March 28, 2011

The big news for this week: Jeff received his itinerary to come home! The day we have looked forward to for 2 years is June 7th.
 And did you get the travel Itinerary that I forwarded to you?  That's really important that you respond to that as soon as possible.
 So, I'm flying to New York!  That will be pretty fun, (minus the 11 hours in a plane part) but I'm excited to see New York.  Then I'll fly to MN and land at 2:30.  You guys will be able to go and pick me up right? 
Really, would we be anywhere else that day?? I chuckled at that question from him.

 Thanks for the encouragement, it's been a good experience. (Being the lone zone leader ) E' Clark and I get along really well, so I am happy about that.  I think going to BYU was a good choice too, (Jeff went one year to BYU before heading out on his mission. At the time I wasn't sure this was the best choice...) helped me get used to being away from home and being on my own.  The culture here is much different, kids don't leave the house till mid 20's or later at times.  So when they go on a mission it can be a big shock for them.

Yes, Dylan got baptized yesterday.  It went well :)

We have a baptismal date with the mom, Jovanna, because we thought for sure that she wasn't a member, but now somehting has come up and we aren't sure again.  So President King today is going to research it so we can have a definite answer.  I love President King, he is a great man and great example.  It's been fun having him my last year on the mission.
We have been teaching the recent converts, we have ward missionaries now and are trying to orient them in and train them, but the process has been going slow.  Hopefully things will work out so they can teach the converts

On being "two tall white guys" as a missionary tool:
I do think that people listen to us more cuz we are so huge to them.  They are probably scared haha.  But we definitely draw a lot of attention.  But I 've gotten used to it now, it will be nice however that everyone won't stare at me in the states haha.
 It will be interesting to see if I'll end my mission here in this sector or if President will send me somewhere else.  We'll see.  But remember to email the mission that you can pick me up so they can buy the ticket. 
Alright, well I don't really have much more to say. My feet and legs have been killing me this last week, we've been walking a lot lately. But the work is moving forward well, in the month of March we had 15 baptisms as a zone! That hasn't happened in a long time here in the mission. So that was cool to be a part of it. Hopefully this month we can keep baptizing. We have 2 potential baptisms, hope that all goes well.

Alright love you all and am always praying for you. I really like the poem mom, it was a good find. Went strait to the heart ;)

Stick to your task till it sticks to you;
Beginners are many, but enders are few.
Honor, power, place, and praise
Will come, in time, to the one who stays.

Stick to your task till it sticks to you;
Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too;
For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile
Will come life’s victories, after awhile

Love,
Elder Jeffrey Douglas DeLong





- Show

March 20, 2011

Well, being the only zone leader has been going pretty good so far.  My new companion is Elder Clark, he is from Morgan Utah.  He is a really cool guy, he makes me feel old because he graduated in 2010..haha.  But he has 4 months here in Chile.  So I'm excited for this new change with him.  But he'll help me out a lot with ideas and stuff so it won't be so bad.  As he tells me he is the co-zone leader haha. 
The baptisms are still happening, this next Sunday we will have another.  Dylan, who is the younger brother of Grecia and Dante.  Then we had a lady come to church yesterday named Magdelena.  And she really liked it, so I feel that she will be not too far behind Dylan.  Yes, Yessenia and Nayaret both got baptized 2 Fridays ago.  It was a very special baptism, I felt the spirit there more strongly than in any other baptism I've assisted.  It was great, and they will both be very faithful members.  They're awesome.  All of our converts here are doing well.

Yea, the majority of the missionaries here are from UT too, there are so many.  Thats good though.  We just found this young matrimony who were a reference from the office.  The lady Tamara is an inactive member and her husband Cristofer is not a member.  But they are very interested in the gospel, especially about being ablle to be together as a family for ever, so we are excited to keep teaching them. 
And we also found a girl who is from Haiti, she has like 10 months in Chile and speaks great!  I thought she had years here.  She speaks 4 languages, but she is really interested in the gospel too.  So we have quite a few people we are teaching that I think will progress well. 

