March 30

Hola,

Well, I can hardly believe it, but we've almost gotten to Easter.  I know that I haven't quite passed the year mark yet, but it is weird to have my first "last time" moment, since this is my last Easter in the mission.  But I guess I have to get used to it, since they'll just be coming more and more frecuently from this point on.  I always love it when conference falls on Easter though, so everythings good.  (Basically I'm trying not to have a mid-mission crisis, so I have to see everything possitively.  I've seen a mid-mission crisis before, and believe me, it's not pretty.)  Speaking of conference, because of the MTC, it's more than likely that I will actually be in home before the next April conference.  Actually, if all goes according to the plan, I'll be home in less than a year.  (AHHHHHH!!!!!)  That's right, my official homecoming date is the 28 of March, so I would plan on that date if I were you.  So, other than the fact that I'm officially old, everything is great.

As far as this week goes, it was pretty good.  I guess I should respond to your request, so I'll give you a layout of one of my days, and by process of elimination (AKA it was the first day that came to mind), I have selected Tuesday.  (I didn't almost put Martes there.  Absolutely not.  I can still speak ingles.  (That one was in fact intentional.  It's one of those joke things that don't come out so well when you write them out.  (Parenception)))  OK, so, Tuesday.  Well, we actually had divisions with the zone leaders on Tuesday, but I stayed in my area with Elder Smith  (I know, so surprising that there is an Elder Smith in the mission.  Actually, there are two that I know of, and they are both zone leaders.  They've both been my zone leader now.  To keep them straight, this is the cowboy Elder Smith, and the other one is the one that isn't a cowboy.  Lots of parentheses today.  Sorry.), so it still counts.  So, we woke up and did the study thing, then left.  The day started out a bit slow, and we had some problems finding people in home.  But after about an hour of searching for people, we managed to find an investigator named Elizabeth in home.  We had a pretty good lesson with her about priesthood authority and the need of prophets, then we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon.  After that, we went to the house of some members, the Abraham family.  When we knocked their son Noe (Noah in Spanish.  Yeah, his name is Noah Abraham.) answered.  I had never met him before, but he invited us in, so we entered.  We started talking to us, and explained that he isn't a member.  He told us that he's Catholic, but he isn't active in the church.  He also told us he has had some problems with drugs and alcohol, and that he wants to change.  So we had a pretty good lesson with him, then we went to the food.  This month we've eaten with the mother of the Relief Society president every Tuesday, so we ate with her.  She makes pretty good food though, so that's OK.  This day she made cream of chayote, and... I don't remember what else.  Sorry, it's been almost a week.  Anyways, after eating we went and visited the Brady family.  Yeah, I'm still not completely sure how, but an american has ended up here in our area, gotten married, and has no intention of returning to the United States.  Still, he found the church here, and got baptized, so that's good I guess.  Anyways, the lessons are always fun with him, because he is just a little bit crazy.  Still, the lesson this day wasn't too bad.  After that we went to the chaple because we teach English lessons on Tuesday.  After the English lessons we had to wait for some other missionaries to come because they left one of the gates of the church unlocked, and they are the only missionaries that have the key.  So, after a fairly long, rainy wait, we went to one final lesson with some recent converts, and then we ended the divisions and Elder Ortiz and I went home.

Well, other than that, things were more or less the same.  We had a Multi-zone conference on Friday that lasted eight hours.  Still, it was pretty good, and they found real cuties (the fruit) somewhere, so all in all it was pretty good.  Just a bit too long.  Like four hours.  Other than that, everything was pretty much the same.

OK, I think that's about it for me this week.  I hope everything stops breaking in home soon.  Still, it sounds like everything is good there except for the appliances though, so I'm glad for that.  Keep me up to date on everything, and don't worry, I'm doing good here.

OK, I'll let you go now.  I love you, and I'll talk to you next week.  Let me know which conference talk was your favorite.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

March 23

Hola,

Well, after reading all the letters from the family, I think I need to answer the important question, mashed potatoes.  I think it says something about me that all of the letters this week talked about mashed potatoes.  (More than I can say about Matt getting engaged.)  So, to answer your question, yes and no.  They do eat mashed potatoes here, but not like we do in Utah.  The most common way is in quesadillas. (Mexicans are geniouses.)  So, I have had mashed potatoes, or puree de papa, so you can all relax, I think.

