My week!

Hey guys!

I'm going to try to make this letter a little bit more detailed!!!

I don't have too much to report, but I had an awesome week. We worked really hard. Our area has been really big for about 5 weeks now, and we have finally worked in all of it. We have two towns called Cocotitlan and San Andreas, aside from our normal area in Chalco. They're these small towns out in the hills getting close to the volcanoes, and we spent all of Wednesday working in them. This great sister from the relief society named Hermana Chora came out and spent the entire day with us, giving us references, going to our investigator lessons with us, and visiting the less actives and recent converts. It was so awesome.

We also did divisions with one of my best friends in the mission, named Elder Larsen. We worked super hard, and we taught a bunch of people. Today I spent the day with my comp, and our zone leader Elder Orellana. We went and ate Burger King and got haircuts. It was so much fun just chilling with him. We also went and painted the house of a sister from our ward.

That's all the fun news from my week! We worked hard, and we should have an even better one tomorrow!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

My Week

Hey guys!!!!

I had a great week!

It was fairly uneventful, we spent the beginning of the week in a lot of meetings, then on Thursday we did some divisions! I got to go with Elder Castillo, my old comp. 

We worked really hard and had a good day. Then as we finished off the week, we worked hard, found some more people to teach, and we had three investigators in church.

In other news, our recent convert Mariano received the priesthood, and he blessed the sacrament. It was so spiritual. He's progressing a ton, and we're really happy.

Elder Rowberry has been getting along well. We worked in the offices a lot this week, and had some really good afternoons.

That's all the news from this week! I hope you guys have a good one!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

my week

Hey everybody!

Thanks for taking the time to read this email!!!!

So this week was fairly uneventful in the beginning, but on Saturday we had the baptism of our investigator Mariano, and he got confirmed Sunday!!!!

Its was really incredible. The baptismal service went off so well, it was well organized, and everything went down according to plan. The story of Mariano's conversion is fantastic. He progressed like crazy with us, and he just barely received the Aaronic priesthood. Now he's preparing to receive a calling.

Other than that we worked hard in the area. We held some good meetings, and found some really good new investigators, who should be getting baptized in a few weeks.

This week will be really busy with meetings. Today we have an important meeting, and tomorrow we have another one that will take up all the morning. Then from there, it will be a good day working hard.

I hope you guys like the pics!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Basketball on Wooden Courts

Hey everybody!

This week was really fun, and really full.

One of the highlights was that to celebrate Thanksgiving, all the missionaries from several zones here got together to play football. We got special permission to do it, and we played in the morning. In the afternoon, we worked normally.

Friday night we had a massive multi-zone activity to start off the church Christmas initiative. We got permission to set up a projector and several stands and a whole lot of stuff in the town square here, and we contacted a ton of people, gave out hot chocolate and bread, donated clothing, and played the video from the church and organized a lot of things. It was really amazing, spiritual, and highly effective.

The other big news is that we have an investigator who is going to get baptized this Saturday, and that's really exciting for us. All in all, we're super pumped, working hard, and having lots of success.

The sad news is that Elder Palma got transferred. His comp never got to the mission, and someone went home in Cuautla, so there was an opening for him there, and president transferred him there. We're going to miss him a lot, but that's how life goes. so now we're working in both areas, but we don't have Elder Palma to help us. So that's stressful, but things should turn out right in the end.

So that's all the news I have. We've been seeing god's hand in our work, especially in the progress of our investigators. It's an absolute miracle that we found Mariano, and he's progressed so fast, and converted himself to the gospel, and it's incredible.

Today we went up to Amecameca, and played basketball on some wooden courts up there, which was really fun. It's the first time I've played on a wooden court in way over a year, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I hope you guys are good back home. Keep working hard!!!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Hello Everybody!!

Hey guys!

Crazy to think another week has gone past. Thanks for taking the time to read this email!!!!

So this week has been fun. We've been working crazy hard, and we had a lot of success!

We found three people this week, and one of our progressing investigators is getting really close to baptism. We're crazy excited for him. His name is Mariano, and he should be getting baptized on December 2nd. We have a few more investigators that should be getting baptized along with him. It's been a lot of hard work over the past several weeks, but it's really paying off.

I don't have any funny stories or anything, It was just a great week of getting down to work and getting stuff done. We were really busy. And everything turned out well.

