Week 28: MELE KALIKIMAKA

Hey ya'll! 

First off, I hope you all are enjoying your Christmas! We went on a hike today and I guess as an early Christmas present Santa let us see a whale!! That's right. Spurting up water and everything. Pretty cool I'd say. Merry Christmas Elder Gleave. 

I guess I'll start off with a really cool experience this week.   My comp and I were done with dinner, and we had no appointments, so we decided to street contact all the way to Wal-Mart. Things weren't going too well. No one really wanted to talk, so I was like DANG this sucks. But I was still trying, still being diligent. Then something cool happened. When we were in line to check out at Wal-Mart, some guy came up to me and was like "Hey. My friend is a member of your Church, and she works at 24 Fitness. She was talking me this morning, and I wanted to meet up with you guys and ask you some questions." So we exchanged info, and then parted ways. So after a few phone calls during the week, I invited him to our Christmas party which was Saturday morning. He said that sounded good, and that we'd see him then. On Saturday, he showed up, and I was like "Oh cool! He actually showed up." He was super excited, so he went around and met all the people. He's really good at slack key guitar, so during the party he just got up on stage and started playing and singing Christmas songs! It was awesome. We then thought it would be a good idea to take him on a tour of the church building. When we went into the chapel, you could just feel the spirit. The party was all loud and lots of commotion going on, then in the chapel it was just completely still. I could tell he felt it. He even told me! After talking to him a little while, we went back into the gym and I shared a little bit about the restoration and the priesthood, and he completely understood. After the party, he came up to me with a big smile on his face and he pulled me aside and said, "Just between you and me, I want in. I want to be a part of this Church." I was so excited! So I invited him to be baptized, and he was like "Oh yeah! In 10 weeks though. Not 8. not 9. 10." The bad news is that he's not in my ward boundaries, so we explained that and then he went to the Manoa Ward's (the ward he's in) Christmas party that night! He absolutely loved it. The next day he came to Church, and the same thing, he was so excited. He caught the spark. The Manoa missionaries taught him a lesson yesterday, and committed him to baptism and he said, "Who would say no?" Then they committed him to the 10th of January and he was like "Can I be baptized sooner?" Anyway, just a heart-warming story. He has found the pearl of great price. 

We have a really awesome family we are working with. They always feed us on Thursday nights! The Dad is a lawyer, but a goofy, jokester lawyer, and the Mom is completely down to earth. The more and more we talk to him, the more and more he's seeing the Mormon Church is the true Church. They are going on a trip this week to California, and they told us they intend on reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover during that time. That sounds pretty promising yeah? They have 3 kids, the oldest being 13 and the youngest being 7. The Dad is really smart, so it's fun teaching him because he grasps concepts really well. At dinner, we played a make shift jeopardy game with the dad being Alex Trebek and we all chose our own categories. It was really fun! 

This week the gospel principles' teacher called me, and asked if I could teach gospel principles 10 minutes before Church started. And it was on the gathering of Israel. There's only so much you can talk about the gathering of Israel, especially with only sacrament meeting to prepare. But the members were nice and rolled with the punches, and participated a lot. 

Things are different here in Hawaii. Not too many decorations, so it doesn't really seem like Christmas! The only thing I have to keep the spirit in my heart is replays of Elf scenes in my mind. Sometimes I could just tell investigators, "You gotta keep your promises if you wanna keep your friends." --Turbo Man. I think that's a good way of helping them come to Church. 

So I'll email you next week and let you know about skyping, okay? I'll try to get a package for Christmas out today! Well, until next week! I love you all! Pray for Marcus btw, he hurt his knees and they're still swollen a week later. 

Much love! 

Elder Whale Watcher

Week 27--JOY TO DA WORLD!

Hello,

I wish I knew pigeon. It's such a funny language. When people are blessing the sacrament, they have to do it over because they say "O God, da eternal fada." I guess the gospel is in every language.

Okay sorry about that. Just kinda popped into my head. SO here's the deal.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I know it's not Christmas but I just love it so much that I have to tell everyone that. Things are a little bit different here. I don't know if it is because everyone is Asian, or we are in the city, or it's a warm area but there's not many Christmas lights. Makes me sad. That's okay, the real Christmas spirit lies within your heart and not by how many decorations there are. But I do miss Christmas music. Good thing McDonalds plays it...

So here's the deal, this week has been a turn in my mission. I've always heard that the Lord has "prepared" people for the gospel, but I never really have seen it on my mission. And I have seen all these missionaries baptizing a lot of people, and I have never really seen that for me. I have been struggling to have a testimony that I could do missionary work. I knew missionary work was real and important, but I was struggling becuase I didn't thnk I could do it. Well anyway, they introduced something into the mission called QGC, or quality gospel conversations, and it is basically just a way to count how many people you've talked to in a day. And I really loved the idea. I knew right away this is what I needed. But it was hard to just talk to people on the street. We've been struggling to find even a single investigator, and we were only teaching maybe one lesson a week. But I really wanted to talk to everyone, I just couldn't find the courage to do it. 

But on Saturday, I went on exchanges with one of the zone leaders, and one of the AP's came with us, and we did 6 and a half hours of straight street contacting. We had been averaging 3 to 4 qgcs per companion, and on Saturday we three missionaries decided that wasn't enough. We were going to talk to everyone! We set a goal of 30 QGCs and placing 10 Books of Mormon. I was skeptical. That's a lot. But right away, when we went out, we were just being incredibly bold. Long story short, we reached our goal of getting 30 QGCs, and actually ended up getting 36. We placed all of the Books of Mormon we brought, and had one person even asking for one that we brought back the next day. We have 2 new incredibly solid investigators that want to meet up now and two new investigators that are going to be gone till after Christmas, but wanna talk with us, and a couple investigators for other areas. 

There was a lot of conversations with people that didn't go very well, and they weren't interested, but we found those few that were "prepared" by the Lord. We talked with two people in particular, who were smoking cigarettes. Two separate occasions. Usually I would never talk with people smoking because I just assumed they weren't interested, but I was being bold, and now that I think of it, they need it more than anyone else. Anyway, they were telling us how they have hard lives, and how much they didn't know what life was about, and after talking to them for a litte about Christ, you could see how much they wanted to know more. I found the key to missionary work TALK TO EVERYONE. I can't really explain how great that day was. Probably top 3 best days on the mission. The whole day I felt the spirit, and the whole day I was having so much fun. It felt almost like a dream. Incredibly stress free. I now know what it means to "get lost in the work".

Anyway, got to go! I love you all so much! Merry Christmas and keep in mind the true meaning of Christmas. May the Lord bless you all in your righteous endeavors. A Hui Ho and much Aloha

Elder Rednose Gleave

Week 26--SHALOHA

WHAT'S UP MY HOMIES!

I named this email Shaloha because there's this guy in our ward, who dresses up like a Jewish guy, and wears a yamaka and has a long beard and he is a temple recommend holder. Weirdest thing. But he bore his testimony and started by saying Shaloha, then started talking about how excited he is that Christmas and Hanukkah are so close together. Welcome to the city...

Things are getting better around here! It's not so intimidating living in the big city. I guess Will and I are meant to be in the same boat! If you have any problems big man, I know how you feel. Anyway, my comp needs to email soon, so I gotta be quick! But here's a recount of what's been happening lately.

