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

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

May 26, 2010

My week was good :)

Unfortunately I only have sad news about all the baptisms. They won't be happening for a little bit now. Juan has something that he doesn't want to change and Maria we haven't been able to have much contact with. But I will be staying here for another change with Elder Fuentes so at least we have a chance to help them enter those waters.

I'm happy about staying, I wasn't ready to leave yet. I have high hopes for this change. Elder Mckay went home today, I went to the office to see him off. He's so great, I love that guy. I'll miss him a lot.

Again, great to hear about Mark. Tell him that I say hi and tell him to go on a mission now :)

Sorry to hear that it's so hot. It's finally getting cold here, yay! Hows my beloved Jeep doing?

Do they have quotas to meet for teaching during a week?

We don't have like any set numbers that we have to do each week. But we always set goals for different things, like new people to teach, lessons taught with a memeber present and so on...So we always try to meet those goals and improve. Fun stuff :)
Ok well you are all always in my prayers. Keep strong, be happy and always remember to do LOMA Leer las escrituras(read the scriptures) Orar (pray) Meditar(meditate) and Asistir a la capilla (go to church) Do those fours things and you'll always be active and happy.

Love you all!

Love,
Elder DeLong

May 17, 2010

Hey mom :)
Well, we had the two baptismal interviews planned for Juan and Luis yesterday after church so they could get baptized the following week. But then we found out that they had drinken tea that morning...doh!! So now they have to wait a couple more weeks :( SO we won't be having any baptisms this change, and if I have changes I won't see them get baptized. I hope that I stay, we'll see what the Lord has planned for me.

News about others called to a Chilean mission:

What?? Mark Kocina is getting baptized?? Is he kinda short with red hair? Wow..never would've have thought he would except the gospel, but thats the cool part about it. One never knows :) Thats really cool.
And Joseph is going to concepcion??? Whoa, thats so weird and cool. We can speak Chileno to each other haha. He might be doing a lot of service work to start off, that will be cool. The south is really great though (so everyone says). They feed you a LOT (he'll get fat, ha). It'll be good for him. Thats cool. Thats pretty crazy about Joseph and Paul, that they are both going to Chile. That will be three from the stake here.

My father(of the mission) Elder Mckay goes home on Monday. Sad..I'll miss him. But it will be good for him to go home.

The new mission pres comes in July I think and I'm sure he'l meet with us. And no dad, I won't be able to go down to concepcion to see joseph, as cool as that would be.

Hey, how are the twins doing? And you need to watch the world cup dad, it will be good. The states have a good team and they play england for the first game. It'll be like the revolutionary war all over again ha.

Ok well I think thats everything for now, thanks for all the prayers and support.
Love,
Elder Jeff DeLong

May 10. 2010

Happy Mothers day again, I hope that you had a great day and were able to enjoy time talking to all the kids :) It was fun. I have been able to make some really great friends here, all of which I hope I'll have the chance to hang out with when I get home. Elder Mckay, Elder Marquez and Elder Callis and Elder Jenkins are the best four that I've made so far. They are all really great.

I try to be as obedient as I can. I've found that even the little things really do make a difference. I'm glad that you like the pics, I'll try to send them more regularly.

Thanks for your prayers for Juan, Luis and Maria. I really hope and pray that everything will work out. Sorry to hear that the ward continues to shrink. Do you still have missionaries in the ward, or have then been pulled out? You need to make a plan as a ward for the mission work and work together with the missionaries, thats the only way the the ward will grow.

I love you all and thanks for all the love and support, we have an amazing family!

Love,

Elder DeLong

May 3, 2010

Glad to hear that you are enjoying the weather way up there in MN, ha. Today is a pretty nice day. Man, I miss football. That'd be fun to play for BYU...I'm content with flag football though, ha. My body is really sore right now actually, I feel like I just got done with football practice. We played soccer in a fullsize field for 2 hours. One zone versus another, mine got smoked. Oh well.. it was fun to run around for a bit. Oh well, I'm really tired now though and sun burnt.


For the Mother's Day call:

Haha,Mom you are funny :) I'm excited to call too. I hope that I can call Greg and Erica too, so maybe can you tell them that Erica should go over to Greg's or something? That'd be nice to talk to them too. Yes I have pics, I'll try to send a few. I am really excited to see some people getting baptized! It won't be happening this next week because it is our stake conference, but it's planned for the week after. We should have three at once, pretty cool. Umm, no there aren't really bugs in the air or anything, so thats nice. They like to go inside the houses though, thats annoying.


