December 24, 2012

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well I was transfered this last week like I was expecting and now I am in Jaraguá, almost in the middle of the jungle haha and back to the good ol hills. Man that was the real good thing about Itu,  everything was flat and the highest hill was a speed bump haha. But now I'm back to climbing hills all the time and I definately didn't miss it. But so my new companion is Elder Ahmed, an American! But he's got about 30 nationalities.. jk. But he´s from..... (drum roll) NEW YORK! We are the only missionaries in the Sao Paulo North mission from the state of New York and now we are companions, its pretty sweet. I actually knew him from when I was back in Guapira because he was in the same zone for 4 months as me, and now we´re companions here in Jaraguá. I was pretty shocked when I got the phone call last Monday about the transfers. We always joked saying we would be companions since we're the only 2 New Yorkers and now we really are, its pretty sick. So thats the transfers news.

So the area I'm in, like I said, is full of hills but its also a really good area thats starting to get better and has been baptizing a lot recently. And yesterday we baptized a young man named Gabriel who's 12 years old. He's a really awesome kid, some of his family members were baptized recently and he went to church last week and decided he wanted to be baptized. I can't send any pictures though today because the Lan House we're at is really crappy because everywhere is closed since its christmas eve today. But next week I'll send the pictures. We also have baptisms coming up in these next few weeks as well. Were really excited for whats happening here.

So leaving Itu was tough but good at the same time. I really enjoyed the 4 months that I spent there and I met some wonderful people in my time as well. The lady Elder Messias and I baptized with her son a few weeks back is so awesome. When I went by to say goodbye I don't know how many times she said thank you for all you've done. And she said that at the next testimony meeting at church she was going to go up and bear her testimony!

Well tomorrow is Christmas and I'm not sure how its already here, but it is. I can't wait to see the fam tomorrow and especially my dads beard! Yesssss. But Merry Christmas to everybody!

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. 3 Nephi 11 and Psalms 118:8; 119:71-72, 105

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Elder Gleason!

December 17, 2012

I´m not sure what I like less, the heat or the rain. This week it did a flip flop and went from extreme heat to nonstop rain. I have no idea how the sky has so much water to just keep raining and raining, it's incredible. The worst part about it is our shoes. They get soaked and it takes a while to dry, but then the next day my other shoes get soaked too. But what can ya do.

But so this week had a few great things that happened and at the same time was a difficult one. On Tuesday Elder Messias and I went to Indaiatuba which is another city to do 3 baptismal interviews for some other missionaries. But the bus takes forever to get there so we ended up losing our entire day to be able to work in our area. But the people that were baptized there are super awesome. And the interviews were fantastic. I interviewed just one of the daughters which were identical twins and Elder Messias interviewed the other and their mom. In the interview we were talking about some things and she said something super interesting that I really reflected on a lot. She said "A lot of people hope and dream that someone would die for them if they were in trouble but they forget that Christ already did that for all of us." It was super cool and I learned a lot from it. Christs sacrifice truly is infinite for everyone that has ever lived, is living, or will live. It doesn't have a limit and he died for each and every one of us specifically. Baptismal interviews definately aren't just to help those preparing for baptism but as the interviewer as well we learn a lot in each one.

Then on Wednesday we had divisions with the assistants and I went with Elder Rodrigues and Elder Messias with Elder Santiago. It was really good and we both learned some things that we can get better at that will help the area get better as well. Also Elder Santiago went to Tiago and Daniele´s house, which is the young couple we've been teaching that wanted to wait to get married, and helped them decide to get married. Which now brings us to the best part of the week. On Friday morning we went and marked their wedding in the government building here in Itu. YESSS!!!! They're going to get married on Jan 19, 2013!!!!!! After a lot of struggling its finally going to happen, and we´re going to mark their baptism for the same day. It was so awesome. The only sad part is that tonight we hear about transfers and its really likely that I'll be leaving. But we´ll find out tonight.

So those were the highlights of the week, and next week is already christmas... whatttt. It doesnt feel like christmas at all. But SKYPE. WOOO

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. 3 Nep 9:13-14, 16-17, 20-22; 10:6 and Psalms 103:13, 18-19; 111:10; 112:1

P.P.S. I found out that the guy that was baptized a few weeks ago in Guapira, that I did a contact with and taught, baptized his wife yesterday. An eternal family!!! All because of a simple contact when he was at his door. Gahhhh. So awesome. The elders in guapira sent me the pictures.

December 10, 2012

And I thought that last week was a hot one... It's just getting worse down here, I don't think I've ever used so much sunscreen in my life combined as I have been these past weeks. And its been even worse because unfortunately we've been spending a lot of time out in the street as well. I think this week was probably one of our most difficult ones that we've had here yet. It felt like nobody was home or wanting to let us in. But we worked hard all the same, doing all that we could to bring the gospel to everybody we could. Also this weekend the 2 people we baptized 2 weeks ago were confirmed members of the church and received the Holy Ghost. Last week they already had other plans to travel so they couldn't make it. But now they're all set and really excited to continue learning and growing in the gospel. It's amazing how much the son, Gabriel, who's 9 years old is already learning and memorizing. He is extremely intelligent.

This morning I had the fantastic oppurtunity to play basketball for the 2nd time on the mission. Me and Elder Messias went down to the chapel after our studies and played for awhile. He played around with the soccer ball of course and me with basketball. Man how is it so good to play basketball. I miss it imensly.

Also this week on Wednesday we had our christmas zone conference in Sorocaba. Its crazy to think this is my 2nd and last christmas already, where has the time gone. But the conference was really good and we learned a lot. Also we got a call last Monday saying that we would be giving a training at the conference. So we also gave a training there on how to evaluate our investigators to see if they're progressing or not. It went really well and we gave the training to roughly 50 missionaries. It was my 2nd time giving a training at a conference as a Zone Leader.

Oh and so one of our investigators who are still waiting on getting married that I've mentioned a couple times are going really well beyond the getting married part unfortunately. But this week the "husband" even went to clean the church. It was so awesome when we heard about it. Also yesterday we taught another really awesome couple thats already married. At the end we asked if the husband wanted to pray and he said he never prayed in his life but that he would try. And so he did and it was great, he was super happy after finishing the prayer. It was a great experience to see how happy he was to talk with his Heavenly Father. It was crazy to hear that he had never prayed in his life, but now he's on the right path. And that was basically the highlight of our week, it was another tough one for us but we keep going hard.

Eu te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. 3 Nephi 1 23; 5 8,13; 7 17-18, 24-25 and Pslams 86 11; 92 15; 97 6,10

 

Elder Messias, J.R., Elder Siddoway, Elder Vincent, and Elder Fox (sitting down). This was at the Christmas zone conference.

