Fourth Quarter!

From our roof

Here we go ladies and gentlemen. We are on the final quarter of the mission! Kinda weird! It has gone really fast, almost too fast! But things will be good! I have really prepared myself to finish strong. I have seen a few people end their missions lazy, or some really badly, and I refuse to do the same thing! 

This always happens though. During the week I think of stories I want to write home, then I sit down and I forget everything. I am going to start keeping notes in the back of my planner to remember!

This week was good! We had Christmas and it was awesome to talk to my family and see their happy faces! It's weird because even though I haven't seen them in like 7 months (since the call on Mother's Day), it feels all too familiar to talk with them.

This week we went around talking to a lot of the members and reading with them the story of the birth of Christ, and really testifying of him. Something I found in my personal study that I really liked is the first three verses of Section 29 of the D&C. It is a personal invite from Christ for what we need to do! That is honestly how easy the gospel is! Follow Christ and do what he asks and you will be fine! I want you all to read that ;) It's not hard, it really is not, you just have to do it! 

We are still working hard to grow our inventory and get new investigators, but as of late we have not been able to sit down with many people. We are hoping this next week will be our break through week! 

Love you all a ton, and wish you a Happy New Year! 

Elder Naylor 

Family Night

Christmas

Our Area

I hate throwing up SO MUCH!!!

So have you ever been on a boat and it rocks so much you feel like your going to die!?! Yeah, BEEN THERE!!! I had to take a boat from Fogo to Praia. I threw up every 10 minutes of the four hour ride!!! Now I am sure you're asking yourself, "How did you still have food in your stomach?" Oh, I didn't!! It was all gone in the first 30 min! The rest of the time was just dry heaving... it left my body so weak!! I couldn't even hold myself up anymore. I just slumped in my seat and let the waves throw me around!! NOT FUN! Don't ever take the fast ferry!!

After I got off my worst nightmare, I crashed at the zone leaders house. I walked in the door, dropped my bag, then boom, out. They then wanted to go eat, so I thought, "Oh, your completely empty. Your body will like food!" Nope! I took one spoon full of rice and my body freaked out! It started to go numb and just be weird. Gratefully, that passed an hour later. Then I spent the night walking around with Elder Dos Santos while he said bye to recent converts (he was leaving as well). The next day they had their Christmas party. I got to see it two times! :) And president called me up to do the same musical number I did in Fogo!

Then I took a plane to Sao Nicalau! This place is sweet! First off, the airport is no more than a glorified tent! :) But the town is cool! The church here has 16 people, no leader, and 2 priesthood holders! We are the missionaries and the ward leadership here! This island was opened up one year ago and that's all! So we will work hard to make it grow! Elder Jensen is super cool! We get along great--probably better than most of my comps. It kinda stinks that he is going home in 3 weeks...I will miss him!

Excited for Christmas this week! Should be a lot of fun! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor

Leavin' on a jet plane! ...or a boat.

So I thought I was going to be transferred, and I will be going to the island of Sao Nicolao. After 8ish long months in Mosterios, I am gone! I am going to miss a lot of the members, and Paula and Guta, but they are in good hands! I will be serving with Elder Jensen. He is ending his mission here in three weeks. so there are only four elders on this island. My whole mission I have been in the areas that are super far away from other elders. I have the nickname of the exiled missionary... and the really weird part about this transfer is that iImight end my mission in this area...WHAT!! When did that happen!?!!  It should be a good one though. I am really excited to get a fresh start and end the mission strong!

Fun fact though. We actually got evacuated this last week (*Todd's mother would be very interested in hearing WHY...), so I don't have a ton to say about missionary work, other than we did have our Christmas party. (Mother, I think I finally have an idea of what it's like to spend hours in the kitchen... :/). That was super good! We were able to relax and really enjoy the spirit of Christmas. Sis. Mathews shared a part of her conversion story and talked about how the little drummer boy did not have much, but he gave to Christ the best he had. And she invited us to give our best. Many of us have very different skills and resources but Christ does not want us to bring someone else's talents, he wants ours. 

That's all I got for this week. Oh, but I did translate for the stake president here when he had a meeting with the area seventy about the volcano! So that was cool! Super excited for the Skype call! Talk to you here in a few! ;)

Love, 

Elder Naylor

Thoughts and prayers for those who have lost all--

This was a good week. We had a lot of good things happen. As always, people are still kind of on edge about this whole volcano thing. But nothing big has happened yet. The city that sits at the bottom has been completely destroyed. But no one has been hurt or injured. These people here need your prayers and your thoughts. Most of them have lost everything! 

