Week 58--Everybody just CALM DOWN

Hey guys.

You know what they say, "Another Day, Another Dolla." 

More like, "Another week, another peak" Just each is a new best of my life.

No, wait more like, "Another week, another tweak." Gotta get those drugs! Wait, no. bad.

Okay, here, "Another week, another cheek...to kiss." Ding ding ding! Got a winner! Jk I don't talk to girls. But seriously! The weeks go by way too fast here on the mission. It feels like just yesterday I was ending my last emailing session now here I am again. It makes me concerned that my mission is going by right before my eyes. 

It was a weird week in terms of missionary work. 1st, my sugamama Jean, the 83 year lady we're teaching, got sick, so we couldn't see her. 2nd, our most progressing investigator, Heather, went into the hospital to give birth to twinzy boys! So she was out of the question. And the part-member family, the Quemados, who we're working with had to cancel because they are prepping for their daughters' hula comp. So we were worried that we would have no one to visit. But we finally got into contact with this guy who we've been trying to teach for a while, and we met up with him. His name is Jeffery. He grew up in the Bronx, and has had a rough life, so we taught him about the Plan of Salvation, and he loved it! It gave him meaning to his life. So that was really promising. The cool thing is, as he began to read more and more, and meet with us, his life is starting to fall into order. 

But everything was pretty normal and what not until I was at church on Sunday, and I was ushering for sacrament meeting, and I turned and saw the Quemados at church! I haven't seen them there the whole six months we've been here! Me and my comp were so happy. So we went and talked to him, and he said he had to leave after the 1st hour to make hula skirts out of tea leaves for his daughters hula' compition. So we offered our help, and he told us he would pick us up after church. So we were waiting by a Foodland for him to pick us up, and me and my comp were talking about how it looks bad that we are in front of a store on Sunday, and then the Dad pulls up. And he's not a member, so he doesn't know about keeping the Sabbath day holy, and so he looks at us and tells us to follow him. Then he goes inside Foodland! And we didn't want to be rude, so we followed. And so here we have two missionaries in a grocery store on Sunday. Just a bad scene. I look at my companion and say, "As long as no members see us." Right then, a member walks in and was like, "Oh hi Elders! What are you doing here?" But it was a weird moment where we both knew that we both shouldn't be there, but we didnt want to say anything, so we had a mutual unspoken agreement not to talk about it. Anyway, after the Foodland escapade, we went up to help make hula skirts. That was neat. I felt pretty Hawaiian. All in all, the family is really starting to warm up to us! 

So things are going great. I love raw fish. and I love you guys. Oh and btw the name of the email comes from  service we did this week. I was putting together a sand box when the little 2 year old runs up to me and looks me stern in the eye and says, "Just calm down, alright? Everything is going to be all right!" Then turns and walks away as he moons me with his two year old sandy-butt cheeks. 

Tropical Regards,

Elder "They see me rollin', they hatin'" Gleave

1) The sky was SUPER pretty this week

2) I was yelling "TAKE THE PICTURE TAKE THE PICTURE!" but it was burning my fingers so I dropped it. Thats when he snapped this little guy.

3) This is my companion. We were throwing the rugby ball around. 

Week 57--Happy Birthday America

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY YA'LL

I love this country. Merica. Good news Mom, I didn't blow off my thumbs! They're still here and I'm still giving people thumbs up and shakas. For 4th of July we went up a hill and played some volleyball then watched the firework shows along the coast. It was super fun! Too bad my camera was dead, I didn't get any pictures. But that's okay. My inner pyro was going nuts. All I wanted to do was jump over fountains and shoot bottle rockets at one other. 

But I hope your 4th was a good one! This week has been quite the week. First off, one of my bestest buddies in the whole wide world, Elder Humpherys, punched in his two years and took a one way trip to Utah. This was on Wednesday. That was an emotional day! We spent the whole day trying to run around and visit people before he left, so that was hectic, and I could just imagine what was going through his head. "This is the last time I will do this." Anyway, we ended the day by driving him into the airport with the sun setting behind the Honolulu skyline while were singing our hearts out. It was the perfect ending to an amazing missionary's mission. I miss him a ton. I literally spent 5 months, 24 hours a day with him. Thats over 3,000 hours! You ether learn to love someone or learn to hate them when you've been together that long. Fortunately, I loved that guy like a brother. After that we drove the coast and watched his plane fly out of Hawaii onto his new life. 

So that was pretty big. Plus we were meeting with this lady who really wants to get baptized. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she texted us later how much she really appreciated everything and was excited to be a part of something more. She's super amazing. She is preggers with two twins boys, and she came to church on Sunday and was like, "I think I am only going to stay one hour today. I am suppose to give birth today or tomorrow." And I was like, uhhhhh yeah. You should probably go rest. So she should be popping out two little boys here soon, and after that we are going to baptize her to help her change her life around. 

So, just on another note there is currently an old Chinese women who feel asleep next to me and is snoring like a sailor. Quite amusing.

Also, we are teaching this old 83 year-old lady who came to church for the first time. She's super nice and sometimes takes us out to dinner at Ruby Tuesdays. Anyway, she walked in and she sat next to me and loved sacrament meeting! She was so excited and left saying, "Im glad I have a place to go on Sundays now!" She's super awesome and has a lot of energy for an 83 year old. I hope I can be like her some day.

