December 27, 2009

We were able to talk to Jeff on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, all of our family was able to be here for his call. Greg & his wife Laura flew in from UT a day early to try to miss some of the big snow storms that were heading our way. It was the best to be able to hear his voice and just confirm in person that he is alright and doing well. Jeff and Greg talked in Spanish for awhile, and carried on a good conversation. Greg served a mission in Venezuela & is still fluent, so he reported that Jeff's Spanish is coming along very well. Having his two last companions be Latino sure helped.

Hi!

It was awesome to be able to talk to you, not to mention everyone in the family! It was really sweet! Glad to hear that you are all doing well, there was a lot more that I wanted to talk about, but there just wasn't enough time..oh well at least there is Mother's Day too ;)

Everyone opened the Chileno gifts that Jeff had sent us:

Glad everyone liked the gifts! Did you and dad like the sweater/ponchos? I thought that they were pretty sweet, I almost kept dads for my self haha

I definitely missed you all this Christmas, it sucked to be away from you. It was a lot different expierience, but the plus side is only one more and then I'll be home to be with you all for the next Christmas.

Maybe just a touch homesick? We sure missed having him here with us, but his selfless service to his Heavenly Father is one of the things that make Jeff such a great guy.


More companion updates:

I'm able to work with my companion, so thats what is most important. As a person though I don't like him, but I guess you just have to learn to deal with it sometimes.

Here is how Jeff describes spending his Christmas -

Oh after I called we went back to our sector and worked for a while. Then at 9 we went over and celebrated with the Vargas Family(I'm forwarding the pics) So that was fun.



















Then the next day we went over to a family at 6 an 8 (and we did get a few gifts haha. Most deodorant spray, I guess I smell bad haha.) But the Bishops family gave me this nice smelling cologne. And yea, thats about it. Today we had a fun zone activity, water balloons were involved. Haha, hope that you all have a great new year!











Miss you all and am praying for you!

Chao!

Love Elder DeLong


Also since we have had so much snow lately, we sent him a picture of some of it, so maybe he can feel a little cooler as he looks at it on his hot days there.

December 21, 2009

We haven't been receiving any pictures from Jeff for the past several weeks. He said they are not suppossed to take pictures while they are out proselyting, they tend to look like tourists, plus it takes time away from their main purpose of being there-to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well my week was good, the work here has been going well. We've found a lot of new people to teach recently. We found this woman who was inactive for 8 years and we are in the process of reactivating her. She has two kids that we are going to baptize in January, 9 and 10 years old, so that will be fun.

Jeff is still struggling with his new companion:

But you can't get along with all the companions perfectly, so..But we've been having a lot of success so thats been good. People are a little more receptive this time of year so thats good.
We had 60 at church yesterday, so our ward is still small.


Rosa is doing great, I'm really happy that I'll be able to see her baptism, her son Sergio is going to baptize her so that will be great! And I think I'm going to do the confirmation, yikes! Umm, Christmas we'll go over to a families and for New Years the Bishops. I'm not really sure still whats going to happen. We have our big mission activity the 23rd, so I'm really excited about that.

I'm wondering if in the next box we send to Jeff we shouldn't include an American cookbook?

And can you send me a recipe for corn bread, cheesecake and brownies (without a box)? It's hard because things like corn syrup don't exist here, so we can't do the caramel corn.

I felt sad that he couldn't find a way to make caramel corn. That is one of his favorite things to eat, always a holiday treat. I was hoping that he could give us a little more detail on when he would be calling around Christmas:

And as far as the call, all I can tell you is that it will be the 24th in the afternoon/evening. I don't know a specific time, sorry. And I think thats about it. Ok, thanks for everything, I'm praying for you all and am super excited to talk to you on the 24th!
Take care,love,
Elder DeLong

December 13, 2009

We waited all week to find out about Jeff's new companion. I think he was surprised that Elder Salinas was moved, and he wasn't. He is still in his first area, and sounding anxious to move somewhere different, find new contacts.

I was bummed that I didn't get transferred, this sector is hard to be in for a long time. But I was happy too because now I get to have Christmas with all the families that I know so well. My new companion, Elder Alfonso (from Columbia) is interesting. Hes a short little man, and we dont have much in common. There are a lot of things that he does that bug me, but I guess I need to learn how to live and deal with some people that I dont always like the best. We are having a lot of success though so thats what is most important!

A good life lesson-learn how to like & to eventually love those you didn't think you could.I bet every missionary can relate to this at some time.

Rosa FINALLY returned from the south. We have the 26th set as a date to baptize her before she goes back to the south on the 8th. And we found this woman Bertsabe, who moved here a month ago and who is a member but inactive. Her husband isnt a member and her two little kids(10 and 8) And we brought her and her kids to church yesterday so that was exciting!

Rosa is a woman they have been working with since Jeff arrived in this area, so exciting news about her baptismal date.

The heat is killing me slowly here, we are out all day in it. I'm pretty tan I think and also pretty skinny. Its nice haha
Well, it'll be really weird not to have Christmas with you guys or with snow and in 80-90 degree weather. But I think it will be fun. The important part is to remember and celebrate the birth and life of our Savior.


Jeff had gotten some gifts for family & friends & mailed it home. It arrived here the other day. What a great surprise! Lots of Chilean stamps all over the package-which I have saved for momentos.

You got my box?? Yay! It was fun for me to send it, although I wont be doing it too often (it was expensive) But I hope everyone likes the Chileno stuff.

We knew that he wouldn't have much time to write us this week as he was asked to write a letter to his home ward, telling about his time & experiences in Chile.

Ok, got to respond to Bishop now, love you all and thanks for everything that you do for me! Hope you enjoy the box :)
Love,
Elder Jeffrey DeLong

Hopefully the next letter will have pictures-and information about "the phone call" when we get to talk to him. The count-down is on.