December 3, 2012

Wow talk about extreme heat. I'm pretty sure its hotter than it was last year when I was here but I'm not positive about that. I don't know how many times I've heard in this past week, "Wow you're really red". But the thing is I'm using sun block everyday and multiple times each day. So there's nothing more I can do. I'm a white guy in Brasil, I'm gonna be red haha. The worst part is when it rains, I still have hope that one of these times it rains that it cools off too but until now everytime it rains it ends up getting hotter than it already was. It doesn't make any sense at all. I miss having snow and being in the cold when its close to christmas, it doesnt even feel like christmas is just a couple weeks away because I feel like I'm in the middle of summer. The other day I passed the 1 year and 3 month mark, it was a pretty normal day and nothing too special. The time is just flying by and months are going before I know it.

This week we worked a ton like always and had very few results from our work, and even had a few big disappointments. The hardest thing we're finding right now is having people progress and a desire to learn more. The 2 families we´re teaching that need to get married have also slowed up. The young couple has decided that they no longer want to get married for right now, that it's still way early and the other had some other problems with work and other things and are waiting on some papers to get married. But they both want to keep going to church and everything, just that baptism is going to be in the future most likely when I'm not here in Itu.

But this week didn't really have any real high points or real low points so theres not much to talk about. It was just a normal week. I'm trying to remember some other stuff that happened but I'm drawing a huge blank and can't think of anything new and exciting. Oh, it happened a couple weeks ago but I dont think I ever mentioned it, I finished The Book of Mormon for the 3rd time here on the mission. Until that point I had only been studying it in English and now I've started it in Portuguese. My goal is to read the Book Of Mormon 5 times on the mission, 3 in English and 2 in Portuguese. I have no doubt that it is a sacred scripture and that it came from God. Everytime I read it I learn more and more and strengthen my testimony that it's true. I love reading the scriptures and am so grateful for all the knowledge I have gained here on the mission.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Helaman 12:23; 13:11; 14:13, 30-31 and Psalms 56:4, 11; 62:6-8; 64:10; 71:5

November 26, 2012

I´m still a little lost on how my second Thanksgiving has already come and past on the mission, where has the time gone? This thanksgiving was a lot better than last year that is for sure. The family that made me pumpkin pie a couple months ago offered us thanksgiving dinner and it was super good. Unfortunately they didnt have turkey because here in Brasil they said its more of a Christmas thing since they dont celebrate thanksgiving here but all in all it was a great dinner. What a great holiday it is too, a day to just pig out and eat all the good food you want and then sleep. A little different on the mission since we have to keep working but at least everybody back home got to complete it all haha.

Also this week we had our interviews with President. It went pretty well, nothing big just a normal interview to see how things were going. However, during these interviews we can also ask questions about things we dont understand with the scriptures and stuff. So i asked him a couple deep doctrine questions and he answered them, it is amazing how much knowledge he has.

And now for the best news of the week. BAPTISMS!!!! Yesterday after church we had 2 baptisms! Mari and her son Gabriel. Her daughter Geovanna was baptized a couple months ago in a different ward where her dad is a member and we started teaching her mom a little after. She is super awesome and really happy to be a member of the church now. The biggest part for her was the example of her daughter and how her daughter made big changes after her baptism. We wanted to take pictures all in white but unfortunately Mari didnt want to so we just took the pictures afterwards. Elder Messias baptized Mari and i baptized her son Gabriel who´s 9 years old. He said he wants to serve a mission too! So here in 9 years he´ll be out serving as an elder too, who knows where. So awesome! We have been working so hard and we have been blessed by the Lord to be able to baptize these 2 wonderful children of God. Next week they´ll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and be confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Helaman 7:20; 8:15; 10:4-5, 7 and Psalms 34:15, 18; 37:4-5, 16

 

 pumpkin pie Itu style

 J.R. with Mari, and Gabriel and Geovanna

With Elder Messias too

November 19, 2012

What a crazy week that we have had here in itu. It started off a little tough and in the end ended tough as well. On tuesday and wednesday we literally lost both days of work. Tuesday night we went and slept at the house in Trujilo with elder vincent and elder siddoway again (they stayed together as well). So we slept in their house and then on wednesday we had mission council in Sao Paulo and didnt get back into our area until 9 at night. It was more tiring than working that entire time because it was just bus after bus. And they arent comfortable. But it was a really good meeting with President and we learned a lot about how we can help our zone get better. And also President told us that it is no longer 15 contacts a day but now its 30. 30 new people a day that is our goal to talk with in the street everyday. And we started putting it in practice right away. It was tough but weve been able to do it everyday since. it helps us a lot more focus on the work instead of talking about other things that dont have anything to do with the mission now were always talking with people in the street so we dont even have time to talk about other stuff. Its helped us a lot. What we thought would be super difficult has actually been decently easy.

So since we lost 2 days of our week our teaching schedule was also pretty messed up and we had to move a lot of things around. But we ended up teaching a ton and what we taught in a normal week with our 7 days we taught the same amount with 2 less days in our week the Lord trully blessed us. And it was crazy because we also talked to more people in the street. We trully saw the Lords hand in what we were doing. So we worked really hard and things were going really well with all our investigators and we found 2 more couples, who are already married!!! and interested!!! So we were super happy. We were waiting for 13 people at church who promised that they would be there including all of our baptismal dates. And yesterday came around and... 1 person went. We were happy that she was there but also upset that no one else went. But the lady that went is super awesome and her and her son are going to be baptized next week after church!! So that was the huge bright spot of it all. And we´re super excited for her. We will see some of the fruits of all of our extremely hard and diligent work. Also one of the young couples that we´re teaching that just needs to get married to be baptized is still going super well. We were scared cuz they didnt go to church but we went by at night to see if they were home and they had travelled for the weekend and were trying to call us but it wasnt working. And we had had a family home evening marked with them and they were waiting for us to get there to have it. Theyre so awesome!!!! I just hope and pray that when we go to mark a marraige date in the govt building that it can be while im still here. I want to be here for the marraige and baptism!

Also lastly, our cell phone broke yesterday during church, we have no idea how it happened but it broke and still doesnt want to work. we tried everything to get it back but nothing. And last night was the night to get all the numbers from the whole zone and without cell phone it is super hard. We had to go back like the olden days and use the phone booths. But the first 4 that we went to were broken so we were running all asround trying to find one that worked. It was a battle but we finally found one and we didnt get home until about 10 pm. it stinks not having a cell phone especially when youre a zone leader. And even worse we´ll be without the cell phone until friday. awesome. so eah that was our crazy week. But next week we have 2 baptisms!!!

