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