December 6, 2009

It is so amazing to be able to get emails from Jeff that come from him just hours ago. I'm sure families and friends all over the world feel the same way. It helps alleviate some of the feelings of separation. Jeff sure seems to be doing great. In this last letter he shared some feelings of possible disapointment at not getting transfered to a different area. He has been in his first area for almost 4 months now.

Well, another change has come and gone and....I'm still in the same sector, haha. E'Salinas is gone though, he got the asignment to be a traveling assistant. We got the call yesterday at 4:00 and had to be ready by 7:00 (meaning everything for him all packed) So that was interesting. Then the assistants came and picked me and him up and brought us to a town called Talagante. There they dropped me of and picked up another (the other new assistant). So, right now I am in Talagante with Elder Cloward from California, he is a zone leader here. Hes really cool. I'm only with him though untill tomorrow in the morning, then we'll go to Santiago for changes and receive our new companions. Then I'll go back to my sector and he'll go back to his. So next week I'll be able to tell you who my new companion is.

But things are good here. I'm not gonna lie, I was kinda hoping to be transferred, but its the Lords will not ours. This sector is tough to be in for so long, but I know as long as I rely on the Lord that I will be able to do what he needs me to. I learned a lot from Elder Salinas, he was a good man and friend. My spanish got so much better, its weird to be talking in english with elder Cloward.

I had run into some friends from the Anoka ward while out running errands. Jeff had been good friends with Chase Eyler, whose family moved to CA then to PA.

You saw the Elyers!!!!? Whoa, thats so cool, and in a store of all places. I miss Chase, he's a great friend. Hes planning on going on a mission?? Awesome! That'll be good for him and I know he'll be a great missionary, tell him hi for me please and tell him that missions are a blast.

This was a pretty short letter from Jeff this time, and no pictures.We are already looking forward to talking to him on the phone at Christmas.

Well, thats whats been happening here, a little different than what was expected but I think it was a change for the best. Thanks for everything and hope you have a great week! You're in my prayers!
Con mucho amor,
Elder DeLong

November 29, 2009

Time continues to go quickly for Jeff in Chile. He always seems to rushed when he writes us, but we are grateful to hear from him. This letter talks about our Thanksgiving, and his lack of it:

It was weird not really doing anything for Thanksgiving, I missed moms turkey
and mashed potatoes and stuffing and gravy and cranberry sauce...and pie! Mmm,
food in the states is soooo much better than food here. Im pretty sick of the
food here.

Its already been 5 weeks since the last change, this change is over on the 8th. Its crazy how fast time flies. E Salinas is really great, he is a good guy. He leaves to go home on the 29th of Dec. So we´ll see if I stay here another change or move to a different sector. I hope I stay through Christmas just because I know the people here so well, but after Christmas I want to change. I feel like its time to move on from here. And yea, Elder Mckay and I are really good friends, we´ll hangout after our missions I hope.
I think we baptize like, idk, 40 a month or something. In the 80s and 90s
they baptized people like crazy here, but did nothing for retention. So, now we
try to find all the members and reactivate them. So..it is important to have
baptisms, thats why we are here, but they need to be truly converted otherwise
it does them no good.

The new people we found to teach..well, a lot of them never answered the
door again when we went back for our return appointment. Thats usually the way
things go. We like to go out with pictures of Christ and give them to people and
explain the picture, then we ask if we can come by and share with them about
Christ some more. People are always more willing to talk to us if we give them a
gift ;) But its just people in the street or peoples doors that we knock.

I feel pretty comfortable now, but still have a long way to go with the
language.

We got to go to the temple Sat. My first time here in Chile! It was great and I
got some cool pics of the temple.

One of the long-time couples in our ward here in Anoka have left to serve a mission in Ireland.

Thats so cool that the Holts are going to be in Ireland. I love the couple
missionaries here, they are really great. And do so much for the mission,
without them the mission wouldnt function.

Jeff had asked for some recipes, easy yummy things:

Oh, and thanks for the recipes. I have a question, what is the equivalent
of shortening? And for the caramel corn, she couldn´t find and corn syrup
here. The only syrup thing she found was like a maple syrup type of
thing. Will that still work to make the caramel corn?? I dont
know. Ok thanks for the recipes!

I love you and am always praying for you!!

Love,Elder DeLong

November 23, 2009

I asked Jeff to send more pictures if he could, and more details:

I do have pics, I just always run out of time to send them becuase it takes forever to send them. I try, haha.
The heat is just hot!! Today is really nice though, a really nice breeze. I had a conference on Wed. and saw Elder Mckay there! He´s doing good, he´s in a really country area. I also saw the ocean for the first time with my own eyes (besides on the plane ride here)! It was a really cloudy day though so I couldn´t see super well, but I saw it none the less. Our conference was on the coast in a town called San Antonio.










So the pics are me and the ocean in San Antonio! Me elder Mckay and others at the zone conference in San Antonio and me and Elder Mckay in this tourism town called Pomaire where my zone went today for an activity and he happened to be there too because his sector is close to this town. I bought some cool stuff for you guys

In response to how his investigator Rosa was doing:

Rosa is living in the south, it was supposed to only be for a short while, but she hasn´t returned yet. So..thats the deal with her. Her son, Sergio, is a member along with his wife Denise. They are great, some of my favorite members

Nothing else is happening in the ward, there aren´t many youth so..and not much of a program at all.Well, things are good here! We found a lot of new people to teach this last week so I´m excited! Ok love you and am praying for you!Love Elder Jeffrey DeLong

So here are some more pics. And mom could you send me the recipe for your bananna bread? And something else simple and really yummy.

November 16, 2009

I really look forward to Mondays, when we get Jeff's emails. Usually they arrive by noon. This particular Monday I kept checking & there was no email. It got to be early evening & we received a very short letter. You look forward to getting the letters so much that you are even glad for a short one:
Hey!
So I don´t have a lot of time this week because I tried doing internet
earlier but myldsmail is having problems again. So, this is going to be
really short. Sounds like you had a crazy weekend with Dad, hope
everything turns out ok with him.

