The Digital Age of Missionary Work is here!

Friends and Family,

I think last week was by far the busiest I`ve ever been on my
mission. I`ll give you a short recap. Monday was Preparation Day.
Tuesday was Mission Leadership Council where we passed out iPads to
the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. Wednesday we went with
President and Sister W and the Assistants to Okayama and Shikoku.
Thursday was Kyoto. Friday was here in Kobe, and Saturday was Wakayama
and Osaka. I`ve had just about all of President W's back seat than
I can handle! It was super fun though.

It was crazy to see how much the work is really going to change for

the better with the use of digital devices in our mission. Everyone is
extremely excited and after great training from our Mission President
as well as Elder Nelson and President Ringwood a week ago, we are
ready to move forward. Elder DS and I have been on the phones
basically non-stop helping people get their iPads up and running. I
don`t think I`ve ever been this tired haha! 

Being in the service of
others always seems to have its perks and blessings, though. I love
what I do! I think the biggest thing I`ve learned from the last week
has been watching President and Sister W interact with each other.
I hope I can have a relationship with my spouse like they have! They
spoiled us way to much taking us out to eat multiple times during the
week while we were out and about. It was awesome and I`ve been very
well taken care of. I think the hardest part so far has been trying to
help missionaries that have never even used an iPad get used to using
one. I never thought I would have to explain how to "select"
something, copy it, and paste it somewhere. It was funny, President
W just told us, "welcome to IT!" He`s an awesome guy.

There`s a family in the ward from the U.S. that lives here and they
had their extended family come over and visit for Spring Break this
week. They invited us over for dinner with all of them last night and
we had a great time. The extended family that was visiting has 4 boys,
the oldest three are 17, 16, and 15! I think they call them "Irish
Triplets". We had an awesome time and I couldn`t believe how weird it
was to be around a bunch of Americans! It was really cool because the
Dad pulled us off to the side for a little bit and asked us if for our
message we wouldn`t mind sharing our own personal conversion stories
and how we developed a testimony for ourself, which we gladly obliged.
Apparently the three older boys aren`t very excited about the church
or going on missions right now, but I feel like we maybe changed that
a little bit for sure! As I shared my story I noticed three things
that I never really noticed before. My conversion was based on three
very simple things. 1) Prayer 2) Scripture Study 3) Going to church on
Sunday. We call these the "Three Pillars of a Testimony" in our
mission, and it was cool to see that I actually had to go through that
development as well! The Spirit was strong and we challenged all that
were present to start preparing for their missions now. It`s never too
early to prepare to serve the Lord, that`s for sure.

I have a testimony of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know
that God is Our Loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is our
Savior and Redeemer. Any challenge or trial we face is a test to see
if we are capable of more blessings from our heavenly Father and I`ve
really come to realize that on my mission. If we truly want to
understand doctrine, we have to get out and teach it. I`ve really
learned that this week from President W. I love you all! Have a
great week!

Elder Jeffrey M. Giles