Elder Illu and I are sacrificing a lot ,so that we can stay focused on the work and the Lord

     WEEK 53 ... Reedley, California

Hola everyone!

 

This is Elder Glowa reporting form still beautiful and sunny Reedley California!

This week we had our zone meeting. There we came up with the zone sacrifice to not listen to music in the coming month so that we can reach our personal goals for the month (ours is 7) and our zone goal of 31 baptisms. This has not been done before in our mission, we are truly trying to call down the powers of Heaven. I know that as we sacrifice we will see our Father's hand in his work. I want to ask you guys at home to be praying for our goal of 12 baptisms by the end of the year in every prayer so we can rally our faith together and call down miracles.

 

All right to achieve our goal of baptisms Elder Illu and I are sacrificing a lot ,so that we can stay focused on the work and the Lord. So that we can receive the blessings that we need to baptize that 12 by the end of the year. We are sacrificing music, we are not listening to it and are focusing our minds and conversations on the Saviour and the gospel and our investigators. We are also not buying or eating fast food, and finally we are not I repeat not writing anyone but family during the month of November. We are not reading anything but family stuff and so we can really be focused so tell everyone this and that if I don't write them back for the next month it's not because I don't love them its because we really need to pull out all the stops to get our goal .We are leaving behind the very hardest and closest things to us and pressing forward for the good of the Lord and his children.

 

During our trainer/trainee meeting with president , we learned about communication and about how to be better missionaries. It is amazing to receive council from our mission president, he is truly inspired for God and I know that we are more blessed then we can imagine in this mission because of him.  

 All right so this week had its ups and downs but we are doing amazing we are going to have our first baptism this weekend, and would you believe that it's going to be in Arizona. We are doing everything here and because Robbie's (our amazing investigator) family is in Arizona they are going there so that his brother can baptize him. He is one of our baptisms ,the service is just in a different state. It is really great! That will be the first of the 12 and the miracles will keep on coming!

 

This week has been a real blur, I really understand what missionaries mean when they say how fast time fly after your year mark, its crazy I feel like I just wrote you guys yesterday. So last Tuesday we had the opportunity to teach one of my favourite investigators that we have, David and Cassandra. They are amazing, we have been teaching them about the plan of salvation and they are eating it up. We saw a great miracle with that lesson when we gave Cassandra the book of Mormon to read. She read the verse and then could not put the book down, it was amazing. She expressed that she had not been able to pick up a book for 4 months because nothing caught her interest. But when she picked up the book of Mormon she said that she was really interested and takes that as a sign from God, that she had the interest to read this book . I saw in that moment the true and awesome power that the Book of Mormon has, we need to use it more then anything as we teach and testify of our Church and of Jesus Christ because that is how people will know that it is true ( our message).

 

On Wednesday we didn't see to many people but we were able that night to see one of our other investigators Randy, he is awesome. He has been investigating the church since June and comes every week to church we have to wait to get permission from President to baptize him. He is a really humble man and loves the gospel with all his heart. I cannot believe the love and the truth that I can feel when someone who is not a member of the church tells me how he knows that it is true. Its is such a testimony builder and such a strength to my testimony of the truthfulness of this work and the power that is in the truth.

 

 One last investigator what we have that I want to mention . His name is Ivan and he is awesome, he knows that all we are saying is true and that what he is listening to the truth. We are so excited for him, he is going to be baptized on the 6th of November, he always tries his best in everything we ask him to do and loves the gospel, his family and our Heavenly Father.

 

I am so privileged and blessed to be in this area and to see all that I do. There are more miracles that lay in wait and I am so excited for them. Its time to sacrifice, and I know it will be hard but it will be worth it.

 

HORRAY FOR ISREAL!

 

Love Elder Jason A. Glowa

 

 

 

Elder Glowa hit the half way mark on OCTOBER 14th

Hola everyone

 

This is Elder Jason Glowa checking in. Everything is going great here in Reedley we are seeing so many blessings and are truly seeing miracles left right and centre. Elder Illu and I have been kicking it into overdrive here and are doing amazing!

