The work continues...

Well, I hope this letter finds you all doing great and doing your thing and enjoying the promise land aka United States. I hope you all had a great week and this week you have another good one or even better.

This week I studied a lot about faith and I have some scriptures that I really like that you guys can take a look at.

Alma 7:23-24

1 Nephi 7:12,15:11

Alma 13:28-29

Ether12:4,6,12

So someone… I don’t remember who asked me what are some of the most important life lessons that I have learned while being here on my mission.  A few things came to my mind. First, the importancia de los cosas en nuestro casas. Everything starts in the home. In all aspects of our life we can learn in the home and from our parents. I have learned so much from seeing broken homes and familias aqui. La importancia de la familia is incredible. Parents have such an influence in our lives and I am so glad that I can apply things that I have learned, in my future home and with my future familia. The home is SO important. When I say home that doesn’t only mean with our families but wherever we live. Also, the principle of giving to others is so important. Giving to them your heart and soul and being invested in who they are and their needs, even when it’s hard to help someone out. It’s not always easy to serve others, but we need to do it. Probably one of the biggest lessons learned aqui is that there is siempre happiness in our lives. I’ve seen people in the worst conditions y estos personas todavia have happiness in there lives. We always need to look at the bright side of the situation. We can do it, It’s not always easy but its always possible.

Someone also asked what is my favorito parte? Well, there are a lot of things that I love here but here are a few of them. I love serving others and helping them out but more importantly helping them align their lives with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The best part is seeing the people change for the better! I love the language and the people so much as well. The culture is so loving and giving even when they have so little. That in itself has been an amazing life lesson for me to see.

This week was Elder W’s birthday! We had Zone Conference this day so I was with him and we got to each lunch together and of course I treated by boy to a good meal :) He’s the bomb! All is good with him. We’re grinding along doing our thing…

So this week we were casually climbing up a mountain and I had the strongest impression that we needed to go visit a family. So we followed the spirit and we headed up to this house. Without going into too much personal detail out of respect for this family I will just say that we needed to be there at that moment in time. We were able to talk to them and teach them. They needed our Heavenly Father’s direction for their life. They needed to feel loved and cared about. We were there for about an hour trying to help them. So I shared from the Biblia Deuteronomy 6:7 and I said that we will end with that. Once again there is not a better place to teach kids then in the home. It was a weird lesson but it went very well. Nothing like having 20 years and teaching a married couple in their 30’s life lessons and things that they need to do when I am much younger. But then again, much of the lesson wasn’t from me, but was from our Heavenly Father. And he always teaches me much. Well, we saw them about 4 days later and they said that all we said was correct and they were going to apply those things we had taught to them to get them back on the road to happiness. Once again the spirit guides us when we really need it. Never ignore promptings from the Holy Ghost. Never.

I am so grateful for the oportunidad that I have to be serving at this time and in this wonderful area. It’s great! I am loving the differerent experencia and everything that I am able to learn from it. Thank’s so much for all the love and support, you guys are the bomb! Make it a great week. Aim high in all that you do and put your best foot forward.

Fun fact for the week- we were eating at a members house this week and when we got done eating the members were like, “Hey Elder Long have you ever had meat like that before?” And I was like no I don’t think so (the whole time we were eating I was thinking, what in the world am I eating haha ). It was cow kidney... only in Honduras. LOL! It was actually not too bad and I am grateful for the people who serve us food and take care of us missionaries. That I am grateful for.

Well have a good one, loves you guys.

Elder Long