September 22, 2010

hey so i dont have that much time today...once again ha. this week we
are going to the botucatu waterfalls!! i am pretty excited! but sounds
like you guys are doing great. missy and becca are probably dying of
heat right now. but at least you are going into winter now. it is
starting to get really hot here!!!! haha i dont know if i am ready for
the rainy season here but whatever "só vai!" but i guess i will tell
you about my week
i will start by telling you about last pday. we played basketball in a
sweet gym. well its not really a gym because it isnt a wood floor but
there is stadium seating and it had the first glass backboard i have
seen since i left for the mission!! i was so happy as i walked in!! it
was really nice to play. there were some other pretty good players
too. elder nothum plays well and so does elder fa, a tongan from mesa,
arizona. it was a great zone activity.
we werent able to teach leticia this week. we marked with her but she
called to tell us that she couldnt. sima and daniel were in são paulo
so we couldnt teach leticia at their house. so that was a bummer! we
found some other investigators but our week was a little weak. this
weekend i spent the whole time in Jaú. i was with elder fa on saturday
and sunday. i was there to interview people. there is a companionship
of sisters and one of elders in jaú. i interviewed a lady that the
sisters were teaching. the sisters said that it would be a really hard
interview but it was like the easiest one of my life haha. i just
asked the questions and she said she was real excited for the baptism!
thats how it is with the sisters here. the person is really ready for
the baptism or they dont even want to be baptized and havent even read
the book of mormon and dont know that their baptism will be the next
day! they never tell about the investigator's situation either so that
makes things a little harder but this one was great! then i
interviewed the elders' investigator! that was a hard interview! she
is that type of lady that like shakes her head as she talks and cant
do anything that anyone says. so when the missionaries ask how she
feels when she reads the book of mormon, she says, why do i have to
tell you about my feelings and she does everything to avoid answering
the question. that was frustrating for me during the interview.
on sunday, i taught the class in jaú. (i stayed there for the meeting
too). i didnt know that until about 20 minutes before the class. then
afterwards, we started filling up the baptismal font for the sisters
baptism about 5 minutes before sacrament meeting. the branch president
came up and asked me to give a talk hahaa. i gave a little chuckle and
said alright. i think he might think i was laughing like "i cant
believe he is asking me right now" but i was really laughing because i
elder nothum had to talk in botucatu in my place. i thought i was out
of giving a talk but i still gave one ha. luckily i was already
preparing one earlier in the week ha. then we had lunch, the sisters'
baptism, and the afternoon session of church(the other branch). then i
did 65 street contacts in about 2 hours!!! it was so crazy!! but we
made our goal on street contacts for the week!!
on monday i got so frustrated during a lesson. the lady was talking
bad about the church and saying that there is no way that can happen.
she wouldnt listen but i was able to bare my testimony to her. i felt
like i bore a pretty strong testimony. she promised to read, pray and
go to church this week and for conference! that was pretty strange
since she didnt want to accept anything the rest of the time!
yesterday we had a district meeting and we taught about receiving
revelation through the book of mormon. that was a great meeting!
everyone had great comment and the practices were awesome!! our zone
didnt baptize very much this month but all the other numbers have been
great!!! it has been a great transfer and i cant believe it is already
over!!! this next monday we will have transfers again. i think i will
stay here but i think i will get a new comp. so i guess i will let you
guys know next week!
love you guys! you are the best! oh and missy and becca dont be sad
that you are away from home. you can talk everyday! just keep yourself
busy and remember that it will be even better when you can live close
by again!
love you all,
elder long

