The cyclone

 yet another beautiful Madagascar sunset!!! 

 This is an INSANELY cute little girl named Shantal that is in our branch! She is seven years old and her sister is about 1 1/2.

 This is Allen. He is Shantal's dad and is probably the funniest person I have ever met. He is 40 years old and the other day we were at his house talking to him and all of a sudden he did a backflip! It was crazy!!! He fixes shoes for a living. His house is a little tiny shack that he just built on the side of the road one day. 

 This is a bunch of little kids in a neighborhood where we teach. They all love the white guys and always want to give us 5! It's so funny!

 I got sick of the fleas so I decided to shave my legs...

This is a rice pattie after the cyclone...

Fianarantsoa week 17

This week was fairly normal.

 Sorry I say that every week, but lately we haven't had a whole ton of new things happen! We gave out a few bap dates this week which was exciting! As of now we have 9 people that have a bap date, and we are hoping to give out a few more this week! It is the coolest thing to ask someone to be baptized and have them say yes! It lets you know that they are really willing to do this and that they are really committed to it! That has been one of the hardest things for me so far is getting people to follow through on commitments! I could get almost anyone here to let me into their house and share a message with them! And I could even get them to say they will read and pray, or come to church... But getting them to actually do it is SO hard!!! We have to take things very slow, but when we really see that desire to progress and we extend a commitment it is an exciting day! 

I went on a split with my zone leader Elder Rigby this week. He is super cool! I like him a lot! We had a way fun time and I learned a lot! We have had some really good chats and I always come away with something to think about! He also really helps me with my confidence. That has probably been my biggest trial on my mission is confidence. I have never felt like I was a good teacher. Even in english I had a hard time teaching with confidence. But as I have been here I have learned to rely on the Lord and ask Him to help me teach with power. I've also had to learn that it isn't about what I say or how I teach, but it's all dependant on the Holy Ghost. I could say everything perfect, but if the Holy Ghost isn't there bearing witness to them of the truth it is all pointless. I could even convince somebody that the church is true and they could get baptized. But if they never received a witness from the Spirit it will not last. They MUST have the spirit bear testimony of the truth. 

The Malagasy word of the week is matoky (mah-too-kee) and it means to trust. This goes along with my story about trusting in the Lord. When we put our trust in the Lord and rely on Him we can do anything! I love the scripture in Alma 26:12. Along with that I have been thinking a lot about Moses 1:39: "For this is my work and my glory; to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Those two scriptures together give me so much confidence to do this work! God's work and His glory is to help people return to Him, and that is the work I am doing! God isn't going to leave me alone to do His work! He will be here with me every step of the way! And when I have God with me I can do all things! 

Love, Elder Glazier

Fianarantsoa week 16

Hello Everyone!

 I can't believe it is already Monday again! The time goes so fast! I literally wake up and the week is over! This week was really good! We had something pretty exciting happen. We had a CYCLONE!!! We as missionaries don't hear a lot of news because we don't listen to the radio, but after about the third straight day of rain without a break we asked some  people and they said  we were in the middle of a cyclone. For those of you who don't know, that is the  same thing as a hurricane. It wasn't a very strong one, and was actually classified as a tropical storm, but it was still pretty crazy. It literally just poured rain for about 4 or 5 days straight without stopping and nobody was out and they shut down school and stuff. But those dumb vazaha (white) missionaries were just riding their bikes through the 6" deep mud and the poring rain! It was actually pretty fun! I felt like I was mountain biking! When we would get home at the end of the day I litterally would dump water out of my shoes. It was great! It was actually really nice because everyone was home so we didn't have a whole ton of lessons fall through!

Yesterday when we went to church we found out that the cyclone had totally destroyed one of the member's house and the elders quorum was going over after church to help rebuild his house, so we decided that that would be some good service we could do. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but when we got there there was a big heap of dirt that I could tell had been bricks once upon a time. I quickly found out that that was there house. We spent an hour and a half digging through the dirt trying to make a place to build the new house. Underneath all of the dirt we found a bed, a dressor (box that they put clothes in), and a little stove thing (like a small stand made of clay that they put charcoal in and a pot on top). These people's entire house had been destroyed! It was crazy! We had to leave before they started building or anything, but I'm sure they will get their house rebuilt. They had a place to sleep for now, but it wasn't in the best condition either. It was crazy to see what a rainstorm can do to a house. It really opened my eyes.

So lots of people have been asking about people we are teaching, so I'll tell you about one guy we are teaching. His name is Tojo (too-dzoo). He is about 24 and insanely good at english! We teach him in english because it is clearer to him in english because we still aren't  amazing at malagasy. His family is pretty poor and he never got to go to school, but he is  one of the smartest malagasies I have ever met! He studies for hours everyday! We have been teaching him for a few weeks now and yesterday he accepted a baptism date! We are very excited! He has been searching for happiness in his life and this (the gospel) is it! He is progressing very well and I know that if he is baptized he will be a strong member and will become a great leader in the church! He really wants to become a business man and make lots of money so  that he can support his family and help his brothers and sisters go to school! I will try to send some pictures next week!

The work here is going great, but there is still lots to do! This week we found out our branch has about 170 members and 69 of them are inactive. We are really going to try find some less actives, but it's really hard because nobody has addresses here (they don't exist) so it is  really hard to find someone's house if you don't know where it is. But we really want to get some less actives coming back to church! Other than that I don't have much news!

