August 2, 2010

Hey Mom,:)

This week was really good. We had a new family go to church with us. It was a miracle, this guy is evangelical and pretty stubborn about his ways. But he came with his two kids and I think he liked it. We have another appointment this wednesday.

Today we did play soccer again, in a big full size field. But I wasn't raelly able to play this week. I don't know what I did, but I like pulled my groin. I couldn't run, so I just kinda limped around after the ball. I still managed to score a goal though (it was on a penalty kick). And no, we never play any other sports besides soccer and ping-pong. Ha, but it's all good, I like them both.

Haha, I rememeber those 2 a day practices. (High School football)

Can't say that I envy them, but it was worth it. Wasn't easy though, thats for sure. My back tends to hurt some days, maybe cuz it's cold..but my hands and feet still get cold. It helps when I have 3 pairs of socks on though.

Yup, don't plan on giving up any time soon. I know that as long as I keep doing my best than I will have accomplished here what the Lord needed me to.

Elder Grow is doing well. Spanish is tough for him, I think more so than it was for me. But he improves all the time, so thats good. There is one latino still in the apartment (the annoying one..ha) Ok, well thanks for everything. You are all always in my prayers, hope you have a great week!

Chao,Elder DeLong

July 26, 2010

Hey mom,

Hows it goin? Time sure does fly, it's sad and good. August I guess is supposed to be the coldest month here, but I'm glad to be drawing to an end of cold days here in Chile, this was my last winter here!

I forgot to bring my camera this week, I'll try to remember the next. Sorry bout that.
Elder Grow is doing well, ha I feel bad for the poor guy. I remember how hard it was for me to learn spanish. I think his is even a little worse than when I got here, but he is learning quick though, so thats good.

But things are giong well. Doing the best I can to train my kid in. I'd love to get him a baptism, but thats almost impossible now for this change. It's hard to not have many baptisms as a missionary.
I'm doing good mom, it's been a trail of faith for me in this sector. I've taught some great people and am teaching some great people, but something always happens and they don't get baptized. I'm doing my best to not get discouraged, I know the only solution is to keep working my hardest. The Lord knows what He is doing, even if I don't understand things all the time.

I bet that was a lot of fun for you to have Logan at church, grandmas do like to be with the grandkids ;) I hope I'll have some time to be with grandpa when I get home, thats something that I wish I would have taken advantage of more. I like being with him and hearing stories. Its great.

Well I got to go now, hope that you all have a great week. You're always in my prayers.Love,Elder DeLong

July 19, 2010

Hey!
Well I have some very good news :) I got the box last Wednsday! Yay, I was getting a little worried there. And it still had everything in it so that was really great. Haha, you definitely were very creative about the way you packaged it, cutting the BOM and all. I don't know, you might have to go and confess that to uncle Pete, haha. We all thought it was pretty funny, a good show of motherly love. But thanks so much for the camera, it's great. I'll try to send a few pics here now.

So Joseph W. is taking off soon huh? Lets see, when he gets out of the MTC in November I'll have about 8 months left...crazy! Time goes by fast. As I recall his B-day is in August like mine is. Sounds like MN has been having some crazy weather. In the news you sent in the box I saw that there were 40 tornadoes in one day! Thats wack, hopefully they continue to stay far away from home. Ms. Hayes wrote me back a nice letter, it was fun to hear from her. Well, things are going well here in the sector, we've been able to find a lot of new people to teach. So I hope that they progress!

Gosh, can't think of much else to say, my head feels like it's going to explode. I've got a bit of a cold here so I haven't been feeling too hot lately. But I'll get over it soon.
Love you all and am praying for you. Keep being obedient and go to the temple!
Love,Elder Jeff DeLong

July 12, 2010

Hello :)

Well I have some exciting news :) I'm training! Yea, I received the call from Pres King a couple hours after emailing you last week. Wednsday I went to the temple with two other elders that are also training and then we waited outside for our new companions to arrive. I'm a dad! Haha. My companions name is Elder Grow, from Bonnersville Idaho. Way in the north part of Idaho. He's a really great kid, always happy and excited to work and be here in Chile. Ha, his spanish has a long ways to go. I remember when it was like that...it was hard, ha. But he's learning and getting better already. I hope I can teach him all that he needs to know.
So this will be a good change. It's a lot more responsibility to be training, I have to do everything haha. Especially these first few weeks. But it's been a good experience. Steven, the 17 year old, is still progressing really well. I just hope that his mom will let him get baptized.