Thats really great that Marie will be taking out her endownments. It is such a great experience. I wish I could be there to go through with Marie, it would be really cool. It will be a great experience for her. Like I told dad, we just had 3 people from the branch go through the temple, they all we amazed. It is such a blessing to have temples here on the earth. You did get sent 4 pretty cool kids, you two must've been doing something right ;)


We will be losing some of the assigned families from our little branch, so that will be hard. Hopefully we can make the adjustment well.

I think that is about everything for now, I'll try to send some pics here for you. Thanks for everything, you are all always in my prayers :) Not that you are all able to go to the temple you should go regularly (that goes for EVERYone)

Chao!Love,

Elder DeLong

April 27, 2010

Things are going well here in Las Lomas. As of now we have 3 people who are actually progressing to their baptism. We will have one, maybe 2 people baptized on the 8th (the same day that Marie is taking out her endownments!) So thats cool :) I'm super excited to see people get baptized, it's been a while. It's hard going for a long time without baptisms, so this will be very nice. Yea, all the people are people that I found with Elder Jenkins. It was hard to see him go, but I have contact with him which is nice. He is doing well, adjusting to the new life, haha.



The temple was really nice. We went as three zones together. It's way different in spanish (not really everything is the same of course), but at least this time around I was able to understand all most all of it.



Whoa, the time sure does fly, huh? I'll be finishing a year at the end of May (very beginning of June), who would've thought? Ha.



Yes the box got here, and all intact too! It was sweet, I've already eaten everything (I saved the eggs for last): I forgot how much I love those mint things. The cds are nice, listening to the same music over and over gets a little old, ha.

Elder Fuentes and I get along well, he is pretty funny. I'm living with 3 latinos now, a little hard sometimes (especially because they are pretty messy and don't like to clean) so I do most of it. But oh well, at least I'll be a pro when I get home, right?
Life is good here, I've been adjusting to my new companion. That can be really hard sometimes, but things have been going really well for Elder Fuentes and I. I do miss Elder Jenkins though...he is a very good buddy of mine now. I'll see him when I get home for sure. There are lots of Elders who have become great friends of mine here that I want to hang out with when I get home. Elder Mckay (my mission father) goes home at the end of this change. I will miss him a lot.


Umm, what else is new. Not much, things are cooling off here, it's great. But thank you so much for all the love and support. I pray for you all always and hope that you are all well and happy :) Keep up the faith, go to church ;) It's important. And fulfill your callings and assignments as best you can! Give the Lord all you can, and He'll take care of you :) Chao,Love,
Elder Jeffrey DeLong

April 19, 2010

So, who is the new companion?

Things are going well down here in South America. My new companion is Elder Fuentes from Honduras. He is a good guy, we'll have a good change together.
We have 5 people with baptismal dates right now, I hope that everthing works out with them. I miss Elder Jenkins a lot actually, he was a great friend. My language did suffer haha. But it's getting better again.

This email is going to be a little short this week, I have a lot to write. I'm super happy and excited that you are at Gregs and able to be with them and see Logan. I'm jealous, ha. I'm sure he is a great kid. Also glad to hear that things are going well with Erica, I bet she is glad to be able to see you and dad. Haha, you would work on their yard, I think you are adicted to yard work mom. Enjoy the break while you have it, don't worry too much about having nothing to do and being lazy, you'll have enough to do when you get home. You definitley deserve the break!

Umm what else is happening here..as a mission we are going to the temple this week. SO Thursday I will be going to the Santiago temple for the second time. It's so hard in spanish, ha. Maybe this time I'll understad a little better.

Oh! Thanks so much for the box! I totally even forgot that I like those mint things, mm and mini eggs. You know me too well mom. Thank you Marie for the CDs too, they are great :)Ok, so I might be sending a box home with this big rain maker thing that a guygave me here. It's to long to put in my suitcase and I dont want to just leave it behind because it's really cool, so I'll see what I can do. The gospel is true family, never forget that :) It's really great to be able to share it with others, even though sometimes it's tough. Take care thanks for everything, you are always in my prayers.
Love,
Elder DeLong

April 12, 2010

Well, Elder Jenkins is preparing to go home as we speak. We have already parted ways and I am with 2 replacement companions for today, and then tomorrow I'll get my new companion. It stinks to see Elder Jenkins go, he was a great friend and companion. We had a great change, worked hard. And now I think we will begin seeing the fruits of those labors (baptisms :) )

I hope so.

