Monday, December 10, 2012
Dec. 10, 2012
Hey family and friends!
Woo, what a week! Bradley once mentioned to me in a letter that he thinks a mission is just a two year spiritual high. Lamentably I´d disagree, but it is definitely worth it, so don´t worry about it. I´ve thought about keeping track of good days verses bad days, but it´s more of an hourly rollercoaster, so oh well haha. But overall looking back on the week, it´s been a good week. Woo!
Corey told me that she has a friend who was on the same cruise as you! How crazy! What a small world!
A few quick requests: Lacey, add ´the Hobbit¨ to my movie list for when I get back. There´s a poster here in the mall and it looks stinkin awesome... haha. Can you check to see what my skype name is? I´m pretty sure it´s T.J.Long, but do the caps matter? Mum, if you happen to have a few spare minutes, could you send me a scan of a few of your ESL lesson plans? I want some worksheets that I can give people as homework during the week. ¡Gracias!
Oh, also speaking of skype, our mission president mandated that we missionaries skype the 24th. That will be my P-Day. Can you still do it 9am Vegas time or would later work better? Let me know! I still need to somehow coordinate with a family to see when I can use their computer. Ha, international coordination is difficult without frequent communication....
This week has been filled with things tempting me to get oober trunky. Ha. We had an amazingly delicious barbeque with our bishop on Monday evening because he wanted to thank us for our hard work this year. The ward has had 18 baptisms. Wahoo!! We had super tasty carne asada--it tasted pretty close to how Dad makes it. Yum!
Then of course there´s all the Christmas stuff going on (not nearly as much as in the US, but still an occasional Christmas song). We missionaries are helping in the stake Christmas choir, but the entire time we sang I just kept thinking about how much I want to be standing next to Dad and singing in our ward choir. Good times.
This past week our toilet was clogged for 4 days. Ha. The plumbing is just a bit wack down here, and apparantly in our new house you can´t flush toilet paper. So we now have a trashcan in which we have to discard the used paper. Yummy. We´ve had some pretty epic adventures with that toilet....
Speaking of really strong smells, the olfactory sense is the strongest memory humans have. On Tuesday during ward council I got a whiff of perfume that smelled exactly like Denice and Joylynn. I always love that smell. So full of great memories. Send the aunts my love!
Quick update on investigators: we´re teaching the son of our recent convert family. He´s been living in Conce while he plays for the university´s soccer team, and he visits everyone once in a while. He´s stinkin awesome. Now that he´s on holiday vacation, we can fully teach him. The other night he told us that he feels that everything we teach and everything he´s seen about the LDS church is true. I can´t even describe the immense joy I felt! wahooo!!!!!!! His baptism date is scheduled for December 22nd, along with a few other progressing investigators we have. His dad received the priesthood on Sunday, so we´re obviously aiming to have him baptize his son. What a fantastic eternal family this will be. They are ´´investigadores de oro!´´
Just remember that you don´t have to be full-time missionary to feel this great joy of seeing your loved ones (friends, family, neighbors, colleagues) accept the Restored Gospel and receive the remission of their sins by being baptized by someone who truly holds the authority of God´s priesthood. What a blessing..
Have a wonderful week! Write your letters to ´´El Viejito Pascuero´´ so he´ll bring you your Christmas presents!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
Woo, what a week! Bradley once mentioned to me in a letter that he thinks a mission is just a two year spiritual high. Lamentably I´d disagree, but it is definitely worth it, so don´t worry about it. I´ve thought about keeping track of good days verses bad days, but it´s more of an hourly rollercoaster, so oh well haha. But overall looking back on the week, it´s been a good week. Woo!
Corey told me that she has a friend who was on the same cruise as you! How crazy! What a small world!
