Week 5....January 22, 2015

Kamusta Po Kayo? 

Causing The Blind to See

So I've been wearing this name badge for little over a month now, hasn't time been flying? I swear I was emailing like yesterday! This week was like zoooom! I feel like I'm not even a missionary yet, because I am enjoying myself so much! Yeah things are hard, but it's a good hard. Kind of like touching a bruise, you know it hurts, but it feels good at the same time. 

Me and Elder Eppich

I have less than a week left here at the MTC, I'm so sad to be leaving my teachers and all my batch mates, but I am excited at the same time! We are the only MTC that does the proselyting activity, like I've told you before we went proselyting last week, we went this week too, to a different area! I got paired up with another American, Thank the Heavens! his name was Elder Simson from Las Vegas, he was a cool cat. We started off just by OYM'ing a couple people giving out pamphlets like mad men, then we went to a Less Active's house. The houses are still chicken coops but the people are more than human. The Natural Man that is talked about in Mosiah 3: 19 These people have overcome that man. They don't complain, they do everything with a smile on their face! they've done this all with meekness and lowliness of heart. These people ahh I have tears in my eyes! They are simply amazing! They are so accepting of our message, they are a perfect people in a very imperfect place. We walked into this Less Active's home, the first thing he does is crab us a drink of water, and they made these fried banana crepe looking things and gave them to us. He didn't know who we were, He just did it. It was sooo delicious! Could you imagine being so poor that you live in a tin building with dirt as your carpet, little or no food, but as soon as somebody that you don't know enters your home, that you just gather anything you can give them?  It touched my heart to it's core. We have no room to complain about anything in this life, somebody always has it worse than we do, we are so so so so blessed, we too often get blinded and can't see all the blessings we have. Take time everyday to reflect on your life and see the beauty of your life because it really is. If the Chicken Coop people can I know that we can. We taught this man about repentence, he understood our message and he is going to start coming back to church again. I bore my testimony and tried to give as much input as I could. The language is Sobrang (very) Hard, but I'm not worried it will come with time. We talked to a bunch of people on the street, only one person turned us down. I love it out there, and I cannot wait to get out their and give these people the fruit from the tree of life. I've been reading the New Testament, I decided that since our message is centered on Jesus Christ then I should probably learn something about him. I love it!  I've been pondering about all the healings that our savior performed and how symbolic they are. He healed all manner of illnesses, He healed the sick, caused the blind to see, caused the lame to walk, caused the dead to rise. How incredible! My thought process of these miracles is this: It's the faith that these people had in Christ that they were able to be healed. These miracles are still happening! through the faith in our Brother and Savior these things are still possible. This is my Mission Statement for the the Next two years.

Birthday Party

___________________

MISSION STATEMENT:

Heal The Sick

Cause the Blind to See

Cause the Lame to Walk

Cause the Dead to Rise

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This is what I will push for everyday for the next two years and the rest of my life. I know that through Faith in Christ I will cause the Spiritually sick, Spiritually blind, Spiritually lame, and Spiritually dead to be healed. 

I love you all and I think of you on a daily basis. I love being a missionary.

-Elder Naylor

Me and my boy Raymond Caling

Week 4.. January 15, 2005

MOMMY!!! haha so sorry you have to spend your anniversary alone!! that blows if I was there I would have made you an egg sandwich!! I swear that Is all I think about egg sandwhiches and bacon.... briolang (just kidding) It's good to keep nelson on a tight leash! he is a wild animal! I'm glad tumbling is going good for him! where is he doing it at? the same place as Sav?  My teacher is seriously the coolest cat on the block! he has helped me a ton. Well what has happened this week... We all have the Hershey squirts.. again.. I was in the temple earlier today and I thought I was going to crap myself during the session. Luckily I made it! Mom we went proselyting this week, like out into the real world! I got paired up with an American senior companion his name is Elder Louis from Wyoming. Dopest, most chill dude I've ever been around. We hopped on a trike (taxi bike thing) then we got on a jeepney (Bus type thing)  haha the roof are really short on the jeepney's and when I got out I smacked my head on the top everyone was laughing at me. We went to one of his investigators houses it was a 9 year old girl. Mom ahhh the cutest thing on the planet! when I saw her look up at us my heart melted! we taught her about pre-earth life, she was just so cute and shy. she called on me to give the opening prayer, which I did ok at. I gave my testimony as well. (my tagalog is sobrang(very) rough!) so I couldn't understand most of the lesson but it still was amazing the spirit was strong and everything was great! we went to a couple more houses well I wouldn't even call them houses they remind me of buildings on shawn's farm. What surprised me was how lax it was. We were just two American's walking around just talking to people. At every turn there would be a guy with his shirt off with a Cig in his mouth yelling HEY JOE!! I don't know how to explain why they do that to American's but they do. Overall it was the best experience this week, we do it next week too, I hope it is as good as this last one. Mom I love you so much! I think about home often, I'm still dreaming about home every  single night. The language is coming... slowly. but I'm not worried about it. Lessons are getting easier to teach but they are still difficult. I simply love being a missionary, This beats waking up at 2 and being to stokes at 3 anyday! I love you mom give everyone hugs and kisses!