September 15, 2010

hey everyone! how are you all doing today? i am doing pretty great.
sounds like you guys had a pretty good week though. right now i am in
são manuel. we are all going to play basketball today!!! i am pretty
excited. there arent many basketball courts in this part of our
mission. we actually have to rent the court ha. so we will get a good
two hours of playing time in today. but i am pretty excited. there are
8 missionaries here. it should be awesome ha. but i guess i will hurry
and tell you about my week and i will try sending those pics that you
guys didnt get last week. i will probably send a dvd of all my pics
home this next week. there is a member that is putting them onto a dvd
for me. so i will get that sent pretty soon!
but i guess i will hurry and tell you about my week so i can go play
basketball! this week was an alright week. it wasnt exactly like we
had hoped though. we werent able to have a baptism this week. it fell
through. but maybe this week! i have been talking a lot of english
this week though ha. it is weird to work in english. there is a new
couple in our ward, daniel and sima. daniel is brazillian but he went
to study in greece. sima is from iran but her family left and found
the church. daniel and sima got married and moved to brazil. sima
doesnt talk portuguese. haha she is learning a little bit. she speaks
like 5 other languages and is teaching english here in brazil. we had
dinner there and she invited one of her students. we are teaching
leticia at there house now. things are going great with her. it is
difficult to trade from english to portuguese at there house. once we
leave we have a headache. but leticia is progressing very well! it is
just hard to teach her cuz she studies so much. but make sure to pray
for her alright?! this week doesnt have to many exciting experiences
to share with you guys. sorry! but everything in our zone is going
well! the missionaries are learning a lot and so am i! there is no
better place to learn than in the mission!
i went on an exchange with a new elder, elder carlstrom from provo. he
is pretty new. i think i was able to help him with his teaching. he
was able to teach the restoration with me. he usually has had
difficulties with the first lesson but it went well. i think i would
like to train. actually, i know i would like to train ha. it didnt
help that we were teaching some weaker investigators when he
practiced. they didnt even want to try to understand. it reminded me
of those frustrating months at the beginning of the mission. that was
pretty rough!
elder ficklin is doing well. we are still getting along great. i like
him a bunch and we are learning together. i think we are doing an
alright job leading the zone!
but that is about all that happened this week! but i love you guys!!
have an awesome week! this week, we might baptize tainã. thats the
same girl from last week. but our teaching group is a little weak
right now. but it will get better this week!! love you!
love,
elder long

September 8, 2010

here are some pics from the week. haha we got left in the mission

office alone so we had to take a pic with presidents big board of

transfers! joice is the the girl that was baptized. and those are my

new scripture cases. she also sent a tie that is pretty cool looking.

i like it. oh and that is the only pic i have of elder ficklin haha

hey guys!!!! how are you all doing this fine day?! everything is going
great here. it sounds like you all had fun in reno this last week. i
am glad that you liked it! i hope olivia and annie have started to
like school a little better now...i still am happy that i am not
starting school now haha. but live it up! the elementary and high
school days are awesome haha. but i guess i will let you know about my
week.
well first off, we were blessed with another baptism. i will send you
a picture. joice was baptized. she is ariani's friend. it was a good
experience. now we need to help her boyfriend. her boyfriend has
already been to church a lot. he is friends with our ward mission
leader. but he is to much into the things of the world, which makes me
a little worried about joice!! but hopefully we can help him out too.
this week we will probably have just one baptism. we could have 4
though. there is a girl named tainá that has been investigating the
church for about 3 years. she really likes the church and wants to be
baptized. she hasnt been baptized because of the slacker missionaries
that started teaching her 3 years ago. they went with her cousin(that
is also a teenage girl that was also investigating the church) to
teach tainá. tainá was the only one home. so the missionaries went in
anyways with the two young girls. her dad got home and walked in as
they were teaching. he didnt like that they were in there alone with
her, which is totally understandable. but now he doesnt allow the
missionaries to teach her (which is also understandable). so this
baptism is up to the branch president. but on sunday, tainá bore
testimony at church. investigators dont usually do that. she said that
she will bring her whole family to the church. and all her brothers
and the sisters want to be baptized too. that leaves just her parents.
so we will see how it all goes! but i will let you know next week
then!!!
this week we had our meeting in campinas. that means a few days of
waking up at 4:30 to catch the bus and a lot of money!!!! it was
pretty difficult!!! but the meeting was really good. it got a lot
better since the last zone leader meeting we had where we just talked
about things that we can resolve ourselves like teaching with members
and these things and getting people to do their street contacts. (oh
speaking of contacts; our small zone of 12 missionaries did 1025
street contacts this week. i think that is like a record in this zone.
we also had the best week of any of the zones with baptisms!!
yeah!!!!). we learned quite a bit though. the rules changed. i am
pretty excited about that. all the rules that we used to have that
werent in the missionary handbook were taking out. it is a good chance
for me to make my own restrictions. he just said that we have to ask
ourselves some questions to know if we should do something. we should
ask ourselves if it will harm us spiritualy, if it will give christ
and his church a bad name/reputation, andif we will end up getting
ourselves hurt. all the missionaries are excited about drinking coke
haha. i dont even like coke. probably because it is used as medicine
in our family haha. but i ended up staying in campinas for the night.
i stayed at elder guilherme's house. i have only talked to him two
times but i really like talking to him. the two times, we stayed up
really late talking about how we can get better as missionaries.
luckily, i had a 4 hour bus ride to catch up on my sleep after getting
up at 4:30 again ha.
yesterday, we taught the second of the new lessons to the
missionaries. it is about the role of the holy ghost in the
conversion. we didnt have as much time to prepare and it went pretty
well except that it started really late so we couldnt really work in
our area yesterday cuz we got home so late.
i went on another exchange with elder nothum. he is a great
missionary. there has only been one transfer in his mission where i
wasnt in his zone. he is a great friend, probably my best friend from
the mission so far. we have learned lots together. but our day
together was completely terrible becuase we got here so late and
werent able to teach. but i learned a lot. we just talked about things
we need to accomplish in the mission and things we have learned and
how we are so much different now. he told me he has learned lots from
me. i have never felt like the best zone leader but at least i have
helped someone huh? that mad me happy.
but that was pretty much my week. it was a good one! this week will be
good too. thanks for everything. love you all
love,
elder long

