Conference and Baptism!

April 13, 2015

This week went really well, and we had a baptism! Calu really was so prepared! We just sat there and taught doctrine and he readily accepted it. He will really help people here and be a great leader-- I can feel it! 

Calu was Baptised

The main focus now is to get our inventory progressing a little better! We have been working with a lot of people, but they are all kind of in this standstill right now. I really wish I could write more, but everything has become really routine and not very exciting.

In our area we walk a lot. We have two main parts of our area, but they are separated by a good 15 min. walk, and sometimes we have to make the trip more than once. 

I truly am loving the mission, and I feel my self growing. I think I already mentioned that, but it's true. Conference was great and I know that we are being led by men who are called of God! If we trust in them, everything in our lives and after this life will be fine. Next week I promise I will have more! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor

A Good Week!

April 6, 2015

This week was a kind of crazy week. First off we had interviews with President and those went really well! Nothing really special to say about that, but it went well! :)

Then conference weekend is always a lot of work and really disappointing for attendance... For some reason people here think that conference weekend is a break from going to church... NOT! Oh well.

Maria and Tihno did not go to set a marriage date with us.They are hung up on a little doubt that is not worth it. So we will work with them this week and get back to progressing. 

Otherwise, all of the people we are working with this week are doing great! They all came to church and are set to be baptized this week! This area has been good. We just need to find some more new people to work with this week. 

Sorry I don't have a ton to say half the time. I did learn this week in my personal study something cool! So, does anyone know how long the brother of Jared was on the boat? 344 days!! That is practically a year!! Imagine that long on a boat! I thought the mission could be tough! :) It was just proof to me that the Lord will ask us sometimes to do hard things, but he has all the intention in the world of blessing us!!! Hold on people and look to Christ. He is the only one that will lead us to our Heavenly Father! I know that he lives and he paid for our sins. 

Love,

Elder Naylor

Another Ballin Week!

Leaving Sao Nicalau

So to start off, Praia has been great! I went from 6 lessons a week in Sao Nicalau to 25 lessons!! :) And on Tuesday we are going with one of our couples to set their marriage date!! :) Their names are Maria and Tinho. They have been coming to church for a while and are super ready!! So that will be fun.

P-day lunch

We also are working with another couple named Saturnino and Nilda. They are the type of family that doesn't progress very fast, but every time we leave, I feel like we made a little progress! We already have given their son and Saturnino a blessing. The son was really sick. Saturnino thought he had a curse on him, so we gave him a blessing! But they are great. We are also working with Zezino and Monica. They should be married here in a few weeks!

We also have three people set for baptism on the 11th of April!! They are Daniel, Famara, and Calu. Calu was supposed to be baptized this week, but we were not able to sit down with him, so we pushed back! But all three came to church and are doing great! 

Things here are just great! The work is going great well, and I am feeling a lot better than I was! Yeah for the mission! :)

Elder Naylor

A road in my area (really dry here...)

I May As Well Have Switched Planets!

Well! Praia is nothing like Sao Nicalau! It is a night and day difference here! People are really friendly, and they will actually listen! 

So, the first great thing is: We were teaching a lesson, and we asked our investigator how his prayer went when he asked the Lord if Joseph Smith was a prophet. He said he had prayed and asked and afterward he felt more hope for himself and for his family. We then explained that what he felt was the Spirit confirming the truth of what we had taught him, and he agreed. He even agreed that he would be baptized as soon as his doubts are cleared up!!

Second great thing: We also are working with 3 other families and they are all working towards marriage! So that should be awesome!! 

Third great thing: We also set a baptism date yesterday for this coming week with a man named Calu! I saw him at church and I thought he was a member! His wife is a member and his son is a missionary in Portugal!  We taught him the lessons and he accepted to be baptized this next week! So that was awesome. 

I don't have pictures this week because I don't want to walk around with my camera, but I will be sure to get some this week! 

That's all for this week folks! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor

Transfers--Now I'm in Praia!

So I got transferred again. I am finally going to the country capital Praia...It should be good. It will be nice to have a strong ward for once. ;) 

This week was good! We had 6 new investigators. We also have been teaching this man named Jaime. I think I talked about him last week. We talked to him again and he was great. We even sat down to talk with his wife. So hopefully everything goes well!

We did a lot of door contacts and road contacts and things were still going hard. I am starting to see how it must be in other parts of the world!! But Praia should be good. President says that Praia is on fire right now, so that should be good. My comp. is Elder Hartman. I don't know much about him! :)

I have a funny story though! We were teaching Jaime, his wife, and his mom when we asked his wife to say the closing prayer. What ended up happening was that all of them just said things they were grateful for and then said "amen"!! It was funny! :) We will work with it, but it was a good lesson.

Photo: Leftovers from Carnaval! 

Love,

Elder Naylor 

PS: Elder Naylor has decided to extend his mission by a month--his current release date is July 21st. We are so (sob) happy for him. ;)

Door contacting--Not my favorite

So this week was a little bit better! 

To start off, we had the President, his wife, and the assistants pay us a special visit! We had a lot of trainings and we learned a lot of stuff! One of the things I learned that hit me the hardest was that our president said, "God can't steer a parked car," saying that we need to act and work so that the Lord can guide us, but if we stay still and don't show our faith, he can't guide us. Almost all the the time the blessings come after the "trial of our faith." We need to exercise it first, if we expect help.

Strawberries and Cream

Also, remember that nice Chinese couple that made us dinner? We made dinner for them this week. They are very nice and very friendly. I kind of want to learn Chinese now! :)

Nice Chinese Couple

We also contacted another man from Holland who said we were wasting our time here and that we should be in Israel teaching them. Of course, he would not let us say a word as he proceeded to smash on the United States, and whites. I am really starting to understand that being a disciple of Christ is not easy...

We also have started doing door contacts. The first ones were rough, but I feel they could be our break through point! 

Love,

Elder Naylor 

On Mount Gordo

Top of Mount Gordo

Still finding--

So, the thing I have really been working on this week is staying positive!! I had a bad day Tuesday. It just kinda felt like nothing was going well, or would go well, but I got around it the next day and it has been better since! :) I totally understand why hope and patience are attributes of Christ.

We haven't really found any new people, and no one has made any big leaps this week, but we did have 19 people at church!! :) It went from 10 to 16, then 10 to 19, so that is great! Finding has been hard so far! We have a lot of contacts, but they don't always work out. We have been given a lot of fake numbers and appointments set for exactly when they will not be home.

One thing that worked out great this week was that we finally sat down with a man named Jaime. In my first transfer here, we contacted him and he looked to me like he could be a great leader in the church! Ever since then we have tried to sit down with him, but because of Carnaval and mass work at his shop he has never really had time. We sat down with him on Saturday and it went great! He accepted the Restoration really well! And said he would pray and read! Also, his mom kept coming in and out, and she seemed interested as well! I'm really excited to see where that could go! 

We also have been teaching another woman, and she could be great!! The only problem is that she is the children teacher in the Catholic church were she lives. She likes everything we teach and has been praying to know if it is true, but just has not gotten an answer yet. We know, though, that once she does she will be a great member! 

Thats kinda all for us! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor