Monday, September 30, 2013

Another Week in Mada!

       Hey everyone!! It's been kindof a long week since I last emailed, not gonna lie. But I'm doing very well :) Still getting used to things a little, but haven't had any problems adjusting. I'm so glad I get to email all of you once a week, I always look forward to telling you about my adventures here!
     
       I guess I'll start things off with a funny story. I had one of those Elder Calhoun moments (from The Best Two Years). It was my turn to share a spiritual thought at a member's house, so I was trying to say, "Would it be alright if we had a spiritual thought?" And the word for spiritual thought is vatsam-pinaina, except I used "fakam-pinaina which means temptation. Haha yep, I asked if we could share a temptation with them. Everyone was laughing way hard and I was a little embarrassed... Haha but at least I will never forget which one to use! Sometimes when people laugh at my malagasy I'm tempted to tell them, "How about you learn English? Then we'll see who's laughing!" Haha but I bite my tongue. The language is still hard, but with the little that I can say I'm getting a lot smoother. Elder Moulton says he's seen a lot of improvement in the last week, so that's good! I even get compliments from time to time from the people we teach. They'll say something like, "Efa mahay amin'ny teny gasy ianao!" (You're already good at malagasy), and then I'll be like, uhhhhhhh... What?? Haha. It'll come around, I know it will eventually.
     
       There were a few questions coming about the food. I haven't had anything that interesting, but give it time. Lots and lots of rice! Just different loakas, or toppings. It's usually beans and some kind of meat. I'm starting to love the rice now! At first it was hard for me to polish off half a bowl, but now I'm able to eat 2 hefty bowls of rice easy. Elder Moulton says I've adjusted to that wayyy faster than anyone else. So that's something to be proud of I guess!
       
       Church is pretty good. Pretty much the same as back home, just not as fancy of a building. And that big ol' language barrier. But it's good. The chapel is on the main floor and there's primary, priesthood meeting, and relief society on the upper floors. This past sunday I got called up to bear my testimony. Just a wee bit intimidating, standing in front of 150 malagasies. But I did it! Didn't say much, just introduced myself a little, said a few things in my testimony, and got back to my seat. I'm glad it's done!
       
       Today we went to this place called Full Point. It was a beach area that was way pretty! Hot as all get out, but very nice. It would've been a lot funner if we could go in the water! Haha, but oh well. We played a little bit of soccer. I'm not really a fan of soccer, but it was fun just running around. While we were there we got swarmed with people trying to sell stuff, like necklaces. It happens a lot out here, people see a bunch of white vazahas and think we're just a bunch of french moneybags. I did give in and spent 5000 ariary ($2.50) from my personal fund. It's crazy cause I don't even really convert the money into dollars in my head anymore. It's probably good, cause if I thought about things in dollars, I'd probably spend a LOT of it. Things are pretty cheap here. An average day of money on food is probably around 5000. Not too shabby! You can get about everything here that you could back home, it's just a matter of how much you're willing to spend for it.
       
       Let's see.. Not much else I can think of at the moment. Here's some random stuff. It's very hot here, and it's only gonna get hotter and wetter until December! That's a fun thought. I'm already dripping sweat here. But oh well, guess I better get used to it! We do ride bikes everywhere. It's fun! Hard work, but fun. We're either riding on a paved road that's busy, or on sand paths. Nobody can pronounce my name. It's kinda funny! At least for their first try they can never get it. Everyone pronounces it Moomfoard. On the streets everyone says, "Bonjour!" and I'll just always say, "Manoakory!" (Betsy Mitsaraka for manaohoana) and they're always surprised. For music, we listen to one of the Elder's cds a lot. I think me and Josh Groban are gonna become very tight in this adventure! Haha. Oh and in my last email I spelled Tamatave wrong. At least "Tamatave" is the way it's spelled everywhere here. I'm glad I got to come here as my birthplace. It's a way nice place! I really do like it here.
     
      Well, I'll get some pictures up soon and say anything else I can think of. I love you all!!
      Tiako ianao!
-Elder Mumford

Who is this tree hugger??


The beach at Full Point. The view is okay I guess... ;)


Coconut on the beach! Looks better than it actually is. Still pretty good though :)


My room. Yeah, should probably clean it up a little today! Don't judge us ;)


People swarming around us, selling stuff.


