October 10, 2010

Hey hey,Yes, it is definitely fun being here on the coast, although these past 3 days have been cloudy and cold. But, I would much rather have that than hot and nasty like in Santiago. The times have changed once again, I believe now you are 3 hours behind where I am. Maybe I'm wrong, hard to believe that its almost time again to call for Christmas! Pretty crazy.

Llo Lleo is about 2 and a half hours from Santiago, we have to take a big bus to get there. Yea, San Antonio is a decent size, especially cuz there are like 3 cities all together (Llo Lleo, Barrancas and San Antonio) It's not a huge port actually, but it is constantly having new ships come and go.

Being a DL is fun. It's really not too much different. I have to make a lot of phone calls to my district, let them know about different things, see how they are doing and if they need anything. I have to teach a class every week when we have our District/zone meeting. And I have to report everyone's numbers for the week. For example, how many new people they found to teach that week, how many lessons they taught with a member present, and other 'Key Indicators' they are called. And yea, thats about it. I am in charge of the 'pouch' mail that we use to get things around in the mission and also help to organize activities and stuff. And one more thing that I have not yet done is do the baptismal interviews for the district. That will be quite the experience. So yea, thats what DL does :)>

Elder Nielson is a greenie still, this is his second change. I'm finishing his training. Elder Jenkins was from UT, remember him? And I have 2 from Idaho, 1 from Bolivia, 1 from Columbia, and 2 from Honduras, and 1 from Las Vegas. Pretty cool huh? Yes, I have 4 tiny little sisters in my district, but they are all really great. They are funny and work hard. Yea, they are all Latino. 2 from Honduras, 1 from Peru and 1 from Argentina.

The tsunami drill was lame, we had to go to the safe zone, stand there for like 15 minutes and then go back down. Thats it, and only about 20 other people in our area did it with us, everyone else didn't pay any attention to it. Oh well. THe air is soooo much fresher here, I love it. The buses are much much older than I am, I'm amazed that they still run actually or that they can make it up the steep hills that we have here. The mission gives us money for it, but sometimes I run out and have to use my own (for food or other things at times) But I think as DL get a bit more money now. That should be nice.

We should be able to put the frissbee to good use. Yes, once December starts we can't go to the beach anymore, thats summer for everyone and people starting going to the beach. SO far the people from the ward that I've met have been really great. This ward is a lttle bigger which is nice. Our ward mision leader is really cool too. Unfortuneately the elder who was here before me left the sector in kinda tough shape (no investigators) so we've basically have had to start from scratch, but it's been good. And it's more rewarding too.

I love and am praying for you!

Love,

Elder DeLong

October 4, 2010

Hey :)
So, I went to the coast!! Haha, looks like those feelings I had were right. My sector is called Llo Lleo, its a town next to San Antonio. We can't see the ocean from our apartment, but from all of the sector we have a great view. It is way cool. I'm a district leader now and also finishing the training of Elder Nielson from St George UT but he grew up a bit in MN :) He is really nice and very happy. I guess he had a tough train with his trainer, so President sent me over to help him out. We will have a good change here.
I have 10 missionaries in my district, 4 sisters and 6 elders. It's pretty big. It will be a good experience for me. But I am definitely excited for this opportunity. Something kind of interesting is that the 5th of October we will be having a tsunami drill here. So everyone will have to run up to the hills to the higher ground. I think we'll have to participate as well. Should be interesting though. My sector is big! (compared to my last one) In the middle of Llo Lleo is sisters and we are on the outside. Our sector is a big U, so we have to take a lot of buses to get around. Yes I do know who elder Grow's new companion is, his name is elder Granda. He is latino, so that will be a good experience for him to improve his spanish. It was sad to say goodbye, but I was happy to leave that apartment, not only did it smell because of the humidity but not I don't have to worry about getting robbed! Thats a relief.

Steven did like the temple a lot, we as missionaries can't do the baptisms but I did conformations which was fun for me :) Steven cried when I left..It was sad. But he is so great, he'll be a great missonary.