I haven't really talked much about my comps. I'm in a trio right now, because one of the Elders in my district still hasn't gotten to the mission yet. So right now i have two comps. My first comp is Elder Rowberry. He's from Highland, Utah, and he's really dope. He's 18, and a really hard worker, and it's been really fun. My other comp is Elder Palma. He's from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, and he's really great as well. We get along super well, and we're working super hard.

So that's all the big news. I hope you guys are doing well!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

First week of the transfer done!

Hey guys!!!!!

First of all, I've had an absolutely killer week. I've got so many crazy stories to share.

First of all, I received a new comp! His name is Elder Rowberry, and he's from Highland, Utah. He's this awesome, super intelligent, super talented dude, who's incredibly funny, and we get along great. It's been really fun.

On the first day of the cycle, one of the elders in our district didnt have his comp still (he was with president having his last dinner because he goes home in a week) so he was with us for a day. Then two days later, his comp had a lot of really bad problems, and they had special changes. and now we're in a trio again, until this elder gets his next comp. His name is Elder Palma, and he's super sick as well. We get along so well, and we're working crazy hard.

Another companionship in our district had to change houses, so we went all the way out to their area which is in a place called Ixtapaluca, and we spent the morning carrying their stuff, helping them out, and it was really fun.

Thursday we had a bunch of meetings. We were in meetings more than half the day, which was crazy. I got so sore from sitting down so long.

On Friday we were in the mission offices doing the recent convert project, which was really fun as well, and finally, we had a normal day Saturday. It had to be one of the busiest and most stressful weeks of my mission, but one of the most rewarding. We found three new people, taught some really good lessons, and learned a lot.

So we're going to try to keep the good streak going, working hard, and giving all the service we can. Tomorrow we've got more meetings, appointments, and everything should be great!

Also, I've eaten some really fantastic hamburgers that I had to take photos of!!!! So enjoy those pics. Soon I'll have photos of my new comps and everything we're doing!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

PS: please keep my extremely close friend and brother Brett Deffner in your prayers!!!!!!!!!!

Last week down

Hey everybody,

This week was pretty average.

I don't have too much to say to be honest. We tried working hard, and we were going to have a baptism, but it fell through the day of. But that's okay, because they should be getting baptized soon.

The transfer cycle ended, but I'm staying in my area which is really exciting. So by next week, my letter should be more interesting.

Love,

Elder William Jacob long

Taking time to go back to Tetela

Hey everyone!!!!!!!

This week was really fun. It's been a really tough transfer for us. We're pretty much watching as everything disintegrates and falls through our hands. Everything is just decaying hard. Every day we have less and less people to teach. Every day less and less people are progressing. But we're really, really happy. We're working super hard, and we're analyzing and reanalyzing what's going wrong, we're trying so hard to turn things around, and it's been like a personal purification process. We've been able to iron out all of our little problems.

It's been such an introspective week for me. I've spent so much time meditating and reflecting on what I need to change to become more obedient, more worthy, to work hard, to be a highly effective missionary, to improve my teaching, and so much more. It's been so progressive, and I've been so better off for it. I'm also learning so much about patience.

Yesterday, we got to spend time back in Tetela, one of my beloved old areas. Elder Lopez was there for two transfers, and now that he's headed home, he has permission to visit his ex areas on p-day. So we got to go and visit, and being his comp, I got to go too, and see my converts, the members of the branch, and everything. It was so incredible. So I attached some photos from our trip up to Tetela. I also got to see my trainer, who is the zone leader right now in Cuautla. So much fun.

This next week is the last week of transfers, and then we'll be starting off again. It's going to be a great last week. We're giving it our all, and we're working hard to enjoy it too, and make it memorable for Elder Lopez.

I hope you guys enjoy all the photos! I made sure to take a bunch, because I haven't sent too many.

Well that's all for this week! 

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Another week in chalco

Hey everyone!!!!

First of all, thanks for taking the time to read my emails! This week was really fun. We worked really hard, and things didn't really come out as planned. We have an investigator who was progressing a ton, and was going to get baptized this week, but that fell through. A lot of other things fell through. But it was really cool because a lot of really good investigators came to church yesterday, including a really great old investigator who should be getting baptized very soon.

I don't really have any funny stories from this week. But yesterday and today I got to do divisions with an elder from my ward (there are two companionships in my ward) and it was really fun. My comp is off visiting some of his converts before he heads home, so we are in divisions so we can still go to our lessons.

Well next week should be more fun, I hope to have some more stories to tell!!!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

My Week

Hey everyone!!!!!

I get tired of saying its going to be a brief letter, because now my brief letters are the norm hahahaha. So it's going to be a normal letter.