(Doug had an accident with the chain saw-cut his leg instead of the log-a trip to the emergency room)

I told him that the Elders here in our ward were in a car accident & were without a car & on bikes for the time being, until a new car was found:

The missionaries are on bikes now huh? I almost feel sorry for them, ha
they get a car normally. We just walk or take crazy buses haha.

We told Jeff that he is going to be an uncle in April, but this last letter I was able to tell him that his brother Greg is having a boy.

Thats fun that it´s a boy, I can teach him how to play football. Sorry things aren´t very detailed..this one is going to have very few details. I don´t like ldsmail at all, how many times have I had problems with it? A lot. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here. It´s only an American
holiday. But E´Salinas and I are
going to try and do somehing for it all
though I have no idea what.
Thats really cool that Linda and Birch are
going to Ireland! I wanted to go to Ireland or Scottland. More scottland.

It´s hot here, really really hot and it´s only going to get hotter. I already think it´s hotter than it´s ever been in MN. I don´t like it.

Everything here is good, I got to play soccer again today so that was a lot of fun. Hot, but fun. Well, I have to go now, sorry. You can send your complaints to the church about their mail service, lol.

But I´m good and healthy. I weigh 89 Kilos, I don´t know what that is in pounds, but I do pullups and situp and pushups every day and am in better shape than I was ahah. Ok, gtg. Love you and am praying for you and will try to send pics next week. Chao!Love, Elder DeLong

November 9, 2009

I was curious to learn more about Elder Salinas. Jeff's Latino companion. I asked if they spoke any English:


Hey!

Yes, my spanish is definitely a lot better, so that has been really nice! He knows a few words, and I teach him some stuff so, we speak all spanish. I ran into Elder kennison at cambios (changes) he got a new companion too. I´m actually sitting right next to him as I type because I´m in his sector, Maipu (yes my-poo). We got permision to come here to go to Jumbo (Wal-mart basically) and so we are doing internet here too. Maipu is really close to where we are. It´s really big, lot´s of people.







Elder Mckay went towards the coast, in a place called Melipilla. It´s very campo(field) not many people. Buts its good. We haven´t been playing lately (soccer)becuase we have been lazy, and nobody else in our zone plays so..yea.Ha, as I type I keep wanting to say words in spanish. I can´t believe it´s almost Christmas. What day is Thanksgiving? This will be my first that I haven´t celebrated :( Sad. Yes, thanks so much for the package. This week I got a surprise package from Jake, Bri and Steve!! Ha, it was awesome, they are so funny. It was just a bunch of fun stuff, and food.

I asked what kind of music he hears in Chile-if most of it is native?

I hear a lot of spanish music, I don´t know if it´s native. I hear a lot of
Metallica and stuff too, haha.

My question: Why is the sun stronger there?

The sun is stronger because the ozone is thinner here, so more rays get
through. We do have a fan, it´s been cold here though this last week. It can get
up to 36 degrees Celsius (I don´t know what in Farenheit but I know it´s
hot)

Work in the ward is good. Yesterday we had the primary program so there were more people than usual haha. Our sector is pretty big. To walk from one end to the other could take 30-and hour. My feet are fine and also the shoes :)

Oh before I forget, could you send me the recipe for your caramel corn, I told the Bishops wife that I´d ask for it for her (because I told her it´s the best thing in the world :)

Well, things are good here in Chile. I like this sector, but at the same time I´m ready to move on to somehing different. I hope to have a couple baptisms before I leave though, we have people who are so close, they just need to go to church and keep thier commitments. Ok, well have a great week and I´ll talk to you next week!

Con muchisimo amor,Elder Jeffrey Delong

November 2, 2009

Hola!!
Well I´ve had my first change of companions, his name is Elder
Salinas. He is a great guy, and guess what he is Latino! Ha, no more english for
me. But I´m happy with that, m spanish has gotten so much better already. He
only has two changes left, so he will most likely die(not literally) here in El
Sauce. He also is a little older than normal, 25. I know there is a lot I can
learn from him and I think we can really help this ward.

Played soccer again today for the first time in a while, it was really nice. Myweek flew by, it´s crazy how fast time has been going by, I´m on my 6th month
already..whoa. We set our clocks forward an hour the weekend after Gen. Conf. So
we lost an hour of sleep, it stunk. Everything here is reveresed. It only has
been getting hotter here, I think I might die. Except today, it´s cold. Chile
tends to be pretty random just like MN. They only recently started celebrating
Halloween here, like 7 years. But Sat night there were TONS of little kids in
the streets. Idk, I wouldn´t take my kids out here lol.

And yes, Elders can be sent pretty much anywhere in the mission.

It seems to be his style to only drop bits of information about what he is doing & his interactions with the people there. So I am always asking for further clarification. This is more about him teaching the class on Sunday by himself:

I did teach it all alone, in spanish! It went well. We teach
the class now because they teacher left our ward because of, well, boy
complications ha. So now we teach becuase there is nobody else.

Jeff received the package we sent with the music cd's Marie made for him. With his current mission pres- Pres Jones- he is able to listen to the music from the lord of the rings & star wars. That could change mext year when the mission presicency changes. But for now he is enjoying it.

I wish it was fall here, I like fall. Summer is going to be brutal.
I have to wear sunblock because there is less ozone here and the sun is more
damaging.And I got the package on Thursday! Thanks so much for doing that,
it was awesome. I am enjoying the cds a lot. Thanks Marie, and
thanks for the candy. Especially the Butterfingers.

Sending packages internationally is apparently risky & very expensive. There seems to be a price break if it is under 4 #'s & it doesn't require the long detailed customs form. The hard part is keeping the box under 4 #'s.

Ok, well thanks again for the package and for all the support! And thanks for Steve´s adress. Gotta go now, love you and am praying for you!Love,Elder DeLong

October 26, 2009

In my last letter I inquired more about the Bishop in Jeff's ward, who sems to be without counselors, and what the Elders are doing to help him:

Hola mamá!