Now that I've gotten the important stuff out of the way, this week was pretty good, although I have started to realize why they usually change our missionaries every three months or so.  Don't get me wrong, I love this area, and my companion, but after awhile you start to fall into a routine, and I've noticed that this has started to happen with us.  But, we have a plan.  There is a fairly large part of our area where we hardly ever go, and we have decided that every day we are going to dedicate some time to this area.  The best part is that after we decided this, we were told that they are probably going to devide our area after this cycle, and we would have the part that I was talking about as our area.  The only thing that worries me is that this part of the area is built on a hill, so it's going to be a bit difficult the first few days.  Still, it should be a good experience.  So, I'll let you know how things go with that.

Other than that, things are about the same.  Our very pregnant investigator had her baby, so that makes things a bit difficult as far as teaching her goes.  Still, she's in home now with the new born and her four year old daughter who is not very used to the idea of silence, so hopefully we'll be able to see her again soon.  It does help that her husband is a doctor.  Other than that, it's the same old same old here.

Well, that's about it for me this week.  It sounds like you had a pretty interesting week though.  Are you happy or sad that you're leaving the primary?  It has been an good experience for me being in the gospel principles class, and I hope you enjoy it.  I actually really like it, because it explains really well all the fundamental beliefs of the church, from the creation and the fall of Adam, to the eternal life and everything in between.  It's a great refresher course of the gospel.  I'm also glad to hear that things are going well in school.  It is rare to hear about you going on a fishing trip with one of your friends.  (XD)  Still, I'm glad everything turned out OK with the fire.  Oh, and the pens were perfect.  You'll have to tell me where you found them.

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

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

March 16 - Pie or Pi (or Pee)

Hola,

Well, I can legally drink now. I was in fact aware that it was the ultimate pi day (Except for March 14, 1592 at 6:53 and 59 seconds). Except that here, it wasn't even pi day. When they write the date here, they put the day first, probably because it makes sense that way. That means that my birthday is 14/3, and that pi day doesn't exist. And pi is pronounced like pee, so they wouldn't eat pie even if it did exist. Still, it was a pretty good birthday. We helped a family move about a ton of wet sand from the ground floor to the roof of their house so that they can build a third floor. Then they gave us pasole and "cake", which was actually cinnamon rolls bathed in carmel. Still, it was pretty good, and it's always nice to do service for others. I will actually always remember it as one of my favorite birthdays. And thank you for the package, even though it didn't make it to my birthday unopened. (Oops.) Cinnamon candies aren't my favorite, but I do like them, and everything else was great. After 11 months, I'm always glad to see new socks, and I was very happy to have contacts again, but I had to explain to everyone why I didn't have my glasses anymore.

Other than the fact that I'm officially old, today is the last day of the cycle/transfer/I still don't know how to speak English. So, I bet your wondering where I'm going. Well, the answer is... nowhere. That's right, I'm staying in my area. Now I bet your wondering where my companion is going. The answer is... nowhere. That's right, odd as it may seem, I'm staying with Elder Ortiz for another six weeks. (Take that English. That's the secret with a foreign language, if you don't know how to say something, you find a way around it.) I guess we still have something we need to do together. That's OK though, neither one of us wanted to leave, so we're both happy. From what we've heard, not too many people have changes this time around. Only one of the elders in my district, Elder Bramble, is leaving. Poor guy's going back to Valle de Chalco. Other than that, just one of the zone leaders is leaving.

Other than that, things are pretty good here in Ayotla. I'm sorry my last couple letters were a bit more on the down side, we were just having a bit of a rough spell. Still, things are looking up, and I'm ready to face what comes.

I'm sorry to hear about your loooooooooooong week. And to top it off, they didn't even invite you to Oregon with them. Still, it sounds like the weather is nice at least. Here in my area, the weather is pretty nice as well, but there is at least one area in the mission that has snow in it right now, and it's an area with sister missionaries. The world is a strange place sometimes, snow in Mexico and flowers in Utah.

OK, I think that's about it for me this week. I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,
Elder Samuel Long, el viejito

March 9

Hola,

Well, another week has come and gone, and I still can't believe how fast the time is going.  I really can't believe that my birthday is coming up in less than a week.  I still can't really believe I'm 20, I'm not ready to be 21.  Still, you can't stop time, you just have to make the most of the time you have.  I hope I will be able to say that I did that in the end.  (Sorry, my deep thought mode turned on for a second there.  Must be because I'm freaking old now.)

As far as this week goes, it was pretty good.  Except one of our investigators and his girlfriend had a pretty hard breakup this week, and he left our area and went who knows where.  Still, this has acctually happened with him in the past, and he came back, so we'll see what happens.  Other than that, things are more or less the same here.  We're entering into week 6 of this cycle/transfer/I can't speak English anymore, and we're starting to get those "What's going to happen?" nerves.  Still, it's a week more, so we still have time.  But the next time I write you, I'll know more or less what's going to happen.