It was a fairly difficult week. Our two investigators that were going to be baptized this week moved to Mexico City, outside of the limits of my mission. Really really sad. That was a crushing blow. The rest of our investigators didn't come to church. It was somewhat of an implosion in the area, and it's been really rough-going trying to build everything back up. But I'm really happy, and yesterday, we found a part-member family that wants to get to church again, and they have several members of the family who aren't members of the church, which is really exciting.

But we worked really hard, and we had an edifying week.

A funny story was that on Saturday we spent time helping out one of the wards of our building mow the lawn of the chapel. It was really fun, and afterwards, we were walking home to get showered and ready for the day, when my comp wanted to buy some strawberries really quickly. We walked into the store, and the shopkeeper told us that 1 kilo was 30 pesos, but some of the strawberries had gone bad and he was willing to sell us the entire stock of 3 kilos for 25 pesos. It was crazy cheap, and now we have a ton of strawberries in the house, that I eat every morning with my oatmeal.

Another story, there is a member who has a steakhouse, and he gives missionaries big discounts. We typically eat with members of the church, but one day, the family couldn't host us in their house, so they gave us money to go eat. So we went to the steakhouse and the brother who works there gave us some huge discounts on steak. It was so good I had to take a photo!

Oh, I also cut my hair and changed my hairstyle... I'm still not fond of short hair, but it is what it is, and I like the way I cut it... I feel like a professional soccer player.

That was pretty much all my week. Let's hope it goes better in this one!!!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Another week in books

Hey everybody!!!!!

I had one of the most interesting weeks of my mission so far. Monday night, or more like Tuesday in the morning, I got hit by a really bad fever. I was crazy sick for a few days with fever, body ache, shivering, hotness/coldness and everything that comes along from a gnarly fever. I had to go to the meetings and give my presentations with the fever, which kind of sucked but was fun. Wednesday, I was in a meeting literally the entire day. We didn't finish until the evening, and we were all the way in Cuautla, Morelos. We had to head on back to Chalco, and we didn't get back to our area until like 7pm. But I found a ton of old mission friends in the meeting, like my trainer, Elder Child, and a bunch of other guys. It was really fun.

Yesterday, we had a really great lesson with a family that decided to get married and accepted baptism. That was fantastic. It was one of the best lessons I've had as a missionary.

I realized I never really talked about the earthquake... it was really weird. It was the strangest sensation. It was like trying to stand up on a boat in really rough water. Everything was shaking so violently that we had to sit down to avoid getting injured. When we first started to feel it, we evacuated our house really fast. We were in the middle of our street when it really started, away from danger, in a really interesting area to just witness everything. One of the strangest experiences of my life.

Anyways, that's all for this week. My health is at 100 now, and we're having lots of success in our area. We're really busy, and really happy.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Week down with lots of surprises

Hey everyone!

Sorry about not writing very much last week, I hope you can all accept my decision, and forgive me for not sending much.

This week I have a couple of photos to send, but not a lot, and I still don't have photos of my new comp, what my area looks like, or my church, but I'll try to get some good photos this week.

This last week I was crazy busy. It was the busiest week of all my mission. I was working in the mission office for three straight mornings, only working afternoons in my area, and just grinding hard. We found some great new people to teach, and had some awesome lessons, and we now have some investigators who shold be getting baptized in the next couple of weeks.

Having general conference was a real pleasure. It was amazing just having time to sit down and listen, and receive revelation. I particularly enjoyed the talk from Elder Anderson, hearing the lines that he took from Elder Hales's talk that he never gave. It made me really sad, but at the same time, he made some absolutely fantastic points about faith. I also really enjoyed Brother Callister's talk about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Absolutely fascinating.

I really like my new comp. His name is Elder Lopez, and he's from Chiapas. He's a really great guy, really intelligent, teaches well, and we get along super great. This is his last transfer, he goes home in less than 5 weeks, so it's going to be really fun. We're trying really hard to make these last weeks memorable, with some crazy hard work.

Tomorrow I have to give a short training in the district meeting, which shouldn't be that hard or complicated, but on Wednesday, I have to give an extensive training to the leaders of the mission, which has me stressed out. I also have another important meeting on Wednesday that should be interesting. All in all, this week is going to be even busier than the last.

I'm doing great. I attached some photos of me with my ex-comp, Elder Hernandez, and pancake breakfast that I made for him last p-day, and an awesome sandwich that i ate for lunch a few days ago that was worth a photo hahahahahahaha.

