News out of Barç!

Hello!  I have transfer news...I'm now in Barcelona! The trip from Lleida was not too exciting...just 2 hours in the train through farmland. It is a neat part of Spain that amid all of the farmland and hills and stuff, you see an occaisional little town with an old chapel or neat spanish architecture in the countryside (perfect photo opportunity, except that we're travelling at like 250 km/hr and there's a window in the way... also, today is not so sunny in Barcelona. Cloudy and almost rainy. But I am excited to not melt like I hear they will in Zaragoza!

 I am excited to serve in the main city of the mission, and I really just like the feel of Barcelona. I hear the ward is great (and big!). I'll be working kind of on the northern/eastern side, towards the end of Badalona. We also meet in the large stake center building!  So I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for these weeks to come. I am kind of sad to leave our great District in Zaragoza though ='( I am glad to see a familiar face in the new district though (Elder Alder)!  My new companion is Elder Rasmussen, from Bear River. I don't know if he's related to those in our ward or not... he seems like a fun guy though.

I really enjoyed the opportunity of training and working with Elder Loaiza. I enjoyed seeing him progress and start to become an el Faro missionary. He has a good heart and he will do great things. I enjoyed his desires to serve and help others.

As far as miracles go, I really feel like the ward is improving a lot in various things. The Bishop has been a stalwart example. Lots of simple things, like dressing up for ward council. (A sub-miracle is that we had almost all of the ward council there, as opposed to the half we normally do!) He also gave a powerful testimony and thoughts on Sunday about the Sacrament and the importance of the ordinance and the reverence and respect that he felt that the ward could improve on =) I also had the opportunity to speak on sunday and a few members shared with me they really appreciated my remarks and I'm glad to feel that I have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord throughout my mission, probably one of my greatest joys of the mission. I spoke about being unified and a more Zion-like people. In other words, my last chance to give a word or two and dar caña a los miembros! Aka no gossiping, backbiting, arguing, no lazyness, serve others and love your neighbor, and share the Gospel!

This week I am going to focus on learning the area quickly and getting to know the wonderful members of Barcelona 3. I want to look for simple ways to serve others and opportunities to serve strangers. Just support all the members and leaders and such.

Have a great week. Love you all. Keep smiling and looking forward!​

April gone already?? You've got to be kidding!

4/14
This coming week might be a toughy, mainly because it's Semana Santa, so everyone's out of work and school (don't be fooled...that's actually when they have the least amount of time to meet with missionaries...) which means drunk people and everyone leaving for vacations! That, and catholics walking around in KKK costumes...I guess that their culture/perspective is a little different here haha. [See picture attachments]

4/21
¡Hola! ¡Buenos días! This week felt kind of long actually. We didn't have a lot of stuff actually, seeing that it was Semana Santa craziness. And I didn't even do much for the first half of the week! Monday was preparation day, then Tuesday I went into Barcelona for the morning and afternoon to renew my residency card, so we didn't have much time after I got back.

So, because of Semana Santa it seemed like a ghost town with everyone on vacation or in the city center watching processions and such. So we didn't get a lot of finding accomplished like we were hoping, but we did get some visits with our investigator, David, and some members RC/MA that normally are harder to get. David is progessing a lot more, he read the Book of Mormon a little before this last time. The sad part is that everytime he can come to church he twists his ankle at work and is stuck at home...

This week I have learned something that I am going to try to do better on: being grateful like in Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. I was thinking this week while we were eating that it would probably be me washing all of the dirty dishes because they have a tendency to linger longer than we'd like...and native companions aren't the cleanest of cultures when it comes to maintaining the kitchen and piso clean haha. Or just 20 year old boys in general haha. So yeah, I was thinking about selfless service and how God blesses us when we selflessly and anonimously serve, not "to be seen of men" and how I would suck it up and do the dishes again... It occurred to my mind a thought though, "Who blesses God for the good and service He does for us?"

I've been pondering that question,  and I still can't say I know the answer. I know that blessings come from obedience to laws of heaven and from doing good, but those come from God I suppose. And knowing that God's work and glory is bringing to pass our inmortality and eternal life, His eternal posterity brings Him happiness and peace and I suppose we are a "blessing" to Him, but seeing that he created us He technically blessed Himself... So I don't know. I suppose that our thanks and glory we give to Him and praising Him are His blessings, seeing that He is in a state where He has already received the greatest blessings offered.

