Elder Ballard! At our door!

Hey everyone,

Well we just had transfer calls again this morning. This was now my third time making these calls, and President Yamashita has asked Elder Emery and I to continue to serve here with him in the office for this next transfer. I feel like I have been here for a while. It has its ups and downs, but I really do enjoy serving here and learning from President Yamashita's example. He has taught me so much about patience and love and faith.

with President Yamashita

We had a wonderful visit from Elder M. Russel Ballard and other General Authorities yesterday, and they are here through the weekend. Elder Ballard is a kind and spiritual man, and really funny and friendly in person. I like him and his wife a lot. He gave us some wonderful counsel. One thing that stood out the most: "When you are feeling discouraged for any reason, wake up in the early hours of the morning and go to Gethsemane." He encouraged us to trust in God more fully and to be more humble. I am so grateful for the visit from him.

Elder Ballard! At our door!

Last night at a member devotional with Elder Ballard and the other guests, I had a tender experience while singing the congregational hymn. As we all stood to sing "Lord, I Would Follow Thee," I was immediately touched by these hundreds of wonderful Japanese saints singing about loving our fellow men. I was moved to tears and realized how much I really, really love these people. They mean so much to me. Every good experience that I have had in Japan just flashed before my eyes and I felt a small taste, a gift, of a tiny fraction of the love that God has for all of His children. I cannot adequately express my love for these people here in Japan. This is a corner of the Lord's vineyard that seems to me to be reserved for a choice group of some of His kindest, humblest, and most loving children. I know you can find people of that caliber anywhere, but I feel that Japan is especially blessed.

I really love it here and I want you all to know how much you mean to me as well. My life is just ridiculously full of blessings and my cup is overflowing. Thank you for everything!

Peace and love,

Elder Naylor
ネイラー長老

Fuji!

Genki wo dashinasai

Hey peeps,

I haven't sent out any big mass emails lately, so I just wanted to let you know that things are going great here in Japan-land and I am enjoying it here very much.

This past week we were mostly traveling and did not spend much time in our own area, instead going to the two farthest zones in the mission (Kanazawa and Shizuoka) to do some companion exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Had some good experiences with them and some surreal experiences, from talking to people on the street in the middle of a freezing thunderstorm up north in Kanazawa to stopping people on a bridge backed by a picturesque and clearer-than-life backdrop of Mount Fuji. The land is beautiful and so are the hearts of the people. While riding the subways of Nagoya in the midst of our travels, I accidentally left one of my bags full of important stuff on one of the trains. Nagoya is a big city with a large, complex subway system, and it is easy to lose stuff. But I have come to learn that Japan is seriously the best place in the world to lose something, and those wonderful train crew bent over backwards to find my bag for me and were successful within minutes of me talking to them. From that small experience my love for the Japanese people grew even deeper. These people really know how to serve others.

We set a baptismal date of March 1st for our young investigator, Y! He is doing well and progressing slowly but steadily. We are calling and texting him every day to help him. I am grateful for his friendship and the good experiences we have had teaching him. It's hard for me to believe that I have been in this area working in the mission office for more than three months already. I imagine I may soon be called to go out and be a regular proselyting missionary again.

Mom, you were asking about some of the differences in the Japanese language and how it has benefited my personal study. One of my favorite examples of a Japanese scripture that I love, Doc&Cov 68:6: 

Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, 

for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; 

and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, 

that I am the Son of the living God, 

that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

In Japanese, that first line "be of good cheer" is translated as 元気を出しなさい (genki wo dashinasai). The word genki means encouragement, health, happiness, cheer, and basically all meanings similar to that; it's kind of an all-encompassing word. The wo is a connecting particle between the noun genki and the verb dashinasai, which is a command form of the verb dasu, which means to take out, pull out, bring out, hold up, etc. Because the Lord is there, and he is with us. And his message is the best message in the world!

I love this wording in Japanese because it implies that we already have genki within us, and whenever we are sad or discouraged all we have to do is find it and pull it out and show it to the world. It's just like the Light of Christ, which resides within all of us....nobody is lacking, but many of us need to search within ourselves and dasu that Light and that genki. I love it.

I really love my Savior and I love doing this work for him. Japan is just such a wonderful place and the Gospel is blooming beautifully here. I couldn't imagine doing anything else right now.

I hope all of you are staying genki and warm! Happy Valentine's Day!!