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Helaman 5:8-9, 12; 6:5 and Psalms 27:1; 29:11; 31:23-24; 32:10-11

 He tried calling home, but it didn't work out too well

 A huge doll type thing that Itu has, he didn't want to accept hearing their messages, J.R. wasn't too happy

 This little guy was a lot easier to talk to and they read the Book of Mormon together

 Coconut water, J.R. said it wasn't too horrible but doesn't plan on drinking it again

Sunday night getting all the "numbers" by phone booth since their cell phone broke



November 12, 2012

Well another transfer has come and past, but this time nothing changed with us here in Itu. And we didn't end up getting another dupla of Elders for our area/house. We had been told that we would receive 2 more elders and that they would be living in our house for an entire week but when the phone call came they ended up going to a different area in our zone. I cant lie I was a little frustrated because I was excited to have 2 more missionaries living with us and even worse Elder Riggin (from back in Jaçana) was the missionary that went to the other area that should have been with us. But the Lord knows what He´s doing so the other dupla was needed in that other area. But now we are the Zone Leaders of 18 missionaries which is a little unnormal here in our mission. In our mission we only have 1 other zone thats as big as ours. But so last week on Tuesday night all the missionaries that were being transferred slept in our house and it was packeddd. We didnt even have enough mattresses for everybody and a couple missionaries ended up sleeping on our 2 couches which are extremely uncomfortable haha. But things in the zone are going really well and the work is really starting to progress well.

Also, this week we started to receive the blessings of all our hard, diligent work. We had a great week this week. 2 families that we´ve been teaching for a couple weeks that arent married have decided that theyre going to get married now. The only bad part is that here in Itu to get married the process takes forever, at the minimum 1 month until you can mark to get married on paper. So theyre going to take a little longer but were super excited for them that theyve decided to get married now. Also we had some other people that we found during this week. One is the brother of a member who went to church for the 2nd time yesterday and is from a different state here in Brasil and will be going back in a couple months but hes super interested and were teaching him now. Also we are teaching the mom of a member from a different ward that is super happy with us teaching her and is seeing how it is blessing her life already. And she has a 9 year old son as well who isnt a member. With both these people that I said weve marked baptismal dates for here in a few weeks. So were going to keep working with them a lot and here in a few weeks they should be baptized. We´re super excited for another transfer here in Itu together and even more for how the work is starting to pick up now a lot more. We´re going to keep working our butts off so that these blessings dont stop coming.

Oh and the other day Elder Messias was bit by a dog in the street haha. I can laugh because it wasnt me. He was super irritated and said he was ready to kick the dog, luckily it didnt cut him or anything it just ripped his pants a tiny bit. It was the first time ive seen someone bit by a dog so far on the mission.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Helaman 3:25-28, 35; 4:15 and Psalms 5:4; 11:5, 7; 15:1-2; 23:3-4

 Their zone last transfer

In Itu everything is bigger and this is one of them, a huge phone booth

November 5, 2012

And another transfer has gone by, tonight we find out about what will happen with us and the zone this wednesday. However we do know a little bit of information already, that our area (which is huge) will be getting 2 more missionaries. So now we will divide the area and have 2 more elders living with us in our house. It should be pretty fun and it will make things a lot easier with having to go to commitments on one side of the area to the other. And since this is happening it is extremely likely that me and elder messias will both stay here to help the new companionship get to know the area. But who knows anything can happen, and it is usually the unexpected that ends up happening so we´ll see tonight when they call us. In the beginning however it will be a little tough because right now were working in the entire city with investigators on both sides so now half the investigators will be with the new elders that get here and we´ll have less to do to start off. But we´ll work hard and we´ll have the chance to get to know other neighborhoods and areas that we havent gone to because the area is so big. The ward here is really pumped about having 2 more missionaries. I remember back in the day when our ward had like 6 or 8 elders it was crazy.

Unfortunately this week was another tough one on us and we didnt have any big results but we continue doing the best we can and we know the Lord will bless us for our efforts. Im pretty sure this last transfer with elder messias I worked more diligently and smartly than all the others and yet it had the least results. Not that i didnt work hard the other transfers nothing like that, but i never worked as hard as i did this one. In 6 full weeks we only had 5 days where we didnt do 15 or more contacts trying to find new people to teach. the goal on the mission is to do 15 contacts tuesday through saturday. And we only didnt get that goal 5 times and those 5 times we did like 10 contacts or so. So yeah we worked really hard. But the Lord knows what He´s doing and what He has prepared for us as well.

Well thats about it for this week, I've been doing a lot of stuff with my pictures so my time is already running out on here. Oh but before i forget the Bishop said somthing really great yesterday in sacrament meeting. He said that the greatest mircales are when a person changes to be better than he was. It was really great. It doesnt translate exactly from portuguese to english so if it sounds weird my bad, I'm sure you get the drift haha.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Alma 60:13; 62:45, 49 and Job 27:4-6; 33:14; 36:5, 11

P.S.S. OHHH and I just remembered. In guapira this past saturday and the saturday before they baptized 2 people that I found and started teaching. On was Rosana, who me and elder vazquez did a contact with in front of her house, she was baptized last week. and the other me and elder vazquez found as well asking for a cup of water, his name is Marcelo and he was baptized saturday. So Awesome!!!!!

 

 on Wednesday night they made french toast with a class that a member that teaches english and J.R. talked with them quite a bit. They also get their addresses to go by another day with them

J.R. and Elder Messias had a tough day and decided to take some pictures...

October 29, 2012

Another tough week on us. We have related these past couple weeks to the story of Job in the Bible unfortunately. We had things going extremely well, and then things started going down hill. But like Job we have continued faithfull and not gotten disanimated. We know the Lord will bless us for our efforts, faith and work that we are pointing in here in Itu. We know that the blessings will come in double just like in the story of Job as well. After suffering through many things and hardships that he went through in the end the Lord blessed him with double of what he had before hand. The Lord will always be testing our faith to see just how far we´ll go and right now we´re in that stage. He´s testing our faith and we´re continuing strongly and working diligentely in His vineyard. It was pretty ironic though because this week I finished reading the book of Job as all this was happening. I have been reading the Bible for a while now and am now is Psalms. I really enjoy reading the Bible and have learned a lot from my reading. Also im almost finished with the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time on the mission and when i finish it im going to read and study it in portuguese and hopefully read it in portuguese 2 more times before the end of the mission.