So I feel that we should, as Pres. Uchtdorf said, be grateful people and not just grateful for things or "blessings". It's a state of being that God is in, and that is why we should be grateful and serve and obey without really expecting to "earn" God's blessings, although they will surely come anyways and always just because God loves us and desires to bless us. And it is good that we seek blessings from God for the purpose of growing closer to Him and becoming like Him. They are His "divine favors" that contribute to our happiness.

4/28
Here we are again, another Monday! Time passed by pretty quick this week. It has been rainy all week, but in the annoying way where it rains for 5 min so you pull out your umbrella and then it stops for 5, so you put it away, then it starts again. And a lot of people don't walk around when it's rainy haha.

There was a talk last week that I forgot to share something I liked. They were 5 points about being a good worker:
1) You don't know anything that can't be done.
2) Be willing to make the difference.
3) If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right.
4) Make sure that things are done well/right.
5) You control the circumstances, not your circumstances control you.

So yeah, they're pretty useful taken from the right perspective of course. And especially in missionary work, where the work is great and the laborers are few. It requires more sacrifice and faith. And also that God usually doesn't call the prepared to serve in a position he aldready does really well, but rather someone who is there to learn, and taking into account their gifts and abilities that will be able to bless those they serve.

This week I am going to repent on seeking the voice of the Spirit more. I listened this week to the recent CES devotional that I had downloaded, about learning the language of the Spirit, and I learned some good things. And then your message in the Noticias emphasized it, so I guess it's what God wants for me right now! Not that I've been doing terrible at it, just that it can always be better =)

7 de Abril

Hola!! What a great week with tons of news! That's super great about Brandon's call! Congrats! ¡Felicitaciones! ¡Enhorabuena! Woo! Argentina huh? I bet Dad is super stoked for him =) I still can't fathom what Dad's secret is to his guesses...he must have connections there in Salt Lake. Instead of going to "work" there he probably hangs around the church missionary department haha. It will be great to be home together for a week before he heads out! I'm surprised that 70 people could fit into the new house! It must be bigger than I though =) And that Brandon has that many friends haha jk :P That made it out amid all their busy schedules I mean... ;)

It was a good week mainly because of the weekend I think =) Throughout the week we had hardly any visits and we set ourselves out to lots of finding. It was difficult to just endure no after no with high hopes, but we managed to keep a laugh and a smile on. It just is so frustrating when everyone is saying no and shaking their hand before I finish "Hola..." and they accelerate walking and don't even stop to hear me finish "...buenas tardes". I kept thinking that there had to be something we were doing wrong... I loved Conference though. Which leads to my miracle:

God answers prayers!! In addition to questions, I even just simply wrote down a few topics/things in general that concerned me or that was weighing on them, and they too were addressed and talked about! Almost every one in the first session alone, and of course repeated throughout all of conference! I was also especially impressed with the music too. Everything was just simply magnificent =) We didn't get to see Sunday Afternoon, since that was 22-00:00 here, so I'm downloading it now. I was super sad to see one of my favorite seventies, Tad Callister, be released, but then he got a calling as Sunday school president, so he'll still get to speak a lot =) It was sad to see Russell Osguthorpe get released though. But that's how the Lord's work goes!

I couldn't tell you which talks to watch...they're all super great! I don't have my notes on me, but off the top of my head I liked Elder Holland's, Elder Ballard's, First Presidency, Elder Bednar, and the Priesthood Session =)

I think our district is doing great. The Hna's and the Elders both have a couple fechas now, and we are all working hard. I feel bad that we don't have any investigators ever to show a good example, but I guess I can still be one in other ways as we keep searching =) I feel that we are really unified and that good things are coming to Zaragoza. The ward and especially the bishop seem to have been opening up a lot. I'm greatful for so many great blessings =) It was interesting District meeting this last week, Elder Loaiza not speaking English and Elder Dunn still learning Spanish, but they are both learning lots so before we know it we'll all be bilingually fluent =)

Well, that's about all I have time for today.

24 de Marzo. Where has the month gone?