I love you guys a lot. My love goes out to my older sister Kate who is getting married this week. Kate, I wish I could be there for the wedding, but just know that I love you and I'm supporting you from down here. Send my best wishes to Cody.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

I'm sorry for such a bad email

Hey everyone. 

So I'm not going to write anything today. Actually, I'm not going to have time to personally respond to anybody (family and Sofia included).

We're writing, but there isn't enough room in the cyber cafe, and one of the elders that I share an area with won't have time to write. He's just sitting there, the odd man out. So I'm just writing this. I love you guys. I'm safe. We've had a number of unrelated earthquakes here. The damage has been heavy. Several people have died. The situation is severe. But I'm good, the missionaries are good, tomorrow is transfers- I'm staying in my area, I'm receiving an elder called Elder Lopez, should be fun, and my house is good, there's no damage.

I hope you all can forgive me and I hope you all understand my reasoning.

Elder William Jacob Long

I'm okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Guys!!!!!

Survived earthquake number #2 (still having aftershocks, but everything is calm right now. Just got the ok to send you guys a letter saying I'm all good). The earthquake was crazy, I'll explain everything well on Monday. But here in Paseos de Chalco, the damage was minimal, people have already returned to somewhat normal life (for example, we're still proseletizing), and we are all good. Thank you for the letters. I love you guys, and know that I'm praying for you. The epicenter according to what I understand, was in Puebla, Popo is fairly active, and damage in Puebla and Mexico City is really bad, with several confirmed deaths already. But please post it on facebook and the blog that I'm all good, my comp is all good, we're moving on, and that life is crazy.

The earthquake was felt fairly strong. Dad, your stories from Tokyo were going through my head. It was such a similar experience. So weird. It felt like trying to walk on a boat in rough water.

That all being said, take care, and don't worry about me!!!! I love you guys so much. Pray for Mexico, because the situation is bad.

Love,

Jacob

One year in the mission

Hey everbody!!!

I just completed a year in the mission, which is fairly crazy. The time has gone by really, really fast. The weirdest thing is that it seems, that by the way that transfers are going to fall, I'm going to be headed home late August, instead of September. So I'm gong home in 11 months... that's weird and crazy to think about.

Looking back on one year, I've been able to see so many miracles in so many people. Maybe the biggest miracle I've seen is the changes I've had in my character. I've become a lot more patient, a lot more mature, and a lot more spiritual. I've seen people change their lives in weeks, people from all walks of life, and I've had just the most humbling experiences.

This week was really fun. We found an awesome guy to teach on Saturday, who came to church on Sunday (big miracle), and we worked crazy hard. One of the most interesting things I did this week was go into downtown Mexico City to a place called Polanco, where the immigration offices are to renew my visa. It was really cool because I got to spend the entire day with my ex comps Elder Child and Elder Chischihllie, and we got to eat American fast food, which was something I had been missing a little. I had a sandwich from Which Wich. It was pretty cool.

On Saturday, we went to a farm to give service which was a big highlight, and we had a big activity with some wards from my stake for Mexican Independence. All in all, it was a pretty cool week.

The other good news is that we got word that my comp's family is all good! No problems there. Thank you all for your prayers!!!

I love you all a lot! I put up a photo of my house, and me eating Which Wich with Elder Child, Elder chischillie, and our secratry of visas, Elder Merril.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Great week!!!!

Hey everyone!!!!!!!

This week was awesome!!! Good news, I borrowed an SD card adapter from another missionary, so I have some photos to send! This week I'll get some good ones of my area and my church. But i have some even better ones; Baptism photos!!!!!!

So this week, our best investigator, named Celia, got baptized. She had been progressing little by little over time. When I got here, she had some of the lessons, but she still needed a lot of the commandments and friends in the church and a whole bunch of other stuff. She passed her interview on Friday, so we could go through with the baptism. She got baptized on Saturday, and it was awesome! My comp baptized her, and I couldn't be happier for him. We also have a great ward, and we had some great support from the bishop and Celia's friends in our ward.

The other big news is that there was a major earthquake here in Mexico this past week!!!! From what I understand, it was a 8.1-8.2 on the Richter scale, struck off the coast of the Mexican state Chiapas or Oaxaca, and that it was big and bad. The two states (Chiapas and Oaxaca) are devastated, and the situation is grave. Here in the state of Mexico, we didn't feel it that much. I actually slept through it (struck at 11:30 or so at night) and there was very little damage here. Life is normal, the mission life is normal, but Chiapas and Oaxaca are destroyed, so keep them in your prayers. As well, keep the family of my comp in your prayers. He is from Chiapas, and still hasn't gotten word from his family.

