Tomasina, a beautiful place

Tomasina week 23

Well this week was good.

 Absolutely nothing cool/new happened though. We have just been hitting our area really hard and trying to keep all of the progressing investigators that we have. We really want to get them all coming to church and baptized! That would be so awesome!!! But Elder Rasmussen and I are pretty bummed because transfers are next week so this will probably be our last week together. We have had so much fun together, and the dream team did work! We have been so blessed to be led to those that God has prepared to hear this message. One of our big things has been finding the elect that will help the branch and who will be ready to change their lives. It has been so amazing to see the miracles God has given us. I know that this is God's great work and He is at the head of it. Mazotoa amin'ny asan'Andriamanitra! Be diligent in God's work! have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Glazier

Hey y'all! 

Everything here is going great! Elder Rasmussen and I are having tons of fun together, and we have been blessed to see tons of miracles! 

This week we got a call from this less active family that just moved from tana and they asked us to come visit them. When we got there Elder Rasmussen knew him! He had taught them in his old area in tana. We shared a little vatsim-panahy (spiritual thought) with them, and then they told us they want to get active again. It is a couple and they have one little baby girl. They are way cool. Only the husband is a member, and they aren't legally married which causes some problems, but they want to return and hopefully want to get married. I'm way excited to teach them.

Other than that it was a pretty quiet week compared to the last few weeks. But one thing Elder Rasmussen and I have been focusing a lot on is a scripture in 3Nephi 27:27. It says, What manner of men ought ye to be? Even as I am. It is Jesus teaching the apostles in America. I love that. It's a huge commandment, but it helps you keep life in perspective. That is our ultimate goal is to become like Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

This week we had ward conference and the 2nd counselor in the mission presidency came. He is a malagasy guy. He gave an amazing talk! The theme of his talk was "Let us want/loved to obey." And i love it  in Malagasy because to love and to want to are the same word. It needs to be our desire to be obedient, and then we will love it. And it really made me think about my life and ask myself, "why do I obey?" Is it because I love my Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ and want to make them happy and be like them? Or is it because that is what is expected of me? Or is it because I'm afraid of what people will think if I don't? Or some other reason? There are a million different reasons to be obedient, and that is better than being disobedient, but we will receive even more blessing and become a changed person if we will obey for the right reason -- love. Just a little something to think about during the week! 

Have a great week! Love you all!

Love, Elder Glazier

This is me and Elder Herrin. he is the Assistant right now and this is the last time I'm going to see him. I'm going to miss him a lot! He is a great missionary and has helped me become a better missionary by his example! sorry there are no other pictures. I forgot my camera in Tana so I'll try to send some more next week.

Toamasina week 21

Hey Y'all!

 So this week was another pretty crazy week. We got basically no work done which was a huge bummer. On Tuesday Elder Rasmussen and I woke up bright and early and went to the bus stop. We started our trip up to the Capitol city Tana at about 7:30. Then for the next 8 1/2 hours we sat on a bus to get to the office. When we finally got there we just hung out with the Assistants the rest of the evening. We got to meet the zone leaders from Reunion which was cool. They don't speak any Malagasy. They pretty much are in a completely different mission. Reunion is basically France. They seemed pretty shocked by the poverty. So that was fun. Then on Wednesday we went on a split with the office elders until 6 when we went back to the office to watch the worldwide missionary training. That was the real reason we went to Tana. President asked that all of the zone leaders in the country come together to watch it. He invited all of us into his house and we stayed there watching the training until 10. Then he gave us a ride back to the Assistants house. He is an amazing man. He is so smart, and is so in tune with the spirit. I am so grateful for the chance I have to be serving the Lord here in Madagascar under his direction. He is an incredible leader. The theme of the missionary training was "Teach repentance and baptize converts." It was really good. I learned a lot about how I can be a better missionary and how to teach with the spirit. 

Then on Thursday we got invited to the zone activity one of the zones in Tana was doing. we went to this beautiful turf field just a little bit outside of Tana. I've played there once before and it's amazing! It was so much fun! 

And then on Friday we got to make the 8 hour bus ride back to Tamatave. It was a fun trip, but I was exhausted when we got back. On Saturday and Sunday we finally got to get a little bit of work in which was amazing! It's crazy how I feel like I NEED to preach the gospel! When I can't I just don't feel good and I want to go out and teach people! I know that this gospel is true and that God is our Heavenly Father! I know that the only way we can return to live with Him again is by living the gospel! Hold to the iron rod! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Glazier

Dia ahoana!!!

