August 18, 2010

well sounds like you all had a pretty busy week with sadies wedding
and everything. i am glad that there was a good turnout there even
withthe wind. i am sure they are happy together. where are they going
to be living now? is sadie or her new husband going to college? tell
them congrats.
tell jacoby happy bday for me missy. sorry i am telling him
late...hopefully he forgives me! tell eden and johnny happy birthday
too. and happy bday missy! there ar tons of bdays the next couple
weeks. i will just tell you now because next week i will go to the
temple and dont know if i will be able to use the computer to much.
well i guess i will tell you about my week!!! it was a pretty crazy
week! it was pretty rough to keep elder ribeiro working in his last
week. he didnt really want to and he just talked about home for the
whole week. he even had a little party with the members while i was
working with the bishop in a split ha. but i kept him pretty busy. we
didnt have that much of success on sunday with people at church. there
were only two. but i think i did a good job getting elder ribeiro to
work the whole day. he just wanted to go home and pack his bags. we
caught a ride home from perdões with a member. the member asked where
we were going and he said to our house. then when we got there i gave
him a lesson of faith ha. it worked pretty well. i told him what we
needed to reach our goals in HIS LAST WEEK. ha i gave him the keys and
told him to decide. haha he turned around and we went to work. we
found three new investigators including one athiest. that was pretty
dang hard!!! he had an excuse for everything!!! even if god didnt
exist, i will still believe in Him. life is so much happier that way.
if there wasnt a god, why are we here? teaching him just made me
happier to know the truth.
i guess i will tell you all about the transfers now...:( well, elder
ribeiro started packing his stuff and i got all the numbers from
everyone and passed them to the assistants. to my surprise, i was
transfered! i couldnt believe it, but they closed atibaia and put two
new missionaries there. elder mendes is one of them. he is pretty lost
and has called to ask me questions a few times ha. but i was
transfered to Botucatu. it is the zone that is the longest from
campinas. my area is about a 4 hour ride from campinas(i have already
made that trip three times in the last 3 days by the way!! this area
is awesome. it is a better area then atibaia. my new companion is
elder ficklin. he is a zone leader too. i was called to be zone leader
A but i told elder ficklin that i want to work together with him
without a zone leader A. he has been out for about a year and 7
months. so he knows what he is doing too. he is from Orem, Utah, and
so that makes him my first american companion since i left the CTM!!!!
i was pretty excited about that. i am liking him pretty much so far.
botucatu is a branch. and it is probably the best branch in the
mission if not the whole world!!!:) i am pretty happy about the area
and the missionaries that are here. are two district leaders are both
from my zone in jundiaí and they like me a lot already haha. elder
nothum was called as district leader and is very happy to be in my
zone again. there was only one transfer in his mission that he wasnt
in my zone. he basically loves me tons and even wants me to marry his
cousin haha. he is crazy!
well that was pretty much all that happened this week. oh and to
answer the question that dad makes in every letter :) no i havent got
my package yet, but i will next week. and yes i pick up the letters
and packages of the other missionaries but only when we have meetings
which happens every 2-4 weeks.
next week we have a 4 day meeting!!! it will start in the morning and
will go until about6 on mon, tues, thurs, and fri. on wed, we are
goingto go to the temple again!! i am pretty excited!!! but that was
about all that happened.love you all!
love,
elder long