The Last One...

Hola,

I'm not sure how to start this one.  The time has gone by so fast.  When I got to the MTC, this day seemed so far away.  Now it feels like it went by in a flash.  These really have been the best two years of my life, and I'm glad that I could experience them.

As far as these last couple of days, not too much happens.  We have the changes meeting tomorrow in the morning in Amecameca.  In the evening we will be going to the Crickmore's house in Morelos to eat dinner.  I don't know what we'll be doing in the time between, but we'll see.  After the dinner we go to the mission house in Chalco to sleep, and Wednesday they take us to the airport.  Nobody else from the mission will be going to Salt Lake, but a lot of missions have their changes this week, so it's probable that there will be a couple other missionaries at the very least on my flight.  So I shouldn't be alone.

That's about it for me.  I don't have too much to say because I know we'll be able to talk in person in a couple of days.  

I love you, and I want to thank you for all your love and support these last couple of years.  I'll see you on Wednesday.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

The Penultimate Letter Home

Hola,

Another week has come and gone, and the time keeps going faster and faster.  I still can't believe that we're almost done with March.  It's started to sink in that I'll be going home next week, but I'm going to try to stay focused this week.

As far as news goes, not too much to report.  Jaqueline came by herself to church yesterday, which is a very good sign.  Aldo still hasn't been able to come, but he's seeing what he can do.  We didn't find anyone new to teach this week, but we're doing what we can.  We had a multizone conference on Friday, and we talked more than anything about a talk that President Uchtdorf gave a few years ago called Lift Where You Stand and Lift Together.  It talks about the importance of serving in the possition that the Lord gives you.  It was a good conference.  And on Saturday I had my last interview with President Crickmore, which was a really good experience.  He told me that coming home from the mission is a bit like a hungry person going to a buffet.  You're free to choose what you want to do, but if you try to eat everything at once, you'll get sick.  So basically he told me to take it slow, but to enjoy the freedom.

That's about it for news this week.  I'm glad you had a good trip down south.  And I'm sorry politics are so crazy.  I think Utah voting democrat is one of the signs of the second coming, so we might be close.  

I got Lori's birthday card, but I haven't gotten any others.  They might get here by late June.  And you can write me next week if you want.  I probably won't say too much next week since it will be two days before I'm home.  But it's basically a normal P-day.

That's it for me this week.  I love you and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Birthday

Hola,

Another week has come and gone, and we're almost half way through March.  I honestly can't believe that I'm 22 now.  I was just getting used to being 21.  So far it's been a good birthday.  We went to the offices this morning to pick up my debit card. In the afternoon a sister in the ward has invited us to eat pozole and cake, so that should be fun.

As far as news goes, there's not too much to report.  We started teaching Aldo's sister, but we've only had one quick lesson with her, so we'll see what happens when we've taught her a bit more.  Other than that, we had a ward Family Home Evening that went OK.  The message was about prophets, and it went well.  But the game could have been better.  We had decided when organizing it that we were going to do charades.  But the Elders that were putting it together decided to do Family Fued, or 100 Mexicanos dijeron in Mexico.  And they did a kind of poor job.  But that's OK.  Other than that, on Saturday we went to the Visitors Center in a stake activity, and it went well.  It's probably the last time I'll go in my mission, so I enjoyed it.  One of my companions who finished in January, Elder Palacios, was there with his little sister, so he joined with our group for a little while.  He also started his mission in the area I'm in now, so he knows a lot of the people in the area.  It was interesting to see him again, but he hasn't changed too much.

That's it for news from here.  They do change time here, but not until the weekend after I come home.  So right now it's the same time here and there.  That answers my question about the time on the flight itinerary.

That's it for me.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Busy in the field

Hola,

I'm very short on time today, so this will have to be a short one.  I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write you a good letter for a while.  Things have been busy for me the last couple of weeks, and it looks like that might continue.

This was a good week.  All our investigators are still progressing, but it's been a fight to find new people to teach.  Still, the members support us a lot, so that's good.  Even our investigators have been helping us find people to teach.  Aldo and Jaqueline have given us two referals now, but things didn't turn out that well.  One wasn't interested, and the other lives rather far from our area.  But that's still more referals than I've received in some areas.  Other than that, not too much to report this week.