Also, this week we were supposed to baptize the couple that I've talked about a couple times and everything was going great with them and we had the baptismal interview marked and everything. So on tuesday we did the division and I left with Elder Vazquez (my trainee) and the other elder went to do the interviews. Everything went great but in the time that they were filling out the information for baptism they told us they werent legally married. Boom boom boom boom. They had told us they were married and even use wedding rings and everything. But in Brasil, maybe the US too idk, there is a thing called "friendshipped" where you dont have to get married married but it shows the government that youre together. We werent too happy and it was a sad moment. But they're going to talk about marraige and we´ll see what happens when we go back this week. They say they still want to be baptized which is a good start at least.

Also yesterday we had stake conference here in Itu and we had the priviledge to have 2 seventies here in Itu along with Pres Martins. It was packeddd. They had a complete change in the stake presidency and because of the change there will also be a new bishop in itu because he was called as the 1st counselor in the stake presidency. But it was super awesome and very spiritual. Also all of our recent converts that are over 19 received the Melquesideck priesthood. I know I spelled that wrong.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Alma 53:20-21; 56:47-48; 57:21, 26-27 and Job 8:20; 13:15-16; 19:25-26; 23:10-11

 

 J.R. made a new tie buddy for the mission. Nobody there believes that he actually made it but that he sent it to somewhere to make it. "But I sewed that sucker"

J.R. and Elder Messias with Elder Godoy and the other 70 that he had no idea how to spell

October 22, 2012

Where did this past week go? When youre working hard things really fly by. And I know I've said that so many times already but it hits me every week when I sit down at the computer again and again to send an email home about the week. How is it already the end of october?? Its almost winter in the US and I'm dying of heat down here in Itu. And a member yesterday told us that we havent seen anything yet with the heat and that it will just keep getting worse... Awesome. But it was probably like this last year when I was here for the summer as well and I just didnt realize it.

So on saturday for lunch I ate tacos. It was fantastic. 1 year and 2 months without tasting the greatness of a taco. I ate so much at that lunch haha. Elder Messias was just like is this seriosuly a normal meal in the US? I told him of course it was, I was super happy on saturday. He wasn't as impressed as I was haha. The lady that made the tacos was the daughter of the one who made me pumpkin pie a couple of weeks ago. I'm really liking the lunches from this family.

As for the week we worked our butts off yet again but didnt have the same happiness as we did last week. We worked so hard and then the weekend was just a huge downer. Its really tough to stay happy when this happens but we did our best to stay animated and continued working through the difficulties. We did quite a bit of walking this past week, the one good thing is that I'm starting to get to know the area a lot better which is pretty tough with the size of this city. But we did have some good things this week, dont think that it was just all hard times. The one couple that we found a few weeks ago are really excited to be baptized. They have received a ton of answers to their prayers. They tell us that we´re angels sent from the Lord. Its pretty cool and different to hear. But they're changing a lot for the better and their family situation is a lot better since we first talked to them. theyre even already talking about the baptism of their daughter whos 7 who will only be baptized next year. And we told the father how he would be able to baptize her when she turns 8, he was pretty excited. So its been a really huge blessing and great experience to watch their progress and think that it all came because we decided to knock the door of the house on the side of someone who wasnt home. (not sure if that all made sense, hope so). But through all the things that were going through we´re staying strong and we´ll continue working hard and we know that the Lord will continue to bless us and that we´ll find more people who want to follow Christ´s example and be baptized with His authority.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Alma 49:5, 8-9; 50:1 (We must prepare ourselves as well for Satan´s temptations, so that he will be surprised with our defenses as well) and Job 1:21-22; 4:8, 17; 5:17

October 15, 2012

Well I received news of the thing I definitely didn't want to hear on Saturday from my Mission President. At about 1:30 or so while we were at lunch he called me to inform me that G-ma Gleason passed away on Friday night. I can't lie and say that it wasn't tough because it was pretty hard on me. Especially knowing that I won't be there and am not there for any of it. But after the phone call I knew the only way to keep my mind off of everything was to work and work hard. So thats what we did. Elder Messias asked me if I wanted to go home and relax for a little bit but I know that would just make it all harder and I told him we had people to teach and appointments marked. And I know that G-ma would want me to keep going. We worked our butts off these past 2 days and were blessed for it as well. This whole week we have been working like crazy and the Lord is blessing us in so many ways and is seeing the work were putting in. I dont want to say that everything was perfect because it defintely wasnt and we had some people that were going really well fall through, but we stuck to it through the hard parts and we came out strong. We are trully seeing the Lords hand in our work and we are doing all we can to do His will.

Its tough to be in this situation like I said being on the opposite side of the world but I have been strengthened and comforted by the Lord. I know that this life isnt the end. There is more after this and I will see my good ol´ G-ma again. God being perfect didn't create all this just for it all to end here on earth, this part of our life is just an extremely small phase of who we are. We existed before this life for who knows how long with God and after this life their will be no end or time. It will be eternity. Without end. I know and have a strong testimony that if we continue doing all we can and following Christ in all He did we can receive the greastest blessing of all, eternal life (D&C 14:7). But we need to do all we can and we must search and find Gods true path. I know that this church is true, and I know that through living prophets God´s Plan of Salvation has been restored on the Earth today to answer lifes great questions. Where did we come from? Why are we here? and What will happen after this life? The answers to these questions have been restored in the fulness of the gospel. I know that the only way to enter into Gods Kingdom is to be baptized with the authority of God, the Priesthood, has also been restored here on the earth through Joseph Smith. If you dont know it and have a testimony about it as well, search for it with our Heavenly Father and He will answer your prayers. I know and promise that He will. This is Christ´s true church on the earth and God´s kingdom here on earth. This isn't the end and I know I will see my grandma again. Love You G-Ma

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. "...while you cannot change the past, you can change the future... With God´s help, you need not fear for the future." -Elder David S Baxter (General Conference April 2012)

"Be Happy Without Fear"

 

 

October 8, 2012

Wow, so general conference was amazing this past weekend, I learned so much and was able to strengthen my testimony even more in the gospel. It was so great to hear from our living prophet and apostles and hear the words that Heavenly Father wanted us to hear at this point. There was so much that we could all learn and I hope that everyone was able to receive answers to the questions they had, I know I did. One thing I liked a lot as well was Russell M. Nelsons talk about asking the missionaries about lifes great questions. I reinforce that invite for anyone who isn't a member of the church. The answers to lifes great questions have been restored!

