Tudo bem?

Hi Mom! Oh, Happy Fathers Day, Dad!

 This week was freaking awesome. I`m sure I sound like a broken
record after starting out every single one of my weekly emails for the
last two years with something about how awesome the last week was. Oh
well, I`ll be home soon anyway! We really did have an awesome week
though. Being a full purpose missionary that does just about
everything is a blast and we`re seeing miracles in Matsue for sure! I
have great news, by the way! Our two Chinese investigators (Chen and
Yo), passed their baptismal interviews last Saturday so we`ll be
baptizing them this Sunday before church! I`m so excited for them! We
were teaching Chen yesterday with one of the members that speaks
English, we were talking about the temple and the Priesthood and stuff
like that and the member voluteered to take Chen down to Fukuoka after
he gets the Priesthood to do baptisms before he goes back to mainland
China! We`re seriously seeing some major success with the Chinese
right now. They are amazing people. On top of that, my companion and
Elder W from our District were on a companionship exchange and
they got invited into a Chinese guys house who was really interested
in learning about the Gospel. These people are pure! It`s been
awesome. Fe cheng hao!
 That brings me to my companionship exchange with Elder S over
in Izumo last week. They have a very large population of Brazilians
over in Izumo because there`s a factory that hires them out of Brazil
and pays them better than what they would be receiving if they were in
Brazil. Anyway they have somewhere around 25 Brazilian investigators
right now, and almost all of them happen to live in this one apartment
complex. We decided to go over there and see if we could get any
lessons in with any of them and see how they were doing. Mind you, we
don`t speak Portuguese, and they speak little to no English or
Japanese. The Spirit is amazing. We tried a few of them, but found
out that most of them were at work or out doing something on their day
off. We noticed a guy pull into the parking lot riding a BMX bike with
Beats by Dre headphones on with an Oakley hat (not common here). We
met him on the stairs of the apartment complex and tried to talk with
him. From being with Elder DS for close to 5 months I was able
to get across to him that we were missionaries from The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I`m pretty sure he just understood
"Igreja" haha! We were trying to figure out how we were going to teach
this guy because he really seemed like he wanted to know what we were
doing (wouldn`t you if two white boys stopped you on the stairs of you
apartment?). Elder S remembered that he had wifi at one of his
other investigators apartments, so we asked the guy if he would come
with us. We stood outside of the investigators (who wasn`t home)
apartment and managed to get a little bit of a signal. We used google
translate to tell him who we are and stuff like that and he got really
happy. I called around the mission to find a Brazilian Elder who could
translate for us because Elder DS was busy in Kobe, and
managed to find one! We called him and he translated for us over the
phone! It was hilarious. Here we are, two white Americans standing
outside of a Brazilians apartment using Google translate and an Elder
on the phone on the other side of the mission to teach a guy that just
moved here from Brazil the Gospel. Long story short, they`re meeting
him on Friday, and he`s a new investigator! Don`t worry it gets
better. After that we went and taught one of the Brazilian families
they have and Elder DS translated for us! It was awesome.
After that we met the same guy that we taught before, but he was with
his younger brother. We talked with them for a little bit and the
little brother ended up coming to church the next day, skyping with
another one of the Brazilian Elders in the mission, and he`s now a new
investigator too! (takes a gasping breath) Pretty cool right?
 Everyone, this is the work of the Lord. I`ve seen things and been in
situations where I can honestly say the hand of the Lord was present.
He is ever at the head of this church. I love being a missionary and I
love the chance to be here in Matsue. It`s a great place and will hold
a special place in my heart forever. I love the gospel and I know it
has changed me for the better. I love you all so much and I hope you
have a great Father`s Day. I love you, Dad! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Giles

My new Brazilian friends in Izumo. 

This guy can`t hear a single thing, we taught him by writing on a piece of paper in Japanese. He has all sorts of crazy Japanese history things in his house.

The Lord places people where he needs them

Friends and Family!!!

