Officially OLD!

Friends and Family,

 This week I will hit another month down, but I refuse to think how
long I have and just try to focus on the here and now. Every day is a
blessing from God and I want to treat every day like its the last. I
also want to wish my parents a Happy Anniversary! 25 years is a long
time, way to keep the Faith Mom and Dad! We were able to see the hand
of the Lord plenty of times last week and I'm grateful to have been
able to do the things I did.

 Last Monday was awesome! Himeji Castle was tons of fun and we
actually ended up running into a member from Akashi who took us around
and acted as our tour guide. It was awesome! I couldn't believe how
beautiful it was. They just finished restoring the white paint a few
weeks back and now the thing literally glows in the sunlight! I was
actually surprised how empty it was. The thing was literally a battle
fortress. There was nothing fancy about the interior at all, but the
build quality was amazing. I guess that's why it's the oldest and
biggest original castle in Japan! I can mark another World Heritage
Site off my list!

 I had a companion exchange with my District Leader, Elder S on
Friday and we tore it up here in Kobe! I've known Elder S for a
long time now, and it's always great to work with him. We talked about
having the mindset for miracles and the importance of planning from
the heart so you're excited to get out and do things during the day.
It's funny because even though he's my DL, I still end up telling him
more info about the mission and what not. It pays to have a front seat
with President W for most of the week! We went out to find during
the day and ended up teaching a guy from Sri Lanka that has interest
in learning about God and Jesus Christ! He was way cool and we hope to
meet him again this week. It was a big testimony builder for me that
this is the work of the Lord and he will guide us. I think the older I
get as a missionary the more I realize that no matter how good you
are, you won't be able to do a thing unless you're humble and know how
to follow the Spirit. I think it took me a while to learn also that
big, life changing miracles are pretty rare, and we need to be looking
for the small, but evident signs in our days that the Lord is guiding
us and with us at every turn. I learned a lot from Elder S about
how to be one that others can turn to for help and suggestions on how
to improve and we had a great day for sure!

 Nothing particularly spectacular happened last week, but we did get
to go up to Mount Rokko and Mount Maya with our investigator during
the week and do some hiking for a little bit. We were able to get to
know him a lot better than before and hopefully strengthen his faith
and his resolve to change. The mountains are a great place to feel the
Spirit! Today, we had a BBQ with one of our investigators, his family,
members from our Ward and Akashi Ward, and the Akashi Elders. It was a
blast and the members really came through big on Fellowshipping our
investigator and his family! The best thing was that it was actually
our investigator that set the whole thing up and invited the members
and the missionaries! He's getting really strong and will hopefully
take the plunge and exercise his faith soon. He has three adorable
daughters under 8 and will be a great addition to the Ward for sure.

 I don't mean to boast, but this entire email has been written with
my thumbs on the way home on the train and bus from Akashi, pretty
good right? I'm exemplifying being a missionary in the digital age ;).
 I have a conference call with the missionary department in Salt Lake
tomorrow to discuss music on our iPads so this week will be another
busy one. We have a few more meetings as well so we'll be off and
running for sure! Hopefully we'll be able to get music on our iPads as
well!

 I found an awesome scripture in John while studying last night that
really changed my perspective. John 12:35, "Then Jesus said unto them,
Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the
light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whither he goeth." I stared at the first part of the
second sentence for at least ten minutes last night thinking about how
it sounds like a call to action for an old missionary. I only have a
little while left, and the light that comes from being a full-time
missionary will one day be over. I need to act now and walk with the
light I hold by doing whatever I can to invite others to come unto
Christ. I absolutely love that scripture!

 I`m running out of things to talk about so I better start winding
down. I love what I do and the chances that I have to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ in the Digital Age. My calling has been incredibly
humbling and I`ve learned more about myself than I ever have before in
my life and I wouldn`t trade it for anything. The church is true and
the gospel blesses families. The Book of Mormon has been something
that I`ve taken a little bit for granted lately, but I intend to get
back on track and see what I can learn from the truest book on Earth.
Its a powerful tool and I can definitely use it better in my day to
day life. I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it`s 100% true. I
love you all and couldn`t ask for a better support system. I hope you
all have an awesome week doing whatever it is you do... What do normal
people do again? Haha I love you guys!

Elder Jeff Giles

Top of Kobe!

Ramen after soccer on saturday.

I don`t think you can tell from the picture how much I fried my
face playing soccer in the sun.