A few hours at church, and this is what the back of my planner looks like. 

Monday, September 23, 2013

MADAGASIKARA!!!!!

       Manahoana from Madagascar everyone! It's so good to finally be here. Man, I don't even know where to begin!
       
       The flights were looooooooooong. But it was okay, I slept through most of it. From South Africa we flew on a smaller sketchier plane which was exciting! Haha. I don't have much to say about sitting on planes and airports. Not much fun. 
        
       Wednesday afternoon  we arrived in Tana and I ended up with all my luggage! I was relieved cause I had heard about some missionaries that go and don't get all their luggage for a couple of weeks. So I was happy about that. First of all, the little kids here are SO cute! Yeah, I'm a dude and I just used the word cute. Sue me! It was kinda sad cause when we first got there the kids came up to us and started asking for money. I guess we're not supposed to, so all we could really say was 'Azafady! (sorry). But they looooove fist bumps here. It's weird, I feel kinda like a celebrity here, but at the same time like a zoo animal cause everyone just stares at me. Haha and I don't think it's cause I'm 6'5, but cause I'm a vazaha (foreigner). Everyone is tall to them! Pretty much the tallest I've seen here is maybe 5 feet tall. It's funny cause every once and a while an investigator or something will point to me and say, "Lava be!!" which means very tall. It's pretty funny. I also saw Elder Rasmussen!! He was at the airport to pick us up. We immediately started talking about how we were kind of related. He's a great guy. 
      
       So after we met the mission president, his wife, and some of the other couples that work at the mission home, we got our new assignments. I got assigned to Talmatave with Elder Moulton! So awesome. It did suck though, cause we had to take an 8 hour bus ride here and it was way bumpy. We ended up getting here friday morning around 3. But other than the bus ride I'm really liking it here. It's way humid and hot here, so I always feel sticky. It's weird, but I'll just have to get used to it I suppose! To be honest, I wanted to get outta Tana. All the streets were absolutely PACKED with people and everywhere smelled like burnt garbage and probably some other things that I don't want to think about. So yeah, I'm really liking it here. Everywhere in Mada is gonna be something like that, the people here are really poor. But this place is nicer, a bit more clean. Plus the beach is nearby!! We had a zone conference on saturday and we went and played soccer and volleyball at the beach. It was so fun! And beautiful. I'll be sure to put a few pictures up of it.
      
       There's not a whole lot to say about the food. Rice. Rice and more rice. Haha it was really hard for me at first to finish a whole bowl of rice cause it filled me up so fast. But I'm able to eat more of it now. They have a bunch of different toppings called loaka they put on it. Different meats, sometimes salsa and beans. Pretty good. To go with it they give you burnt rice water. It's weird, all the other missionaries love it, but I'm not the biggest fan. I hear it'll grow on me though! Oh and the sodas here, aaaaaamazing. So freakin good. Everything has real cane sugar in it, none of this corn syrup crap. My favorite might be the Fanta's, especially Fanta ananas (pineapple). They also have this really good one called Bonbon Anglais that tastes a lot like banana laffy taffy. I think you'd like that, mom!
      
       Teaching here is pretty fun. Elder Moulton does most of the work cause I'm not mahay (skilled) at malagasy at all. I can say pretty much whatever I want, but when they say something back is when it gets awkward... I can't understand with their accents and with them speaking so fast. It's frustrating, but I know I'll get it eventually. They speak a different dialect here too, so that makes things a little more difficult. It's been a pretty big adjustment moving in to Madagascar, but by far the hardest thing is having all these wonderful people here that are so welcoming and not being able to communicate with them. It's a little depressing sometimes actually. But not too bad. A lot of the missionaries here say they didn't get comfortable with the language until about it year into it, so that makes me feel a little better. I'll just keep working hard. Whenever there's a word I don't understand, I scribble it down in my planner and Elder Moulton goes over it with me at the end of the day. It'll come. I know it will. :) One lesson we had stood out to me. It was at night and we were teaching this family in their home by candlelight. We taught them all about prayer. And when I would say something, sometimes they wouldn't understand me, but for the most part they did. Anyways, this family was so accepting and even though I couldn't understand anything they said, you could tell they were accepting things. It was cool to see, and I got this overwhelming feeling that even though I don't speak the language now, that everything would be okay and that soon I would be able to speak with these wonderful people.
      
