September 1, 2010

well i hope you guys are doing great! i sure am! i really enjoyed the
last week. we learned so much in the training meeting. that will
probably move my mission quite a bit! it was also pretty fun seeing
all my friends from the mission everyday for a week. that pretty much
never happens. the only bad thing is that our cell phone doesnt work
in campinas so we couldnt call the investigators or any of the
missionaries from our zone. there was only one missionary that can
call us and for some reason he never called even though i asked him
too!!! that was frustrating. the missionaries did pretty well
considering they didnt have a zone leader or a district leader telling
them to get going ha. we learned tons about following the spirit and
teaching people and not lessons. president castro deus was a little
ahead of his time i think. because we learned alot of this stuff with
him. it was great to discuss with the best missionaries of the mission
though to get new ideas. i learned tons. we got home at 10 friday
night. on saturday, i went to go to baptismal interviews. so i still
didnt work in my area. elder ficklin worked in our area for about 4
hours. i interviewed a family. it was a special experience. i used
some of the new tecniques that i learned in the training meeting
during the interviews. i also was able to work with elder mangelson
that day. he is from ohio. he is the most obedient missionary in the
world!!!!!!!!!!!!! he is at least 150% obedient. ya that is possible
because he makes more rules for himself. haha but he is a good
missionary. he just needs to learn that it is better to use your head
and not your legs in this work. we walked quite a bit. it was fun
though. the interviews went great. there was a teenage girl that i
interviewed that acted a lot like olivia. she was pretty funny. but
that just left sunday to work in our area. we werent able to visit
anyone in our area!!!! so we pretty much thought that our sunday would
have a crappy turnout!!!! it was one of the best turnouts in my
mission!!! there were tons of people there! we were also blessed with
a baptism today. her name is ariani. i will send a pic. her boyfriend
is our ward (well it is actually a branch) mission leader. that was
great. the best part is that she is halfway through the miracle of
forgiveness!!! she was still baptized after that huge burn and without
our help this whole week haha. her friend joice will be baptized this
next sunday along with some other people most likely. we were blessed
greatly!!! i dont know how but with one and a half days work in our
area, we had the best numbers in the whole mission!!! sunday was full
of miracles!!!!!!!!
but yesterday was a special day too. we had our district meeting and
we taught the lessons that the assistants taught us last week in the
training meeting. i learned way more teaching my zone then with all
the leaders in the whole mission. i was happy about that. i really
liked the comments the missionaries gave. elder nothum and elder
ficklin also taught. it was pretty much a great lesson about the
doctrine of christ and the principal of love. i learned tons. i think
the practices could be better though. but we will keep getting better.
we will be teaching these 8 lessons to the missionaries for a while.
the next one is about how to follow the spirit. i have already started
studying for next week ha.
well sounds like you guys are good. sorry school started haha. that
stinks!!! now you have to wake up early again like me ha. that stinks
that football is going so terrible. i think they made the wrong choice
in coach. and it is crazy to think that hillcrest got their coach at
the same time. look at the difference haha. hopefully things get
better. haha and at least i dont have to watch.
well i hope you guys have a good week. have a good time in reno too!!!
love you guys
love,
elder long

p.s. can you believe it is september already!!! just one more month
until conference!!!