July 7, 2010

Mustache night activity in Perdoes

Elder Lima will be a dad soon (he will train)

Downtown Atibaia

well i guess i will tell you about my week really quick! first of all,
i am in atibaia still which means i will most likely stay here for at
least one more transfer after this one because elder ribeiro heads
home in 6 weeks. our zone grew a little bit but it is very young. we
have 3 new missionaries. 2 americans that just got here (E. hunt and
gardner) and one brazilian (elder pereira). we opened up two more areas in our zone too. now we have 8 areas and 16 missionaries. the
new missionaries in our zone are Elder sorenson, leary, rosemore and
the three new missionaries. it will be a great transfer and i am way
excited to go on a whole bunch of exchanges to try and help the new
missionaries especially the new americans. i think elder hunt is going
to be especially good! we also have two missionaries that are opening
areas as first time seniors. so they might need help too. it will be a
great transfer. elder leary is living with us now. elder nothum was
transfered to campinas. i already miss him ha. elder leary is
different than him ha. he is from kaysville but doesnt know the
andersens. i am excited to do everything i can to help the new
missionaries now!
we met president tanner on monday. he is a great guy. as he and his
wife walked in, we sang called to serve. they started crying and said
we sing very well! i bet you guys cant believe that people say that
about me but i get it a lot haha jk! in his training with the prophet
and apostles, they received a new program. it was already put into
practice in the USA and the baptisms increased by 40%! i am very
excited to start now. the leaders will even have training meetings for 3-4 days!!!! that will be intense i am sure! it will destroy that
week but i will learn tons. and in the long run, it will help out the
whole mission!!
it was nice to talk to everyone on monday and tuesday. i was able to talk to chad and all my past comps. i talk tons with elder lima. he is
a great guy. i want him to be in my zone or my comp again!! he said
something that will help me out. he has had problems with his comp too
but it got better. he said "it is better to just be happy, than to
have a reason to be." i thought that was pretty deep ha. i will now
put that into practice! i also am very proud of chad! elder lima was
his district leader. he said that chad might have been the junior on
the paper but he was definitely the senior in the companionship. i
dont know if he is senior now. i think he is senior to a missionary
that has been out for over a year and a half. he has had tough comps
but the lord always trusts that he will be patient with these tough
comps. i wasnt able to talk to chad much though cuz he is in campinas
now. so he didnt have to wait for the bus! i really needed to talk to
all my mission friends again. i was needing it. i have a lot more
energy now!
this last week was pretty good. we had a goal that everyone would
reach ALL our missions goals. we just about did it(besides the goal of
baptisms). that hasnt ever happened! there were only 6 or 7 numbers in
the whole zone that werent above the missions goals! we wouldnt have
ever made it here in atibaia without the help of elder cavalcante and
elder nothum. we left our area without missionaries for two days. we barely met our goals at about 9:15 on sunday!!!
on saturday i saw manoel, vanderlei and vanderlan(a family that i
baptized in jundiai). i was waiting for the bus to atibaia. that was
great! oh and pedro and iracema(the first family i baptized in
itatiba) is doing the temple prep class!! i think they will be going
to the temple in the next month or two. so i am excited about that! i
will get to go and see!
but that is about all that happened this week in brazil!! but thanks
for everything! i hope you guys had a nice 4th of july without me ha.
i guess i should say 3rd of july ha. hopefully next 4th it is warm
enough to float the canal! well love you guys!
love,
elder long