It is a little sad, the Bishop is a great guy, and there are lots of good people in the ward. No one wants to make that commitment though, we do our best to try and help them. These last few weeks we´ve really been focusing on helping the less active families, it´s been good. We´ve had a lot of good experiences. We´ve been teaching the basics. The importance of prayer, as a family and individually. Next we´ll be teaching about the Holy Ghost. So I encourage you all to do the small things like prayer and studying the scriptures and FHE and going to church because those are the important things that make the difference and strengthen our testimonies the most. I do appreciate the time to study, it´s nice :)

So this Tuesday I´ll be getting a new companion. Don´t know who yet, but I´ll be in the same sector still. I´m really sad to part with Elder Mckay, he´s a really good friend now, but I think it´s time for a change and it will be good. I´m sure this new companion will be good too, I hope haha.

They celebrate Halloween down here, did you know that? Theres lots of candy out and stuff. Although the candy is definitely not as good here (or the food for the matter. It´s good, but I miss American food)

I hope to have a couple baptisms this change, we have some people that are so close! Oh, yesterday at church was interesting, we had an investigator (who we met Saturday) come to church drunk. It was actually still really good, he went to clase and we had a good lesson. (Oh and last week I taught the class by my self!) But this man has had a rough past couple years. His mom died 2 years ago, then a year ago his brother committed suicide and then this past august his wife did too. So when we found him he also wanted to commit suicide. But we´ve shared the gospel and the Plan of Salvation with him and he is much happier and has reason to life again, so that was really cool.Well gotta go! Love you and am always praying for you!Take care and have a great week!Love,Elder Jeffrey DeLong

October 19, 2009

P-days for Jeff are on Mondays, so that is when he writes to us. Fortunately, he can email so we receive his letters right after he sends them, verses snail mail by pouch which takes up tp two weeks to arrive.

I told him we always look forward to Mondays now, to get his letters:

I never thought that I would look forward to Mondays either..oh well
haha. The 2 hour bus ride..yea, I saw a lot more of the country
side. It´s super pretty! I went away from the city, I was about 20
minutes away from the coast. I really hope that I get to go to the coast,
and in the summer. Divisions are fun..but kinda a hassel too. I
don´t like haveing to sleep over at their pension, but it is fun to be with
other Elders and get to know them. Unless they are annoying haha.
Thats only happened once though, so esta bien. Our Bishop doesn´t have any
counselors because no one is willing to accept the calling. Thats how bad
the lazyiness and non-commitment is here. So, it is very hard for him
because he has to do everything! I bet uncle Pete could syphasize with him
on that, it wouldn´t be easy. So we do what we can to help him out.
We don´t actually do like administrative things really, but we visit the
families that he asks us to and have like meetings with him to discuss whats
going on in the ward and what we can do. So things like that.

I´m trying to do my best to be a good leader, I´ve been reading my patriarchal
blessing a lot. All the less actives are great people and a lot of them
have good testimonies, but they just don´t have the drive to go to church and
keep their covenants. We try to find ways to get them excited about church
and remember how important it is to them.

Thats crazy that this month has been so cold for you. Coldest on record huh? Glad I´m not there to experience that ha. It´s getting pretty hot here, the sun is extra brutal. Changes are coming up here on the 27th, I think one of us will get changed. I don´t want that to happen, but we´ll see.

Chile qualified for the World Cup last weekend so everyone was going crazy about that. Lots and lots of drinking..sad. The U.S. is qualified too. I hope that it comes down to the U.S. and Chile and that we win! That´d be sweet, although people probably wouldn´t like us white people down here very much after that. Oh well ;) Ok, thanks for everything! I love you all and am always praying for you :) hope that you have a great week!

Con muchisimo amor,Elder DeLong

P.S. Still don´t have a baptism, we are waiting on Rosa to get back for her vacation. But from talking on the phone with her her testimony is strong and she still wants to be baptized. And she has stopped drinking tea!

October 12, 2009

¡Hola Mamá!

Jeff has ben working mostly with the less active members of the ward he is in right. When I asked him why there were so many less-active members there this is what he said"

This week was good, kinda tough. We had a zona conference in
Melipilla, which is 2 hours away on a bus. So that was fun, it was a
good
conference. Then I had divisions with Elders in my district(all 6
of us
haha). I do a lot of divisions because Elder Mckay is the
District
Leader. We only had 34 people in sacrament yesterday.
It´s like
theres a disease spreading through out all of Chile, it´s called
lazyiness. In Chile, we have the same percent of active members as the
Catholics do here: 14% It´s sad. So this week the Bishop asked
us to
work with the less active and inactive families. He doesn´t have
any
counselors so we are his only help pretty much. So this week thats
what
we´ll be trying to do. It´s kinda depressing, we are suffering
the
consequences of the big baptising boom of the 80s and 90s. Yes,
many
people were baptized, but the majority of them didn´t actually have
testimonies.

I told Jeff that we have had an unusual fall season this year, that in October it was in the 30's for many days & that it had snowed already. The seasons in Chile are opposite what they are here, so he is in spring, approaching summer:

It´s finally starting to get warmer here, I´ll be very hot soon.

He had asked us to try & send him some additional music to listen to, and to try to get the cd of his high school choir singing 'Requeim '. His friend Peter Howard -who is currently serving in South Africa-was his roommate at BYU & had this cd:

You got the requiem CD! Awesome! I like that CD a lot. Peter and I would always listen to it at BYU. I can´t wait to get the CDs, gracias :) Don´t be afraid to put some goodies in the box too ;) Haha, theres good things here, but the sweets in America are just better lol. It´s true. Peter and I shoot each other little short emails every week so I know hes doing really well and enjoying Africa.