ps mom wanted to hear more about my comp. his name is elder ficklin
and he is a great missionary. he is from north ogden. it is really
easy to work with him. we are learning a lot together. we get along
great. haha i know, i know, my descriptions are great haha. i am
better with the answering question type thing haha. so if you want to
ask questions about him, i could probably answer hah. tchau!

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!!!

August 25, 2010

hey everyone!! how are you all doing?! i hope you are doing great!!!
this week we have training meetings. it almost feels like a basketball
tournament or something or a road game where we have to stay in a
hotel. i feel bad about that. it isnt how i was hoping, but lots of
missionaries are using this time as an oportunity to hang out with
friends. it feels like we are on vacation or something. i guess that
it is just a different part of the work that the church has started.
it is definitely different than normal. we start our meetings at 9 and
it goes until 4. we eat lunch together too. so we all just sit there,
listening and discussing different ideas about everything. it is
pretty interesting. i dont know how it could be better than practicing
and receiving feedback though. i hope it helps out in the long run. we
have been putting it into practice as we work at night. it is helping
i think. i barely worked with elder ficklin this week though because
of this training meeting. i have been with elder pezzin this whole
time. he was in my zone in jundiai but his name was elder cardoso
then. it is pretty fun. we have been staying at a house just outside
campinas in a city called paulinia. it is the smallst house in the
mission ha. that is fine but not with five missionaries. one elder
slept on the tile floor and three of us without blankets or anything.
it got a little cold. tonight we got moved to a house with about 6
other missionaries. they are all the crazy missionaries in the mission
too ha. i think it will be pretty crazy. it will probably be pretty
fun but its not like i am in the mission. i just want to start working
again. the worst thing is that there is no way to talk with the
missionaries in my zone because we are out of minutes. we can only
call them when we are in the same area code. i hope they are doing
well too ha.
i really am liking my new area. there is a young man in the ward that
is always with us. luis eduardo bacarin is his name. he is really
cool. the branch is great and the members work tons!!! things are
going well. we always have tons of people at church. it is great! i
think we are going to baptize quite a bit! elder ficklin teaches well.
but i am excited to learn the area so that we can get things
progressing more quickly!! that was about all that has happened
though!! sorry i dont have much time to write this week!!
love you guys!! thanks for everything!!
love,
elder long

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

The Mission Call

Here is a scrapbook page I did about Thomas' mission call. I cut the picture from a photo that Thomas sent home from his mission and typed up his mission call letter.