 Just keep remembering who you are and that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and wants to bless you! Love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Glazier 

P.S. Sorry there are no pictures, the cyber said that there is a virus on the computers that will mess up my camera if I plug it in. I'll try to send some next week! 

Fianarantsoa week 15

This week was very normal. There wasn't anything new or crazy that happened. My letter this week is going to be very short. But this week I saw God's hand in our work. We met some awesome families and the fathers want to learn. We even had a couple of them come to church this week! One family, the dad is named Kennedy came to church. He has a wife and 3 kids and seems really interrested in our message. When we went after new years and asked them their goals for the year and they said they want to come closer to God and find a place to pray so we told them that we had the truth for them and they have learned a few times since them! I have high hopes for them! Other than that nothing exciting happened this week. Sorry everyone. But I know that God is mindful of us and blesses us for our service. And when we ask for help He will help us.

I love you all and am praying for you! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Glazier

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEVAN!!!!!!! I want to give a shoutout to my brother Devan! He is going to be crazy old this week! He is an old man now! But he has been such a great example to me and I really look up to him and hope I can be as good of a husband, father, and priesthood holder as he is. Thanks for being such a great example Devan!

Holiday Pics

 sitting by the christmas tree.

                                 This is my dinner for new years! it was SO good! It's a huge zebu steak!

:

 We are all still sleeping in the family room! It's lots of fun!

These are the peolpe we baptized.

                                                              Their names are Louis and Suzane.

                               I baptized Louis and Elder Rakotoarisoa (the couple elder) baptized Suzane. 

                                                                              All of these pictures are from Ranomahafana.

Any with the marie statue. That is from the hike we went on last week.

Fianarantsoa Week 14

First off... HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! We are officially in 2015!!!

 The last 4 1/2 months have flown by! I feel like it was just last week I was climbing out of the car at the mtc saying goodbye to my family, and now I've been in Madagascar for 3 months! I love it here! I have learned and grown so much in the last 4 1/2 months! Serving a mission is amazing and there is nowhere else in the entire world where I would rather be! I have grown so much closer to my Savior and my Father in Heaven here than I could have any other way or place. I know this is where I am supposed to be! 

This week was a pretty good week. We had new years on wednesday which was pretty rough because it is just a HUGE party! They just call it fete which means party in french. EVERYBODY  just gets crazy drunk and has a huge party! So missionary work was pretty hard for about 3 or 4 days, but it's starting to get back to normal now. We didn't do too much for new years, just worked in the day time, and then went to a nice dinner, and after that we got up on our roof and looked over the city made goals for the new year and talked about life and about our missions. It was so great! I don't think I will ever forget it!

Then on saturday we had a baptism!!!  We had two of our investigators get baptized! They just got married so that they could! They are way awesome! Their names are Louis and Suzane. They have been learning for years and I finally got to be the one to harvest the seed that was planted years ago. It was a great feeling! They are amazing people! 

Then today we went to (the animal park)  ranomafana again, but we went with one of our members who was supposed to drive us down and go with us and stuff and there was some miscommunication and we ended up driving down there and then not going into the park but just hanging out at the city. It was still fun though, and just nice to get out of our area and see some new stuff! Other than that nothing new has happened. Just teaching amazing people all day everyday! Me and Elder Covey get along great and we are really starting to teach well as a companionship!

The malagasy word of the week is taonzona (town-zoo-nuh) it means goal or purpose. With the new year i thought this would be a fitting word. The new year is such a great time to reflect on our lives and see how we are doing and to make changes that are going to help us umprove! Some of my goals for this new year are to live with exact obedience to every single mission rule no matter how small or stupid it seems. And also, to teach with power and conviction and confidence. I am teaching the truth and God promises that He will be with my on my right hand and on my left if I am preaching by the spirit. That's some things that I am going to try to improve in this new year of 2015. 

Thanks for all of the support and love!

Love you all! 

Love, Elder Glazier

Fianarantsoa Week 13

Well this week was not very exciting other than CHRISTMAS!!!!! Tuesday and wednesday were pretty normal days, just teaching all day, until wednesday night we went to a really nice hotel here for Christmas eve dinner! It was way good! And then we all brought our mattresses downstairs and slept in the living room on the floor! And then Christmas day we just hung out and watched mormon movies like, "The Life of Christ" and "The Joseph Smith Story"! It was way nice! And then that night we got to Skype our families!!! It was SO GOOD!!!! I loved talking to everyone! They all looked so good! When I walked out of the cyber it was way weird to think that they were all at home having a normal Christmas, but I just had this overwhelming feeling that this is where I'm supposed to be and it was all okay! Overall Christmas was way good though! And then the rest of the week was just teaching. We met some way cool people who I'm really hoping are going to progress! They seem really interested in the gospel and I think they are going to be willing to keep their commitments! And I know if they will God will bless them to receive an answer to their prayers! That's one thing I have learned is to put complete trust in God! If people are willing to put in the effort to try to find out the truth and they do it with real intent, then there is nothing that can stop them from receiving an answer. We are promised that God WILL answer us. That is so amazing. He is literally our Father and wants to bless us with truth and happiness! I know that that is true! 

The malagasy word of the week is matoky (mah-too-kee). It means to trust. I have really been trying to put my trust in the Holy Ghost and in God this week. I realized my teaching was not very clear and I was having a really hard time, so I decided to start relying on the spirit to tell me what to say and I have already noticed a difference. Alma 26:12 talks about how we are week on our own but with God we can are strong. It is so true! He will make us so much more than we can make ourselves!

 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Glazier