先週は最高でした！
I`m seriously concerned for life after my mission and having free time
because I`ve literally been going 100% all day every day for a long
time. I was laying in bed last night thinking about the future. It`s
crazy what a foreign concept regular member life is to me right now.
It really sparked my desire to use every minute of the time I have
left to serve the God that lends me daily breath.

So we have two Chinese investigators who are really really strong. One
of them has a baptismal date for this coming Sunday, and the other has
a baptismal date on my birthday. We were thinking about them last week
in our Weekly Planning Session and we figured it was going to be
difficult for the one getting baptized this Sunday to make that date
because we still need to teach the commandments and he needs to get
interviewed! Well the one that has a date on my birthday only has a
few of the commandments left and his interview and we felt like he
could be baptized a lot sooner. After looking at the calendar and
talking about it for a little bit, we decided it would be awesome if
they just got baptized on the same day, June 28th! Because they are
good friends, this will work out perfectly. After that we realized
that one of our other Part Member Family investigators also has a
baptismal date on the 28th of this month. We`ll be having a baptismal
service for three investigators that day! You should have seen the
Ward Council yesterday. Everyone is super excited! One of the Chinese
guys actually sadly goes back to China in August or September, and I
was thinking this week how amazing it was that he came to Japan, found
the church, will be baptized and confirmed a member, and return to
China. He`ll be here for a total of less than one year, but in that
time his life will have changed completely. I`m sure he was planning
on coming to Japan for school, but the Lord had bigger things in mind.
He wasn`t coming here for school, he was coming here to receive the
Restored gospel. We taught him about Tithing yesterday during Sunday
School and he readily accepted it. We were a little nervous in
teaching it because it`s such an important commandment, but when we
told him that we were planning on talking about something called
"tithing", he was like, "I already know about that." We thought, "well
great!" explained the blessings and doctrine behind it, shared a
scripture talking about how the windows of Heaven will be opened, and
committed him to pay his tithing after he is baptized and confirmed!
It was an awesome lesson completely run by the Spirit and an already
prepared heart.

We had an awesome District Meeting last week talking about how to
become "Full Purpose Missionaries". Seriously sometimes in Japan it
feels like all we do all day is go out and knock on doors or talk to
people on the street and it yields little fruit. We`re focusing more
now on the bigger picture of missionary work. Using technology,
visiting Less Active Members, visiting members from the Wards and
trying to strengthen them. It`s much more motivating to visit a
member, share a short message with their family, then pray with them
to find someone around where they live that is prepared to receive the
gospel, and then go out and find. We talked about how working in this
way now will prepare us much more for when we have to go home and
fulfill our missionary obligations in our own wards. I assigned a few
members of the District a few of the Great Missionaries from the
scriptures, like Alma, Aaron, Peter, and Paul, to study and prepare to
teach for a few minutes on what made them so great. The activity is
actually in PMG in chapter 1 under the "Companionship Study" (I don`t
just come up with this stuff). It was awesome and I felt like I
learned a ton. It was actually pretty great, during one of the Sisters
training on the Apostle Paul, she was talking about how he was going
from one place to another. I remembered how there was a map depicting
Paul`s Missionary Journey`s in the Bible so I decided to look that up.
I don`t think I ever realized how far Paul actually travelled! One of
the other Sister`s asked, "well are we sure he walked the whole way?"
I responded with, "would riding a donkey the whole way be much better
than walking?" Seriously, Paul was a beast and all he did was love
people. He`s a perfect example of a missionary that teaches people,
not lessons.

This week is very very busy for us. Between getting our investigators
prepared for their interviews and prepping for another District
meeting, I have to go to the next area over for a baptismal interview
tomorrow, and then a companion exchange with the Elder`s over there on
Friday followed by a Missionary Day for their ward where all the young
men will be going on splits with the Elders from our District to go
out and proselyte on Saturday! It should be fun! I had the chance to
speak in sacrament meeting yesterday about the importance of preparing
for a mission. It was the first time I just went up with a few notes
in English and tried my best to speak through the Spirit. I`m sure
absolutely none of the members could understand what I was saying, but
I just hope the Spirit testified for me. Anyway the church is still
true and I still love you all! I love being a missionary and I don`t
want my two years to come to an end! I hope you all have a great week!
I love you!

