DEUCES

DEUCES AMERICA!!!!

Yeah that's right the east coast has come through for me finally. On Friday I received my VISA!!! Along with about 10 or so other Elders and Sisters and what do you know but all but 2 were from the Northeast. Usually I wouldn't leave from Provo for another 2 weeks or so but the travel office lady said they needed more beds because they had too many missionaries so I leave Tomorrow Morning!!! By about 8 pm central time (Dallas Airport) I will be taking off for Sao Paulo! There are so many jealous missionaries here haha, I feel kind of bad because about 25 Elders in my Branch all just got reassigned places and I haven't even finished my 9 weeks here and i get to leave. But I know that the Lord has a reason and purpose for everything and obviously needs me to be in Brazil right now.

So on Thursday is when most of the others leaving all got their visas and like i said most are from the east coast so i was pretty ticked and spent most of the day mad at the world, but i regained control and went back to being patient and knowing that everything would work out the way it was supposed to. And low and behold the very next day in the mail, my visa! I was numb with excitement the entire day it was great! The toughest thing was then i had to instantly and quickly go prepare to teach our investigator right after. Which turned out to be what i think was one of our best lessons yet! The Spirit was so strong and I felt really comfortable speaking and understanding the language. It's amazing what can happen when you put the Lord first in your life. Thinking back to learn French in high school where i didn't care and just tryed to be able to skate by to looking now at where I'm working hard to understand and speak a new language its amazing the difference. I know that that difference is my Heavenly Father and my outlook and giving Him these 2 years of my life.

This week has been so crazy and the visa has just made it better, on Tuesday we yet AGAIN had another apostle give the devotional! Elder Russell M. Nelson was here and talked about the Book of Mormon. It is such an amazing Book i love having the oppurtunity to be able to read from it everyday. I learn something new everytime that i do. Elder Nelson said this:

"The Book of Mormon is a gift to the world."

And how true it is. And how lucky I am to be able to bring that gift to the people in Sao Paulo, Brazil. This book is for everyone no matter who reads it they can find joy and peace in what they read.

Also, yesterday we had Mission Conference, and Mission Fireside. Also, because I leave tomorrow I was able to attend the Departing Devotional. It was like i got drop kicked with the Spirit. So many awesome talks and lessons I was able to learn from them. It truly is a blessing to be here.

Some quotes I loved from yesterday"

President Brown said: "Don't accept anything less than being your best."

President Gordon B. Hinkley said : "If we complain about life, it is because we are only thinking of ourselves."

I'm going to miss my companion and roomates, and district and branch, just everybody when i leave. I've had the chance to become really close to these Elders and Sisters, my fellow representatives of Christ. It's going to be tough but I'll see them again when they get their visas since we're mostly all in the same mission. Just as my companion Elder Vincent and I were really learning how to teach together, poof here I go. But I know that I'll meet people and companions in Brazil that will be just as awesome. And I'm so excited for that.

So Tchau USA

Eu te amo!

Elder Gleason

P.S. DON'T SEND anymore DearElders to the Provo MTC. I will never see them!!! So now you need to start sending them to Brazil, I'll get my address to my parents and Jenae ASAp so that you can all write me. And any packages of food my companion has already said he is going to keep and eat them haha

GREAT NEWS!

J.R. found out and was able to call each of our parents on Friday (yesterday) to tell them that....HIS VISA WENT THROUGH! He will be leaving Tuesday, September 27th, to head down to the Brazil MTC for the remainder of his time in the MTC. Then he will get to go serve the wonderful people of Sao Paulo North! He is very excited! So if you're planning to send him a dearelder...do it by Monday and then you'll have to start sending it to the Brazil MTC or else he won't get it. I'll update his address as soon as I get it for when he is in Brazil!

September 19, 2011

So I figured I'd try something new this week. Instead of trying to think on the fly what to say and type in 30 minutes, I wrote it all out so all I have to do is type and I'll be able to say a lot more and not forget anything...hopefully. So like I said last week I'm only supposed to write letters on Monday (P-Day) i didn't do that great at it this week and wrote a few letters but it was stressed again to us yesterday to be obediant to those rules. So any letters i send will only be written on Mondays so if i get a letter on Tuesday then the person will have to wait til Monday for me to write it and send it back. However that doesn't mean don't write me throughout the week haha.

To start, a funny story. On wednesday my companion decided to lock us all out while we were in the shower without keys. We told him to leave it open...but yeah no haha. I had to call the front desk and explain how we couldn't come get a spare key because all we had were our towels. She literally laughed into the phone and told us to just send some other Elders to come and grab the apre for us. Bringing the key back to that very same girl on the phone later, awkwarddd haha.