Elder Naylor

"That's your boy"

Week 3...January 8th 2015

Check out my name tag!

Mom!! haha I wish I could've seen nelson eat it! That kid's ego could take a beating every once in a while!! I miss him a lot! I've been thinking about my little bro a lot lately! We did a role play and I was the investigator and I pretended to be Nelson. by the time I was done I was crying and crying! I swear I am the biggest boob ever! I love a miss you all! this week was a little rough! I found myself getting discouraged a lot with the language, lessons. The language is slowly coming. it is brutally hard though, im starting to make some connections though so a little is making sense. My lesson's well those are actually the best and most stressful part of the day! our teachers let us use English but we are supposed to use as much tagalog as possible. So my companion and I are using probably 1/4 of the time using tagalog. I decided I didn't want to have serious lessons anymore. well obviously serious to a degree but have fun with them as well. So every lesson I have tried to come up with an activity to get the investigator more involved so we can be a little bit more loose and actually enjoy the 20 minutes that we are teaching. One activity was this. we did it with our investigator (Brother Ryan) he had a friend come to the lesson as well. we had been teaching Ryan about trusting Diyos with his problems really just with everything. So in the middle of the lesson I stopped and the idea came to me. (Trust Exercise) haha I had us all stand up we moved the coffee table out of the way and we did that trust fall thing where you close your eyes and you just fall back hoping that, that person will catch you. I caught Ryan and my companion caught his friend. They thought it was so funny we were laughing so hard that we were crying! it definitely brightened the moods not only for my companion and I but for the investigators as well! Another activity we have been trying to bring hymns to our lessons and incorporate them with the lesson. When we taught ryan about  Ang Plano ng Kaligtasan (The plan of salvation) we brought and sang I am a child of god with him! haha again so funny and so chill! with our other investigator Sister Faye she has been having a hard time remembering to pray so we brought the hymn Did you Think To Pray! haha again so funny and so chill! We teach so much better when the mood is light and happy.   Mother I am ok! The only hard part is the mornings and a little into the afternoon. The only time I really miss home is in the mornings. I kid you not I have had a dream every single night since I have been here about home.

 Tell all my cousins hi and that I love and miss them. Mom thank you for emailing me about everything, tell dad to stay off the sled so he doesn't get hurt, tell Alex and Cami congrats!! and JENNIFER QUIT!! O boy yeah in that case I really don't miss being home so I don't get the wrath of king brad!! haha I love mary! Thank you for getting me that stuff! I can't wait to be sporting my new bag!! I love you mom! Till we type again!

Elder Naylor

Temple day madness...

This is my dope teacher Brother Caling.

WEEK 2 - MTC NEWS (January 1, 2015)

Adrians companion and teacher

   MTC Food

Mother hello!!! ok answers to your questions I don't know about the bag, I have four weeks here so I guess you could try to send it here. ummm scriptures just type them in the email like example (Nephi 12: 3-4) then the tag name (missionary work) or something like that. yes I would like a card reader please! Ok so let me tell you about what's going on here! I really am enjoying myself, the days are long the mornings are pretty much the worse! but teaching investigators is amazing! even if they are fake investigators! I love it! I suck at it but I love it! I want to share with you one of my most spiritual experiences since I've been here. so Thursday night we had a practice teaching activity. We practiced on our companions, so Elder Taylor Fletcher (my kasama) was the investigator and I was the missionary. He told me about him and his life. Him and I are really alike. very weird. he's more shy than me if there is such a thing but he really is great. When I was teaching him it was so amazing! I've never felt the spirit so strong, even though it was a practice I was sobbing and sobbing and after we got done with it he told me that the spirit hit him like a truck and that everything that I said he needed to hear. so that made me super masaya (happy) and I can't wait till I can teach others that way gosh it will be amazing! This language is no bueno! it's so tuff for me! but it will come (I hope) hahah really funny story about new years! my freaking companion!! hahaha Another elder came into our room and gave us all haircuts and so we got to bed late like around 11:00 and I wake up to my companion and another elder walking into our room around 12:10 they said that they had been up on top of the roof watching fireworks!!!! the fireworks here were crazy!! just imagine 40 million people lighting off fireworks at the same time! It was like war! anyway The next morning the MTC president comes to us and he's like "the missionaries that went on top of the roof meet me in my office now" haha my companion and the other elder went, and the mtc president chewed them out, then I had to go in with my companion and the other elders and talk with the MTc President. The rules that he stated that were broken were these: my companion left out room past 10:00 and my companion wasn't with me. He told me that I was responsible for my companions actions even though I was asleep and unaware! so he took all of our missionary badges!! I felt like such a retard all day but he gave it back this morning! so cray cray! whats going on at home?? I love you!

