February 13, 2012

Well Happy Valentines Day tomorrow! One of the most random holidays that probably shouldn't even be a holiday haha. I never understood why we have Valentines day. I think that girls probably started it so that they could get flowers and chocolate, cuz honestly, who doesnt like chocolate.

Well this week went really well, and again super fast. I feel like it was just yesterday I was talking about my beloved peanut butter being gone, and its already been a week since it was finished off. Oh but one thing that hasn't changed from the good old BYU days is the chocolate milk addiction. It may even have gotten worse. They have this brand here called Toddy and it is amazinggg. I have a pretty big glass every morning for breakfast and use up an 800 gram container of Toddy every 2 weeks. All the members here think I'm crazy and they all laugh at my "diet" for what I eat here. Because I literally buy the exact same things every single week at the grocery store. And have set nights when I eat cookies haha.

It is getting harder and harder to know what to say in emails because the weeks just fly by so quickly that I feel like nothing is even happening during the middle of them. But this week we taught a guy from Peru (we thought he was from Paraguay) I can't remember if I already talked about him or not. But his accent is so thick its almost impossible to understand his Portuguese because its been mixed wtih Spanish. Even Elder Williams being fluent has a really hard time understanding him and the members we bring who are Brasilian say its tough. But in just 2 weeks he has almost finished the Book of Mormon it is so crazy. He loves to read and he told us that the first time we were there but we had no idea that it would be as much as it has been. We had marked a couple places for him to rad but he just decided to go from the very beginning and is now finishing up. We asked him if he received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true if he would follow the answer and be baptized and he was just like of course i would, theres not other option than to follow. Such a neat experience.

Also one of our other investigators is married to a member who was baptized a long time ago and he has received the missionaries and gone to church many many times but never was baptized. We had marked a date with him last week and then just this past Saturday he told us that he really wanted to be baptized. The look on his wifes face was priceless it was just straight up joy and happiness. So awesome. On Sunday she told us that that was the first time he had ever born his testimony or talked about baptism in the way that he did. She is so excited and of course we are super excited as well.

Unfortunately our baptism that we were supposed to have this past weekend fell through because the adoption process has taken a step back. Now the kid is back in the home he was at before he had been adopted and the papers look like they're going to take a couple of weeks. So it will probably be a little while before he is baptized but I know it won't affect anything because he was like jumping out of his seat the first time we asked him about being baptized.

Well that has been my week I can't really think of too much else. It was a fast one but also an amazing week. I love this gospel and love seeing the changes in people's lives that it has made and is making. Especially personally in my own life.

Eu Te Amo!

Elder Gleason

P.S. 3 Nehpi 14:14..and a couple quotes I found this week:

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so watch your step." -Lao Tzu

"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." -Ralph Emerson