Saturday, June 29, 2013

Welcome to the MTC

Hello friends!

Elder Matt Naylor entered the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah on Wednesday 26 June. He'll train there for about 9 weeks and then travel to Nagoya, Japan. Here he is with his first companion, Elder Brown, of Hooper, Utah:



This is Matt's nametag. He introduces himself as Naira Choro (Elder Naylor):


Matt's message is below. Thank you for your interest, for your faith and prayers on his behalf!

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I can say without a shred of hesitance that I absolutely love it here. I'll give you a general run-down of what happened after I was whisked away from you guys at the car.

I got all my stuff and dropped my luggage off in my new room, and then I was IMMEDIATELY thrown into a class with about a dozen other new missionaries. The teacher (sensei) immediately greeted us in Japanese and just started off talking. In my two and a half days here, she has not said more than probably three words in English. Every class is taught in Japanese. It's nuts.

After we got our brains rattled for about two hours, we went down to the MTC orientation for us brand new missionaries. Thankfully, it was in English. The MTC president and his wife and other MTC presidency people greeted us all, and we all sang a couple hymns and listened to all the welcome remarks. It was pretty cool to hear almost 1000 new missionaries singing "We Are As The Army of Helaman" in unison. After the welcome remarks, we were treated to a gracious supply of Papa John's pizza, which was promptly devoured. After dinner, my district was sent back to our classroom where we first started out, and we sat there for about another 3 hours studying Japanese. We met our zone leaders that evening, and they greeted us and told us a few logistical things. Then we got back to our room around 8:30 or so and had the rest of the evening to unpack and get settled until lights out at 10:30.

So our district consists of 14 new missionaries. My companion, Elder Brown, is one heck of an awesome dude. He's 18 years old, fresh out of high school from Hooper, Utah. We're best buds already. He is a very hard worker, and very motivated. I've already learned so much from him. The other Elders in our district are total bros. One of them, Elder Watson, is from Melbourne, Australia, and has the most wicked accent I've ever heard. He sounds like he should be on TV, seriously. It's cool when he speaks Japanese with his Australian accent. Most of the other missionaries are from Utah (go figure), but we have one Sister here from Boise! Well, Middleton actually. Sister Panicke. She's great. Our whole district is great! It really feels like a family.

You're not gonna believe this, but on Friday we taught our first lesson to an investigator....IN JAPANESE. I kid you not. At the rate they've been drilling this language into us, my brain is ready to explode. The lesson went fairly well, though. The man's name was Kojima San, and throughout the entire lesson not a single word of English was used for about 20 minutes. Elder Brown and I struggled through it, but managed to get our point across. We taught him about God's role as our Father in Heaven, and how he loves each and every one of us, and how families are central to His plan. Though our Japanese was very broken and rough, he still somehow understood us (or at least pretended to). Whenever he asked a question though, it just went straight over our heads. We had no idea what he said. We basically responded to every question by saying "God loves you" in Japanese. I hope that was enough, haha. We're teaching him another lesson today.

We have now gotten to the point where we can pray and bear our testimonies in Japanese. Our prayers and testimonies are extremely simple, and our pronunciation is horrible, but we will eventually get the hang of it. This whole experience has been extremely humbling though. I've really realized how much we must rely on the Lord to help us out with everything.

The MTC is cool. Everywhere you go, you can see groups of missionaries sitting at tables studying scriptures or with the heads bowed in prayer. There is an essence of the spirit here that I have never felt in any other place. I have really come to love studying the gospel and the scriptures. More importantly, I am developing a love for people. We had a testimony night on Thursday and each time someone went up, I could overwhelmingly feel of God's love for that person. When it came my turn to go up and speak, I was just overcome with the spirit and started tearing up and just expressing all the feelings of my heart. God loves each one of us so much.

I will try to write more to you guys next week! Don't worry though. I am well, and I am the happiest I have ever been in a long time. I am honored to serve the Lord.

Mata ne,
Elder Naylor


Elder Matthew Patrick Naylor
AUG27 JPN-NAG
2007 N 900 E Unit 7
Provo, UT 84602
United States
 






Friday, June 21, 2013

Hello friends and family,

I hope that you will enjoy and be uplifted by these posts over the next two years as I share some of my experiences as a full-time missionary in the service of God (courtesy of my lovely mother, who will be posting on my behalf). I know that it will be a truly rewarding and humbling experience if I stay faithful.

If. There's a lot riding on that single syllable. If I stay faithful. I'd like to say that I will. I think most of us feel the same way. We all want to stay faithful to something that we believe in. We all have a passion for something. Those passions and dreams may change over time, but they are always there. For the past two years, my passion has been to serve my country. And now, for the next two years, my passion is to serve my God. If I stay faithful, I will succeed. If you stay faithful to your passion and your dream, you will succeed as well. My mother shared this poem with me the night before I reported in to basic training for the Coast Guard:

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 

Rudyard Kipling

This poem is equally motivating as I prepare for my mission. I hope it can help each of you as you strive to get things done in this busy world. Thank you everyone for your support and love. It means more than I can possibly express.

Mata ne,

Elder Matt Naylor

My email and addresses for writing letters:

Email: mnaylor@myldsmail.net

Note: I will only be allowed to email friends once I get to Japan at the end of August. Until then, if you email me, I won't be allowed to reply. Sorry!

June 26th - August 27th (ish)
Elder Matthew Patrick Naylor
AUG27 JPN-NAG
2007 N 900 E Unit 7
Provo, UT 84602
United States

August 27th (ish) -  rest of the mission
Elder Matthew Patrick Naylor
Japan Nagoya Mission
1-304 Itakadai, Meitou-ku
Nagoya-shi, Aichi
465-0028
JAPAN

Note: a typical letter to Japan from the US takes about three regular postage stamps.

I love you all!!