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!!