However, this week we also lost a lot of work time, with general conference and we also had mission council which is for all the Zone Leaders on the mission. We had to leave on Tuesday night at about 6 to go to Sorocaba and we slept there with other missionaries. Elder Siddoway, from BYU, and Elder Vincent, my MTC companion. They're companions right now in Trujillo which is also my first zone that I was in and we slept in their house. So many great memories that we talked about. Then we lost the entire day on Wednesday in the captial of Sao Paulo, but a majority of the time was spent in vans and buses. We only got back to our area on Wednesday night at 630. One full complete day out of our area. So the week was a little difficult and we had to try and pack everything into a few days. However we had an amazing experience this week on Thursday. We were looking for 2 less active members but no one was home so we knocked on the neighbors door to see if the people still lived there, long story short we ended up teaching this family that we knocked their door. At the end of the lesson the wife asked us why she was feeling a burning sensation in her heart when we were talking to her, we testified that it was the Holy Ghost confirming what we were teaching. Then the next day we went back again to reinvite them to general conference again and she told us that the night before we showed up the first time she had had a dream about finding the true path of Christ in the middle of so many paths that exist and then we showed up. IT WAS AWESOME! And on Saturday they went to general conference in church dress. So sick. It was an awesome experience. And extremely spiritual.

As for the rest of the week we faced a few difficulties but we have faith and know that if we continue we will be blessed in the end by the Lord.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Alma 46:15; 47:10-13; 48:11. 17

"If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest times in life can be a blessing." -Pres Henry B Eyring (COnference April 2012)

October 1, 2012

Well we had another transfer this past week, man how time flies, I am now on the back end of transfers on the mission. This week I got a new companion, Elder Messias (Messiah). Elder Maciel is now the executive secretary for the mission and sits behind a computer and in air conditioning all day haha. Elder Messias is from Recife, the same city where Elder Vieira is from but he didnt know him beofre the mission. The one really bad thing about the transfer is now neither one of us knows how to cook... And we get a lot of money from the members for lunches so were going to have to start eating at restaurants a lot more often. So much easier when you have someone who cooks good food for you and you dont have to do anything haha.

This week was another week of milagres. We marked another 3 baptismal dates for October, me and Elder Messias. And we have a lot of good people to work with, here in a little bit were going to be seeing a lot of thr fruits of our hard work were putting in. And on Sunday we had 2 miracles happen that we weren't expecting whatsoever. We were wating for a lot of people at church like 10 or so and by the time church had started only 1 had showed up and we were pretty upset but then out of nowhere a couple that we were teaching showed up. We had invited them to church so many times and they never went but yesterday they showed up. And then a boyfriend of a member showed up and he is super interested in the church and is wanting to change his life around. AND another young man whos been coming to church for awhile was presented to us and he wants to be baptized and were going to teach him this week. The lord trully blessed us for our hard work that we put in this week in ways that we werent expecting whatsoever.

Well this weekend is general conference again on Saturday and Sunday, my 3rd on the mission already and I'll only have one more, so weird. I'm super excited though to be able to hear from our living prophet and living apostles. What a great priveldge that we have to be able to hear the voice of the Lord through his servants here on the Earth in our days. I know that what they will say will trully bless our lives if we put it in to practice and will help us with anything that we are struggling with. What a blessing to have a living prophet. I am so grateful for the love of the Lord that he has for each and every one of us. I am so greatful for the words that He is continually providing for us to strengthen us when we are week. I know without a shadow of a doubt that these men were called by God in our days.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Alma 40:11-13, 25; 41:3-6, 10

"There is seemingly no end to the expansive capacity to love. The feeling of love from our Heavenly Father is like a gravatational pull from Heaven." -Elder Paul E Koelliker (General Conferance April 2012)

September 24, 2012

The Lord trully blessed us during this week and we were able to mark 3 baptismal dates for October. One that we marked is the cousin of a member and she just moved to Itu about a month ago. She hasnt had the easiest life but she is seeing how much her life is already changing just in these couple weeks that she has gone to church and started reading the BOM. Its such a great thing to be able to see the lives of people change right before your eyes and even better to have them recognize it and tell you about the changes. It is very gratifying.

However unfortunately the young woman that was preparing to be baptized this past Saturday backed out for now. She also said she doesn't want to have us teach her anymore but just be friends. It was pretty shocking, we werent waiting for what happened whatsoever and it was a pretty sad night. But everybody has their free agency and each one will choose what they want to do. For now she chose not to, but im positive that in the future she will be baptized, who knows maybe even while I'm still here in Itu.

Here in this area during these 6 weeks i have learned a lot about many different situations that we have come into contact with. It has been a great learning experience and I hope that I have learned what the lord wanted me to learn. We have been teaching quite a lot of people with marraige problems and family problems and after leaving a lot of the lessons when weve heard so much stuff I just have to say Wow. I hope and pray that I learn from these situations and can help my family in the future be in better places than some of the things that ive heard.

This week is also the week of transfers and we find out tonight what will happen with the zone and with us. I'm not really sure what could happen but it could be anything. I just know that whatever happens is the Lord´s will. I've tryed to ask for things too much i think with transfers and usually happens in a much different when than I expected but at the end of each transfer I know that the Lord had a reason for putting me where I am and with what companion. This transfer went by extremely fast, 6 weeks passed by like nothing.

Eu Te Amo

Elder Gleason

P.S. Alma 37:6-7; 38:2, 5; 39:14

"No pain will last forever. It is not easy, but life was never meant to be either easy or fair."

-Pres Boyd K. Packer (General Conference April 2012)

Pictures

 August 31st was JRs one year mark. This is his shirt before he burned it.

 After the burning, JRs souvenir.

 Miami Heat Championshirt t-shirt JR got a few weeks ago from our dad.

JR says, "Me and D Wade. The best player in the world is on my shirt."

September 17, 2012

This week was another tough one. We are finding a lot of new people to teach with all the contacts we do and everything but when we teach them they don't have any desire to learn more or search for answers with God. But we keep chugging along and im sure that we will continue finding the Lord´s elects here in Itu. The area here is huge so we have plenty of new people to find every day without a doubt. We just gotta get out there and continue working hard like weve been working and the Lord will bless us with people who want to follow Christ.
This week we also had the baptismal interview with the young woman that is preparing for baptism and she passed. Shes really excited to be baptized and her dad is even more excited. Her dad has been waiting an entire year for this and now its finally falling into place. She is super intelligent and the elder that interviewed her said that the interview was really great. So she should be baptized this next saturday which is the day we have marked with her. So this week we´ll be preparing her for her baptism.
The zone is going pretty well too and we are baptizing weekly as a zone which is fantastic. We can definately be baptizing more per week but at least its weekly. As a zone leader its pretty neat because you get to see everything thats happening in the areas in my zone and how we can help each one. But its also a tough thing because you know everything thats happening in each of the areas haha. The good and the bad. It can get pretty stressful. If all the missionaries in our zone, or mission, or the world were working as hard as they could every day and doing the best that they could there would be a lot more converts to the church. I have so much respect for the mission and this glorious work that we do as servants or the Lord and representatives of Christ and i just want to do all that i can during these 2 years that i have. And i know that im doing the best i can and that i will do even more. No one else will do this work for me so i gotta do it. And its definately not easy, but i love it. This is the Lords work without a doubt in my mind and He is waiting on each and every missionary to do the best he can. And i will do the best i can for the time that i have which is short.