A few quick requests: Lacey, add ´the Hobbit¨ to my movie list for when I get back. There´s a poster here in the mall and it looks stinkin awesome... haha. Can you check to see what my skype name is? I´m pretty sure it´s T.J.Long, but do the caps matter? Mum, if you happen to have a few spare minutes, could you send me a scan of a few of your ESL lesson plans? I want some worksheets that I can give people as homework during the week. ¡Gracias!
Oh, also speaking of skype, our mission president mandated that we missionaries skype the 24th. That will be my P-Day. Can you still do it 9am Vegas time or would later work better? Let me know! I still need to somehow coordinate with a family to see when I can use their computer. Ha, international coordination is difficult without frequent communication....
This week has been filled with things tempting me to get oober trunky. Ha. We had an amazingly delicious barbeque with our bishop on Monday evening because he wanted to thank us for our hard work this year. The ward has had 18 baptisms. Wahoo!! We had super tasty carne asada--it tasted pretty close to how Dad makes it. Yum!
Then of course there´s all the Christmas stuff going on (not nearly as much as in the US, but still an occasional Christmas song). We missionaries are helping in the stake Christmas choir, but the entire time we sang I just kept thinking about how much I want to be standing next to Dad and singing in our ward choir. Good times.
This past week our toilet was clogged for 4 days. Ha. The plumbing is just a bit wack down here, and apparantly in our new house you can´t flush toilet paper. So we now have a trashcan in which we have to discard the used paper. Yummy. We´ve had some pretty epic adventures with that toilet....
Speaking of really strong smells, the olfactory sense is the strongest memory humans have. On Tuesday during ward council I got a whiff of perfume that smelled exactly like Denice and Joylynn. I always love that smell. So full of great memories. Send the aunts my love!
Quick update on investigators: we´re teaching the son of our recent convert family. He´s been living in Conce while he plays for the university´s soccer team, and he visits everyone once in a while. He´s stinkin awesome. Now that he´s on holiday vacation, we can fully teach him. The other night he told us that he feels that everything we teach and everything he´s seen about the LDS church is true. I can´t even describe the immense joy I felt! wahooo!!!!!!! His baptism date is scheduled for December 22nd, along with a few other progressing investigators we have. His dad received the priesthood on Sunday, so we´re obviously aiming to have him baptize his son. What a fantastic eternal family this will be. They are ´´investigadores de oro!´´
Just remember that you don´t have to be full-time missionary to feel this great joy of seeing your loved ones (friends, family, neighbors, colleagues) accept the Restored Gospel and receive the remission of their sins by being baptized by someone who truly holds the authority of God´s priesthood. What a blessing..
Have a wonderful week! Write your letters to ´´El Viejito Pascuero´´ so he´ll bring you your Christmas presents!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
Monday, December 3, 2012
Dec. 3, 2012
Hello hello hello!
This past week has been sooooo incredibly busy, yet oddly went by super slowly. Weird. But here we are, beloved P-day once again! Some updates of my recent activities: we moved houses because the owner wants to sell it. We moved into an extremely nice house (for Chile) of a member who is moving out of the ward. It's undoubtedly the nicest house in the mission, but the tradeoff is that it's waaaayyyyy far from our sector! So that will be interesting, but such is life. I also finished by 12 week training program and am now officially just an average joe missionary rather than a greenie being trained. However, the four missionaries in our house didn't get transfered. We're all staying together. Honestly, I was very disappointed because we need a change of atmostphere regarding roommates. The other two missionaries Elder Torres and I live with constantly fight and it's been disheartingly difficult to feel the Spirit when they are around. But the Lord knows best. He obviously wants all four of us to stay together and learn more about patience and humility. Woo hoo!
This week nearly every night I dreamed that I was home again. It's so weird to have such vivid dreams of home and family and friends and then wake up in South America several hundreds of thousands of miles away. I also dreamed about my beloved SPAC team! I miss those people! Send my love, please.
