March 21, 2010

All of Jeff's letters are great, but this was especially nice because he sent pictures-finally!

Six of them at once. Most of his letter is answering my questions to him, about his companion, apartment, investigators, aftershocks. So here are some of his replies:

Hey!
Yes, things are going well here in Los Cerrillos :) We are a branch, but we are in a stake. Kinda weird. But we actually have pretty good attendance, and it's been going up these last couple weeks. And yes, Elder Jenkins does go home in like 20 days, but don't worry I'm not really affected by that. I like to tease him a lot about it. I know I still have a looong time to go, haha. He is great, definitely my favorite companion since Elder Mckay. I like living with 4, it's more entertaining, but it's only nice because we have 2 bathrooms and so many rooms. Otherwise it'd be kinda annoying. But it's fun.

Every woman can envision cleaning where 4 men have lived!

There are still quakes that happen, sometimes pretty big ones like a couple weeks ago. 6.7 and 6.8, those did some damage down south again. Usually the quakes happen in the night though and I don't even feel them. They say they will keep happening for quite a while, and may even be some bigger ones, we'll see. I really don't feel bad though now that I'm not on the 16th floor! I do feel bad for my previous companion though..poor guy.

All of our baptisms kinda fell through..people can't get baptized if they don't go to church, lol. But this morning we went into Maipu with one of our investigators to set up her marriage so she can get baptized, but she can't get married until June. So that baptism won't be happening for a while, but it's good that shes finally doing what she needs to to get baptized. Her name is Marisol.

He mentioned the two children from his previous area, Bladimir & Evaline. He worked with them preparing for baptism, so how great to see that they did get baptized.

I wondered if he found out why the lights went out in a large part of Chile, and where they can go on p-days.

Never did find out why all the lights went out, I think it was because they were expecting a pretty bad quake, but it never happened. Maipu is really big, but we only go there on p-Days. As long as it is in our zone we can go on p-days, or if we have permision from the zone leaders(my companion). Sometimes we can do special activities with permision from the President.

We have zone conference this week, Elder Scott is coming to Chile I think this week, so he might have a special mtg with our mission or something. I don't know, thats what he did when he came a year and a half ago, so we'll see.

I think thats about it though for now. Things are going well. I had Burger King again today, it was really good. Walking up all those hills in my sector is fun, good leg workout ha.

Some things are totally universal, and thank goodness don't seem to change much.

The work continues to go well though, I hope that we will have a baptism before Elder Jenkins leaves. Now that Marisol can't until june, it will take a miracle. But the Lord is a Lord of miracles and I know that they still exist in the world today :) Keep up the faith, study and pray every day it's the only way that we can progress spiritually.

Love you all and are always in my prayers.

Elder DeLong

March 15, 2010

Jeff had his second change, or transfer as we call them. He was a little surprised to have another change so soon after his last one, and so soon after the big earthquake. He was definitely shaken up by it, but not hurt.

So my new sector is called Las Lomas in the city of Cerrillos. I already like it a lot! My new companion is Elder Jenkins, he is a zone leader. This is his last change...I'm the missionary that will kill him(from the mission not literally, haha). He is a great guy, it's going to be a good change! The ward is not a ward, it's a branch. But it has the same amount of people as my other sectors, we had 67 this last Sunday.

His last apartment in Santiago was on the 16th floor, the highest in the mission. Great for the view, unless you are sleeping there in during a 8.8 earthquake. Here is a little description of his new place:

We live on the ground now, which is great! And our pension is huge, 3 rooms, living room, kitchen, 2 bathrooms. We have 4 elders living in the pension, and I'm pretty sure it's like the nicest pension in the mission. So that is really nice.

I found out at changes that the 2 kids I was teaching from my first sector, Bladimir and Eveline, got baptized! So that was really cool.


In this sector we have a bunch of people ready to get baptized, so we are hoping to have some soon.

Trying to find out more information about his new area and com[anion I asked Jeff if he had met or known his new companion before.

I didn't know Elder Jenkins before, only by name. I'm not near the coast, actually, on the top of the hill (because our sector is just a little community on a hill that's why it's called Las Lomas because Loma is hill) I can see my the limit of my old sector. So I'm right next to Santiago still, I didn't move very far. Right now I'm emailing you from this huge mall complex in the city Maipú, it's really nice. I feel like I'm at a mall in the states, ha. I ate Burger King, yum!

I am always intrigued at how boys can seem to be less affected by things than girls:

Last night was interesting. At about 8:45 at night all the lights in over half of Chile were shut off for an hour. Everyone thought there was going to be another quake, I'm still not sure why they shut them off. But..there have been a lot of little quakes. Thursday there were a couple big ones, the apartment was shaking pretty bad.

Well, that's about all the news for now. I really liked that quote by Elder Holland, it was really good. Thanks for everything, hope that you all have a great week, you are always in my prayers. I know life seems pretty tough sometimes, by we can apply Elder Hollands quote to our lives in general. We are working towards salvation and to become like our Heavenly Father, we can't expect that journey to be easy! But if we can hold to that hope and put our trust in God we will have happiness forever! What greater reward can we ask for?
Love you all,
Elder DeLong

Quote from Jeffrey R Holland:
Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

March 8, 2010

Hey!
Well, I have some big news...I have changes again. Haha, I only had one change here in Parque O' Higgins. It was quite the interesting change, one I'll never forget. I learned a lot here and am grateful for all the experiences that I had here. But, I am happy to be moving on. Sad at the same time, especially because I won't get to see if any of our investigators get baptized. I sure hope so.So thats my big news for the week. It'll be interesting to see where I go now..la costa??? Who knows.
Things where I live are very calm, there wasn't much damage here, and life is back to normal here. Life obviously is not back to normal in the south, and wont be for a long time. Many peoples lives were changed for ever! It's a sad sad thing, and really crazy to live through.
There are temblores still that are 6.2 sometimes and cause damage down south still. We feel them here, but the building moves for a few minutes and thats about it.There really isn't much damage here, so there isn't much reconstruction effort or anything. Mostly what we are doing is gathering food and clothes as stakes to send down south the 12th of March. SO thats been going well. Chile raised a huge sum of money the 5th and 6th, theres a lot of money here in Chile and it's good to see people share it.

