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