March 30, 2011

hey everyone! i guess i will just hurry and tell you about my week. everything is going well. i guess it could be better but it was alright. So since last week, we dont have many new people. we are working with the same people to get them baptized. we didnt have much success in finalizing the baptism of carol's family. we are trying our best to do that this week. we had quite a few people that went to church though. the reason we werent able to confirm everything about their baptism is because on saturday we went to a different area to help them out. the whole zone went. the missionaries that work there didnt show much gratitude. they went to the church. they didnt plan very well and there were supposed to be members for every missionary. there were only a few members. the missionaries in the area didnt do anything and the bishop started to organize the companionships. he tried to put me and another elder with two of the young women in the ward. i told him i wasnt going to go with two girls cuz we cant. turns out he didnt know that because the missionaries in his ward have been going on visits with people of the other sex all the time!!! we finished up all our visits by 10:30 and we were supposed to have a ride home. we finally got a ride at 3:30!!! so we werent able to talk to carol's family and they ended up not even going to church. so i wasnt to happy with those missionaries. saturday was a great day though. most of the members in the ward were at the church saturday night and they visited all of our investigators and tons of inactive members! there were 130 people at church on sunday which is almost the most it has ever been! we had quite a few people at church though and we got a bunch of people that are progressing now. the meetings were very irreverant but the investigators still felt the spirit! things are going good. the last couple days have been a little slow but things we get better and we will get a lot of people at conference this week. i am excited for conference!
one crappy thing happened though. there is a really elect couple that is doing their best to get married as quick as possible so they can be baptized. turns out she doesnt have her birth certificate. we did our best to get it here this week so that they could get married quick. after you take in the paper work, you have to wait 16 days. we werent able to get it in time. there is noway to get it by friday. so i wont be able to see their baptism. that makes me a little sad. they are really elect people! oh well. at least they will be baptized i guess!
thanks for everything though! love you guys
love,
elder long

March 23, 2011

hey everyone. how are you all doing!? i am doing really well. I guess i will tell you all about my week really quick. Things are going really well in our area. our zone isnt doing as hot but it will comeback strong in this last week of the month. this week was a pretty good turnout at church. we didnt find as many people as we would have hoped for last week but the people we found were golden! almost all of the new investigators that we found went to church. unfortunately, they arent married so we are hoping to be able to get the married as quick as possible so that it can happen this transfer. we are going to have to have some good lessons the next couple days.

we also had a baptism this week. i told you all about carol last week. she went to church by herself after about a month since we taught her. she was baptized. it was really good. the baptismal meeting was terrible though. i was so surprised that the investigators said they liked the baptism in the following lessons we taught them. there were not many leaders at the baptism and it was really irreverent. but carol was baptized and she was very happy. her whole family went to church and they enjoyed it as well. the family (edivaldo, adriana and lurdes) are possible baptisms for this week. i hope everything works out though. they are a great family. all the members were happy to have a complete family visiting church. so i hope everything goes well this week and that they are baptized this sunday!

those were the highlights of the week. things are going well. elder north and i are getting along great. things are going good! love you guys!

love,

elder long

March 16, 2011

hey how is everyone doing? i am not going to have very much time today. we went to campinas to buy some stuff from brazil. we got some good stuff though. i will probably only get a few other things. i dont really know what else i will buy but i got a few things. this week was pretty good. last week was a little rough but we have had a few miracles. donizete wasnt baptized last week but we did have one baptism. it was a great baptism too. his name is eloaldo. he is an older guy. he is probably about 65. he was so happy about his baptism. we told him there was going to be a baptismal interview and we told him the questions. he studied for the interview. then afterwards he was so happy because he passed on the interview and answered every question right. haah that was really great. his daughter and her family are really strong in the church. it was a great baptism. he didnt really understand part of the sabbath day and he bought tons of pop to take to his baptism on sunday. haha we explained it to him again and he wont do it anymore he said haha. i guess its a good thing that that sin got washed away in his baptism. haha.
there was a family that we taught about a month ago that accepted baptism very well. they were actually married too. then they didnt go to church cuz they were a litte drunk. then they were embarrassed and started avoiding us. then one time i went there and the dad said something like, you are here in my house bugging me? he said that right in front of his older daughter and then he went into the house. she just looked at us and we bore our testimony about how the gospel can bless her and what our purpose is here in the mission. then we never went back. about a month after that (sunday), the older daughter, carol, went to church. she has been reading the book of mormon ever since. she has received an answer and she pretty much asked to be baptized. she called some members to say that she would be baptized next week. her whole family promised to go with her too. that is 6 in total. she is elect and she will help her whole family!!! that was a great miracle for the week!
we also received a referrel from a member. he was driving and a younger woman passed out and hit her head on the ground. he helped her get to the hospital and then got her address. we went there and she was so happy! she accepted baptism and so did her husband (i should say boyfriend). she was tearing up and so happy that she heard the message. it was a great message too! so there were quite a few miracles!
well i am doing really well and i am really happy. we have a bunch of people to help in the next little while. so that is a good thing! thanks for all your support though. you guys are the best! love you all!