I just remembered something. After we were watching Gen Conf one elder in my district, elder Hollister, said, 'they have been talking about obeying the prophet a lot, the prophet is going to tell us something big' That didn't happen, but almost EVERYone talked about obeying the prophet and agency, so be sure to give heed to the counsels.

Okay well I think that is it for now.

Oh and mom, one more request if it is possible could you send one of those aerobie ring frisbees? The one that you sent me, well after the accident with the spine I lost it. I don't know where it went. But now that I'm here on the coast and we have a beach..well I gotta take advantage of it. But they don't sell frisbees here. But it you can't dont worry about it. But if you can send it fast cuz we only have till the middle of Nov to go to the beach, because after that all the other people start going, ha.

Okay well hope that you all have a great week! You're all always in my prayer :)

Love,

Elder Jeff DeLong

September 27, 2010

Hey!

So I do officially have changes. I have mixed feelings, ha. On the one side I am really happy to be going to a different area, see new places, meet new people. But on the other side I am sad that I'll be leaving the people here. This has become my home here in Chile, but I enjoyed my time here and I learned a lot. I wonder where I'll go...I see tomorrow! I hope that Elder Grow gets a good next companion. Thats another sad part, is our apartment is awesome. The four of us there have a great time together, I'll miss all of them. But change is good too. The arm is doing really well, I'm hoping it leaves a sweet scar to always remember when I rammed my arm into a palm tree in Chile, haha.

Sounds like Julie received a nice funeral. Thats cool that Marie and Steve sang. She was a great woman here on the earth and will be in the spirit world too. She'll be greatly missed. Glad you are getting the chances to satisfy your grandma needs every now and then ;) That'd be fun for you to watch him while they go to Europe. I'm jealous! But after being away from home so long I don't want to travel for a while, ha. I should get back June 7th

I was supposed to sing for the branch conference but it didn't get communicated well so I didn't end up doing it, oh well. The Packs are really nice (and yes have a nice southern accent) but they also have that genuine southern love too. They'll help the branch a lot.

The family are still prgressing great, they will be baptized within the next few weeks. I won't be able to see it, but thats ok. The important part is that they are making that step :)

This is a cool experience I had Friday:

This week we had a great activity for the ward conference where we gave everyone pieces of candy and they could eat as many as they wanted (there were only 100 pieces in total). Then we told everyone that they had to pay for the candy we never said it was free, but they had to pay in push-ups. Of course most of the people ate more candy then they could do pushups, so I paid the price of the candies for everyone (100 pushups). At first everyone was laughing and joking, but by the end as I was sweating and couldn't go on everyone was serious, a few even tried to help or offered to do their own. But they couldn't help me. Then we brought out brownies and asked if anyone wanted some, only the youth ate. But I had to do 15 more. Then we related it to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He did for us. He paid for all of our sins, and He did it all alone. And sometimes we go back and sin even when we know it causes Him pain. It was a very strong and emotional experience for me because I was able to understand just a tiny fraction of how the Savior felt. It strengthened my testimony of the Atonement a lot.Well, I love you all and am praying for you :) I hope that you have a great week! Say hi to everyone for me :)

Love,

ELder DeLong

September 21, 2010

Hey!

How is everything going?

I'm really sorry to hear about Julie :( I hope the family is doing ok, but the most comforting part is that we know she is in a much better place resting from everything (Alma 40:12). My arm is doing fine, the stitches came out good and now it is all scabbed up and healing. THere doesn't seem to be any infection which was the biggest worry obviously. And no, I haven't had any arm pain for years. Now I am getting back pain though, it kinda stinks. I might go into the doctor one of these days to see what he says.

