December 1, 2010

hey everyone! how are you guys doing this week?! i hope you all had a great thanksgiving! Mine was good as well. i was doing missionary work! I guess i will tell you about my week!
OUR ZONE ROCKS! we just about met all of our goals in the whole zone!!! everyone achieved the mission standard. and this week is going to be even better! we already have 13 baptisms that are all ready. then we have 2 other that could work out still. that is amazing for a small zone like ours!!! I am so happy and i love your zone. i love my area and everything is great in the zone.
this week was a great week! we had a baptism this week it was miguel (michael). he is 87 years old and cant talk or take care of himself. his family wanted him to be baptized and he still understands everything. it took three of us to baptize him. he cant close his mouth by himself though. so guess who was in charge of covering his mouth and nose. and guess who was the one that let water into his mouth! i felt like crap! he choked a little bit but he was able to get over it quickly. it was a great experience. we also confirmed him right after the baptism and everyone was wet still. it was awesome!
this week was also district conference(stake conference). it was great. president tanner was here with his two counselors that both used to be 70s, President Cooper and President Barbour. It was so spiritual! it was a great expereience but unfortunately i got to get off becuase this internet place closes right now for lunch. i love you guys.
everything is going great!
love,
elder long

November 24, 2010

well hello my family! how are you guys all doing on this wonderful day before thanksgiving? I hope you are all doing great. It was nice to hear about your week and I was very happy to hear about tyson. I am sure he was a great missionary even though he didnt get to serve in the best mission in the world haha. did you tell him sorry that i didnt go to his farewell two years ago? i still feel bad about that. maybe he has forgotten about that by now. luckily, i am not the one that just got home though. i got lots of time to serve here!!!! i guess i will tell you about my week though.

first of all, i got to play football. and i am talking about american football. i played right after i talked to you guys last p day. it was so sweet to play. the other guys thought i had decent hands. we played a couple games of three on three two hand touch. then we called all the guys in the whole park to play with us. we were playing in the assistants area. there were about 30 kids playing with us and they all loved it. we split up into teams and each team had an american quarterback with another 5 little brazillians running all over the place. it was so fun. then we invited them to go to the church to play soccer that night with some of the members. a lot of them went too. it was a great way to do missionary work. everyone that passed by sat and watched for a little bit and then started playing. the assistants have got the best area i have ever seen too!!! we worked in their area last wednesday. their church is almost as pretty as the church i had in jundiai. and the members help so much. every night there are over 30 non members at the church for the english class or soccer on the church's court. it is so sweet. it really was a good exchange with the assistants. i would like to work with them a little more. i didnt have any kind of relationship with either of the assistants and got a little bit annoyed when they called me just ask about numbers and stuff but now i actually like talking to them. it was a great exchange on their part. we are helping our zone to put everything into practice that they taught us.

our week went pretty well even though we didnt have a full week. the zone was the best in the whole mission. we always have the best numbers in the whole mission! the missionaries here are so good! they are the best and we were blessed. we are so united too. it is way sweet! everyone is starting to baptize now too. it is so nice to have people think that i am good as a zone leader just cuz the missionaries in the zone rock ha! yup i am lucky!

in our area, the baptism didnt go through. we are still helping darci to get over smoking. but this week we have 4 possible baptisms. abel is a younger kid that has been going to seminary. he is great. he is prepared but thinks it is a little to soon. we are trying to help him to realize that baptism is the next step he needs to make. we have darci and rodrigo that could be baptized. it has been a while since i have been teaching them. they are probably the investigators that i have taught for the longest time without leaving because they were taking to long. i just have felt that they will get there. they really have moved alot this week and they are totally gonna get baptized. it is just a matter of time now. once darci stops smoking! our other investigator is going to baptized for sure. it was a referrel from a good active member family. it is a member's dad that has know the church for a long time. but now he is on his death bed and has asked to be baptized. his family really wants him to be baptized. he has two grandsons that are bishops in são paulo. he and one of his grandsons are the only ones in the family that arent members yet. he wont have any problems with any commandments because he cant talk or even walk by himself. he understands everything and gives thumbs up or thumbs down. he gets really emotional during the lessons and he is pretty happy about his baptism. he probably has a hard time understanding two gringos though!

