Hey guys!

Hello everyone,

This week was wild. I had so much happen and so little time, and I'm going to attach photos, so this will be a short letter.

We worked super hard. One of the hardest working weeks of my mission. I've been making a huge push to clean up my obedience. I basically made a list of all the things bad that I do, and I've been working so hard to correct every single one. It has made me a way more spiritual person, and I'm getting along with my comp way more. It has made me a lot more mature, a harder worker, a deeper lover, and more sensitive. It's been a crazy journey of self improvement, and it's been really humbling.

Our investigator, Francisco, the one who fell, is progressing so well. He came to church again yesterday (didn't fall, little victory) and tomorrow he has his baptism interview. Stuff has just been going so well for us here. I feel like we are really finding the chosen people of God, because we're not teaching a ton of people, and we're not baptizing a ton of people, but we are finding the chosen, and they are progressing, and they are getting baptized. If Francisco passes his interview tomorrow, he'll have his baptism Saturday. He's in a wheel chair, and I have no idea still on how we're going to do his baptism, but hey, it's an adventure, and we'll see what happens.

This past Thursday I turned 20! That's crazy. Two decades of my life down. We got invited to eat dinner with a family, and they smashed cake in my face, and dumped buckets of ice water on me. It was so fun hahaha. I have pics to send don't worry.

Also, I had some really cool experiences this week. We are hard into the rainy season right now. It's raining about every day. We left a lesson Tuesday night at about 8:30, and we were walking past these fields of crops by this big lake, and they just lit up with a million fireflies. We were absolutely surrounded by literally millions of them for about 20 minutes of pure walking in the rain during the twilight hours, and it was so beautiful. One of the most humbling and strangest experiences of my life. It was really spiritual. Whenever I feel really small in nature (surrounded by towering mountains, vast swamps, open oceans, deep forests, or whatever), it strengthens my testimony that Jesus Christ really is the savior of the world. He created it, and every single thing in nature is proof of that, and as humans, we really are insignificant. It's humbling.

I love you guys. Stay safe, and enjoy the week.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

The Blunders of Elder Long

Hey guys!

Another week passed by... time is going crazy fast. I feel like I just sat down a minute ago to write you all hahaha.

Well, this week was really fun.e found some new people to teach, especially a great guy named Francisco, who I will talk more about in a sec. we worked hard, and had lots of success.

Today, we had a really fun activity. We summitted a really large hill that's close by, and it was really fun. It made me miss hiking and summitting hahaha but it really was a blast. The hill sits above this little picturesque town, and the views of popo and the Mujer Dormida from it easily made it worth it. I'll attach the few photos that I took.

Also, yesterday during church, my convert Fermin who got baptized a few weeks ago, received the priesthood! I'm super excited. He's progressing a ton, and just seeing all these miracles in his life and the changes he's making make me so happy. I feel so insufficient as a missionary, but the Lord works wonders through even the least of his servants.

Speaking of Sunday, I'm going to go back to Hermano Francisco hahaha. i like talking about the mistakes i make, because it reminds me the I'm human and it helps me have a more global view of things. So Fermin suffered a stroke about a month ago, and he still has trouble moving his appendages on the left side of his body. So right now he's confined to a wheelchair and can't really walk well. But he wanted to go to church. So we brought him to church in a minivan, and he really enjoyed sacrament meeting. Afterward, we were in our gospel principles class. He wanted to sit in a regular chair. So we helped him over to a chair. He was sitting there just fine, chilling, and just randomly fell over and ate it on the hard cold tile of our church's floor hahahahahaha gosh it was so bad. I felt like such an idiot. We rushed over and helped him get up and sit down well, and the good thing is that nobody saw it, just us. He had a really good experience though, and accepted the invitation to get baptized. I have no idea how we're going to do it, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Well that was my week. It's never boring hahaha. We're working hard. I love you all. Stay safe!

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Checking in from Cocoyoc

Hey guys,

Had a fun week here in Cocoyoc!

Everything went smoothly, our best investigator got baptized and confirmed, and everything is just going smoothly. I have put a massive emphasis these past few days of really turning myself completely obedient, giving up the last few things that I do that are disobedient, and focusing on having the spirit, so I can be a more effective missionary. It's been really humbling. I've had to put my pride away, and really try to better myself. We had some fun activities today, and we had a great workweek. All in all, it was great.

Highlights:

Monday- some members bought us Dr Pepper! It tasted like Texas hahaha. Also, I got to eat starfruit for the first time. Tastes super good.

We did a contacting activity in the sisters' area, and it was super fun. I spent the afternoon with an elder named Elder Palomares, and we contacted our brains out. It was such a blast.

Friday- we had the baptism of Fermin. He's a fantastic convert. He learned incredibly fast, and was so willing to do everything to change and bring his life in line with the gospel. The sisters of our ward had a baptism as well, and I got to do his ordinance. It was a huge privilege.

Saturday- we got to make tamales. Really hard work, but super fun.

