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