November 28, 2011

Wow another week has already come and passed. And now a full month has been done out in the field, its pretty crazy to think about. Hopefully I worked hard enough and did the best I could because now that month is gone. But on a personal thought basis i think i did a pretty good job. We continue to work everyday and talking to people and preaching the good word and not many people want to hear it. It still is weird to me when i ask if people want more happiness in their lives and they straight up tell me theyre fine where they are. Like what the heck is that? How can you turn down more happiness right to my face, at least lie and tell me you do or something. But its whatever, it all comes down to their choices and theres nothing i can really do about it. Besides continuing to talk to as many people as i can.

My portuguese has really been improving a lot over these last 2 weeks when i came to the realization i wont be fluent in the first day haha. Im feeling more and more comfotable each day iwht listening and responding its pretty darn exciting to see. The other day i even did my first contact by myself explaining the Restoration and givinng out a pamphlet to a lady. My companion said it took him a couple months before he did it. But i figure the only way to get any better is to just butcher it and go for it right? haha.. ALso, tuesday and wednesday i was on a division with a Brazilian elder for the first time and it was definately different. Like me and E Williams speak English to each other still because its both our native toungues but to not have it at all for 2 days... weird. And kind of fun.

Lets see what else. Oh its been raining a lot more lately and it definately rains a lot harder here. Its crazy how itll start to drizzle a little and then next thing you know. BOOM downpouring. I havent gotten stuck in it bad yet though, i have done some running to avoid it, but it was at least avoided haha.

The other thing that has been pretty big in this last week is how much ive been humbled, and how much i wish i had done before hand now being in the situation that i am. I wish I had helped the missionaries a lot more than i had, i now see how hard it is to do the finding and everything all on your own, it would be so much easier if we had references and people to be there when we teach and all that jazz. I watched a video yeterday that a family who was being taught by the missionaries said that if the missionaries had come to the door they would have turned them down. But instead one of their friends who was a member invited them over to meet with the missionaries and they were recieving the lessons now. All it takes is that first step, which is definately the hardest. That is what i have also seen a lot lately, is that that very first step is the hardest and the most nervewracking. Its true for my own life too, that very first Brazilian i talked to in the streets was the hardest. I was scared to talk to him, because I didnt want to screw something up, but once we just take the first step its easier to do. Why wouldn't i want to share with him the happiness that i have? Its like sharing Taco Bell with someone whos never had it before. The joy i had to see James come to the realization of its amazingness, made me happy too and brought lots of good Taco Bell runs after that point hahaha. Okay so the gospel is like 10000000 times more important than Taco Bell. Which also means its that much more satisfying to share with the ones we love.

Well I love you all, and i will say it yet again. This gospel is true, and we have the true restored church on the earch again today. I know without a shadow of a doubt, and i will never deny it.

Eu te Amo!!

Elder Gleason

p.s. Mosiah 4:20 and D&C 75:16

November 21, 2011

Alright so i was expecting to write a lot shorter email home for this part here and send a bunch of photos and everything instead but....the library computer doesnt recognize my camera or something stupid like that, so i dont know when ill get pictures sent hom. SORRY! As soon as i can and find a way there will be pictures sent home.

In other news i am now up to 7 kilos lost which is apperently like 15 lbs so yeah wow. And i havent even be doing morning exercise haha. But its noth that im not eating trust me i am. I have eaten meats that i never would have even looked at before the mission and not gonna lie theyre actually pretty good. Although i tried a hot dog for the second time in my life the other day...still just as gross as the first time i did when i was like 7. So that i will continue to stay away from, but for everyone that thought i would starve on my mission i can assure you i am not. Today we went legit food shopping for the first time and it was awesome, there is so much cheap stuff here, especially the fruit which i love. So im just eating healthy and walking up hill after hill and losing some weight which i dont mind.

Lets see what else, oh yeah, the address to the mission office might be causing some problems for letters, ive gotten a bunch but most have the zip code crossed out so here it is again just a little different.

Brazil Sao Paulo North Mission

Rua Dr. Batista Pereira, 165

Jardim Caxingui 05517-080

Sao Paulo, SP, Brasil

So just that little difference in the 17 and 71 might be causing a little trouble not sure. But keep sending me letters, theyre a fantastic pick me up when we actually get the chance to get them haha.

Hmm what else, oh i came to realize that getting baptism dates here isnt as huge as i thought it was. I mean obviously theyre still HUGE but Elder Williams said they do fall through especially when people dont go to church which is common around here. We just keep working working working through and its been great. The days go by a ton faster when were actually doing stuff, i feel like it ws just yesterday i was typing away at the crappy Ian house computer. I love talking to people in portuguese, its extremely difficult at times and i zone out often but i can alraedy see i have improved a lot and am able to incorporate myself into the lessons a lot more than when i got here. And i also came to realize that lessons in the field are a heck of a lot different then in the mtc, because my conjugations arent that awesome and in the mtc teachers just rolled with it because they knew what we were trying to say but not really the same story out here haha.

