Wednesday, August 31, 2011

P-day in down town DC


Elder Gleed & Elder Croft


First Baptism


Well hello!
Just to start off with your questions: I can go buy a pillow and a camera case but I will need money. Were pretty much flat broke out here. Ive eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches pretty much everyday this week ha but its all good.
So how is everyone doing? Schools started now right? Hows that going for everyone? That's cool that Braden got Mr. Amendola, he is one of my favorite teachers, he will like him! By the way my address book was in that backpack that was lost so I don't have any ones addresses anymore. ha So if you would like to get me some that would be awesome!
Well, Francisco was baptized! It was pretty awesome to see! And he has already come with us to some teaching appointments because he wants to be a missionary. We took some pictures so I will try to send them. Francisco asked me to give the talk about the Holy Ghost for his baptism. It was good I think for the most part. I did it all in Spanish without any notes! In front of a pretty good sized group. So hopefully you can say Spanish is getting a teeny bit better. That was the highlight of our week though! Other than that its just good ole missionary work. We have had some pretty sweet experiences as well with some pretty weird or discouraging ones. For example Elder Croft and I were called Satan 2 days ago. We decided to talk to this one lady that was sitting on her porch and at first it was looking like it was going to be a pretty good contact, well it went down hill super fast. She started talking about how great she was and it was almost like she wasn't even listening to us or anything we were saying. And then out of no where she started calling us Satan so we just decided to leave. Interesting people out here! Well the hurricane wasn't too bad. At least not around our apartment. There were some areas that were hit pretty bad. We were driving and we saw this car with a huge tree branch on top of it. The windshield was shattered and the car was pretty dented, it was sad. And then we have been helping this family who house got torn up pretty bad. Trees fell over and tore down the power lines and started a fire. So we have been cutting up the wood for them and sharing the gospel at the same time, multi-tasking, got to love it! We have a couple people in our teaching pool that we think we can get baptized if we work hard enough. There is this family, la familia Paz, and everyone is a member and goes to church, except for the dad. But were going to take them to the Visitor center and have a sweet lesson about the Plan of Salvation so hopefully he will see the importance of baptism and eternal families! I am definitely learning alot out here, especially during personal study. I wish we had a full day of personal study sometimes ha. I have read so many general conference talks its ridiculous but I love them! One of the coolest things Ive been learning about the gospel is how simple and straight forward it is. There are no areas in the gospel that don't make sense or that we can slack off on. Its perfect! One of the things Ive been working on having is charity. And i found this sweet quote during one of my study's. "How we relate and interact with each other is a measure of our willingness to follow Jesus Christ." It just shows how important Charity is and loving everyone no matter who they are because we are all Heavenly Fathers children. Even when people call you Satan you have to remember that Heavenly Father loves her so i should too. Look for the good in everyone because its there, some people its just harder to find it! Be the person your Heavenly Father needs you to be! That's what I'm trying to do and Elder Croft and I have definitely seen blessings from our obedience so far! I know you will find blessings even miracles from your obedience and diligence to live the gospel as well! Well hopefully next week I will have some more exciting and fun experience for you! Next P day we have "Fall sports day" its a mission activity and I hear its pretty fun! Well if there is anything I can do for you all let me know! Id love to help. Until next week Alma 34:41! Have hope! Its a commandment! Love you all! Hasta luego!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