Sunday- he got confirmed. Just fantastic. I'm so happy.

Today, we had a fun zone activity. I helped put it on with my comp, my district leader, and his comp. We made french toast for the zone, played a multiple choice test game, and played volleyball. It was a blast.

It was just a good week. We worked hard, had lots of lessons, had a baptism, and I'm just really happy.

Spiritual comment- I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the gospel because it challenges us to live to the level that god expects of us. It challenges us to put His will in place of ours, and to become what he wants us to be. Because of the gospel, we can repent of our sins, and we can have eternal families. It is the key to happiness, and seeing the blessings of it in my life, as well as in the life of the people I'm blessed to teach, is fantastic.

I hope you guys had a good week. Keep on keeping on.

With love,

William Jacob Long

Getting work done

Hey everybody,

Thanks for reading this letter, and thanks for your patience with my bad English and spelling.

This week was really tough but really hard. Our area is just doing really well. One of our golden investigators has an interview tomorrow for his baptism, and if he passes it (which he should!) we will hold his baptism this Friday. It's all systems go right now in our area. We have several investigators that are progressing, and we've been finding new investigators at a slow but steady rate. This week was hard. It had to have been one of the hardest of all my mission. But missionary work in this area is super great, easy, and just an absolute blast. Our investigator who will get baptized this week is named Fermin. He's a really incredible, smart guy, probably is about 40 years old, and just gets everything, understands everything, and is completely willing to follow Christ. His conversion has been incredible. He asked me to do his baptism as well, which should be fun, because I haven't done a baptism in a little over a month!

Thanks for all the concern about the volcanic activity! We're all safe! There were no problems in the mission, and from what i understand, the majority of the ash fell to the northwest of popo (ie Amecameca, Ozumba, San Pedro, Tlalmanalco, y Chalco), so here in the south (Cuautla) we were pretty safe. So Tetela, even though it literally sits on the shoulder of popo, didn't have any ash fall.

This was a fun p-day. We played a bunch of sports, and that always makes me happy. I met a new elder in our zone called Elder Hatfield. He's really into mountain biking, backpacking, and a bunch of other stuff I like, and we instantly became really good friends. It was a fun day.

It was a really humbling week for me. My spiritual thought, if I could share you guys one, has been of Zion's Camp. Some of you guys are familiar with it, some of you guys might not be, and to my friends who aren't Mormon, bear with me a bit hahahahahaha. Zion's camp was the militia that Joseph Smith put together to restore the saints of Missouri to their homes. They started in Kirtland, Ohio, and marched for about 1000 miles (if I remember well, and if not, the story sounds good that way) to Far West, Missouri, to fight the mobs there. It was miserable, the people suffered the entire way, got sick, had very little food, and basically was really difficult. And in the end, they didn't even fight, because the Missouri governor failed to help the saints.

It was basically a crucible for the saints. It burned the impurities out. It separated the boys from the men. The obedient from the disobedient. What it ended up doing was separating who was on the Lord's side, and who wasn't. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Lots of the future leaders of the church were in that camp, including several of the next prophets.

The mission sometimes (and to be honest, it really shouldn't be like this) has turned into a crucible for some people. We find out if we really are on the Lord's side. Am I willing to be obedient? Am I willing to consecrate myself to the Lord? Am I on the Lord's side?

Studying this has helped me a lot this week. It has helped me look at the bigger picture, develop deeper love for the missionaries, and refocus myself on being on the Lord's side. And that means commitment. That means discipline, and obedience. That means loving people.

Well, that's it for this week! I don't have photos, but next week I should! I love you guys a lot, stay safe.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long

Finishing the transfer cycle

Hey everyone,

So yesterday marked the last day of this transfer cycle. I'm really excited because I'm staying in my area with Elder Castillo. It's been really fun. I'm going to start my fifth transfer cycle in the same zone here. It's been a crazy adventure.

Today was a really fun p-day. The whole zone went up to Tetela, my old area, to do the district meeting and then to go hike in the mountains and explore waterfalls. We summitted a ridge, prayed as a zone on top of it, and sang hymns. We explored, and it was just so cool. I love Tetela a lot. It was nice and cool and windy and just perfect weather. Almost all of the photos are from it.

I also have some photos from a meeting that my comp and i went to with some other missionaries in amecameca two weeks ago.

The other really fun thing from this week is that a general authority of the church, Elder Valenzuela of the seventy, came and gave a talk to the missionaries of Cuautla. its was incredibly spiritual. he trained us on how to study better, repentance, and loving Christ. It was really incredible.

Funny story: to get out to Tetela early enough, we had to wake up at 5:30 to go wash our clothes! so we took a selfie of us in the house of the sister who lets us wash hahahaha.

Well I'm gonna wrap up this letter for now. should be more news next week. We have some investigators who are progressing, and I'll fill you all in on that in a bit.

I love you guys. Enjoy the photos and my bad selfies hahahaha.

Love,

Elder William Jacob Long