Quick request: how's it coming with getting the Schwann credit card, Mum? I know you're busy and I'm sooooo grateful for ALL you have done and continually do for me and so many others, so don't stress if it's still on your to-do list. I'm just hoping to get it within the next month or so that I can buy some rain gear and protect myself against these storms. When it rains here, it POURS. But the city doesn't have a very good gutter system, so all the streets flood. It's pretty intense--and quite the obstacle course to try to go tracting and cross a river to get to the other side of the street. I would consider trying to re-create Moses' experience with the Red Sea, but for some reason I feel like it's not quite God's will. Such is the life. Oh well, at least I know how to swim!
To answer Dad's questions: So far I've been asked just once to play a musical number for our latest baptismal service, but other than that we have a young girl in our ward that has a calling to be the pianist. She knows a good portion of hymns, so that's usually what we sing. In our humble little chapel we have an electric keyboard that we use rather than a piano or organ. It's not quite big enough for some of my compositions (in terms of having enough keys) so I changed it a bit to make it work. I've been asked to sing in the Christmas program, but no one has given me any further information despite the program being in a week or two. I'll let you know how that goes haha.
As far as skyping, Dad's proposal should work (9am Vegas time). I need to find a family who's computer I can use and coordinate with them and I'll let you know in my next email.
The pictures of the Santa race are hilarious! I've always wanted to do that. I'm glad you had a fun time. When Tyler was dressed up as the wolf mascot thing he looked like those creepy wolf creatures from The Village. Ha. But I'm glad you're all enjoying the holidays! I certainly miss all the fun music and festivities! There's a few people here that have little fake Christmas trees (usually about 3 feet tall), but other than that it's still just summer here. Weird o_0 We did have a fun barbeque with our recent converts yesterday, though. It had nothing to do with Christmas, but maaaaaannnnn was it delicious!!! We had four different kinds of juicy meats, potatoes, Chilean bread, beans, salad, etc etc etc. Ohhhhhhh it was good! Yay missionary work! haha :P
Take advantage of this wonderful Christmas season to help people remember the real reason for all the gift shopping and face stuffing. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but it really is such an easy way to bring up the Gospel. And don't just remind people that it's about Christ--I'll be surprised if someone doesn't know that; rather, take the opportunity to introduce the Restored Gospel. Talk about the Book of Mormon. Talk about how Christ still lives. Talk about His visit to the American continent (3 Nephi 11). It's great to remind people what He's done for us, but I invite you to ask them what they think we can do for Him.
Have a wonderful week! Read the Book of Mormon each day! Love you!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
This past week has been sooooo incredibly busy, yet oddly went by super slowly. Weird. But here we are, beloved P-day once again! Some updates of my recent activities: we moved houses because the owner wants to sell it. We moved into an extremely nice house (for Chile) of a member who is moving out of the ward. It's undoubtedly the nicest house in the mission, but the tradeoff is that it's waaaayyyyy far from our sector! So that will be interesting, but such is life. I also finished by 12 week training program and am now officially just an average joe missionary rather than a greenie being trained. However, the four missionaries in our house didn't get transfered. We're all staying together. Honestly, I was very disappointed because we need a change of atmostphere regarding roommates. The other two missionaries Elder Torres and I live with constantly fight and it's been disheartingly difficult to feel the Spirit when they are around. But the Lord knows best. He obviously wants all four of us to stay together and learn more about patience and humility. Woo hoo!
This week nearly every night I dreamed that I was home again. It's so weird to have such vivid dreams of home and family and friends and then wake up in South America several hundreds of thousands of miles away. I also dreamed about my beloved SPAC team! I miss those people! Send my love, please.
Quick request: how's it coming with getting the Schwann credit card, Mum? I know you're busy and I'm sooooo grateful for ALL you have done and continually do for me and so many others, so don't stress if it's still on your to-do list. I'm just hoping to get it within the next month or so that I can buy some rain gear and protect myself against these storms. When it rains here, it POURS. But the city doesn't have a very good gutter system, so all the streets flood. It's pretty intense--and quite the obstacle course to try to go tracting and cross a river to get to the other side of the street. I would consider trying to re-create Moses' experience with the Red Sea, but for some reason I feel like it's not quite God's will. Such is the life. Oh well, at least I know how to swim!