In terms of our work, we have had some people make some progress. One is Anna and she really likes our church. She is just hard to teach because she switches the topic so much and will talk a lot. We also found a sweet new investigator, her name is Paula and she is super smart! In our second lesson we were talking about the plan of salvation. We finished talking about our pre earthlife, and she asked "So why don't we remember any of that?" No one has ever asked me that in my mission!! :) It made me super happy to have to explain that! :) 

She should be sweet for the future. The sad thing is that this will be my last week here. I was told last time I would leave and transfers are this Sunday. I will miss a lot of the people here, and wish I could have gotten some more people progressing or baptized, but I honestly feel that I have planted a lot of seeds. Some day someone is going to come through and have this place explode. 

Thats all for this week folks,

Love, 

Elder Naylor 

Thanksgiving!

Being Gargoyles

Ash on our home

Stuff

So to start off the week we did a lot of help with the people from the volcano, but as the week went on they needed us less and less, so we just went back to work. The most help they need is helping people down from cha das calderas, but our president said we can't go up there. Where we are is literately safe. We can see nothing here and smell nothing. 

We have Elder Olsen and Arteaga with us so we have been on divisions all week. The work has been going good! There are some people that have some potential! Will have more updates next week. Sorry! :)

DONT PANIC, AND DONT DO ANYTHING! PLEASE!

Yesterday the volcano opened up. It was not an explosion, but lava is flowing. First off, I AM SAFE. Our mission president and area seventies are aware and are very concerned about our safety. No calls to the mission or first presidency. I just want you to know. They have evacuated the city close to the volcano and have pulled the missionaries out of the next closest. Here in Mostieros we have opened up a place for these people to go. We have been working hand in hand with the Red Cross and police to take care of everything. 

It has been really cool to work on humanitarian stuff here. At the gate into the school they have police guarding it so that normal people don't come in and cause problems. But when we come up they just open right up! We are cool! :) Last night we ran around gathering clothes and blankets for the people who came in. This morning we have been giving out food and just trying to help and be ready for the worst.

Some places on Fogo have had ash fall, and some fumes, but where I am at is virtually safe! 

This next week I can see us doing a lot of stuff with this, so teaching might be a little low. But don't worry about us. We are here to help and serve but we also will stay safe.

Prayers are what these people need. Don't worry about sending any money or things, just keep these people in your heart this Thanksgiving week. Be grateful for everything you have, because people here are losing everything.

I know that God is in control and that he will take care of this. I am happy to be able to be here and help. I won't lie, I  really wanted to do humanitarian stuff on my mission, so my wishes came true! ;) 

That's all for this week.

Love,

Elder Naylor

My Week in Pictures!

To be honest this week was kinda slow. Not a ton has changed in regards to investigators progressing. Guta is still waiting for some unknown doubt... I'm not sure what to do other than to keep passing by and inviting her to do things that are right. Janin has fallen really hard and shows no interest to change... but we have a few people who could make it.

Something I keep running into here is that the people really like the elders and love to talk with us and even sometimes like what we say, but they will not do what we ask. They believe that just hearing the word of God is enough, or that Christ already paid and therefore they need to do nothing. It's really quite sad.

Elder Pauli and I are going to focus a little bit more on the ward and try to strengthen them and hopefully that is what will bring in the baptisms.

Honestly, that's all for this week, but here are a lot of pictures! :)

Hiking

Hiking again

I think my shoes need to be swapped (that is my finger BTW)

Fogo!!

Translation:Strangers can not enter. yes we went in ;)

Family night at Guta's!

Dishes

Love, 

Elder Naylor

3 New Investigators!

Transfers were last night and guess where I am??? The same place! :) That will make 9 months in this area by the end!! Good thing I like this area, right? :) I will have a new comp though! He is from California but is a Tongan!! :) It should be a lot of fun! His name is Elder Pauli.

This last week went really well! We found three people that are golden and ready to listen. One of them is actually Fransisca, from way back when! She came around and really wants to do everything and follow this church! She came to an activity, but then missed church because she was at a funeral. But she is awesome! Another person we met is Eunice. She is the mother of one of our members and she decided to come to church one day. She loved it so much she wants to talk with us and do everything there is!! Super awesome! The other is Eve. Her husband passed away 1 year ago. He was killed while working as a security guard and left Eve with 7 kids and no work. She also is looking for God in her life and wants to follow!

