February 28, 2011

Hey mom!

Yea, so the zone just keeps on seeing miracles, it is amazing. In my whole mission I've never seen a zone steadily progress like ours is now. It's great to be able to see. We had the baptism of Connie yesterday. She has been a member her whole life, well we all thought. But she was never registered officially so in the end we had to teach her/ baptize her again. The coolest part is that her newly baptized husband was able to baptize her. It was cool.

 Yea, it was great to have the chance to see Marisol make the convenant of baptism with the Lord finally.

The difference about the success that we are having is that we are unified in our dedication to the Lord, and we have enthusiasm and follow the Spirit.  Because a missionary can be obedient but be a robot, and that isn't what the Lord wants.  And we have fun doing it.  So it has been a great experience.  The way things are looking we will have a baptism every week this change!  Now we just have to prepare people for after this change too :) 

 Yea, I got the trunky papers, I think it's funny because it says dia de tu liberacion or day of your freedom. 

 Peter just emailed me and said that Clayton is looking for a place for the 3 of us. So Peter is getting home the same day that I am, well the 8th because travel from Africa takes so long.  Pretty cool huh?  Beth will be at BYU too?  thats crazy!   I did get on my BYU site, but I was pretty lost to be honest haha.  After 2 years I don't know how to work the thing, oh well. 

I told Jeff that I had gotten some blueberries and when I got home noticed they were from Santiago Chile, arandanos bluets:

This is funny too, I have no idea what arandanos bluet are, haha.  But the fruit here is amazing, thats one thing I love about Chile.  So Wal-mart will officially be here in like another year.  They already bought one of the biggest super market chains here, Lider, and have turned it into Wal-mart basically.  Every time I walk in I think I'm in Wal-mart.  Pretty crazy how much money and power.

Here is something cool. Today as our zone activity that me and my comp organized we went out of our mission (with permision of course) to Rancagua. It's to the south a bit. We went to Buin Zoo.

It was pretty fun, nice to have a change of pace. It was a nice zoo, had lots of animals and modern.

The missionaries enjoyed it. So that was fun, and we got to go there by train! I've never taken a train before.

 So I liked that. Ok, well only 2 more weeks in this change, then Elder Zeron goes home. Pretty crazy.

Well hope you all have a great week, you're always in my prayers.

Love
Elder DeLong

February 21, 2011

Hey Mom!

This week was really great! I was able to go to the baptism of Marisol and also we had the baptism of Raul yesterday, where President was able to attend with his wife. It was a really great ordinance, a really strong spririt.
 

We have the goal of having a baptism every week this change and the way things are going all looks well. We had stake conference yesterday all throughout Chile, and President Packer and Elder Christofferson spoke to all of Chile. It was a really great conference, Pres. Packer is really funny. And all of our 5 investigators who are going to get baptized were able to attend. It was great.
 
I asked Jeff why he thought they were having such success in teaching and baptising in this new area versus his other areas:

 1). Elder Zeron and I are very unified and we work hard to help out the zone, sometimes sacrificing time in our sector to help them.
2). We have a great relationship with the Bishop and he helps us out a ton with the work. That is key.
3). We are involving the memebers in the work as well, and the investigators feel good going to church.

So those are some of the key things that are going on to help us have so much success. We work hard for the zone and the Lord has been blessing us in our sector.
Yes, most of the missionarys work hard, but a lot are pretty relaxed/lazy at times. 
Miracle, we went to church and one of the members came up to us and said, Elders you haven't visited me for a long time can you come over? We said ok, set up an appt then when we went her grand daughter was there too. She before had listened to the missionarys but wasn't ready yet, now she is super ready. The 2nd visit we put a baptimal date!
Then there is this girl who has assisted for many months but couldn't get baptized because she wasn't 18, she turns 18 the 22 so she will get baptized in March! The Lord just keeps putting people in our path, its great.
 

 
On the other 2 Elders that share the house they are currently living in:
 One of the Elders in the house is from Idaho, the other is from Argentina. 

