Happy BIrthday today Elder Long!

Hello Everyone!

Today is Elder Long’s birthday. What a special day. I had a feeling his time would be very limited to write us all…as he would receive many birthday e-mail wishes. In our very few correspondences today through e-mail he expressed his deepest gratitude for all the support. As many of you know…months ago I asked you, his friends and family to send me birthday wishes and pictures. With those I printed all the letters on cute paper, and developed 150 photos…enough to make 5 small albums he can trade off carrying around with him. To say he wasn’t overjoyed when he opened them this morning would be an understatement.

Because he got SO many birthday wishes today…his letter is short and was half in Spanish and he obviously didn’t take any time to edit it. SO, I translated it and tried to make sense out of a very “hurried” letter.

He is happy, healthy and loving his mission. He said he misses his normal life and most imoprtantly misses the relationships he loves, but would not want to be anywhere else than where he is today, teaching and praching the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So…here is his letter for this week…

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to say thank you for everything! I recieved a ton of e-mails from family and friends today.  I am very appreciative for each of you ! I love you guys a ton.

This week was good. We were really busy. I really love the mission ! I love the people and the culture soo much.

English classes are still going great and I love teaching the kids and all the people who come to the classes!

So another interesting and crazy story. We were in the middle of a lesson and five dogs came into the house and started going nuts. I mean NUTZZZ !!! They were fighting like crazy. We were hitting the dogs with chairs to try and break them up but nothing worked... nothing! There was blood everywhere ... this was not that funny. It was actually pretty scary to say the least!

We were invited to a grad party this past Friday. That was a blast. The food was.... hmmm soososo good! His name was Manuel, the family was very proud of him and all that he’s accomplished. A person who graduates from high school is a big deal in my area. It was yet another learning experience, and I was so happy to be a part of the party that the family had. It was only the family and my companion and me. It was so cool to see him accomplish this. The traditions are very cool. I don’ have a lot of time to explain it all , but it was so fun!

So I talked a lady into giving me a free sweet sweater for me and my companion. I did some barganing so that was good! It’s because I refer all the missionaries to buy things from her.

Well , this week I have a TON of e-mails to copy and paste to microsoft word and not enough time! Thanks so much for the love and support. You guys are really the rock in my life... I have much love for each of you and want the best for you too! I love you guys! I will give more details next week but I want to print off all the e-mail to read later! Love you guys a ton.

Lots of love !
Elder Long!