  • HOLA

8/24/11

Well Hello!
How is everyone going back at home? I think school started this week so I'm sure its been a super busy week for you all. So today has been a crazy day and I am actually sitting in a library next to some guy who is looking up treatment for some super gross rash or something on Wikipedia. We went down to the city today and its pretty cool! Its weird seeing all that stuff on movies all the time and then actually being there! Alot of people from our mission played football in front of the Washington Monument today for Pday. Elder Croft and I took some pictures in front of the Capitol building as well that I don't have time to send today so sorry! Next week por seguro! (for sure) So I have some bad news.....So my backpack has gone missing! After we stayed the night at the mission home we put all of our overnight bags in the back of the van and then we went to the stake center and somehow during that process my bag was misplaced. Its a bummer because it had my deodorant, toothpaste, some clothes, garments, English scriptures, English preach my gospel, my journal and my camera in it. And then my back pack is gone so I have to carry everything around in my arms. The AP's are trying really hard to find but have had no success. So cross your fingers they find it! President Matsumori might buy me some new stuff I guess but I feel bad making him do that. So you might not be getting as many pictures as you hoped for because I am camera-less! Sorry! Alright so about my week now: Well I am in the Olney part of Maryland which is the most northern area in our mission. There is a good mix of Spanish and white people and black people. Unfortunately a lot of my lessons have been in English so its difficult to practice Spanish when everyone speaks English. My companion and I live with 2 other English Elders. Elder Stallings (from Idaho) and Elder Vanaa (from Tahiti) they are pretty cool. We live in a pretty nice apartment but its kind of a dump because some of the Elders are messy. Oh and we have Roaches, sweet eh? But overall pretty nice. Lots of pictures of Jesus that's for sure and we jam out to church music all the time! ha So my first missionary appointment was with La familia Salvador. They are from El Salvador and only speak Spanish. They are an awesome family and what we call Golden Investigators. There is the Mom and Dad and then they have 2 little girls. They were married in May and then soon after baptized and now they are working towards the temple and they love the gospel! She has her baptismal certificate framed and hanging on a wall, that's how awesome she is. The food wasn't too bad they call it Papoosa's which is just life a stuffed tortilla with whatever you want on top of it. That's about all the weird Spanish food I have had unfortunately! Maybe next week will change. But here is my miracle story of the week which Elder Croft and I are very proud. So we got a referral from the Missionaries down in Mexico to go visit this guy named Francisco on Thursday at 4. So we went and visited him and it turns out that its this 18 year old kid that met the missionaries down in the Mexico and talked to them like once. When we get there he says to us "so the missionaries gave me this book and I read it and I got an answer that its true" "I really want to go to your church but I cant find it, I really want to go to the temple too" Well Francisco is getting baptized on this Sunday how crazy is that? And he wants to serve a mission and has already began to save up money. This kid is awesome! That is my miracle story of the week. I hope you enjoyed it! About the Earthquake it was pretty intense! I was just standing in our apartment and then all of sudden the whole building started to move, probably not very safe since it wasn't that bad here but yeah I heard it did some damage to the temple so hopefully they get that fixed up soon. But it was my first legit earthquake and some one said we have a hurricane coming our way. Bring it on! ha I don't know why stuff like that gets me excited. Reminds me of back when Dad and I were in San Francisco during that big earthquake in Japan. Now about that Spanish....I don't know what to say. ha Its going alright I understand the lessons and what everyone is saying and I put in input and help teach the lessons. The hard part is when they are talking directly to you. Man do they talk fast! And some of them have super thick accents and they use words I have never heard before but I think I'm going to be alright, hopefully I get some more Spanish lessons in. Ive been to some Spanish family nights and those are crazy. Way fun but crazy. Man the city is awesome but its just difficult with everything because of money, I swear we have zero money as missionaries ha. But its all good no worries. I don't really have anything spiritual for you at the moment because I left my notebook home but I've been learning a lot about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it actually is a Covenant. Testament as in the Old testament and new testament means covenant in Greek. So it just makes it so much more important for us to continue to read it. Our ward up here (our Spanish ward, they only speak Spanish, that was interesting for sure) is challenging all the ward members including the missionaries to finish the book of Mormon by the end of the year. So I'm going to finish the book of Mormon in Spanish. Wish me Luck. I hope you guys are all doing great and continuing to choose the right you guys will have to write me and email me telling me about everything. Its definitely different here how you don't get letters in stuff in the mail. Its been more than a week since I got mail! Dang ha Oh well I love you guys! And I pray for you everyday! Choose the Right, Stay safe, stay positive and Smile! Ill talk to you in a week! Hasta Luego! Les amo!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Hey!