Currrent companion will be going home soon:
Yea, Elder Zeron has 3 weeks left, crazy.
Jeff, are you back in the area where the sisters in the ward do your laundry?
The sisters do our laundry in this sector too, a huge blessing.
The weather continues to be burning hot, hopefully in March it cools off a bit
Pres. gave me permision to go onto my BYU account, so I'm gonna look at it here in a bit.  onto my BYU account, so I'm gonna look at it here in a bit. I'm gonna have to find a job when I get home (if I can)
Ok, well I send pics of the baptims here in a bit. They were great. Love you mom, hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder DeLong
oh and I almost forgot, I need the addresses and telephone numbers of the Bishop and Stake President. I got my "trunky" papers as they are called and have to fill them out. I need your cell numbers too. And 's it's the Minneapolis International Airport, right? I think that's everything, I forgot the paper,oops. But that should be all.       thanks!

February 14, 2011

Hey mom!
Yea, so it has been a really fun two weeks here in Ochagavia so far (minus the heat!). But our zone has been seeing a lot of miracles lately, this week we doubled the number of baptismal dates! So that was really cool. The baptism for Grecia went really well, her mom and younger brother assisted and went to church the next day and we were able to put 2 baptimal dates with them.

  And yesterday after church one of our other investigators had his baptismal interview with President King!  And he is going to get baptized next Sunday!  And we have this other lady, Connie, who has been a member her whole life but never got registered in the records of the church. So, we are teaching her all the lessons and it looks like she will get re-baptized the 26th, but this time but her newly converted husband who just received the priesthood yesterday.  Pretty cool.  And Marisol, from 2 sectors ago (we baptized her son, Dylan) is getting married on Friday and then baptized Saturday and President gave me permision to go because it's close.  Pretty cool, huh?  And we have other investigators that are progressing really well, so we are really excited.

Yea, Elder Mills is in the sector where I started the mission, in El Sauce.  So that is pretty funny.  But yea, we have council at the beginning of every month.  It is fun.  We just report on the zone and how everyone is doing.  We live in a house, and share it with 2 other missionaries in the zone.

 Haha, Elder Smith's mom contacted you, that is really funny. Yea, he saw the blog before he got to Chile, and then I was his first district leader. Pretty funny huh? Elder Smith is really cool, I had a lot of fun with him and my last district. Tell his mom hi and thanks for sending Elder Smith on the mission. They were the best. Well, I just found out that Elder Mckay got married recently
 
So yea, thats whats going on here in the city of Santiago.  I'm excited for my next few months here, I know we will continue to see miracles.  We can always find miracles in our lives, every day.  And it's important that we can recognize they or else we will get slothful like Lehi and his family and we wont progress in our journey (Alma 37:41) I think thats the right verse, it's some where in that chapter. 
 
 

I love you and hope you all have a great week!

Love
Elder DeLong

February 6, 2011

Hey :)


Well, I guess the news you are most anxious to know is where I'm at and what I'm doing. Well, I'm in the city again in a place called Ochagavia as a zone leader :) Yea, it has been a bit of an adjustment being responsible for 16 elders now. But luckily I have a great companion, Elder Zeron from Honduras. Hes been a ZL since last July so he has a lot of experience.
 But it has been really fun here so far, besides the extreme heat! As I am writing you I'm like over heating, the internet place has no air or anything and is suuuuuper slow. Oh well. So that is the big news. This will be my last sector I think.
The ward is about average size, 70, that assist. We have a baptism Saturday, a 12 year old girl named Grecia (Greece). So that will be cool. And we are working with several others, but always we are in the process of finding new people

 We had council with the President last Friday in his house. All the zone leaders in the mission go to that.

We had french toast for breakfast and than tacos for lunch, yum!!!! Best food I've had in a longggg time. Then we just present whats going on in our zones, than the President delivers to us the vision he has for the mission and then we bring it to the missionaries in our zones. It's a lot more responsibility but its fun. We have a good zone, the missionaries are working hard here.
So yea, I am pretty excited. It will be a lot of fun. I'm going to learn a lot, I already have in my week here. Elder Zeron goes home in 5 weeks, so I'll be his last comp. And then my last comp will come after him, pretty crazy, huh?
 