To answer Dad's questions: So far I've been asked just once to play a musical number for our latest baptismal service, but other than that we have a young girl in our ward that has a calling to be the pianist. She knows a good portion of hymns, so that's usually what we sing. In our humble little chapel we have an electric keyboard that we use rather than a piano or organ. It's not quite big enough for some of my compositions (in terms of having enough keys) so I changed it a bit to make it work. I've been asked to sing in the Christmas program, but no one has given me any further information despite the program being in a week or two. I'll let you know how that goes haha.
As far as skyping, Dad's proposal should work (9am Vegas time). I need to find a family who's computer I can use and coordinate with them and I'll let you know in my next email.
The pictures of the Santa race are hilarious! I've always wanted to do that. I'm glad you had a fun time. When Tyler was dressed up as the wolf mascot thing he looked like those creepy wolf creatures from The Village. Ha. But I'm glad you're all enjoying the holidays! I certainly miss all the fun music and festivities! There's a few people here that have little fake Christmas trees (usually about 3 feet tall), but other than that it's still just summer here. Weird o_0 We did have a fun barbeque with our recent converts yesterday, though. It had nothing to do with Christmas, but maaaaaannnnn was it delicious!!! We had four different kinds of juicy meats, potatoes, Chilean bread, beans, salad, etc etc etc. Ohhhhhhh it was good! Yay missionary work! haha :P
Take advantage of this wonderful Christmas season to help people remember the real reason for all the gift shopping and face stuffing. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but it really is such an easy way to bring up the Gospel. And don't just remind people that it's about Christ--I'll be surprised if someone doesn't know that; rather, take the opportunity to introduce the Restored Gospel. Talk about the Book of Mormon. Talk about how Christ still lives. Talk about His visit to the American continent (3 Nephi 11). It's great to remind people what He's done for us, but I invite you to ask them what they think we can do for Him.
Have a wonderful week! Read the Book of Mormon each day! Love you!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
Monday, November 26, 2012
Life in Chile
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| Chilean Sized Hamburgers |
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| La Familia Claudio, Catalina, Jacquelin y Elder Torres |
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| Best Missionaries Ever! |
November 26, 2012
Mis amados,
What a week. I´ll say it again. What a week. I´ve been having troubles with my companion and I not getting along to the point where I wasn´t feeling the Spirit, and I was constantly praying and striving to know what I could do to help him change a few small things that would help us. I was finally humbled by my zone leader when he told me that it´s all my fault. I didn´t agree with him, but I decided to submit to him as my leader and do whatever I could to improve our situation. This week has been fantastic. My companion still has his same flaws and differences, but what changed was my attitude and reaction. I´ve heard so many times growing up that I can´t control the behavior of others, I can only control my own actions. But I didn´t LEARN that phrase until this week. I didn´t LIVE that simple truth until this week. I´d like to give myself some credit and say that in the past I´ve tried and done what I could, but I´ve learned so much during my time in the mission. It really is a time that the Lord stretches us so that we grow. It´s uncomfortable and difficult for a time, but as we endure our trials with faith and HUMILITY, all will be worth it and we will be better off. Because otherwise, being a worry-wart, a perfectionist, and a missionary don´t go very well together.
This week we got to do several service projects--which I´ve learned are so much easier than proscelyting! Good thing I´ve always enjoyed doing service anyways haha. One of the projects was cutting a pasture of grass/weeds that reached up to my bellybutton. With a hefty weedwacker it would take maybe an hour or two. But here in Chile, we used scissors....hahaha it was quite the experience. At least they were big scissors... Afterwards we helped one of the members in our ward move a bunch of logs and wood and flour (for his bakery) we moved literally over two tons of flour. Hoorah! haha. I think dad will appreciate one thing the most: the top of my head got sunburned. Yay going bald....haha :P
Random thought #1: I bought some new lotion with the scent of White Gardenia--the flower from Hawaii. It reminds me of Mum, so now I walk around all day getting occasional wifts of Hawaii and thinking about Mum. I still need to decide if that´s a good thing or a bad thing...haha it hasn´t been a distraction though so I think we´re good.
