Week 33--Life of a City Boy

          Hi,

FIRST OFF, gotta give a shout out to the Brown family. Only the coolest cats on the Island of Oahu. For those who don't know, I met them on the North Shore, and we quickly became family. A very large portion of the person I am now, especially in a spiritual sense, have quite a bit to do with them. I will be forever grateful for the example they were to me. ANYWHO, the reason I'm giving them a shout out (like a shout out in Gleave's email is such a big deal anyway) is that they called me this past week and said they are moving to Misery. I mean Missouri. But this left me with a sort of bittersweet feeling. I'm sad because we won't be in the same state anymore, but I'm excited because they will be closer to Colorado and Utah when I get home. And since I am the localist of all local boys, I would like say for the Island of Oahu and the State of Hawaii, Aloha and Mohalo. You will be missed! 

Okay, well sorry I didn't write yesterday! I had a very important appointment with the big man today at the house of the Lord. That's just a semi-creative way to say I went to the temple. Anyway, so today is our P-day! So you get Tuesday Gleave instead of Monday Gleave. The temple was amazing as always! It never ceases to amaze me at how calm I feel during and after the temple. It always helps to put things in a more of a eternal view rather than a temporal view. 

It's weird, tomorrow I've been out 8 months of my mission. It's very bitter sweet. That means its only 16 more months till I get to see you guys, but also that means I have only have 16 more months. In some respects, I never want it to end. I never want to quit the mission.

There was a lot of fun things that happened this week! We went to go do service at the Battleship Missouri. We swept a section of the ship called "Broadway" because it is the longest corridor on the ship. I felt like I was an old time seaman. A part of me wishes I were alive during the Second World War. I have always been partial to that time period, and even though it was terribly devastating, I have such incredible respect for them. Actually, last week while I was writing my email, the father of my Bishop here came up to talk to me. He is in his 90's and an amazing person. He was born in Hawaii, but his parents were from Okinawa, an island off the coast of Japan. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, people became suspicious of him, and so they sent him in a concentration camp here in Hawaii. After all their hard work and desire to serve in the military, the US government decided to organize them into the army. Indeed a very incredible story.

That's the best thing about missions, just meeting the different people and hearing their stories.  People's stories that I'm not too interested in are ones about Vegan food. I went to a Vegan restaurant and it was not fun. It literally was traumatizing. Ew. No.

Our family that we've been teaching came to church this week! I can only imagine the hardship of switching from Catholic Mass everyweek to Mormon Sacrament Meeting, but you gotta do what you gotta do for the restored gospel. To fellowship with them, we went to the Bishop Museum with them. We rode there, in the Dad's own terms, "Ghetto-rigged bikes", which was fun because it was Elder Cagilaba's first time really riding a bike. When we got back he was like, "Oh Bro, my mind is like addicted to riding bikes." Haaa....okay Cagilaba. At one point I thought he had crashed but in reality his hat had just flown off and he was going back to get it. The museum featured a lot of really neat ancient Hawaiian artifacts. The dad knew all these awesome facts so it was like having your own tour guide. Fun day.

WELL GOOD NEWS IS THE DONKEYS ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL! I always try to get the score on Sunday cuz I'm so excited to hear who won, but it'

s just not the same as watching it. I wish I could see it! Sacrifices Gleave...Sacrifices...

Well anyway, I hope all is well with my various friends all over the world. I miss you all so dearly and pray for you always! Hope the Puppy Bowl is a good one this year!

Your favorite missionary,

Elder "Did he just dunk?" Gleave