I'm glad to hear your lesson went well.  And that the science fair is over.  I can only imagine how stressful it is as a teacher to deal with the science fair.

OK, that all for this week. I love you and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Some pictures from the paint war.

31 More Days!!!

Hola,

Well, another week has come and gone, and we've come to the end of February.  I know it's the shortest month of the year, but it went by way faster than normal.  But that's how these things go I guess.

This was a good week.  We started teaching a new investigator who came to church by himself last Sunday.  His name is Ismael, and he's very interested.  The hard part is that he's a cop and has a very hard schedule.  He works every other day for the entire day, and that's if they don't need him for more time.  This week, for example, he had to work non-stop from Wednesday to Friday.  It also makes it harder for him to go to church because he works every other Sunday.  But I feel that he'll find the way to arrange his schedule because he wants to draw closer to God and make some changes.  Other than that, we had a Family Home Evening on Friday with the ward.  At the end we played a version of Jeopardy that one of the counselers of the Bishopric put together.  He included things from the scriptures and from popular culture so that everyone could participate.  I found out that I still remember the names of all of the Beatles, so that's good I guess.  And we had an investigator come to the activity and to church yesterday.  I think I've mentioned her before.  Her name is Jaqueline, and her and her husband, Aldo, have been listening to us for a couple of weeks now.  They are both very interested in the church, but Aldo works on Sunday.  He works for his parents, and says that he doesn't want to leave them without help on Sunday, which is one of their busier days.  But he's considering looking for a new job, so that's good.  We'll see what happens with them I guess.

That's it for news from these parts.  They are changing the mission house, so we had to help move all the stuff to the new house this morning.  I'm happy to help, but it took a lot longer than we had planned.

There aren't any traditions that I'm aware of for leap days here.  I'm glad you're enjoying the new truck.  Nobody has told me what type of truck it is, or if the girls have given it a name yet.  So let me know.

That's it for me.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Short Ones 2/8, 2/15 and 2/22

Hola,

Today's going to be a quick one.  The to-do list today got the best of us, so we don't have too much time.

As far as news goes, not too much to report.  We had a Family Home Evening with the ward on Friday, which went OK.  The couple who prepared the lesson did a good job, but it went too long for that kind of thing.  And like everything in the church, it started late.  Other than that, they told us today that in a couple of weeks Elder Oaks is coming to the mission, so that should be interesting.  

That's about it for news today.  Like I was saying, this is more of a "I'm still alive" letter. 

I love you, and I'll try to write more next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Hola,

Well, another week has passed us by.  And as you've noticed, I'm officially in my last transfer/cycle/whatever.  Surprisingly enough, I didn't have changes this time around.  It's looking like I'll be ending my mission here in Anahuac.  There are worse things that could happen.  My companion, Elder Orozco, doesn't have changes either, so it looks like he'll be my last one.

As far as news goes, I had a good week.  The biggest news from the Mexico side of things is that the Pope came this weekend.  So all the Catholics have been pretty excited.  On Saturday the sister who we ate with had the news on with all the Pope coverage.  It was interesting seeing the reaction the people had.  It felt more like a celebrity was coming then someone that they feel represents God.  To each their own I guess.

This week we found a couple new investigators that look pretty interested.  It's a young couple who live above a couple of members.  They introduced us to them and like I said, they seem very interested.  They both expressed the desire to draw closer to God, so I have faith that they'll progress.  Other than that, not too much to report.

That's about it for me.  I had a good Valentine's day.  Here they call it él día del amor y la amistad, or the day of love and friendship.  The primary president signed up to feed all six of us here in the ward, and she makes incredibly good food.  And we hardly ever eat together, so it was a nice change.  I hope you had a nice Valentine's day.  Dad mentioned something about nuts and a picture of a squirrel, so it sounds like it was interesting at the very least.