Oh, and our investigators who were supposed to get baptized are still not baptized, lol. Juancarlos has, well, problems with the Law of Chastity and we haven´t seen him in a while. And Rosa is still good to get baptized but shes been on vacation in the South for a week and a half now, so we haven´t seen her either. But shes back now so we are going to set a new date hopefully. We have about 4 other investigators who are progressing well too, so things are pretty good :)

Ok, well thats all for now. Thanks for everything and for writing every week :) It´s nice to hear from you and how you all are doing :) have patience and continue to be diligent in serving the Lord, He promises to bless us when we obey Him and He can´t lie :) Love you all and am praying for you!

Elder DeLong
-

October 5, 2009

Jeff's next email was after General Conference. We asked him which talks he liked best:

Yes it was a great weekend :) I´ve never enjoyed conference so much before,
kinda funny how the mission does that. But there were so many great talks. Some
of my favorites were Elder Bednar and Hollands. Both of Elder Uchtdorf´s and all
of the prophets talks. They were great, and uplifting. Those men really are
called of God, you can tell just by how powerfully they bear testimony! I do
feel I´m in the right place :) Always improving on the language so it´s good,
hard to believe I´ve officially been on my mission for 4 months already.
Have I told you we have an orange tree in our front yard? It´s been pretty
nice here, getting a lot hotter

I asked Jeff if the members cleaned their church buildings like we do here in the states:

Members do not take care of the buildings very well, it´s kinda sad.
But
they have this new program now to get the people to start doing it. We
cleaned it a little a couple weeks ago to do some service. Seriously, have
the elders come over and help out everynow and then with the yard work.

We had two investigators with baptismal dates for the 11th, but things came up and they weren´t able to get their interviews in time. They should still get baptized though, so I´m excited about that. Maybe my first 2 baptisms! These past two days haven´t got much done becuase we were at conference all day. We went to our stake center to watch them, and all the north american elders and sisters get to watch it in english, which is really nice.

But everything is going well :) We have a couple of inactive families that are getting close to returning to church so hope they do! Going to conference and hearing all the testimonies of the prophets is such a blessing, it really strengthens my testimony. I think there was one talk about how member missionary work is so much more effective, and it is true! SO I would encourage you to do all you can to help out the Anoka missionaries, I know our little ward is hard but there are still people that God has prepared to hear the gospel. I´m in the same situation here, and I know it´s true. We just have to keep working and being diligent, just like they talked about in conference.

Keep praying for me, you are always in my prayers. I love you! Don´t forget to say that often, just like the prophets counseled. Talk to you next week!Love,Elder DeLong

September 28, 2009

>Ok, so I forgot to tell you this last week so I´m going to tell you it
first this week :) Last week on Wednesday I was at lunch with the bishops
wife and a missionary( Elder Butterfield) visited them, at the same time we were
there, with his family who had come down to pick him up. And they were
having a blast! They strongly encouraged me to have you and dad come down
and get me, and I really want you too! It would be a great experience for
you :) But, you´d have to start saving for it now because it is a
lot. But, I gave Elder Butterfield´s mom the house number and she said
that she was going to call you! I really hope she does. So that was
really exciting


After we received this email the Butterfields from Utah did call us to say that they had met Jeff and how much they enjoyed their time in Chile. They sent us some pictures of our son along with their son.

We are going to our stake center in Peñaflor to watch conference. We( us north americans or ¨Gringos¨) actually get our very own room to watch it in english will be nice. We did a lot of work with the inactive families in our ward this last week. There are 3 or 4 families who all have testimonies and are so close to going to church, but for some reason or another they don´t. It´s pretty frustrating. We did have 2 investigators in church yesterday though. Rosa is back on track to be baptized so we are excited about that. And we had another, Juancarlos, come as well. He is great, I really wnat him to get baptized!

Well, today is actually nice out! The past two days were super cold and a little rainy. Today we have a family home evening with a less active family, we are having a barbeque with them! It´ll be fun! I´m excited for conference, it´ll be great to hear from our prophet. It´s such a blessing to have a modern day prophet! With out him, we´d be like a boat in the ocean without a light house, and we know what happens to those when we get close to shore..(I used that analogy with Rosa to explain the importance of prophets to her :) )Ok, well I love you and am p`raying for you all. Give the missionaries some references and help them out ;) Have a great week!

Love,Elder DeLong

Oh, and have the missionaries come over and help clean up the yard, most never get enough service opportunities

September 21, 2009

Chile Santiage West is a walking mission, so Jeff & his companion walk everywhere, except occassionally they take a bus. They went by bus to Santiago this particular day:

"As I said to dad I´m writing from Santiago today (the computers are so much nicer) because E´Mckay needed to see the mission doctor. I like the city, it´s so much cleaner than where I live, isn´t that funny? And very modern, I´m pretty sure I saw an Aston Martin today, Greg will know what that is. (James Bond car).

Thats great that you are visiting the recent convert. Member support is so important to keeping people active because the missionaries can´t visit them forever. They need friends in the church, so keep up the good work ;) You are exactly right mom, that is the best part of this work is seeing the change in peoples lives. There is only one way in this life, and that way is through our Savior. I agree, our family is very fortunate to have had the gospel for this long, so thank you mom and dad(and grandpa and grandma of course) for joining the church! Live with out the gospel would be scary, terrible. What hope would we have in our lives? How would we make it through lifes trials? It´d be a lot harder, thats for sure. The gospel is a wonderful thing. So I encourage you to share it with all you can :)

I had asked Jeff if he had been able to tell how the country was doing financially, with all the food they export, as in the fruit & vegetables we see in the stores:

"Did you like the barbeque pics? Mmm it sure was good! We might have another one today, idk. Chile is owned by a few very very wealthy people. But, for South America it is definitley the most well off, especially in the city. It´s like Minneapolis here. CHile fruit is amaizng, and they export all the best (kinda crappy for the locals) but good for you ha."

