Christmas!!!!

Well this week was great! It was Christmas so I got to talk to my family! They are all doing great and it was so fun to see them all! I can't believe how big all of my niblings (nieces and nephews) are! I finally got to meet my three new nephews! They are all so cute! I am so greatful for my family! They are so awesome and I wouldn't trade them for anything. They have been such a big support to me on my mission and I love knowing that they are all cheering me on and supporting me. Being a missionary is so great, especially during this Christmas season. What better way to celebrate Christ and His birth and life than by sharing with the world my testimony and the things I know about Him. I know that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and that only through Him and because of Him can we receive eternal life and return to live with our Father in Heaven and our families. Only because of Him can we receive forgiveness of our sins and our shortcomings, only because of Him can we progress and change in this life. I know He lives and loves all of us. 

Have a great week! I love you all!

Love, Elder Glazier

P.S. Cool story of the week: So we have this couple that is learning from us that just accepted a baptismal date this week and seems like they are ready to change their lives. Their names are Solofo and Odille. We met him about two weeks ago. His wife had left him earlier that day and taken their one son with her to go live her parents. He had also lost his job just a few weeks earlier. He was devastated. He invited us in and we just talked all about how God loves us and wants us to return to live with Him, and how He wants us to be happy here on Earth. The spirit was there so strong and he invited us back. For the next 2 lessons we taught him by himself and he loved what we were teaching him and was slowly improving and keeping his commitments, but he was still concerned about the situation with his wife and if he was going to be able to pay the rent on his house. When we came back the next time his wife was there and learned with us and he told us he had been blessed to find the money for rent. It was a little miracle God had given him. Now they are learning together and this week we taught them about the Plan of Salvation and they both said they want to be together forever. They loved the plan and said they want to get baptized and go to the temple. We told them it isn't going to be an easy path but they can do it. They still have a ways to come before their baptism (stop smoking and drinking, and get legally married) but they have a desire to do it, and I know that if they will keep working hard they will reach their goal to get baptized! This is God's work and He is leading us to those that are ready to act.

P.P.S. This week we get transfer news... that means we will find out if the dream team gets to stay together or if we get split up. I will let you know next week.


Elder Rasmussen and I decided we needed a spa day so we got some epsom salts and took a 45 minute foot bath while we read through our journals!

christmas eve dinner...

Our district went to a way nice Christmas eve dinner! It was delicious!!!

christmas eve dinner..

This week we had some members "baptize" us. that just meant that they turned all the lights off and rubbed charcoal all over our faces! haha

We usually buy our meat at a place like this... looks nice and clean!!

Yes... this is a selfie of me skyping my family. Love Y'all!

This is our zone's white Elephant exchange that we did on Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas from your favorite missionaries Ever! Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!

Because we sure are!

Merry Christmas from Madagascar!

Elder Glazier and Elder Rasmussen

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

 I hope that this email finds you all doing well. As you can tell, some of us are a little excited about CHRISTMAS! 

Because CHRISTMAS is this week. But this week was good.

 Elder Rasmussen and I had to do a lot of taking care of missionaries and stuff, but that's okay. We got a missionary up here that started in South Africa but then got sent here to do the rest of his mission. He is from here. His name is Elder Randrianavalona. Our zone is doing great! We have a bunch of new missionaries here that are all doing great! We are all getting ready for CHRISTMAS and of course, skyping home!!! I am soooo excited to get to talk to my family! It's going to be great! But to be honest, not a whole ton happenned this week. Elder Rasmussen and I took some more way bogosy (good looking) pictures. And yes, sent out a Christmas email. it went something like this...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

Sunrise on the beach

:Sunrise on the beach

Beach soccer with the zone

 Gotta love the beach in the morning!!!

                                                                          Cows on the beach!!!

BEST WEEK EVER!!!!!!!!!

So this week as you can tell by the title was the best week ever!!!

 Elder Rasmussen and I spent all last week tracting and trying to figure out who of our investigators was serious and who wasn't. That set us up beautifully for this week. We had at least ten times planned every single day! Now you can guarantee that at least a few won't be there so we put them every 30 minutes. Then, we went to work!!! And that was exactly what we did. We killed it this week! We had more that 15 more lessons that a normal week and tons of families we taught! We have found so many way cool new families this week and we're way hopeful that a lot of them are going to progress!

