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.