Since this area is pretty slow, and pretty hard to work in, I spend a lot of time in my thoughts and in the books. I have been a reading fiend! When I wake up in the morning, I always read the Ensign to wake me up (cuz let's be honest, at 6:30 am, the scriptures will put me to sleep).  I have been pondering about our Divine potential lately, and how each one of us has specific talents and specific traits that make us, US. The Lord shapes us into who he needs us to be, so we shouldn't strive to be someone different than we are. We should just be ourselves, and be comfortable with ourselves. The Lord isn't ashamed of who were are, and we shouldn't be either. If you are nerdy, MORE POWER TO YA! That's awesome! If you are a big goofball, keep that good sence of humor. If you are on the reserved side, don't push yourself to who your aren't suppose to be. The Lord has a specific plan for all of us, and he needs us to be us. As long as we are relying on the Lord, and putting Heavenly Father first, before everything, I know things will work out. Maybe someone will need a friend who is reserved, or nerdy, or whatever it may be, and Heavenly Father will put you in a place to personally minister to that person with your Divine talents. Anyway, back to the Ensign, I was reading an article that discussed this and I believe this pretty much sums it up (with a little missionary emphasis too), "As Latter-day Saints we are blessed to be living in this time when the Lord is hastening His work. Because God has a purpose in placing us on earth at this time, we have the capacity to do more than we think we can." I just love that. We have the capacity to do more than we think we can. What a privilege it is to be here on the Earth during such a special time.

A couple cool things have happened this week. I called Jacob! We live pretty close to each other, so I plan on seeing him soon.  It was such a brightener to my day!

Turkey Day came and passed. I couldn't stop thinking about home and cold and football. But we had a good one! We ate on the 9th floor of a apartment building, that had a pool there. It was with a bunch of young couples in the ward, so it was nice to eat with them. They all are in their mid to late 20's, so I kinda relate to them. One couple is really funny. They both grew up in NC, but the husband is a Duke fan and the wife is a UNC fan. Its like those "Sports is Crazy" ESPN commercial. But the husband is pretty hyped about Jabari.

Things have been pretty humbling of late. That's okay, the Lord just loves to teach me patience. But who can complain? I'M IN HAWAII!!

Christmas time is here.... I love it! As usual. Kinda makes me homesick though. I wish I could just sit next to a warm fire watching movies. NAME THE MOVIE: "YOU'RE NOT SANTA, YOU SMELL LIKE BEEF AND CHEESE"

Gotta go though! Hope you are all feel the Christmas spirit in my honor. The Church is true, the Lord lives.  I'm a witness.

BYE

ELDER TOPELF GLEAVE

Week 25--Elder Gleave and the Adventures of Downtown Honolulu

What"s up everyone! I believe one of the greatest things about serving a mission is all the challenges that you are presented with, and watching the Lord work through you to accomplish things that you would never accomplish by yourself.

 So if you all didn't know, I got transferred this week! I went from straight country, to complete town (that's what they call city here). I'm literally in downtown Honolulu! I went from 14,000 people in the space of 20 miles, to 548937583490257398 people in space of a few miles. Things are very, very different. It was rare to find a 3-story building in Waialua, and now I'm surrounded by 20 to 30-story apartments. Buildings are EVERYWHERE! It's literally the concrete jungle. I live next to an on-ramp for the H-1, which is the main highway here. There's lots of lots of noise! I live in like a triplex structure, and my neighbors smoke all da time. So sometimes it seeps into our place and I'm walking which is fun. Kinda...at least I'll be skinny! We probably walk like 10 miles a day, which isn't too bad. It's very overwhelming. I've been in mostly small town/country areas my whole mission, so it's definitely an adjustment! Things are for sure a struggle at first. The area I was in just had two baptisms, which was awesome, but now we aren't teaching many people. We kinda have been just walking around everywhere, knocking on people's doors, but no one is home. Things are looking up though! I saw a homeless man doing shadow puppets in the park, so that made my day a little bit better! Plus there's a 7-11 near by, so I guess you could say unlimited slurrrrrppppiiieeesssss.

On a good note, I have an awesome district! And zone! There's lots of really, really funny people here in Honolulu. There's also a lot of pressure. We see the AP's a lot, and the president is just down the road, so we gotta make sure we're on point! The first night here, we were watching a movie with our ward, and it is the "Silent Night" movie about the making of the song. Anyway, it said they were in Austria in the film, and my comp turns to me and says, "That doesn't look like Australia..." hahahaha speaking of which! My companion is really cool. He's from an island called Sipan, which is just above Guam. He speaks English really well, because they speak English there hahaha. He's really mellow and quiet, but when he says stuff, he's a funny guy! He's the only member of his family, so he's got quite the strong testimony. He's only been out 3 months, so we are still learning together.

Sunday was such a relief! I love the ward here. TONS of young couples, and they all like to talk about sports. Which is awesome. I don't think I have ever looked forward to Sunday so much. Something familiar. We have one girl, Nui, who is the girlfriend of a returned missionary that we will be teaching, so I guess there will be a baptism soon! Anyway, all in all, it's just a completely different experience. Not a bad one, just different. And I know that with the help of the Lord, I will have wonderful experiences here. I already am! I miss home a lot! especially when I got sick last week and now when things are pretty hard. I kinda wish I could just be home drinking hot chocolate doing a puzzle. BUT THE WORK MUST GO ON. He who puts his hand to the plough and looks back isn't fit for the Kingdom of God. I just wish it would change seasons....Everyone's like, oh the weather there is so nice! And I'm like where's the cold.... That's okay! I love the mission, and I love the Lord.

 I hope everyone has a good turkey day! There's so much to be thankful for here. I'm thankful for My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For the example of enduring to the end. For the persecution and the struggles he went through everyday just to put his gospel on this Earth. He went through so much for me, I know that I can walk a few more miles for him. I'm thankful for my Father in Heaven. For his loving hand he always bestows in my life. For his continued help and mercy to someone as simple as me. I know he lives, and loves me everyday. Without these two I know I would be lost! I would be nothing. I'm thankful for Joseph Smith, and the persecution and the rage he went through to establish Christ's true church on the Earth again, and the fact that I could be a part of it. I am also thankful for you all. I love you guys so much. I'm thankful for the love and support I get each day, and the prayers you send my way! This is by far the hardest thing I've done, but it is easily the most rewarding. Anyway, I'm in the Makiki ward, which is not the ward the mission president is in (thankful).

I hope Annie gets better! Try some natural antibiotics until you know what it is!

I'm sad the donkeys lost, but it's a little bit easier being on a mission to not care as much!

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of research about the second coming and Heavenly Father. Cool stuff! Should be interesting when it happens.

Anyway, I love saying anyway, but I hope you all have a good Thanksgiving! Shout out to all my Waialua homies--you guys are missed!

KEEP STRONG IN THE GOSPEL.

The gobble king.
Elder Gleave

Week 24--Hey Mainlanders!

Hey Mainlanders!

Kinda of a crazy, mixed up, jumbled week. It's hard to describe a mission, but I guess one easy way to describe is--it is one big adventure. So many different things happen each week, it's hard to describe.  It is just something you have to experience! 

So after I emailed you last week, we went to a pizza party at a member's house for dinner. We were playing football with their kids, and one of the elders ripped his pants right in the area where the sun don't shine and you use it to sit down. It was pretty funny if you ask me, but he seemed a little sheepish about it. I guess that's what happens when you eat too much ice cream. and pizza. 