 Alright so as you all know we here in the miracle metropolitan of Reedley have the goal to get 12 baptisms before the end of December. So we have been working harder and harder and harder every single day. It's amazing I thought I was working hard before but it turns out I still have more.It's amazing we com home and literally want to collapse into bed, but can't because there's still more to do. Even though that sounds like we are working really hard we can still do more, I'm so excited I've never been so happy and so tired in my life.

 

So this week we have been blessed to see 3 of our investigators accept the invitation to be baptized. So we now have 6 people so far preparing to be baptized in November! We have been blessed with so many great investigators.

 

Ivan,Amy, Roman Garcia , Santiago Aguayo, Yesena and Cassandra are the amazing people who have been prepared and have committed to be baptized. I really wish I had time to explain them all to you but I will do that next week, please remind me because as my mission has progressed I have been worse and worse at remembering anything but Spanish and stuff about the gospel. So please remind me about that.

 

I really want to tell you everything that has been going on I really want you to know its annoying that I have this desire to write fast but these huge fingers that hit like 5 keys at a time when I try and write you so yea, I wish I could write more and fast but I guess that will come after this life when I have my awesome celestial fingers! 

 

I know that this email is really vague and not to much filled with my day to day but it will come next week because I have to go, we have to much to do and literal no time to do it.

 

I will make up for it next week I promise.

 

I love you guys so much and thank you for your love and patience.

 

Love Elder Jason A. Glowa

 

One Year already on Thursday October 14th 2010.

Hola Everyone!

All right bad new I can only write for like 10 mins so it's going to be a short one, sorry about that but I'll write more next week. The reason being for my short email is that we only have 30 mins to write because its Tuesday and yesterday was Columbus day so libraries were closed. Anyway my new companion is Elder Illu! I still can't believe I'm training a brand new missionary, more importantly one that met Anziano Glowa in the MTC! It was super funny and to make life weirder he was born the same day as Ben July 30,1991. That's right, isn't that cool how that Lord prepares a way for all things.

 

My new companion is so amazing he is super in-tune with the spirit and we are going to have a ton of success. I'm so excited and he is also, he is a lot like me and Ben it is so awesome! We get along so well, he's like my brother and we are going to baptize all of Reedley, our goal is to have 12 baptisms in our area by the end of December so we have 2 and a half months to do it, the Lord is behind us on this goal and we are continuing to seek guidance and revelation from the Lord on how we can be better to reach our goal and so we can help others come unto Christ!

 

So I got my companion last Thursday and we arrived back in our area at about 5 right in time for our DA. So the last part of the week has been running around and trying to get people to come to church and we were able to see almost all our solid investigators. We saw a great miracle and had 4 people at church, it was awesome. I'm so happy, I wish I could share more with you but we have to get going so I know that this is really not much to wet your appetite for my mission but just hold on for another week and I'll jam pack the next one with everything!

 

I love you all, stay safe!

Love Elder Jason A. Glowa

 

P.S.

The pictures are for me and my new companion!

 

P.p..s

The Ayers family gave us Canadian Thanksgiving diner so I got one this year, hurray for Canada!

 

 

Jason becomes a trainer.

          WEEK 49 ... Reedly , California

Hola Familia,

 So how does it feel to be empty nesters? Is it fun? How many parties have you thrown without us? I hope you're doing good and I would like to echo the words of Elder Holland from the conference in saying thank you mom and dad for everything you are doing and have done for me and my mission, I am truly grateful for you and for everything that you have given me. I would not be here if it was not for you so thank you, thank you, thank you I'm sorry for before not giving more detail in my emails, this mission is as much your mission as it is mine and the words from elder Holland made me realize that.  I'm going to try and do my best with telling you how my week was and give details some times I may give more or less depending on the time restraint I have, if you want anything else apart from what I write please tell me and ask me so that I can make these emails up lifting for you and so that they can help you feel and understand all the joy I'm going through.