Elder Giles

I Never Know What To Write In Here Anymore

Hello Friends and Family!

This week was a blast. It`s weird though, its the first week in a long
time that felt really long as it was happening, but still looking back
on it now, it feels weird that its Preparation Day again and I`m
sitting here writing this email. My conception of time is so messed
up, I love it! We had a really busy week full of a lot of good stuff
and I`m really excited to be working here in Matsue. It`s really an
awesome area and we`re going to see some crazy miracles here in the
coming weeks.
The week started off with a companion exchange with Elder W
from the District. He came over here and worked with me and my
companion went over to Izumo and worked with Elder S. We had a
pretty tough day here in Matsue. We had a lesson with one of our
eternal investigators that just speaks crazy weird Japanese and asks
all sorts of random questions. The lesson was pretty rocky because I
was understanding maybe 40% of what she was saying and poor Elder
Wiseman was pretty lost. Basically, here in Japan when that happens,
we just rely on the power of the Spirit and a simple testimony and it
tends to be really powerful. Its funny, it seems like the minute I try
to be really eloquent and learned sounding in Japanese, my language
ability leaves me. Its only when I speak simply and clearly do my
words come with ease and power. The gift of tongues is real. After
that we basically had a day of finding. We had an investigator in the
area book that I had never met before so we decided to go and visit
her and see if we couldn`t get a lesson in. The area book information
said she was a really nice old lady that just kept saying that she was
"living in happiness" and seemed to have interest. We didn`t think
much could go wrong with that so we went to visit her. After getting
to her neighborhood we finally found the house and knocked on the
door. As we were sitting there waiting this old lady came out from no
where behind us and started making noises I can only describe as a
barely audible "hissing". She kept crossing her arms in the shape of
an X and saying things I couldn`t understand. Very calmly I asked her,
"Ma`am, do you know how lives here?" She responded that they weren`t
home, but that we weren`t welcome here and that we should go home. She
said that "people of religion" come to that neighborhood all the time
and bother people and that we needed to get away from there. I
responded by telling her that we were visiting one of our friends as
missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we
were sent here to teach the gospel of happiness to all people, well,
that seemed to make her even more angry. We left and walked back to
our bikes and watched as she walked down the street and around the
corner. I looked at Elder W and said something along the lines
of, "I think she`s gone, there`s people in the house, lets go knock
again." We gingerly walked back to the front door and knocked. We
could here people in the house, but no one was coming to answer the
door. We stood there for a moment when a high school aged girl pulled
into the driveway on her bike. We said hello to her and asked her if
she happened to live with her Grandma. She responded that she did,
then pointed behind her and said, "she`s actually right there!" We
looked to see the SAME old lady storming up the driveway yelling all
sorts of obscenities at us. She walked right passed us into the house
and slammed the door. We gave a little chuckle and Elder W
handed the girl an English Class flyer and we told her to have a nice
day. Let me tell you, that woman was NOT living in happiness!
 We had to go down to Okayama for Zone Training Meeting last friday.
It was a long 3 hour bus ride both ways, but we had a great meeting.
One thing we`re working on is to become full purpose missionaries
right now. We`re no longer focusing on just one thing at a time, it`s
time to do it all. We`re working better than ever with the members of
the wards here and the time is short until the church is fully
established in this country. I`m grateful for the chance that I have
to be a missionary and to be serving in such an amazing place. I know
that this is the Lord`s church and that we all have the divine command
to take the gospel to all the inhabitants of the Earth. I love my job
and I wish I could do it forever.
 I hope you all have a great week, stay healthy, and enjoy the first
week of summer vacation! It`s getting hot here, and its time to cool
some people down in the font! Wish us luck and pray that we can
baptize! I love you all!