WEEK 1 - MTC Christmas..... December 26, 2014

1st Week

.... Day after Christmas!

Mom I don't really have a way to send pictures right now, one of the elders may lend me one of their cords! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Merry FRiggin Christmas!!! After we got off the phone yesterday it was a rough rest of the day! I really was missing home! I opened all my presents! thank you thank you thank you, all the boys in my room are extremely jealous of watch! super dope! and mom I think the best gift of all was the book! I was in tears! but tears of joy! Mom that last thing you put in the book about Grandpa's plant... holy cow! the spirit hit me. It was insane! I cried for probably 5 minutes straight it was so awesome!! Mom This is going to be hard! I really wish I would've prepared more! I feel like I don't know the gospel well enough to even teach about it! but haha let me tell you about my companion! Elder Fletcher... He is the quietest person I have ever met! he is super nice but way  quiet! I get along with this guy his name is Elder Cox!! haha him and I have the exact same personalities it's kind of like when my brothers and I are together and we just talk about the most random crap on the planet and yell random stuff! it's awesome and makes it so much better!! it's gospel and language all day! I've definitely learned a ton while I've been here. like I said on the phone the SPIRIT is so strong here! I've never cried so much because of the spiritual feelings I felt in my whole life! My companion and I have been teaching an investigator named Carlo, TEACHING is AMAZING!!  If I have learned anything with the investigator stuff it is this. get to know the person before you shove gospel down there throat. We have to know what the gospel can do for that person and hit it where it counts! that way they can feel the spirit. I want to write more but I got a lot of emails to get to in a short time! I LOVE you so much!! thank you for everything! The mission is going to be amazing I just know it! I know that there are going to be difficult times but my brother Jesus Christ will be there right beside me the whole way! i'll send pics if I can get a cord! love you all!

Love, Elder Naylor

Adrian gets to Skype....2014 Christmas Eve / Christmas day for him.

We got to visit with Adrian for a little over an hour.  He could see us but we couldn't see him. 

Day 1- Headed to the Philippines.... Dec 18, 2014

1st email after a very long plane ride. December 18 in American 19th in Philippines. 

Mother!!! ahhhh!! i freaking made it!! I feel like i have been awake for three days straight. the plane ride was very very long i highly recommend that you dont ever do it! but yes i have to make this quick, they are philippino nazis here!! Ok Mom i don't know how you are going to do this without my help but You or dad need to make a skype account! Now i can't give you a list of instructions because i really don't know how to either. But yes i get to call you on CHRISTMAS!! well it's chrimstas for me but christmas eve for you! i get to call for 30 minutes and it should be in the afternoon ish. so DECEMBER 24, afternoon "your time" I will skype the poo outta you! make sure all the family is there and yes Savy and sarah and Jen (; I love you guys so much! the MTC is beautiful! It really has been good so far! and I think it is going to get even better!! i'm rooming with some pretty chill, dudes! they are GREAT! lots and lots of shorty Philippinos haha i don't understand any of them! When i tell people where i am from they totally know where Preston is or have some family or some sore of connection! I love you all!! i don't have time to email everyone so tell everyone i love everyone, give them all a hug! Tell Sav i love her Goodbye goodbye! tell next time!! oh you have to give me the information of the skype account, VERY IMPORTANT!!

Love, Elder Naylor

Long awaited emai! Adrian's dad was a bundle of nerves. Finally he caved and called the MTC to see if Elder Naylor had made it.

P.S. A mother on the plane with these boys took this pic and sent it to us.