Weddings and Baptisms

Hey everyone!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this letter. This week was jammed packed with stuff that should make for a fantastic email. So I'm gonna write quick, because I've got lots of stories to tell.

Tuesday, we had a meeting with some other missionaries in a town called Amecameca. I was in Amecameca in the beginning of my mission. It was my first area, and heading back there, seeing the town, the stake center, and everything was so cool. That part of Mexico will forever hold a really special place in my heart. The meeting was great! I found my dad there (my first missionary companion), Elder Ramirez, and talking to him was really fun and relaxing. I got to take some photos with him, and talk for a long time. After the meeting, we had tacos, and they were some of the best tacos I've eaten.

Thursday we had an activity with the other ward that we share our building with. it was a dessert competition. Elder Castillo and i brought investigators, and we had so much fun. We basically spent the entire time feasting on cake and other desserts. The members and the investigators got to vote on their favorite desserts. Hermana Zapata (our mission president's wife) came and prepared a dessert that was like an apple tart thing and her dessert won! It was so funny.

Friday we had our baptism!!!!!!! I was actually really angry, because nobody came from our ward. The only people that showed up were our ward mission leader, the young men's president, the young women's president, and the second counseloror from the bishopric. I was really, really irritated. But the baptism was super spiritual, and it all turned out well. We baptized the daughter of one of our investigators, and she is super happy. She's progressing a ton; pretty soon she's going to have a calling in the beehives organization, and we're just super pumped.

A less active member of the ward got married to her boyfriend, who is receiving the missionary discussions from the sister missionaries. They invited us to their wedding which was super cool. a great experience, really. I know that families can be together forever, and really soon, this husband and wife will get married in the temple, so they can have an eternal family.

Funny story time. After the baptism, our ward held its fathers day event. We were there with some investigators, and one of the counselors of the primary presidency told me that she needed my help playing a part in the primary's fathers day sketch. Basically, the plot of the sketch is that one of the primary girls doesn't have a dad, just a single mom. and she's holding a contest to find her new dad. The boys from the primary played the parts of the other dad. There was one of them who was smart, one who was athletic, a hard worker, muscular, and all that. When they got to me, they said I was none of those things, but just right to be the dad. It was super funny, but really fun spending time with the primary. Last Sunday, during sharing time, they took time to hand write my comp and me cards and letters. I remember doing that when I was a kid years ago. Now I'm an elder and I'm on the receiving end of it.

Yesterday was the confirmation of our convert. It was really spiritual. i didn't do it this time (probably a good idea, i think if i give the priesthood to another girl, I'd get excommunicated hahahahaha). We're having success here, and I feel happy.

I've lost all track of time pretty much. Father's day came and went. Dad, I love you so much. Thank you for always being my role model in all things. Thanks for all the love you give me, and all the sacrifices you make. Thanks to my grandpas as well. I can pridefully say that I have the best grandpas in the entire world, that they're fantastic fathers as well, and I love them so much.

Stay safe everyone. Enjoy the photos!!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Pounding Pavement (well really more like dirt roads)

Hey guys,

I just finished another week here in Cocoyoc which is crazy. The time is flying so fast it's depressing. Two years is way too short to serve a mission.

This past week I completed 9 months in the mission!!! Looking back on these past 9 months, they've been the absolutely most incredible and humbling months of my life. I've seen miracles, huge successes, bitter failures, complete joy, and desolating misery. Health and sickness. It's basically been a lifetime of experiences in three quarters of a year.

Stuff is going great for us here in Cocoyoc. We've got to be in the best ward in the entire Mission Mexico Chalco. We have people to teach (and we have a baptism planned for this week that's super solid, our investigator just has to pass her interview!), and the members here are so wonderful.

I don't have really many funny experiences to share, just had a lot of really nice moments. On p=day, we always leave to work at 6 pm. Last Monday, I went on interchanges with my district leader. He's a really incredible missionary, and I learned a ton from him. Then this past Saturday, we had interchanges again, but this time I went with the comp of my district leader. We went and visited a ton of people in their area, and getting out of the area and working hard was a nice breath of fresh air. It got me really refocused on our work here in cocoyoc.

The other fun thing was that yesterday we had stake conference. An area seventy came down to give a talk, and it was really nice. Getting to hear all the talks was a really great spiritual experience, but maybe the best part is that two of our investigators came with us, and it had a really big effect on her.

I've seen lots of blessing this past week. we had a soccer tournament with our ward and we invited a ton of our investigators to it. We had three show up, and they're really good investigators that are progressing a ton. Seeing them there, getting to know the members better, and having fun was really nice.

I'm really grateful for my ward and my area. Working here is a huge privilege.

I miss you all a ton. Tomorrow I'll be headed up to Amecameca for an important meeting. My first area was in Amecameca. Seeing my first area and all of that will be really really fun.

Stay safe everyone! Keep me in your prayers. I always keep you guys in mine!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

PS Sorry I don't have photos. I didn't take any this week but expect some photos of us in white next Monday!!!!

Another week down in Cocoyoc

Hey everyone!!

This week has been really fun. It's been a combination of super highs and super lows, but I learned a lot, and we saw tons of miracles in everything that went down.

I'll give you guys the highlights, then the low-lights.

Highlight 1) We had our first baptism here in this area!!! We baptized a girl named Alisson. She's 14. Almost all of her family are members of the church, but she never wanted to get baptized. After working hard with her for the past two weeks, and with lots of support from her family, and the young women's program from our ward, she decided to get baptized. It was so exciting! And she had her confirmation yesterday! She's now a full-fledged convert.

Highlight 2) The second highlight was that there was another baptism in the ward, on Wednesday, of a girl who turned 8, and we brought tons of investigators to see her baptism. The turnout we had was really awesome.

There's tons more highlights, but I have a funny story to share, so I'm gonna cut it off at that.

Low-light 1) Had to buy new tennis shoes. I put tons of holes in the ones I have just from time, and wore them to the ground, and they finally gave out, so I had to bite the bullet on some new ones. So I spent a lot of time today cruising running stores, trying to find shoes in my size here *sigh* and finally found some Asics that are super good,and were relatively cheap too, so I'll take a photo of them and send it next week.

Low-light 2) yesterday was fast Sunday. We typically start our fasts after lunch on Saturday, so by Sunday night we were practically dying. My comp wanted to be disobedient in something, I told him no, we got in a gnarly argument, and it just kind of generally sucked. Hunger and thirst and annoyance and pride just kind of boiled over and we ended up wasting like an hour just arguing in our apartment. I learned some really hard lessons from that, that we can't take away the agency of other people, and that I really need to improve my patience. But we made up, and everything is going well.

Low-light 3) I've had a gnarly cold for the past couple of days. It's finally gone now, but getting up everyday and working hard with a bad cold kind of sucked hahaha.

Funny story: Alisson's baptism was scheduled for 6 pm, but she didn't show up, or anybody else from her family for that matter. The minutes started passing, and we began to get worried. After about 20 minutes (with the baptismal room full with people waiting) we decided that we had to act. So we told a brother to call us if she showed up, and then we ran almost all the way to her house. Her house is pretty far away from the church (like 30 minutes walking). We were right about to get to her street when the brother called us and told us that she got to the chapel. So then we had to run all the way back (in full proselyting clothes). But the baptism went great, and she was super excited. Everything was really spiritual.

Well that's all for this week. Love you guys tons!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long