Anywho this week has had it's ups and downs. And by that I pretty much just mean portuguese. Everytime I feel I'm getting somewhere and want to relax on studying or take a break. BAM humbled back to feeling like I'm at Day one. Especially this week when we finally got our 2nd teacher who is Brazilian and barely knows english! She talks so fast and its tough to keep up with what shes saying! But then at the same time in the multiple lessons my companion and I taught this week I felt the Spirit so strongly and understood what was being said and was able to teach the lesson pretty well. I feel a lot more focused and comfortable and I think I learn more when I'm teaching our investigators as opposed to sitting in class. But I keep reminding myself it's only been about 3 weks and it will come in due time.

And now for what is one of the greatest parts of the Mission Training Center for me. The devotionals and firesides. On Tuesday I sat 10 rows away from an Apostle!!! Elder M. Russell Ballard was right there in front of my! It was such an amazing devotional, I learned so much and was able to feel the Holy Ghost strongly throughout the whole talk. There is nothing better than the numbing and peaceful feeling I get from the Holy Ghost confirming things about the gospel of Jesus Christ and confirming the words being said by those teaching me. One quote that I loved from Elder Ballards's devotional was this:

"The closer you draw to Him (our Savior Jesus Christ) the closer He will draw to you."

How can we not want that for our lives, each day I strive to learn something new or read something and think about it in a different way to strengthen my testimony. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that His Atonement is a very real thing for everyone and atone for all of our sins. Which ties in last nights fireside by MTC District President Wilkins. He talked about all the different pains and trials that people have faced and endured and how Christ went through ALL of it. Any pain we have suffered Christ has also suffered through and 10 times more. How much love He has for us is ridiculous to even try to comprehend. I know that Eu sou missionario de A lgerja de Jesus Cristo Dos Santos Dos Ultimos Dias, the one and only true church on the Earth today. I know this is the gospel of Jesus Christ and it is confirmed to me more and more each day. I know that everyone can get that same confirmation for themselves through faith and prayer.

2 Nephi 31:21

Eu te amu tudo!

Elder Gleason

DearElder.com

J.R. would love to hear from everyone and anyone! He would love to get letters by snail mail but there is also a free and easier way to write to him! If you go to www.dearelder.com you can choose "Provo MTC" mission and then click write a letter. He gets it either the same day or the next day! You just type in your address and then the address that I have on the left side of the blog for him. When he goes to Brazil you can still use dearelder it just costs .98..But it is way more reliable then sending him an actual letter because it can take weeks and they get lost in the mail a lot. SO! Write to J.R. I know he will appreciate it, because, as it says in his email..getting mail is one of the highlights of his day! It might take him a while to get back to you, but he will eventually get back to you!

Thanks!

-Jenae

Second Week

Already on my second email home its pretty surreal, the time is flying by but also seems really slow at the same time, its hard to explain but anyone whos been through the MTC would say the same thing! So today, Monday is my Preperation day and it is supposed to be the only day i email or wite home so from now on it'll take a while for me to write everybody back. But that doesnt mean people shouldn't write me a ton haha. Getting mail and DearElders letters are easily a highlight to the day and hearing how people are doing! Today is definately the most relaxing of the week, we have a ton of personal or free time and we are also able to go to the temple every Monday morning. It is such a blessing to only be a 5 minute walk away instead of being 3 hours in 3 different directions like at home. The temple is just so peaceful, definately one of the best places on Earth to be. Also, on Sunday's we get to go for a temple walk and to just relax on the temple grounds for about an hour. It's kinda neat to see other people there too as an elder instead of just J.R. haha.

I don't know how i failed to mention it last time, but when i see the little timer slowly clicking down i feel rushed and forgot to say stuff, but my companion is an identical twin! and his twin came in the same day and is also going to Brazil just a different area! Luckily i can tell the differnce between the 2 by theyre hair or it would be extremely confusing day to day. My roomates and my companion are so awesome we all get along great together and are all struggling and exceeding in the language at the same time. Last night as i was thinking about it, i was amazed at how much i know in portuguese, i struggle so often that i just figured i knew nothing, but in fact i know quite a bit! It is amazing how the Lord can help us as we learn a new language in such a short time. I also forgot to mention that we had to teach and "investigator" (another teacher) the 2nd day we were here, and since then we've taught 2 more times. The first 2 times didn't go so well but it was kind of expected, but as we learned to love him as an investigator instead of just a teacher judging us i felt the Spirit so strongly and i was able to put my notes down and bear my testimony about the topic with only a couple questions! It was one of the coolest experiences! I can't wait to be able to teach in Brazil and feel the Holy Ghost all the time. It is the greatest feeling to have the Holy Ghost with you.