 Alright so I have to tell you my "highlight" of the week, by the way I'm going to give the highlight first every week.  So we got transfer calls and this saturday was super crazy because I really don't want to leave this area so I always get nervous.   So we were waiting all saturday and we get to saturday night and bam, nothing!  We were on edge for nothing all day, mind you I was not on edge when I was in conference it was super amazing , holy crow this was like the best conference ever, anyway I digress, that's right I used the word digress hooray that I haven't lost all liberal arts powers! Ok so we wait and it gets to Sunday and we wake up and do our morning thing and it gets to 8 o'clock in the morning and here I am minding my own business eating toast and I get a call from President Gonzalez my Mission President and he says:

 PG:Elder Glowa do you love the Lord?

EG:Yes President

PG: Good Good, Are you will to do what ever the Lord asks you to do?

EG Yes president of course will

PG: That's great Elder Glowa I want to thank you for all you hard work with Elder Christensen in Reedley and call you as a Senior companion and to train a brand new missionary!

EG: YES YES YES I WILL PRESIDENT! (AS I JUMP UP AND DOWN FOR JOY)

PG: Alright thank you so much and good luck Elder Glowa.

EG: Thank you President!

 CALL ENDS.....

EG AND EC: (In unison I might add) AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

 Not going to lie, I am so excited I'm going to train a brand new missionary and we are going to have so much fun, I pick him up on Thursday and so yea pretty much life is amazing, I'm on cloud nine right now and can't wait to do all that I can and grow with this experience!

 So let me give you a minute to translate this to Vava and Vovo and call people and take in everything I just said. Alright is everyone back in composure?............. Dad are you ok, oh no please don't cry it's really alright, oh great now you made mom cry come on guys I know its awesome but you don't have to cry. (If you can't tell I'm really happy today)

 So it's really funny because my companion is going home and now I'm switching him for a brand new missionary. I have been with missionaries from Elder Christensen's generation for about 7 and a half months (Elder Larsen, Elder Eagar and Elder Christensen.) So half my companions will be home in 2 days and I'll be getting on in my mission age.  It's so weird to know exactly what I was doing this time last year, it's kinda funny to think that in 10 days I will have been in the MTC last year. Hey Ben may have met my new companion, who knows.

 Alright I don't really have a ton of time left because my companion still has to pack and what not so I only have about 10 mins or so left so ill tell you what's going on in my life. Well, my investigators are doing great let me tell you a bit about them.  So we are teaching these two brothers and sister about the Gospel, Ivan and Amy and Roman. Ivan and Amy have accepted a baptismal date and we just started teaching Roman like 2 days ago. It's really cool they aren't coming to church yet but are absorbing the gospel and the restoration really well. They are late teenagers and are really bright and in tune with the spirit.  (Just a quick side note, nothing super fantabulous or story moment wise happened this week so I'm just going to tell about some of my investigators and the members and what we have been doing with them and basically that, hope that's what you want/like.)

 We are also teaching a  great man named David he is super cool and always willing to let us in and talk with us he really understands the restoration and is just an all around nice guy he loves the Lord and is really progressing, he wants to come to church and his daughter is really excited to come as well. We have been able to bring the primary president over and help her feel comfortable. Everything is going great I'm so happy and blessed to have amazing people to teach and grow with.

As you know I think either last week or 2 weeks ago I was telling you about the Esparsa family, they are doing great we just need to go over more, it's sad because I'm going to be out of my area for 2 and half days because Elder Christensen leaves tomorrow so I will be in a threesome with the Elders in Kingsburg Elder Smith and Peterson then Wednesday Elder Smith will leave and ill be with Elder Peterson for another day and a half before we get our trainees'. 