24 de Marzo

    Buenos días! I always love Mondays! They feel more like our Sundays/day of rest to us than the rest of the week. And, today is the last Preparation Day of Elder Gleason! It is crazy how the time has flown by. It seems like March just started for some reason. I can't believe it!
   We had a pretty good week. We set ourselves out to find some news. Which leads into my miracle this week: In the District Meeting we were talking about talking to everybody, and we always make the goal of how many we want to find, then we get discouraged as we get rejected, and then we don't contact as much. I suggested something that we could instead set goals for how many "no's" or rejections we would get. So, the next day I set myself a goal to get rejected 100 times. And it worked! I contacted 100 people throughout the day between visits, and they all said no! Then, as we were walking home, there really wasn't anybody left in the street (that we hadn't already contacted at least =)) and I saw a guy sitting at a bus stop. I thought, why not, I'll beat my goal! And guess what? He gave me his information!! Woo! Blessings come after the trials of our faith. And, the goal helped us to contact tons of people all day, and when people rejected, it didn't weigh me down because it contributed to my goal! Of course all the contacts I did I actually tried to teach them/get their info/ and try to get something out of it. So it was like working towards my goal and against it at the same time haha.
   I did an intercambio with Elder Johnston this last Saturday, it went well. He's a great missionary and does a good job. I like how he's a dedicated study-er and is often reading PMG or a language book or something. He's a smart guy and it was fun for us to talk and get to know each other a little better. We had a visit with a crazy old spaniard...there seem to be a numerous quantity of those here...and a funny thing was that usually people talk super fast and non stop, so you don't get any opportunity to say anything. Well, this guy talked slowly, and there was always an awkward 4 second pause between all of his sentances. It was just weird because he'd say something totally irrelevant or weird, pause as if he were done, except we couldn't tell if he was or not by how he finished his words, like as if he was going to continue, then when he did it was on something totally different. A new way of dominating the conversation I hadn't come across before haha.
  We've been seeing lots of progress with some people, except none of them came to church  We even went to go pick up 2 people, and they both left us out to dry, and they made us miss the sacrament in our morning meetings Good thing there's the afternoon meetings! So that was a little frustrating but nothing out of the usual.

Well, I gotta go! Hope all is well, and have a fantastic week!

Zaragoza sees the sun!

10 de Marzo

Muy buenas a todos! ¿Qué tal estáis? Hemos tenido una semana muy buena. Os lo voy a contar un poco!

First off, it feels like spring weather. It has been clear and sunny all week, and kind of warm actually! 18 ºC pretty much all week. You can also tell not only by how much we don't want to wear our coats, but by how much others don't want to wear coats or other articles of clothing either! Yikes! Haha it's not bad right now though, and Zaragoza is not anywhere near the beach. It is a desert though...we hear it gets pretty dang hot here in the summer! I think I might be outta here by then though and hopefully to a place more cool!
This week on Thursday we have a Mission Conference, Elder Kearon of the Seventy (1st counselor in the Europe Area Presidency as well) will be coming. It's going to be super great! They are bringing like 2/3 (almost 160 missionaries!) of the mission into Barcelona and the rest will be in Bilbao. We will be in the Barcelona group. We're all super excited!!

17 de marzo

So, this week has been a good week for us. I loved the Conference we had on Thursday. It truly was an immense spiritual feast! There was lots of great things taught and such a great Spirit. I was really impressed overall with how Elder Kearon just stopped to enjoy the moment a few times, to just bask in the Spirit and admire the sight of what he was really in, and the sight of 160 el Faro Barcelona missionaries!  He also was good at having fun, and keeping everyone awake =) It wasn't ever a problem for me but there were a few other heads I saw bobbing here and there =) We learned a ton and it was a lot about giving our extra efforts, going from our "all" to our "absolute all" that is sometimes hard to give up =) 

I think a miracle we saw was while we were in Barcelona, we had an hour 1/2 or so before our train left, so we went out to proselyte. No one was really listening as we contacted. We were coming to the end of a big street, and I saw a man who had a more radical/different appearance than the average person. I thought came to my mind how the Lord looks upon the heart and not the outward appearance, as well as various things I have been reading in talks and PMG about how we really can't judge who will accept or not. So, I figured, the way I see it, the people who look the least "receptive" might be the most! So I contacted him and we ended up teaching him about the Restoration and leaving him with a Book of Mormon! He lives in a pueblo and didn't want to leave us his number, but he said he was going to read the Book and call the missionaries.

Feb/March Updates

23 de Febrero

Hola buenos días a todos!

So, miscellaneous transfer news: I am training Elder Loaiza. He's from Colombia, but has been in Madrid for 12 years. I always find it interesting though, that even though he moved to Spain at like 7 years old, he still speaks like a Colombian more than a Spaniard. Just the lasting influence on little kids. That, or he only hung out with other Colombians haha I still haven't asked. He's nice, we have fun together. He's starting to warm up a little and get accustomed to mission life haha. He has good desires. He wants to do what is right and he desires the welfare of people we talk to in the streets. He always has nice follow-up questions for them. The other three are a trio so when E. Gleason goes home this next transfer the other two will probably stay. Elder Ballam is related to Michael Ballam, that's his uncle. He's a contacting machine and talks with everyone. Elder Johnston is more quiet, but he always says something funny when he talks, and he's really humble and studious/study-ful.

