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