Other than that, things keep going like they do.  We have some really good people that we are teaching, but we've had some difficulties as well.  Recently, we had an investigator inform us that she is no longer interested in hearing us.  It really hurt, because we had a lot of confidence that she was going to progress.  Still, we have to respect everyone's beliefs.  But's it's always difficult when something like that happens.  Still, that quote you put in your email does help.  Really, this life is full of difficulties, something I have come to understand a bit better here in the mission.  But ultimately everything works out in the end.  During my time here, I've really learned that this understanding is the heart of a lovely thing with feathers that pearches in the soul we call hope.  (Poetry referance FTW)   More than anything, hope is something that we should never lose, because we know that God has promised us everything he has, up to and including being coheirs with Christ, and that he WILL complete his promises.  With that knowledge, there should be nothing in this life that kills our hope that everything will be all right, the hope, as Ether said, of a better world.  So, thank you for that inspiring quote, and I will try my hardest to put it into practice this week.

OK, I think that's about it for me this week.  I'm doing good, and it sounds like everything is OK in home.  I love you, and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

March 2

Hola,

First things first, the news pretty much doesn't get to us, so I actually hadn't heard anything about Leonard Nemoy until now.  It's sad to hear, but he did in fact live long and prosper.  I do wonder what they're going to do in the star trek movies now though.  Probably send William Shatner in as his replacement.  Or just ignore his existence from now on.  Still, he always seemed like one of those celebrities that would always be around, so it's weird to hear he's gone.  Still, that's part of life I guess.

As far as things here, this week was pretty good, but I'm pretty sure that President Crickmore hasn't stopped his prayers yet.  Good news, we had an investigator come to church after a couple of weeks working with her.  Her name is Laura, and she is very interested in the church.  If all goes according to plan, she should be getting baptized on the 21st of this month, but we'll see what happens, or if I'm still here on the 21st.  Other than that, things are more or less the same here, we're still working, and we still manage to find some people to teach.

As far as science fairs go, it could be worse.  To see what I mean, look up cup of dirt by Brian Reagan.  Still, I'm sorry to hear it was hard.  I would like to see that project on the negative affects of science fairs on families.  Maybe next year someone will follow through on it.  Oh, and I give the new church arangements about as long as the last ones lasted.  Maybe not, but I don't see it lasting.  And careful what you say, being a junior high teacher is a fate I wouldn't wish upon anybody.  It turns you into Mrs. Jamison.  Just think about it.

Ok, I think that's about it for me.  Thank you so much for your love and support.  I love you, and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

February 23

Hola,

Well, this week was interesting.  More than anything, I learned this week that God truely does answer prayers.  I learned this because of something my companion, Elder Ortiz, told me.  He had a leadership conference that he went to on Wednesday, in which President Crickmore talked.  Elder Ortiz said that as part of this talk, he said that he was praying for all the missionaries in the mission to have problems, so that they could learn.  Well, God answered his prayer.  Not that this week was necesarily bad, just a bit more problematic than usual.  We had problems finding people in their homes, we had the weirdest divisions with the zone leaders that I have had in my entire mission, and I've had a lot of divisions with zone leaders.  Basically, it wasn't necessarily a bad week, but it's not a week I want to repeat any time soon.  Still, there was a lot of good as well, and I've felt God's love for me as well.

As far as the good things go, there's a pretty good list.  We found some pretty good new investigators this week.  They're pretty interested in learning more, but they've been pretty busy with school.  Their schedule is supposed to ease up in March though, so we'll see what happens with them.  We also had an investigator who left for some time return.  He's been progressing a bit slowly, but I still feel that we'll see good things from him, especially because he is really interested in the church, and his girlfriend is a member.  We also had a trip to the visitors center yesterday, which he came to.  He felt really good their, and I think it really helped him a lot.  I guess we did have a pretty good week all in all.

I'm sorry to hear that it's still super dry there.  I hope things change soon, the snow is the most important water that Utah gets every year.  Still, there's still time for a couple of good storms to help you out.  As far as the weather goes here, we still have a bit of time before the storms start up, but we've gotten a couple of showers.  More than anything, it's just hot.

