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!