       Let's see. I can't really think of anything else for the moment.. So send me some questions! Oh and it turns out I still only get an hour a week for email, so sorry if these get a little shorter! I'll try to make the most out of it. And I'm probably missing a few things, but I'll write it down and get it in next week when I email again. Anyways, I'll get to some of the personal emails! And I'll get some pictures up. I love all of you! Tiako ianareo!
Elder Mumford

Love you!!
Here's the mailing address for anything you would like to send me. I love you all!

B.P. 5094
Dingana III
Andrainarivo
ANTANANARIVO 101

MADAGASCAR

Me and Elder Rasmussen!

Me and Elder Moulton!

 Our chapel. Way sweet!

 View from the mission home in Tana. Beautiful!

 The beach in Talmatave.

The street to our house. I forgot to snap a few of the house, I'll get some in next week! It's way big, there's 6 of us there. I love it :)

Another cool pic from the beach in Talmatave!

 First view of Mada. The field is white! Well... In a manner of speaking ;)

 Some cool looking houses in the area.

 It's a jungle out here!

 The South African airport!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Safe arrival of Elder Mumford

September 20, 2013

Brother and Sister Mumford,

Your son, Elder Mumford, arrived safely in Madagascar.  After prayerful consideration, I have assigned him to labor initially in Mangaravotra in Tamatave with Elder Moulten, one of our best missionaries.  We will do everything in our power to see that your son’s missionary experience is all that it should be and one that will be a source of strength to him throughout his life.

As your son takes the gospel forth, he will have some new experiences, some of which will probably be a great challenge; especially learning a new language, being away from home in a foreign land and culture, adjusting to missionary life, and getting along with companions and other missionaries.  Experience shows that missionaries who lose themselves in the work quickly overcome any obstacles.

Your weekly letters will greatly influence his success and be an important source of emotional and spiritual support.  Please make letters to him cheerful and uplifting.  Family members and friends are authorized to send emails to their missionaries, subject to the guidelines established by the brethren.

For any package you would like to send to Madagascar use the address below (very important) when using the post office or any other mail company: Please keep the packages reasonably small, for there is a fee here for packages that the missionaries have to pay. Tape the packages securely and also attach stickers of Christ on the outside of the package to insure them not being opened by post handlers.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints
Madagascar Antananarivo Mission
MISSIONARY’S NAME
B.P. 5094
Dingana III
Andrainarivo
ANTANANARIVO 101
MADAGASCAR


Each missionary receives the Missionary Handbook.  Your missionary has committed to living by the principles of this handbook.  You can be of great support to your missionary if you are aware of some of these principles.

“Write to your parents each week on preparation day.”  If you should not receive these letters regularly (taking into consideration that there is some irregularity in mail delivery), please let me know.

”Notify the mission office if your parents’ address changes (including e-mail addresses).”  It would be useful for you to also notify us of such a change, just in case your missionary forgets.

“Do not telephone parents, relatives or friends.”  We would also ask you to refrain from placing calls to your missionary, except for a call on Mother’s Day and one on Christmas, which we do authorize.  Missionaries are not authorized to accept other calls.
“In case of an emergency, contact your mission president.”  Should the family have an emergency which needs to be communicated to the missionary, please contact the Mission Office (001-261-20-22-491-95).
“Consider your support money as sacred.  Spend it wisely and only for things relating to your mission.  It represents sacrifice by your family, yourself and others…If you have extra funds, do not overspend and make it difficult for your companion who may not be as fortunate.”   There are many valuable lessons to be learned during a mission, and one of these lessons deals with being able to budget and live within an allotted amount. 
Sincerely,

David R. Adams, President
Madagascar Antananarivo Mission




Also, this is a random side note....
A nice man sent this photo from the London Airport when Dakota was on his layover. This is Elder Cartmill and Elder Mumford.


It's Here!!

