The End Is HERE!

Elder Mumford writes his very LAST e-mail, dated July 27, 2010:

Dear Everyone,

This will be the last email! I don't have anything epic planned, but I just want to make this short and sweet.

1. Updates on investigators -

We commited everyone once more to baptism, and 2 of them attended a recent baptismal service, to see what it is like. But alas, no dates as of yet. This week we are going to try again, especially with Yoshida for a specific date.

Inoue is doing very well, and is coming to church and keeping commandments, but his main issue preventing him from being baptized is 'he has high blood pressure'. Which we're still not completely sure whay that is an issue, but he insists that if he didnt have high blood pressure he would be baptized immediately. Well, we're trying to work with him. He already believes that this church is true, and believes that it was restored through Joseph Smith. We feel that there must be something else keeping him back.

He's 55, and his only living relatives are his father and sister. Having just recently moved to Tokyo he may be feeling alone, and perhaps joining a christian church might offend his father or sister. Im not sure, but we are going to try and help him this coming week to overcome that.

(Elder Mumford catches a ride with one of the members. And yes, they drive on the left side of the road in Japan, with the steering wheel on the right of the dashboard.)

In any event, things are going great.

Tai Un is also thinking about baptism, he too came to the baptismal service, and liked it. We're meeting him on friday, and FINALLY we have been able to get a chinese speaker with us when we teach! So no more confusion and misunderstanding, he'll be able to understand exactly what baptism is, and be more capable of deciding whether that is what he wants to do. It's been kind of tough, we've mostly been taching through showing him the Kanji for japanese words he doesnt understand.

These are from a box of crackers that a Jaoanese member gave the missionaries. Ironically, there was no letter "L" in the box.

2. My last week's schedule - kind of strange, I STILL dont feel like it's going to happen yet. But my planner is rapidly running out of days, and at some point it's going to catch up to me.

Saturday - CLEAN the abominable apartment. Get out and bring the gospel to the last few people of my mission.

Sunday - Say goodbye to all the members, probably meet with all the English Class students to say goodbye, and set up the last details about the area for the new missionaries coming in.

Monday - Go to Shinjuku (the transfer location), Elder Merrell picks up his new companion, and I gather with all the returning missionaries and we all go to the Honbu. We have interviews, where President Albrecht gives us tips on how to have a great life. Then we have the returning missioary testimony meeting. In the past this was open for members and others to come, who may have known you, but because there were far to many coming, it is now only for President and Sister Albrecht and the returning missionaries.

(Elder Williams prepares to say "sayonara" to Elder Mumford)

Tuesday - Wake up, enjoy a honbu breakfast, then go to airport. Get on the plane, Say goodbye to Japan as it dissapears over the horizon. SLEEP, wake up, summarize all of my life goals and expectations. Start writing letters to all the people in Japan that I need to stay in contact with. Arrive in America. SEE YOU ALL AGAIN!

*NOTE- In this next section, Elder Mumford is referring to the following poem, which he sent home from his first area. We recently re-sent it back to him again, in his last area:

As I sit looking through the window;

A tear still in my eye.

I see my family, and friends I love,

As we say our last goodbyes.

The ride is long and tiring,

As two questions plague my mind:

Do I want the life that lies ahead?

Or the one I left behind.

I climbed down from the plane,

And stared longingly at the beach.

When a man turned me the other way;

And said, "Elder, go find and teach!"

Two years is much too long

For going door to door.

In my reflections, I thought to myself:

Hey, there really must be more!

I sit reflecting once again,

As this day is my last.

I say,"Lord, this isn't fair!

Two years go much too fast!"

As I sit looking through the window,

A tear still in my eye.

I see the Elders, and friends I love

As we say our last goodbyes.

The ride is long and tiring,

As two questions plague my mind:

Do I want the life that lies ahead?

Or the one I left behind?

(Author Unknown)

Elder Mumford looks out the window, and ponders the question: "Do I want the life that lies ahead, or the one I left behind?"

