June 7, 2010

Yes, I made it to one year :) Woo, everything is done hill from this point on. Kind of crazy how fast the time goes.. It feels good to have a year, strange that it went by so fast. But it was a good year, I liked it :) I am considered now one of the older guys on the mission ha, so thats nice I guess.

The missionary work keeps going. It's discouraging at times because all of our investigators seem to keep dying(not literally), But the only thing we can do is keep on working and looking for the people who are ready. The mission is a lot harder than I ever expected.. We do have some good families that are making great progress though, one family went to church yesterday which was a miracle.

The other people that were going to get baptized have died (not literally) Juan and Luis don't want us to come by any more and won't tell us why, and Maria is never home, or at least that is what somebody says but we know shes there. So.. thats a little discouraging, but on the plus side we are teaching like three families who are progressing really well. So hope that works out :)
I really want to talk with Grandpa when I get home and ask him about all his stories, something I never really did when I had so many chances. I love listening to the stories he has.
There is no rebuilding where I am, that's all in the south.

Love you all, you're always in my prayers.
Love,
Elder Jeffrey DeLong

May 31, 2010

We are going to enjoy one of the last pictures Jeff sent, we won't get any new ones for a while:


Hello Mom and family,


Well I guess I'll start off with the bad news first. I won't be able to send you pictures anymore because we got robbed this last Friday :( They entered the house at about 7:30 at night when we were out teaching and took all the electronic things. 5 younger guys entered and took 3 cameras (mine included) my shaver that dad gave me, my hair cutting kit, my cd player and another elders mp4, nice speaker system and also his shaver. I lost all of my mission photos along withanother elder who has even more time than I. So the only ones that I have are the ones I sent you and the ones that my companions have taken.


We got robbed by 5 thugs. This happens all the time. My sector is up on a big hill, and it's a lot poorer and more ghetto than down below where we live. And young thugs looking for stuff to sell for drugs always come down and rob the richer people. And our apartment complex has these crappy sliding glass doors that you can open pretty easily from the outside, and only like two security guards. He saw them robbing too but did nothing. The police came that night when we called them, but all they did was take a list of all the stuff that got stolen and said if they find anything they'll call us. The laws in Chile are really really bad.


Obviously I have to get a new camera, but they are super expensive here, at least double. But if you guys bought one and then sent it to me there is the risk that it would get stolen in the mail, you would have to hide it really well, ya know? I'm thinking that will probably be the best route. Let me know what you think. As for the shaver I've bought a replaceable one. It irritates my skin, but guess I'll just have to get used to it.

So..on the brighter side of things the teaching is going really well in the sector. We have some really great families that we are teaching, the only challenge is to get them to church. Our best investigator right now is called Javier. We are about 95% sure he is gay. But he has a sincere desire to change and wants to become closer to God. We always bring a woman with us to teach just cuz we feel better. But if he keeps progressing like he is and gets baptized I'm guessing he'd have to have a special interview with President. So we'll see what happens. He has a baptism date for the 4th of July. So hopefully all goes well!

Love you all and are always in my prayers :)
Chao,
Elder DeLong