Today we played soccer with another zone.  I got to see an old friend from the coast, Elder Fuhriman.  He is great.  I'm sad that a lot of my friends here went home in this last group..but I still have some really close friends here so thats good. 
 Every companionship in the zone except one had changes.  And I lost my District leaders and recevied two new distirct leaders that I have to train in and teach them all of their responsibilities and stuff.  But they are really good and learn quick. 
 Its funny because Elder Clark is taller than me, 6'5.  So we are two tall white guys roaming the streets of Ochagavia. 
Obama is here for a few days.  There are some protesters and stuff, kinda funny.  I dont think these trips are the best use of our money..but the people elected him so..

I am very grateful that I obtained my Eagle scout, I just wished I remembered the stuff that I learned ha. I'll have to re pass everything some day.
Wow, Japan got hit a lot worse than here in Chile. I hope they can recover from it and that nothing bad will continue to happen to them. I know the church wil be sending lots of aid there.

 The day of registering is drawing cose, hopefuly all goes well for Maire. OK, well hope that you all have a great week! Love you and am always praying for you.
Elder DeLong

March 14, 2011

Wow, thanks so much for taken care of the housing for me.  I'm excited to room/live with Peter.  Hopefully for winter semester I'll be able to live with E' Speakman.  That would be so great.  Yea, Peter gets home the same day as me now, the 7th!  How cool is that.  Yes, my comp and Elder Kennison and lots of my other friends at this time are preparing to go home.  Its sad to see them all leave, they are great guys and missionaries.  But I'm going to see a lot of them after the mission.  It will be fun.

It was a good experience to give the class in concilio, I know that if the missionaries apply it it will help out a lot with their teaching and they will see many miracles.

President told me some interesting news in his email to me. I'm not receiving another zone leader companion..I'm just receivning a junior companion. So I will be a lone zone leader..that will be pretty interesting! And I'm losing my 2 district leaders and receivng two new ones. But, I know that the Lord will help me, will give me the strength that I need. I will have to stretch my self even more and it will be a great opportunity to learn and grow.

Yea, the food for concilio is always american stuff, I love it!


The earthquake was quite a surprise especially because it was so powerful! It was much worse than here in Chile, remember that the richter scale goes up by multiples of ten I believe. So 8.9 is ten times stronger than 8.8. Crazy, I hope every onw will be okay and can get the help they need. Nothing really happened here, but I am positive now that I never want to live in a country with earthquakes! Nope.

 okay Mom, gotta run now, we are going to have a BBQ with the missionaries here in a little bit. I'll try to send a couple picks quick of the baptism, it was great! The most spiritual one Ive been to.
Love you tons!


Elder Delong

March 7, 2011

So this week went really well too :)  The baptism for Dante went really well.  Only thing was that he didn't like the clothes that he had to wear and almost wouldn't come out of the bathroom (had to have some persuasion) and he didn't want to take a picture because he was ashamed and thought he looked really bad.  He looked great actually but he didn't think so.  But thats a pretty typical 11 year old boy for you.  He finally came out though which was good and the ordinance went really well.  His younger brother, Dylan, will get baptized on the 20th of this month.  And this Friday we have two more baptisms, Yessenia and Nayaret.  They are both young single adult women of 18.  Nayaret has been going to chruch for like 2 years but could never get baptized because she wasn't 18, and Yessenia was an old investigator that we found through her grandma who is a member.  So we are excited for that baptism, it will be a great experience.

 Yea, it will be sad when he (Elder Zeron) leaves, we work great together.  That we have so much experience on the mission definitley helps, we have all those experiences to draw upon to help us improve and do the work in the right way.  And thats why we've seen so much success, because we are trying our best and relying on the Lord and He is helping us a ton. 

Yea, going to the Zoo was a great idea.  They all really liked it.  I was feeding a piece of grass to a llama.  I liked the monkeys, they were fun.  The train was pretty nice, built within the last 10 years.  Only the buses on the coast are really old and crappy.  The buses here in Santiago are huge and nice. 

Today my comp is going and saying goodbye to all his old sectors, so thats what we will be doing all day today and Saturday. Then Friday he has the temple and we have the baptisms and Thrusday we have that zone conference. So it will be a pretty busy week, thats for sure. Just like last week. We had Concilio with the President again as the zone leaders. It was really good, me and my comp had to give a class there actually about the things we are teaching and doing to have so much success. It went well. The food of course was great too. Pancakes it the morning and some sort of American rice/chicken dish for lunch. I liked it. Okay, well I think thats about it for now, hope that you have a great week! You're always in my prayers. Love you mom!

Love,
Elder DeLong