It was really great to be able to baptize Steven, first person in my life. This THursday we are going to the temple with him to do baptisms for the dead with the youth of the ward (we get to go because he is our convert :) So we are excited about that :) And Saturday we put a baptismal date with the new family (there are 3 of them) for the 10th of October, also very exciting. Changes are this Tuesday, and I'm pretty sure that I'll be leaving, so I probably won't be here for their baptisms, but thats ok. I'll be just as happy :)

It was kind of ironic because we had 9 investigators at church last week, and 0 this week. It was 0 because the 18th (Saturday) was Chile's independence day. So everyone went out of town, there were only 37 people at church. Friday we had a ward activity which was a lot of fun, we got to see a lot of the traditional Chilean dances. I put on the outfit, I'll send pics.

This week is our ward conference, there are different activities planned for every day. We have a new missionary matrimony, the Packs' from Mississippi, here in the mission now and they are assigned to be in our branch. They are really nice, it's fun having them. They are going to be helping the branch, teaching music and some other stuff. Thsi coming Sunday the sister already asked me to sing a song for sacrament mtg...haha.

Ok, well I think thats everything for now. Hope that you all have a great week, you're always in my prayers.

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Jeff DeLong

September12, 2010

Hey!
Yea, sorry about that. Thats too bad that they didn't call you though. Elder Roundy (my friend and the one that drove me to the hospital) he works in the office and had plans to call, but then we got that surprise call from the other elder and had to go to the hospital again so..but oh well. Next Monday I might not be writing you again, we received an email that siad we might have p day on Tuesday so, just so that you are aware. The arm is doing well, it hasn't gotten infected. I went into the doctor Thursday to have it looked at and he said it looked good so, Wednesday I have to return to have the stitches taken out. I'll send you a picture, I don't have one of when the spine was in my arm, but I have one of the stitches with the spine laying on my arm. It's pretty cool, ha. It was my right arm, on the forearm. The other elder they think has an ulcer, but not appendicitis, so that was good. Maybe it wasn't the best way to stay out late, but I enjoyed it. That probably wont happen again on my mission, ha. And yes, there was candy in the piñata. It was fun :)

Steven's baptism went really well, his whole family came to see him get baptized. I got to baptize him which was really cool for me. The first person that I've ever baptized in my life. He'll be a great missionary, Elder Rivas ha.

If Juan and his family get baptzied I probably wouldn't be able to go back for it, depending on what Pres. King decides. With Pres. Jones it was a no, but you never know. We had 9 investigators in church yesterday, way cool. The most I've ever had. A family of four came with us, they will get baptized for sure. They know a lot of the members and really liked church. Awesome.

Today I had to buy a little mp3 player because my cd player decided to stop working. So now I'll have to transfer all the music to the mp3, but it will be nice to not have to use cds all the time but still have all the music. Ok well I gotta go now, thanks for everything that you do. I'm always praying for you all. And the next time you send a box I have a couple requests, one is your carmel corn because it is soooo good and the other is easy cheese. One of my roommate elders from chile wants some and they don't sell it here. :)

Love,Elder Jeff DeLong

September 7, 2010

Hey Mom :)

Well, hopefully you guys weren't too preocupied that I didn't write you yesterday. You should have gotten a phone call from the missionary that works in the office, Elder Barlow (or maybe Elder Roundy). I had to have a little surgery on my arm, ha. We were playing capture the flag as a zone activity and I finally had found the flag of the other team, they had hid it in a palm tree. Well, since I was been pursued by the enemy, I reach in quickly to grab the flag, without the slighest clue that palm trees have spines in them! Well, I got anasty surprise and get a spine lodged in my arm, and 2 1/5 inches long! It was pretty nasty looking. So then they rushed me to the crappy local hospital but they didn't do anything, so then we went to the mission doctor in providencia, Elder Limburg. He was able to take out a little (after injecting like 20 shot to numb it, ha) but he couldn't get it all. Then we went to a nice hospital and they were able to cut me open there and take it out. I kept it to remember :) Then afterwards we went to Subway (I was soooo happy! Theres only a few in Chile) and then we had to go to Presidents house to drop of his car (its a way nice Ford Explorer). And finally we were on our way home (at 9:30) when we got another call that a different elder might have apendisitis, so we had to rush to thier house and bring him all the way back to the very same hospital that we had just left. We were there until like 2:30. I finally got to bed at 3:00 in the morning! It was the latest I'd been out in a year and a half, haha. It was definitely a day on the mission I'll never forget. But anyways, all is well :)

And leaving that topic, Steven is going to get baptized this SUnday! His parents finally are letting him. And Juan and his family still go to church, they don't have a date yet, but I feel they'll get baptized. Maybe not with me, but they will. And things are going really well.