The next day we literally painted this guy's whole house--like the whole outside of his house. It was fun, but really, really tiring. The mission has a lot of firsts, and I guess I can check painting a house off my list!  Then, we went over to this girl's house after for some more service. They want to build a chicken coop, so we were taking apart wooden pallets by prying them apart. It was pretty strenuous labor stuff, so that plus the house meant I was pretty beat! My whole body was sore after that! 

That day was really cool too. The waves were ginormis! It was the biggest since I've been here. I didn't get to see too many of the waves, but I caught glimpses. They were like 30 FEET! That's like a 3-story building of waves! In case you didn't know how big a three-story building was...It was sad, though because a mormon dude was trying to surf at a spot near the pipeline, and I guess he crashed and they never found his body. So they've been spending all week looking for it, but he never turned up so please pray for his family and friends! I didn't know him, I think he was more on Laie side of the Island. 

The next day we played volleyball with our ward and it was DA BEST. It's funny because its like a whole bunch of Polys, the browns, and us playing. Polys are really, REALLY good at volleyball. They're really funny though, because whenever someone messes up, everyone just starts busting up! Including the person who messed up, so it's all in good spirits. 

That night though was ROUGH. I woke up and my body was all in pain. I could barely stand. There was a member baptizing their kid that morning, and we were suppose to be there, but showed up half an hour late. Oops...hahahaha but it was okay. I WAS SICK I HAD A GOOD EXCUSE OKAY? We went to his house after the batpism, and the APs were there, and one of them told me that I was being transfered. So not only was I so sick I could barely stand, I found out I was leaving a place I loved so much. So you could say-- I'm the awkward kid crying at the party! So I just went home and crashed. Turns out I had like a 101.5 degree fever. Who knew? I think it's like the flu. But I got a blessing, and I woke up the next morning pretty much completely fine! Good thing the priesthood is so awesome. It's such a blessing to have in my life. 

So we had Stake Conference  yesterday, and since it's like 20 minutes away, our bishop rented a bus! SO WE RODE A SCHOOL BUS TO STAKE CONFERENCE! It was probably the best thing ever. Plus stake conference was cool, it was like a recording of these general authorities in Utah dedicated to Hawaii people. Elder Uchtdorf was funny, he got up and said, "Aloha brothers and sisters!" and we all did the "Aloha" thing, and he was like, "let's try this again with a little more gusto, Aloha brother and sister!" It was funny. It was like he was actually there. He said something cool though. He was talking about looking at the good of situations and said (paraphrased by me) "When it rains, don't be bitter about it. Pull out an umbrella, and jump in the puddles like we did when we were younger. Besides, only after enduring the rain do we get rainbows." And I liked that, especially now. I'm sad that Im leaving, but as long as I have a good perpective, everything will be great! A member was talking to me, and he said on his mission he was in an area where he loved it, and he never wanted to leave, and then he got transfered and his next area was his favorite area. so he just said, as long as you think that this next area is your favorite area, with awesome people. and an awesome, and it very well might be. And I believe that to be true! 

So on a more secular note, glad the Broncos won! Me and Elder Horsley were riding around on our bikes, and we rode past a house and there was people watching the game outside and I was like, "Hey, what do you go say we go "tract" into him?" I dont think he found it very amusing. That's okay. GO DONKS!

Well, next week I will be in a different place. So I will let you know then! But as for now, know this: I love you all so very much! You all are an inspiration to me. Keep up the good work!

Much love,

The Gleavester

Week 23--Temple Tuesday

Hello,

So, I'm sure all of you are freaking out because you're probably like, "He's not emailing me.  I think he doesn't like us...wait a minute, what's this--an email on Tuesday? HE'S EMAILING ON TUESDAY? That's not allowed. Our son is so disobedient." Well rest assure, neither is true. Today we went to the temple as a zone, and since it isn't open on Monday, our Tuesday got made into an automatic pday. So I wasn't really being disobedient...And I still love you! 

Man I've really missed the temple. So much awesomeness there. The Laie Temple is so pretty. Even though it's like a square, it's one of the prettiest squares I think I've ever laid my eyes on.  Plus, the temple is such a sacred and holy place and it was nice just to forget about the world outside and focus my time on the Lord. I definitely felt the spirit there. Just an amazing spiritual recharge. 

So bad news, I think I'm gaining weight. Good news, I've eatten a lot of candy since Halloween. I've been recovering from a candy high, so I've had lots of interesting swings of lots of energy to completely crashing. I guess the struggles of missionary work are real. And while we are on the weight thing, I think I've finally figured out why it's happening. So here's what I think. I could be wrong, but I think that whenever we go to dinner, the families are like, "Oh so you say you like being skinny? Well good because we made a meat dish with lots of white rice and butter and for dessert we bought chocolate cake and ice cream! If your love handles don't love this, I don't know what will!!" Im sure glad we decided to get those bigger pants and shirts. I feel like Im in "honey I shrunk the kids", but more like "honey I shrunk my clothes". That's okay, I'd rather be found dead with a friend chicken wing in my hand than a head of lettuce! 

This week has been very rainy. Which is awesome both for missionary work and for my plants! It's awesome being on bikes in the rain. You knock on someone's door and they feel too bad to make you go back out in the rain so they are kinda forced to talk to you. Plus I love hitting the big puddles and imaging I'm riding on the surface just like Christ walked on water. My white shirts aren't too happy about it though. They've seen theyre better days. 

So I witnessed one of the most earnest prayers ever the other day. You've never really witnessed earnest prayers until youve heard a 4 year-old pray. It went a little something like this, "Heavenly Father, please help us be nice to Jesus. Please help us not turn into monsters. Please help us like our teachers, and please help us not steal. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." You could tell the sincerity in his voice. I mean who WANTS to turn into monsters? I know that this little kid didn't want to. And what's better, at that same dinner, the opening prayer included, "Please help the missionaries like my mom's cooking." So we are guaranteed to like her food!! No wonder I'm getting fat!!! 

My comp just bought a ukelele from Costco, so now I get to experience the joys of hymns on ukeleles every down time we get. 

In better news theres ant's everywhere in our house. I put a piece of chicken down on the floor to time how long it'd take for the ants to find it. Those suckers were there within 10 minutes!! 

On the missionary work side of things, everything's going well. Just kinda the same old same old. Working hard, and such. 

Transfers are next week, so I will find out if I am staying or not the next time I email. Hope I am staying!

And last but not least, I found out that Ether is a really good book in BOM. Maybe my favorite. The Brother of Jared is a stud. I wish I could be more like him! 

And for all you Star Wars and Mulan nerds out there, I know you will appreciate this at District meeting, we played Jeopardy, and our team name was the "Mushu-Binks" after Mushu in Mulan and Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars. It was us vs the Thunder Thighs! It was a really close one. I think they won, but who is really counting? 

Well, I hope all is well in the normal part of the states! I heard it's cold. That stinks. It was around 70 here and so people started pulling out sweats and jackets. I imagine its much different than home! 

Love you all! Pray for you every night,

Elder G-Unit

Dumpster Diving

Laie Temple

Week 22: Elder "Big Kahuna" Ga-LEAVE

Hey family!

Good to hear from ya'll.

