May 26, 2010

hello my family! well this week was pretty exciting. i learned quite a bit with the assistant last week. it was a pretty good experience and he was pretty surprised with my teaching and how i work. so i guess that is a good thing. unfortunately, once again there was no baptism in jundiaí. but things will get better now. on sunday, there were some ladies from salt lake that were at church. they work for beehive and don’t talk any portuguese. so guess who had to be the translator?! i have never done something so hard haha. but i felt pretty good about it until i asked how my english is and if they understood. they said they didn’t really understand haha. but i guess that’s alright. who needs english anyways haha. i can just learn it again when i return haha. well the jundiaí zone was pretty crappy this last week. this whole month has been a disapointment! i thought there would be a lot better results. but it will keep getting better. last week, we had a leadership conference over the phone. we were comanded to destroy all the qualification papers and the lesson models. that was quite a surprise. they really helped me to learn and i was surprised to receive the new rule saying that we cant study these things anymore. but oh well i guess. i have got everything in my head and heart already hah. i feel bad for the others, like elder nothum, that finished the qualification the week before haha. but president said that it was like a burnt sacrifice of something that has helped us so much. but on monday, i was transferred. i am now in atibaia. it is right next to itatiba, my first area. so i am close by some of my first memories of the mission. my first exchange was in this area.so it is cool to be working here now. there are tons more baptisms in this area too!! so i was blessed greatly! we will have at least two baptisms this week and could be up to 5. haha so i won some baptisms cuz ididnt have to do anything. i actually was able to interview my own baptisms. to interview a person to be baptized, you cant teach them before. so that was pretty neat haha. her name is liliane and she is very elect!! i have never interviewed someone so elect. she asked if she was ever gonna be interviewed so we said ya i will do it today haha. i also havent ever felt the spirit so strong during an interview. it was pretty good. but my new companion is Elder Ribeiro from Belem. he is a smaller guy and really funny. he reminds me alot of blake! it is pretty fun! my zone is full of crazies!! and for the first time, i am living with another companionship. Elder nothum is living with me and so is elder cavalcante, a brazillian that arrived at the ctm the same day as me. so it is pretty fun. i am liking it so far. i will also be able to pass in my first area. that will be great. my first family is getting close to entering the temple! i will get to go to the sealing! i am way excited!!! but this zone is great. it will be a little harder because i now have two companionships of sisters in my zone. so i will have to be a different kind of leader i guess haha.

ya but that was pretty much my week. it was a pretty good week! and i am really liking my new area. my comp is different from elder mendes but i really like him. it is also nice to have someone else to talk to at night when we get home. i am pretty excited and there are going to be lots of miracles in ATIBAIA!!!!

love,

Elder Long

May 19, 2010

Hello my family!!! how are you guys doing this week? i hope everything is going great for you guys! it sounds like your week has been pretty fun. and that would be really cool to see the bees play at state. tell them good luck for me, olivia! this week for me has been pretty good. i will tell you guys really quick about how it has been going. i wont be able to stay on for very long because i am on exchange with the Assistant, Elder Gabriel, and he will need to use the computer after me because he doesnt have an account here at the LanHouse(computer place).

this week went pretty well. except once again we didnt have any baptisms! that is pretty ruff! it seems like it has been a while now! but i am still proud of the work we did in this area where nobody has baptized more than four in a transfer in the history of the mission. we baptized 6. so i guess we are working well. it should have been better though! but we will prepare everything for the next transfer. there is an eternal investigator in our area. her family is a family of members. she wants to be baptized but the family is always telling her that she need s to prepare more and think about it before she decides. i am going to take Elder Gabriel there to talk to her in an interview format so that the family wont be there putting these thoughts in her mind. she has been to church for about 5 months!!! so maybe we could end up with a baptism this week. who knows! but last week was alright. we had a bunch of exchanges with the elders. i really like my zone and i am trying to help them the best way that i can. i think i learned more in this exchange with Elder Gabriel about being a leader than the rest of the transfer. I need to learn how to be firm at times with the elders. can you imagine that he said that i am soft spoken. i dont know why the heck he thinks that! i think he is crazy hahaha. but ya i am learning quite a bit this exchange. but i guess this exchange was to see if i really know how to be a zone leader. so it was pretty important haha. i felt pretty good about the day yesterday. he is going to stay here tonight too and we will finish the exchange tomorrow morning haha. i learned tons but dont ever want to do a 2 day exchange ha. just one day is great for me ha. but everything is going pretty great here. how about there in idaho? how is uncle scott? and helen? i hope they are doing a lot better! well i have got to get going. Elder Gabriel would like to sleep today since it is the first pday he has had in about 5 months. well love you guys and hópe eveything is going awesome! love you! Tchau!

love,

Elder Long

May 12, 2010

Qualifying Elder Nothum

An exchange with Elder Farias

Church in Jundiaí/Brasil

Manoel, normaci, vanderlei, vanderlan, thais. Cerqueira is the name of the family

well hello everyone! how is everyone doing since last sunday!? i hope everything is going great! everything is going pretty good here in Jundiaí! it was nice to talk to everyone on sunday. sounds like everyone is doing pretty well! thanks for everything! and happy mothers day again ha. well i guess i will tell you more about my week. because as you guys could tell, i am not very good at doing that over the phone in english nowadays ha.

Well this last week was full of miracles. it was probably the best week of my mission (number wise). we met all of our goals and we had the baptism of an entire family. dad, mom, two sons and a daughter. that wasthe biggest family that i have baptized until now! it was a pretty awesome experience! they are elect. the biggest problem was that they didnt want us to take them to church ha. the member that lives in front of their house tried to give them a ride to church but they just complained because they wanted to walk to church!!! which is no problem at all haha. so it was pretty great. the members helped a lot in the integration of the family. every single member stopped to talk with them inbetween the meetings! everyone went to the baptism too!!! the room was completely full and i didnt even have a place to sit!!! it was crazy!!! but it was great at the same time! it was a pretty good week!

so you know how we have that qualification thing here? and there is a bunch of stuff you have to do to become a senior? well last week I qualified a missionary! his name is elder nothum. he is from missouri. it was pretty cool! i have been on a lot of exchanges with him! so it was pretty cool to see him qualify! he is definitely ready to be a senior. he is elder murri's companion. on monday i also went on an exchange, with elder phillips. he is from good old ammon, idaho and this is his last transfer. he isnt as trunky as i thought he would be. he actually is working pretty hard! i was thinking that maybe he would make me a little homesick for idaho falls but he didnt. and if he did, that was all over after the exchange i went on yesterday! the elders name is elder farias. he is from bahia. this is his first transfer and he is really ready to WORK. he is just about hyperactive haha. it is pretty cool. he has the best mindset i have ever seen in a missionary! he used to be a punk too! ha he has a bunch of tattoos but he said a prayer to ask god which was the right path and he talked with the missionaries the next day! he also is the first person i have ever heard of that is from the tribe of juda. that is pretty cool haha. but ya it was a pretty good week! everything is going good and we didnt have a meeting today so i actually have a pday haha. that is nice too. but thanks for everything!

love,

elder long