This really came as a blessing because lately I have felt that this area was just closed off to the Lord. They wanted nothing with him. So I had been praying that the people would change and come to God, and they are now!

Guta is dong ok. We have planned for her to be baptized this week. We will confirm that today. She is still helping her daughter with a Catholic thing and doesn't want to be baptized until this is done. The problem is that the pastor went to America and they don't know when he will be back.... so we will see!

I have been using a different cyber lately that is super slow uploading photos. Next week I will send a lot more! I promise! 

Love,
Elder Naylor

Halloween= 1 Candy Bar

This week Elder Fernandes went to Brazil, so they set me up with a mini (a local missionary). He is cool. 

This week was a rough one. There were days that I did not want to do a single thing. A lot of disappointments and a lot things did not go the way we wanted.

Guta was not baptized because she was doing a catholic meeting thing for her daughter. We taught her everything we could, but she just couldn't get passed being baptized and then being in this catholic meeting. We did everything we could. Janin was fine, but he had set-back, so we have to wait. He is not putting the Lord in first place. A lot of the people here are not accepting our message and can't look past the things of this world to look to God.

This week was tough, and I was doing a lot of study on hope. I'm trying to find the fire to keep going. I remembered the Mormon message about daily bread, and how the Lord supported them day by day. We just need to keep going and take everything we get and always trust the Lord.

Love you all.  Hope this week was good.

I Need to Start Asking Questions for Myself...

So, to climb up the volcano is against the rules, but we were able to go to the foot of it! I will send a lot of pictures next week! We have had some good p-days lately.

This week went ok. We had some slow days, but we also had some good days. Guta should be baptized this week, and Janin could be as well! We are still working to see if he is all the way ready.

At the moment, we are finding it really hard to find new progressing investigators. People will listen to us, but have a really hard time doing the things we ask them to do. We found Bruno (one of the less actives I am helping) on the road and we said, "Hey, let's go to church," and he said no for no reason what so ever. Every night he comes up to us as we are ending our day, drunk, and says he wants to change, yet the one chance he had and when we were there, he failed... I have done everything I can! I will keep trying, but there is nothing different I can do other than to be with him 24,7 and knock drinks out of his hands and drag him to church (which, of course, we wouldn't do...) It's all about agency. 

My studying has gotten a lot better this week. I was thinking about college and how I can't wait around for people to ask me questions, but I need to start asking questions for myself. So I have started doing this in the gospel and not stopping until I have an answer that I like!

Next week I will send a lot of pictures!


Love,
´
Elder Naylor

Slow week...

Well, this week has come and gone. Nothing too exciting happened. Elder Fernades almost got hit by a rock!

Ailton was confirmed this week and he is doing well. We are now working to make sure he is integrated into the ward. Guta is still doing ok. She wasn't at church because she was really sick (we confirmed that), but no one else really came. We are trying really hard to find new people and get people progressing, but we are not having any success. It's been really hard lately. Also, we are having some companionship disagreements, but I don't want to talk about that.

We have set up some good plans for this upcoming week, and things should go really well.

That's really all I have to say.

Love,

Elder Naylor

PS: Todd also noted that Guta was being pressured against baptism by the man who pays for her expenses... Hopefully she can work it out.

Conference

So this week we watched conference. That was really nice. It took a lot of time though because I had to run all the technology. Sometimes having skills can be a bad thing ;) especially if you don't have the best of equipment... Oh well! :) 

I Wanted to say I really liked the whole language thing they did this time! It was cool. Also they mentioned the Lord's pray three different times and the phrase "thy will be done". I think that is something we really need to look at. Are we doing what the Lord wants us to do? Someone mentioned if we are living up to our patriarchal blessing? That is something I think we should all look at and make sure we are doing exactly what the Lord wants from us.

Ailton was baptized this week! but Guta got kidnapped by a Catholic priest... as much as I would like to say I am kidding I am not. She was supposed to come but didn't show up so I called like 15 times and she didn't answer. So we went to her house and she wasn't there, but I called again and she answered and said hello, but put me on hold. Then when it came off hold a man was there and he said "she is with me, she can't be baptized" and then hung up.