things are going great though. i am pretty happy with the investigators that we have. they are all so great. the only thing we are lacking is time. we need more time to teach all of them. it would be so nice to have splits every night. maybe in these next weeks we can marks some more splits.

thanks for everything though! you guys are the best! i love you guys! i really was blessed to be part of this family. you guys really have helped me tons in my life and my mission. i am so happy that was born where i was and grew up in the good little town of Iona. that was the best place for me. i had lots of friends that helped me to get to where i am today. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (i know i said that last week, but i guess this week it really will be thanksgiving). have a good thanksgiving week!

love,

elder long

p.s. i got those songs mom. thanks for sending them!

November 17 2010

hello my family! how are you guys doing today? i hope you are all doing great. i am pretty tired again this week but i am alright! sounds like you are doing well. but i guess i will just jump right in to my week because we are planning on playing football today! it has been a while!!
this week was pretty good. just so you know, i am in campinas right now...again! and this is the second trip i have made here since i talked to you last week. i really love botucatu, but no missionary should have to travel over 17 hours per week! but i shouldnt complain because i really love my area and my zone! there was an emergency transfer last thursday, so i had to take a missionary to the office. that was crazy. we were in an exchange and i got a call that this missionary was transfered (it wasnt becuase of anything he did wrong, but something missionaries in another zone did. he was just involved in the transfer). i got the call at 3:30 and the last bus to campinas is 5 in the afternoon! i called him and we hurried to their house. they also work in the same city. we got there before them. they got there at about 4:20. he threw everything in his suitcase and i called our branch president for a ride. we hurried to the bus station but the bus was already leaving. we chased it down. on the last stop in the city, we jumped out of the car and gave the signal that we would catch the bus. it was amazing1 i decided i am really dumb though. i stayed the night at the offices and i stayed up talking with elder manwaring and elder guilherme for a long time! that always makes for a long trip back home. i havent worked in my area that much this week. i felt pretty bad about our week for some reason. i was so happy for the week and i just knew we were gonna have a great week with over 40 lessons. i havent ever done that in this area but i just knew it was going to happen. then i had to go to campinas and that ruined two days of work and i just felt a little bad when we didnt make our goals. we had a great week but i still felt bad at the end, like i didnt do everything i could. but i guess we got another week now. except, i had to come to campinas again so i dont know if we will teach 40 lessons this time either.
yesterday, we had our interviews with president tanner in our zone. it was a pretty good experience. even though it was really short. a little before i was planning on telling him a whole list of things i want to happen in my mission like that i want to train, work with elder stucki at some point in my mission, and also work with elder nothum. but i felt i shouldnt during the interview. i dont think it is right to ask for callings and stuff like that. the Lord knows what is best. president tanner said that our zone and the rio claro zone are the examples of how the work should be done and he said he liked how elder bavender and i are leading the zone. i felt good about that. i talked to president about my cousin though. he said that he has underestimated elder stucki. our mission's second counselor lives in chad's new area. he has been mission president and he has gone on visits with the missionaries once a week for many many years. when president tanner asked how he like the new missionary, brother barbo said "he is the best teacher i have ever seen." i thought that was a pretty good compliment. that made me proud and i threw in a little hint at that point and said, "i really would like to work with him at some point in my mission." haha hopefully it works out!
after the interview, we went on an exchange with the assistants. i thought that i would be companions with elder hansen a couple transfers ago but he ended up being called as an assistant. i worked with him yesterday though. he is from roy, utah. he lives close to maddox, that restaraunt. he is a lot like me. he loves sports and he has got the same sense of humor. he played college basketball though so he is probably a little better than me haha. but the exchange went great. we found this great guy named juliano. he accepted baptism. he lives alone and looks like he is 35 but he is our age. we didnt have much time to work. i did like giving him a hard time about being an assistant. i told him that he would have to teach everything because he is the assistant so the people will feel the spirit more. i was just joking with him and i dont think he really liked it haha. then i remembered that i am really dumb and we stayed up talking about everything all night. we had to wake up at 4:30 too to catch the bus! it was a good conversation though. he is a great guy. and we got a lot in common. a short night didnt have as bad of an effect on me as it did on him. i think i am used to waking up early to catch the bus. he is not! he made the whole 4 hour trip to campinas inside the bathroom. i am not kidding! he threw up for 3 or 4 hours straight! i felt pretty bad for him!
well that was our week. rodrigo and darci could be baptized this week but we will see. we wont be home tonight and so it will be a little more difficult. we need a really spiritual experience with them this week!!! we got some people that are really good but we also got some that are really lazy. there was a man that the elders before us stopped teaching for some reason (they didnt put him in the area book either by the way). i knew where he lived kind of but never had talked to him. we went there and he said that his family of 5 was just about baptized but the missionaries stopped coming by. he works 2 sundays per month so that is his difficulty. he accepted baptism for next week though!!! miracles!!! but ya that was my week! love you guys, you are the best!
love,
elder long
p.s. mom, my companion is elder bavender now from colorado. this is our second transfer together here in botucatu. and i only received 3 of the songs you sent. thanks though!
p.p.s. is thanksgiving tomorrow? if it is, happy thanksgiving and thanks for everything. you are all the best!