For my B-day last week the 2 other elders that I live with had a sister in their ward make a pinata in the form of a missionary. So that was a nice, fun surprise. And I was able to eat some cake with a few families, so it was good. And Wednesday I got your package :) And a nice card from Jake and Bri.

But I have to go now, got things to do :) And next week I'll for sure have pics to send, of 2 baptisms and the spine in my arm and everything! Yay, haha. But I love you all and am praying for you :) Have a great week!

Love, Elder Jeff DeLong

August 30, 2010

Hi :)

Football last week was a lot of fun, this week we weren't able to get the field so we had to play soccer. It was fun, but we always play that. I think we are just going to go out to eat as a zone, thats about it. And yes, in that pic is my zone. Haha, a couple knew how to play well, but for the most part I smoked them. I do love cake, but cake in the States is definitely wayyyyy better than here. Technically I could go get a hangover too know, ha. How exciting..Being 21 feels...the same! My body still feels young though at least ;)

Dylan's baptism went really well. His whole family went to see it. Unfortuneatley Juan and his family weren't able to it, I was really hoping that they would. But they did come to church again, he just has to pray and he doesn't give it time. Me and Elder Grow and two members from the ward did a special musical number, it went really well. Ha, I hadn't sang in front of people for a while.

I miss your cooking, I know you don't really like it but you sure are really good at it. We made brownies for the baptism and everyone went crazy about them, ha. It was funny.

It is really great teaching the gospel, I just wish people weren't so hard and would open up their hearts more to receive this message that is more important than anything else in their lives...ever!Well, thanks for the happy b-day (haven't gotten the package, but I think Wednsday I'll have it) and hope that you all have a great week!

Love,Elder Jeff DeLong

August 23, 2010

Hola :)

How are things going?? The weeks do fly by..and yes the family did go to church again this Sunday. They now have been asisting a whole month. Things are going well with them, we still haven't been able to put a baptismal date, but I know that they have been enjoying their time in the church. We will be baptizing a kid, Dylan, who is 9 this Saturday. We have been waiting with Dylan to baptize him together with his mom, but she still hasn't been able to get married yet and things are progressing kinda slow. So we are hoping that by baptizing Dylan that will help to motivate her. And we invited Juan and his family to the baptism and they said that they are going to go, so that will be really good :)

Yea, I have made a lot of good friends here, and most of them go to BYU. I miss having Elder Speakman in my district, but maybe this next change I'll be able to be his companion. That'd be sweet.

Saturday we had the opportunity to have a conference, together with the Rancagua mission, and we got to listen to Elder Richard G. Scott! That was really great, just strengthened my testimony that the apostles and prophet really are called of God and have the authority. And guess what he talked about?? Marriage! Ha, it made me a little trunky, not gonna lie. I only 9 months left..wow time passes fast. I'm not really looking forward to dealing with all of the problems of life, school, work, money...and all that. So I'll enjoy my last 9 months here :)

Thats really great that Nick got his mission call! Ha, I knew he'd be going to S.A. I was living with a guy from Uruguay for 5 months (he was annoying) but I know that he'll love his mission. Ha, hes gonna speak spanish with a funny uruguayo accent.

My companion and I also gave talks yesterday. We give one in this branch every 4th Sunday, that was the 5th one that I've given. Ha, they don't even bother me anymore.