Its so tough to try and explain a whole weeks worth of experiences and stores in just a short email, sometimes i just want to whip out my phone and text everybody...but i reach in my pocket and nothing haha. So that is what i definately miss a lot is being able to have instant communication with friends and family but instead i have to wait for letters and then send them which takes so long, and will be even longer in Brazil! However, i can honestly say i have yet to miss facebook it took up so much time of my life that wasnt needed, and now i can spend that time reading the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel which are so amazing, i look forward each day to having that time to read through them. They are so powerful, i know that anyone who reads the Book of Mormon with real intent and prays for a confirmation that it is true doctrine of Christ. I love this gospel so much and i love it more and more each day. I know it brings happiness to my life and i wouldn't be the same without it. My sister wanted me to bear my testimony in portuguese so most of you won't know what it means but hear goes:

Eu sei que o Livro de Mormon e verdadeire. Eu sei que Deus viver. Eu sei que nos sabemos Deus filhos. Eu sei que Jesus Cristo e nos Salvador. Eu sei que o evangelho e verdadeire. Eu sei que nos falamos com nosso Pai Celestial por meio de oracao e Teu resposta. Eu sei que Thomas S Monson e o profeta e Joseph Smith restaudo o evangelho em na Terra.

There are a ton of missing accent marks because i don't know how to do them on the computer and theres probably some grammer errors in there, but hey i've only been here a week and a half :)

Eu te amo tudo! (I love you all!)

Elder Gleason

Write me!! :D

First email :)

Wow this is crazy, this is my way of communication for the next 2 years its pretty weird to think about. Well first of all, my address is

Elder James Richard Gleason

MTC Mailbox #342

BRA-SPN 1031

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, UT 84604-1793

Also, a faster way to write me is to just go to DearElder.coom and its pretty self explanatory from what i hear and then the church prints it out and i'll get it in the mail. And that will also work while i'm out in the mission field you just have to pay accordingly but it'd probably be easier than hand writing a letter and trying to do all the stamps by yourself. It would also make it a lot easier for me to write back instead of having to print out the emails that people send me so i can write back individually. And yet another also, i need peoples addresses i came with basically no ones so i couldnt even write anybody today for my P-Day. That includes you Jenae..

So my companion is Elder Vincent, and he's from Sandy, Utah and he's pretty awesome and knows the gospel really well, and then in our room we also have elder horracks who ran track at BYU and knew scott maughn and elder tatafu who litterally laughs at everything and he's tongan so he's learning his 3rd language. All 4 of us are going to Sao Paulo North (if our visa's ever go through) and we came in with about 10 other missionaries also all going to Sao Paulo North which is cool knowing that we might be companions with these guys somewhere down the road. Pictures will be coming soon of my district and then my companion and roomates but the SD card slot for the pictures was down so i couldn't get them printed to send home. It's so cool to be able to see all my friends from BYU here, most are almost ready to go but some just got here so i'll be able to see them for awhile which is way sweet.

Alright so now for the other stuff, the first day was crazy, within the first few hours of walking through the doors we were already in a class starting to learn portuguese. And it hasn't stoppped since, its been about 6 hours of portuguese classes a day and our teacher almost never speaks english its nuts. But it definately helps a ton in learning the language when your forced into it and if you want to know what's going on you need to pick it up quick. i've already learned to pray, bear my testimony (sort of) and have a start up conversation all in portuguese. Basically the same amount of lanuage i learned in 4 years of french class in high school all in what 5 days?! How awesome is that, the MTC is definately an amazing place where miracles happen. Portuguese sounds so sick when your saying it/hearing the guys who have been here. Just a few weeks difference between us and some of the other missionariesgoing to brazil is such a hugh difference in the understanding of the language. It's crazy how much they already know and they haven't been here that much longer, and i know we'll be the same way in just a couple weeks from now. Oh yeah and for my visa, most of the guys here don't even have their electronic part come to them yet so its definately a blessing to be from NY (how often do I say that haha). But it could still be awhile before i get mine, a ton of guys just got reassigned to the states and they had already had everything sent it for awhile. So pray for me to be able to get it.

The other awesome thing about the MTC is all the firesides and stuff like that. But yesterday we had a mission conference and the President of the MTC spoke and he said something that I absolutely loved. "If you are not successful it is because you didn't apply yourself to be what you can become." The Holy Ghost is so strong here, when people say its like a small step down from the temple they are so right. Its crazy how often and strongly i feel it. And the speakers, teachers and leaders are all so awesome. You can tell they have been called of God and have served their missions righteously. I can't wait to get to brazil and have my own stories to tell and have people thati have helped to convert to the church!! The other thing that really touched me was something i read in Preach My Gospel this morning, it was a quote from President Heber J Grant it said "We have that which is of more value than all the wealth and the scientific information which the world possesses. We have the plan of life and salvation." I am learning so much while I've been here having a set schedule and time set aside to study the gospel is such a blessing in my life, i wouldn't trade this experience tfor anything and it's only been 5 days, imagine what i'll feel/be life after 2 years?! its crazy to think about!

Lastly since i'm running out of time, while i do miss home and being able to talk with everyone, at the same time i don't i have yet to feel homesick because i know this is exactly where i'm supposed to be right now. And i know and love this gospel. The church is so true, i know without a doubt i have felt the Holy Ghost confirm it over and over again in my heart.

Eu te amu!! (I love you)

Elder J.R. Gleason

Write me :D