Note from Pres. & Sis. Zinke

Dear Brother and Sister Giles,

Your son is in his new area with his trainer. It was a pleasure to spend some time together with him in the mission home. We hope you enjoy the picture of your missionary with us and one with him and his trainer.

We have also attached a map of the mission with the names of the different areas.

Thank you again for sending us such a wonderful missionary. We look forward to working with him in the coming months.

Sincerely,
President and Sister Zinke
Japan Kobe Mission

Japan: Week 1

Hi fam!

This week has been a week I will never forget. The mission field is so amazing and I`m having such a great time! I`m in an area called Akashi, just outside of Kobe and It`s awesome! My companion's  name is Elder Shinohara and he`s from up around Nagoya Japan! He`s so awesome. Having a foreign companion has been such a blessing! Our apartment is small but not as small as I thought it would be. Its awesome. I can`t even begin to tell you how much I don`t know any Japanese. It`s exhausting but I know It`s worth it. No one ever said this would be easy. I love it. President and Sister Zinke are incredible people! It was so great to spend those first two nights in the mission home! It was way sad to say goodbye to Elder Donaldson for a little bit. I`ve been great though. This language is hard. The food is different. I`m exhausted all the time, but I know this is where I`m supposed to be. Japan is so amazing. The people here just look at me like, who is that big white guy? It`s hilarious. We have this investigator that`s going to be baptized in a few weeks. He`s homeless so the church has been doing a lot to try and support him. You wouldn`t believe the change that the gospel has brought to his life. I look in his eyes and there`s a new life. It`s incredible. Haha so my bike is white and pink and says `Juliet` on the side. It`s super manly.. The members are great. Sorry I have to go!

Elder Giles

Week 9: last week in Provo MTC

Brother Taylor Hollister, aka: "I climb mountains and I went through SEAL training."  One of the coolest guys ever! I loved having him as a teacher!

Brother Jared Clark. I learned more from this man than he will ever know. Best teacher ever. I've never been more motivated to work hard because of him!

Elder Elg and I after the morning session. He leaves an hour and a half before me on Monday morning so I hope we see each other again in the airport! Awesome missionary.

Group shot of the missionaries leaving to all parts of Japan.

Brother and Sister Daniels. They served as mission president in Sapporo a few years ago. Awesome people! 

Brother Wood. A soft spoken man of amazing faith. He and his wife were so awesome to get to know!

President Butler. One of the greatest men I've ever met. He taught me so much and has amazing faith.

Brother Willes, hands down the greatest man on the planet! He taught me countless lessons and I KNOW I'll be a better missionary because of his influence!

Cool Story I heard a few weeks ago in the MTC - I'm off to JAPAN

Three men passed away and went to heaven. When the first man got to the gates of the kingdom he was greeted by a very nice looking man. The man asked him simply, "What do you know about Jesus Christ." The man paused for a moment, and then responded, "I know he was a great man, he cares and taught great things but was killed by the jews because they didn't believe him." The man smiled and showed him through a door next to gates.
A few minutes later the second man came to the gates of Heaven and was greeted by the same nice looking man. The man asked the same question he asked the previous man, "What do you know about Jesus Christ?" After a long pause the man responded with," He was the only begotten of the Father and man's only perfect example, he died for the sins of the world because he loved man kind and was incredibly selfless." The nice looking man smiled and showed him through another door next to the gates of Heaven.
After a few minutes the third man found his way to the gates. The nice looking man walked up to him with the intent to ask the same question he had the previous two. Before he could ever ask the man looked him in the eye and said, "Master." How well do you know Jesus Christ? It's my testimony that he lives! He died for us and knows of our trials and our pains. He is the Savior and redeemer of the world.
I can't wait to get into the mission field, pray for me. I will need your prayers, letters, emails and support. I have the greatest family & friends in the world supporting me.