February 28, 2010

On Saturday, February 27, Chile experienced an 8.8 earthquake. The epicenter was in Conception, about 150 miles south of where Jeff is in Santiago. We were anxious for news of his safety all day, until we heard that all missionaries in his mission were safe and accounted for. We hoped he would be able to contact us in person, but communication lines seemed to be interrupted all over the quake areas. Fortunately for us an email arrived around 5:00 that afternoon from Jeff, saying he was safe and unharmed, that it was very intense and that he never wanted to experience anything like that again. Even better, late the next afternoon he was able to call and tell us in person that he was ok, tired, but ok. This is the email he sent the next day, his regular p-day, describing a little of what he eperienced:

Hey,
So this last weekend was the most interesting one I've ever had in my life, ha. It's kinda hard to describe what it was like, only that I knew I was on the 16th floor and wanted to get down, ha. Running down the stairs in the dark, water falling on us was quite the experience. All the while praying out loud to Heavenly Father that we will make it alive.We made it to the 10th floor when the first big one stopped. Then we ran back up stairs, got clothes and flash lights and our wallets and phone, then went downstairs. We helped bring a baby down and held on to him until the mom came down with the dogs. Then we were waiting for like 3 hours outside in the street. A man that we reactivated, Juan, came by and checked on us. Then we went up and helped carry a disabled man down 17 flights of stairs. Then we went back up and ate a little food and went to bed again because we were exhausted. That was at 6:30. At 7:30 another pretty big quake came, and we, having slept in our clothes with our shoes, ran down the stairs in about a minute. Then we packed some things and went and stayed at the church.Then we went around visiting people all day, seeing if they were ok and if they needed help. Saturday we slept in Republica with the Elders there, they are lower to the ground then were are. We didn't sleep well, especially on a hard wooden floor. Then the next morning in the shower there was another decent quake.Church was only an hour. The church took some pretty good damage. And Sunday night we slept in our apt again. I was nervous the whole night, I thought my bed was shaking the whole time. My companion was affected worse than I was, he was a wreck for a while and harldy slept these last 2 nights.There was a lot of destrucion everywhere! The worst is in the south, but there is a lot of bad bad damage here in Santiago too. Not too much where I live, but in other parts.As far as I know at this point we will not be asisting with the cleanup, but we will see. I think it's dumb of Chile that they don't want any aid, they are a very very prideful people. The whole country is like that. But maybe they'll change their minds.There is a ton of looting going on, but not anywhere I am. I think thats mostly in the south. All the stores and stuff are still open here.And I'm in my 10th month now, not the 9th ha. So I had a spanish accent? Thats weird, to me it sounds like the way I've always talked. Maybe my english has just gotten worse thats why you couldn't understand me, ha.

Well, I don't really have anything else to say. Only that I don't ever want to do that again and hope none of you ever have to. At least there arent teremotos in MN right? Ok, well love you all and you are always in my prayers! Have a great week,
Love,Elder DeLong

February 27, 2010

Hey,So as I'm sure you know by know there was an earthquake here..a big one. And due to all the phone calls from the families of the missionaries here, President Jones said it was ok for us to send you a little email to say that I was alright. It was pretty intense, I've never been in an earth quake and I don't ever want to be in one again, ha. But I here there are lots of stuff going on, like tsunamis in Hawaii and stuff. Not cool. The focal point was not where I was, I'm in Santiago. The focal point was in Concepcion, it was even worse there..But I'm OK so you don't have to worry or anything. And we aren't sleeping in our apartment because it's on the 16th floor, just to be safe. So hope you all are well, I'm good and happy. Love you all, have a great week and I'll talk to you Monday.
Love,
Elder DeLong

February 22, 2010

No new pictures from Jeff, so sad. I know they aren't supossed to take pictures much, as they appear to be tourists. But we so love them.

Hey!
No, I can't believe that February is almost over..I'm about to complete 9 months on the mission. 3 more and I'll have a year already..time sure does fly! Glad to hear that the weather has been warming up for you, today is actually a lot cooler here. I like it.

In preparation for the arrival of Jeff's first nephew, we, as soon to be grandparents and the soon to be parents both got webcams so we could see the newest DeLong missionary long distance.

Thats fun that you have webcams now, I told Greg that it'd be fun if we could use those as missionaries! But, I don't think thats going to happen, ha. I bet your excited to be a grandma! I know I'm excited to be an uncle, it'll be a lot of fun. Until he grows up..haha no it will still be fun!

Three senior girls from Jeff's home ward will be going to BYU Provo this fall. His response to that is kind of funny:

What! Those three little girls are seniors and will be going to BYU next year?? That just blows my mind..lol. That means when I get back to BYU they'll be the same year as me, lol. Wow, IDK if I should feel old or young.
And Mike is getting married..everyones gone crazy in these 9 months that I've left, haha.
I haven't had pizza for a couple weeks, but for sure am going to this week.
I have mixed feelings about the city. I like it, but I like the suburbs and fields too. But having more stores is definitely a HUGE bonus.
We have lots of investigators who are porgressing well, I don't think we will have a baptism this change, but we have 3 people who have committed to be baptized. So next change should be fun!
OK, well hope that you all have a great week, you are always in my prayers!
Love,
Elder DeLong