This email might be a little shorter because I spent some much needed time answering individual emails. Plus not too too much has changed since last time we spoke! 

Some updates in the mission world: We are getting Ipad minis in Jan!  So if you were planning on sending me one for Christmas maybe you should reconsider.  My mission president just asked all the missionaries to seek for a baptism every other week, so i will probs take him up on that.

I wish I could describe to you how much I love it here. I will try to use some words and see what happens. I love it as much as: cake, puppies, watching puppies eat cake, those toe shoes, haircuts, back massages, all de orphans in de whole world, the word platypuses, actual platypuses, pizza, flippers, the show rocketpower, climbing big trees, top hats, supersmash bros, and longboarding. And probably basketball. If that doesn't show you how awesome it is, then I don't know what will. 

--photo added by mom--

Missionary work is taking off in Waialua! The other companionship had a baptism this week. The lady was so amazing. When she got into the water, before she was baptized, she bore her testimony and called this church a "no brainer". She told us how much it has changed her life, and has given her direction, and how she is so sure of her future now. It's this reason I'm out here--to see people's lives changed. There wasn't a dry eye in that place. I wish everyone could feel of the joy that comes through the gospel! 

On Wednesday, we had our ward Halloween party! There was a ton of non members and we did a chili cook off/trunk or treat deal. On Halloween we went to our bishop's house and had a bon fire with the whole zone! It was such a fun time. We played catch phrase and I may or may not have gotten really into it. There was a lot of non-member kids there which made me very happy! 

This week should be an awesome week. I don't know why. Probably cause I'm serving the Lord and he loves me and I love him, so nothing could be bettter right? RIGHT. There's a family were really trying to work with and we hung out with one of the daughters for like 3 hours on Sunday. It was also AWESOME. 

Okay well I love you all!  KEeP StROng in the CHURCH. It's the reason why we are here. Remember we are here "to prepare to meet God", everything else is secondary. 

I keep you in my prayers every night! Much love from the surfing capital of the world.

Elder "Big Kahuna" Ga-LEAVE

Week 21: HEY THERE

What's up my homies!

How are things? I heard the mouse motel is starting to become more vacant. That's probably for the better. They are cute little guys but they bring some weird diseases. This week was a very good week! Easily one of the best weeks in the mission! I'm starting to love it here more and more, which makes me scared becuase I think I might have a few more weeks left here. That's the thing about a mission, right when you love a place you get shipped out. But I'm just making the most of it while I can.

We still did a lot of servce this week! I loved it. We made a garden in a back yard of one of the members. We planted pineapple and some other cool stuff. I'm rasing my own little plants in my apartment! So the big news of the week is that yesterday we went over to this family that we've been working really hard with. The parents have been inactive for a while, but they are one of the greatest families I know. Such great hearts! We've been working really really hard to get them back to church, and to get their three kids baptized. So yesterday, we asked them if they wanted to be baptized and they said yes! And the Dad is bringing them back to church!! I cant wait. I love that family so much.

We went to a pumpkin carving party on Friday! That was fun. I carved like a ghost thing and the member was making fun of it saying it looked bad, but then I put a candle in it and it was super radical so I guess I showed him.

We made cookies for a less active member because his wife just had a baby. That was really fun. Who knew missionary work was making cookies?

We're making a lot a lot of progress here. Actually, the Lord is doing a lot of work here.  I just feel blessed enough to be a part of it.  I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for this area. The members are really great, and they help out a lot! It's really fun to see how strong my testimony has grown since being here. Priorities have now been changed. It's like if the Lord is first, everything else will be taken care of.

Anyway, G2G. Love you all! Keep in contact

Elder Gleave

ps thanks for the package! I decorated our place. I will send one soon.

Photo credit--Elder Bennett >>>

<<<Selfie--ghettomish--Halloween costume?

Week 20: Service and Sports

Hey family,

What is up? Sounds like everything is going well at home! Things are going great here. There's a lot going on here in Waialua. Not much like teaching lessons wise, but we've been doing a lot of service. There's this stuff called California Grass, and it's this grass that grows 8+ feet and it has all these spikes all over them. There is a girl in our ward who was baptized a couple years ago and she's leaving on a mission soon, but her family aren't members, so we go over and do service for them every week! This week we pulled a bunch of grass in their HUGE backyard. She has a river behind her house with a mini dock and so we like to sit on the dock and imagine what the water feels like. 

On Wednesday, we had a member of the Seventy come and talk to us. So we spent most of the day in Honolulu, and he talked about conversion and what it takes. One thing that was cool was he talked about how "baptism by fire" is when the Holy Ghost testifies that you are forgiven of your sins. I never knew that. I couldn't really hear, so that was unfortunate,  but they flew in everyone from Maui so I got to see all my MAUI FRANS! 

Apparently this weekend there was a big swell, because the whole town was in a buzz about it. It was suppose to get around 15-20 feet high, but I think they only got around 10 feet. Today was kinda the aftermath of the big swell, but we went in the mountains and it overlooked the waves and they certainly looked BIG.

photo by bennett

It's fun here because a big problem here is that everything shuts down around 7 o clock, but were suppose to got out and work until 9.  It's hard sometimes to find work, but here we play basketball with some ward members on Wednesday night; Thursday night we play dodgeball with the youth and eat dinner and teach a lesson, and on Friday they started up volleyball with the Relief Society. They invited us to play, and let me tell you...PHEW, it's more competitive with the Sisters than dodge ball and baskteball combined! I was glad I came out alive!  On Sunday, the bishop held a folle party, or just a giant party. Some of the people here on the North Shore have A LOT of money, and bishop's family is one of them, so we went to his wife's parent's house and it was awesome. Just a lot of really awesome families came with some of my favorite youth and we just had a huge pot luck dinner. Their yard was like the size of a football field, and had big tennis court lights. So we could play in the yard after the sun went down. It was just an awesome way to relax on Sunday night! Honestly one of the best times I've had in a long long time.

In terms of missionary work, I was pretty down because on Sunday we didn't have any investigaors come to church. Actually, we don't really have very many so it wasn't a huge surprise, but during third hour of church, one of the members was like "did you see Brother so and so was at church" And I was like WHAT?! So there's this family we have been really trying to work with, and the parents are inactive, and the kids are unbaptized. They are such an amazing family, but the Dad had a lot of doubts. But he came to church! Such a surprise! And then we went over and spent 4 hours at their house on Sunday! It was awesome. Anyway, besides that, nothing too crazy happening here. We caught two baby mice here too. So sad, but had to be done! Im sorry I can't spend too long, gotta get my haircut. But I love you all! I will have more time next week!

Much Love

Elder Gleave 

Week 19 -- Happy Zaiden Day! ...first baptism!

Hello,

So it was a good week!  A lot happened this week and last week felt like FOREVER AGO. So we had transfers (all of us stayed in Waialua) and then we met up as a zone a couple times. So it was weird to see all the people I was just getting to know leave the zone. But it's cool because like three other people from my MTC group came into the zone which is fun! Especially because ELDER SELLERS WAS HERE. He's a big, tall, army guy that reminds me of a giant teddy bear. 