On a not so good note, I have not received the box yet. My buddy in the office said that you guys should track it. He said it probably got stolen, but I sure hope not.

I actually really like camping now. I'd like to go when I get home, we'll see what happens.

Wow, I can't believe I've been out here for so long and that it's the middle of July already. Time flies. See if you can track that box, and pray a lot that I'll get it with the camera still. I don't have much more to say either, I'm tired ha. Thanks for everything. Oh, I decided that for future boxes you should just send lots of candy and stuff. Like bags of gummies, peach rings. Yea now, that short of stuff. And fun stuff american stuff that I can give to people. Like a flag or something. Ok, love you all and am praying for you. Have a great week, the gospel is true! ;)Love,Elder DeLong

July 4, 2010

Happy fourth of July to you too!
Ha, naturally we didn't do anything to celebrate, but at least a few people mentioned something about it to me. I sang the national anthem to myself a few times. So that was fun

I haven't gotten the box yet, but I'm pretty sure that this wednesday I'll get it. I'll talk to my buddy thats in the office and ask him if it's here yet.

As for changes...I will be staying here, but my companion is leaving. I thought for sure that I'd be going, but it seems like the Lord likes to throw curve balls at us all the time to keep us on our game, haha. I was kinda hoping that I'd be leaving just because this sector, being so tiny, is kinda hard to be in for so long. Especially for 6 months..or more. But the Lord wants me here for a reason, so I'm going to give it the best that I have. All the other guys in the district think that I'm going to train this next change, which is a good possibility because there are so many greenies coming in. They also think that I'll be district leader too because my companion was DL and left. But we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Yea, it was hard to see President Jones go, he is such a great guy. We had a last conference with all the mission two weeks ago. It was cool, thats were I saw Elder Kennison. I told him to send the pics to you guys because I still don't have a camera, glad to see that he did.
I've met Pres King and his wife and 12 year old daughter all ready. Last Thursday we had a little mini conference with them. He has a daughter, Cassie, who is serving in the MN mission right now. She is in Rochester. She goes home in Nov then will be coming here. So if you ever run into her bby chance be sure to say hi from everyone in Chile. She played on he BYU b-ball team. Pretty cool.

And yes, my testimony has sure grown in this last year. I wasn't thrilled at first to go on the mission, I knew it was right and that I needed to do it, but it's not the easiest thing to do. But I am very grateful that I went and for the time I have here to serve the Lord. If we aren't trying to do the will of the Lord in life then what are we doing? Just wasting the time that He's given us here on the earth. And just coming in contact with so many people of other religions and getting to know what they profess as doctrine has strengthened my testimony. I have no doubt that this is the only true church of Christ on the earth, and the only way to know that is to read the Book of Mormon and pray. We have a kid, Steven, whose 17 and will get baptized (I hope) soon. He's awesome, future missionary!! Woo. Ok hope that you all have a great week! Thanks for everything, love you all.
Elder Jeff DeLong

June 28, 2010

Hey Mom
Things are going well this week. We are teaching a 17 year old, Steven, and he went to church with us yesterday and this morning he played soccer with us and the branch. He has a baptismal date for the 11th of July so hope that all works out. He'd be a good missionary :) We have to other dates with a woman and her 15 year old kid, but we just found them recently so we'll see how they progress.