Elder Giles

They say it doesn`t start until the last three months...

Friends and Family,

This week has flown by. It definitely had its ups and downs, but the
great news is that it just keeps getting better exponentially. I had
the opportunity to perform my first baptismal interview on Friday and
believe me, it was nerve racking for sure. We had interviews with
President W on Thursday and had a blast the short time we were
with the W's. It was funny, they`ve been out all week doing
interviews in the far areas of the mission so when Sister W saw me
she said, "I haven`t even had the chance to miss you yet because we
haven`t been back home since you left!" It was great. She`s the best
lady ever. We were basically just moving from appointment to
appointment and were able to get a lot done so I`m really happy and
excited about the pace of the work here in Matsue. I absolutely love
it here. The Ward is small, but everyone is like family. It`s a little
more country than I`m used to, but it turns out I kind of like it that
way.
The baptismal interview was definitely an experience I`ll never
forget. I`ve never felt the Spirit in that way before. It`s totally
different when the feelings and inspiration is directly related to
someone else instead of yourself for sure. The interview was tough and
I had to review a lot of the doctrine with the candidate, but I`ve
never felt the love of the Savior for someone like I did. I could see
what a blessing in this persons life his baptism would be, and the
church would bring nothing but positivity to a life in need of repair
and help. It was amazing, and definitely an experience I`ll never
forget. The Lord really does love each of His children.
We had two investigators at church yesterday, both with baptismal
dates! One of them is scheduled in three weeks, the other one is
scheduled on my birthday in July! We had to split with the members in
order to teach both of them during Sunday School. I taught the Word of
Wisdom and committed our investigator to live it. It had been a long
time since I`ve taught the Word of Wisdom in Japanese, but the good
news was he barely speaks any Japanese because he`s from China! I
explained the doctrine in Japanese for the sake of the member that was
teaching with me, and then typed it out in Google Translate and he
could figure it out! Thank goodness for technology!
I`m definitely still getting used to being a District Leader and
following up with missionaries every night. I have a decently big
district, but everyone is a really solid missionary so it makes my job
pretty easy. Its been a blast getting the chance to talk with
missionaries every night and follow up on how their lives are going.
Its been humbling to try and find things to help them because most of
the time I feel like they should be helping me! It`s super fun though
and I`m excited for District Meeting next week for sure.
 We have a crazy busy week this week with companion exchanges, and
taking a three hour bus ride down to Okayama for Zone Training Meeting
and staying the night on Thursday. We have lessons or appointments
planned for basically every day so it should be a lot of fun! I feel
like I have more things to do than ever, but I know God will always
provide a way to do the things that he commands. He`s commanded me to
do the work, and by all means I`ll do my best to do it. I love the
Lord, His church, and His gospel. We have a goal this transfer as a
companionship to focus on really LIVING the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We
know by doing so he will make our burdens light. I know that what we
teach is true and that the everlasting God is at the head of what
happens in this church and on this world. I`m grateful for that
knowledge. Yesterday before church I had the feeling to jump on
lds.org really quick to check for any updates. Of course the headline
news was that Elder L. Tom Perry of the Twelve had passed away after a
short bout with cancer. My heart ached at the loss of this beloved
Apostle whom I admire so much because he reminds me so much of my
Grandfather. I took comfort in the Plan of Salvation and the knowledge
that we have of what happens when we depart from this mortal life. I
love L. Tom Perry, and I know he continues his Apostolic Ministry on
the other side of the veil. If you have the chance, go watch
"Obedience to the Ten Commandments". Its one of my favorite videos in
the church. I love you all and I hope you feel how much I admire and
love each of you. Thank you for your sacrifice in allowing me to be
here doing what I need to do. I will never be able to pay back the
support that I`ve received during these short two years. Thank you. I
love you!