November 10, 2010

hey everyone. how are you guys today? i hope you are all great. Sounds like you are all pretty busy now a days! but i guess i will tell you about my week real quick. i dont think i have got very much time today! this week was pretty good though. unfortunately, we werent able to work in our area that much this week. we had to go to campinas twice this week and another day to são manuel. i only worked in my area saturday and sunday. it seemed like it had been forever since the last time i had seen our investigators. we are really being blessed though!!!! we have got a great teaching pool now! unfortunately it is so big that sometimes we have to decide who to visit at nights because we dont have members to visit with us. this week has been a littele bit better though. we have lots of people to go on visits. so we have found time to teach everyone. i went to campinas again yesterday. it was transfers but i wasnt to worried about being transfered. i knew i would stay. that was nice to not have to worry about that! elder bavender is still my comp. i hope that everything goes well this transfer with him. elder nothum was transfered. he is a zone leader now. i knew he would be. so i took him to campinas yesterday and got the new district leader. i still think that is a rough trip. i have ridden the bus for a little over 27 hours in the last week!! that is a lot! this week is sweet though. we are going to teach so much. our goal is to have at least 40 lessons this week.

lately we have taught and found great people, elect people! but yesterday elder adam (the new district leader in Jau) and i taught one of the most elect. so we returned from campinas with the 4 sisters in our zone. they really wanted to be able to sleep in the same house together. they were begging and if they caught the bus to their areas last night they would only get there in time to sleep. so i said they could stay if they each did 60 contacts. they really had like 250 contacts in about 3 hours! but i called them a little later and they told me about a really elect lady named kelly. so i asked for the address and we went and taught her. she lives with her son and her brother. we taught her and her son. elder adam explained the apostasy very well. then when i gave the baptismal invite, she said of course! then in her prayer to end the lesson, she thank god for the chance her and her son will have to baptized into this new family!! i was so happy afterwards! they also did a lot of other contacts that were good. so it helped us out quite a bit since there were 8 missionaries in our area for about 3 or 4 hours! to bad it isnt always like that! well that was my week.

it sounds like the sporting world is pretty exciting these days! i was happy to here that millsap is playing so well! GO JAZZ! i also hope one of the little schools can bust the bcs too! GO HORNED FROGS haha

well love you all! you are all the best!