Well I love you and am praying for all of you! Talk to you next week!
Love,Elder DeLong

September 14, 2009

"I just made it through my first change and...I´m still in the same sector with
the same companion, haha. Which is nice, its what I was hoping for. That means
I´ll probably be here for the change after this too, so that will be untill the
middle of Diciembre. That will be=2
0nice, I like Padre Hurtado, it´s very
tranquilo. Every thing else is going pretty well. The language continues to
improve so thats been nice. These last few weeks I did a lot of divisions
because E´Mckay is the District Leader and he has to do them with the elders in
our district. That means I do them too, ha. They are fun, get to see other
places. Just had an interesting day on the 11th. It´s a big day for Chile too,
the anniversary of when thier leader was assassinated, so everyone likes to riot
and cause havoc. We had to return to the house by 6:00, but our city was fine,
nothing happened. And we had a sweet barbeque that night haha.








I´ll be praying for you.
Love you!
Elder DeLong

September 7, 2009

"These last 2 weeks have been pretty good. The last couple days here have been really cold and rainy. Winter should be coming to an end soon, I hope. This last week I had to go on a lot of divisions with other elders. I went on one with the zone leader. What you do is stay the night over in their sector and then come home the next day. That was fun, I got a free tie from one of their investigators. Then I had a couple others because my companion is the District Leader so he has lots of meetings and I go on divisions with another elder. Our sector is going pretty well. I didnt have many days this last week to work in it because of the divisions. "

Jeff and his companion Elder McKay, who is the zone leader. Below, an Elder that Jeff went on divisions with, name unknown to us at this time.

"But our investigator, Rosa has one more interview then she should be good to be baptized. Then we have another, Juancarlos, who wants to be baptized, so we are working on teaching him. Another, Claudia, also wants to be baptized. She has a long way to go though, but thats ok. We have a 15 year girl who we are teaching too, she has come to church once with us. And also an middle aged man, Noe, who we visit. He is Evangelical and a very animated person. Hes fun. Those are our progressing investigators. We also are still visiting inactive members all the time. We visited one last night, Rut, she was baptized a while ago but stopped going to church a few weeks after becasue she didn´t feel the spirit in the classes and the missionaries stopped totally stopped visiting her, which they are not supposed to do. But she says her life has been worse since she stopped going, so I think we will be able to get her back to church."

Jeff has a distant relation that is also serving in his mission right now, Elder Matt Kennison. Elder Kennison is the son of Angie DeLong's brother Dave Kennison, who lives in Utah. I had told Jeff to watch for Matt in any of their meetings & to try to talk to him. They did meet at a zone conference and seemed to hit it off well.

"In my email that was supposed to get to you last week I explained my meeting with Elder Kennison. Hes a great kid, I hope we get to be companions. Elder Mckay and him were living in together in Elder Kennisons first area. So they are friends, thats pretty cool. The zone conference was fun."

"yesterday at church we had 41 people. Apparently when it rains people don´t go to church here. Yesterday was pretty miserable, I hate the rain. But the language is a lot better, still have a long way to go though!"
I love you and am praying for you! :)

Love,
Elder DeLong

August 24, 2009

We have asked Jeff how he likes Chile now that he has been there for several weeks:

" I do like it here :) It´s tough, I still don´t understand the greatest (although I am improving) what people say, it gets really frustrating at times. But it´s fun and I´m enjoying my time here so far."

Jeff's first companion & trainer is Elder McKay. In response to our question if whether he is doing any of the talking & teaching in their appointments Jeff said this:

"..Elder Mckay does do most of the talking, but I do teach too. Sometimes more than others. It is really nice that he is a good trainer."

More specifics about the actual town that he is in:
"Peñaflor is about a 30 min bus ride from Santiago. But thats just the zone I´m in. I´m actually in the town Padre Hurtado. It´s about 45 min bus ride away."
Reactivation is good, we spend 60% of our time on it here. Our ward is slowly getting bigger.
It´s tough though because most people have to walk to church and it can be a long ways for some.
Our zone played soccer today with some Chilenos.

They are good, ha. But we actually won, it was fun. The work is going good though. We have a baptism on my b-day, and a few more investigators. And like I said we are always working with the inactives. So, Chile is fun. I like it. It´s a lot different than the states. Life is harder here..yet everyone is way happier. I like it."
Love you!Elder DeLong

August 17, 2009

Jeff arrived in Chile in their winter season, without a coat, surprised to find that it was colder than he expected. He relayed that the bishops wife found 2 coats for him, and in general watches out for the Elders:

"But I can´t believe that my second week is almost over! The time flies. But yes, the hermanas here take really good care of us. The bishops wife especially. She went out and bought my a couple coats (I paid here back) so that was really nice of her. And she feeds us alot. "

Elder DeLong's daily schedule starts at 7:00am, with personal time until 8:30. Then personal, companion & language study until 11:30.Then they are out working until 2:00, have lunch, study a bit more, then at 3:30 are back to work until 9:30 or 10:00 & in turn in at 11:00.


















"Oh and we eat at the members homes, yes. Some of them are very humble homes. They don´t have much, but they show their love by food, and food is pretty cheap here, so they like to feed us a LOT, lol. The town we are in is pretty small. There are no big stores or anything, only small supermarkets and little shops that people own. But I like it! We are about a 10-15 min bus ride away from bigger stores and stuff in Peñaflor (where we email). And it´s about a 45 min bus ride to Santiago plus a 5 min subway ride."


" Our ward is pretty small, we had 66 in sacrament yesterday. But we are working on it :) Saturday it rained for 20 hours strait! It was frio (cold) and pretty miserable, but we survived so its all good. My feet are a lot better. It´s cool, I say a prayer every day that my feet won´t hurt and for the most part they don´t! But things are great here."

He says they have several people that have come to church with them but for the most part they are working with the less active members. And loving it.
" Well, thanks for all the love and support! i know this work and gospel are true!! I love you all and hope to here from you!"
Love,Elder DeLong

August 10, 2009

Jeff has spent his first week in Chile and seems to be quite happy there. He arrived, met with the Mission President & his companion and then went to work. He said the food is very good there & is afraid he is going to get fat. Not much chance, as he walks most everywhere.