Area Book Planner app is unleashed in Kobe!

Hello friends and family!!!

Well, as expected, last week flew by. We were here in Kobe on Tuesday
with the mission leaders, then Osaka on Wednesday, Takamatsu on
Thursday, Kobe on Friday, and Okayama on Saturday. It was a busy week
for sure. The conferences were a blast. Getting the chance to train
the mission on how to use the new Area Book Planner app was a blast.
It was funny because my role ended up being training on data privacy
and what we can and can`t say on our teaching records. We joked last
week that the IT staff of the Kobe Mission is a Doctor and a Lawyer.
Thats about right, isn`t it? It was great!
We had a great time riding with President and Sister Welch around the
mission again. They`re super fun people and we always learn a ton. I
think they have just about the coolest life of anyone I`ve ever heard.
Its awesome to hear about all the amazing places they`ve been and the
cool experiences they`ve had and yet their greatest love is for each
other and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will always be powerful
examples in my life. We had a really cool experience coming home from
Osaka last week after the conferences. The Welch`s were planning on
going up to Kyoto to meet they`re friend Brother Lee Daniels (member
of my branch presidency in the MTC) so we took the train home with the
assistants. A couple stations away from our stop my companion said
that we should get off at a popular station for finding and see what
we could do with the time we had left in the day (about 3 hours). We
got off and I was feeling super tired from a long day of training, but
worked through it and did my best. We talked to as many people as we
could and then decided to grab some dinner before heading back to the
office to get prepared for the next day. I told my companion as we
were eating that I felt like we should get back home so we left
immediately. I didn`t think anything of it, but as we got off the
train at our stop, I noticed a guy that was definitely not Japanese
and had the feeling that THAT was why we came home. We started talking
to him and shortly found out that he was from Mexico! It was even
cooler because my companion started talking to him in Spanish and then
found out that the guy also speaks Portuguese so they switched over to
that (I was lost). It turns out the guy is just like my companion.
Speaks like 5 languages and traveled over to England and learned
English. He said that he had tons of time this week because he had
work off so we made an appointment. He actually asked us for OUR
number so it will be good for sure! That was awesome and everything
and we were feeling super pumped and then as we were walking home we
passed this random white guy who took about five steps past us, turned
around and quoted John 14:6. That isn`t your typical start to a
contact here in Japan. He was from England and talked to us about
Jesus for a good twenty minutes or so. We actually taught him a little
bit about Gospel Dispensations because he had a lot of knowledge about
the Bible. We were able to get his number and we`ll hopefully be
meeting with him soon. The Lord definitely guides His missionaries,
thats for sure! One more cool experience was two days ago on the bus
coming back to the office from downtown. There was this guy that
looked like he was from South America so my companion started talking
to him. He spoke fluent English and said that he was actually here
working for a car company and has been in Japan for close to ten
years. We asked him if he had ever seen the missionaries and he said
he had seen them a lot on bikes and stuff, but never really talked
with them. The best part was he said, "Its funny, I actually don`t
usually take the bus home, but today I just felt like I should." I was
thinking, "Funny how that works, isn`t it?" I don`t think I`ve ever
found so many foreigners! The Lord knows His sheep.
Well I better go brush up on my Espanol for the week... Haha just
kidding. I think my head would explode. This week was awesome though.
It was a week of experiences that just helped me see that this is what
being a missionary is all about. We find, teach, talk to people, and
just have an absolute riot doing it all. We`re going up to Himeji
Castle today so get ready for some pics of the biggest castle in
Japan! I`m way excited.
I close with my testimony and a little bit about what I`ve been
learning recently. This morning I felt like I should focus on the
Savior in my study so I opened up the plethora of information I now
have access to on my iPad. I read "The Living Christ" which is
something I`ve read before, but I think I appreciate it more every
time I read it. The Savior lives. There`s no other way of putting it.
I can`t deny it. I don`t think I could if I wanted to! Its through
faith in Him AND His Atonement that makes it possible for us to
overcome anything we face in this life. I love my Savior. I love
wearing his name. I love being a missionary. This Church is true. Its
the Kingdom of God on the Earth today and I wouldn`t have my life any
different.
 I love you all and I hope you have a great week! I`ll see you all soon!

Elder Jeffrey Maxwell Giles

We`ll be coming around the mountain!

Goooooood Morning Friends and Family!