 There is one more investigator I want to tell you about, its really funny I have been feeling so much love for my investigators and the people I teach that it's overwhelming at times, I am so grateful that this charity is starting to develop. This last person that I'm going to tell you about is someone that I found when I was tracting, well to be technical we street contacted her when we were in the process of tracting. Her name is Mary and she is Portuguese from Portugal, well the Azores, but mom you understand.  So it was amazing when we talked with her it was unlike any contact I have ever had, we just talked and explained what we did and she said we could come by whenever we wanted. So we talked on Tuesday morning and boy is she awesome, she has had a lot of Mormon associates in the past and know the Ayers family (the family you're writing to mom, yea that's right I know, I know it all your secret emails, hahahaha) So we have been talking to her and she really wants to know about the church, our stand points, our doctrine and what we really believe and know to be true. It warms my heart truly to talk with her and all my other investigators I have a special place in my heart for every one of them.

 I'm out of time, I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you about my members but I will next Monday and I'll talk more about my trainee and everything that's going on, I hope you like my email this week if you want anything more or to know anything specific let me know so I can help you understand more of my life and how I am doing. I love you all very much and thank you for everything you have done, are doing and will do with me and the Lord.

 With much love: Elder Jason A. Glowa

 P.S

Alright so the first to pictures are of me getting my call from President Gonzalez and the last one is one I took when I was on an exchange with Elder Nielsen (we were waiting for a member and noticed that he had a boat and took some awesome pictures one is called "ON WARD TO ADVENTURE!"

There is nothing better then going out and giving 110 %

                             WEEK 48 , REEDLEY , CALIFORNIA

Hola Everyone,

 

Ok so this week I have to keep it short because I don't have much time because we have a ton to get done.

 I pretty much said alot of what is going on in my last email. We finished up our training from president and boy is it amazing. I loved it, applying it has made me a way better teacher and more important a better listener. I'm glad we had training meetings but I am also glad they are over because now we can get out and work till we crash again! I"m so excited and happy!

There is nothing better then going out and giving 110 % and coming home super tired. That is such a great life, you meet and make alot of great friends and people out here. I can't believe some of the experiences that I have had. It's crazy, I know that the gospel is true and that all of the things we talk about bring us closer to God but I never imagined in my wildest dreams how many miracles and people who are ready to hear the gospel that I would meet.

 

There are no words to describe the great love and power that I am able to feel as a servant of the Lord.There are so many things I still need to do. I see around me so many people who are hurt or in need of comfort and it's amazing to know that I can help them. Serving others is such a great feeling and calling. I know that it is something that I will not only do on my mission but through out my life.

 

Blessings are pouring in and I know that I have my Heavenly Father watching over me to make sure that I'm alright and that nothing happens that I can't handle. Right now we are in the main stages of finding new investigators but we are being so blessed with the inspiration that we need to move the work forward. We are going to take this week and put the petal to the metal. I'm so excited for all the time we have to work this week. So here we go pushing forward for our mission goal of 1200 baptisms!

 

Thank you for all the prayers and love that you have for me, there are so many things I wish I could say to you guys face to face but I guess it will just have to wait, know that I'm safe and happy and most of all health.

 

Love Elder Jason A. Glowa

Dear blog readers: The last four weeks of Elder Glowa's letters were only posted now because I was away in Portugal !!!

                    WEEK 47 ....... REEDLEY, CALIFORNIA

Hola from California where the work is amazing and the summer is winding down.

Ok so first off I want to say wow the back yard looks completely different. It looks so cool, I wish I could have helped with that but it looks awesome. So is Thomas buried under the tiger fountain or just next to it? Anyway it's so nice and weird to think that things are changing back home. I knew they would but its funny to think of peoples lives moving forwards.

My companion if I haven't mentioned this before is leaving to go home in 4 weeks. It's crazy, he isn't thinking about home at all ,he is really focused but we have had talks about stuff like that at night, it's scary to think that I have been out on my mission for 11 months, I don't like to think about that at all, I really don't want to leave. There are alot of Elders I know that are leaving.  Basically in 2 transfers half the mission will be different.