Any whoooo, great week. America's birthday week. Love you all. Love America. 

love, 

Firework King Gleave

Bennett burning a tie (Mormon missionary tradition!).

Week 56--Happy Birthday America!

Hey yalls. Happy 4th of July. 

Well not yet. But happy birth week america! Good job on being the best dang country on this here God's green earth. 

Things this week were a little hectic. Humpherys is going home on Wednesday. I dont think the reality of it has really hit me yet. I mean one my bestest of buddys who I've literally spent 5 months, 24 hours a day with is leaving me. I can already tell I am going to be sad, but he will be moving on with his life. I am excited to see where his life takes him! He is going to Mesa State, so family you better treat him right! The good news is my new companion is awesome. We've had some good times so far. He's from Utah, he's half Tongan, part Japanese, part chuukese. He's a really funny kid. I know I am going to enjoy it with him. 

Quote of the week: "I am happy I can share the gospel through my music."

That was said by Natalie Kamauu, a wonderful sister in our ward who is a very famous Hawaiian Singer. Her and her husband tour around Japan almost all year long. Since it was Elder Humpherys last dinner at their house, they decided to send him a going away present by singing him a few songs. It was simply amazing! What was really the amazing part, was all of her song lyrics had a deeper meaning than most songs. Always spiritual, and always family oriented. But it made me think about how unique will all are. How Heavenly Father makes us all different, each one of us. And he gives us these talents so we can help each other spiritually progress. I am sure glad that he did that. It would be a really boring world if we didn't have unique differences. 

Life lesson of the week: Part of living the gospel is viewing life different than you normally would.

This week we had got a referal for a lady who is pregnant with twins. She told us she is interested in our church and coming closer to Heavenly Father. Well she came to church this Sunday, and it was a train wreck. During the gospel principles class there was a member bible bashing with the teacher, and the third hour was a combined on emergency preparedness taught by an 80 year old who's life revolves around EP. Not the most spiritual of first Sundays. I was really worried that it went poorly, so I apologized saying, "I'm really sorry! It's not usually like this!" And she just chuckled and said, "Don't worry, I think it's funny!" Well I am glad she is viewing it in the right way.  I think Heavenly Father played a role in that. 

Well I love you all. I'm sorry if I don't personally get to email you. The volunteer librarian is either giving me the "I want to meet you in the back of the of the library for some one on one time" look or the "get the heck out of my library before I smack you on the head with all 22 volumes of 'World Book'". So I should probably get going! But love you! Should be getting Ipads this month.

Much love,

Elder "Top Gun" Gleave

Week 55--Last Saturday Night

Hey family! 

Sorry I didn't write yesterday! Yesterday, I spent the whole day at the Polynesian Cultural Center and we didn't have an opportunity to email.

 

Speaking of which, the PCC is awesome! Lots of Polynesians, which is to be expected. I mostly sat by the Samoan Village and ate the free samples they were giving out. There's a big river that runs down the middle of the PCC, and they had a big show where each village had dancers that would dance on a canoe. The Tahitian dancers are my favorite, but the Fijians were the funniest. We were taking a canoe tour, and he was like, "Look right. Now left. Now forword. Now backward. These are all of your emergency exits. If the canoe goes down, just walk to the shore. And if you don't laugh at my jokes, that might just happen. So start laughing." The way they would talk reminded me of Elder Cagilaba. In the Tongan show, this guy visiting from Korea was chosen from the crowd to come on stage. He was super funny. He barely knew English, and was just getting hyped up and yelling really loud. It was a great day.

 

I guess the biggest news is that since Elder Humpherys goes home next week, I got a new companion. His name is Elder Kichiro. He's Tongan, Chuukese, and Japanese. So we are in a three-person companionship, or as I like to call it, a tripanionship. He's a really funny guy, so with all three of us, there is no dull moment.

 

Everything was pretty normal this week, until we got put into a cop car on Sunday night. What happened was this: We were sitting on our balcony Sunday night, when we looked next to a dumpster and there was a phone sitting next to it. So we went down stairs and grabbed it, thinking that someone left it there. We looked at the phone records, nothing. No texts, no calls, nothing. And the phone didn't have service. So after we played on their Fortune Cookie app for a second, we found "MOM" in the contacts and called. Then she gave us her daughter's number. So we called and she was like, "Oh my goodness! Thank you so much! That's was stolen WEEKS ago and I've been looking for it. Can we meet at Foodland and you can give it back to me?" So it was like 9:35 at night, and we are sitting at the Foodland parking lot waiting for this lady. And this cop pulls up and asks us if we were the ones with the phone. "Yesss...." "Great I'm her brother." So he took down our names and asked us what our address was and we were like, "Uhhh...we dunno..." And looked at us like we were little off in the head. And so he told us he would  give us a ride home. Then the sister showed up and looked through the pictures and get this: THE BAD GUY TOOK PICTURES OF HIMSELF ON HER PHONE! We look at the phone and realize ITS OUR NEIGHBOR!! Whaat. So we jumped into the cop car, and he was taking us home and told us that the people who stole the phone stole it while they were robbing his house, and they've been looking for them ever since. WE JUST SOLVED A BURGALR. Neighborhood watch is for real.

 

So all in all, a pretty normal week. Love you all. Take care now.

Elder Gleave

1) the cop getting into his car after dropping us off