"Chile is amazing!! Theres so much to tell I don´t even know where to begin. I got off the plane and then met the mission president, pres. Jones and he is a really amazing man. I am very blessed to have him as my president. Then we ent to the mission home and had interviews and a little orientation. Then we had lunch. The food here is sooo good! The fruit is so yummy, and the vegetables. And it´s pretty "normal" here. We had chicken and salad. Then the best cheese cake I´ve ever had in my life!! Then we went to meet our companions. My companions name is Elder Mckay. He is really great. I´m very blessed to have him as a companion. Then we went to our pension in Padre hurtado. It´s in the suburbs of Santiago. I like it a lot here.


I can´t understand much of what the people say here. Their spanish here is really bad! They slur everything together and speak really fast, but I know I´ll get the hang of it soon enough. The first night we went out and started teaching, it was pretty cool. I´ve already had some pretty neat experiences. It´s hard to believe that I´ve been here for a week already.
Our ward is really small (Even smaller than Anoka) and is struggling. Because of that Elder Mckay and I do a lot of work trying to reactivate members. So its good. It´s cold here! A lot colder than I expected. But only in the mornings and in the night. For P-Day we played soccer, it was a lot of fun. Hermanas in the ward do our laundry which is awesome, and they also feed us every day at lunch (Thats the main meal).
It is very rewarding to actually be able to go out and teach real people and see the gospel bless their lives. I know that it is true :) We walk, a lot. My feet hurt, but they will get used to it."
I love all of you and am grateful for all the love and support! Hope to here from you soon!
Love,Elder DeLong

Arrival in Chile!

We were able to talk to Jeff on the phone during his flight lay-over in Denver. He sure sounded great! Hard to believe that he has been gone 2 months already. It was very comforting to get his email saying that he had arrived safely in Chile.



Hello everyone!
I`m pleased to say that I`ve safely arrived in Chile!!! Wow, it is absolutely
amazing! Santiago is huge!! I`m at the mission President`s home right now, and
wow, he is such an amazing man! I`m really blessed to have him as my mission
president. I have not yet received my trainer, but I will do so shortly and
then i`ll be out in my area teaching! Crazy! It was really nice to be able to
talk to you. But this is just a short email to let you know that I made it here
safe and am loving it! This is going to be an amazing experience :) Thanks for
all the love and support. My P-Days are on Monday so thats when I`ll be
e-mailing you. Gotta go! Love you!
Elder Jeffrey DeLong

MTC July 24

Elder DeLong has gotten his flight plans to leave for Chile. Sounds like a long trip, but one he has been waiting anxiously for.
"I'm soooo excited to get out of here and get to Chile! Oh! I got my flight plans yesterday! I leave Tuesday the 4th. My flight is at 2:50 but I leave the MTC at 11:30. Then I fly to Dallas and arrive at 6:30 and have a 3 hour layover (thats when I'll call you). Then I leave Dallas at 9:10 and fly all the way to CHile! lol. I'll arrive there at 7:45 in the morning. Long flight! I don't know how many time zones I'll be going through. But I am so excited! Yesterday we made the decision to speak no more english. English is dead to us, haha. It is so hard! But I'm glad we are doing this, I think it will help a lot!
Tuesday we had John H. Groberg talk to us (the man that "The Otherside of Heaven" is based on) and he gave an excellent talk. He talked on temples and serving others. As missionaries our main goal is bringing others to Christ, and Christ dwells in His temples. Our ultimate goal in life is acheieving eternal life and the only way we can do that is through the temple. (By the way I didn't get to go today because everything is closed for Pioneer day, weird huh?) But I just want to encourage all of you to attend the temple as often as you can. The other thing he talked about was helping others. He said make helping others a habit. Never pass up an opportunity to help one of your brothers or sisters. Charity is the pure love of Christ and if we want to be more Christ like we have to strive to have as much charity as we can."
Chao,Con Amor,Elder Jeffrey DeLong

MTC July 17

Elders DeLong and Mills went to the temple and met some people from MN. That was fun for Elder DeLong
Last Sunday I was made the new District Leader. Its been a good experience so far. It's not too much different from just being a regular Elder (at least not here at the MTC). All I do is go to a couple extra meetings and have weekly interviews with all the senior companions. I also get to conduct our weekly district meeing and pick who says prayers and things like that. So its been fun. One really cool thing that I got to do becuase I'm the DL is to control the traffic on Wednesday when the new missionaries come in. I had a walkie-talkie and a funny BYU hat and an orange vest. I'll send you some pictures. That was pretty fun, except that I was standing for 3 hours straight! My legs still are a little sore.

I'm feeling much better now, along with everyone else in the district. We were all sick there for a little while. Today when I write the girls I'll be sending you some more pictures that I've printed off, so hope you like them. In the RC this past week I had talked with this woman and helped to get the desire to go back to church and to start reading the Book of Mormon again. She was a former member but has been inactive for quite a while. had many questions about I sent her a great article though that eased her mind and committed her to go to church and read again. She said that she had really missed the peace and good feelings that she had while going to church. She also had missed her ward family. I've been keeping in touch with her via email and she was able to go to church and had a great time. She said everyone was very happy to have her back and she felt that peace and joy again. She also was able to find her Book of Mormon and says she is going to read it again. It was really cool.
The oldest district in my zone left and I had a lot of good friends in it so that was sad, but I only have like 2 and a half weeks left! Its crazy, I can't believe how fast the time has flown."
Con mucho amor,Elder Jeffrey DeLong
P.S. Oh, and the spanish is going well. We've made it a goal to speak all spanish so we'll see how that goes. Bye!

MTC July 10

For the 4th of July the Elders in the MTC were able to watch fireworks from the Stadium of Fire. He said they were pretty good and it was nice to have something different to do. He is still doing well, though getting more anxious to leave for Chile.