Random thought #2: On Christmas day I´ll get to skype my family! Woo! Let´s start trying to coordinate now considering we can only do it through emails once a week.... What are the family´s plans this year? What time would be best to try to call? Start thinking of questions you have and write them down so that you don´t forget when we´re actually skyping!
Thanks so much to Paula for being so generous and contributing to paying for my mission! I sure feel the love and support from you all, and I don´t have the words to express how grateful I am and how much it means to me!
Thanks for all the fun pictures of the cruise! Maybe I shouldn´t have looked at them though, because now I´m super jealous!!! Looks like you all had a blast! Hopefully no one got too sunburned or sea sick! Send my love and birthday wishes to Grampsir!
Speaking about having fun and finding joy in life, I want to mention the joy of missionary work. There´s countless scriptures that talk about it, but I had yet to really feel it until recently. I didn´t have a great connection with the first family we baptized because I don´t understand their Spanish and we don´t have anything in common. But I´ve had the opportunity over the past month or so to help another family accept the Restored Gospel, and my joy has been full. I have a strong feeling that Claudio and I were good friends before this mortal life, and I don´t doubt that I once promised him I´d find him. Claudio, his wife Jacquelin, and their daughter Catalina (my hermanita Chilenita) took the first step towards eternal life by being baptized this past weekend. I can´t describe the joy and love I feel for this family. Until recently, I wasn´t sure if I could love the Chileans. That has been one of my biggest and most unfortunate struggles as a missionary so far. But the Lord has shown me that I can love them, and I am so incredibly grateful. I´ve felt the joy and excitement of seeing an investigator come to church. I´ve experienced the happiness and gratitud of helping a friend enter the waters of baptism. And here´s the catch: you don´t have to be a full-time missionary to experience this ´´fullness of joy.´´ Invite your friend to FHE. Introduce them to the missionaries. Invite them to church. Mosiah 26:20-22 in the Book of Mormon describes exactly what you need to do to obtain eternal life and forgiveness of your sins. Read it and apply it.
Thanks for all of your love, support, emails, letters, pictures, and prayers. It means the world to me.
All my love,
Elder Long :)
What a week. I´ll say it again. What a week. I´ve been having troubles with my companion and I not getting along to the point where I wasn´t feeling the Spirit, and I was constantly praying and striving to know what I could do to help him change a few small things that would help us. I was finally humbled by my zone leader when he told me that it´s all my fault. I didn´t agree with him, but I decided to submit to him as my leader and do whatever I could to improve our situation. This week has been fantastic. My companion still has his same flaws and differences, but what changed was my attitude and reaction. I´ve heard so many times growing up that I can´t control the behavior of others, I can only control my own actions. But I didn´t LEARN that phrase until this week. I didn´t LIVE that simple truth until this week. I´d like to give myself some credit and say that in the past I´ve tried and done what I could, but I´ve learned so much during my time in the mission. It really is a time that the Lord stretches us so that we grow. It´s uncomfortable and difficult for a time, but as we endure our trials with faith and HUMILITY, all will be worth it and we will be better off. Because otherwise, being a worry-wart, a perfectionist, and a missionary don´t go very well together.