3 March

Hello everyone!

It has been a good week here. We had Enfoque de Zona, which was a really clever Disney land idea of our zone, Lleida-land/Andorra Adventure/Zaragoza World, and about it being the "happiest zone on Earth". It was inspiring to go out and find, work with members, and just succeed in everything. We also did an intercambio, Elder Roney came to Zaragoza with me. It was probably one of my favorite intercambios. I loved working with Elder Roney. He just finished 5 transfers of being ayudante de Presiedente and he is such a hard worker and is amazing at talking with people. We got tons of phone numbers and even quite a bit 10 min conversations with people who at first tell us "que no quiero nada" that most of us just let go. I learned lots of great things, it's just hard to put into practice some of those things after just a couple days with him...I would have loved to spend more to put into concrete some of the things. I guess I'll just have to really focus this week!

I admire in Elder Loaiza how he tries to put into practice what he learns. He learned a lot from Elder Weiss in the intercambio and he is always talking about things that we could try. The District is doing well. The Elders are working hard, talking to everybody. The Hermanas had a great week reaching 4 of the standards of excellence and had a ton of investigators in church, half of which have fechas! So Zaragoza is about to get drowned in miracles...

From my studies I learned something really neat from a Oct. 2012 Conference Talk by Elder Daniel L. Johnson:
"Our discipleship will be developed and proven not by the type of trials that we are faced with but how we endure them. As we have been taught by President Henry B. Eyring: “So, the great test of life is to see whether we will hearken to and obey God’s commands in the midst of the storms of life. It is not to endure storms, but to choose the right while they rage. And the tragedy of life is to fail in that test and so fail to qualify to return in glory to our heavenly home” (“Spiritual Preparedness: Start Early and Be Steady,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2005, 38)."

Noticias de los traslados!

Hey family and friends! How is everything?! It seems like it has been a while...this week passed by fast but seemed like it had like 10 days in it. Kind of a weird sensation. Anyways, I have our transfer news. Woo! Elder Gleason is staying and will have to companions, Elder Johnston from Bountiful (he came in this morning) and Elder Ballam from Logan Utah (we just got here after picking him up from the station, a long 30 min bus ride from piso because it's on the other side of the city from us). And I...will be staying and training! I go to Barçelona tomorrow to pick him up.

We're excited to have a full piso again! One day has already been fun! It will be nice to be back to full force (and even one extra!) and already just having another throughout today has lightened the burden of our load haha. I'm a little nervous about training, I don't know why. I'm always just super nervous I won't train him to be the missionary he needs to be or that I'll give him an incomplete perspective on what a missionary should be... I'm sure it's all just in my head though and it will be fun =) I'm just a perfectionist and want everything to be just perfect and that's hardly ever possible.. I am excited though. I'm sure he'll be great! I'll find out tomorrow who he his.

A miracle this week: I don't know so much if it was a miracle we saw, but it has been on my mind about what a miracle it is to be able to receive revelation, and just that the principle of revelation itself is a miracle. It is key as missionaries that we receive revelation on a daily basis and even hourly or minutely basis, and yet in many other things God trusts us to make the right decision. It is necessary that investigators learn and understand the principle of revelation. It is their chain that connects them to the Rock of Christ. Nobody ever sneaks into the Church or leaves from an exposure to it without the adversary noticing...he always knows and always sends opposition. If the investigators don't understand how to pray, receive answers, and receive daily inspiration from scripture study, they won't be able to see through the clouds of darkness, especially if "their missionaries" leave or if they are for whatever reason distanced from the Church for even a week or two, and they are prone to be deceived. It is important that we strive to understand the thoughts and ways of God, how He works with us and through us, and what His will is for us.

This week I am going to repent on this, and strive to deepen my revelatory experiences. We have a lot of work to do! I've been thinking between various points, mainly "Would it be worthless to strive and bring people to the Church if it won't be able to retain them? Will God guide us to His prepared children if he knows the members aren't prepared to fellowship them?" and "new converts can help the members kindle their conversions and faith. They can be what turns them around!". In any way, I feel like the Ward has been making good steps of change. Our relationship with the Bishop has been improving a lot, and he seems a lot more open, trusting, and even talks with us! We have seen a lot of good in him these last couple weeks and even the way that he runs things has been changing. I think he sees our willingness and our efforts to help. We have been struggling to find a time to meet with the Ward mission leader however, which is not good haha. We do have a big activity planned for this Friday that should be great for all who come!

Thanks for everything. ¡Qué tengáis una semana fantástica! Un saludo!