EVERYONE.
I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.
I TRY TO, BUT I CANT.
IT'S 2015!!!!!
What a great way to start the new year. I'm on my mission. My best buddy just got married to his dream girl, and I'm in Hawaii. All is good on my end of the boat.
First off, I am feeling a little bit under the weather, mostly just really tired, so if this letter doesn't make sense, please forgive me.
But first off I would like to congratulate my brother Will on his marriage! You looked so happy in the pictures, and I know that this will the best decision you've ever made. Getting married in the temple is important. I want to be with you guys forever!!! I'm sad I missed it, but I'm happy that you're happy. Plus you both looked super good!!
Well New Year's was both fun and exhausting! On New Year's Eve we were allowed to watch Despicable Me 2, which is probably one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. But that's not saying much. I couldn't tell if it's because we haven't watched movies in forever, or if we we all were slap happy, but the whole zone was literally slap happy! Unfortunately, we had to leave back to our house by 9:30, so we didn't get to celebrate together. The rest of the night was kinda lame. My companion was pretty sick so he was virtually incapacitated in his bed, so I just hung outside and watched soso fireworks and our drunk neighbors make fools of themselves. I did a silent HAPPY NEW YEAR in my brain when it hit midnight.
New Year's Day, we started by going on a hike to a water fall. It was a good adventure, lots of mud, lots of water splashing, lots of fun. Then we ate lunch at a member's house, and headed back to the zone to literally spend the REST of the day playing soccer, capture the flag, and basketball. I could barely walk the next day I was so sore.
But overall it was a great new years. And a great year. I remember last year being so excited that a WHOLE year was dedicated to missionary work. Like every single second. And it was a very sobering feeling knowing that that year was over. I look back and realize how amazing that year was. Easily the greatest, and hardest year of my life. I am thankful I had the opportunity to be on a mission, to be serving the Lord this year.
I was on exchanges with the Elder who is pretty newish and he's had a hard time getting out and working hard,, and so it was my goal that we were going to work as hard as possible no matter what. Well we were at dinner, and I was just falling apart. I was so exhausted for some reason, and I could barely even think. I was trying to give the dinner message, a I'm not even sure if I were speaking English. Well, we ended around 8 and I was thinking about just calling it a night and switching back, which I had every justifiable reason to do so. But the spirit was like, "Just visit one last person." And I was like "Are you sure?" And he was like, "Yeah, I'm good with these types of things." So we went to go visit NJ, who is virtually ALWAYS home, and when we drove up, HE WASNT. I was thinking, "Great. Glad I came." And then the Elder I was with was like, "Oh! We gave a blessing to a non-member around here! Let's go check up on her!" And so we went in and taught a very spiritual Restoration lesson. She was so prepared to receive us, that she was reading a book that was describing practically the apostasy. It was nothing short of a miracle.
Well, got to go! Love you all! Happy New Year!
Elder Gleave
December 30, 2014
Happy Hollidays family!
I hope everyone's Christmas was great. I know mine was spectacular! I think this might have been my favorite Christmas yet. I will give you an update.
6:00am Head pops off the pillow and both me and my comp simultaneously yell "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" Then we read a scripture and opened presents.
9:00am--Went for the first round of food at the Castle's house. We ate some really good waffles, then they let us skype with the family! It was so good to see all of you by the way. It feels weird that there is only one more skyping sesh left. We walked back downstairs after skyping, and the whole family was like, "you guys are still here?" Guess we're pretty sneaky.
12:00pm--Went to the Wachter's house for lunch. Ate a bunch of pupus. (pronounced poo-poos) (it's Hawaiian for appetizers) Then we watched him play with his remake vintage Atari game. It had like 90 something of the old games like centipede and Pong.
3:00pm--We dropped some cup cakes off to a few of our investigators and wished them Merry Christmas.
4:00pm--Dropped by the Sudas, who is pretty much like our family out here, and they fed us some food. Then we watched as they opened up presents! So fun!!
5:00pm--Went to the Hernandez house for some more food! They were having a little party and so we had a good opportunity to talk to this guy from Haiti. It was a neat conversation.
7:00pm--We finished the night by watching Frozen! It was such a good movie!!
All in all, it was a really amazing Christmas. Unlike last year, we practically spent the whole day visiting members, and it really made things great. To see so many people that we've grown to love and all of them really felt like family. It made being away from home feel like I was a little more at home.
We were really happy we were able to drop off those cupcakes. One of the people we dropped them off too is this kid named NJ. He doesn't have too many friends, and his Mom doesn't make too much money, so he didn't get too much for Christmas. He's grown to be like our little brother, and so we visited him the next day, he was really excited to see us. I know it was only cupcakes, but in a way, I was glad that we were able to show him that somebody was thinking of him on Christmas Day. Especially since his Mom's boyfriend, who had been like a father figure to him for the past three years, just bailed on Christmas Eve and didn't come back. It really felt like a true Christmas.
This morning, two of the Suda girls left to go on their missions. When I got here, they were still considering the possibility of serving a mission. They were working on their papers, but they hadn't put them in yet. Well a few weeks ago, they surprised us by saying they had put them in! And guess where one of them is going! Baltimore, Maryland. So Anna, best be on the look out for a Sister Suda. But they left today, and so we went over there last night and played a few games, took some pictures, and then wished them good luck. It literally felt like my sisters were leaving. But it's so cool, because the whole family are converts, and now the girls are going out into the world to change lives, just like theirs was changed. They bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting about how much they grew and changed into better people because of the gospel.
The gospel is so good. It's so true. When we act upon the principles found in the gospel, things will always go right. We will never be led astray!
I love you so much! And before I finish, Will and Tess, I hope you have a beautiful wedding. I hope it's everything you wanted. I love both of you, and know that you guys are making the right choice to marry in the temple for all eternity. I will keep you in my prayers.
Happy New Year's to you all!
Elder Gleave
December 23, 2014
MERRY CHRISTMASSSS....
IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE, IT'S HERE!
Well almost. Happy Christmas Eve Eve everybody!
I hope that your Christmas season is everything everyone imagined it to be.
Not too much exciting happened this week, we didn't have a car all week because it was in the shop, so we were walking everywhere. Luckily, we live pretty far outside of area and what's even better is that on Thursday night none of the missionaries could give us a ride home so we were trucking on foot. We had gotten about an hour into our two hour trek home, and about the time, we swore we'd never take for granted our car, acted out what the pioneers in the spirit world were probably saying about us complaining about walking, and right when our hopes of ever making it home were dashed, some members drove by and picked us up. They looked a little baffled when we told them where we had just came from and said, "You realize that you have an ENTIRE ward who would give you a ride, right?" And then we felt a little silly.
So I have to keep this short, but I will talk to you all in a few days anyway, I just want to show you this beautiful picture.
We had dinner with this Recent Convert and we were teaching about Lehi's dream, and I was getting into the lesson when I look over and this was happening. MY COMPANION IS PLAYING WITH BARBIES. haha it was awesome.
We had dinner with this Recent Convert and we were teaching about Lehi's dream, and I was getting into the lesson when I look over and this was happening. MY COMPANION IS PLAYING WITH BARBIES. haha it was awesome.
Anyway, I love you all! Merry Christmas!
Elder Gleave
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