This week we got to do several service projects--which I´ve learned are so much easier than proscelyting! Good thing I´ve always enjoyed doing service anyways haha. One of the projects was cutting a pasture of grass/weeds that reached up to my bellybutton. With a hefty weedwacker it would take maybe an hour or two. But here in Chile, we used scissors....hahaha it was quite the experience. At least they were big scissors... Afterwards we helped one of the members in our ward move a bunch of logs and wood and flour (for his bakery) we moved literally over two tons of flour. Hoorah! haha. I think dad will appreciate one thing the most: the top of my head got sunburned. Yay going bald....haha :P
Random thought #1: I bought some new lotion with the scent of White Gardenia--the flower from Hawaii. It reminds me of Mum, so now I walk around all day getting occasional wifts of Hawaii and thinking about Mum. I still need to decide if that´s a good thing or a bad thing...haha it hasn´t been a distraction though so I think we´re good.
Random thought #2: On Christmas day I´ll get to skype my family! Woo! Let´s start trying to coordinate now considering we can only do it through emails once a week.... What are the family´s plans this year? What time would be best to try to call? Start thinking of questions you have and write them down so that you don´t forget when we´re actually skyping!
Thanks so much to Paula for being so generous and contributing to paying for my mission! I sure feel the love and support from you all, and I don´t have the words to express how grateful I am and how much it means to me!
Thanks for all the fun pictures of the cruise! Maybe I shouldn´t have looked at them though, because now I´m super jealous!!! Looks like you all had a blast! Hopefully no one got too sunburned or sea sick! Send my love and birthday wishes to Grampsir!
Speaking about having fun and finding joy in life, I want to mention the joy of missionary work. There´s countless scriptures that talk about it, but I had yet to really feel it until recently. I didn´t have a great connection with the first family we baptized because I don´t understand their Spanish and we don´t have anything in common. But I´ve had the opportunity over the past month or so to help another family accept the Restored Gospel, and my joy has been full. I have a strong feeling that Claudio and I were good friends before this mortal life, and I don´t doubt that I once promised him I´d find him. Claudio, his wife Jacquelin, and their daughter Catalina (my hermanita Chilenita) took the first step towards eternal life by being baptized this past weekend. I can´t describe the joy and love I feel for this family. Until recently, I wasn´t sure if I could love the Chileans. That has been one of my biggest and most unfortunate struggles as a missionary so far. But the Lord has shown me that I can love them, and I am so incredibly grateful. I´ve felt the joy and excitement of seeing an investigator come to church. I´ve experienced the happiness and gratitud of helping a friend enter the waters of baptism. And here´s the catch: you don´t have to be a full-time missionary to experience this ´´fullness of joy.´´ Invite your friend to FHE. Introduce them to the missionaries. Invite them to church. Mosiah 26:20-22 in the Book of Mormon describes exactly what you need to do to obtain eternal life and forgiveness of your sins. Read it and apply it.
Thanks for all of your love, support, emails, letters, pictures, and prayers. It means the world to me.
All my love,
Elder Long :)
Nov. 19, 2012
(Editorial comment: for some reason his letter came up with Japanese looking characters- perhaps he's blending into Brittany's mission in Japan!)
eres Querridos!
Happy (early) Thanksgiving! I hope you磖e enjoying the holidays!--especially on your stinkin family cruise! How fun! Obviously Chile doesn磘 celebrate Thanksgiving, so I guess we磖e just waitin for Christmas. I磎 curious to see how much decoration they磍l have or what they磍l do to celebrate. I磛e definitely felt extra homesick because of the holidays and remembering all the fun family traditions that I磎 missing, but such is the life. At the least, I磛e learned that I磎 going to make a great mom someday--I already know how to clean up after three teenage boys! But in all seriousness, everything that happens in our life really does prepare us for the future. I always figured that working for Dad and learning how to do plumbing and whatnot would do me well when I became a homeowner with my wife, but I didn磘 realize how much sooner I磀 be using all the skills I磛e learned over the years. Quite frequently I have the opportunity to help someone paint, do yardwork, muck out a house, shovel, fix something electrical, etc etc etc. Thanks, Dad, for being such a Renaissance man and teaching me soooooooooo much!!! Plus it helps people understand that I磎 not a lazy American that has never worked a day in his life as I can honestly describe how I worked construction and did manual labor for years to earn enough money to pay for a mission. But changing that stereotype is harder than the actual physical labor itself. Ha, anyways...