"Things are still going pretty well here. I've been feeling sick the past couple days (no swine flu don't worry just a cold) so that has stunk. We are only teaching in Spanish now and it's super hard. It gets extremely frustrating at times. But I know that if I just keeping trying it will get better. I won't be able to speak it fluently until like 6 months down in CHile, and when I first get there I'm not going to have a clue what people are saying anyways so...(especially becuase Chileans I hear speak really fast). I've talked with some native Chileans here and others who have friends there and they all say its a wonderful place, so I'm excited to get out of here and get to Chile!!! "
Love,Elder DeLong

MTC July 3

Elder DeLong continues his training to leave for Chile. The time is starting to get long in the MTC, but his attitude is great. He knows that he is preparing to teach the people in Chile. He hopes his friends here in MN that he gave a Book of Mormon to before he left have started to read it.

On July 4th the Elders in the MTC watched fireworks. Jeff was able to be with his friend Peter Howard & Taleah Howard, who have been his friends in MN. He and Peter were roommates at BYU and have been in choirs together since high school. What a great thing to be at the MTC at the same time.



"It amazes me that I've been here for a month already! It feels like I've been here for years haha. I am very anxious to get down to Chile. I feel like my mission hasn't really even started yet. Spanish is tough, next week (and from then on) we have to teach only in spanish. Ah! It's going to be super difficult, but I'll make it through
I guess we get to watch fireworks on Saturday, but we'll see haha. I hope so, that's be a nice change. Know that I'm doing well. We've been teaching a lot lately and the Spirit has really been with us because we've been preparing and praying for it. It's been really great. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon."
Love,Elder Jeffrey DeLong

MTC June 26

This week in the MTC there was a missionary presidents seminar there. Jeff said the prophet and all the apostles were there, although in another building, so he wasn't able to see them.



"elder mills and i have had some great experiences teaching. when the spirit teaches through you it is the coolest thing. its like everything just goes so smoothly when your teaching and you're not the one talking. our teachers say we are the best district they've ever seen and that we'll be powerful missionaries. they are pushing us hard to help us be the best so it's hard but good. we no longer are allowed to speak englilsh in class. if we do we have to do flexiones de brazos (push-ups). it's hard but i think it will really help me to learn it faster."



He is working in the referral center now and has had some good experiences so far, contrary to what he thought would happen.



"i've learned this week about the importance of members in missionary work. members can make such a huge difference! they help to fellowship and bear another testimony to the investigator. sometimes missionaries can seem like these perfect people(not true at all haha), but when you have members there bearing testimony they see that they are normal people just like them. so i encourage each of you to pray for opportunities to teach your friends and co-workers, you make such a big difference! i know this gospel is true and that christ knows each of us personally and is our friend. i love you all and wish you the best."




elder delong :)

June 19th news from MTC

Elder DeLong continues to adjust to the schedule in the MTC. He and his companion Elder Mills seem to be getting along well. He is enjoying being able to go outside and play sports again, since some activities were curtailed because of the swine flu in the MTC. He is hoping that the food in Chile is a better than the food in the MTC.

"Well time is really going by fast! The MTC isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I have a good district and zone, and my teachers are amazing! I've learned so much from them already! My companion and I still get along great. We are starting to really teach well together, but I know that the only way we teach well at all is with the Spirit. I've taught amazing lessons where the Spirit was really strong, and then some not so great lessons where the Spirit wasn't there. So the Spirit is the Key!
I've really started to love the work and teaching about the gospel. I have so much to learn yet but I know if I keep going and have faith I'll be okay. The food could be better but oh well. Hopefully the Chilean food will be good. I can't wait to get to CHile, I feel like I've been here for months already ha.
I've really started to love the work and teaching about the gospel. I have so much to learn yet but I know if I keep going and have faith I'll be okay."

June 12th news from the MTC

Well, this has been my first real week at the MTC. It's been nice to get into the set routine, time goes by much faster that way.

Earlier in the week On Tuesday we had a devotional. Elder Bednar spoke and it was probably one of the best talks I've ever heard. As soon as he entered the room I could feel the Sprirt grow. It was amazing. His talk was about one of the questions he receives most often from people. the question was, "How can I know whether what I'm feeling is the Holy Ghost or just me?" Elder Bednar's response was, Don't Worry About It!! He said we usually won't have this sudden realization of, "Oh! Thats the Holy Ghost telling me what to do". But as long as we are good boys and girls and keep the commandments and our covenants the Lord will take care of us and we will be following the Holy Ghost and we won't even realize it. He said that the same is true for Apostles. He doesn't always realize that he's following the Holy Ghost, but if we live our lives in accordance with the gospel we'll be ok. So that was a great talk.

New missionaries came in yesterday, its nice to not be the newest ones ha. Well take care mi familia y yo se que le Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos dias es verdadero y yo se que Dios y Jesucristo vive. Yo amo ustedes and hope you are all doing well! Write back soon! Getting mail really is the best part of the week haha.Con Amar,Elder DeLong

The day is finally here

On June 3rd, 2009 Elder Jeff DeLong reported to the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah to prepare for his 8 weeks of training for his mission to Santiago West Chile. Elder Delong was anxious & excited to begin this next phase of his life. I, Jenna,was able to go with him to Utah to go through the bittersweet farewell so well known to parent of departing missionary sons & daughters. As we arrived in Utah we found out that the MTC had been hit by H1N1, also known as the swine flu. Because of the concern for the missionaries in the MTC & those arriving, no one but reporting missionaries were allowed to enter the MTC. In the past parents & family were able to go in & participate in about an hour long presentation. So, Jeff was in the first reporting group to be dropped off at the curb of the MTC. It was quite a process as about 500 missionaries arrived that day. In some ways it was easier to say goodbye knowing you had to do it quickly. And so Jeff began his training, always looking forward to August 4th, when he would fly to Chile.