I've been fretting a lot about the baptism all week. Since he's like our only really solid investigator, he's kinda where our attention has been. Plus he's our first baptism. So we wanted to make it really special. He's name is Zaiden Magnani. He's so mature. He was way more mature than I was when I was baptized! It's really awesome because he wasn't like the best kid growing up.  His mom said he was a "little terror" hahaha. But now he's the nicest kid! They call him their little miracle. Everytime I see him, I can just picture him preaching the gospel as a missionary. We had everything set for the baptism, and it started at 2, so the grandma around 1:30 was like, "I'm going to go pick up the family" and left. and then it was 2 o clock and people started showing up. Then some missionaries from the zone started showing, then the bishop. And I was like "alright lets get this party started!" But there was one problem. We had the person baptizing, but no one to be baptized! WHERE WAS ZAIDEN?! I got a little nervous, becuase his mom isn't active in the church and I thought for a second she decided last minute to pull out. But then we saw them pulling into the parking lot at like 2:15! And then my mission president showed up! We had interviews that day, so I guess he decided to come! 

At my first baptism, I had the AP's, President and Sister Warner, and like half the zone hahaha. It was awesome. It was such a serene baptism. The spirit was so strong. I was on the verge of breaking into tears the whole time! The grandpa, the guy who was doing the baptism, gave such a spiritual talk! And then the grandma and the grandpa did a rendition of "I'm trying to be like Jesus" becuase the grandpa is a professional guitar player. I was seriously so close to crying!  Zaiden was so happy. I love him. I couldn't ask for a better first baptism. The next day at the confirmation, the Mom was crying and saying she felt the spirit again! It was a true miracle. It's true, Zaiden is a miracle. 

Besides that, the week was pretty normal. We gave a blessing to a member, so that was a neat experence. And we made pizza with a Filipino Catholic guy. That was fun! I love it here so much. There's no where I would rather be then here in Hawaii serving the Lord. My heart is so full of joy. Well anyway, I love you all! Thank you for everything! I keep you in my prayers! 

Much love,

Elder Gleave

--Classic Bennett picture--

Week 18: Three transfers down....14 to go!

So here's the good news-- I'm staying in Waialua!

Here's the bad news...I love it here. JUST KIDDING THAT'S GOOD NEWS!! It's weird I am three transfers down! Its a bitter-sweet feeling because I just think,  "Oh crap that went by way too fast! "I want this to slow down!",  but then I'm like, "Holy cow I still have 20 MONTHS till I get to see family again!" So it's weird.

Besides the fact that I did the splits on a skate board like 2 hours ago, I'm super good! It was kinda a weird week. Conference was a nice break from the weekly missionary grind.  It's so good to hear the counsel of the prophets! After meeting with Elder Holland and the feeling of the spiritual power and faith he possesses in person, listening to conference made everything so much more real! President Uchtdorf's talks (Saturday morning and during priesthood) were probably my favorites. He is so blunt, but he uplifts so well! I love him! It seemed like during the whole conference all that was talked about was the Atonement and repentance! Seems like the signs of times are here or at least really, really close. The Atonement is such an amazing thing! Always a special thing. Of course, I loved all the talks on missionary work! BE MISSIONARIES YA'LL. Sunday we watched at our bishop's house then clowned around on his farm for a few hours afterward! It was awesome. We chased ducks, and shot bb guns, and rode on golf carts. Bishop's wife went to BYU with Megan Bertha's mom! That was cool.

So just a pretty calm week in general. We have a baptism this week! His name is Zaiden. He's a 9 year old BALLER. He's really awesome. I bet he serves a mission. And even though he's 9, he's making a huge impact on the people around him. His mom is not into the gospel anymore, but she's really excited about the baptism! He's a really smart kid too. Completely understands all the lessons were teaching him, which is huge because I barely understood them until I came on my mission.

If you are interested in seeing some of my ward/the area I serve, look up "The Call--Nati Taluenga" That's a video filmed about our relief society president's son, who left on his mission right before I came out. All the places in the video are places I see everyday! Just a little taste of where I live. So beautiful. On Friday, we did service with a girl who got baptized a couple years ago, and her family is non members! She's a real inspiration, because she is going on a mission even though she comes from a family with non members. We cut down some rotten banana trees that smelled really bad.  I love the people here! I LOVE WAIALUA. So many amazing families. So many wonderful people, it's really hard to think about being anywhere else. I know I wouldn't trade anything that's happening for the world.

Anyway, I hope all is well at home! LOVE YOU ALL! MISS YOU!

Elder Gleave

Week 17: FAMIILY

Family!! 

Hey family! I don't have much time to write, but I just wanted to give you a short shout out. It's crazy to hear about the job thing because I was praying the other day and a thought came to my mind and it was something like, "please help my dad get a job" and I was like that's really weird because Dad has a job. But I know that you wrote me and talked about the job you were interviewing for it makes sense why that came into my mind. That's the spirit talking right there! 

I'm so happy to hear about the Broncos!!! I always try to get the score right away and I get very excited when I hear that they win! Payton is nuts. I'm wearing my Bronco's shirt right now; it's the best thing ever. LETS GO DONKS! 

So this week has been AWESOME. We are going to baptize this 9 year-old kid here in the next couple weeks. His name is Zaiden, and he's a super smart kid. His mom is pretty inactive, but we had the primary program this week (which was way funny!) and when Zaiden went up and said his part, his mom cried!! It's really fun teaching him.  His grandparents always give us food whenever we go over there and they are really nice. They own their own Taro farm. I'm so excited to see him be a part of this church! He's such a great kid.

So we've been doing that and just kinda doing the usual missionary grind. Tract alot, which is not awesome, but the blessings that come from it are awesome. At dinner we ate something called Balot. Look it up if you're interested  It's a Filipino food that's really really gross looking. It's basically, where they let the chicken grown in egg for a little bit and you crack it open and there's a little chicken fetus that you eat! So the APs came to dinner with us, and there were 6 of us at dinner. So we cracked it open, and all of us looked at each other and we were all really nervous...but we just did it. We looked at each other and we were like1...2...3...EAT. It wasn't too bad tasting, just the idea of what we were eating was really scary. 

We went to the Browns, probably my favorite family for dinner on Friday, and then he helped  Elder Horsley and me teach the Plan of Salvation on Saturday, then I saw him on church on Sunday, and then he went hiking with us today for P-day, and then we have dinner with them tomorrow!!! 5 days in a row! They always provide a spiritual uplift, and without them I don't know where I would be. They have really made a big impact on my mission so far. You can write them back by the way, they will love it! 

So I have to get going, sorry this was so short we have to teach a lesson soon. I love you all! I pray for you every night! Tell Annie she should get married in Hawaii! Thanks for the Bday package I really loved it! 

Alright familly! Love you all!

Elder Gleave 

Week 16: It's just been one of those weeks

Hey there family!

How is everything going? Heard mom made a spur of the moment trip to Italy. Not surprised. Haha just kidding....

So this has been a really weird week. It started off really good, then it got really hard, then it got really spiritual, then it ended super miraculously. Let's start from the beginning.

So on the Monday, we ate dinner with a girl who was baptized around two years ago. Her parents aren't part of the church and we had a really really good dinner. We talked all about the church, and the spirit was there, and I could tell the girl was really happy.

On Tuesday, we went over the a house where the family we've been really working with  have three unbaptized kids. We talked to them for like 2 hours which is really amazing! Apparently, they are pretty reluctant to let missionaries in so it ended up being such an amazing experience. We commited them to pray as the family, and we did it right then. I could definitely feel the spirit. I know that Heavely Father is so very happy when families come closer together in the gospel. They invited us to dinner on Thursday!