My last comp was able to fix my mp3, he had to reformat it which took forever! But it works again now so its all good. I'm really glad this will be my last change, I think, because I hate having to haul all of my luggage around. It's a pain.

I ran ino Elder Nielson today, that was fun. He is in a zone near by. He is doing well. It was fun to see a lot of my friends in council last Friday, Elder Mills was there, my comp in the MTC and elder Young too. Fun stuff.
Well to be honest I don't have too much more to tell.
 I did find out that the girl I was teaching in Llolleo, Isabel, has a baptismal date for this month. Pretty cool! I hope it all works out.
 And Marisol, from my sector before llolleo, is getting baptized this month. President might give me permision to go and see it. That would be awesome. So we will see what happens.
I sent you guys the pics from council, they are pretty good. I'll send you a couple more if I can on this slooooooooooooooooooooow pc, haha.
 I love you and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder DeLong

January 31,2011

Hey mom :)

Yea, we were pretty bummed that they didn't get baptized :/ But we left them alone for a while and will go back and see them this next week, to see if they made the decision to follow the Savior. I hope so.
 We had our young matrimony go to church yesterday and they really liked it. They learned about being sealed and were really excited about that. Now Isabel just needs to make the decision to be baptized and their journey to the temple will start :) So we are really excited for them.
 
 Unfortunately I won't be here to see her get baptized because I have changes! Surprise haha. Yep, my time here on the coast has ended. I'm sad to be going, I love it here, the people the climate. This has been my favorite sector by far, but all good things come to an end. I'm excited to have a new sector, new challenges and people. This next one will probably be my last one Iim thinking. We'll see what the Lord has planned for me. It will be sad to have to say good bye to everyone, thats always hard. I don't like that part of being a missionary. But thats part of the deal. Hard to think I have only 4 months left..I'm gonna keep working hard and giving it my all.
 

Elder Thomas is good, he was a great comp.  He will do a good job leading the sector now.  It will be interesting to see who his new comp will be.  He has had a crazy mission so far, in 5 changes he will have 5 comps.  Pretty rare, but he's a good kid.  I will miss my district a lot, I love them.  We have a lot of fun together and they are some of my best friends.  I'll mis them a lot, but hopefully I go to some of the other friends I have here in Chile
There is still one set of sisters here, one of them has changes.  Nobody else in my district has changes, just me and her.  It's weird to think that I'll be going back to school..it will be hard to get back into the swing of things.  Hopefully I can find what I want to study!
 
Well, the pics that I send now wont have the ocean in them, but I try to keep sending good ones. Maybe greg could send my a short video of Logan through email, thatd be fun. The mp3 player I bought in Dec is having problems, I tried returning it today but they were stupid about it and I had to do this whole long month process. Hopefully my computer genius companion can fix it, haha. I hate Chilean mp3s, they stink.

Well, next week I'll be writing from somewhere different. We'll see what the Lord has in store for me. Hope you have a great week! Love you


Love

Elder DeLong

January 22, 2011

Hey mom :)



 My week was alright, the older couple didn't end up getting baptized :( He can't kick the smoking..so right now it doesn't look like they'll be getting baptized anytime soon. I hope so though.

Our other investigators are doing really well, we did a great FHE with them and some member friends on Sat. We watched the Restoration video. It went really well, a good spirit. I love watching that movie, I feel the Spirit everytime.


No, I don't do the interviews for our investigators, the zone leaders do them. I do them for my district though. I did 2 last Tuesday that got baptized on Saturday. I think I might be going this change, but I'm not sure. We'll see what happens. I'd like to go somewhere else and finish my last 3 changes there
 
I love football, it is the best sport by far.  I miss watching/playing it.  It's fun.  I hope Calvin follows through with the mission, it will be the best thing he will ever do in his life and it will bless his family a lot too.  Do you guys have the Restoration video?  It's a good one, you should buy it if you don't have it.