I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Hola,

I don't have too much time, so another quick one today.  I'm sorry I haven't been able to write a lot the last couple of weeks.  Sometimes Mondays can be a bit busy.

This week was a very busy week.  On Tuesday we got a call telling us that a brother in the ward had died unexpectedly.  Because of that, pretty much no Melchizedek priesthood holder could go to help the family.  So we went to help them out.  We ended up giving blessings to the entire family.  Still, he was an active member sealed in the temple, so I'm confident that he's resting from his cares right now.  Other than that, we had a conference with Elder Whitney L. Clayton and Paul B. Pieper of the seventy in Cuautla.  They talked about a recent broadcast about teaching repentence and baptizing converts.  In particular they talked about what makes someone a convert.  It was a good conference, but we are a long ways away from Cuautla here.  So we spent more time traveling than anything else.  And yesterday I also gave a talk.  I talked about the importance of, and the way to, preach the gospel.  They informed me Friday night so I didn't have a ton of time to prepare, but I felt it went well.

That's about it for news today.  I'm going to take some money out tomorrow morning.  And don't worry about the card, I know that things don't always work out very well in the post system here,  And I loved your talk about love.  I had never really thought about it that way, but you're right about the imperfect love we often have here.  I hope you know that I love you.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

New Investigators

Hola,

Well, here we are again.  January went by way too fast, but what can you do?  I really can't believe we're already in February.  It looks like the days are just going to keep passing by faster and faster.  But I've still got a couple of months left, so I'm just planning on making the most of the time I've got left.

As far as news goes, we found a couple of new investigators this week.  Two in particular, Blanca, the mother, and Estefania, the daughter, are pretty interested.  They actually contacted us in the street.  The only problem is that the father is only home during the weekend, and he doesn't want them to leave while he is there.  So we want to talk to him about the church and see if he will let them leave for a couple hours on Sunday.  Still, they are very interested, and have great questions, so I still have faith that they will progress.  Other than them we found an older man named Emilio who likes to talk a lot.  (A LOT!!!!)  More than anything he seems lonely, but we're going to see what happens with him.

That's about it for news from around here.  As far as your class goes, 2nd Nephi 3-5 is one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon.  A suggestion that I could give you comes from one of my favorite verses, 2 Nephi 5:27 And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.  In the midst of an incredibly hard situation, those that followed the Lord lived happily.  It also ties in a lot with the theme of 2 Nephi 4, or Nephi's Psalm as you mentioned.  He talks about how the Lord has supported him through his aflictions.  If I were to explain this section, I would talk about this aspect, how living the gospel led the nephites to happiness.

That's it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

New Investigators

Hola,

Well, another week has passed me by here.  This week was pretty good.  We're starting to come out of the "cold" season here.  By the time we get to about March it'll be pretty warm here.  I was actually thinking about how different winter is here, and your letters gave me the proof of that.  I might die from the cold next winter.  We'll see what happens when that comes around.

As far as news goes this week, we're starting to find some people to teach.  We found a new family this week that seem interested in the church.  We found them contacting in front of the chaple here.  We talked with the mother, Maria, and we offered her a quick tour of the church, which she accepted.  Then on Friday we went to visit her in her home with her children.  Other than her, we met a young woman that has been attending church for the last few weeks who just received permission from her parents to listen to the discussions and get baptized.  So it's a pretty safe bet that she'll get baptized soon.  Other than that, we had a Family Home Evening with the ward on Friday that went pretty well.  The ward actually put it all together, which is always better in my opinion.  And we had a pretty good turn out, so all in all it was a good activity.

That's about it for news from around here. I hope things are good around there except for the snow.  Things really are going good here.  I can't believe how fast the time is going though.  I'm just going to try to enjoy it while I can.

That's it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

January Flying By

Hola,

Well, here we are again.  Time keeps moving forward, and another week has passed us by.  I really can't believe we're more than half way through January.  It feels like New Years was yesterday.  Things are going OK here, but a bit slow.

