Dia de Muertos

Hola,

Dia de muertos is everywhere here. It's actually kind of interesting, because a lot of the decorations are the same type as you would see for Halloween, so it feels a lot like October at home. I guess they have their form of trick or treating that night as well, so it really is a very similar afair. There are some differences though. For example, they have some traditional food that isn't just candy. I really like the pan de muerte. I'm interested to see what the actual day will be like.

We've been keeping busy in this new area. We have two baptisms this coming Saturday, a husband and wife named Felix and Sharon. It's been incredible to see the difference in them from when I first met them. They have both learned to truely trust in the Lord. They had some marriage difficulties a couple weeks ago, and things were getting a bit heated. But rather than seperating, they chose to pray and read the scriptures. When they did this they found the kind of peace that only comes from God, and they chose to work things out. Unless something terrible happens I'll be sending word of how their baptism went next week. We are also teaching a mother and daughter named Heydy and Grecia. They both want to be baptised, but the mom, Heydy, is almost eight months pregnant, and has some fears about what might happen with her pregnancy if she was to be baptised. Still, even if she chooses to wait it won't be for much longer than two months or so. There are also a lot of less actives in this ward, so we keep pretty busy with them. Those that are active are usually pretty helpful in the work though. We have four ward missionaries who actually like to work, and although the ward mission leader is a bit frito, his assitent is very helpful. All in all this is a nice area to work in.

As far as P-day goes we haven't had too many adventures recently. Unless you consider washing clothes and writing emails to be adventures. We did have one interesting experience a couple of weeks ago. We had zone conference in the morning, and decided to go get something to eat in the Chalco plaza, more or less a mall. It's nice to eat there because they have some American food, like KFC and Burger King. Anyways, we were sitting there and we noticed a lady sitting at a table near by. She was having a pretty lively conversation with nobody, and kept saying fairly nonsensicle things to those around her, including to us. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Still, she didn't try to attack anybody, so everything is OK. But yeah, other than that nothing new really.

I'm glad to hear that you guys might have had a chance to catch your breath a bit. You've been keeping pretty busy these past few months. Still, it's better than sitting around doing nothing. That's about all I have for you this week. I love you and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long