The mission has taught me that, even when maybe we don't see the results we want, as long as we have been doing what we are supposed to we have accomplished what the Lord needed. I havn't seen a ton of baptisms but success isn't measured by numbers.
 
I think one thing that I've really been able to help with here is the re-activation of members. We had another family go yesterday to church that hadn't been in over a year.
 
 But the key to happiness and success in life is having the gift of the Holy Ghost with us constantly. It is the greatest gift from our Heavenly Father and all good things come from that power in our lives.
 
So always strive to have that gift and follow the impressions. Then we will have tranquility and peace in our lives always.



Ok, well hope you have a great week and that it warms up a little bit. Say hi to everyone for me :)
 Love you mom,

Elder DeLong

January 17, 2011

Hey mom!

Yea, being sick is never fun. Being able to rest will be nice, but I still got another 4 months in me :) Well I have good news about the older couple, they had their interviews yesterday and they passed! So this Sat they will be having their baptisms. We are pretty excited, he was so happy. And we had this other young married couple go to church too. The guy is an inactive member that we found and his wife isn't a member. They are awesome and I feel she'll get baptized. The district is doing really well. The sisters are struggling the most I'd say. I don't think they get along very well, but I try to encourage them.

I got Marie's email, it was great! I'm liking what she has got set up. She is a smart girl, I'll think about it and pray and see how I feel. As far as rooming with E' Speakman, he gets back in Nov, so he will be at BYU for the winter semester. So we can make it work out..hopefully.
 Me and Peter write every once and a while, I'll ask him what he is planning on doing.
Thats great that Logan is crawling! I'll see him soon enough :)

 Sometimes the Lord humbles us, but it's always better that we humble our selves.

We had  found a little hiking activity today and got some great pictures. I'll try and sed them today.

 

Wow, I really dont know what else to say today. Sorry this is such a short email, but I'm pretty tired. I try and write more next week haha.

Hope all is well and that you all have a great week!
Love you
Elder DeLong

January 10, 2011

This week was a little tough.  I was sick the whole week til Friday with a really bad cold.  And having to go to Santiago Thursday to renew my visa made things worse, but with the power of the priesthood and some strong cold medicine I was able to pull through.  We were able to go out and work friday and Satruday. 

Care package from home:

Yes, I enjoyed the candy very much.  Especially the Peanut Butter M&ms.  Those are my new faves, they are sooo good. 
 It has been great having Elder Maldonado here, he is a great friend and missionary.  I wish he lived in the states so I could see him, but at least we have planned to play x-box online together haha.  He is pretty wealthy and one of the few  that have an x-box down here. 

 It is great to be united with all these young boys, most of us are hardly capable of tieing our shoes but we are all determined to do the Lords work and help bring people to Christ.  And thats what is most important.  As I said in my letter to dad, I am very thankful that I was able to have this opportunity to leave on the mission.  I was too excited at the start, looked at it more as something that I had to complete, but now I understand the importance of this work.  And I enjoy doing it.  Sure its tough, but its worth it.  And I know I haven't seen the most baptisms, but I know I've worked my hardest, and I'd do it again if I needed to.  And through everything I've gained a firm testimony of the gospel, which will help me raise my family and teach it to them.  Just like you guys did with us :)  So it has been a great experience. 

Also as I told dad I am pretty nervous about having to go back to school.  Especially about the finances and picking classes and a major.  I just pray the Lord will help me.

 I'd like a list of the classes if thats possible because I dont even remember what options there are.  I know a few that I don't want to take.

 My back still tends to act up, I don't know what to do. I just gotta make it a little longer. One of the first things I want to do is get a professinal massage when I get home. That will be awesome. Yea, the weather here is perfect. I love the coast for that reason( i don't love the fleas though! ugh they are terrible) Today we played basketball and soccer it was a lot of fun and great to be able to exercise (I had gotten a little pudgy since I was in bed all week).