This week I finally got the letter that Kendra Williams sent several months ago, as well as letters 4 and 5 from Corey, and some Dear Elders from Mum. Thanks so much! The talk you sent me (Mum) was really good! It was missing some big chunks, but luckily one of the other elders in my zone has the audio recording of it and let me listen to it. Powerful stuff! Elder Holland is definitely an incredible representative of the Lord.
Quick questions: How many people regularly attend the Hacienda Heights ward? People ALWAYS ask me, but I have no idea what to guestimate. Also, what are some common/funny sayings in English? I want to do what Mum did for her English classes and end with a 创dicho创 each time. We taught our first English class on Wednesday, and it was interesting. After about 30 mins someone finally showed up, and after an hour we had a total of four people. So I taught the pronunciation of the alphabet, personal pronouns, and the verb 创to be.创 It went well, but I wouldn磘 mind some tips from my wonderful mother who already has so much experience with this! Thanks!
A few days ago my companion and I were out tracting on a beautiful sunny day when we felt like going to visit one of the inactive members of our ward. We sat down in her humble home, and began to converse and share a spiritual thought so we could ask for some references. After a few minutes, an ENORMOUS thunder storm suddenly started rumbling her entire house. The rain and hail was coming down so hard that we could barely hear each other speak--especially because her 创house创 is made out of thin cardboard-like walls and a tin roof. I haven磘 been in a storm that powerful in a long time. When the thunder struck, it shook the house. Honestly it was pretty stinkin cool! haha. As we wrapped up our visit, it was still raining pretty hard. We said a final prayer, thanked her for her time, and braced ourselves to get drenched. We opened the front door and the rain became an ever-so-light drizzle and then stopped completely. What a tender mercy of the Lord to protect us from the unexpected rain and hail. Moreso, He guided us to that protection--eventhough we didn磘 realize it until after the fact. That磗 often how the Spirit works. It seems like it磗 just your own thought or feeling, but can later trace it back to really being a prompting from the Spirit. So often we mistakenly think that 创being led by the Spirit创 is some grand powerful experience where it磗 so obvious that it磗 the Lord guiding us; this isn磘 so. I could easily write, 创The Holy Ghost led us to visit Juana where we would be protected from the unexpected storm创 and it sounds like I knew we were being prompted to go to a specific place. Don磘 let yourself discredit your ability to feel the Holy Ghost and receive His promptings. You probably just don磘 realize that it磗 the Holy Ghost. That磗 why it磗 so important to say your nightly prayer and think back through your day and try to recognize what the Lord did for you that day.
We need the Holy Ghost in our lives. It磗 the greatest gift we can have in this life, and eternal life is the greatest gift in the life to come. If we don磘 live worthy to have the Spirit, we磖e missing out on some MAJOR blessings. When we don磘 have the Spirit, we know exactly what will happen: unhappiness, failure, loneliness, anger, etc. But when we do have the Spirit with us as our companion and guide, we have no idea how great of miracles the Lord will work.
May the Lord bless you as you faithfully rely on Him! My love is sent your way during this holiday season! Eat enough delicous food for the both of us, and remember to be grateful for what the Lord has given you even after Thanksgiving has passed. Have a wonderful week!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
eres Querridos!
