Summer

¡Hola!

I haven't had a chance to see The Saratov Approach yet, but it is on my list.  And I think you are right, it may not have been the smartest choice for you to watch it.  But as you said, God watches over his servents, and if something does happen everything will be OK in the end.  And I know there will be difficult times as a missionary.  There have already been some difficulties, but nothing too major yet.  But when the hard times come, I hope that I will follow the example of Peter and John:  And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.  (Acts 5:41)  I also love that right after this experience, they were right back out there teaching.

So, has this summer passed as fast for you as it has for me?  Because everytime I look at the date and see it is the end of July I can't believe it.  This last Saturday marked two months for me in the mission, and I still can't really believe that either.  Time really does work differently here.  I am looking forward to the end of the summer though.  There have been some pretty hot days down here, so I am looking forward to cooler weather.  One of the other elders has said the winters here are pretty cold, but he's from Hawaii so I don't honestly know what to expect.  Still, whatever comes, I know I'll make it through OK.

El Libro de Mormon is coming along a bit slow still, but it's coming.  And as you said, I have noticed some interesting things reading it.  And some enjoyable things as well.  For example, the word for flame in Spanish is llama.  That leads to some interesting mistranslations, like the fact that the justice of God is a llama of fire between the righteous and the wicked.  But other than llama jokes, it has been a good experience reading it in Spanish, and I am actually surprised at how much I understand at times.  As far as the wards work, I am not sure about other areas, but here there are two wards that meet in our ward building, and each ward has two sets of missionaries in it.  And I haven't had to speak in church yet, I've just been asked to bare my testimony.  I also know that the stake here is pretty big.  It takes us an hour by bus to get to the Stake Center.  I know this because we make the trip every Sunday to go to a meeting with the zone leaders because Elder Tadeo is the district leader.  Still, it's actually pretty nice to go there and get to know some of the other missionaries in the zone.  One of the district leaders, Elder Del Angel, has brought a different kind of rubix cube pretty much every week.  I didn't even know they made that many types of rubix cubes.  There have been some that really hurt my head just thinking about them, like the gear cube.  As far as the meals go, I'm not completely sure why they are at 2, because usually the members don't eat with us.

That's about all I've got for you this week.  I love you, and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Culture Shock and Mission President Interview

¡Hola!

It sounds like you guys had fun at the reunion.  It always feels like a bit of a culture shock, to me at least, when we go right from spending time with dad's family to spending time with yours.  Don't get me wrong, I love both sides of the family, but they are very different.  Still, I'm glad you got to spend time with all of them.

As far as things here, things are going along about the same.  We had interviews with President Crickmore on Saturday.  We were able to do my entire interview in Spanish, which I hope is a good sign.  The thing with Spanish is that, at times I feel very comfortable with it.  But at other times I'm still convinced I don't actually know it.  The problem is that, like english, there's more than one way to say things.  So when people say things the way I know, I'm fine.  But otherwise, I sometimes get a bit lost.  Still, that's part of learning a new language, and I feel a lot better with it now than three months ago.

As far as the culture here goes, it is pretty different from the US.  For example, there was a fair in this area for a couple weeks.  There was a ton of stuff for sale, and we walked through it several times, finding things.  Anyways, at one of the stores, being openly displayed, were some completely real, totally not fake 50 peso ($5 US) Ray Bans sunglasses.  If you didn't know, real Ray Bans cost about $150 US bare minimum.  The upside, I now own some completely real, totally not fake Ray Bans.  (shhh.)  This was kind of a culture shock to me, because that kind of thing is usually kept out of the open.  Still, I doubt anyone things they are getting real Ray Bans there.  The people here also like to eat until they cannot move, and expect the missionaries to do the same.  Like, seriously if you aren't taking at least two helpings, they think you hate the food.  So we eat a very big meal with the members, and then much smaller meals during the rest of the day.  Still, the food is pretty good here, so there are worse fates.

I actually read through my patriarchal blessing not to long ago, but I will definitely try to remember to read through it often.  And speaking of patriarchal blessing, Elder Tadeo had left his at home by accident, and had his parents send it to him.  Now, I haven't seen a ton of patriarchal blessings, but his is deffinitely the longest I've seen.  It's five pages long.  Mine is just about a page and a half.  I don't know what all it says, but I do know it said several things about his mission.  For example, he knew he was going to Mexico because of it.  And interestingly enough, people guessed this exact mission as where he was going.  This is mostly because President Crickmore used to be his stake president.  He was actually pretty close to their family before coming out here, so he has a pretty close relationship with President and Sister Crickmore.  Just goes to show how small the world is sometimes.

That's about it for this week.  I love you so much, and look forward to hearing from you again next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

July Heat

Hola,

Well, we still are getting plenty of rain here, so you guys obviously aren't taking enough.  And I'm glad to hear that the rest of your Oregon trip was fun.  Oh, and enjoy the AC for me.  They haven't really heard of it here in Mexico.

