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