Going to Nagoya Castle this week!

My fellow Americans,

Konnichiest of wa`s to all of you! It`s a BEAUTIFUL morning here in Japan land!! The sun is shining, the weather is crisp, the sky is blue, and I`m repping the pink tie that I bought at the 100 yen store a while back. Life is GOOD!

This week has been great. Last Monday Elder A and I went out to visit people and share some uplifting messages with them, help them out with whatever they need, etc. En route to a less-active member`s house, the heavens broke forth and poured out an epic deluge of rain and thunder that cascaded in flowing rivers down the streets of our fair city of Ichinomiya. 

Most of the people we visited were not at home, and we were pretty bummed out, thinking that our infinite trek through the downpour would all be in vain, having not yet talked to anybody, when we decided to visit one last person. It was a less-active family (the I-sans), and thankfully they were home! They were so kind, and absolutely shocked that we were out and about in the storm, but very grateful that we came to visit. They invited us in, but we just stayed and talked with them in the genkan (entryway) because we were soaked to the bone and didn`t want to turn their house into a swimming pool with our wet clothes. We talked for a while and then shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon, inviting them to read the scriptures every day and to pray. They graciously accepted the invitation. We`re gonna probably visit them again this week.

Thanksgiving! we had it twice. WONDERFUL members fed us American turkey.

On Tuesday we decided to stop by the Y-san's apartment unannounced, and they were super happy to see us. We talked for a bit, asked them to read the book of Enos and try to pray every day (they`re struggling with that), and set another appointment up with them for this next week. They`re seriously the best people. We love them. 

We also stopped by to visit the K family, who are active members of the ward but sometimes struggle with various things. When we shared a scripture with the mother (also from the book of Enos), she was very grateful, and said that every time we visit and share a scripture or a message, it`s exactly what she needs to hear. That`s the power of the Holy Ghost right there. Awesome stuff.

On Wednesday we had a mogi lesson (mock lesson) with a member of the bishopric, Kad-san 兄第. Taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (lesson 3 from PMG). He gave us some good feedback on how to improve our teaching. Afterwards we went with him to help out a struggling member of our ward, Toda-san 兄第, with cleaning up his home. Service is seriously the greatest blessing. 

Later that afternoon we had a lesson with our investigator, K-san, and talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon. He`s doing pretty well....says he believes about "70%" of what we teach him. We`re working on that "30%". Hahaha. 

Then in the evening we had another lesson with N-san, who is continuing to do well, and another night of Eikaiwa (English class). I love being the teacher of the Eikaiwa class, and it`s SO FUN. I love it. Maybe I`ll come back to Japan to teach English someday. Legit.

Thursday we met with our friend Keita, who has sent in his mission papers and is awaiting his mission call. We are now teaching him out of Preach My Gospel every week to help him prepare to serve his own mission. He`s a great young man....super fun, and has great faith. Comes from a great family, the Hibino family. We often use him to help us teach lessons to investigators. It`s been our focus lately to bring members with us to investigator lessons, because they really bring the Spirit with their testimony, and they also speak Japanese better than us, haha. Later that evening we had a lesson with our investigator Seira, and brought our return-missionary friend Eiji along with us. Great lesson.

Friday was awesome. We had district training, so we took a train to Fukutoku and got together as a district to learn from each other. It was awesome. We had an appointment later that afternoon with someone who called us and said they wanted to investigate the church...the Kane-sans...and we were kinda on a tight schedule. The train back to Ichinomiya was running late, so we ended up arriving at the train station about 15 minutes after our appointment was scheduled, which was to be at the church, about a 10 minute walk from the station. Uh-oh. 

We booked it from the station....must`ve been a fun sight, seeing two white guys with backpacks running their fannies off through the neighborhood....but it was a good thing we ran. We arrived just as they were leaving, and they were super understanding about us being late, and we were able to have the lesson and pick up a new investigator, Kana-san. When we came running up and told why we were late, the mother (it was her son who became the new investigator) said that it must have been "fate" that we arrived just on time to catch them before leaving. Legit.

Last night we had our own epic Thanksgiving with some church members at a members` home, along with a bunch of less-active members and non-members. After eating a TON of classic American Thanksgiving food (never eaten turkey with chopsticks before) and playing a fun game, Elder A and I shared a message about being thankful (DocCov 78:19) and the Spirit was super strong. It was a great experience.

Thanksgiving!

Today for p-day we`re heading to Nagoya to check out the famous Nagoya Castle. Expect pictures next week!

Thank you all for everything. I love you all so much. You`re all the best.

Peace and love,

Elder Naylor