September 12, 2013
       Hello everyone! Man. This is for reals. I leave on Alatsinainy! (Monday). I'm so excited right now and I can't wait!!! Okay so here's my detailed itinerary:

SEP 16 LV: Salt Lake City, UT                 2:05pm
            AR: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX               5:40pm

SEP 16 LV: Dallas/Ft Worth, TX               8:00pm
            AR: London Heathrow, England    11:00am SEP 17

SEP 17 LV:  London Heathrow, England    7:10pm
            AR:  Johannesburg, S. Africa        6:55am  SEP 18

SEP 18 LV: Johannesburg, S. Africa         10:00am
            AR: Antananarivo, Madagascar       2:10pm

       So yeah, I have a few days of traveling ahead of me. I'm not really looking forward to all those hours on a plane and in layovers. But I'm excited for all these places I'll get to fly over! Part of Europe, the Mediterranean, a lot of Africa, and most of all Madagascar!! I've waited 6 1/2 months for this, and it's finally here :) I feel like jumping off the walls talking about this, but it might be a little weird with everyone else around... Haha! It's been hard to focus on anything else, but I'm also doing my best to be ready for it. 
     
         I really don't have anything to say about the MTC. Tsitsy voavoa. Same old. The Malagasy has still been going well! Nowhere near fluent, but I've got a pretty good foundation. Rahalahy Sell says that our district may not have the most vocabulary coming out of the MTC, but that out of all the groups he's taught that we are the best at teaching and that that is a world of difference. Cause the vocabulary will come with time. We're not teaching anymore investigators anymore. One of our investigators, Henry (with an accented e), we were able to commit him to baptism! Even though it was just Brother Sell who played him, it was a cool experience just helping him with his problems and getting him ready to be baptized. It's gonna be so sweet to do that in real life! Henry is an actual person that Rahalahy Sell taught over in Talmatave. So maybe I'll meet him! When he first came to the missionaries wanting to know more, he was an alcoholic. But with the help of the missionaries he was able to stop drinking. He wasn't legally married to his wife, and at first she wasn't really open to the gospel. But eventually they did get married and he and his wife were baptized. It's just so cool hearing stories like that about people changing for the better. I hope when I'm there I can change a few lives too!
       
       I have a sore throat, but it's not a big deal. I'm hoping I can get over it before Monday, but we'll see! Uhm.. Let's see. For the devotional on Tuesday we had Elder Martino speak to us. I forget what specifically is his calling but I think he's in the Seventy. It was sweet, like any other devotional. Honestly, we were kinda bummed that we didn't have an apostle our last week here, but it's all good! He spoke to us about how we need to involve members as much as we can. Oh and we didn't end up singing this week. It was only for Main Campus peeps. Lame!! Oh well. It was good being in the choir while it lasted! 
       
       If I think of anything else to tell y'all I will later today. We're going to the temple and getting fresh haircuts! So that'll be good. And I haven't been good at getting pictures this week, but I'll try to get some to send later today as well. 
          I love you all!! Tiako ianareo!
-Elder Mumph

Hello again! I'm back on the computer for a little bit. Just thought I'd kinda share about my day so far. We went and did another session today. It was kindof emotional, knowing I wouldn't get to go to another temple for 2 years. But it was good as always! In a lot of ways, leaving the temple today was a lot like leaving home. But I know the blessings from the temple will always be with me, and it's such a comfort to know that :)
         Anyways, enough with the sappy stuff, I'll put up some pictures!

This one is of me with my flight plan. Even though I'll be traveling a good 2 days, I'm so excited to finally be off to Madagascar!!

The view outside of spirit prison! Haha :) 


Elder Ricecakes taking a snooze last P-day. So peaceful ;)

Ny Drafitra ny Famonjena (Plan of Salvation). My drawing skills have already come in handy :) And in case you're wondering why I don't have outer darkness on there is cause our teachers have told us to not even get into that with the investigators, since it wouldn't really apply to them. So yeah, there's my little chart we used in a lesson!

A doodle session I had at a devotional... I still payed attention, even though it doesn't look like it ;)

Heehee! Maditra aho!

Tried this once. It made for an interesting day...

Our district along with the Branch Presidency.

Septambra!!!

September 5, 2013
        It's hard to believe that I've been here almost an entire month! It's so weird because I'll have days where I feel like I've been here for ages and then days like today where I can't believe where the time has gone. I only confuse myself by trying to explain it. Haha. I think it's kindof impossible to describe it.
       