The States lost in the playoffs to Ghana. Ha, I thought we would win, but it's all good. As I type this Chile is losing 3-0 to Brasil. Haha, stinks for them. Football was a lot of fun I don't regret it. It's true that in the states, most of the people probably don't even know that the world cup is happening right now, or that the states were in it. Oh well. I like running during sports. Today I played soccer from 9-11 and from 12-2:30. A lot of soccer! I'm tired, ha

I think that I will have changes. It will be nice, I'm ready for a change. Hope the box gets here this week! Thanks for everything, you're all always in my prayers!
Love,Elder DeLong

June 21, 2010

Hey!
Things are going well :) The whole country is crazy here for the World Cup. Chile played Switzerland today and won, 1-0. So they are going nuts. Not gonna lie, I'm a little tired of hearing about how awesome the Chilean soccer team is, haha. But the states are doing well. They tied their two games and are in good position to move on to the next round. The World Cup fevor has struck me too, lol. I hope the states win! That'd be so cool.

This week was a good week of teaching. We were able to help a couple families get back on track and start progressing again. The BOM is such a stumbling block for some people, some persist that it's not true and haven't even read it! Seriously..don't know how that works, haha. And another block is praying! You wouldn't believe how hard it is for a person to pray sincerely to God and ask Him if this message it true. I think their afraid of the answer they might get and don't want to change. But things are going well. I don't think we'll have baptisms again this change..a big bummer. The mission is not at all how I thought it would be, baptisms all the time. But the only thing I can do is just keep working my best. I know the Lord has people prepared, just gotta find em.


This last Saturday we were walking and were at a corner when we heard this loud CRASH! At first I thought a car had struck another car,but when I looked over I saw that it was a woman that the car had hit. It wasn't good :( I saw her fly up in the air and land, one of her boots even came off. Tons of people ran over. She was lying face down, and still breathing. I bent down to look at her face, and she didn't look too good :/ I thought a lot about how quick our lives can end. I hope shes ok, she looked to have about my age. But having the gospel in our lives makes everything so much easier. Brings so much more light to our lives

Well thats about it for now. Hope that all is well, thanks for the box, definitely looking forward to that!You are all always in my prayers.
Love,Elder DeLong

June 14, 2010

Hey mom and family :)
Things are going good this week, it's a little chilly.

Have you done anything to prevent any more break-ins to your apartment?

We changed the apartment around so now there is a lot more space. Pretty cool. Our zone all pitched in a little bit of money to buy my companion a camera because his family doesn't have enough money to buy him another one. So that was cool too. For the camera, please send it here as fast as you can because I'll probably have changes here in the beginning of July and I'd like to copy all the peoples pics here so I can at least have those.

The ward will increase if everyone in it does their part. Thats the only way. The missionaries can knock doors all day but probably none of those people would get baptized. Member references are the best way.
As I read about the boy with cancer I was thinking that you should share the gospel with his family. Ask the missionaries for a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to share with them, it'd be really good mom.
Ha you saw Joseph Woodward shopping. When does he leave? His eyes will definitely be opened a lot. Mine have been and continue to be. Mom, you have no idea how good we have it in the states.
Some investigators are progressing well, others have fallen. It's tough to see them decide to not accept the gospel. I wish everyone would, but they have their agency, it's part of the plan. One day they'll understand.

His sister & I did our annual strawberry picking:

Aww I love when you pick the strawberries! It's the best.

Thanks for the quote. That seems to be my case ha. I find lots of good people but they all keep choosing to not obey the commandments and remain in their wicked ways..it's hard. But I hope and pray that later in life missionaries will find them again and then they'll be ready. Thanks for all the support and love.

"To missionaries: Go forward. Do you work. It's so very, very important. You have on your narrow shoulders the responsibility of teaching the gospel to a world that doesn't want it. At least they think they dont' want it because they haven't tasted of it. And for many, many of those people you are the only source of knowledge they will ever have of this Church. It is so very important, therefore, that you make a good appearance. Someday someone might well say, 'Well, yes, I met two of your missionaries years ago and I've been thinking about it every since then. Come in and tell me what you have to offer.' Go forward with faith and without fear."

Ok, well love you all and thanks for getting the camera :) Send it fast, it you can.
Love you and am praying for you.
Love,Elder DeLong