I love Brasil, I love being a missionary and I love this gospel. There are times when it is extremely difficult to keep going on, but then we meet an awesome person who accepts what we say and im able to bear my testimony and strengthen it. Its amazing how teaching someone who doesnt know anything about the gospel just ends up teaching yourself even more. Like it says in D&C 50:22.. I lveo it, no other feeling in the world that can compare. This is hard work, harder than anything Ive ever done, but I wouldnt trade it for anything else right now. Its preparing me for the rest of my life.

Eu te Amo!

Elder Gleason

November 14, 2011

Alright so apparently there are like a million Brasilian holidays bcause today the library was closed so now were at some LAn house place where the keyboar is absolutely terrible so Im predicting a ton of typing errors already just so you all know. But a lot has actually happened in just the few days since I last emailed. Elder Williams and i have been working hard to try and strengthen this Branch and we work everyday. I cant even count how many times ive heard the sentence Olha eu tenho meu religiao... But weve also found a lot of really great people and been able to mark return dates. So were slowly progressing and finding the people who have been prepared for us. Its such an awesome feeling when one of us is just like lets try this place out or talk to these people out of the blue and then they accept what we have to tell them and say that it makes sense. So things are definately getting better and our hard work everyday is going to and has already payed off. Epecially for..my FIRST BAPTISM DATE!!! We met this couple with a baby on the street and set a return date for last Saturday, and when we went and taught them they were listening and totally understanding everything. The Spirit was so strong there i swear i thought there was gonna be a whole in my chest from the burning feeling i had as we were teaching them. It was such an awesome experience! And they accepted to be baptized on Dec 10 if they recieve an answer through prayer that the Book of Mormon is true. And of course i know they will. Soooo pumped! I was like on a high for the rest of the night. My first time with that kind of experience and i cant wait to have more.

The other thing that is coming from all this, is the walking. Our area is huge and has a ton of neighborhoods to walk to, and of course the members and investigators and less actives we have are all spread out. We have to at least walk 8-10 miles a days if not more. The other day we went proselyting with one of the Young Men, Diego, who is an awesome kid, and then we walked to the opposite side of th city for our next appointment. Im pretty sure it took like na hour to get there haha. But its totally worth it, and ive already lost like 4 kilos however much that is in lbs in just the 2 weeks in the field.

Lastly i just want to see how important the scriptures are again. I know ive said it before but i could say it every week of my life and still not stress the importance enough. These 2 weeks have been tough on me with the language and im trying so hard to learn and not realizing that its only been 2 weeks. Yet i still want to be fluent right now so that i can do all i can to help the poeple here and especially help my companion. And the scriptures have helped me a ton in my daily reading and studying. Helping me realize that there are going to be tough times and i need to work through them with faith and i will do just that.

Well i love you all and your all awesome people, specially if your reading my blog haha.

Eu te Amo!

Elder Gleason

2 Nephi 27:23 and D&C 58:2-4

First email from the MISSION FIELD! November 9, 2011

Wow so 2 weeks is an awful long time to go without email huh. I had so many emails to read today, luckily we have an hour now instead of just 3o minutes. But i also have to write my mission president something so really i have about 50 minutes which is still a ton better. So these last 2 weeks have been absolutely nuts. First off today was my P-day because I already had a mission conference on Monday but everytime else P-days will be Mondays. So make sure to get emails to me before then so that I can respond. Also now that I'm in the field ill be able to send pictures over the computer. So expect some soon. Hopefully next monday but im not exactly sure yet. We are at the local library and I don't know if it has a hook up for it I will see.

Next. Letters. They will now take even longer than before. Generally i will only get them about once every 6 weeks or so. Maybe a little more often during some transfers. I'm not really sure how its going to work out yet. So yeah its going to take forever to get them and also respond to them. So everybody needs to learn patinece haha. Trust me its killing me to not be able to check everyday if i have any new mail or not. So pretty much the only times ill write back is when i get something I'm not sure yet.

Now the good stuff. So my first area!!! I'm in Boituva, it is the second furthest are from the mission office. So I'm wayyyy out of the city. It takes about 3 hours by a couple buses to get out here. And my first week here I went back to the city 3 times. It flat out stunk not gonna beat around the bush. And we had to travel to another city one other day too. So my first week has been hecka crazy. Also I am in a branch of about 30 active members. Not what I was expecting that is for sure. We are the second smallest branch in the whole mission. We are also the Young Mens leaders and teach sunday school to the young men and young women. Again not what I was expecting. It has been really difficult to be honest. I have never seen something like this in my life before. And it has been tough on me. But thats what I'm here to do is help the church grow and bring people to Christ. I'll for sure be here for 3 months and then who knows where I will go.