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason


P.S. Alma 34:9-10, 27, 31-33; 36:3-4, 19-21 and 2 Chr 24:19

September 10, 2012

When missionaries told me that the 2nd half of your mission always goes by a lot faster I am now seeing the truth of it. The week wasnt even the best that ive ever had and was even a little difficult but it still went by super fast.
Also as you can see in the pictures i got my 2 miami heat championship t shirts from my dad this past week and now I can rep it up in brasil as well. Gotta let everybody now who I root for and what team is the best even if they have no idea who it is.
So this week like I said was pretty tough and we didn't have a ton of results that we were able to see and we had a few disappointments with some realy great people were teaching but were keeping our heads up and battling on. Also on wednesday we had a multi zone conference which had all the missionaries in soracaba and itu together to have trainings from president and some other missionaries. And part of those "other missionaries" was me and Elder Maciel. We gave a training to about 50-60 missionaries on how to do contacts. It was a really neat experience but kind of weird at the same time. Especially because there was quite a few missionaries that got here with me or who are older and i was giving a training to them. But it went really well and i was able to learn a lot and hopefully the other missionaries learned from it as well. The good thing was that it wasnt all the missionaires together at the same time but was split up into 4 groups and we had 30 minutes with each group and we did practices and stuff. So it went really well. The worst part of the day was how long it took. we left at 6 in the morning and got home at 8 at night. Because to itu its about an hour and a half bus ride and we had to go with the bus schedules.
Also this week with the girl we have a baptismal date with I was able to see the true power that the Book Of Mormon has. She told us that she was going to wait on her baptism because she had a ton of doubts and everything about the church from stuff that she found on the internet that just talks trash about everything. But we told her to instead of looking on the internet for this stuff read the BOM and pray about it after every verse she read in the chapter we left. The next day at church we asked her if she did it and she said she did, we asked her if she could deny that it came from God and she said she couldnt, then we asked her if she would be baptized on the day we had marked and she said yes. All this because she sought the knowledge about these things with our Heavenly Father instead of with man. Its one of the things that i find really impressive about the church and the work we do as missionaries. We dont ask people to believe in what were saying or the Bishop or parents, no one. But to believe in what Heavenly Father will answer us through prayer. Heavenly Father, God, is the one that gave me an answer that this gospel and the BOM is true, not man. I love being a missionary and getting to see these miracles that happen with us and the people that we teach.


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason


P.S. Alma 32 (the chapter that helped the girl we´re teaching-especially verses 26-43) and 2 Chr 6:14; 14:11; 15:2

September 3, 2012

And I am now officially in the second half of the mission. Friday was a pretty normal day and I didn't feel too different but its weird thinking now saying "last year..." and the things I was doing last year were on the mission. But so friday we ate a ton of food. I told Elder Maciel that we were going to eat everything that I liked from Brasil that we could. SO we ate a lot of food haha. But this day only comes once in your life so I had to go all out. I was so stuffed at the end of the day. And also i burned one of my white shirts which is part of the mission tradition. I also almost died doing it, apperently the shirts I have catch on fire reasily easily. Good to know if I was ever to be close to fire... But I took a video but I can't send it home like I want to because it will take forever. But the video is pretty funny of how it all went down. Next up is a pair of pants at a year and 6. Which I'm positive will be right around the corner before I even know it.
The week was a good one and we got a lot done. This area is going really well. We talk to so many people in the streets and with that we have met some reallly crazy people with ideas that are equally crazy. For the first time on the mission we also had someone deny a prayer in their house. He told us we could leave a message and explain what we had to say but that we couldnt pray in his house it was pretty weird. Even more out of the normal being here in Brasil where people are always wanting prayers. We also marked a baptism date with the daughter of 2 members that were baptized last year. The girl does everything like a member would, goes to church, goes to activities, lives the commandments and everything but she never wanted to be baptized. But this week we layed it all on the line and showed her that nothing would change in her life being baptized. And she accepted. It was awesome and her parents are super excited.
Also, last night i got to call Guapira and talk to Elder Vazquez for a little bit about how things are going there and things are going really well. 3 families that me and him had done contacts with have all received answers that the Book of Mormon is true and are preparing for baptism. I cant lie i was pretty upsetr that i wasnt there to see it all happening. BUt everything has a reason. Also Ingrid and Fagner are super firm in the church and going really well.
Well thats about it for the week, today were going to the mall here in Itu and even a Walmart. WOOO


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason


P.S. Alma 29:1-2; 30:34,44; 31:5, 34-35 and 1 Chr 28:9

Pictures

 The famous pizzas in Guapira

 They decided to eat it all that night, they were just a little hungy.

 JR did a division in Mairipora and finally saw how he thought all of Brazil was

 JR and Elder Vazquez in front of their chapel

 Jacana for the last time

 The crew from the MTC, it was the first time in a year on the mission that they were all at transfers!