Wednesday was kinda hard. We knocked on all these door, and no one answered, and we didn't know what to do. So then we knocked on this door, and we were like "We are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have you ever talked to us before?" and then they invited us in, which never usually happens, so we were excited! Anyway, they turned out to be Born-again Christians and so we got into an hour-long bible bash. Basically, it was my first bible bash and it SUCKEDDD. 

Thursday was THE SAME THING. We ran into two people who didn't think the BOM was true. COME ON. They had stupid reasons, but still, it was really discouraging. So we decided to go to our favorite family in the ward, the Browns. He calmed me down, and he gave me a lot of reassuring advice. He doesn't know how much he helped me, but it's amazing how much one person's testimony can strengthen yours. He also gave me A LOT of advice on how to be better missionary.

Friday we went on exchanges, so it was nice to just go into someone else's area and not have to worry about my people for a day. I could just focus on helping his area.

Then on Saturday, we went to go see ELDER HOLLAND! Holy cow. Imagine an amazing talk that Elder Holland could give and that's how it was. He was passionate, he was yelling, he was crying and he was hitting the podium with his fist, except the crazy thing was that it was spiritual the minute he start talking!!! I know that he is an appostle of the Lord. I could feel it with every portion of my being. It was a feeling unlike any other I could describe. I couldn't break my focus from his speech. Oh my goodness. I love him. PLUS I SHOOK HIS HAND!!! I SHOOK ELDER HOLLAND'S HAND!!! HE'S AN APPOSTLE!!!! I was so spiritually enlighted.

On Sunday, it was a really amazing day! We set up like 6 appoinments for next week! That has to be a new record! And when we were at dinner, there was a family whose grandchild needs to be baptized. He's 9. I was asked, "Will you baptize him?" I was like ummmm....uhhhh....welll...i guess so....JUST KIDDING I WAS LIKE UMMMM YES! So we are teaching them this week! I'm so so so so excited! I can't wait!

So this week was some highs and some lows, but I know that through our dilligence we were blessed by the Lord. I know I may not be perfect, but I'm honestly doing my best and Heavenly Father blessed me. Plus my son (my companion) is doing really amazing so I am so proud of him! He's teaching me! He's a good missionary!

Anyway, all is good! Love you family!

Sincerly

Elder Gleave

Week 15: Miracles all around me.

So the past few weeks have been a major struggle. I've been under the weather, adjusting to a new companion who's new to the mission, and struggling to learn the area.  Some crazy things have been happening.

A couple weeks ago, we were riding our bike by this guy's house and I saw him raking leaves outside, but I didn't think anything of it, so I was just going to ride on by. But right when I passed him, the spirit hit me so strong and was like, "ASK HIM TO HELP" and I was like uhhh....okay? But we stopped, and he agreed that we could help him bag it, but on a different day. So finally on Saturday we got to help him. He was very happy for our help, but I thought he was going to help us while we put the leaves in the bag. But he was like, "you guys do this, while I go and clean the shower" and I was like DANGITTTT. Anyway, long story short  Elder Horsley and I cleaned the whole thing by ourselves. There was 13 bags of leaves we had to clean up! Plus they were from a mango tree, so there was rotten mango everywhere. Which also meant there was cockroaches EVERYWHERE. After we were done, we were about to leave, and he was like "let's go grab some lunch!" so he took us to go get some pizza, and he told us all about how he is a recovering from some addictions, and so we taught him about the Atonement and repentance!  He seemed super interested, so he said we could come back. 

Later that day, we were at dinner, and the members were like "hey heads up I am bringing a neighbor" and she was really really open and excited to talk about spiritual things. She was like, I need to have you guys over for dinner! and so afterward, we asked her to take the missionary lessons and she accepted! Lots of miracles are happening here in Waialua! We aren't doing anything special, just getting out there and Heavenly Father is doing the rest! I feel so blessed and so excited for the potential that is happening in this area. I can feel the Lord's hand in our work! 

Thanks for all the bday wishes and the package! I'm using the little notes all the time!! I love the basketball hoop too! We went to probably my favorite family for dinner. They made me a cake and it was awesome. We may have spent three hours there, but that's okay it was my birthday. The next day we helped them plant, and he gave me a plant I named Sylvester Stallone because he's a fighter. 

The other night, I opened our door and I saw a cane spider, which looks like a tarantula, about the size of my hand sitting on my shoes. It was pretty cool to find out that I am DEATHLY afraid of spiders. so that was fun. I went to McDonalds and saw the news and pretty much found out that the world is in the crapper. Thats really sad. I guess its signs of the times. 

I live in the beach town thats really small, so I love it! Not a whole lot of people, just really spread out. There's lots of whites out here. We are in the country, so it's really relaxed and laid back. I'm so happy here. My companion is awesome and really doing well. We have potential for 6 baptisms for the next few months so that makes me excited. 

Being a trainer makes me realize how much I don't really know. Thats okay, the Lord is strengthing me. I love it here! I love this church! Thank you for everything and annie thanks for the package! I love the Lord

Elder Gleave

ps GO DONKEYS!!!!!!!!!!!!! sounds like they are tearing it up!

Week 14: Called to surf

Hey fammmmmmm

Basically, i love it here. IT'S SO PRETTY. We live behind the church, so it's really fun to wake up and see the Lord's house right next me. We live a couple of blocks from the beach, so whenever we are on bikes, we can see the beach as we pass by! 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I'm on a bike again! It's really weird, we have like one of the largest areas in the mission, but we are on bikes...haha that's okay that's missionary work! Luckily, I'm young, I'm kinda fit, and i can loose some weight! 

It stinks cause the last two pdays, whenever i sit down to write emails, its like my mind goes blank, so I will try to remember everything important that goes on! 

There's a military base that we covered, so on Tuesday we helped a military family move in. Then we went to Pizza Bobs afterward which is a local restaurant in Haleiwa. That was awesome. It's almost as great as the name sounds.

Wednesday, we went and cleaned the USS Missouri (however you spell it) at Pearl Harbor which was super cool! We swept the boat then they showed us the hospital room in the bottom of the boat. I sometimes think how different my life would be if I lived during that time peirod. Then we got ice cream so that was like a cherry on top. 

On Thursday we had a sports night with all the youth! That was amazing. So many non- members. I love the youth in the ward.

On Friday, we went to a birthday party for a 3 year old, and there was pizza from Costco. It was on the grass next to the beach, so we got to see the sunset and everything! It was with one of my favorite families in the ward, so that was a plus.

On Saturday, a really cool Tongan gave us breakfast. He's been a little less active, so it was really awesome. Then we went to some recent convert's house, and they fed us Thai food and stake (becuase she's Thai and he's American) and it was awesome to hear how their lives changed through the gospel. Then we went to a mission call opening with a girl who is the only member of her family. That was awesome!!

Sunday was my son's birthday, so we went to all these members house and they made us cake and cupcakes. it was good. He's 19.  He's awesome and has an awesome testimony.

At night, I star gaze, becuase we can see the Milkyway from where we are. 

As for work, it's super slow, but that's okay! Things will happen sooner or later.

So that's all I got. I love you all! Happy birthday to me!

LOVE YOU FAMILY MISS YOU!

Elder Gleave

ps go broncos and cougars!

pss sorry to those people I havent emailed yet. It WILL happen!