So this week we should get Guta!

This week we have interviews with president! and that should be really good! :)That's all for this week ladies and gents!

love

Elder Naylor

My companion that I am Training while he waits for his Visa to go to Brazil. He is from Praia, Cape Verde.

P-Day Activities

Ailton

Nuff said

First Week in October

To start off my new comp is really cool! We get along really well, and he is determined to be the best at everything he does. He is also very open and willing to listen to me! In case I didn't mention it, I am training up until he goes to Brazil! This is my first time training!

This week in the area things went pretty well! Things were crazy at the beginning because we tried running 2 areas! Elder Ress had to go pick up his comp from Praia, but didn't go until Wednesday. On Tuesday, we easily walked over 6 miles and were still able to teach 3 lessons and our English class! I was super tired that night!

Guta and Ailton have been doing great! Sadly, Guta will have to wait one more week before she can be baptized. The Catholic church decided to do their big mass thing for school starting on the only (literally the only) road that goes to our church... The police blocked off the road and everything! Over 13 people said they got stuck in this thing and that's why they didn't go to church. But Ailton should be baptized this week!

Love,

Elder Naylor

Transfers!

So, last night transfers happened and guess what..... I am staying one more (or more than that...) I also will be getting a visa-waiter for a comp. Elder Young went to Sal. I am going to miss my little aussi! But, all is well! This week went really well! 

Yesterday Guta came to Church!!!!!!!!! She actually went twice ;) We said we would pass by and we could walk there together, but when we got there her daughter said she already left. So we went to church, but she wasn't there. We were super disappointed. Then, right at the end of the first hour she showed up!! She had walked to the church (30 min walk), didn't see us there, then walked back (30 min). Then, she saw one of our members and
talked to him, then she paid a taxi and showed up! :) So happy for her!

Also, Tonita has had the Book of Mormon for maybe two weeks now and she is already on page 113! She passed Guta! When we invited her to be baptized this week, she clapped her hands and said yes, just like they
do in Mosiah! She is so ready. We just have to figure out the marriage stuff. Also, Ailton showed up and really wants to be baptized!! We are being so blessed right now!

The district is doing well, too. In this upcoming transfer (I am still district leader), we should have a good amount of baptisms! We will have two rookies with us as well! :)

That's all folks! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Naylor

Slower week...

We had a lot of good lessons this week, but no one really came to church. It stinks, and I wish it wasn't so, but it happens. We have had a lot of rain lately, and it's been nice because its cooler, but it also scares people away from church. 

Super green right now

Janin is making a little bit more progress. The biggest problem we have there is, right now he has a contract with a soccer team that he can't break, and they require him there every Sunday morning... not cool, but we will find a way! Guta got all ready to come to church and as she walked out the door, the Catholic priest passed by to take her to church, and then took her there by the wrist. :(  Jerk! Next week we will not leave her house until she is leaving with us!!! 

Ward activities

We do have this one investigator named Myguy (not sure how to spell it, but that's how it sounds! :)) He is from Nigeria and really awesome! In the first lesson he said he knows the Church is true! So he should be baptized here really soon. We hope next week!

If you sell American stuff, expect it to be gone when the elders come :)

I am sad to say that I think this might be my last week in this area! I hope so much that these people I have taught and helped will keep going! I don't know for sure if I will leave but, if I do, it's all good!

Love, 

Elder Naylor

School is Back!

So to start off, Janin was not baptized. The problems he is facing have made it a lot harder then we thought. Also, Guta didn't come to church because her daughter was in the hospital. We are, though, having a family night there tonight, so that should be really good! Guta is so far in the Book of Mormon! It makes me so happy!

This week nothing huge happened... just kind of the normal teaching and walking and trying to find people to teach. It's hard because we always seem to find someone who seems to be so prepared, so golden, and then
something comes in and destroys what we had going. We seem to always be running into walls. Something we are really stressing right now in the mission is talking to everyone, That has been good, although a lot of people don't want to listen or do anything.

To be honest, this was just a very normal week. We have some good plans set up for the upcoming week, so hopefully they all go through!

