December 12, 2011

WOOOO!!!! Who found a place to skype at? This Elder! In 13 days I will be seeing the fam on webcam. Soooo pumped. One of the members in our branch is a tech guy and has all the fancy smancy stuff when it comes to electronics so hes going to download skype for us so that we can use it on Christmas day. The only thing i need help with is for you jenae to make me a new skype account because i have no idea what the password is for my old one. So do that before next monday and send me what it is so that i can use it to log in. And make sure to add yourself as a friend to me beforehand so that i dont have to worry about any of that stuff. And i think there is a 3 hour time difference now between sao paulo and new york because when time goes forward there it goes back here and vice verse. So if im right its a 3 hour time difference, and we planned to go to the members house around 5ish our time and probably roughly 530-6 i will get on. Not exactly sure yet so you might have to do some waiting until i sign on. BUTTTT who cares because im going to see my family for the first time in 4 months wooooo.

In other news, i gave my first talk in portuguese yesterday at church for roughly 10 or so minutes. And it was rough haha. Pretty sure I screwed up a lot of the conjugations. And of course who had to be there in attendence this week but good ol' President Martins haha. But afterwards he said that my portuguese was really well for only 3 months on the mission. But he might just be saying that because im new. who knows. But my talk was on what else but missionary work of course haha. Double slam, with the president there and then also giving a talk on what i was sent here to do. But i think it was pretty good, i talked about how we need to desire this thing that we have. For Lehi in 1 Nephi 8:11-12 the first thing he did after eating the fruit was DESIRE to share it with his family. He didnt say hmm wow that was the best fruit ive ever had i think ill have another piece. Nope it was boom i want to share this with my family. And in the last general conference, Elder L. Tom Perry promised us that if we share the gospel with others we will be blessed with love and courage for those that we are sharing with. I prepared really well, but the giving it was the hard part. I really learned a lot. All throughout the Book of Mormon when one of the people finds the gospel and comes to know God, the very first thing he does is desire to share it with others. Enos shows this really well, he does every step. First he desires for himself and finds the gospel and the peace and happiness it brings. Then right after that he desires it for his people to have that same happiness and peace. And he even goes one step further after that and desires it for his enemies to have. Woah. When was the last time we wanted to share something with the people we don't like. Personally I cant really think of a time in my life when i truly desired to do so.

The other awesome thing this week, is one of the Young Men here, Diego, I dont remember if ive mentioned him, but he's 17 years old and just straight up amazing. He comes to church by himself every sunday to set up sacrament early and then his family comes later...sometimes. Hes preparing for his mission now and hopefully im helping to leave a good impression for him. We've become pretty good friends and not through like normal means but through spiritual experiences which is what our mission president said we need to have. And its been awesome he is such an awesome kid. I look up to him a lot. If i was in his same situation but with my personality and all that stuff i dont know if id be as strong in the church as he is. Who knows i might even not be in church. But yesterday we went to his house to visit his family and after talking a little bit and stuff he gave me one of his soccer jerseys for Brasil. SO tight. And then i had him sign it and everything. Now of course it comes no where near fitting me because hes a tiny skinny kid but so awesome. He said in lembranca de mim. I tried to refuse it but he wouldnt let me. So im probably going to give him a few ties this week. not just one and sign them and all that jazz. But hes an awesome young man and is going to be an awesome missionary. I told him hes going to serve in New York Utica mission and come chill with me haha.

Well I apoligize for the crappy typing we're in a differenct area for today, one of the members owns a pizza shop and invited us for free pizza and ice cream so we had like 3o missionaries at thisplace it was so sick. But we're at a lan house and keyboard isnt the best.

EU TE AMO!!!
Elder Gleason

D&C 101:36-38 and Alma 3:26

Oh and another p.s. sending letters with the correct zip code is crucial. They get here super fast. and without it it could take a while. I just got a letter that was sent on November 12 on Wednesday and the 7th of December, so I stress the right address when you send it, and if youve sent letters with the wrong one i will write you back as soon as i get them :)