As far as news from these parts go, there's not too much to report.  Pretty much everybody that we've visited in the last week has told us that they don't want anything to do with the Church.  It's been a little bit frustrating, but the only thing we can do is keep working.  But the ward is good, and the leaders have helped us get to know the area, so that's good.  I know that the Lord will guide us to people that we can teach, it's just going to require some patience.  But it could be worse.  Elder Orozco and I get along pretty well so far, which always helps.

That's about it for news from here.  I'm glad to hear that the heater situation turned out OK.  The house where we are living isn't very well insulated, so it's a bit cold at night, but it's nothing in comparison to what it would be like there without a heater.  Hopefully it makes it through the winter now.

It sounds like everything's pretty good around there. (Except for the heater situation.)  I hope that's true.  If time keeps going like it is, I'll be there in no time.  But I've still got a good amount of time left here, and my plan is to make the most of it.

That's it for me this week.  I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Denver...

Hola,

Well, another week has come and gone.  I got an email today from the secretaries saying they are in the process of buying our plane tickets and want to know what airport we need to go.  I thought it would be a nice road trip, so I told them the Denver Colorado Airport.  I hope your OK with that.  (Obviously I'm joking.)  It made me realize just how quick the time is going here.  As far as the changes go, it wasn't quite as I heard.  I did have changes, but not to Cuautla.  I'm in the ward next to the one I was in with Elder Jones, called Anahuac.  The particular area that I'm in hasn't had missionaries for about a month, so we didn't have much when we got here.  Oh, my new companion is Elder Orozco from Sinaloa speaking of changes.  We get along pretty well so far.

As far as news goes, not too much to report so far.  We only have a few days in the area since we got here on Thursday, so we don't know too many people yet.  We met a family with a couple grandkids getting ready to be baptized, so we helped explain some things to them.  They will be getting baptized Saturday.  Other than that, we've only met a few member families and gone to look for some of the investigators the other missionaries were teaching, but most of them said that they don't want anything now.  So it looks like it's going to be a slow start, but I know that we'll find some people to teach soon enough.

That's about it for news from these parts.  I like your idea with the Book of Mormon.  I'm currently in Alma myself, and one theme that I've seen has to do with the wars.  I've realized that every time there's a war, there's always a verse or two that says something like "And they were strengthened by the Lord because of their faith" or "The Lord was not with them because of their wickedness."  Maybe not in those exact words, but basically the idea is that the Lord always helped them when they were obedient, but if they stopped the commandments, they lost that help.  It helps me see the importance of constant obedience, when you're in the war, it's too late to be looking for the Lord's strength.

I love you, and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long

Happy 2016!

Hola,

Can you believe it, we've already gotten to 2016.  2015 went flying by.  I still feel like it was yesterday that we were finishing 2014.  But a new year also means one thing: changes.  If you have been keeping track, you know that six weeks have come and gone, and so changes are upon us.  But this time around, the changes are a bit different.  I think I mentioned that they are going to change the limits of the mission this week, but if not, they're taking away two stakes from our mission and giving us three others.  But we don't do the change until Thursday.  So basically everything is in flux until then, because we still get new missionaries today, and the old ones still leave on Wednesday.  Basically, there are going to be a lot of trios for the next couple of days, including Elder Sanchez and I.  We get an Elder whose Elder finishes his mission this week.  And as far as the changes on Thursday, they haven't officially told us anything yet.  But a little bird I know who has access to this kind of information told us that I have changes, and that I'm going to one of the new stakes we are receiving in Cuautla.  So maybe I finish my mission there.  Who knows.

Other than that, this was a pretty good week.  An investigator that we found a bit before Christmas but that couldn't see us until this last week turned out to be very interested.  We left her a Book of Mormon in the first visit, and when we came back she had read a few chapters and told us that she had prayed and feels the desire to be baptized.  It's almost like that promise that God makes to us in the Book of Mormon is true or something.  She came to church on Sunday, and seemed to enjoy it.  Her name is Carla if you'ld like to pray for her.  Other than that, things are more or less the same this week.  We didn't work on the first, but we didn't really do anything on the day.  We just got together with the district to play and eat pizza.

I hope you have a happy new year.  I love you and I'll write you next week.

Love,

Elder Samuel Long