Kobe Japan here I come in less than 2 days!
Love you all,
Elder Jeffrey Maxwell Giles

Elder Donaldson and Me.  So lucky to have such a great MTC companion! Solid in the gospel and his testimony of Jesus Christ, he will be a great missionary in Japan.

Week 8

Hey fam!

I got my travel plans and I'm so excited to leave! I'm scared to death but I won't question the Lord's timing in my departure, he know's I'm ready to go... I hope. On Wednesday we had a TRC lesson planned for a member all about General Conference and the importance of Prophets, we sat down to teach this guy and he had absolutely NO IDEA what we were talking about. We were really confused and decided to stop the lesson and just talk to him. I asked him what he liked to do and he said he loves soccer and I asked him what he did for a living and he said he was actually living in Nebraska right now going to school on an academic visa and couldn't get a job. He was from Kumamoto, Japan and had been here for a year. As soon as he asked Donaldson Choro and I how long we would be in Japan I knew we were talking to a non-member. After the initial panic of not knowing what to teach him we just started in the beginning with the restoration and taught him a little bit about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and how to pray. It was sooo cool! I can't even explain the love I felt for this man as we were teaching him. I wanted to meet him in person and tell him all about our church so bad! He was so curious about everything because he had a cousin that was a member and was so ready to receive the gospel! We committed him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so I hope he does that this week! Other than that awesome experience nothing really amazing happened this week. We get released as Zone Leaders tomorrow and I'm actually really sad! I loved getting to know all the Elder's in the Branch and having the opportunity to be a leader in the MTC. I'm so glad Woods Cross beat Bountiful again! That's so awesome! I'm going to try to send a few boxes home this week with stuff I don't need because it's way cheap to ship from the MTC. Elder Brown is still doing well but he's bummed that I won't be a Zone Leader anymore. It was way funny to interview him on how his district was doing last night. He's an awesome District Leader and I hope he continues to lead by example. Anyway, I'm still doing great. I finished the Book of Mormon again yesterday and, yes, it's still true. Alex needs to read it from cover to cover. I hope Jack got my letter I sent last week! Have a great week fam! Oh, by the way, I GO TO JAPAN IN NINE DAYS!!!

All my love,

Elder Giles

This is what we do pretty much all day long. Translate Sentences.

Elder Giles & Elder Cowley MTC Provo, UT

Elder Giles & Elder Peay MTC Provo, UT

Elder Giles & Elder Tribe MTC Provo, UT

Elder Giles & Elder Cowley MTC Provo, UT

learning japanese MTC life 

Spoiled by the greatest family in the world! 10PM munchies 

MTC with my Woods Cross Elders 

Elder Donaldson studying Japanese 

Week 7... Holy Cow

Hi fam!

I've had a great week this week with the addition of Elder Brown to the Branch! He was made district leader of his district two days ago and I think he's super excited! His companion is hilarious. He's from Mississippi and uses just about as much sarcasm as I do. It was so great to host him. His mom jumped out of the car when they got here and gave me a hug, super awkward... Haha no it was great. I was so glad to see the Brown's and I hope they're doing well! Jake's a stud and he's doing fine. 

This week has been a lot better Japanese-wise. I've learned a lot and we're able to now translate complex sentences into Japanese, granted it takes a good twenty minutes with about three of us working together. Japanese is pretty much the coolest language ever. I'm so glad I have this amazing opportunity to learn such a beautiful language. 

As far as everything else has gone it's been a pretty typical week. Nothing super crazy has happened but I'm still plugging along, I feel like I practically live here! (laughs) I had a great experience at the temple last week and look forward to going again in a half hour. I'm sad that I won't get to go to the temple for my whole mission but i'm super excited that I get to have the opportunity to help other's be able to go to the temple. Cool right? 

I can't wait to get pictures of Alex's homecoming date tonight. I'm sure she's out at her day activity right now having a blast. Can I just say how much better a mission is than High School?? Haha I love it so much. Can you guys believe I leave to Nihon in sixteen days?? I'm so excited! But so horribly scared. I can't speak this language worth anything, guess I'm going to have to try my faith a little bit right? Hopefully I'll have my street/airplane ride contacting down by the end of this week so I don't sound like a total moron when I stumble out some stupid sentence to the Nihonjin man sitting next to me on the flight. I can say moron without it being slang because it's in the Bible ;).