 The baptism that they had on Saturday, Miriam, she used to be a Jehovahs Witness

 Elder Maciel and JR

 JR, Anderson, and Elder Maciel at the baptism

BASKETBALL

August 27, 2012

THIS FRIDAY I HIT THE 1 YEAR MARK. I have no idea how it has happened and how it has gone by so fast, but in just 4 days i have officially hit the half way point. A moment of overwhelming joy and overwelming sadness. The mission is so great and i love it. Tough at times and very stressful but its also amazing and has the most spiritual experiences of my life until now. Im loving it so much to be here in Brasil and be able to serve the people here its an experience i would never take away and ask for something different for these 2 years. A lot of people tell us its a waste of our 2 years that we could be doing other things like studying and working but the knowledge we gain on the mission is unreplaceable with anything the world has to offer. I hhave absolutely loved this first half of my mission and i just hope and pray that the 2nd half cam be equal or better than this half. Now the months start counting down. Very unreal.
The Lord is trully blessing me for all the hard work that ive put in on the mission. This area is super good and iis ready to be plucked of the fruits of our labor. This past Saturday we were able to baptize again, his name is Anderson but everybody calls him Bobby because he used to have hair like Bob Marley. Hes 19 years old and is dating another member of the church. We taught him only 3 times and he was baptized, one week after we started teaching him, it was awesome. The baptism went really well besides the fact that he like almost died haha. When he was being baptized he started to take his last breath but the member was already putting him under the water and he took in a ton of water and came out coughing out water it was crazy. And the worst part was that his foot came out of the water so he had to do it again. And it didnt help that the water was freezing cold either. But all in all it was a good baptism and the 2nd time everything went right. And now he is a confirmed member of The Church of Jesus Christ.
Also, today before coming here to use the computer we got to play basketball for the first time in the field i got to play. 10 months..... It was such a long time. But it was so good to play today, it was just me and Elder Maciel and mostly i just shot around but oh how it was marvelous to play again. I didnt start off so hot and i think i airballed about ten times or so but after about 15 minutes i got back into the swing of it again. SOooooo good to play again. And now i can play a lot more because our chapel isnt very far away from our house, has working basketball hoops, and a basketball! SO yeah this morning was a good morning.


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason
P.S. Alma 27:17-18; 28:14 and 1 Chr 16:8-12

August 20, 2012

And now what everybody has been waiting for. Well i have officially been transferred and now have been in my new area for almost a week. I got the call on Monday night at about 7 pm from Pres Martins himself because i have now been called as a Zone Leader. I am now in Itu which is in the interior of Sao Paulo, ive gone back to the interior where it all began. The only difference is that Itu is another different city away from Soracaba. My new companion is Elder Maciel and hes from Belo Horizante, Minas Gerais in Brasil. But he looks as american as it gets when it comes to Brasilian. He has only one more transfer on the mission than me and just got here in itu 3 weeks ago. So we´re both new in the area pretty much, and he just went zone leader 3 weeks ago so we´re both brand new Zone Leaders. and Elder vazquez is back there in Guapira with a new companion to finish his training. He was wanting me to stay there another one because he doesnt think he knows the area well enough but i know he´ll be just fine.
So when i got here the blessings started right off the bat. We baptized on Saturday, i didnt even meet the lady until the day of the baptism, so i did a ton to really help her... haha. And the Tuesday before i got here, 1 day before hand they baptized 7 people! The elder that left here didnt want to leave the baptisms until Saturday when he wouldnt be here and the people were ready so he baptized them all on Tuesday before he left. So yesterday at church there was 8 confirmations it was crazy! And the next 2 weeks we have 2 more baptisms that are super firm as well. We are working hard to baptize weekly and it is definately possible here in this area. The members are really great and are willing to work with us, and we have an entire city to take care of so we have plenty of people to talk to. NEW STREETS!! I dont think ive ever riddin in a car in my entire mission put together as i already have here in these 5 days. The members are always giving us rides. And like all of them speak english. I think im going to start practicing my english with them so that they can teach me because im forgetting correct grammer. I dont know what im going to do when i get back my english will just keeping getting worse and worse. But so things are going AWESOME here in my new area and they´re just going to keep getting better as time goes on. We´ve both gone through some pretty tough areas and havent baptized a ton but here is ready to go and we´re going to work our butts off.
So thats the news. It was tough to leave Guapira, and i ALMOST cryed with a few of the families that i left but i didnt. It was tough to leave there after such a long time and know that the chances of me seeing those people ever again in my life is very slim. But they will always have a place in my heart and i will never forget those 5 months there and the firendships that were made. Especially with Fagner and Ingrid. It was really tough to say bye to them. But its a part of the mission.


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason


P.S. Alma 26: 11-12, 16, 30, 35

August 13, 2012

And another transfer has passed. Tonight we find out what will happen with us, if we´ll stay together or if one of us will leave. Not really sure how it will all work out yet so its now just the waiting game. But if someone leaves its about a 99% chance that i would be the one leaving and not him. I have been here for so long 5 months and more and i cant lie the same streets every single day are starting to get a little tiring. But whatever the Lord needs from me that is obviously what i will do. I wil work my hardest wherever I´m at to  bring the true gospel to the people who are ready to listen and follow.
Yesterday at church me and Elder Vazquez both gove talks, and it was my 2nd time that i gave a talk here in Guapira and my 4th time on the mission. I think its more than ive given in years at home. And from i remember the missionaries in the US didnt give talks as often as we do here but its pretty neat. I like giving talks and trying to help the ward as a whole get better. Yesterday i talked about how to do missionary work with our friends. I summed it up into 2 words. Invite, and our faith. Because without inviting people they will never have the oppurtunity to say yes or no to go to church. And when you think about it we´re talking away their free agency by choosing for them what we think they´re response will be to the invite. Thats where our faith comes in. We need to believe and hope for the things that we don´t see. Its obvious we dont see our friends and family at church with us, because we never invited them to be there with us. (not in all cases, obviously some have invited). But we as members of Christ´s true church and Kingdom here on the Earth need to better ourselves a lot. We need to be better exemples of Christ in our day to day and need to put out more forces to help others come unto Christ as well. The blessings we receive in the gospel are enormous and i dont have any doubt that our friends want the same blessings. Are we scared to invite or lose a friend or whatever the situation may be? Yeah we´ll be scared but we´ll also be grateful and the others we invite will be even more grateful when they begin to receive the blessings in their families. (1 John 4:18) The world needs the blessings that God has in store for each and everyone of us. We must bring this happiness to the world.
I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God´s kingdom restored here on the earth. I have no doubt in my mind that Joseph SMith was a true prophet of God and that we have a living prophet on the Earth today in Thomas S Monson to help guide and lead us.

Eu Te Amo!
Elder Gleason



P.S. Alma 14:10-11 and 24:27; 20:23 and 22:15; 17:11; 20:29

Lots of Pictures!

