from a recent mission conference.)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Alright, we have to finish up soon, but in case I have to go quickly,

I love you all. I hope everyone is doing well and working hard. Here's a quote that I heard recently, maybe it will help some of you,

"Given the difficulty of the circumstances, failure is much more understandable. But success is so much more remarkable".

That's been hitting me really hard recently. Even in an extremely difficult situation, we shouldnt justify 'well, it's just so hard, no wonder Im not succeeding'. But people who think that contunue on not succeeding, and they get better and better at justifying, but never really improve. Those who apply new ideas to try and accomplish a level of success that has never been done under such hard circumstances, eventually do succeed. And how much better would it be if people didnt say 'ah, it's ok he failed, it was almost impossible anyways', but instead said 'wow, he's so good that he made it even though it was impossible'.

(Watching the sunset, from the window of the Shonan apartment.)

Im trying to not let up one bit this last section of my mission. I've also become good friends with Elder King and met a lot of good people this transfer.

So, I'm very happy about having been here.

Thanks everyone for the great support. I just got 3 letters at the same time in the mail from the seminary students.

I love seeing the pictures and hearing all the great updates. See you soon!

Love,

Elder Mumford

TOKYO, JAPAN.