There hasn't been much new this week here.  We had divisions Wednesday with Elders Thomson and Diaz, which was OK.  I went over to their area with Elder Diaz, and they have some pretty good investigators they have been teaching.  Oh, and he also bought me some kind of sucker that looks like a whole roasted chicken that I've been to scared to eat.  I keep meaning to ask Elder Tadeo if he has eaten one before, and if so what it tastes like.  You never can be sure with Mexican candy.  We started teaching a new investigator this week, named Sabino.  He lives with a couple of recent converts, a father and son named Luis and Hamberto.  He seems pretty interested, but is a bit hesitant about the whole baptism thing.  I'm sure he'll come around though.

We had a four hour long zone conference this morning, and that's why I'm writing you later today.  I really like the zone leaders, but four hours was too long for everyone.  It started out with a presentation by the zone leaders on working with the members, than the sister training leader, who has the really difficult task of taking care of all two sisters in the zone, her and her companion, and all four of the district leaders in the zone took turns giving presentations.  Then the zone leaders talked for a while more, than we did pauch (pouch, spelled the spanish way.)  There was some really good things said, but ultimately everyone was fried by the end.

Now, as far as the Ordain Women organization is concerned, I read an article that explained it in an interesting way.  It used math, so it was interesting to me at least.  It talked about the potition that they sent to the church.  This potition received 1600 signatures, which is quite a lot of people.  But there are 15,000,000 members.  But lets be fair, and say that since it was just women, and about half the members are women, there are about 7,500,000 members.  Now there are about 300,000,000 citizens of the US.  That's 40 times the amount of women members of the church.  So, 40 * 1600 = 64,000.  That's a pretty significant number.  But, the law of the country says that the white house legally has to respond to any potition that gains more than 100,000 signatures.  That means that the whole movement, if it was on a national scale, would have been completely ignored by anyone of power.  Now the Church obviously hasn't ignored them, but it's interesting to note that everyone makes a big deal about this movement that would be too small to matter to the leaders of the country.  And ultimately, it comes down to the will of God.  All of the members of this movement would probably say something about how the world has changed, and that is why the church needs to change.  But since when has God changed because the world has changed?  Ultimately I think these people need to check their faith.  They all claim to believe this church is true.  But to believe it is true, you have to believe that it is guided by God's prophet.  Now, if you have that faith, how can you doubt the validity of what he says?  I just hope these women come to the realization of this, and return to his true way.  Maybe that sounds chauvenistic coming from a man, but I would hope that if the roles were reversed that I would be on the side of God, not on the side of the world.  (Ok, coming down of my soapbox now.)

I think that's it for me this week.  Sorry about the little mini rant there.  Those women really make me mad, because they feel they know better than God.  I wish they would all give some thought to Proverbs 3:5-6.  5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  He has provided his path for them, and at one point they all accepted it.  But now, they no longer trust what he has told them.  I hope them all the best of luck in finding his path again, and I'm sorry to hear that it has come to the point of excommunication for some of them.  Still, the atonement is infinite, and I hope they all find their way back.  (OK, now I'm coming down of the soapbox.)

Well, sorry this letter is so long, but I've had that on my mind for a while and wanted to share it with someone, so there you go.  I'm glad to hear everything is going great for you guys, and I hope you have fun at the Rassmussen reunion.  I love you lots, and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

P.S.  I've got another picture here for you.  This is how you make an apple pie, Mexican style. 

First Baptism

Hola,

Today marks the last day of my first cycle here in the mission.  These last six weeks have flown by, and I'm sure I'll feel the same way when this whole thing is over.  But for right now, I'm only one cycle in.  They announced the companionship changes yesterday, and only one of the Elders in our district is leaving.  It feels really weird that I won't be seeing him anymore, because we ate lunch with him and his companion pretty much every day.  Still, that's a part of the mission, and things really aren't changing too much for us.

As far as news from here, the baptism went through on Saturday, though not without a hitch.  The baptism was supposed to start at 6, but the ward mission leader, who was supposed to prepare the program, never showed up.  So at about 6:30, we had to start with an improvised program.  Still, everything went OK, and we got her baptized eventually.  There was an incredible spirit there, and I know she is now on the path that will lead her back to her heavenly father.  I'm including a picture.  (Yes I know my hair is kind of long in it.  I got it cut today, so everything is OK.)  Other than that things have continued about the same.  Elder Tadeo is still district leader for the next cycle, but we do have one new zone leader, Elder Lamont.  Elder Lamont was Elder Tadeo's dad, or trainer, so he is my grandfather.  Needless to say Elder Tadeo is pretty excited to be working with him again.

I'm glad to hear everything went well with the Oregon trip.  It's weird to hear that we've had more rain here than you did there.  Did you get to watch fireworks on the beach?  If so, was it super crowded?  On the forth, I had no idea what day it even was until I looked at my planner.  Still, one of the members may have given us some fireworks, and we may have lit them off from the roof.  (Shhhhhh)

I'm glad everything is going well for you guys back at home.  I don't know what I would do without all your support.  I'm doing pretty good, and I promise I'll let you know if I need anything.  I love you.

Love, 

Elder Samuel Long