Peace and love,

Elder Naylor

ネイラー長老

 

The whole city has a kind of steam-punk feel

Hello family and friends,

Elder E and I found a wonderful new investigator this week. First of all, we don't always get a lot of time to proselyte in our own area because of office work and traveling to other areas in the mission, but we always try to squeeze in a little time each day and earlier this week we were blessed to find a wonderful man on the street named F-san. He was kind of drunk when we met him, but very friendly and asked us a lot of questions. We gave him a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation and our contact info, and he gave us his number. We set a time to meet the next day, then set it up to have the Bishop come join our lesson.

That lesson was very powerful, and we learned a lot about F-san, especially that he has a serious drinking problem but he really wants to stop, because it has caused a lot of problems in his life including a divorce and separation from his family. He has really pure desires about learning about our message though, and we are excited to teach him. We are planning on setting a date for baptism with him tonight.

Also today about an hour ago President Yamashita came to teach a lesson with us to our investigator Y-san. We are hoping to hold a baptismal service for him next month, but he says that he is still unsure about it. We are still working on it. We are always happy to meet with him though, and he is a great guy.

This week we had a companion exchange in Yokkaichi, a somewhat large city jut southwest of Nagoya, known for being one of the biggest oil refineries in Japan. The view from the Zone Leaders' apartment there looks out over this majestic view of the harbor covered with dozens of towering smokestacks and elevated train lines, giving the whole city a kind of "steam-punk" feel, haha. Big center of industry in this part of Japan. We had a wonderful time with the missionaries there, and got to attend the Yokkaichi Zone interviews the next day and help do some training for the missionaries. One of my favorite things about serving here in the mission office is these opportunities to travel to different places in the mission and meet with individual missionaries. They're all such wonderful examples.

Yokkaichi. Mie Prefecture's industrial center.

Also Elder E and I are trying to eat more healthy so we have been cooking a lot of our own food. Look at my ingredients! I'm getting more and more Japanese each day! 

I still haven't heard back from the Coast Guard yet, I hope soon though. I miss all of you so much but I really do love it here. Japan is just such a wonderful place. I hope you all get the opportunity to come here sometime.

Thank you so much for all you do!

 Peace and love,

Elder Naylor ネイラー長老

Dearest All,

Just to clarify, Tanaka-san wasn't really "my" baptism, I just had the privilege of teaching him a few times on companion exchanges with the zone leaders. But we still get to bro out with him at church all the time and he is just always so genki and he loves being a new member. I really like him a lot. He has a great story, too.

That's way exciting about meeting the President! I honestly think he is a very inspiring and powerful speaker, and I love his speeches, especially the ones about just life and liberty in general (rather than politics). I think he has a good outlook on life and actually one of my favorite quotes is by him, given shortly following the Gabrielle Giffords shooting and subsequent recovery: "What matters is not wealth or status or fame; what matters is how well we have loved." That quote has stuck with me all of these years.

I say again that I love it here. Let me tell you about my highlight from this week. In one part of the city of Nagoya the missionaries go to this service project every week to participate in passing out food and clothing to the homeless. I had the most humbling opportunity to participate in this activity this past week on a companion exchange in the area. I used to do activities like this back before my mission, but this one especially touched me for some reason. It was another freezing winter night and the activity was taking place under this giant expressway overpass in the middle of the city. There were plenty of people to pass out food and clothing so my companion and I just walked down the line and talked to each person, asking them about their lives and their families and what makes them happy. Almost all of them had these beautiful smiles and were just so grateful for simple kindness. They would keep thanking us over and over even though we were doing nothing other than just talk to them. Many of them lived right there under the overpass and we could see their blankets and bikes with baskets filled with all of their belongings. Despite their troubles, whether it was their own fault or not, they were almost all unusually cheerful and happy. 

Their general attitude taught me that happiness can always be found, even in the worst of times. It was a sweet experience and reminded me that the love of God penetrates all echelons of life, from the pauper to the prince. I hope they felt a taste of the love of God through our interactions with them. It was a tender mercy to me to be able to have this experience.

I hope all is well at home. I pray for you always. Love you all so much.

Peace and love,

Elder Naylor

ネイラー長老

A baptism in our ward: welcome T-san!

Hey everyone,

It's been a busy week here in Japan land. We got a whole herd of new missionaries while simultaneously having to say goodbye to a few. I was sad to say goodbye to one of my beloved former companions, Elder Ch, who had a hard mission but finished all the way up to the end and got to have some special experiences. I will miss him a lot.

The best news of the week was the baptism of T-san!

The zone leaders taught T-san, and a great member of the ward, H-san, baptized him. I got to work with T-san a few times. Wonderful man, wonderful new member.

I just want to share how much I love being a missionary. Don't get the wrong message when I say I don't want to come home, because I still really do miss all of you so very much, but I just have never been happier than I am here teaching people about Jesus Christ. And I know that the people accepting our message have never been happier, either. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest gift to the world.

