Unique Tie Contest

Elder Draney recieved a box of ties this week, which were very... unique.  They remind me of the first couches we had in Washington when we were little, or the bright orange carpet in the apartment when I was really little.  They were hard to tie because they were so thick and knobbly.   It is our turn to usher at the Devotional tonight.  We might just all wear the ties as a district, and hopefully take spares in case they are too... unique.

Elder Petersen and Elder Draney model their finest ties.

Lord of the Ties!

Japanese Practice

Here is a practice paper Martin mailed home for us to see how his Japanese is progressing.

(Click on picture to enlarge)

We did not get a big e-mail from Martin this week.  I believe he sent one, but for some reason, we never got it.  I think it is stuck out there somewhere in lost e-mail land.   Better luck next week.  

MTC Week 9

Last Tuesday,  I got to shake the hand of Richard G. Scott!  He was nice enough to stay and shake the hand of each missionary after he spoke.

It's great to hear all the sotries of home.  Even though there's only three people, it sounds like you're still busy.  Although it's probably a lot easier to get everyone together for family prayer now.

I'm learning a LOT of Japanese recently.  I'm using up notecards faster than I can get them. I know it's not just me that's behind it.  (Divine intervention)  By myself, I'm a really slow learner, and easily forget what I learn, but right now I can flip through a stack of new words and never forget them.

We are also speaking Japanese nearly all the time now.  Be sure to keep the Japanese version  of the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD so I can watch it when I get back and see how much I understand!

I tried the SD card you sent, but it was blank.  Thanks for trying to send me John's EV conversion video, though.  I got the general idea from the pictures you sent.  John never stops amazing me with his projects.  I don't know if I ever told you, but he was REALLY inspiring to me when I was little, (and still is).

Also, I've started reading "Jesus the Christ" here.  It's a significant undertaking (very wordy).  I wish I had an old English dictionary to help me.  At the bookstore, I also saw a copy in Japanese too!  It's absolutely incomprehensible.  Maybe I'll attempt it after I get back.

I did the first temple name sent by Bill and Rhonda (Thomas Jerakowski) today, and it was a great experience.  I also got the 150 page Biography yesterday.  It's very interesting!

Did I mention we are a Chat district?  Every week we get to answer questions people have on mormon.org.  Let me tell you, there are some very angry people out there, but also a lot of nice, sincere people.  Either way, we get to testify about the gospel and the restortation to everyone.  It's always a good experience.

We're in the final stages of the MTC, I've already begun getting ready (dry cleaning... checking my luggage).

I've got some good pictures too!  If you don't mind waiting, I think I will send them all right before I Ieave for Japan.

Thanks for the letters, packages, and support!  I love you all!

- Elder Martin Mumford

-Tokyo, JAPAN

MTC District

(Click on picture to view larger.)

This photo was taken by Sister McIntyre before leaving the MTC.  She was in Martin's MTC District, but is now in Sapporo.  Her parents are the President of the Kobe mission and they posted this on their blog.

Japanese Is Still Going Well

It snowed here!  It's still just as sunny here, but the air is freezing.  What's really fun, though, is watching the sun come over the mountains.  About 9:00 AM, these huge beams of light start to appear in the Canyon and shine everywhere.  Now that the weather has turned cool, perhaps a jacket is in order.  

This week we got the new Kohai!  There are a lot of people going to Tokyo.  Our district has been stepping up the language, with as much SYL as possible, and special English Fasts.(No English allowed, only Japanese)  Our Nihonjin teacher (Davis-Sensei) calls it an Enlgish War, or an English Military Operation in Japanese.  It was a little confusing the first week, because some of the Kohai thought we were ignoring them, when we were actually just on an English Fast.  I'm surprised that we know as much as we do, thinking of how little we knew on our first day.

Japanese is still going well.  I can actually understand what they say in Church, and this Sunday, I had the chance to say the Sacrament prayer in Japanese.

Also, if you want to read/hear some really good missionary talks, there are two that really impressed me (I can't remember if I told you before).

1. "The Fourth Missionary" by Lawrence E. Corbridge.

2. Elder Holland's "Don't you dare go home" talk (I don't know what it's actually called)

Did I mention that every Sunday after the Fireside is movie night?  We usually get to pick between Testaments, the new Joseph Smith Movie, and Legacy to go see as a district.

Also, just so you know, the shoes and socks that we bought are extremely comfortable.  I've been walking around and climbing 5 flights of stairs many times a day to get to class, and they are great!  That was a very, very worthwhile investment.

Also, the winter dress code is now in effect.  I might just put away my short sleeve shirts and slacks for now.

Before she left, one of the Sisters in our district told us all the great places to eat and buy things in Tokyo.  Supposedly, ties are very cheap there as well.  Also, they have the most amazing stationary in Japan, with random, completely nonsensical english phrases on them.  I'll have to get some and write my letters on it when I get there.

Only 3-4 weeks left here (I lose track).  If you want, I can send some things home at the end.  Everything else simply goes into the inheritance box for the Kohai in the hall.  (For example any books that I don't need, but want to keep, or my notebook so you can see my notes and what I do all day here).

Thanks for sending all those pens a while ago.  I think the bunch of Black-n-Blue pens you sent me will be fine, though.  I have enough to last me the rest of the MTC and a couple months in Japan.

If my letters seem kind of disjointed, it's because:

1. Learning Japanese is kind of messing with my English Sentence Structure.

2. I write a little bit of everything during the week in my Journal, and compile it into a big blob on Tuesdays.

Thanks again for the abundance of letters and packages.  Madison's devotionals are always fun, the class loved the little sticky tumbling men (Adam fell that man might be...)  It's also amusing that the letters Mom sends me are very very similar to the letters Elder Draney's mom sends him.  We also managed to make a few Hiragana out of the twisty baloons, I think I took a picture of one.