March 9, 2011

well i will hurry and tell you about my week. i dont have much time
today. i will have to be quick. so this week was another slow week
unfortunately. we taught a ton and we found lots of new investigators,
but they didnt all progress very well. we had 1 peron at church this
week. this week was carnival here in brazil. so this was the weekend
that everyone travels and the members go on a campout from friday
until tuesday to keep away from all the troublesome activities. there
were no problems at all because of carnival. i mean there werent any
huge parties or woman walking around naked. that is what happens more
in the north of the country and in the bigger cities. it is a terrible
holliday. all the young men are always so excited because it is the
one campout of the year. i hate it because our members arent here to
help and our investigators arent here to be taught and go to church.
we still had a great week besides the sunday turnout though. we didnt
baptize this week...but dont worry! we will this week! and hopefully
for the next 6 weeks. the ward has a lot of goals for the next couple
months.
so yesterday was the transfers. i told you that i was going to stay
and that i would like my companion. then president had another
transfer meeting with the assistents and he said everything changed.
so i was pretty nervous that i was going to leave the best place ever
and the place i love. but turns out, i stayed here in amanda in the
best zone with the best missionaries. elder north is my new companion.
he is from oregon. he plays football for weber. he is the nickle back.
he is really cool and i guess he plays basketball too. so it will
probably be a preey good time when we all play. he also a great
missionary. we are going to have success together. this week Eloaldo
and Donizete will be baptized. please pray that donizete can stop
smoking. today is the day that he will stop completely. so please pray
for him. maybe donizete's two sons will be baptized too. we will see
what we can do though. i am pretty excited for this great transfer
though. it will be great though!
well i love you guys! you are the best!
love,
elder long

March 2, 2011

hey everyone! how are you all doing today? i am doing pretty well. this week was pretty great. it wasnt the greatest week we could have had but it was alright. on thursday, elder nelson came to talk to our mission. that was really nice. it was a quick meeting but it was great. elder snow and elder godoy were also here from the 70. the three general authorities and their wives spoke to us. it was a great experience. it was a really good day ..unfortunately, our area was closed most of the week. on monday we had a meeting. on wednesday it was pday. on thursday, we had a meeting. on friday, we had a wedding and spent the whole day setting up for that. on saturday, we went to the temple for baptismal interviews, and we had a baptism. it was a pretty full week but we werent able to teach all our investigators and that hurt our turn out in sacrament meeting. on friday, isaias got married to monica. the bishop did the marriage. it was great but nobody really helped set up for the wedding. i guess they did help more than last time. i was really tired by the time we finally got to go teach. we only taught one lesson that day though because we were setting up for the wedding. it was a great wedding though. one of the best that i have seen as a missionary. they seemed really happy. i was assigned as photographer (well actually, we did pretty much everything because nobody else did), so i got lots of pics so dont worry. there was a dance after the wedding. so needless to say, we just got a whole bunch of food and went home haha. on saturday, we had a great experience! we marked all the baptismal interviews to be at the temple. elder castiglioni and i interviewed everyone in the waiting room inside the temple. that was the greatest place ever to do interviews. everyone that was interviewed this week was very sure about the baptism. then we headed home for our baptism. there was no time to interview isaias before becuase of the wedding so he was interviewed right before the baptism. then i got really nervous because it had taken about an hour and a half. then the missionary called us in and said, he has some doubts. we just said alright.... then the missionary asked if isaias wanted to be baptised. he said ya. then the missionary asked him if it was his decission or if he jsut wanted to be baptised because of other people. he said he wanted to. then the missionary said, we can do this baptism today. isaias said that he is willing to keep all the commandments and he said he knows the church is true but he has some problems with his testimony. i have no idea what the missionary felt but when someone tells me they KNOW the church is true and that they are willing to keep all the commandments, that means they have a testimony. then the missionary told us to leave. then isaias came out and asked where he could go change. i thought it was really weird. it seemed like the missionary didnt want him to be baptized. he is a great guy too and has been going to church for about 4 months and he got married so he could be baptized. but it turned out alright.

because the interview and baptism took so long, we werent able to confirm with anyone about going to church. we had a terrible turnout! it is pretty much the worst since i got here! on sunday night, elder castiglioni and i baptized felipe and rodrigo (they were the sisters investigators that we interviewed). that was great. Jessica (our recent convert from 2 weeks ago) prepared the baptismal message. that was great! but it was a good week. i am going to stay here in amanda until the end of my mission. transfers arent until next week but i already know since there is the assistent in our house ha. i will get a new companion though. i will train a zone leader though. haha i am so old on the mish! i remember when this missionary got into the mission. i always wanted to work with him too. so i hope this next transfer goes great!

i love you guys. you are the best!!!

love,

elder long