Hola,
First off, I'm sorry for any spelling errors that come up in this letter. Somebody had the clever idea of putting the finger mark for the left hand on the H instead of on the J, and it's throwing me off really bad. Just a heads up if some gibberish comes up.
So, my week was interesting, to say the least. We started off with a lovely stomach bug that pretty much took everything out of us for a couple days. The bad part lasted until Wednesday, so on Thursday we were feeling a bit better. However, I got a call saying that I had to go to the immigration office in Polanco to renew my green card Thursday in the morning. So that pretty much got rid of Thursday as far as work goes. Then on Friday we had the conference with Elder Bednar, which originally was supposed to start at 9. Then it got pushed back to 1, and he didn't end up getting there until about 2:30. By the time we got done with everything in Chalco and got back to our area it was about 8:30 at night. So, this week we hardly saw our area. Needless to say, it makes missionary work a bit difficult when you can't go to your area. Still, not everything was bad, so that's OK.
So, after that resumen, I'll get to the good stuff. First off, Polanco. Polanco is a part of the DF, what we know of as Mexico City. It's a fairly nice part of the city, but it's where all the Jews live, so, from what I've heard, it's not actually open to missionary work. But it's probably had more missionaries pass through it than any other part of the city because all of the foreigners from the Mexico City missions have to go there for their visa stuff. So, we got to Chalco about 8:30 in the morning, and we left the offices about 9 to go to Polanco. Generally when you go to Polanco you go with all of the people that got to Mexico with you. However, all of the americans that got here with me went home for sickness, so it was just me and Elder Hall and the secretaries. So, we got there about 11, and actually got through everything fairly fast, since it was just me doing things. So after that we went to a store called american kosher. This store is wonderful because they sell all sorts of american sodas and things like that. So I stocked up a bit on things like cream soda and miracle whip. (Don't judge me. It's been over a year since I've eaten miracle whip.) Then we went back to Chalco and back to our area. Basically it's fun to go there every once in awhile, but I've heard it's actually one of the more stressful parts of the secretaries' job, more than anything because they have to do all the paperwork part.
Obviously, the best part of the week was the mission conference with Elder Bednar. The only bad part was the wait at the beginning. Especially since we were waiting outside, in the sun, in suits. We were outside because we took a mission picture with him when he first got there. That was worth the wait, but it wasn't the most fun wait I've had. Anyways, after that we went inside and stated the conference. Elder Bednar is traveling with Elder DeHoyos, the area president of Mexico. So he started off talking a little bit about the blessings of serving a mission. Then Elder Bednar got up, and told us that he would be doing things a bit differently. He told us that he wasn't going to be talking to us, rather talking with us. When you hear a member of the 12 say that, you have two simultaneos reactions. First off, you are happy to have the chance to talk directly with an apostle of the Lord. But at the same time, you feel scared to death about talking directly with an apostle of the Lord. He explained that this is because we like to play a game in the church called: guess what's in my head. Basically that's when a teacher, or whoever, calls on somebody and asks a question expecting the exact answer they have in their head. He then told us that we would not be playing that game. Instead, he basically gave us a model of how we should teach as missionaries, although it can be applied to any teacher in the church. First off, he assigned us three talks that he had given to read as homework. Then he started off asking us what we had liked from the talks. When somebody answered, he started inspired questions to find out why that part had stuck out, to find out what the person needed to hear. Then he explained a bit more about the principle, guided by the spirit, basically helping fill the need. Then he moved on to the next person. He followed this system for awhile, then explained that he had been showing us a pattern of teaching that we should put in practice. Ultimately it was a very good experience, and I'm hoping to be able to change the way I teach to help those around me more.
Well, that's about it for me this week. I'm glad to hear that things are going good, if a bit crazy, at home. I love you and I'll talk to you later.
Love,
Elder Samuel Long
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