As well, we found four awesome new people to teach this week, which was great, and today, we had a zone activity watching the Best Two Years, which was hilarious, because it nails mission life, and it's just been an awesome couple of days.

I'm doing great. The photos attached are of the baptism (my comp is in white) and some photos from sports day, like a photo of me with my trainer, and a photo of me and my comp giving service at the local hospital!

I love you guys. Stay wet up in Canada, and dry down in Houston ;)

Elder William Jacob Long

I'm okay!!!

Hey Mom and Dad,

I know I'm writing this on a Friday don't freak, today our leaders called us and told us to write you guys and tell y'all that I'm okay, my comp is okay, last night we got hit with an earthquake, and that everything is fine, there seems to be no damage to the infrastructure, and life is following as normal hahahahahaha. It must've been fairly weak because I didn't feel it, I slept through the whole night. So feel free to search it, send me some info, where was the center of the earth quake, the magnitude, and all that :)

I love you guys a lot, and I miss you a ton. Stay safe up in the great white north, and feel free to publish that I'm all good on the blog and all that!

Love,

Wugsy

another week passing by

Hey everyone,

I'm gonna start off this email on a strong note: no photos hahaha sorry but these computers aren't that great.

But, I've got some funny stories, I think, from this awesome week I've had.

First off, I love my area. It's tough. We're not having a ton of success. But we're giving it 110% and working super hard. I get along great with my comp, Elder Hernandez. i love him a ton. and being in Chalco is really cool.

So funny stories- earlier in the week, we had some great contacts. The people here are really rough with us. One of the best contacts was a Pentecostal lady who rejected us really hard. We were talking to her for like 15 minutes in the street, and she was chewing us out hard core for worshipping idols because the card we had given her was a painting of Jesus Christ leaving the tomb. On the back of the cards, the church puts the web page, so that the people can check it out and learn more. So I got tired of her fighting with us, and I just ripped off the bottom part and said look, we don't want to offend you, we don't worship idols, but here is our web page, it's the most important part of the card, and you can find out more about our church there. She left, and my comp and I were in the street talking, and I was like how much do you want to bet were going to find the card littered in the street. A couple of days passed, and I didn't think much about it, and we were walking and my comp yells out "Elder long- no manches- look at this, you won't believe it. And I turned around, and in the sewage drain was the card. It was really funny. So we quickly removed the drain and took out the card, and now I have it on my desk and I'm not sure what to do with it.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed that story. We're working really, really hard right now. We're seeing lots of miracles, and we're really happy.

To be honest, that's about all from my week. The other highlight was today, we had our mission sports tournament with all the missionaries, and we did really well. We didn't win outright, we came in second (I guess third because there was a tie for first) but I enjoyed it a lot, and all of my zone bought these sweet Barcelona jerseys that have nicknames and our numbers on the back. It was really fun.

Well I love you guys a ton, and I miss you all. Those of you in Texas, please stay safe and dry!!!!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Another Week Down

Hey Guys,

So this is going to be a really quick email, because I've been having a ton of problems with this computer. It's basically been failing on me every 19 minutes, so I hope y'all can understand.

First of all, to all my friends and family in Texas, I hope you all are safe. Know I'm praying hard for y'all. Stay dry, stay safe, and do everything you can to help out the city, because this seems like it's been a really gnarly hurricane (scale of Ike? or maybe worse). I love you all, and it breaks my heart to hear about the situation.

I had a great week this week. I get along great with my comp Elder Hernandez. We held a great missionary activity this week. We did a treasure hunt in the stake center, and we had a really solid turn out. It was like a scripture chase treasure hunt combination with a spiritual thought, and it was so fun. It was the very first major activity that I have planned in the mission (and before it) and it was really fun, somewhat stressful, but a great experience.

This week we found 8 new people to teach. We're kind of starting from square one in the area, because my comp was sick almost all of last cycle. But he's good now, and we are finding so much work.

I'm happy and healthy. I'm really excited because next p-day is sports day. We take the p-day and we hold a massive inter-mission competition, and I've been killing to play sports. It's going to be fun.

Well that's all my news. Sorry for the few photos, I'm battling a tough computer.

Stay safe!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Me with my two zone leaders, two of my closest friends in the mission; my ex-CCm comp Elder Child, and Elder Larsen.

Photo of my zone- I'm behind the white board.

Week one down in Chalco!

Hey everybody!