Well I made it and its great! The flight wasn't too bad actually, I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep at all but I pretty much slept the whole flight. ha I haven't stayed up that late in forever, although I did wake up and my whole left side was numb because of the way I was sleeping. It was awesome talking to you guys, it sounds like your all doing great. Its weird that next time I call you I will have been out for 6 months! Loco! When we got to Georgia we didn't really have much time between flights and I ended up sleeping that whole flight too. When we got here we met the Mission President and his wife along with some of the Presidents assistants. They are all super nice and it was great meeting them. We then headed over to the temple which is the most beautiful temple in the entire world, definitely my favorite and the pictures you have seen don't do it justice! When your driving down the interstate the Temple towers over all of the trees and is impossible to miss it. I will get pictures soon. As of right now I still haven't even unpacked or seen my suitcases. ha. We were able to make a commitment to the Lord within the temple grounds. It was really neat and was suppose to be our own personal "sacred grove". I felt really great and I am already in love with my mission. I am glad I am here in D.C. When it comes time for me to come home I am suppose to go back to the temple grounds and have a followup meeting with the Lord about my commitment I made. I cant wait for that! After the temple we headed over to IHOP where I had the Breakfast Sampler, which isn't a ton of food but a decent amount. I was super surprised that we were able to take a nap! I was expecting many things but definitely not a nap that's for sure. I was out right when I hit the bed and slept the whole 3 hours. They tried to wake Elder Clapier and I a couple times before we actually woke up. After that we went over some of the mission rules mostly about cars and health. Which I am a class B driver so as of right now I'm not allowed to drive any mission cars, bummer eh? I have to pretty much do traffic school again before I can start driving but I'm not really sure if i want to start driving ha its been a while! Then after we practiced contacting each other within the mission home. The mission home is awesome by the way and has super comfortable beds. its a really nice home. That is when I had my meeting with President Matsumori, He is great and I am excited to get to know him better over the next 22 months. He will actually be heading home the same time as me so that will be neat. After that we had a delicious dinner made by Sister Matsumori herself. It's great to have real food! After that we played a little ping pong and had a great testimony meeting. There are so many great missionaries here and I am excited to get to know them. After that there was dessert which was awesome once again. Then it was off to bed. This morning I met my trainer or my Dad, Elder Croft from Sandy Utah. He has been here 8 months and he is a great Elder. I am excited to start working with him, He said we will work hard which I really want to do. Then we went to a temple session which made me love the temple even more. They said i should be able to go once a transfer so that will be great and I will definitely take advantage of that. My P days are on Wednesdays so expect to hear from me every Wednesday. I still am only suppose to be on the computer for 30 minutes so I think it will be best if you either write me or email. either or works but I wont be able to see any emails until Wednesday. My area is called Lonely I think which is suppose to be really big, its not part of the city but I can go there every Pday if I want so Elder Croft said he wanted to go next Wednesday so I will be there and I will take lots of pictures. About the address so just send my stuff to that address I sent Dad (my mission home address) but Just make sure to put Elder Austin Gleed on the envelope when you send it. Simple as that! I will have so much more and pictures for you next week!I was thinking, I'M going to need a raincoat probably soon and then they said it doesn't really start getting cold until after conference in October. I cant really think of anything else at the moment but I will probably in an hour or so because I will be unpacking then. My bike made it fine but my area is not a bike mission right now so I have a little while before I will actually have to use it. I am excited to get out and start working. Elder Croft said we are going to a families house for dinner tonight. They are from El Salvador and only speak Spanish, wish me luck! We should get some knocking on doors out of the way tonight as well. Let the fun begin right? Its crazy that I'm finally out here! I cant wait to hear from you! I love you all!
Elder Gleed