Ya know, things don't always go as planned in life (well, the majority of times actually) but we can't let that get us down and get desanimated. If we do we sink into a hole and it's hard to get back out, and that is what Satan wants. We just have to put our trust in the Lord and keep on going with a smile on your face. As long as we are being obedient to the Lord's commandments and striving to do His will, then we will have success in our lifes. Thats why the states is the most successful country in the world, it was built on traditions of faith; in believing in God and trying to do what He wants. We need to always build our foundation on the Lord and things will work out right. They may not be how we wanted them, but it will be what is best for us, because the Lord loves us and will always lead us for the best path as long as we seek His guidance.

Yes, the weeks just zip on by, especially now that I almost have a year. Everyone says that time goes by even faster the second year, so we'll see I guess right?

One definitely needs self-discipline as a missionary. I thought it'd be more stricter, or that I'd be under a tighter watch as a missionary. But thats not the case, theres all sorts of opportunities to be disobedient if I want, but that's where the self discipline comes into play, and training yourself to not want to be disobedient but to always do whats right.

You should go out and visit the inactive memebers. Many times that is the reason they don't go is because they feel nobody cares about them. Just a thought (not really its a commitment, haha. Do it!!) Well thanks for everything, I'm looking forward to the box! Talking to you will be sweet :)
Have a great week!!

Love,Elder DeLong

April 5, 2010

Jeff is now an uncle! His brother Greg & wife Laura officially made Jeff an uncle for the first time. Greg sent him some just-born pictures of Logan DeLong via email.Jeff's take on who the baby looks like at this point:

Hey!Wow, that's so cool that there is a new edition to the DeLong family! You are a grandma now :) He is a cute kid, I think he looks a lot like the both of them. I guess that's how it should work right? Haha

Yes, Greg and Laura will be great parents, no doubt about that. I can't wait to get to meet Logan.

I enjoyed conference a lot! I used to think that time went on forever during conference, but it goes by super fast now. I think it's cuz I take notes.enjoyed conference a lot! It sure did talk a lot about families and the different roles and responsibilities that everyone has. Kinda fun for Greg and Laura now that they are new parents.

I told him about the beautiful weather we have had the past few days, typical spring weather only earlier this year.

The weather here is still ridiculously hot! It should be cooling down by now, but I think that the terremoto (earthquake) messed everything up.

Elder Jenkins is just about ready to leave, ha, he'll be leaving next Monday. Wow, that is so weird. Today we will be going around and visiting all of his converts and other friends that he has made these two years. We do have some people (María and her daughter Caroline and this lady named Valeria) who are progressing really well :) I think that they will both get baptized. And Marisol will get baptized in June, hopefully I still be here.

Ok, well hope that you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder DeLong

March 29, 2010

I asked Jeff if he had a good week.

Yes, this week was good even though it was a little tough. Every day all our appointments seemed to fall through, but that just happens some times.

I told him I liked the pictures he sent, especially the one of him on the slide:

Haha, you like the one on the slide? That's in the courtyard of our apartments. There's a little pool and playground.

His current companion, Elder Jenkins, is a zone leader and just about to go home.

Yea, it's fun that he's a zone leader. I've learned a lot about how things work as a zone leader, and he is just really fun to be with. Too bad that I'll only have one change with him :/ I'll be on my 6th companion after Elder Jenkins.

He recently had a zone conference, and thought that Richard G Scott would be in Chile at the same time & maybe speak at their conference:

The zone conference went well. We always learn a lot and leave pumped to teach the gospel. Elder Scott was not there, so maybe he didn't come to Chile? I don't know. It is conference time already, hard to believe huh? I'm excited to hear what the prophets have to say.

Update on their investigators at this time-

Marisol is good, she is still really excited for her baptism. But she has to wait until June 11th to get married, I guess there are a lot of people at this time that also want to get married. Which is good, here in Chile there aren't many married couples. It's using the biggest stepping block for people to get baptized here. We have other investigators that are progressing well too. Getting them to church has been the biggest problem for most of them, so we are hoping to get a few to go to conference.

He hasn't said much about the earthquake in Chile, it doesn't seem like his area has been
affected much at this time.

There are still quakes pretty often. There was one last night that I woke up for. But it's not scary when you're on the ground, only when your 16 levels up, ha.
Yes, the weeks just zip on by, especially now that I almost have a year. Everyone says that time goes by even faster the second year, so we'll see I guess right?

Some thoughts on self-discipline:

One definitely needs self-discipline as a missionary. I thought it'd be more strict, or that I'd be under a tighter watch as a missionary. But that's not the case, there's all sorts of opportunities to be disobedient if I want, but that's where the self discipline comes into play, and training yourself to not want to be disobedient but to always do whats right.

Well thanks for everything and for the box that will be coming :) I am always praying for you, have a great week!
Love,
Elder DeLong

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