MATSUE!

Hello friends and family!

This week was awesome! My new companion, Elder T, and I are
doing really well here in Matsue. It was so hard to say goodbye to
Kobe but I'm really happy to be here in Matsue. Right now I'm writing
this letter through the voice setting on the iPad so if it comes out a
little funny, it's not my fault it's the iPad. Matsue is a great area
and we're seeing a lot of success here so I'm really excited for the
last little bit of my mission! We had three people at church yesterday
so the work is really moving forward.
I'm going to send a picture, but last week my trainer came to the
Mission home and it was really good to see him. He was really weird
because for the first time I was able to have a conversation with him
in regular Japanese. He was incredibly surprised that I could speak as
well as I can! The gift of tongues is real. I owe a lot for the
missionary that I am today to my trainer Elder S. He taught me
what it means to really work hard, be obedient, and love being a
missionary. I just hope he gets married soon so we have more
missionaries like him in Japan... ;)
I forgot my keyboard and Kobe so this week I have to type my emails
on the screen and use this voice thing. I'm sure my companion hates
it, but I'm in charge so he has to deal with it... Just kidding! He's
awesome and I've had a great time with him so far. He's really working
hard to learn English, but I'm basically speaking Japanese all day.
It's awesome!
Being a district leader is really awesome. It's a lot similar to
being a tech staff missionary because my phone rings all day and I
have to help people solve their problems! I love getting to know
missionaries on a personal level though, and I have a great group of
missionaries in my district. Right now there are 10 of us so I'm
really really busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Being busy
is probably the greatest blessing a missionary could ask for. Nothing
good happens when nothing is going on.
We have part member family that we are teaching with the sisters in
the next area over and they are really really awesome. They came to
church yesterday and they're looking really solid to get baptized
soon. We taught them with the sisters after church yesterday and had a
really solid lesson on the word of wisdom. They committed to follow
the word of wisdom and the dad recommitted to follow the word of
wisdom again. Later that night the dad called us and said how much he
wanted his daughters to get baptized here in our ward. The Lord's hand
in his definitely present here in the Matsue Ward! Also, of the three
people that came to church yesterday two of them have plans to get
baptized in the next month or so. This place is seriously the best!
 We were riding our bikes home the other night and we stopped for
little bit to look at the beautiful lake and the sunset. It reminded
me so much of home. I'm not homesick or trunky or anything like that
but it was good to see that Home really is wherever you are. I only
have a little while longer and I don't plan on wasting a minute of the
time that I have left. I love being a missionary and this is the
greatest thing I've ever done in my life. I wouldn't want to be doing
anything else right now and I know this is exactly where the Lord
wants me to be. I'm excited to be where I am and I'm excited about the
positions that Ive been called to serve in.
 I love you all I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Giles