       Having said all of that, everyone is ready to get out to Madagascar. If any of you could be here with us you would be able to sense the angst ( I like that word now) that our district has. But we had a good talk about it on Sunday and we've been doing better about being patient. We have about 10 days and 50+ hours of traveling ahead of us, so our time will be here soon! I seriously can't wait. 
       
       So I'll just keep the explanations about the devotionals brief this week. On Sunday we had George Tyler and his wife come and speak. They served in the MTC presidency over in the Philippines. It was awesome because they gave us a virtual tour of the MTC there. It made me a little jealous about not going out to Ghana, but the MTC is a good place to be anywhere you go! Tuesday night we had Elder Evans from the Quorum of the Seventy speak along with his wife. He talked about how nearly a year ago President Monson made the announcement (that long already??) and how there has never been a time quite like this for missionary service. Even though I'm one of the old geezers of the bunch, I'm just so happy to be in this vast army of missionaries! For choir we sang, "Sweet Hour of Prayer". Going into practice I thought to myself, "Great, the most overplayed song in the hymnbook" because in seminary we would sing that almost every day since that was the only one anyone could play. But as we started singing, I really started to understand the meaning behind it all that had just kinda flown over my head all these years. It was so powerful. The chorister shared the story about the composer. He was blind since birth and through reading the scriptures with his family he memorized the entire Bible! Crazy stuff.
       
       MTC life is still going. The reason I say just going is because I don't have anything to complain about, yet not really anything great to say about it either. Except for I get to learn more about the gospel, feel the spirit, and learn Malagasy. That is pretty stinkin awesome! But the MTC itself is just kinda whatevs. Same ol' song and dance. Studying until my brain is fried and then schooling some Indonesian Elders at basketball is what I do. When my threes are falling at least!
       
       The language is still going well. I think I mentioned this last week, but I feel pretty comfortable about the grammar and how everything works. It's just a matter of learning words now. Our teachers have told us that when we get there we're gonna be like, "This is not the Malagasy they taught us at the MTC!" and that it's going to take a good couple months before we'll be more comfortable speaking it. But I'm sure I'll get to that point before I know it! I really hope so at least. We've heard that we'll probably be getting our flight plans tomorrow! Or if not tomorrow, then pretty soon. But I can't wait to get that. Then I can see how long my layovers are and stuff so that we can figure out a time for a phone call! I'm really looking forward to that!!
       
       I guess this will be the paragraph I dedicate to random things. Haha. So first off, our milk lid population is dwindling. We only have about 45 lids, and that was from the first week we started collecting. At the cafeteria they used to have a big fridge stocked full of BYU creamery bottled milk. As soon as we cleared it out there hasn't been any since. Oh well! Now we're just relying on other kind of lids, like Powerade caps. I'm sure we'll survive! As for music, we're not allowed any. Period. So I haven't pulled out my iPod to see what was on it. But I'm sure it's all great! I think I'll test it out once before I go just to make sure it all works and everything. 
       
       Anyways, I don't really have anything to talk more about that I can think of. We ended up having some time this morning, so I thought I would just go ahead and get this email out, but I'm still planning on being on later around 2ish. So if you're available feel free to send emails back and forth with me! I'll also get some pictures up and try to respond personally to emails. Until then, I love all of you!! Thanks for all the love and support, I truly am one lucky missionary :)
         Tiako ianareo!!!

-Elder Mumford :)

Time for some pictures! To start, this picture is what we do on the computers. It's called TALL (Technology Assisted Language Learning). It looks a little more exciting than it actually is. With this you can kinda see how the language works, completely backwards from English!

How to make an Orange Julius: Fill up a glass about 2/3 of the way full with orange soda. Then take 2 orange dream bars and let it soften in the soda for about 15 minutes. Then mush, mix, and enjoy! Oh the stuff you figure out when you're in the MTC this long ;)

This is the laundry room! Unusually not crowded this time. But yeah, we're lucky enough we don't have to wash our clothes in the rivers here! 

Sister Lambert being all focused on his letters home. The reason we call him Sister Lambert is because on the first sacrament meeting someone from the branch presidency accidentally called him that over the pulpit and it's just stuck ever since! 


The praying mantis we saw on our way out of the temple today! We went and did initiatories today, so we got out way earlier than usual. It was awesome!

Me and the famous map!