It's a scary thing to think that I'm getting old in the mission. But I can take comfort that I am still a Jr companion. I think it would be super fun to be a leader but I'm completely content with what the Lord needs me to do. Alot of Elders especially at my state in the mission really want leadership positions and place such a focus on it that honestly their works suffers. It's sad and I do not want to be like that, so come what may I will bear what the Lord calls me to bear.

So this week we have had alot of meetings. We are getting trained on becoming better teachers and it is so amazing to see the blessings, and the way peoples attitude change as we focus on them and not just checking off a box for baptism. It is so amazing to feel the spirit, I have learned in this past week as well as my mission to feel it out and use it and work with it. I often remember back to when I was first in the MTC and the difference in who I am and how I talk, teach, act and am.

Apart from meetings and proslighting we got to go to the church's vineyard and pick grapes to lay them out to make raisins for the bishop's store house. It was amazing, I am able to say that I have worked in the Lord's vineyard and have plucked the fruit for the blessings of his children.

Life is so amazing, Dad thank you for always being a great priesthood bearer and mentor. You have really shown me how to be a righteous man of God. Mom what can I say, would I have been the same if it had not been for you. No I wouldn't be .Thank you both of you for raising me and for always staying true to the gospel, because of you I am here and am experiencing the most joy I could ever feel. Thank you so much for your shining example and the love I can feel from you.

I heard this quote a couple of weeks ago and I really like it's "Remember to always stay true in the darkness and stay humble in the spotlight" (Ezra Taft Benson) Keep that close to your heart and all will be well. I Love you all very much with a love I'll only be able to show you in person so I'm sorry but your just going to have to wait and see it.

Love Elder Jason A. Glowa

P.S.

Tell Johnny I say hi and that I love him. And tell him to write me back as well as Pauline, and all thoughts people I wrote to like 5 months ago. I'm not really getting to much mail and I realize its because no on is writing me back. so if you could gentle remind then that would be awesome. Thank you so much!

Date sent AUGUST 30th 2010 ( the week Thomas the cat died)

                    WEEK 46 .....   REEDLEY , CALIFORNIA

          Life is really bitter sweet

Hello everyone,

So for thoughts of you who don't know that will read this email my cat, the Great Fat Thomas met his maker last week. Alright Elder Glowa may seem like a strong individual with a big heart and strong faith and testimony, but I'm sad. Most will read this and think that it's just some kid crying over spilled milk, but it really isn't . Alot of people don't know that great bond and fun that I was able to have with my cat. I have had him since i was 7 and we grew up together. The point of this experience and me telling it is not to vent or for people to feel sorry for me but it is to tell you that when we are doing the greatest of all good. The biggest trials in life will come.

Now think about this for a second, we are commanded and told to be righteous and be the best we can be and what do we see when that happens. Great joy but we also see extreme heartache. I guess that means I'm doing my job...........(wow that joke is really depressing)

Anyway in more fun and happy news we were able to have a baptism yesterday for Amanda and Adam Harris!

It was awesome, their dad got to baptize them. The family was pretty less active and so it was beautiful to see their father there and to have him be worthy to baptize them. I will forever remember them and that beautiful service, testimonies were given left right and centre. The spirit was really powerful. This miracle was amazing, I am so happy that the Lord saw fit to bless me with the opportunity to teach and know the Harris family, they really are amazing.

In some final wrap up new, we had mini missionaries with us this week and so I had a mini for 3 days his name was Elder Jolley and we had a blast tracking and contacting people and the two minis that were with us had a great time seeing the baptism. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful experiences I can have as a servant of the Lord. This is His work and glory and I am so grateful to be able to help Him in His purpose.

I want to leave my testimony that even though life can and will be hard at times it doesn't mean God isn't there. He is there I know that He is and I know that He loves everyone with a love that we cannot even begin to imagine. Think of the pain He feels letting things happen to us, but He loves us enough to step back and let us do our very best. I know Christ lives, He is the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. We all have the opportunity to help Him as we go forth examples to the people of the world.

Thank you for everything you guys are amazing, don't ever forget that Elder Glowa Loves you all.

Love Elder Jason A. Glowa