But I also do love and miss my family and friends so much. You are all so special to me and your love and support have been such a great help. Japan is such a wonderful place. I have fallen in love with the culture, the language, and especially the people.

I failed the driving test again for my Japanese drivers' license (they are so strict), but third time's a charm. I will get it next time. I take the test again on February 5th.

I hope you all have had a fantastic week. Japan says hello. It is cold here, haha. Hope you are all staying warm as well.

Peace and love,

Elder Naylor

ネイラー長老

Hope the building doesn't blow up!

Hey friends and familial units!!

Sorry it's a short one this week, we are in the middle of transfers and it is kinda busy. But I wanted to let you know that we have a new Assistant here in the office, my new companion Elder E! He is one of my great friends, we were in the same MTC district and came to Japan together. He is from St. George, Utah. Great guy, loves to crack jokes and his Japanese is WAY good, much better than me, haha. I am looking forward to a fun couple months with him.

Elder E is behind me, wearing the red sweater

Our next big step for this transfer is to prepare for Elder M. Russell Ballard to come visit the mission next month, along with several other General Authorities (Elder Rasband, Bishop Stevenson, Elder Aoyagi, and of course President Yamashita).

That's a lot of authority to fit under one roof, hopefully the building doesn't blow up, haha.

Dad, I love your idea of studying the Book of Mormon again. I have come to love and cherish that book so much, and I like your method of reading it. I am currently re-reading the Old Testament again in the same way, trying to find the things that apply to me currently and contribute to strengthening my testimony. I have found so much already. I am right now in the middle of the book of Exodus. I am also re-reading the New Testament again as invited by President Yamashita to prepare for Elder Ballard's visit. So much good stuff to read and so little time. I love the scriptures.

I am sad to hear about Dale Reed passing away. I remember him very well, he was a wonderful home teacher. I will really miss him. Sister Reed will be in my prayers.

I love you so much and thank you for your constant support. Hope you are having a wonderful week. Still no word about the Coast Guard yet, hopefully soon.

Love always,

Elder Naylor

ネイラー長老

ping pong is huge in Japan!

If I can learn to channel my eyes . . .

Hey what's up!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So I mentioned this last year, but New Years' in Japan is like Christmas in America (a really big deal), and Christmas in Japan is like St. Patrick's Day in America.....people know about it, but don't really do much to celebrate it. In Japan during New Years', everything shuts down for about a week or so and people just party with their families. I'm sure it's way fun for them, but it also means they all stay in their homes together and don't go outside, so the streets are empty. And unless the church members really love you and make appointments with you during the week of New Years', not much gets done in missionary work.

Luckily for us, the members seem to love us, and judging by the size my stomach has grown to from the festivities and ensuing culinary accessories, I would say it has been a week well-spent. Plus we've been able to still meet with our investigators and even have good experiences talking to the few people on the street, so we've been able to get work done.

with Elder T from Hawaii and our wonderful investigator Y

Every time we get time to go out and work, I get so happy. I love talking to people and telling them about their Heavenly Father and about their Savior. It just never gets old!

I hope everyone has had the chance to make some resolutions for the new year. I have made several myself, but the most important commitment I have made has actually been on my mind for quite some time. I have mentioned it before, but lately I have been pondering a lot about how to completely let go of my ego and focus on the glory of God. I know that there is no need for the eyes of the world to be on me and any achievements that I think I have attained....but if I can learn to channel my eyes towards my Lord and my God, and that through me others can see which way I face and therefore bring themselves to face the same way.....towards God....then all will be edified and the world will be filled with light. I have been coming to learn about the absence of power when I rely solely on myself versus the complete presence of all things good when I let go of my pride and rely solely on my Heavenly Father. That is where I have found I am the most happy. I want to work on putting the glory of God first in everything I do in my life, and not focus attention on myself and on worldly ambitions. That kind of happiness only lasts for moments, while this happiness emanating from the glory of God is endless and eternal. 

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, 

and His righteousness; 

and all these things shall be added unto you . . . 

~Matthew 6:33

Those words echo a promise that rings true across all ages of time for the disciples of Jesus Christ. I want to fulfill this promise as fully as possible as I can in my own life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters, both during these last months as a full-time missionary and during the rest of my life as a full-time disciple. God always keeps His promises.

God is our Eternal Father, and everything He does is for our happiness. I know that this is true. I can't imagine it any other way. What a beautiful gift to the world this gospel is! I hope we can all receive it, cherish it, and rejoice in it. How blessed we really are.

I love you all!

Peace and love,

Elder Naylor

ネイラー長老

Nagoya Sunrise. New Day, New Year!