We're all hooked on this stuff! I love Guarana :)

Another P-Day!!

August 29, 2013
       Hey everyone! One more week down and done. And just over 2 weeks until I leave for the greatest place on earth! In my eyes anyways. It's weird to think I'm over the half way mark at the MTC. I sure hope the other half goes by faster. Not that it's terrible here or anything, all is still well here but I'm definitely ready to get outta here! This week was the point for me where the MTC started getting old. I'm just so excited and ready to get out to Mada. But I guess I have a little more I could learn ;) And I'll get my chance soon.
       
       So for this past Sunday's devotional we had none other that President Allen speak!! It was so good to hear from him. I feel like I haven't seen him ever since Sunni spoke alongside him. But it was great. He told his classic story about when he and this little boy were at a drinking fountain side by side and how he'd mess with the water pressure to make the water splash the poor kid's face. It was just as hilarious as the first time I had heard it :) It had to have been at least 10 years since I heard that story for the first time, yet it has always stuck with me. Whenever I'd pass by a drinking fountain, I always thought about Pres. Allen. The principle he tied in has always stuck with me too, that sometimes Satan tries to push our buttons and how we always need to be alert. I mean President Allred is great, but I miss President Allen. I loved hearing him speak again. If any of you happen to run into him, be sure to tell him that!
       
       While I'm on a devotional kick I, I'll just tell you about the one we had on Tuesday. I was in the choir again and we sang, "Lead Kindly Light." I don't think I could ever get sick of singing in that choir! We had Neal L. Anderson speak, which was awesome as you would expect. He spoke to us about how when we come on a mission, we sacrifice the things we love and we love the things we sacrifice for. That was just so powerful to me. I love my family and friends (you guys!) with all that I am, but it's also important that I learn to love what I sacrificed time with my friends and family for, which is sharing the Gospel to the world! When we got out from the devotional it was pouring like crazy. Plus it's a good mile from the Marriott Center to Wyview so yeah, we all got soaked. Suitcoats and all. I think my suit is alright, it didn't seem to affect it. But all that rain was just a small taste of what I'll get for the next two years! A very small taste I'm sure...
       
       I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but apparently my main teacher Brother Sell is a nephew of Brother and Sister Blake. Small world! Mommy and Daddy, you should tell them that he is a great teacher!
     
       As all of you could probably tell from earlier in the email, not much else is going on here aside from the norm. This is a typical day for me: wake up, get ready, study, eat, study, eat, study, eat, more study, and an hour of gym somewhere in the mix. Pretty exciting right?! Haha it's okay though. The crazy language is still coming along well and I'm getting pretty good at carrying on a normal conversation. Still a long ways to go, but I'm getting there! I'm still ballin' everyone on the court (except we're not allowed to dunk... Boo!) But yeah, pretty much everything is the same as last week... Haha I wish I had more news than that, but I really don't!
     
       Here I'll try to answer some questions that have come up. So on Sundays we have priesthood in the morning, sacrament meeting after lunch, and then a district meeting right after that where we discuss goals and stuff. I'm always so nervous in sacrament meeting cause they call missionaries up on the spot to give a talk on the topic for the week! Haha I just know I'm gonna get called up one of these days. I do like the MTC for the most part. Anything I don't really like I just lather on some fry sauce and it usually makes it better! Haha and the chocolate milk is awesome. I'm not sure if I'll get a specific Malagasy last name. Since my name has a u (which they don't have in Malagasy) they'll probably just say my name as if I'm French. And I think I'll still be "Elder" cause I don't think they have a word for it. My teachers have told me all sorts of stuff about Madagascar, like poo rivers and all sorts of stuff. But they say the people there are really warm and nice so I'm really excited for that!
     
       Well we're gonna go to the temple soon here, but I'll be on around 3ish I think. So I'll just send some pictures then. And I'll be available to go back and forth with emails! Talk to y'all soon!
Tiako ianao!!!

-Elder Mumford

Good ol' Raintree.


What my Malagasy notebook is like. I may have sent this one last week... If I did I'm sorry! But I thought this may be interesting :)

Me at the Provo Temple :)

500 aryary for whoever can guess who this is!

Me being a dork!

More like Mumford and Elders. Ha ha ;)

Construction everywhere!