But thanks for everything, let me know about the classes and stuff. And keep your eyes out for a job for the summer. I hope you all have a great week! :)


Love,
Elder DeLong

January 3, 2011

On December 26th we were able to talk to Jeff in Chile via skype & our web cams. We were also able to conference in Greg, Laura and Logan in Utah, so we had our whole family together to talk to Jeff. What a great gift to us!

Elderes y Hermanas, Aquí está las fotos de la navidad. Que desfruten.

Hey Mom!
Haha, yes, this year I will be coming home from the mission. :) I was very very happy to have had the opportunity to talk with all of you last Sunday over Skype! That was the best Christmas present. You all look really great! And to be able to see Logan live was a lot of fun. I've been reflecting a bit, where would we all be without the gospel? I'm not sure, but I know we wouldn't be as happy, that is for sure. It's always fun to see the fam, that's one thing about latino culture that I like. They are more united, its just a warmer culture. We tend to have a pretty cold culture up there in the states.

I have a really great district, they are awesome. I have made some great friends here on the mission.


We had another big surprise this week, one of my elders, Elder Fuhriman, had special changes and got sent to the city. I love him a lot and was sad to see him go, but to my surprise one of my old friends came out here, Elder Maldonado. I lived with him in my last sector. So now he is in my district. So that will be a lot of fun.
Speaking of friends that I have made, my best friend from here on the mission is named Elder Speakman, and we want to room together at BYU when we get back.

The youth program is getting better because we now
A. Have a Bishop and
B. Have really awesome YM and YW presidents (they are a young matrimony) So hopefully things will get better for the youth.

That ginormous sandwich was really good but it had some bad after effects haha. Its called a churrasco, pretty tasty.



OK, well not much else to say right now. Just that I know this is the true church of Christ and that we really are blessed to have such a great family and the gospel. And I know we can be an eternal family as long as we keep striving here on the earth to choose the right and hold to rod (BOM) which will keep us on that strait and narrow path :) I love you all and am always praying for your safety and success. Remember: To be Mormon is to be happy :)

Love,
Elder DeLong

December 27, 2010

 

Here are just a few pics :)

December 20, 2010

Hey!Well, first of all I have some pretty stellar news...ready? They gave us permision to use Skype when we call! How sweet is that? I just got done creating an account. SO look for me and add me as a contact, then send me what your names are before the 25th so I can look for you guys too. But I am way excited to do it! It will be fun, hopefully it all works out.

But no big news about changes, the both of us are staying here still. I was a little surprised actually, this is the first time that I've been with a companion for three changes, but I'm happy with it. We work well together, so it will be good. This Thursday we have a Christmas party as a mission, that will be a lot of fun.

So yea, I have the skype account created and everything and me and my comp tried to together. The camera on my computer wasn't working and we weren't sure about the sound, but hopefully we can figure everything out. But about the day and the time we'll be calling, I'm not sure. This place will not be opened, I just asked the guy. So we might have to call Sunday, the 26th. Or the 24th. I'm not sure. I'll have to call mom on her cell I'm sure.

Well I really don't have much more to say, I hope we can get everything figured out here about the Skype and stuff. We have never used it and I don't know, hopefully it isn't complicated. We are messing around with it right now and it's working so...fingures crossed! But if it gets complicated I'll just call on the phone. But in the interest of time I'm just sending this one email, and not one to mom. I'll be talking to you all soon. I want to call the 25th, but I'm not sure if any place will be open. I'll call mom I think and let her know. But hope you all have a great week and Christmas!

Love you,

Elder DeLong

December 13, 2010

Hey, Well it sounds like you had a pretty interesting week, with the snow and all. This week went well for me, we are still working to help our investigator drop smoking. What helped you do it mom? I will probably have to give you a quick call to let you know when I will be calling. Which day would you all prefer, the 24th or the 25th? Let me know next week. And be sure to send me pics of the snow and the family! How did the Jeep do in the snow? Just so you all know the weather here is perfect, clear blue/sunny skies :) haha.

Yes, I had to eat a little bit of fish. I think it was just like a tuna type of thing, i'm not sure. But I still don't like it. As I write this there is a terrible smell of fish in the air, its disgusting

Gina wasn't able to go to church yesterday, she fell in her bathroom and was in a lot of pain so that was a bummer.