Aug. 11, 2011

HOLA!
Como estan? It sounds like you guys are doing great from what I've been hearing! What have you been up too? I feel like my life isn't too exciting sometimes because all I'm doing is learning and studying for the most part. But somehow I seem to enjoy it. \
Happy Birthday Dillon! I think your at scout camp right now so you'll probably get this at the end of the weekend but how do you feel about turning the big 16? It is definitely weird for me ha. Its probably even weirder to think that your going to be a junior in high school this upcoming year. My junior year was my favorite and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
There always seems to be something that I think of that I need throughout the week but I can never remember when I'm actually on the computer. So I guess we will have to wait and see if I remember. Sounds like you have been pretty busy though. I'm just barely starting to get sick but i have been taking medicine, I'm hoping it will be gone by Monday! I haven't sent anything home because I want to start packing and maybe send home some stuff that I don't need so I will just sen everything home in a box or something. Thanks for everything I love you!
Sorry about the busy week with work I'm sure going up to Idaho will be a nice break! That's cool you guys started reading La Doctrina y convenios how far are you? That will be good for you guys to do for sure. I'm pretty excited about my red eye flight or whatever you called it. Its much better than waking up at 4 and then heading out. I just leave at 8:30 at night so I think its pretty nice! I am in a travel group of 10 people. I know at least 3 of them are for sure going to D.C. but I don't know about the others. I think 2 might be going to Dominican Republic. I am flying Delta though. It will be exciting and its really weird to think how much things will be different by this time come next week eh? It will be fun though and cross your fingers that I can understand the people!!
Well now about my week, Its been pretty normal for the most part. Other than that we received flight plans and received a new companion. Our new companion is Elder Jensen, he went to High school with Elder Chugg but he recently had surgery so he had to stay an extra week in the MTC, He is going to Panama and he was supposed to leave last week. He is a pretty funny kid and way good at Spanish. He leaves on Monday too. This week we went out to the Real World again. We went to the Hospital for Elder Jensen to get cleared to leave. It was a lot of fun and we talked to a ton of people just about random stuff. This one kid just came running up to us and wanted to talk to us, it was cool to see. Its great being a missionary! ha Other than that its been pretty normal, Alex Forsyth came in yesterday and it seems like he enjoyed his first day. Jordan Rupp has been here for a while now and he is enjoying it as well. I wish I could have been here in the MTC when a lot of my other friends were but its been a lot of fun meeting new people. Tomorrow we have in field orientation all day long so hopefully that will be fun! Well next time you here from me I will be in the Airport! Crazy eh? That will be awesome to hear from you guys! Stay busy and Ill talk to you in 4 days! I love you guys and remember to smile!!
Elder Gleed

Saturday, August 6, 2011

August 4, 2011

Hey!
How are things going over there in Eagle Mountain? The other day I was talking to some old guy while I was walking back from the temples and he got mad at me when I told him that I was from Eagle Mountain, because I said it like Eagle Mountin instead MounTAIN. I need to be careful next time! How is everyone doing?

Thanks for the packages! I could never get sick of food are you kidding me?? ha Sorry I don't have a ton of pictures lately, things get repetitive here so nothing new really happens to take pictures of. Lo siento! (I'm sorry) Thanks for everything Mom! I love you!
I should be getting my flight plans later today! I'm pretty excited, I should be the first person from my district to leave but I'll let you know for sure later. Yup Jahde and Parker left on Monday I guess they were on the same bus to the airport or something so thats cool. It was funny because Jahde was all worried about being on an airplane by himself. I'm glad I have some experience since I went to San Francisco by myself. It was nice. I hope I at least know one person in my travel group but we will see! It was hard saying goodbye to Jahde but definitely easier to say goodbye here in the MTC. I just told him "well, see you in a few months" which is pretty much true. Thanks for the updates on the world events everyone is clueless whats going on out there besides what we hear from our families.
So my weeks are all jumbled together and I don't really know exactly what went on this week ha. But we continue to have great firesides, this week the guy that wrote "the work and the glory" spoke to us. We've learned a lot about Charity and service over the past few weeks. Its amazing how the Lord seems to always find a topic for the speakers to speak on that specifically helps me in one way or another. Blows my mind. Yesterday i was teaching a lesson and I just let loose on Spanish and I was super shocked. Sometimes it just comes so easy. There has to be some sort of gift of tongues because I have been here for less than 2 months and I'm speaking ten times better than I was when taking those three years of Spanish in High school. Its ridiculous. But in a good way of course. So i recently memorized the first vision in Spanish. Chido eh? Well not much time but I found my favorite quote on LDS.org so I want to share it with you before i Get off.
"our promised blessings are beyond measure, though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts as we walk uprightly and keep the commandments. There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us. My beloved brothers and sisters, fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith. --Thomas S. Monson.
I had an interview with my teacher yesterday and she had this prompting to ask me if there was something going on in my head about my mission. I just told her that I don't want to be the person who I came her as anymore. I want to be better, I want to be that person that people think of when they think of a good example. So I hope I can change and that you can see that change in me when I return home home. Thanks so much for all that you do. I miss you and love you so much and hope that you guys are doing well. Well I'll talk to you in a week Hasta luego!!
Elder Gleed