I think that's about it for me.  I picked up my birthday package today, so don't worry about that.  One suggestion that somebody gave me about the packages is that there's a better chance of them getting here without problems if you put some catholic stickers on it, like Jesus or the Virgen.  Just an idea.  I love you, and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

February 16

Hola,

Well, another week has come and gone here in the mission.  This week was pretty good, except that nobody was in their house on Valentine's Day.  Other than that though, things went pretty well.  I've just about gotten used to this area, and I'm pretty sure that means we'll be having special changes this week.  But in all honesty, it's a pretty good ward, and a pretty good group of missionaries here.  I must admit that I'm having some problems thinking of what to tell you.  We spent a lot of time this week knocking on doors without too much success.  I guess we all have times like that though.  I try to remember that Jesus went through all this before, and it does help me a bit.  One story in particular comes to mind.  Fairly early on in his ministry, Christ left Jerusalem and passed through Samaria.  While there he taught a woman by Jacob's well, and later on managed to teach pretty much the entire town where he was.  However, on another occasion he passed through this same area, but this time in the direction of Jerusalem.  This time nobody wanted to hear him, just because he was entering into Jerusalem, instead of leaving it.  It's interesting to see the difference between these two visits.  The gospel was the same, Jesus was still the son of God, but for stupid pride the people lost their chance to hear him teach.  I feel that all people, even members of the church, have moments like this, where we let stupid little worries get in the way of spiritual growth.  I guess it's like an article I read in the January Liahona.  It talks about a man who was on an archiological trip in Guatemala.  He was traveling to the site in a boat at night, and he was trying to keep his sense of direction by finding the north star.  At one point, he found it and felt like he was doing pretty good, until he realized that his "star" was in fact a firefly.  It then talked about how even though the stars shine a lot brighter than fireflies, because the firefly was closer than the stars, it seemed as bright, if not brighter than the stars.  It then explained that our lives are often like this.  Sometimes when we have problems, we lose sight of our eternal perspective because the problems are some much more prominent in our lives at the given moment.  But, like the firefly, the problem really is nothing too big in comparison with the reward that waits for us, we just have troubles seeing it sometimes.  So, all in all, I'm trying to focus more on the stars, and less on the fireflies here.  And really, things are going good, we just had a week that wasn't so good.

Well, other than that, things are about the same here.  Everybody still speaks Spanish.  At times that fact hits me, that everybody here speaks Spanish, and that I can understand them, and speak to them in Spanish as well.  I'm still not sure how that happened.  Oh well, it's a crazy world sometimes.

I'm glad to hear that everything is going well for you at home.  I do miss Lori's wit at times.  She has a very unique way of seeing the world, but in a good way.  Sorry this is a kind of short one, the time passed me by too fast today.  Take care, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

February 9

Hola,

Well, it's a small world.  We had the transfers/changes/whatever this week, and while my companion and I stayed together, one of the elders in our district left, and Elder Bramble took his place.  We ate together on wednesday and we started talking about where we are from.  He asked me first, and I said the Salt Lake Valley because if there is one thing I've learned during my time here in Mexico is that pretty much nobody knows where West Valley is.  Then I asked him, and he said he was from West Valley.  I started asking where and pretty soon we figured out that we are from the same stake.  I was actually going to say something about it in my letter this week, but I guess you beat me to it.  So to answer your question, we have in fact met.  

Other than that things are going more or less the same here.  We had a zone conference today that was entirely about numbers.  Seriously, the first thing the zone leaders did was write the number of lessons and things like that from this last week, and from a month ago on the white board.  They then proceded to talk to us for two hours and the only thing they really said was that they were better than a month ago, but that they need to be even better.  Basically, the zone leaders here love numbers.  Now, I know that the numbers are an important tool for us.  They help us see what we're doing well, and what we can improve on.  My problem was that we spent two hours talking about them, and basically acomplished nothing doing so.  Still, it could be worse.  My first zone conference in the mission lasted almost four hours.

I think that's about it for me this week.  As far as money goes, we have a seperate account that the mission uses to deposite money for food and things like that.  We get about 120 dollars per month, and we have a debit card that we use to withdraw it.  Basically, pretty much all the money that I've spent from my account is because 120 dollars don't go a long way in a month, especially when you have an area where you have to travel a lot, like my last area.  Still, like you said I still have money left in my account, I just don't want to use it up too fast.  And when I do use it I pretty much always use it in an ATM because of the nasty foreign fees that come everytime I think too hard about using it.

Oh, and you said something about my spelling being so good.  That's because I have to think about what I'm doing, or Spanish starts coming out.  Seriously, last week I started writing your letter, and I wasn't paying too much attention.  When I looked up, I had written a couple of lines in Spanish.  I guess that comes with the mission.  I think I will have forgotten English completely by the time I am done here.

OK, I love you and I'll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long