Mangarivotra week 4

Akory ABY!!!! Inonoa vaovao?! Tsy dia misy aty aminay. Hey Y'all! What's new. Not much happening down here in the southern hemisphere. 

This week was great!!! Elder Bingham and I taught so many people and everyone was just so nice and accepting of the message we brought. We found a couple of way cool new families that I'm way excited to go back to and to teach again.

 But probably the biggest success we had this week was on sunday at church we had this couple come that we did not expect to be there. The husbands name is Emanuel and I'm not sure what his wife's name is. They were the very first people we tracted into here in Tamatave. My companions first door he ever knocked as a missionary!! We taught them twice that first week and they seemed pretty interested, but then the last 2 or 3 weeks we have tried to stop by probably like 7 times and they are never home and it just seemed like they were avoiding us so we kind of gave up on them and assumed they weren't interested. Then they show up to church this sunday!!! I was so shocked to see them, but I was so happy! They were the last people I expected to see there! They stayed for all three hours and at the end gave us a time we can come back to their house and visit them!

 You never know how someone is going to react when you share the gospel, but you can't be too quick to count them out. You have to give everyone a chance and be mazoto (diligent). It's too easy to get discouraged when you are sharing the gospel and it seems like someone doesn't want to hear what you have to say, but don't give up. And don't forget that it isn't you, but the Holy Ghost that is the teacher. You are only the middle man that says the words to help invite the spirit into the room. This is eternal life at stake and God will testify of the truth of this message and of His church if we will just give Him the chance. I know that's true. I have had the opportunity to see the gospel work in peoples' lives and to change them and help them know God and feel his love in their lives. Please don't ever take for granted the gospel and the easy access you have to it. There are billions of people in the world searching for joy and for the truth that you and we have. Pray for an opportunity this week to share the gospel with someone, then go out and look for one! I promise God will put someone in your path that you can share a gospel message with. Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Love, Elder Glazier
Tiako Ianareo

Tomasina - Mangarivotra week 3

Well this week is going to be short. Not much happened. We are just working hard to go through our investigators and decide who is serious about learning the gospel and who is not. That is a big problem here. Everyone is willing to let us in to share a message about God, but getting them to actually follow through on comitments is the trick. But overall the area is doing great and we have found tons of new investigators and people that we think are going to progress.

 It is still really hot here, and is only going to get hotter. We are just coming into hot season which usually lasts about November-February. So I'm getting ready to be soaked in my own sweat 24/7.

This week as many of my family and friends already know my grandma passed away. She was an amazing lady and loved by many. I am so greatful for all she has done in my life and for the great example she gave. 

I want to take a minute to bear my testimony about the plan of salvation. I know that we are all truly God's children and that He loves us and wants us to be happy. I know that this life is not the end nor the beginning, but a probationary state. We are not meant to stay as fallen mortal beings, but so much more. If we are willing to obey God's commandments and to do what he asks us we will someday become like Him: immortal beings full of glory and power. No more sin, no more sickness, no more death. That is the ultimate purpose of this life. I know that grandma young has been received into God's arms and that she is now resting from the cares of the world. I know that someday I will be able to meet her again and to give her a huge hug and tell her I love her. I know that no matter what we go through in life and no matter how alone we feel we are never alone. Christ is there every step of the way. We just have to invite him into our lives. Those are beatiful truths and if you don't yet know they are true and challenge you to ponder them and to pray to your Father in Heaven and ask Him. He will answer you. He loves you. I know that's true. Amin'ny anaran'i Jesoa Kristy, Amen.

Love you all!

Love, Elder Glazier

P.S. I would like to give a shout-out to Devan and Kristal. They had a beautiful little baby boy this week. Little Shepard James Glazier. Congrats Devan and Kristal!!! 

Mangarivotra Week 2

Manao Akory jiaby!!!!

How is everyone?!! Everything is going great here in paradise. This week was great! I am  loving the new area! Everyone here is so accepting of us and just wants us to share a message with them! We have had a lot of success getting into people's houses and have been very firm about keeping commitments and the importance of it in learning/living the gospel and we have seen great progression.

 Already in just a week we have had quite a few investigators read the pamphlet and invite us back. We also had one new investigator come to church this week which was way awesome! But the real story of the week is this guy named Armand. He is married but doesn't have any kids yet. They had a baby but it died and they haven't had any more kids yet. We met him while we were tracting and he invited us to come back a couple days later, so yesterday we went back to him and taught him. He said that he went to school to be catholic a pastor, but he couldn't do it because he just wasn't convinced. He couldn't teach people when he wasn't fully in it. He saw all of the different churches and had looked for God, but none of the churches satisfied him so he has finally kind of just given up on going to church and just prays at home. So we taught him about the apostacy and how the reason he isn't satisfied is because the other churches aren't complete. He totally agreed and said that he really wanted to find the full church but didn't know where it was. Then when we taught him about Joseph Smith the spirit was so strong and you could just see his countenance change. At the end he said he thought Joseph Smith was true and that there really is a prophet that is alive and leading the true church today. Then we told him that he could KNOW for himself that it is true if he will pray to his Father in Heaven and ask him with a sincere desire to know the truth. He agreed to pray about our message and to read the pamphlet and then invited us back again next sunday. I'm way excited to teach him and to help him find the truth he has been searching for! It was such a cool experience! 