 When this was taken JR had been in Guapira for 4 full months

 He didn't want to talk to JR

 Some of the crazy graffitti in JR's area

 The zone at the end of last transfer

 JR and Elder Vazquez

 Elder Vazquez, Ingrid, and JR. JR was able to baptize Ingrid

 Ingrid and JR

 Some more of the "sick" graffitti JR found in his area. He says that he "loovvesss graffitti"

 Soccer on 7/30/12

 Lunch, American style, PB&J

 JR made PB&J for all of the Bishops family and said that they loved it

 JR and Elder Vazquez at the temple 8/7/12

JR in front of the Sao Paulo Temple 8/7/12



August 7, 2012

Another quick week went by. But it definately is weird having p day on tuesday instead of monday everything just deosnt feel right. But today we got to go to the temple and there were a ton of missionaries there it was awesome. We dont get to see everybody to often so its a real treat when we do. But it also eats up our entire pday with having to take buses and metro and everything. So basically our day was the temple and doing our hour of email. But its all worth it, no better place to rest than being in the temple, the House of the Lord.
This past week we have been continuing to work hard and things are starting to go through. We are finding some families that are super good. One family we are teaching, we found because I was thirsty and asked a guy for a cup of water while he was at his front gate. Now we've been teaching them for a couple weeks and the family is amazing. He read the chapter we left in the BOM 3 times in a couple days. And things are happening by "coincidence" as he said about the church. But I'm pretty positive he already knows its true. They've already accepted to be baptized we just havent marked a date yet. Theyre so awesome. Also yesterday we found a lady while she was waiting for a bread guy to come by. She wasnt looking very happy and she said she was disanimated. But with the way we go around now always smiling and laughing and sharing the gospel we helped her be happy again and we ened up going in leaving a message and making a baptismal date with her. She said she had always wanted to go into our church but never had the courage. But this week she said she will be there.
The Lord has also blessed us with another family that is family to members here in the ward. They were going to a different ward but now are attending our ward. The family was almot baptized and they want to be baptized but they werent married and the wife is from a different country and the papers took forever to get here to brasil and they stopped going to church and everything. But this sunday they were there and we´re going to teach them this week! The Lord is trully blessing us for the hard work we are putting it.
I cant believe it but this transfer is already over next week. It has gone by so fast. Im not sure whats going to happen and I dont really have any preference. I would like to stay here in this area with Elder Vazquez but I'm also fine with leaving and getting to know a new area with new people. Today is 5 months that I have been here in Guapira, time is flying by. So what the Lord needs and wants from me will happen and I am ready for whatever that is.


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason

P.S. I didnt have time to get any scripture references from what i read this past week but next week will have double :)

July 30, 2012

Time flies by so much more faster when youre working hard and having a fun time. I cant believe its already almost been a fulll month with my companion from good ol´paraguay. We get along well and are having fun and working our butts off at the same time. And he´s getting really good already with just a few weeks in the mission field. One of the hardest things to do on the mission is contacts in the street and he´s already doing them without any problems at all. We have been talking to everybody we can and have finally started to pile up quite a lot of people that we are teaching. Including a few families. So yeah we´re pretty happy and things are going well. This week at church we had 140 people, when for the last few months it was at about 100 or so. They werent a ton of investigators but we had a lot of less actives that came to church it was awesome. It was the most people that have been in the chapel all in one week for me on the mission. Up until this point in any of my areas I havent had that many people. And its just going to keep growing there is no way we´re going to step now.
So this week we really worked a lot and I've been pretty wiped every night but its such a good feeling to be so tired. This is how the mission should be. I didnt come here to relax for 2 years, I came to work my butt off and when I get home sleep for about 3 weeks straight haha. Can you believe that tomorrow already makes 11 months that ive been gone? its so crazy to think about, the time is just flying by and it stinks. but of course its great at the same time. there arent many boring days, theres always something awesome or something hilarious or something so irritating that it turns funny. I cant even and dont want to imagine how fast the time will go by after the one year mark passes. I wont be saying 1 year and so many months that I have left but it will turn into just months. Weird. Maybe time isnt going by so fast back there in the states with all you guys. But life definately passes by in the blink of an eye. Eternity will be so much easier to judge because there is no beginning or end.
Also today we finally had another zone activity and we were able to play soccer again. I have come to actually enjoy playing soccer. But nothing beats a game of basketball that is for sure. Today I think I had like 3 goals and I played like a beast in goal. Too bad I couldnt play like this back in high school maybe soccer would have been more fun. Its always nice to have zone activites tho because you get to take a step back and relax and just chill with the other missionaries. The mission is awesome but it definately gets stressful at times so a break every so often is needed.
Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason
P.S. Alma 7:19, 23-24; 10:5-6; 11:37

July 23, 2012

This week was a crazy one that is for sure. I feel like I wasn't even in my own area for any of it. On wednesday night I had to go to the mission office because on Thrudsay Elder Costa, who is in the 70 and is the President of the Area Brasil, came to visit our mission. So I had to leave our house at 5:30 on wednesday and leave elder vazquez with some other elders for the night but we had to walk an hour to drop him off there and then me and another elder went to the office. And it was reassured to me yet again that I cannot stand using the bus or metro. We spent an hour and a half using the transport and I was ready to die. But then on Thursday morning we got up at 4:30 in the morning to go and get the chapel all set up for Elder Costa and then he held a special meeting with just the District and Zone Leaders which was super awesome. Then after that meeting we had a bunch of trainings with him for about the next 6 hours or so inclucing lunch. It was super great! I learned so much and am doing my best to put it into practice now as well in our area. He was telling us how he does contacts even now wherever he is and he said he just asks people straight up why people aren´t members of the church and that when they say they´re from whatever church he says they he was from a different church before too. He is awesome. So thursday we spent basically the whole day there in the center of the city in one of the church buildings and then had another hour and a half return trip. Then on Friday morning I did a division with a different area in our stake which was Vila Sabrina. I got to do another division with Elder Riggin. Cant lie its super nice to be able to take a days break from portuguese every so often and just speak english all day. But Elder riggin is super sweet, we´ve been here in Jaçanã for about 3.5 months now so we´ve become really good friends. Were hoping that some point in the future we´ll be companions as well. And I did my first baptismal interviews while I was there it was a neat experiennce. But also pretty nervewracking and of couse I had to have a stuffy nose that day so my accent was horrible and they were having a semi difficult time understanding my portuguese. But both the people I interviewed passed! So there was no worries. Now I'm just looking forward to the next time that I can do some more so that I can keep improving at them and have them be spiritual experiences for the people as well.
The other thing that I learned yet againnn here on the mission is trully how simple the gospel is and how simple it is to know that this church is true. We talked with a member who is a little bit less active a few days back and we were asking him about how he knew the church was true or if he did. And he told us that he had no doubt it was all you need to know is that God doesn´t change, that man changes what God does. God called prophets anciently, and he calls prophets today. He called apostles anciently and he calls apostles today. God used revelation anciently and he uses it today to help us with our problems in our days specifically. He loves us so much and will never leave us alone, He knows what we are going through and knows how to help us. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that we have a living prophet on the earth today in Thomas S Monson who has the same authority that Moses or Noah or whatever prophet had anciently. Because God loves us and will always help us.


Eu Te Amo
Elder Gleason


P.S. Alma 5:14, 16, 26-27, 60-62