Also, thank you for sending that poem to me. I do remember writing it down, but I dont remember the author. I think I just took it directly from a quote that my trainer had. But yes, it is very true. I like how open ended the final question is, because I think that I take it a little differently than most people.

In the beginning, it asks, do I want the life that lies ahead or the one I left behind?

Which at the beginning of my mission, I took to mean, 'Do I want my normal, comfortable life, or do I want the mission life?'

To which I had a lot of mixed feelings. I loved being a missionary, and I didnt have that much of a problem adjusting. Although I was very frustrated, what I was learning surpassed anything from my previous life, about myself and about how the world works. I eventually came to describe my previous life as 'full of unrealized potential'. Where I could have done so much more, and could have accomplished great things, but just didnt know how.

(Do I want the path that lies ahead?)

And as I mentioned before, often times the mission serves as a way to show you how to realize that potential, even with intense limitations. We are very limited people. We're even limited a lot in missionary work - in that we can't really spend time with people being 'just friends', if we are not 'friends in the gospel'. We cant invest the time of becoming good friends, and getting to the point that people will want to hear us and will honestly consider what we say to be true or not. But we do have the power and authority, and God's help to do so. Which help I have not had before (namely because I didn't know how to get it --- once again, an unrealized potential).

(Or the one I left behind?)

And now, at the very end, I can reflect on that poem. And I answer the last question very differently.

'Do I want the life that lies ahead, or the one I left behind?'

And to this question, I can answer 'The one that lies AHEAD!' :) And the reason I say that is because I interperet it as 'do I want my life BEFORE my mission, or AFTER it?' And I will wholeheartedly reply AFTER.

Going on a mission is not to make yourself a better person. It's by no means about me, and a mission will not nessecarily make you a better person. You and you alone are the one who changes yourself, but the mission gives you a great opportunity to do so. So even though this 2 years wasnt about me, I can look back and realize that the greatest impact I have ever made on one person out here, has been on myself. It's a refining fire.

And so now, Im ready to take life as it comes to me and deal with it in the best way possible. Im ready to make every single year of my life better than the one before. I will get home, and basically unpack all the things that I put away. Restart from zero, but this time with the priorities in the proper order. Ill be ready to embrace the things that I gave up, and some of them I won't want to take back. But most of them Ill want to make better and turn them into a driving force for the rest of my life. That's what I have gained from this time here.

(Elder Mumford crosses the bridge to his new life)

And now the rest of my life is in front of me and I can move on with that tremendous boost and momentum from my mission. What it did for me was basically take me, a rather lazy, unmotivated person, and get me moving on the right path, for the right reasons. And now that the weights have been lifted, and the limits broken I can run towards my goal that much faster. It's really just been 2 years of giving me the power and pointing me in the right direction.

So Im very excited to resume where I left off. The course is a little bit different than before. But it's altogether in the best direction I could have hoped for.

I want to thank all of my family, and especially extended family who have written to me, sent pictures or gifts, or who have kept in touch with my parents this whole time. I appreciate the overwhelming support, and Im sure that Mom and Dad also appreciated it. I need to thank those who have prayed for me, or prayed for my family while I have been in Japan. There is a power that comes from other people, and I have had many moments in Japan where I think I have felt that. I also need to thank those who have their own children or relatives who are on missions, who have encouraged others, or supported others to go on a mission. It is NEVER easy to be a missionary, no matter where you end up going. But it is never easy to be a normal person for that matter, and the lessons that you learn (if you learn them), will set you up to have that much more of a jump start as a normal person when you get back. Thank you for supporting missionaries everywhere in the world. It is a life-changing experience.

(Sayonara! From the Land of The Rising Sun.)

Im looking forward to seeing you all. Ill be able to talk about it more this summer, when we meet again as families.

I hope that everyone has a great week! See you soon!

-Elder Martin D Mumford

-TOKYO JAPAN