This week has been really crazy. To be honest, this is going to be a relatively short email because in a few minutes I have to head over to the hospital, because my comp has an appointment (don't worry I'm healthy and happy!).

So I'm in Chalco now! I'm in a really small community called Paseos de Chalco and Villas de Chalco. They're two really small communities. It's one of the smallest areas in the mission which is kind of crazy. My new comp, Elder Hernandez, is awesome. He's this really funny guy from a small town in Chiapas, Mexico. He's just a golden missionary. The mission has been really hard for him, because this past transfer cycle, in the first week, he had to get his appendix removed (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, Spanish has ruined me hahahaha). And then after a week or so, the wound got infected, and they had to reopen it and clean everything. So he's been sick for like 6 weeks. He couldn't work at all last cycle, and when I got with him he was fairly depressed because he hadn't worked in so long. But he's doing so well. He's finally healing up, and we're getting to work full days, 110% ability, every single day now, and his entire attitude has changed in these 6 days and that makes me so happy.

The area was in really poor shape when we got there. It had suffered a whole 6 weeks without missionary work, and it has been a difficult week. We are working so hard and it's so awesome. It feels so raw. It reminds me of when I went up to open Tetela from scratch. We are working our rears off to get the ward members excited about missionary work. We are planning ward missionary activities every single week and just busting it on contacting and receiving references. We're working super closely with our elders' quorum president, our ward mission leader and the bishopric. It's great because we're pulling the ward together. I've always given 100% as a missionary, but I've learned so much now on how to effectively do missionary work utilize the members, and everything, and it's all coming together to form an epic transfer cycle. My comp is dying to work hard and super happy, I'm busting my rear as well, we're getting the whole ward involved, and everything is going great :)

Well that's all for now. I love you all! Sorry, I don't have photos, and I can't send them from this computer anyways hahahaha.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Times up in Cuautla

Hey everybody,

Well times up for me here in Cuautla. I'm getting taken out of Cocoyoc. Tomorrow is transfers, and I'm going to be headed to Chalco!

I'm really excited, but transfers are always bittersweet. I'm going to miss my comps, and my area, and my converts. But I'm really excited because I've never been in Chalco before. It's going to be so sweet. And my old CCM comp Elder Child is going to be my zone leader, so that's really exciting. I'm really excited for this next transfer cycle.

This letter is going to be short, because I don't have much to say and I'm going to attach all the photos from this week and last week.

This week we went to the temple which was really fun. We also had an event called a white night, where we combined all the baptisms from that week in the stake center in one big baptismal service. It was really spiritual, and all the missionaries sang a special musical number of the song "Gethsemane." It was a blast. In the white night I ran into some members from Tetela!!!! It was fun to talk to some old friends. I took a photo with them and with another elder, my old zone leader, who also was in Tetela for a while! I'm including the photo as well.

I love you all. Stay safe and enjoy the photos!!!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

My crazy week

Hey guys- so many crazy things happened this week, and i have no time to explain it all, so I'll keep this letter very brief.

I'm doing great!!! I'm happy. Cocoyoc is awesome.

First of all, I got nailed with a hard stomach bug. Thursday I couldn't leave the bed. And I had so much diarrhea hahahahaha. I would poop my pants and poop my bed, and then wash my clothes and my bedsheets and clean the mattress by hand while still being incredibly sick. It was really funny, and really humbling, but it's all gone now, and I feel great.

I got put in a trio!!!!!!!!! That was crazy. My district leader's comp went home for knee surgery, so they put my district leader, Elder Arevalo, with me and Elder Castillo for this week. This is the last week in the cycle. Afterwards, we have transfers, so everything will change.

Francisco got baptized!!!!!! His baptism was awesome. We ended up putting a chair in the font, and we had three people in the font to help with the baptism. One guy tilted the chair, I did the ordinance, and Elder Castillo held down his feet and made sure he wouldn't fall. It was one of the craziest and most humbling and spiritual events of my life.

We also killed a rat that was in the church hahahahahaha so gross. I don't have photos of it, but it was huge. We killed it, and out spilled like 10 unborn rats and it was just so nasty and we had to clean it all up.

On Sunday Francisco had his confirmation. His conversion has been incredible, and I'm so humbled to be a part of it.

Today we went and explored a bunch of old ruins and pyramids and hiked a hill. It was really fun. We went to a place called Tepotzlan. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well that was my week. We'll see what adventures await us in this one.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

PS Sorry no photos; this computer is terrible. I'll send them next week!