Well this week has been pretty full of fun and adventure.

 It all started on Thursday. We were out having a normal day and at our second time we were teaching a recent convert. She told us that the night before there had been a 13 year old girl kidnapped, held for ransom, and killed not very far from where we were and right in the middle of one of the missionary areas. We didn't think much of it because most of the people had already been caught, however that did explain all of the police/military we saw walking around with ak-47's. But we decided to call the Assistants to see if we should tell the elders working in that area to not go near there once it got dark. Elder Covey told me he was going to ask president and then call me back. About 1 minute later I get a call from a concerned Elder Covey that said, "Hey Glaze, we're going to need all of the missionaries in Tamatave to get into their houses and not come out the rest of today, tomorrow, and the next day you can leave in groups of 4 to 6 missionaries if you need to go out.

" Well that was not what I was expecting to hear... So Elder Glazier called all of the missionaries and told them to go home while Elder Rasmussen ended our lesson. We stayed home the rest of the day and found out from a few phone calls that there had been three other kidnappings/killings in the last couple weeks up here in the area. We just stayed home all day getting to know the missionaries we live with better. The next day we got up and acted like it was a normal day (got dressed and did studies like normal). At about 10 we called the Assistants to see what the news was about the lockdown and they told us we were allowed to leave our houses and do work like normal, but to be smart. And the the missionaries that work in the area where the kidnapping was couldn't work their area for a day so they went on splits.

 And that leads into the next crazy thing that happened.We got to take Elder Smithson with us. He is still being trained and is a great kid. But fun fact about Elder Smithson, he had open heart surgery 9 months ago... So while we were out working he started complaining that his chest hurt/ "felt funny". I didn't like the sound of that so we took his pulse after sitting for a good 20 or 30 minutes and it was about 105. That's really high for a resting pulse, so we made him call the mission nurse. She ended up calling the doctor in south africa, and a cardiologist in Salt Lake. They made Elder Smithson go get his blood tested to make sure he doesn't have an infection, and now he is on bedrest for 2 days and has to take like 20 pills a day. They think it is inflamation from the push-ups he has been doing lately, so needless to say he can't do push-ups anymore either. So it was a really exciting two days!

We'll end on a spiritual note. So last Sunday we had this random lady show up to church and she brought her son. Her son had all of these really painful looking sores all over his body and just looked like he was in terrible pain. He couldn't even wear pants so his mom had him in a little skirt (which she was kind enough to lift up so we could see how bad the infection was)... They sat through all of sacrament meeting, and afterwards asked our branch president to give her son a blessing. So we gave him a blessing along with the branch president and his first counselor. The spirit was there so strong and I just had this really peaceful feeling when the first counselor blessed him to be healed. They said they have tried everything and taken him to doctors and gotten him medicine, but they can't afford it anymore. I could see this sweet little lady's faith that these two humble Malagasy men and the two white guys could put their hands on her sons head and heal him. It was so cool! Then yesterday they came to church and all of the sores that were covering his whole body had become pink spots that were healing well. He was also wearing pants and looked like he wasn't in very much pain at all. I know that the priesthood is real and that if we will put our faith in God and do all that we can he will make up for the rest. I am also so greatful for the priesthood and the trust that God puts in us His imperfect children to hold it. I am so grateful that I was worthy to participate in this amazing miracle and I know that as we are worthy and try to magnify our callings and keep the commandments we can be an instrument in God's hands and he will work miracles in other's lives through us.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Glazier

Tomasina Week 19

This week was good. We took care of some sick missionaries, got all of the bikes in Tamatave fixed (9 of them), and did some real missionary work! It was great!

 And this week Solofo and Odille who I've talked about before came to church! It was awesome! We went to their house at 9 to pick them up and there he was in his shiny black button up shirt with the cuffs rolled up so you could see the white cuff with the black zebra stripes and his grey pants with a baseball hat. He looked just like a vegas black jack dealer! It was great! All 5 of us (him, his wife, their 4 year old son, and us) walked to church together! They seemed to like it a lot, and the members were all really nice to them. They are so cool, and it's so amazing to me to see how much the gospel has blessed their lives already, and to see what it will help them become! They are awesome!

I know that this gospel is true and that God loves us and knows each one of us individually. If we will do our best to be obedient and to follow God he will guide us to do and say the right things. President Foote has a quote from Elder Bednar that says, "If your trying your best to be a good boy everything will work out." That's exactly it. Just do your best to be a good boy and God will take care of everything else.

 Have a great week! Love you all!

Love, Elder Glazier