Week 13: Under the Waialua Skies.....

Hey family!

How is everything at home? I heard about the game. WHAT A BUMMER. That's okay, it's hard to care too much when you are on a mission. Sounds like you had a good time in Virginia. I keep thinking how werid it would be coming back to here after the mission is done. 

So here's what my past week has been like. Monday and Tuesday was filled with a lot of goodbyes. We were so busy visiting member after member after member. I feel so loved here. They really treat the missionaries well! In two days we had 5 meals from members! FAMILY: FEED THE MISSIONARIES. LOVE THEM. It was so weird, Everytime I would look at something, or get on the bike, or do anything I would think, "this is the last time I am doing this..." Probably not the healthiest way to leave a place, but I was so sad. It was weird because at the beginning of three months I couldnt wait to leave but at the end of three months it felt like my home. But, I had to go. That's missionary life!

Wednesday was transfer meeting. So we woke up early to fly to Oahu! I bet we are one of the only missions to fly to our new areas. It was weird not to be a greenie at the transfer meeting. I saw all the young ones up there and it was so fun to see how nervous they were! So my new companion is named Elder Horsely. He's from Salt Lake area. He's 18 years old, so he JUST graduated high school, so he's pretty young. He's exciterd to work which is good. 

So we weren't 100% white washing. There was two Elders in the area, so we moved in too, making 4 in the ward. So we showed up at our new pad, and it didn't have beds set up...it didn't have a shower rod...it doesn't have a closet rod...basically, we were starting from ground zero. It's been really hard because we didnt have an area book, so I didn't have any idea of what's been going on. We split up the area, so I had to steal all their former and less active records out the other companionship area book. It's been really nice having them there though! They really help out a lot. We've just been going around meeting members mostly. It's just been very hard because I don't know what Im doing still, and Horsely definitely doesn't know what hes doing! So we're learning together. 

My area is BEAUTIFUL. Imagine the really nice beaches, with the really nice surf that you think of when you think of Hawaii and that's where we live. All the major surfing compititions on Oahu are held in my area!! We ARE on the north shore. It's all country too. So beautiful! Apparently in a few months there will be 30 ft waves! I can't even wrap my head around that. I feel like the ocean is going to wash the shore away!! Is that possible? I'll keep you updated.

As of now, we have one investigator. That's okay though. We will build it up! 

Well I got to go! Happy Labor day!! I hope its a good holiday!

Love you all and stay strong in the gospel! The church is true!

Elder Gleave

Week 12--Here's the Scoop-di-Loop

Okay I have some big news. I hope you are all sitting down. Are you sitting? Okay good. Here it is.

Im leaving Maui.

Yup.

So let me back track a little bit. This week has been kinda weird because usually once you are done training, you stay in the area you started and your trainer leaves.  Elder Hunter and I were CONVINCED this is what was happening. I had all these plans lined up for when my new companion arrived. We were going to visit all our investigators (which we finally have) and visit all our less actives, and I was ready to take over! So all week, I've had this mind set, and all week I've been prepping myself for taking over my area. It was hard for my companion to stay motivated because essentially it was "setting up appointments when he's not even going to be here". I didn't really understand, but he was a good sport and worked as usual. So this week was going really, really well. We finally had a few investigators who seemed interested in the church, the members were beginning to trust us, we were meeting and helping more and more people who were finally coming back to church! It was all going so well. I was letting Elder Hunter kind of call of some of the shots, because he was visiting members he wanted to see, since we assumed he was leaving. One of our favorite families was going out of town on Thursday, so we made sure HE took about a picture with them. 

So it was Friday morning, and guess what came in the mail? I yellow packet. That means I am for sure training!! I will have a new missionary to train in a place I am finally comfortable. I was already planning everything out, introducing him to all these new people, going to all our lessons with him, what I was going to do the first day; it was all going to be really amazing. I was actually excited. Later that night, I got a call. Elder Hunter hands me the phone, and he says "Mission President" (The Mission President always calls the trainers to make sure they accept). "Hello Mission President, this is Elder Gleave" "Hi Elder Gleave this is President Warner" After we exchanged some formalities, he asks "Elder Gleave, will you be willing to train a new missionary?" "Yes of course President" "Great! You will be be white wash training in Waialua." Wait, hold up. White wash? Waialua? (White washing is where you and your companion are both new to the area). This isn't right. I am suppose to stay here and work with our investigators. I couldn't tell if I was happy, sad, excited, or just plain freaked out! Everything was flashing through my head all at once. All the people we've been teaching, all the members we've eaten with, all the friends I've made; what's going to happen to them? How am I suppose to train someone who has absolutely zero idea what he's doing, in a place where I have never been, while I've only been  a missionary for 3 months. Heck, I barely know what I am doing! I didn't know what to think. My emotions were running haywire, I was struggling to comprehend it all. What began as confidence and excitement for the future, quickly became fear and stress. Fleeting self doubt was encompassing the fact that almost all my missionary inadequacies were being shoved in my face. The simplest of activities suddenly seemed impossible. I felt like I was going to throw up. Needless to say I didnt get much sleep that night.

I woke up the next morning, and everything just felt off. The whole day my mind was on what I was going to do. The whole day I just felt as if I was going to fail. Nerves were taking over my body. We found out that Elder Hunter was going to Molokai, so that means that two new elders are coming in our place. That also means that two new elders are going to try their best to not let things fall through the cracks. But what if they do? What if a person gets missed? What if they are lazy missionaries and everything we did for three months is for nothing? The stress began to build up.   All I wished is just to be home, to be where I was comfortable and away from it all. 

So I just prayed for Heavenly Father's help, to give me strength to finish the day. To calm my troubled mind. Right before church, I was reading a book about the Atonement of Christ. It talked about how Moses was instructed to lead his people out of Egypt, to run straight to the Red Sea, not knowing what was going to happen. Heavenly Father told him to go straight, and he blindly followed. Any mortal reasoning would have said go around the lake, but through Moses's faith, the water was parted. And it talked about Nephi, who had known no way of obtaining the brass plates from Laban, but he was instructed to go back, and he did with faith and the Lord produced. It also talked about the Savior. The fact that he had to endure such terrible pain, such an unfair suffering for a perfect person, that he had to have tremendous faith. He didnt want to go through it. He asked Heavenly Father to "remove this cup". But he had faith, such unwavering faith to finish the most sacred, and important act in human history. Heavenly Father needed the Atonement to be done, so our Savior went forth with unwavering faith. And that's how I needed to be. This is what I needed to hear. This was The Lord answering my prayers.

During sacrament that Sunday, I pondered on the words that were in that book. I prayed to Heavenly Father, asking in complete and totally faith to strengthen me in this calling. To go forth with unwavering faith. To give me confidence, and to calm my troubled mind. After sacrament, they called Elder Hunter and I up to the stand, and the whole ward sang "Aloha Oe" to us. It was such a sweet, sweet moment. My heart was touched. Afterwards, everyone came up to us, people I thought I barely effected, and were telling us how thankful they were that we served in their ward. People I didn't even know knew my name were so sincerely thankful for the service in their ward. It touched my heart. Fear was beginning to be replaced with love. During church, three return missionaries, including my bishop, all told me that they have no doubt in their minds that I would be fine. "Oh you? Ya I wouldn't worry about you." This was an answer to my prayers. And I felt as if I was getting better by the minute. I was finding unknown strength. Oh how the Lord knows me so very well! 