We have a program here called Permaneced, where we have a list of all the members in the area. We then go through and go and visit all of the inactives and share a special message with them from the prophet. I don't know if you have the same message in the states, but we have been able to have a lot of success with it so far. We have found a lot of families where not all the members of the family are members of the church. The weather has been pretty decent here lately. Umm, I don't think we are in spring yet, but the weather is at least nice.

Today we played real football in a nice syntetic field. It was great.

To celebrate my b day we'll probably go over to a few members homes and eat some cake or something, thats about it. Next year will be good :) Ok, well love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Love,Elder Jeff Delong

August 16, 2010

Hola :)
Well, I have yet another change here in Cerrillos. Ha, I thought that I would be leaving actually. But I really hope that this change Elder Grow and I will be able to see some of the fruits of our labors. I have the faith that this family we are teaching will get baptized. They went to church again, 3 weeks in a row. One thing that I am really bummed about is that my best friend here, Elder Speakman, is getting changed. He is really awesome, we are going to live together at BYU. He has 6 months less than I do. But maybe we'll be companions next, that'd be sweet.
We do have some other investigators that are interested and progressing, but not any others that have gone with us to church yet. Besides Steven, he goes every week. But his parents won't let him get baptized yet. And Marisol and her son Dilan go every week, but we are still waiting for her to fix her teeth so that she can get married then baptized. We are going to baptize Dilan the 29th of August. So that will be good :)

Elder Grow is doing well. Spanish is tough for him, but he has gotten a lot better and is able to teach pretty well now. I haven't heard much from Elder Mckay, I know that he was trying to set up his classes for BYU-I but all the ones that he wanted were full.

Gordon B Hinckley talking about his mission to Britain:

The work in the field was not easy. It was difficult and discouraging. But what a wonderful experience it was. In retrospect, I recognize that I was probably a selfish young man when I arrived in Britain. What a blessing it became to set aside my own selfish interests to the greater interests of the work of the Lord. I had the association of tremendous young men and women. They have become treasured friends whom I have known and loved now for more than half a century. How profoundly grateful I am for the experience of that mission. I touched the lives of a few who have, over the years, expressed appreciation. That has been important. But I have never been greatly concerned over the number of baptisms that I had or that other missionaries had. My satisfaction has come from the assurance that I did what the Lord wanted me to do and that I was an instrument in His hands for the accomplishment of His purposes. In the course of that experience, there became riveted into my very being a conviction and knowledge that this is in very deed the true and living work of God, restored through a prophet for the blessing of all who will accept it and live its principles.

Thanks for the quote from Pres. Hinckley :) I know that just because I don't have a lot of baptisms doesn't mean that I haven't accomplished much, i know I'm doing what I was meant to do here. Well, thanks for the email, hope that you have a great week, you're always in my prayers :)I'll try to send a few pics ;)We ate a an American restaurant called Mamut today, I had a New Orleans stake. It was way good!

Chao mi querido familia,

Elder Jeffrey Douglas DeLong

August 9, 2010

So this week was pretty good, that family that went last week came again. That was really great, I think that he felt good there. I know that the kids like it, well at least the little girl. She loves going to church, so that has been a big influence on him.

Thats so weird that Riki and them are all going off to BYU, that means we'll have the same year when I get back, ha. I'm not looking forward to coming back to reality, I don't know what I'm going to do about all those loans I'll have to take out. It sucks..oh well. The Lord will help me as long as I do my best here.





But yea, the one with glasses is elder grow.







I traded a watch for those sunglasses. I like them. I was gonna trade my pair of Puma sunglasses for them, but when I went to look for them I realize that they were stolen as well. But now I have cooler ones, ha.








All latinos are short for the most part. I can be on a subway and see all the way to the first car. Pretty funny. We find out about changes this sunday. SHould be interesting. I have no idea of what will happen. If I do have changes it will be hard to leave, I know the people and missionaries here so well. But who knows what will happen, I think change would be good too.

You'll have to let me know how Anoka does this year in football. Hopefully they'll beat coon rapids at least, haha. Love you all and pray for you always,

Love,Elder Jeff DeLong