Still on the grind!

Friends and family,

  This week has been awesome. I had a little bit of a cold at the beginning of last week, I just can`t seem to catch a break this winter, but I`m feeling fine now and couldn`t be happier.

 

  I can basically some up my entire week with three words. Kobe Mission Portal. That's basically my life right now. Its way fun, but it gets really stressful sometimes. I`m officially the Elder in charge of design, so I`ve been watching a lot of Adobe Illustrator tutorials. I can check that off of my list of things I DEFINITELY thought I would be doing on my mission. One of the senior missionaries that has been helping me out a lot came in the other day and I expressed my frustration of having to learn a whole new program in order to make our designs work and he just pointed at the screen and said something like, yeah, but look at all the experience you`ll have when you take a graphic design class in college after your mission! I had to laugh. 

  My calling might not seem like much, but its something I really like doing. My companion makes it 100% better as well because he really is awesome. We were talking the other night about being perfectionists and how its something that both of us can work on overcoming while we`re here on our missions. We`re worlds apart on the map, but we have a lot of similar traits. We remembered a talk from the Ensign that both of us read last year called "Being Perfected in Christ" so we read that together and discussed what it really means to be perfect. In the scriptures we`re commanded to "be ye therefore perfect", and that can seem like a pretty impossible task until we realize what he`s really saying. We`re commanded to put forth every effort to do what is right. We`re expected to fall. Thats why this is a fallen world, but perfection only comes through constant growth, and growth only comes through failure. I love the simple truths the gospel teaches. 

  I`ll keep it nice and short this week. We`re presenting the website, the logo, and the some family history stuff tomorrow to the mission leaders, so we`ll have another busy week. I love you guys and am so grateful for the amazing influences that I`ve had throughout my life. The gospel is true. I know it and I only have 6 months left to let people here in Japan know that I know it. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Jeffrey Maxwell Giles