 

Then, to add to our already way awesome week, the Assistants were down here all week (monday-sunday) with two other really good missionaries doing this thing they called the "swat team." Basically just 4 really good missionaries coming and visiting a city and going on tons of splits all week and helping all of the elders get tons of cool new families and work extra hard! And guess what, it worked. That was exactly what our zone needed. We have really been trying to get a fire under the missionaries up here and get a sense of urgency about the work and that was exactly what this week did. All of the missionaries are so excited about the work now, and we are going to try to keep that and to have our stats be just as good again this week! If we can keep that fire here we are going to be able to reach our goal of having a stake here in Tamatave by the end of 2016!

 

While the "swat team" was here we went and played soccer on the beach two mornings before studies which was way fun and a great bonding activity for the zone. We have an awesome zone up here full of awesome elders and we are really excited to see what miracles are going to happen the next few weeks and months! 

I still can't stand my companion. We fight all the time and I keep telling the president I need an emergency transfer, but for some reason he keeps telling me that we need to learn to get along like we're long time friends. I think he's crazy because I will never be able to understand Elder Rasmussen. We are totally different people... Not! We are still loving working together, and are praying to get to stay together for another transfer! I think if we can keep doing well like we did this week and get the zone doing well president will want to keep us together and we can have another transfer to kill it! 

Another cool experience I had this week was on sunday we walked into church and the branch president comes over to us and says, "hey missionaries... the person giving the first talk isn't here, do you think you could give a little talk?" Uhh... so that's in like 5 minutes?? sure. why not. So Elder Glazier now has about 20 minutes (including taking the sacrament) to decide what to talk about and plan a little talk. I ended up talking about sacrifice and how we are expected to give up absolutely everything to God. He doesn't just want an 80% effort, or 80% of our time and talents... He wants it ALL!!! That's a tough thing. We're human and that means we're selfish and want to do our will, but the only way to return to God is to align your will with His. My talk went well and I wasn't even that scared. I felt like I talked for like 3 minutes and when I sat down Elder Rasmussen told me it was a 10 minute talk! I never would have been able to do that before my mission! I struggled to write a 5 minute talk before.

I know that this is God's work and he is at the head of it. If we will be exactly obedient and give everything up to the Lord He will guide us. Elder Rasmussen and I have a companionship quote that says, "The Lord will guide your footsteps if you are willing to move your feet." That's so true! Move your feet and God will take you where He wants you to go and make you into what he wants you to be! Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Glazier

This is the dream team when they get locked out of the house... 

This is Elder Monsen coming to save us and bring us a key!

Andranomadio Week 2

Dia ahoana ny Fianakaviako?!

Hey everyone! This was a great week! Elder Rasmussen and I killed it up here in Tamatave! 

The week started out a little rough because we missed all of our appointments we had set up for last week so we spent some time going around trying to set up new programs with everyone we had missed. That meant most of them couldn't learn right when we got there because we came unexpectedly, but we got a lot of times set up again and our program is starting to look good.

 We have also started to have a regular meeting with the district president (like stake president) to talk about how the missionaries here can work better with the members to help the district progress. We are really pushing hard to turn this district into a stake because then the members don't have to meet with the mission president to go on a mission or to get temple recommends. That would be a huge blessing for the members here! 

We also have the AP's (Assistants to the President) coming up tonight which should be good! We are really trying to get the missionaries excited about the work and excited to turn this into a stake and we're hoping the AP's can help. 

My companion and I are really struggling to get along. We just have absolutely nothing in common. He is like 6'6" tall and I'm short, he has red hair, I have brown, he's from American Fork and I'm from... oh wait, American Fork! So really we have absolutely everything in common! We are loving being companions and working way hard together! It's going to be a great transfer (6 weeks) and hopefully 2(12 weeks)!

 But not too much has happened since last week. Just getting ready for the Christmas season by doing missionary work! I love the fact that I get to give up absolutely everything to God and not think about myself at all or anything I want.

 Being a missionary has blessed my life so much and I have learned what it really means to love a stranger and to love a friend. I know that this is God's work and He is at the head of it. His goal for all of us is to bring us immortality and eternal life. That means that if that is our goal He will help us get there! Trust in God and His commandments. Put him to the test! D&C 82:10 "I the Lord am bound when you do what I say, but when you do not what I say ye have no promise." God WILL bless us if we will follow His commandments. Give it a shot. Pick one thing that you struggle with and change. See if God comes through on His promises. I know he does and you can know too!

 Have a great week!

Love, Elder Glazier