Mumford in Mada: 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.