My companion. Elder Williams, he is from Alaska and has been here for a year and 6 months. So he's fluent in the language but obviously an American. So pretty much I got the opposite of what I was expecting in all aspects. Country side, tiny branch, and an american trainer. But hes an awesome guy and while its hard to focus on practicing portuguese together I know I'll learn a lot. He was only in this area for 6 weeks before I got here so he doesnt know it too too well but we're learning together. Our area is huge and has a ton of neighborhoods all over the place some of which he hasnt even been to yet. And its all by foot. So I don't think ill be gaining any weight anytime soon. We get lunch everyday from the members that we have so its a lot of repeats but theyre awesome people. And im already SICK of beans and rice. Idk how they eat it every single days of their lives. Its really not that good haha. I will probably never have it again after my mission. I miss american food that is for sure. When i get back ill probably gain like 50 pounds from all the stuff that i miss.

Ahh what else what else. Oh so we dont really have any investigators right now which is another really hard thing for me. But we are working every day out in the streets looking up old investigators from the past. Anything we can do to try and find people who are interested. I have never walked so much in my life. This is a tough place to find people who actually want to hear what we have to say. I cant even begin to count the different churches that are in our area its crazy. But i love it and im definately growing. My patience for sure haha. Everyday it is tested in some form of way.

Well thats all i can really think of to put in here, its so hard to get 2 and a half weeks worth of stuff into just one email so hopefully i didnt miss too much. But thats what stories after the mish are for right?

I love this gospel and i love working everyday to find people!

Eu te amo!

Elder Gleason

P.S. 2 Nephi 5:27 and 2 Nephi 9:41 are my scriptures for today. Talk to you again on Monday! Real quick turn around!

Sorry this one took so long to put up.....October 25, 2011

WOOO! This time next week I will be in the Mission Presidents Home!!!! My MTC time is finally almost complete. The time has gone by super quick but at the same time I feel like I've been here forever.

This week my companion from Provo, Elder Vincent, got his visa! So he'll be here tomorrow afternoon I'm so pumped! Crazy to think that its already been a month since i left the good ol US of A. I cant wait to see how much Portuguese hes learned. Like I mentioned last week Sister Hall from my district in Provo got here last Wednesday and she was paired up with me and my companion because she didnt have a sister companion here. So its been fun to be able to teach with her especially because she knows the language so well and just does a whole lot better at relating to the people then we can. Probably because shes a girl haha.

Now for the biggest news of the week and pretty much the only exciting event of the week. Because yet again it was just a normal week nothing out of the ordinary. Learning to teach more effectively, learning Portuguese, and great study time. Oh yeah, duh that was a big thing too. I finished The Book of Mormon. I think it was Friday of last week. So it took me around 7 weeks maybe a little less to finish and I did it all in the MTC which was one of my goals. And I have already started it again. I learned so much this last time, its weird to see how differently I learned things from verses that Ive read so many times. I know that no matter how many times I read it (hopefully many many more) I will alwasy learn more and more new things.

Ok and now what I originally was going to talk about. Yesterday I went proselyting!!!! For anyone who isnt familiar with that word, we got to go into the outside world and talk with people on the streets and hand out copies of The Book of Mormon. Since there were 3 of us in the companionship we had 6 copies. It was so awesome, I was actually doing legit missionary work! By the end of our roughly 3 hours we had, we walked up and down like 15 steep hills, handed out all of our copies, and been denied many times. Oh and of course i got sunburned, what i get for being so white. It was a really neat experience. It was weird to just be straight up denied and kind of depressing too. But the people we have them to seemed really interested and a couple we saw even starting to read! So awesome! To think i actually talked to a Brazilian in Portuguese and gave out the most correct and true book on the Earth to possibly and hopefully change their lives. Unreal. Who would have thought after just 2 months I could speak and understand native Brazilians on the street. Going just a little better than French did haha. Oh and this coming Monday we get to go again but this time we take the city bus to the heart of Sao Paulo. So exciting, its all starting now, and before I know it it will be unfortunately be over.

I know The Book of Mormon is true, and that it is the word of God. I know that it contains the fulness of the gospel and can answer the questions of the heart. I know because I have experienced it and read it from cover to cover and will continue to do so until I die. It truly has the power to change lives.

Eu te Amo!!

Elder Gleason

P.S. It's kinda weird to bear my testimony in English after Portuguese all the time haha