Holy crap, I could hardly understand a word she said . . .

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty chill. Last Sunday I was relieved of my district leader duties, having served my three weeks, and was replaced by none other than my wonderful companion, Elder Brown. He's doing a great job so far. He is humble, down to earth, and very mindful of others. He's going to carry us through these last couple weeks very well.

Wednesday we had a special training session, in which each companionship taught a lesson with real Japanese church members via Skype. It was so cool! Our companionship's victim, Taguchi Shimai, was so nice.

But, holy crap, I could hardly understand a word she said.

My companion and I did our best to teach her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in halting Japanese, and we probably sounded like sick walruses to her. But she just kept smiling and complimenting us on our language abilities. Japanese people are so sweet!

By chance, I happened to meet an elder here who, like me, is taking a sabbatical from military service in order to serve a mission.  He did a year at the Naval Academy and is now getting ready to head out to the Japan Tokyo Mission. We met up and talked military for a little while. Pretty cool.

I've been reading about charity in the scriptures. When you have a minute, go look up "charity" in the Bible Dictionary. You'll love the definition they have.

Then look up the scripture references attached to it, especially Moroni 7:47. Moroni is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon.

But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever,

and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day

it shall be well with him.

This week I finished reading both the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. So cool! I'm now working on finishing Jesus the Christ and have started reading the New Testament. My goal is to finish the entire standard works before Christmas (in other words, I'll have the New Testament finished before I get to Japan, and I'm gonna have to work my butt off to get through the Old Testament before December....)

I leave for Japan in a little over two weeks! Mom and Dad, mark your calendars, because on that day I'll be able to call you guys from the airport! Just giving you a heads up.

I love you all. Thank you for your love and support. It means the world to me.

Love always,

Elder Naylor