I found Japanese pass along cards in the book store today and I'm super pumped to buy the entire stack! Church is true. Can't hardly wait to share it. 

OH MY GOSH I ALMOST FORGOT. There was a mouse in our room the other day. Don't tell mom :/. The little guy shot out one afternoon and we haven't seen him since. His name is Gerald. He keeps our feet warm at night so it's not even that bad. In all seriousness though it's pretty nasty.. I tried to catch him yesterday with some peanut butter and a makeshift box trap but it didn't work. So this week Elder Barney and Elder Moos got a new companion. A missionary had to stay an extra transfer for whatever reason and he'll be leaving to Nihon with us. He's a stud and he seems to be helping Barney Choro out quite a bit. Donaldson Choro and I are doing well. We just keep doing what we do and plugging along. Keep the letters and packages coming! I miss hearing from a few of my friends so tell them to write me! Have a great week. I'll keep the neighbors in my prayers. Hopefully they get everything sorted out!

All the best,

Giles Choro

These are a couple of the missionaries that left this last week. The one
taken inside is Elder Hawkes from Bountiful. He went to Btown but he's a
great guy ;). We became pretty good friends and I was sad to see him leave
but he'll be a stud. The next is Elder Free from Mesa. He was such an
amazing Elder and He'll be such a stud in the field. Sorry the picture is
dark, I tried to fix it but nothing worked, dad should be able to fix them
though! The middle is Elder Jake Brown and myself prior to entering the MTC.  

Love you!

Elder Giles 

Elder Brown is HERE!

Week 6

Hi Fam!

I loved getting the box with all of your letters in it! It was awesome! Thank you so much for the Cashmere Woods Air Freshener, my room is very grateful! This week has been crazy as our first week as Zone Leaders! Sunday night we had an Elder go to the ER because of a panic attack. He turned out to be okay but it was super scary! We, unfortunately, had to say goodbye to an Elder because of personal reasons. It was so sad. We had the opportunity to Skype call a member in Japan on Wednesday and it was the most humbling thing I've done so far! He spoke so fast I could barely understand him, it was like he was speaking Japanese or something... We're still enjoying life here at the MTC but we are ready to go to Japan. The language is really starting to come now and we're using it every day with each other. Donaldson Choro got a haircut this morning and looks soo young it's hilarious. He's a stud. We had a little bit of a tough day yesterday teaching our 'Investigator'. I got so frustrated because I didn't know what he was trying to say and I couldn't put sentences together for the life of me! Luckily our 'investigator' is our teacher so he kept us after and told us what we needed to improve. It helped so much. I was so humbled. That night our other investigator was committed to baptism and we were able to answer all of his questions! It was so great. Never forget to ask the Lord for help. He'll show you what it's like to try something without the spirit. You can't do it. I'm truly grateful for this experience though and I KNOW it will make me a better missionary. I love our investigators, even if they're just our teachers playing a role. I pray for them every night and desire so much to teach with the spirit. I know that I am nothing, and God is everything, and without him we couldn't do a thing. I love that he love's me enough to help me. This language is so hard. There are missionaries here that took Japanese at BYU for a year, and they really aren't that much ahead of me.  The language of the gospel is a level playing field when it comes to Japanese, I guess.  I'm doing all that I can and I'm not giving up. I've never had to struggle like this in my life but I know I will be so blessed. I am learning to work hard and that's what's important. Sixteen hour day's are nothing now and even after we go to bed I have Japanese running through my head. This Church is True. The spirit is real and so is our Heavenly Father. We were the elect in Heaven, chosen to come to Earth to preach the gospel. This is truly amazing. I love it. I love being a missionary! Have a great week Family! I love you!

All the best,

Elder Giles