Thanks again!

-Elder Mumford

-Tokyo, JAPAN!

40 Days And 40 Nights (In the MTC)

Conference here was great!  It's probably the biggest holiday here, (Most others just sort of pass by without notice).  I especially liked the story President Monson shared about the discouraged Spanish Elder who attended the Japanese class to get his spirits up!

I also thought that there was a lot of missionary-related talks, but that might just be because I am a missionary, and it's what I needed to hear.  We also got to see Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday.  Did you see the gigantic harp that they had?  It was unbelievable.

And to all who have asked, As much fun as that would have been, I didn't sing in the choir at the General Priesthood Meeting.  The Choir was randomly chosen out of the many, many people who applied.

We had a festival dedicated to our being here for 40 days and 40 nights on the 40th night.  We drank the Martinellis you sent us (THANK YOU!), and danced to Irish Folk Music. ... Or, at least shuffled around a lot and jumped up and down. 

 (Click to see the celebration dance!)

Also, there is a man here who is in charge of security (or something) at devotionals and large meetings.  He is utterly massive, rather grumpy looking, and bald.  His name is Brother Angus, and I'm sure he's a nice guy, but because of his intimidating stature, he's called "Angus Khan."

             

The districed loved the chopsticks by the way.  Thanks for the incredible and abundant packages/letters that you have been sending.  It's been an impressive effort on your part.  I wish I had the time to send as many letters out as I'm getting in.

We taught our first all-Japanese 35 minute lesson this Thursday, and overall, it wet very well.  Everyone had a few mistakes, some of which were pretty amusing.  At the end of our lesson, I asked if our investigator would like to teach US more tomorrow, instead of the other way around.  It's easy to switch subjects in Japanese with the wrong letter.

Someone else said, "God is our Children" (also easy to mess up), and "The Earth was nowhere on the truth".  And there are ledgends of some really bad switches from a long, long time ago.  Someone told the person they were teaching that, "Jesus Christ killed bad people", instead of the other way around, and kept insisting this the entire lesson.

It sounds like for Mom, this missionary mom thing is like facebook, but more addictive.  Just be sure not to neglect Madison (the last child) between trips to my roomate's mom's houses :).  I'm sure you'll have lots of fun swaping stories about us.

Thank you!

-Elder Martin Mumford

-T o k y o, J a p a n

MTC Week 5

(From An e-mail dated Tuesday, September 30th)

Yup, we are now the Senpai!  The older group just left yesterday early in the morning.  They also passed on two cherished traditions.  I think I've already talked about the Book of Tommy on the Cardboard plates.  We inherited the book, and started our own account, called the Acts of the Nihonjin.

However, the big surprise was the second

tradition that we inherited, the "Tango Baby".  Tango is Japanese for 'vocabulary', and the tango baby turned out to be a MASSIVE refridgerator-size box stuffed with Japanese vocab flashcards.  There's an old magazine in the bottom from 1997, when the tango baby was supposedly started.  Anyways, we all dug in and picked a ring or two of vocabulary. 

And to answer Dad's question, we do still have the SYL (Speak your language) program, but it's a not 100% Japanese yet.  This week is the week we have to start speaking a lot more, and by the end it will be all in Japanese.  This Thursday is also our very first full-length (35 minute) Japanese teaching appointment.  So

 far, the most we have taught in is 15 minutes.

Oh and also, just so you know, I can't view any pictures/attatchments you send on these computers.  You might just have to put them on my card the next time you clear it for me. (Or print them out and send them by mail)

Thanks for the letters!  Thanks for the chopsticks

 too, they are the envy of the district, even though the cafeteria food isn't all that chop-stickable.

Also, the cat hair was ... ... ... nice.  (Yes, Madison really did send Martin some fur shed by the cats)

Good luck at school and at home!  I hope Madison is enjoying 3 rooms and soon a car.  I hope Mallory is making lots of friends at BYU!

-Elder Martin Mumford

Matsujitsu Seito,

Iesu Kiristo Kyokai

Financial Stuff:

Excerpts from a letter dated 9/25/08

Supposedly, the exchange rate (U.S. to Japan) is rather favorable right now.  This caused the following quote:

"So...a mission really IS an investment!"

'Just thought that was pretty funny.

Also, fruit is supposed to be extremely expensive in Tokyo.  

Just a fun fact:

-A bunch of grapes might be $20.00

-A mellon might be $40.00 or $50.00

-A single watermellon is over $100.00 in some places.

However, they are supposed to be the biggest, most delicious fruit ever.

Martin's District at the MTC

(Click on picture to view larger.)

(Click on picture to view larger.)

MTC Week 4

Another week goes by, and it's almost been a month!

The older group of missionaries (Senpai) are about to leave, next monday.  They have a donation box, where they put all the stuff they're not taking to the mission field.  By the end of the week, it should be filled with tons of food and books. 

 My district has 11 people.  One of them is leaving next week with the Senpai, because she already knows a lot of the language.  8 of us are going to Tokyo, and 3 of us are going to Sapporo.  Sapporo is the very northernmost Mission, and they are called the 'Frozen Chosen'.

 So far, the MTC field is open each gym.  Gym is at a different time each day, but so far the weather has been alright, so we go out to the field nearly every time.  I normally just run around the field, and most people play soccer or sand volleyball.

Anyways, my laundry is nearly done.  Thanks for all the letters!  I'll be sending a few more by mail, but I think this concludes this Tuesday Email!

-Elder Mumford

-Ja, Matta Ne!  (See ya later)