I know that this is the Lord's work and that this gospel is true. If it wasn't true and we were expected to just convince people it wouldn't be 18 year old boys that the Lord sent to do His work. It is not us that do anything when it comes to the gospel. We are only tools for God to complete His work. If you have some spare time read Alma 26.

 Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Glazier

Star Fruit

 So this guy is named M'Zafimbelo. He has been learning from the missionaries for like 2 or 3 months and knows that it is true, but his wife just died a couple months ago so he is moving to the country with his kids. That is great, but the only problem is that the church isn't in that part of the country yet so now he isn't going to be able to learn from the missionaries or go to church or anything. Never take for granted how easy you have it! We have been blessed with so many amazing opportunities

Tomasina pics

People ride around town in these carts called Pous -Pous {Poos-Poos}

 Dont forget to Look both ways!

Me and my new Companion Elder Bingham

A cool little road in Toamasina

 This is a little kid playing with the coolest toy ever! It's a bike tire and they run behind it with a plastic bottle! .

All the kids have them
Some of the cutest little kids in the world

P-day.  Me and Elder Bingham in a Pouspous (poos-poos). it's like a bike with a little basket thing on the back. They have them all over the place here!

TOMASINA = Heaven

Tamatave also called Tomasina

So as all of you who read my blog last week know, I got transfered this week. So all of the crazyness started on wednesday morning. I woke up and got in personal study and a little bit of comp study, and then we took all of my bags and went and got a taxi to go to the office. I dropped off Elder Monsen with his new companion, and said goodbye to my baby boy (when you train they call your trainee your son). Then all day wednesday I was on a split with Elder Evans from my mtc group. It was way fun to get to work with him for a day. Then that night we went and slept at the Assistants' house. There were so many missionaries there! All of the trainers and all of the trainees were there so we had about 30 missionaries all in one house. It was so much fun!!! We got to meet all of the new missionaries, but we still didn't know who our companion was going to be. Then on Thursday we woke up early and had new missionary/trainer orientation and stuff.

 In that process the mission president's wife fed us breakfast and lunch which was SO good! Then at the very end they bring us all into the chapel and call the new missionaries up one by one and let them open their "mission call". They have a little mission call that they type up that says where they will be working and who their companion will be. It's really fun. So my new companion is named Elder Bingham! He is way cool! He's from Hooper Utah and just barely graduated high school. He seems super ready to work and way excited to be here. He played basketball and baseball in high school, but he's pretty short. About my height.

So after we got our companions at about 3 O'clock on thursday they take us to the bus stop to get a bus up to Toamasina. It's about a 8-9 hour drive which meant we were going to get here at about 11 or 12 and have to have some elders that were alread here come pick us up. But when we get to the bus stop the next bus doesn't leave until 6:30 so we just decided to wait for it and go that night and get the ride out of the way. I was thinking that I could just sleep the whole bus ride here and there wouldn't be any problem... yeah, I was wrong. It has to be the most curvey road on this planet. And the fact that we were in a huge bus did not mean that we took the curves slow. So I tried to sleep and almost fell out of my chair about 30 times. haha But we finally pulled into Toamasina at about 3:30 in the morning on friday. We had to call Elder Johnson and his companion to come pick us up and help us get to the house. That's about all I remember of that night. I was pretty out of it.

 

Elder Bingham and I are white-washing which means that neither of us has ever worked in this area so we don't know anyone or anything. So for the last three days we have just tracted and contacted a ton and tried to build some kind of a program. I am so excited to be here! People are so nice and almost every single door we knock on we get invited in! The trick is finding people that are genuinely interested and want to change. But this city is paradise. When i started walking around I literally thought I was in california. yes, there are still small shacks with tin roofs, but there are palm trees everywhere and the whole city has the clean fresh breeze coming off of the ocean. Yeah, that's right. I said the ocean. We live like a 5 minute bike ride away from the ocean! We went and walked on the beach on saturday night and it brought back so many memories of california beaches. But I'm so so excited to be here and to help these people come to a knowledge of the true church and to help them feel God's love for them. I hope everyone has a great week! 

Love you all!!!

Love, Elder Glazier

These are some of the people I will miss when I am transferred to my next area