Changes are getting close again, the 21st. It should be interesting to see who goes, honestly I think it could be either one of us. But we'll see. These last two months have been going by so fast! Its weird.

I actually saw the Christmas devotional yesterday, thats when they broadcasted it here. It was a good message. The Jehovas Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas, which i think is interesting. I don't agree with it, but I can see why they don't, because the world today is so focused on the gifts and new things and not on the Savior :/ I think thats something that we can always improve in.

I like this message that our President sent us: Omni 1: 26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

¿Estamos ofreciendo nuestras almas enteras como ofrenda a Jesucristo? ¿Completamente? ¿Dejando nada atras?

Are we offering our entire souls as an offer to Jesus Christ? Completely? Leaving nothing behind? Maybe we can do a little more!

Quizas podamos hacer un poco más!

I liked his message, and it not only applies to the mission work, because we are servants of Christ for our whole lives. Remember, there is always more we can give Him.

I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week!I'll go ahead and buy a different mp3 then, hopefully I can find a decent one.Well, I gotta go and write my letter to the ward, gosh what am I going to say?

Love,

Elder DeLong

ey!Well

December 6, 2010

Wow,I think this is the first week that dads letter was longer than yours. How was your week mom? My week was good, nothing too exciting happened. We are looking for new people to teach, this last week we were finally able to find some, so that was really good. We did our fast and then on Sunday we have fish...yuck! But things are going good here, we had an investigator go to church, Gina, for the first time. She is a great person, I really hope she gets baptized.

I am really excited to talk to you all this Christmas, not gonna lie. I'm gonna have to figure out what day and time and let you know this next week probably.

We are hoping to have 2 baptisms the 18th, a couple that has been married for 50 years! They are great, like children. But they love going to church. The only challenge is that he smokes, and has been smoking his whole life. But he is already down to smoking only 1 a day, and this week he needs to be completely clean.

Yea, it was fun for Elder Nielson to baptize her, although he almost hit her head on the wall because she is really tall and didn't leave sufficent space. But it all worked out well. No, we never had the turkey dinner...but thats ok, next year ;) The pumpkin pie turned out well (I didn't help him).

Service is good :) I've really come to love serving others here on the mish. Remember that when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are in the service of the Lord (mosiah 4?) But I have really come to like this scripture, D&C 123:17 I think. its a good one.

But I hope that you all have a great week!

I'm always praying for you.

Love,

Elder DeLong

November 29, 2010

Man, I wish that I could have been there for Thanksgiving, I really like that holiday. We still haven't had our dinner here that we are going to have, but I think that Friday we should have it. Elder Nielson made a pumpkin pie here Sunday and it actually turned out really good. So that was fun. But the family of our mission leader is awesome, I love them. It will be tough to have to leave them some day.

The weather here has stayed basically the same, not too hot and not too cold. I love it!

The baptism for Nadia went really well:) We had a god turnout and everything went well, the water was a little cold though. Elder Nielson baptised her, so that was cool for him.

And lots of people came so it was good. The attendance for church just keeps on rising, we had 110 last week. So that has been fun to see.

We went to the beach today as a zone and then had a barbeque afterwards. It was a lot of fun, I got a little burnt. The sun wasn't out at first but then it came out. We played football on the beach in the sand. I liked it.

But this change I have really come to understand the importance of the members in the mission work. With out them it is almost pointless. So I urge each of you to do all that you can to share the gospel with those around you. I thought this was an interesting statistic: The provo mission has the most baptisms. And it's because the members all give references to the missionaries. So keep on looking for those opportunities to share the gospel. I remember when the missionaries would come over and invite us to share the gospel with neighbors and friends, and we are always like 'mmmm, I'll try' but then we forget and don't do anything. So don't forget and you will be a great instrument in the hands of the Lord :)

Well hope you all have a great week and you are always in my prayers. Take care.

Love,Elder DeLong

Oh, and I would recommend getting a Preach My Gospel and reading it. That'd be good. :)