December 1

Hola,

Well first off, I don't know if you have seen this or not, but the church released a new video for Christmas, He Is the Gift.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzjFEMmM0Xs  Give it a watch when you have a couple minutes.  Speaking of Christmas, that seems to be what is on everybody's mind here in Mexico.  A lot of the houses we have gone into have had Christmas music playing, and I've already seen several cars with Christmas trees tied on top.  I've heard that the Christmas season is a good time for missionary work, because a lot of people are thinking of Christ.  So I'm hoping that we'll have lots of success in the coming month.

As far as the people we are teaching here, we have a couple of great families that we're working with.  I think I mentioned a woman we are teaching who is a member but hadn't gone to church for 37 years, if not, I have now.  Anyways, she has a bunch of grandchildren who live in the same house as her, and we've been working with one in particular, who is 11 and wants to get baptized.  The only problem is that we need to get the permission from his mom for him to get baptized, and we haven't had a chance to talk with her.  She told her mom that she doesn't have a problem with him getting baptized, but she wants him to wait until he is 18, so we really want to talk with her and explain some things.  We also have another family we are teaching, and the mom and the kids are very interested.  The problem here is the father.  When it's possible we don't baptize a person without the permission of the spouse, so we are hoping to be able to change his mind.  It's been hard to find him at home though.  Still, we have faith that things will work out.

I'm glad to hear that everything is going well for you.  It sounds like you had a good group over for Thanksgiving. As far as Thanksgiving here goes, I remembered on Saturday when my companion asked me something about black friday that this week had been the week of Thanksgiving.  That's ok though, I'm glad I didn't have any problems that day. I still can't believe how fast the time has passed here.

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

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

P.S.  I think I mentioned in one of my emails to somebody that I would be calling the 24th.  If so, it turns out that is incorrect.  I will be calling the 25th, just to let you know.