Well its pretty safe to say that this week was crazy.
First, its extremely hilly. I would be really interested to know the elevation of Tetela del Volcan (If someone with more internet access than me wants to send it, that would be great). It's right underneath Popocatepetl (one of the biggest mountains in the world), in the foothills. The topography is crazy. It's a massive cloud forest, with huge pines and eucalyptus trees, massive gorges, huge, towering, steep hills, and tons of rivers. It's completely different from Cuautla (rain shadow, high desert, little to no vegetation). And we burn tons of money here. The bus is incredibly expensive. And we have to take it to get to any of the other four towns in our area. And every week we have to drop down all the way to Cuautla for our meetings, which takes about two hours and costs a fortune.
The area, from a work standpoint is great. The responsibility that we have here is huge, and I feel very privileged and inexperienced and not good enough to be here, to be honest. But God knows what He is doing, and there is a reason I'm here. We have only four or so families here in the branch. It's incredibly small. We almost had more investigators in church this Sunday than members. But the members are incredible, they feed us everyday, give us references, and really sacrifice to help us. They were all extremely less active before the branch, so they don't really know what they're doing, but their hearts are in the right place, and they are making an effort here to really help the growth of God's kingdom.
Our house is great. It's the nicest house in the entire mission, literally. It has five bedrooms, two living rooms, a walk-in closet, three vanities, three full bathrooms, a kitchen, a fireplace, and tons of land with a river and avocado trees. It's incredible. Next email I'll attach more photos
My legs are killing me. My feet are blistered. My comp has athlete's foot. This place is gnarly. Arguably it's the hardest area in the mission. There was never, ever a branch here, or missionaries, or just about everything. And it's so hilly, and huge. It's really difficult, but I feel like the Lord has tremendous trust in me, and I am so humbled to be here.
Its really great being with Elder Avalos and Elder Chischillie. I love them both a ton, and I get along with them really well. It's so fun being comps with Elder Chischillie especially, because hes only 5"1 and I'm 6"5. The difference is hilarious.
We have tons of people to teach here. It's a very safe area, the people are very receptive to us, and we should have our most successful cycle this cycle. I'm so excited for everything.
One of the biggest highlights was yesterday. We had sports day, which is an event that we do every six months in the mission. The entire mission gathers in the Stake Center in Chalco, and the zones have a competition. Each zone makes jerseys, and we compete in volleyball, soccer, basketball, and dodgeball. I love playing sports, and I'm super competitive. My zone is very disadvantaged (we knew we weren't going to win it all), so we came in with an underdog mentality, and beat the biggest and best zone in volleyball. It was crazy. We played best out of three, and we were tied 1 game to 1. We were playing against a zone of 24 Elders, which is the biggest zone in our mission. When one of our assistants, Elder Matos, found out that we actually had a shot to beat them, he came over and made a deal with us that if we won, he would treat us all to pizza. It was absolutely crazy. We smoked them in the last game, 21-14. I scored the winning point on a spike, and my zone went nuts. I went running and screaming with the entire zone (reminiscent of a soccer team after scoring a goal). They finally caught me and we jumped up an down in a huge group mosh pit screaming and yelling in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, for like five minutes, yelling ourselves hoarse. It was extremely great. The only sad part was that it was the only event that we won. But one of the benefits of having a day with all the mission was that I got a ton of time to talk to my dad, Elder Ramirez (sorry dad). He got made a zone leader in one of the zones in Cuautla, so I haven't seen him much or had much time to talk to him. Spending a lot of time with him catching up and reminiscing was great. I miss him and love him a ton. I also got to spend some quality time with Elder Child too, and catch up with him. Hanging out with my friends was awesome.
I'm doing well. The language isn't a problem for me at all. I'm learning tons every day, but I can talk without any problem, understand without any problem, and that's so nice. It's such a blessing. I can honestly testify in the gift of tongues.
I miss you guys so much. I'm gonna attach some photos of my area, house, and sports day. I hope you all are doing well. thank you for all your emails and support. I love you all, and can't wait to read from next week's emails.
Love,
Elder William Jacob Long
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