Koiwa!

Here is Elder Mumford's e-mail from 5/10/10:

Dear Everyone,

I have some big news! I have transfered to Koiwa ward in the Tokyo Stake. My new companion is Elder Williams from Sandy UT. He just recently came to Japan the transfer before this one, so Ill be his second companion. His trainer was Elder Macdonald, so up till now all of his companions have started with the letter 'M'.

(This is one skinny building)

Some interesting/shocking news, Shonan is being whitewashed, which means that BOTH me and Elder King transfered, I went to Koiwa, and he went to Kiryu. Elder Miner (who was in the MTC with me) will be coming to Shonan with a bean on Thursday. It was way difficult to write all the nessecary information, and I hope we didnt forget anything. We were desperately trying to get all the information to him. It's really sad to leave Shonan, especially now that it started to really explode on the last 3 days of the transfer. We ended up setting a baptismal date with the Higuchi couple. They are both set up to be Baptized on June 26 as it stands. And on the very last day of the trasnfer we recieved 2 referrals. So this is going to be a great leap start for Elder Miner and the new missionary. Im sure that they will have a good time and really take off with Shonan.

Ok, so let me tell you all about Koiwa!

Koiwa is a very heavily populated area. I feel like Im back in Shibuya, because there are just nothing but massive buildings everywhere, and there are people all over the place. Which is a bit of a shock to me, I've discovered. Up till now I've been wandering more around the country side of Tokyo, seeing a lot more farms than people, but now it's time to dive back into the fray and madness that is a major city. It's already been fun and exciting. (Koiwa is actually right next to Shibuya.)

The apartment here was previously inhabited by sister missionaries, so we got to move into a very clean apartment for once.

(Back to the big city)

Yesterday was my first day here, and we had an appointment for a 'mogi' (practice) lesson with the Tamada family. (That was a real treat. Its a way funny old couple, and she showed us her talking robotic cats and her night garden). But on the way there we were looking for the address, and talking about how difficult it is to find addresses in Japan (due to there being no street names). Then we saw a delivery man and asked him where the address was. He actually knew, and without even looking at a map or anything, he told us exactly which roads and alleys to take in order to get there. He had the entire section of the city memorized perfectly. He told us he had been doing that delivery job for over 10 years in the exact same area of the city, so he knew every single house by heart. Very impressive. His name was Koike, and we exchanged chirashis (flyers).

Anyways, this is going to be a great transfer out here.

So Im sure I can fill you in more about Koiwa next week, Im still kind of 'in transition' at the moment, but it sounds really good. (My luggage has not yet arrived, so I'm living out of my backpack until it gets here.)

From what I hear, our main man is going to be 'Sho', who is Chinese. He loves church and the Book of Mormon and would like to be Baptized. So we will be talking to him a lot this coming week. I cant wait to meet all of the cool people we are working with. The ward is HUGE as well. I think there are over 180 people coming to church on Sunday, so Im really going to have to work hard in order to remember all of their names. Im not so good at that, but Ill try :)

(The Elders with students from the English Class)

I think this email place (the one we use in Koiwa) is pretty stable. We should be able to email here every week without fail. So wooo! It's close... and free!

Anyways, I hope mom had a great Mothers Day, and Dad had a great 40th Birthday (again). Im sending a package, I swear! :) I still need to wait on my luggage arriving in Koiwa, but when it does Ill try to ship the goods to America. Ill throw in the pictures from last transfer as well.

Thanks for your help! Have a great week!

-Domo!

-Love Elder Mumford

-TOKYO JAPAN.