This Monday marks the start of an incredibly busy week for us! We`re
launching Phase 2 of our iPad rollout this week with the Area Book
Planner Application and I`m really really excited! The Area Book
Planner app is legit. Its crazy how much stuff we can do on our iPads.
The Lords work really is hastening. We had a staff meeting with
President W this morning to go over what we will be training and
how we will teach the missionaries the correct principles to use the
iPads and Area Book Planner more effectively. I think I learned more
in the two hours we were with him than I have in the last week! I
absolutely love my mission president.

We had a really cool experience in church yesterday with the Young
Men in our ward here in Kobe. There`s an American family in the ward
from Illinois and the Dad was back in the U.S. for work so the Mom
asked me during Sacrament Meeting if I would translate during Young
Mens for her Son, so I did. We have 5 or 6 young men and I don`t think
a single one of them really want to be there. I can perfectly relate
to them at that age... The Young Men`s President in the ward is a
really awesome guy that returned from his mission a year ago (He was
actually in the MTC with my Trainer, Elder S). The theme for
this month is the Restoration so he gave a great lesson explaining the
Restoration to all of us. He was a way good missionary, so of course
it was straight out of PMG in his own words. He was doing great and I
wasn`t really focusing on the young men in the room because I was
translating for the American boy. I looked around the room at one
point when the teacher asked everyone, "Why did the church need to be
restored?" and no one answered. It`s a question thats a little bit on
the difficult side, but I thought he might get an answer out of
someone there at least. All of the boys looked really uninterested and
bored so I asked if I could share my testimony about the Restoration.
I looked around the room at the boys and was filled with charity and
compassion because I saw a little bit of who I once was in all of
them. I saw the lack of real understanding and confusion that comes
from being 14 years old. I told them that when I was their age, I
really didn`t like to go to church either. I didn`t understand why it
was important or why we had to go in the first place. Of course my
testimony grew and I started to realize what was really important in
my life when I got a little older, but a particular experience in the
MTC set in stone my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I told them
that I went to choir every week for my two months in the MTC and one
of the weeks, we sang "Praise to the Man" for Elder Richard G. Scott.
Never before did I realize that strongly that Joseph really was a
Prophet of God. "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven; Earth
must atone for the blood of that man. Wake up the world for the
conflict of justice. Millions shall know  Brother Joseph again." I
bore my witness that Joseph was indeed chosen by God as the Prophet of
the Restoration and tears filled my eyes. Never before has Japanese
come that clearly, and it might not come that way ever again, but I
know that those boys felt the power of the Spirit through the words
the Lord put in my mouth. I love feeling like a mouthpiece for our
Father in Heaven.

We had one of our investigators come to church for the third week in
a row yesterday so wish us luck with him and his family! He brought
his daughters to our soccer activity on Saturday and really seems like
he`s getting to know the members really well and liking what we have
to offer as Latter Day Saints. Pray we can baptize!

I`ll leave my testimony this week as a thank you to my wonderful
Mother, it`s her birthday today (Monday). I love my Mom. I wouldn`t be
even close to the man I am today were it not for her sweet spirit and
example to me in my life. They say that behind every successful man is
a very patient and wonderful wife, well I would venture to say that
behind every successful missionary is a very loving, caring, and
extremely patient mother. There is no mistake that I learned how to
work hard and get things done from Mom (sorry Dad). She`s one of the
greatest examples I have in my life and I`m honored to be called her
son. I love you, Mom. Have an amazing birthday! I love you!

And I love you all, too! Have an awesome week!

Elder Jeffrey Maxwell Giles, Son of George and Sharie Giles

(love you guys)