Although it was bitter-sweet to leave Kahului, I am just so very grateful I was able to serve here. Like good old Dr Seuss said, "Dont cry because its over, smile because it happened."  

I know that The Lord knows us, that He loves us with all his heart. I know His atonement can bless our lives no matter what situation we are in. Alma 7:11-12 testifies that Christ has felt every pain, temptation, sickness, and infirmity. And he can help us accordingly. Whenever we feel that we are all alone, there is always one who has been there, and that is our Savior. 

As for me? I leave Wednesday. I'm going to Oahu to meet my new son!! I have since gained a better perspective that I have 3 MONTHS to train him, so it doesn't need to be perfect right from the beginning. Im excited for what the future has in store, and I'm excited about all the new people I get to meet! and plus, Elder Holland is going to Oahu and holding a special missionary confrence on September 21st, and he wasnt going to Maui, so HOLLLLLLLLEEEERRRRRRRR!!!! I get to meet Elder Holland!!! 

Until further notice, send all mail to the mission office in Oahu. I will let you know soon of my adventures!

Aloha, 

Elder Gleave

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Week 11: First National President Warner's Maui Zone Hawaii Honolulu Mission High Water Mark Celebrity Baptism Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for Salvation

Hey fam and friends!

Everything's going well here in Mauuuuuiiiiii. We've been really really busy. Last week we set up a lot of appointments for this week...and they all fell through. EXCEPT one. We taught this kid named Sydney, and man did it go well. We were talking about past prophets (Moses, Noah, etc) and he was like "Is there prophets now?!" Why yes, thank you for asking! We do! So we taught him about the restoration, and he was very excited. He told us he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Another really neat experience: we tracted into this lady last week, and we usually try to say prayers as our tracting method here in Maui. So we asked this lady if we could say a prayer with her and she was like, "Why yes. I need a prayer. A few years ago my son died, and today's his birthday. I could use a prayer." And so we said one with her, and this week we managed to go back. When we went back, she was having a yard sale, and so we talked to her about where her son was. She told me that she knows that she is going to see him again, but we explained to her about the Spirit World, and read Alma 40. Which says that anyone who dies will be in a place where they can rest from all their worries and cares. When we read that to her, she breathed a sigh of relief. I knew she was happy to hear those words, and the spirit touched her heart. 

Unfortunately, Satan must have been working really hard because neither came to church. I was so excited to see them! I EVEN GAVE A TALK! But we must be close to experiencing success because I can feel Satan working harder and harder around me; luckily Heavenly Father is stronger.

Those two were pretty much the crowning events of the week. Besides that, I saw my fav person Rodger. Even with having no legs, and having barely any eye sight, and dying twice (literally flat lining), he's still so happy. When I go over there I don't know if I'm teaching him or he's teaching me. 

I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. It was weird because in their area they baptize a lot, probably because their ward gives them a lot of referrals, so it was a very interesting day. The zone leader I went with, Elder Orminston, is a lot like me so it was really weird going from a companion who is nothing like me, to someone who is exactly like me. It was really fun! But I spent the day in a car area (because they have one) so it was also weird riding around all day. Even though we taught more lessons, because I wasn't on the bike it felt like I wasn't doing as much work. That's one of the rewarding aspects of biking...when you come home during the day and you're all sweaty you feel super accomplished! I love my area. It's a challenge, but its way worth it. 

So this month our theme is "Baptism Awareness Month" or B.A.M., and so we went on a "fun run" like in The Office. We were raising baptism awareness haha. Anyway, it was a mile run (which I walked) around our church up in upcountry, and then we spent the rest of the day doing a slip and slide (which was soap on a tarp on a hill). So basically, it was the best P-day ever. 

And speaking of crazy events, I just went to one of the Zone Leaders baptisms, and there was a girl there that was Brooke Harper's best friend (besides me of course). So pretty weird. 

Anyway, I love you all. The church is true.

Elder Gleave

Week 10: Missions are like a box of chocolates...

First off, before I start my letter, let me apologize in advance for my lack of English grammar skills that might be on display today...I woke up at 2:45 to go to Hale Akala (again) to see the sunrise, so its been a long day and I am tiiirrrreeeeddd!

Alright, well here we go. 

Ofa Atu friends and fam! 

This week has been an interesting week. In terms of missionary work, this week hasn't been too stellar. We only taught one lesson this week, which is not the best, and we taught a couple less active people. You could say it's been a frustrating week. That's okay.  It was filled with a lot of prepping for this week. This week should go better. We have a couple lessons lined up for this week! 

If any of you are kind of wondering what missionary work is like, let me paint you a picture.  Elder Hunter and I visited this woman, and she was about to leave her house, so we asked if there was a better day we could come back, so she said "In two days. Around 4." So that was Sunday, and we got out of church at 4, so we had to hustle over there. We got a ride with one of our members, and he took us to the lady's house.  The car wasn't in the driveway, so he asked if he should wait. "yeahhh...that would be best." Well long story short she wasnt there and when we got back in the car, the guy who gave us a ride was chuckling and was like, "Reminds me of the good 'ole days." That's what a lot of my mission is like here. It can frustrating, but it is rewarding! 

We met with our mission president this week! He is a really amazing guy, and even though he just started this transfer, I know that the mission is going to florish with him leading the way with Heavenly Fathers guidance. Anyway, I expressed the struggles we are having, especially with the help from the ward, and he believes that Heavenly Father is trying to teach the ward a lesson, and I just need to be patient while they learn that lesson. Plus, Heavenly Father is trying to teach me something, so I have to pay attention to the lessons I've learned while being in this specific area. Lately its been hard to see the upside of things, especially when I hear about the missionaries that are having a lot of success. I have just decided that this area I have been given should be viewed as one big opportunity and not a large trial in my short mission life. I have deemed that a lot of the mission, and a lot of life, is dependent on the outlook you have for things. The saying "Life is what you make it" is really actually 100% true. We've all been dealt hands in life. Theres always situations we've been given in which we can't control some aspects of it, but it's all about how we react to it. Happiness is dependent on how we react to the trials, and how we rely on Heavenly Father to help us through them. The same applies to the mission. Sometimes things that happen outside of my control (missed appts, people stopping lessons, etc) but it all depends on how I view them. Well I decided I am going to view them as opportunities to better myself, and learn from them.

Besides, missionary work is so much more then getting people into the water. Part of the reason I feel I have been sent to Maui is to better the missionaries around me. For example, an Elder came with me on exchanges, and that night we talked for a long time. I helped him with some concerns, gave him some advice on how to be a better missionary, and lit some fire in his missionary burners. He just came off of having a really sucky missionary companion, so I talked to him about how we need to work hard and have no regrets when we go home. It really inspired him, and I think it helped because he and his companion worked really hard this week! Maybe I was sent here to Maui for other reasons.

Okay well I got to go, but it was fun to give you a little blurb on my life. My companion and I spent some time riding in the rain this week! So that was fun. Plus we go to a local outdoor court and challenge all these little Filipinos to basketball, so you could say Ive got it in pretty good with the Filipino ballers ages 14-17. I know, pretty cool right? 

I hope all is going well to all of you all over the world! You are in my thoughts! Love you all!

Stay fresh from Hawaii,

Elder Gleave