Happy (early) Thanksgiving! I hope you磖e enjoying the holidays!--especially on your stinkin family cruise! How fun! Obviously Chile doesn磘 celebrate Thanksgiving, so I guess we磖e just waitin for Christmas. I磎 curious to see how much decoration they磍l have or what they磍l do to celebrate. I磛e definitely felt extra homesick because of the holidays and remembering all the fun family traditions that I磎 missing, but such is the life. At the least, I磛e learned that I磎 going to make a great mom someday--I already know how to clean up after three teenage boys! But in all seriousness, everything that happens in our life really does prepare us for the future. I always figured that working for Dad and learning how to do plumbing and whatnot would do me well when I became a homeowner with my wife, but I didn磘 realize how much sooner I磀 be using all the skills I磛e learned over the years. Quite frequently I have the opportunity to help someone paint, do yardwork, muck out a house, shovel, fix something electrical, etc etc etc. Thanks, Dad, for being such a Renaissance man and teaching me soooooooooo much!!! Plus it helps people understand that I磎 not a lazy American that has never worked a day in his life as I can honestly describe how I worked construction and did manual labor for years to earn enough money to pay for a mission. But changing that stereotype is harder than the actual physical labor itself. Ha, anyways...
This week I finally got the letter that Kendra Williams sent several months ago, as well as letters 4 and 5 from Corey, and some Dear Elders from Mum. Thanks so much! The talk you sent me (Mum) was really good! It was missing some big chunks, but luckily one of the other elders in my zone has the audio recording of it and let me listen to it. Powerful stuff! Elder Holland is definitely an incredible representative of the Lord.
Quick questions: How many people regularly attend the Hacienda Heights ward? People ALWAYS ask me, but I have no idea what to guestimate. Also, what are some common/funny sayings in English? I want to do what Mum did for her English classes and end with a 创dicho创 each time. We taught our first English class on Wednesday, and it was interesting. After about 30 mins someone finally showed up, and after an hour we had a total of four people. So I taught the pronunciation of the alphabet, personal pronouns, and the verb 创to be.创 It went well, but I wouldn磘 mind some tips from my wonderful mother who already has so much experience with this! Thanks!
A few days ago my companion and I were out tracting on a beautiful sunny day when we felt like going to visit one of the inactive members of our ward. We sat down in her humble home, and began to converse and share a spiritual thought so we could ask for some references. After a few minutes, an ENORMOUS thunder storm suddenly started rumbling her entire house. The rain and hail was coming down so hard that we could barely hear each other speak--especially because her 创house创 is made out of thin cardboard-like walls and a tin roof. I haven磘 been in a storm that powerful in a long time. When the thunder struck, it shook the house. Honestly it was pretty stinkin cool! haha. As we wrapped up our visit, it was still raining pretty hard. We said a final prayer, thanked her for her time, and braced ourselves to get drenched. We opened the front door and the rain became an ever-so-light drizzle and then stopped completely. What a tender mercy of the Lord to protect us from the unexpected rain and hail. Moreso, He guided us to that protection--eventhough we didn磘 realize it until after the fact. That磗 often how the Spirit works. It seems like it磗 just your own thought or feeling, but can later trace it back to really being a prompting from the Spirit. So often we mistakenly think that 创being led by the Spirit创 is some grand powerful experience where it磗 so obvious that it磗 the Lord guiding us; this isn磘 so. I could easily write, 创The Holy Ghost led us to visit Juana where we would be protected from the unexpected storm创 and it sounds like I knew we were being prompted to go to a specific place. Don磘 let yourself discredit your ability to feel the Holy Ghost and receive His promptings. You probably just don磘 realize that it磗 the Holy Ghost. That磗 why it磗 so important to say your nightly prayer and think back through your day and try to recognize what the Lord did for you that day.
We need the Holy Ghost in our lives. It磗 the greatest gift we can have in this life, and eternal life is the greatest gift in the life to come. If we don磘 live worthy to have the Spirit, we磖e missing out on some MAJOR blessings. When we don磘 have the Spirit, we know exactly what will happen: unhappiness, failure, loneliness, anger, etc. But when we do have the Spirit with us as our companion and guide, we have no idea how great of miracles the Lord will work.
May the Lord bless you as you faithfully rely on Him! My love is sent your way during this holiday season! Eat enough delicous food for the both of us, and remember to be grateful for what the Lord has given you even after Thanksgiving has passed. Have a wonderful week!
Much love,
Elder Long :)
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