love,

elder long

November 3, 2010

hey family! how are you guys doing today? sounds like you had a good
halloween everyone. time is flying so quick huh? sounds like dad
finally took a halloween off and didnt take annie trick or treatin.
this week was a pretty good week. today i am in são manuel and we had
a churrasco (brazillian bbq). it was really good. we are hurrying so
we can get showed up at soccer. i am pretty excited about it. but this
last week passed by really quick. it was a great week. we had two
baptisms. celia and her daughter mayara were baptized. they were
various times in the last ten years but now it was just their time.
the ward is pretty excited about the recent baptisms. they are
actually visiting them and helping them to feel welcome. they are a
great family that is passing through some difficulties. celia's other
daughter gives her some problems. mayara is elect as well. she has
lots of friends at church already.
sunday was amazing! we had the two baptisms and then we were able to
find a whole bunch of new people that will progress very well i
believe! i am pretty happy. we are starting to get a new teaching pool
that is better and bigger. so things will continue to move along. we
have other investigators that are progressing well. Rodrigo is the
most promissing of all of them. he is an 18 year old that likes church
a lot. he just is really busy all the time! we are also teaching a
lady named claudinha. she is about 75 years old and talks a A TON! but
she went to church and said she think that our church might be the
place she has been looking for for a long time! everything is going
well. thanks for everything! you guys are the best. love you guys!
love,
elder long

October 27, 2010

hey my family! how are you all doing today. it sounds like you all had a great week with becca and her family even though you werent all feeling the best. i hope you are all feeling better now.

my week went pretty well. it wasnt the best week number wise but it was still great! Maria Jose was baptized on saturday. she was so happy about that. it was some work though. she was elect though. the reason it was tough work was because we went to fill up the baptismal font at 4. it takes forever to fill up, so we went to teach while it filled up. we taught a lesson and then at 7 we went back to turn the water off. it was about two inches deep by that point and the baptism was supposed to start at 7:30!!! we use a hose to fill it up and it takes about three hours. i guess the water had been leaking out a little bit, so we found something to plug the drain and then we had to find a way to help fill it up quicker. for one hour we were taking buckets full of water to the font until it was finally full. there was no stopping either. there was one time when i was the only one there with 3 buckets being filled while elder bavender was preparing the other things for the baptism. i was pretty much running to keep the buckets from overflowing ha. but that was an experience. Maria Jose is a great person. she understood the need of baptism and didnt even complain about cold water or anything. she just went in. It was pretty cold too. but it was a good experience. everytime we get there she has sandwhiches, pop, and ice cream waiting for us! needless to say, we like visiting here. we have to sit in the front of her house because there isnt any man that lives with her but that is no problem at all.

Celia and her family are progressing very well. She was worried that her daughter, mayara, wouldnt like church. she is about 14 years old and doesnt have the greatest of friends right now. celia was hoping and praying that she would make friends at church. Mayara loved church and went to mutual yesterday and she will go to another activity tomorrow and the dance on saturday. Yesterday, we had a spiritual lesson about the plan of salvation. i felt so good talking about the atonement. the spirit was so strong and when i asked her what she needs to do to accept christs sacrifice, celia said "first, i need to be baptized and then keep following this path that God showed to me." I thought that was an alright answer. but they are progressing well and their baptism is marked for this sunday. so keep praying for them. her other daughter, patricia, is always pretty drugged up on medications. she is pretty out of it all the time. she sits there staring at me or into space with the biggest smile on her face. i dont think she even listens. thats what drugs can do to you i guess. today we will teach the word of wisdom. we will see how patricia accepts that though and if we can help her. the others dont have any problems though.

we have other investigators but it was hard to teach them this last week because of meetings. we had a meeting in Campinas on monday. it was a great meeting and i learned a lot about agency. is there a talk somewhere that talks about agency and how it isnt free? that is something i remember ever since i was little but everyone says "free" agency. it was a great meeting except for when the assistant tried to argue with me becuase we said we needed money to catch the bus when president asked who needed money. its not like i am using my money on stupid stuff but if they dont give us money, we would have R$10 for two weeks. but he doesnt know because he hasnt ever been to botucatu so it isnt his fault. we were able to get money though and everything is good. our district meeting went well too. it is so nice that i dont have to be the one to teach everything at the district meetings now! yeah!! president said that the district leaders need to do everything now since it is a DISTRICT meeting.

but that was pretty much my week. it was a pretty good one where i learned a lot! i love you guys! you are the best!