Priesthood Power

Friend and family (mostly Mom),

How are you all doing? I`m hoping you`re all having an awesome week.
General Conference was a blast! I`m actually really sad that it`s
over... I couldn`t shake the thought that that would be my last
General Conference as a full time missionary. It`s so crazy how fast
the time has gone. Just three conferences ago I was a brand new
missionary, first week in the field, not knowing which way was up or
down, and trying to understand SOMETHING these people were saying! Oh
how time is so fast.
This General Conference was especially powerful to me because for the
first time in my short twenty years on Earth, it was the first time
I`ve prepared a list of questions beforehand and prayed for those
questions and inquiries to be answered. Can I just tell you how
incredible the feeling is when you feel the Lord answer your prayers
through one of his chosen servants. I know this is probably incredibly
cliche, but I felt like each and every single one of the speakers from
the Conference were speaking directly to me. I was so grateful for the
Spirit that I felt.
This last week was SOOOO busy. We had transfers so Elder DS
and I were doing just about everything you can think two missionaries
could possibly do. We were picking things up from missionaries at
transfer points, taking calls, training new missionaries, meticulously
putting iPad screen protectors on, I mean you name it and we were
doing it. It was awesome! We`re absolutely fried, but I wouldn`t have
it any other way. This week is looking to be just as crazy because
we`ll be implementing the Area Book Planner Application for the
missionaries in the office starting tomorrow and basically to sum it
up, we`ll be putting the last two years worth of records on file in
our iPads. Woohoo. Its going to be a crazy week for sure. My fingers
are already sore just thinking about all that typing. I love what I
do!
I wish I could pick my favorite talk from conference, but seriously I
loved them all so much I have no idea which one I liked the best. I
think there was one where he related the gospel to music. That
seriously blew my mind just a little bit! I thought it was so cool.
You can literally relate the Gospel with anything because it really is
the source of all good in the world. We all looked at each other after
the first day and thought, "we should really get married when we get
home, shouldn`t we?" The Brethren were very direct and the messages
were very focused on how important it is to get married and establish
strong families in the Gospel. Elder Holland`s talk really stirred me
as well. I loved the story he told of the two brothers on that
gut-wrenching climb in Southern Utah. It made me think of my own
little brothers and how much I want to be there if they fall. I hope
they are there for me too.
 Today we got to go to Akashi for Preparation Day and see some of my
first area. It was so nice to go back. It was raining pretty bad so we
didn`t get very good pictures, but I miss that area for sure! It`ll
always be a special place in my heart.
 I leave you with my testimony today that the Savior really does live
and His Gospel really does bring peace, comfort, and happiness into
our lives. I am so grateful to be a member of this church. I want to
do my part for the rest of my life in magnifying my callings and
helping others to see how amazing this Gospel can be for them. I know
this is the Church of Jesus Christ on the Earth today. By him the
worlds were created. God is our Father and he loves us. He loves all
of his children and he will answer each and every single one of our
prayers if we`ll only stop and listen for a little bit. I am grateful
for the blessings the Lord has given me in my life, and I am grateful
to have such an amazing group of supporters at home. I love you all
and I hope you all know that! Have a great week!

Elder Giles

Yakiniku with our Recent Convert!

I don`t know if you can tell, but this is a football game. In Japan.
I`ve never seen that until yesterday.... Crazy

Another One from Kobe!

Hello friends and family!

Today is transfer day in the Japan Kobe Mission! It`s not a surprise
at all, but I`ll be staying here in Kobe with Elder DS for
another six weeks! I`m excited to continue getting through the phases
with the iPads and getting the chance to work in Kobe for another
little while. I know some of you are probably wondering whether or not
I had the chance to watch conference this weekend, but I haven`t yet!
Due to the time difference conference is shown the following weekend
here in Japan so I`ll be watching it THIS week haha! I`m super
excited. G.C. is like the Super Bowl for missionaries. Elder DS didn`t really understand how funny that statement was when I
told him last night.... Brazillians...

Last week was great. We were getting calls like crazy toward the
beginning of the week from missionaries that had questions about their
iPads, so that was an adventure. I think my most common suggestion to
them went something like this, "are you currently at the church
connected to wifi?" "Yes." "Okay, why don`t you try shutting the iPad
off and turning it on again, then give me a call if it still doesn`t
work." I actually didn`t get any calls back. I guess I`m the best IT
expert ever! Haha.

I had a companion exchange with a young missionary last week and we
had a great time. I got to go up to an area north of Kobe called
"Kitarokko" so it was fun to get out and see the world again!
Kitarokko is a beautiful area up in the mountains on the backside of
Kobe with a really strong ward. Lately they`ve had a ton of success up
there just because their ward is so awesome. It was great to go up
there and see and feel how great it is to truly work with a ward. We
taught a lesson to a lady in the morning that is really close to
baptism. We had a couple from the ward come with us so the lesson went
really well. We were able to give her a baptismal date for the tenth
of May so hopefully she`ll be able to get baptized soon! After that we
studied then went to visit a recently returned less active Sister
that`s working to go to the temple in a few weeks. We had a member
take us over to her place and we basically just gave her a short
review on the Restoration and Joseph Smith. It felt really good to
explain to her that it only took Joseph two months to translate the
Book of Mormon from start to finish and share our testimonies with her
that he is indeed a Prophet of God. It was a great companion exchange
and I learned a lot for sure!