Elder Jeffrey Maxwell Giles

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

I'll be sprinting to the finish for sure!

Friends and Family,

  Well, I've got some sobering news this week. The companionship of Elder Giles and Elder DS as Technical Specialists in Kobe has come to an end after five good months. I've been called another way. I'm going about as far as I can go, I'm going to be a trainer again, my companion is Japanese, and I'm a District Leader over the biggest District in the mission. It's going to be fun! 

  This last week was awesome. It was just a good solid week full of finding and teaching. We found a really solid investigator from Vietnam that has a lot of interest. He's a member of a church that worships the Virgin Mary, and believe me, that's a lot more of a background than most of the people we find around here. The hardest part about teaching him is one little thing called a language barrier. My companion and I taught him through Google Translate on his phone because he doesn't speak English or Japanese at all. It was really interesting, but we were able to get our message across. The guy we found last week is now progressing really well and reading the Book of Mormon. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ because he feels like he isn't able to receive forgiveness from the mistakes that he has made. We had such a powerful lesson and he really felt the Spirit. I feel so sad that I have to transfer and leave all of these awesome people, but I will go and do the things that the Lord commands. 

  I don't have a lot of time today because I have to go and pack and get some things done in Kobe, but I just want to say how great it was to skype home last week. It was definitely a highlight and I loved being able to see the fam. I know that the Church is 100% true and that the Lord Jesus Christ is at the head. Wish me luck with transfers this week! I'm super excited and I couldn't ask for a better way to end my mission. I'll be sprinting to the finish for sure! I love you all so much!

Elder Giles

MOTHERS DAY!!!

HI MOM!!!

 I`ll start this letter before our skype call, so I`ll save all the
Mothers Day-ish stuff for our face to face convo! I love you, Mom!
This week was awesome. It was just a solid week and I feel great. We
were able to get a lot of things done and it feels like we were on our
feet moving from appointment to appointment non-stop. Those are the
best type of weeks for sure.

 We started off the week with Mission Leadership Council and talked
mostly about how things were going with the iPads and what types of
things we need to improve on as a mission. Its crazy, you give a group
a missionaries iPads, and within a month we have some that find ways
to be disobedient and do things they`re not supposed to do. I guess
thats just something you have to expect and live with. We`re also
running into a few problems with the Area Book App we`re beta testing,
but thats something we were expecting from the beginning so its no big
deal at all. I think the hardest part of my job is getting non-stop
calls all day from missionaries who all tend to ask the exact same
questions.

  Well we just finished the skype call so this letter might be a
little short, but I`m so grateful for the chance to have talked with
all of you! It was so fun. Time is going to fly by so I know it won`t
be long at all before we see each other again. I could feel your love
and testimonies for sure.

  The week was good, we`re working hard and are as busy as ever.
Transfers are next week and I have no idea what`s going to happen to
me, but I`m fine whether I stay or leave. Either way I`m fine. I`ve
gotten to the point here on my mission where the Lord could send me
anywhere he wants and I would go willingly and happily. I was always
worried about where I would go earlier in my mission, but now I know
that the Lord simply puts us where he needs us.

  Well you just heard my testimony, so I`ll keep it short and sweet
today, but I know that this is the Lords church on the Earth today.
Christ is our Savior and the Book of Mormon is true. This is the
church that God needs us to be members of because we are the ones who
are to take the gospel to the people of the world. I love this church
and I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

  Because its Mothers Day, I`d love to give a special shout out to my
own Mother, my Grandmother, my Sister (who will be a Mother someday),
and my awesome aunts. Being a Mom has got to be the hardest job in the
world. I shared the "Mothers Day Job Interview" video with a family we
were visited last night and it really hit me just how tough a Mom`s
job is. I love my Mom and what she has done for me. I love the women
of my family that have always been excellent examples for me in my
life. I love you all so much and I`m grateful for each and every one
of you! Have a great week and I`ll see you soon!

Elder Giles