love,

Elder Long

p.s. to answer your questions dad, yes we do clap hands when we arrive at someones house. i think that is pretty cool. i can clap super loud now haha. and then the people usually come out and talk to us or if it is a door that makes it so that cant see who it is they will ask who is there. there are also quite a few houses that have doorbells and intercoms. those are usually richer people though. oh and a street contact here is starting up a short message with someone with the intent to mark their address. it doesnt count to just say "go to church sunday" like lots of missionaries do here ha. but we still consider it a contact even if we werent able to mark their address. oh and it is to bad about that other mike long. i have heard that there is another mike long when i used to go to the dentist and other places. but i am glad that it wasnt you that passed away in the car wreck.

p.p.s mom, you asked me about my christmas package. i dont think i need a new backpack. i will just sew that one part shut. i dont even use that pocket. and then you can just buy me a sweet Dakine backpack when i get back ha! deal? oh and by the way, i have another little backpack from the mission. and about the other stuff...i dont really want that much. i really do want you to just put the money towards a laptop or something, but i would like a journal, silly putty for the kids here(i think you already sent that),and those things that the sisters asked for, and for candy...i like fast breaks a lot!!! and 3 muskateers, blow pops, licorice, and i think that is good! thanks a lot! Maybe you could send a scotty's burger too haha and some of dads french fries and a jamba.

October 20, 2010

well hello there my family! how are you all doing this great day? i am doing very well.i am pretty happy! we have a great teaching pool and i am learning a bunch. i guess i will just start telling you about my week.

This week was pretty exciting. on thursday we had a meeting with elder soares. he is the area president. it was a pretty good meeting and he helped us all remember why we are here and how we can have success on our missions. there was also a zone leader meeting and he talked to us about what our purpose as zone leaders is. it was a great meeting. i learned a bunch with him and president tanner this week. they talked a lot about street contacts. our zone has always been one of the best but there were lots of missionaries that didnt ever do their contacts. but now there are only like 5 or 6 areas that didnt do over 140. so that is pretty good. it is the only number we can really have 100% control over. so that is one thing the mission is focalizing on. but we had a long ride to campinas and then we returned very soon after. it was a quick meeting (3 hours) and a lot of traveling(7-8hours). when we got back to botucatu we just caught the bus to são manuel and i interviewed a great guy for his baptism the next day. our week wasnt so good though until sunday. it was a tough week with meetings but on sunday, we had lots of success. except their werent many people at sacrament because of daylights saving time and they hadnt woken up yet. we also talked at church on sunday. i talked about union and following the prophet. but on sunday we were able to have a split with some members. orozino(a 24 year old member) and i found lots of great investigators while elder bavender taught the people we have been teaching. it would be so great to have splits all the time. we would be able to baptize every week with two members every night. but we will keep working on that!

i was happy to not have to go to campinas this week but then i got a call that put me down. i have to go to campinas tomorrow. i have to go renew my visa already! that is crazy! so i hope we have time to do everything we need to.

we are going to have a baptism this week. maria jose will be baptized. she is the greatest investigator ever. she loves us too! she tells us that our coming into her life is the best thing that has ever happened to her! she will be baptized on saturday so i will send you pictures next week! after church she said that she liked it so much and that she found her place. then she said that she will never leave this path. i feel that if just baptized her in my mission it owuld be worth it!

we are also teaching a bunch of other great people. celia is a single mom that has to take care of her 24 year old daughter and her 2 grandkids because her daughter is adicted to drugs. it is pretty sad! she really likes us too though! she will be baptized on the 31st with one of her daughters and grandkids.

so ya things are going pretty well. one bad thing happened this week though. when i was washing my backpack today, it got all torn up. thereis a pocket in the back for a wet suit. it is water proof and used to come in handy on the rainy days. well that part got torn up in the washing machine. so i cant even shut that one pocket. i was pretty upset about that. it was in perfect condition too, it was pretty mucch new! our washing machine is terible. it has already stained like all of elder bavenders white shirts too. i just about want to throw it off a cliff. but other than that, everything is going well!

well love you guys! i hope you guys have a great week!

love,

elder long