The ward here in Kobe put on a awesome Easter Party on Saturday and we
had a great turn out of investigators and members! We had a guy that
comes to our English Class regularly bring his three daughters and
they had such a great time, he committed to come to church yesterday
for the first time! They had an Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids and
it reminded me so much of the ones we have up at Grandma B`s every
year. I love Easter and had a great time remembering the amazing gift
of the Atonement of Jesus Christ!

Well the Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom here and its as beautiful
as ever! I`ll send some pictures of the "Sakura Tunnel" we ran to one
morning. I`ll close with my testimony that Jesus Christ lives. I know
it is by and through him that we will all rise again. I know that he
has the power to make each of us strong and I know that this is His
church! Prayer is so powerful and I testify that we truly do
communicate with our Father in Heaven. He loves us all so much and I
feel so incredibly blessed to be serving him at this point of my life.
This is by far the most challenging thing that I`ve ever done, but I
wouldn`t trade it for anything else. A mission is priceless. I love
you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Jeff Giles

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

OFFICIALLY Digital Desciples of Christ

Mom (and everyone else ;)),

This week was awesome! We were insanely busy all week and the hard
work is starting to pay off. We had a visit last Friday from Elder
Russell M. Nelson and President Michael T. Ringwood to our mission to
kick off the use of digital devices in the Kobe Mission! The day after
the conference, President W trained us and gave us our Ipads so
we`re now locked and loaded! These really are going to change so many
things. This is a tool that will make us much more efficient and
effective and we`re so glad to finally be under way. The full release
starts tomorrow with the Mission Leadership Council (which will be
trained by Elder Sand I) and then the rest of the mission
follows shortly after that! We have to get all of the devices out to
everyone before we can get started on the next phase, which will be OFFICIALLY Digital Desciples of Christ
using the Area Book Planner Application and once thats over the third
phase will be using Social Media. Its been a while, Facebook, I`m not
sure how I feel about you yet... haha! Its going to be fun, thats for
sure.
Now I`ll get into the good stuff. The opportunity to learn from one
of the Quorum of the Twelve members was amazing. I absolutely love
Elder Nelson. I don`t even know where to start from all the great
things I learned. I think we were all really surprised, because he
really didn`t talk about the use of these mobile devices or obedience
or anything like that. He really stressed how important it is for us
to learn correct principles to govern the rest of our lives out here,
and then marry someone that loves the Lord more than they love us. I
think the exact quote was something like, "it might seem to be a risky
bet, to marry someone that loves the Lord more than they love you, but
I promise, it`s a very SAFE bet!" He was awesome. I was sitting on the
second row so I had a the best seat in house to observe and Apostle. I
learned something from him while he wasn`t even speaking! While
President Ringwood was speaking to us, I happened to look over at
Elder Nelson while he was sitting on the stand and I couldn`t believe
how close he was paying attention to what President Ringwood (who also
happens to be his Son-In-Law) was saying. He had his scriptures out
and was following along to every reference he took us to, marking
verses, searching other references, and the whole time he was sitting
on the edge of his seat almost craning his neck to get as much out of
what President Ringwood was saying as he could. Watching an Apostle of
the Lord striving so hard to receive revelation from someone who was
his junior and much younger than him, not to mention his Son-In-Law,
was an awesome example of humility.
 The conference changed my life for sure. We`re entering a new age
and I feel so incredibly blessed to be a part of it. The Lord has
given me so much in my life and sometimes I feel that I`ve done hardly
anything to deserve all the blessings he`s given me. I love my Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ more than anything in the world and I love
serving as his disciple. He is my friend, my Brother, and I`ll always
walk with him. The world is headed in a place I fear isn`t righteous
or holy, and I know the Lord needs strong members in his church to be
lights and beacons of hope to the world. I intend to be one of those
for the rest of my days. I know this is His church. I know that the
Prophet Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. I know our Heavenly Father
knows and loves us as his own.
 I love you guys! I hope you all have a great week! I was so busy, I
didn`t have time to take hardly any picture, but I`ll see what I can
do this week! Hopefully I`ll have some time between calls from
missionaries who don`t know how to use an Ipad... Onward Christian
Soldiers!!!

Elder Jeffrey Maxwell Giles