Love,

Elder Naylor

Hold my hand!!! ...(that song by Akon has been stuck in my head! :))

To start off, this week was amazing! We had Elder Moriera from the Area Seventy come and talk to us!! Needless to say, it was super spiritual and I learned a ton!!!! I don't have time enough to write about everything, but the one thing I wanted to talk about is that he talked a lot about obedience to the rules of the mission and/or the commandments in general! He said that we need to follow all the rules to show God that we trust him and really love him. If we have a problem with any of these it's because we are selfish and think we know better than God! Ohhh, it was great! Can't argue with that! :) So that was great, and I still feel like I am on a spiritual high!!

Rainbow!!

The sad news for the week, though, is that Janin's wife has asked for a divorce... He was set to be baptized this week, but he has fallen off the track hard!! We are working hard to get him back, but it might be a while. Guta is still doing really good. She has gone down from 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day to only 4  times this week! She missed church this week, but she is coming to the family night with us today, so that's great! She has also read the Book of Mormon up to page 92!!! I think the farthest I have had an investigator read was up to  20, maybe 30 pages (they read really slow here, but thats ok! :)). We are going to set a date with her once her daughter gets back from vacation so they can be baptized together!

Good ole selfie

At church we had 90 people!! This week we are shooting for 100 and I think we are going to make it! A lot of good things are going on here in Fogo, and I get to be a part of it! :)

Yay!

I love the spirit and I love being here helping people out! Onward, ever onward!

Love,

Elder Naylor

Some Week in August...(on Sept. 1st :))

Hi Everybody! 

This week, a few good things happened. Janin is still doing great! He has been reading every day and still has a strong desire to get baptized. He will be gone this next week, but I think he will be alright for his date! I am so happy to work with someone who wants to progress.

We also found a lady named Guta, and she is amazing as well! She has a date for the 20th and seems right on track to make it! She just accepts everything so easy! She used to drink coffee 3 times a day, but has been working on cutting down!

We also have an investigator named Amancio, and he is already in 1 Nephi 11! He is hauling through the Book of Mormon! He is really smart, always has a question, and wants to know what the answer is! He is also learning guitar! I am going to teach him a little on Tuesday! :) I miss playing guitar!

The work is starting to go really well! After so much time of nothing happening, it's been really refreshing to have something now! Also, ever since our bishop came back (from attending the temple for the first time), he has been making things better! He now goes out with us once a week to teach and is really working to get the work going! It's funny how one trip to the temple can make someone want to serve the Lord more ;) So that's been awesome! 

This week the Area Seventy (General Authority of the Church) over Cape Verde is coming to do a conference, so that should be really good! :)

For those who want to know, Ebola has not been a problem here yet. There was one plane that gave everyone a scare but that got taken care of. The country is very ready for it and is doing well at getting the word out so that people prepare! We should be fine. If anything happens, we will be ok! :)

That's all I have for this week!

Love,

Elder Naylor

Parties!!!

So this week was a party week for my area! Basically since last Friday until yesterday there has been a huge party! So many drunk people and so many not well dressed people! It was sad to walk down the street and see the only people out were at the bars, going to and from the party, or drunkingly walking around.

A Monkey

... That being said! We did get an investigator to church! His name is Jannin! He is a barber and he makes the rocks that you use to make the cobble stone road (hardest manual labor I can think of!!!) he is great. He really wants to follow God and has the desire to be baptized! He already loves the Book of Mormon and we were able to talk last night about the atonement and resurrection. He will for sure get baptized, he just wants to prepare a lot before then, so we will see where that gets us. I love the guy! :) 

The Volcano on Fogo

We also had 2 less actives show up! I am very pleased with them! They are still struggling but its not as much of a fight anymore to get them to do stuff! :) That's progress!! :)


Our bishop just got back from the temple!! Imagine this man has never even ridden a plane, or left his little house and farm, then in one week he flies to Brazil, gets his endowment, gets sealed, does all the work stuff for the dead, gets to visit a high functioning ward. Sits in on his first ever high council class, and then comes back! He has changed a lot and has a real vision for our ward now! You should hear how he talks about it (side note: he actually gave a talk about the experience and Jannin loved it so much he wanted to go to the temple, and that was his first day ever going to our church and he already wanted to go to the temple!! :D)

We also had another baptism in our district and this one went a lot better than the others! Transfers where last night and me and elder young will stay together for one more run here! :) I am happy about this. Kinda wanted to stay and I love my comp so I can't complain! :)

love Elder Naylor

Loved the package. Thanks a ton!!! :) Hope this weeks email was a little better!\  :)

New Tie from Mom and Dad

My new little Friend ( also in the package, kinda like Scout )