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

July 28, 2011

Hola!
How is everything going on at home? It seems like you guys are just continuing with normal life, which is good! Hopefully you guys are staying busy instead of just lying around all day! So this time lets see how much I can write you before the computer that is not suppose to kick me off, kicks me off. ha So weeks here in the MTC are pretty repetitious, nothing really special that changes. Jordan Rupp came last Wednesday, it was good to see him because I haven't seen him in a while. He is going to Texas, Spanish speaking so he still has a little while. Do you guys remember T-Cap? Or Tyler Caprio? The Lehi basketball team manager? Well he is here too, I think he is actually leaving this week. Its funny because I hardly even recognized him. He is a great kid though, he will be serving in Fresno California. I will see if I can get pictures with some of my friends here. So I have a friend that went up to Utah State with me named Stephen Lew he is serving in the Tapai, Tawain mission. Well he left on Tuesday and he has the most messed up flight plans. So he left early Tuesday morning so he could fly to Michigan. Then from Michigan he will fly to Taiwan. Seems kind of counter productive doesn't it? ha I thought it was pretty funny when I heard that. Jahde leaves on Monday so that will be different. It is definitely easier to say goodbye to friends here in the MTC than it was back at home. Probably because we don't really get to hang out or talk a whole ton here at the MTC. I think he is a little nervous about the Spanish but he is mostly excited. Elder Chugg had his wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday. Some of the things he was doing were pretty funny. It kind of made me wonder what kinds of things I was doing when I was drugged up. Oh by the way the dentist that helped us out has a sister serving in the exact same mission as Jahde is right now. Small world eh? Jahde, Parker, and I took pictures for you. Things are going pretty good here in the MTC, I think Spanish is coming alright, not too bad. I love speaking it that's for sure, sometimes it just gets a little frustrating when I don't know how to say a certain word. Thanks for the package by the way! I enjoyed the little picture album! Sometimes I wish I had my yearbook or something like that so I could show everyone what people look like when I tell them stories. I don't know how but somehow we always find stories to tell each other. I don't know if I told you this but Elder Spear, One of my roommates is not the District leader, which means things are a little more relaxed now. ha Elder Wright is a good guy but he takes everything a little too serious and gets mad really easy. Elder Chugg got a letter from a friend yesterday and they couldn't believe how fat he had gotten, ha I hope that doesn't happen to me! Its crazy how time flies while your out here on a mission, already two months almost crazy stuff! So this last little week I had a little low point where I was just getting fed up with myself and all the lessons and Spanish and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to speak Spanish. Its amazing how the Lord is aware of each and every one of us, especially in our times of need. I swear every single lesson, fireside, or talk was all especially for me. They all were about motivation and things like that and its just awesome how things work out like that. So I've been able to participate in a couple more priesthood blessing and its AWESOME! I haven't given one yet but maybe soon! I started a missionary journal this week and its going to be pretty sweet by the time I get back, I'm excited to show you guys. Its got great quotes and talks, answers to questions of the soul, my own personal topical guide and some other sweet stuff! I hope you guys are keeping up on your study of the gospel and continuing to be examples in all places and in all things! You guys are awesome and I cant wait to talk to you guys on the phone in a couple weeks to hear about everything that has been going on at home! You guys are constant examples to me and I hope you know that I love you guys! Hasta Luego! Les Amo!!