Manahoana everyone!!

August 22, 2013
       Hey all! It's so weird to think that 2 weeks ago yesterday I was being dropped off... Crazy! It's so true when they say the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. Makes no sense whatsoever, but somehow that's just how it is. Yesterday we saw all these new missionaries and they all looked so young and innocent! A couple weeks in spirit prison should cure them of that though ;) Apparently the number of missionaries on West Campus is supposed to jump form about 350 now to about 800 by the time I leave. Inconceivable!
       
       I'm sorry about the very few pics I sent last week, I'll try to make up for it this week though! I know I've been kindof a failure at that. I'll send a couple of my district and I'll try to get a good formal one of all of us by next time. And for now I'll have to just keep sending one per email because of the memory limit. So I apologize in advance for so many emails!
       
       So last week after the email we went through the Provo Temple. It was an amazing experience as with any temple. I loved the new video!! It was just so... I dunno. New and refreshing and a little more emotional. And so beautiful! I loved it. I almost laughed when I saw who was playing Satan, cause he's been in so many of those goofy church movies. But it ended up working, so the whole thing was awesome. 
       
       I'm getting so I always look forward to two days: P-day and devotional Tuesdays. The devotionals are one of my favorite parts, it kinda gives us a little breather from our hectic schedules. This week we had Elder Maynes from the Presidence of the Seventy speak to us. He talked about how we should always be connected to our purpose as missionaries, which we could always use a reminder about I suppose! I also got to sing in the choir. I went to choir practice and everything, so feel free to be proud of me mom! ;) We sang "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer". It's definitely a song worth looking up on youTube (whatever that is). I love that song and being able to sing it with that choir was amazing! I cant wait to sing again in the choir soon.
         
       My Malagasy is coming along ah'ight. We've been learning a bunch of grammar, which is always a blast... For instance, how to possess a passive verb like ampianarana, to teach. So ampianarako would mean 'taught by me'. I could go on and on about the grammar, but my brain gets fried enough in the classroom as it is! So I'll spare the language lesson for now. We also memorize a whole lot. Yesterday we started memorizing the first vision, so I'm hoping to have it in my noggin by tomorrow. Our teacher situation is a little complicated. We have 4 different teachers that rotate between districts. Bro. Sell still hasn't come back from getting married (still...who does that??) and another one of our teachers, Bro. Aldous went on vacation to Thailand. This week we met another teacher, Bro. Sender. He's a little more serious than the others, but I guess that's not a bad thing. Plus he looks exactly like Gordon Hayward. Brother Burton is, well, just Brother Burton. He's probably my favorite teacher. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that when I first met him, he was like a celebrity to me just from when I was looking at Mada stuff online and I saw a video of him. So when I saw him in real life it was kinda weird! I bet it you youTube "lds mission madagascar" you can find it. He's a tall readheaded Elder in the slideshow. He's a funny guy.
         
       Anywho, I don't really have much to else to say. Tsisy voavoa (nothing new). I'm getting my hair cut this morning so that should be exciting! But yeah, studying Malagasy and the Gospel is pretty much my life. But I am alive and well! I hope everyone is doing awesome, and I hope to hear from all of you! I'll try my best to reply to your emails. But if you want a guaranteed full response, you should write me a letter/DearElder! I can write before I go to bed every night. Just a thought!
         
       I'll get those pictures sent out! I love all of you. You're always in the back of my mind and in my prayers. Hope to hear from you guys soon!
            Tiako ianareo!!
-Elder Mumford


P.S. Any news about the Jazz? ;)
This is my room :)

 Here is the living room!

We call this poo river. This is where we do our laundry every week ;)

 Here's a picture of the Raintree apartment we go have class in :)

Here's the Wyview apartment where we stay! 

This is where I ball it up! 

So... I introduced milk lid flicking and it was a hit! And we've been collecting them from the meals. I know it's weird, but hey, when you're in spirit prison you need some kind of outlet ;)

Our district! From left to right: Elder Hardy, Elder Bowler, Elder Lambert, and Elder Rice.

The other half of the district: Soeur Winye, Elder Christy, Elder Bowler, and Elder Hardy.

Elder Thia!

Here's a picture of the whole district :) We're at the main campus for this one. Photo courtesy of Elder Rice.