A Baptism in the River

Hey my loving and loyal fans! I hope that this letter finds you all doing great. I continue to think about you guys but I know that you are all doing great. Thanks for your continued love and support in everything. This week absolutely flew by! So lets get to it! 

We started working out with the guys here in Sabana Grande, they all wanted to workout so almost everyday they come to our house and we work out. It’s pretty fun! I have learned some new words and vocab all about lifting weights, so that’s been pretty fun. We are getting after it to say the least. Working off all the beans and tortillas that we eat every day. HAHA

This week I held a meeting with the men here that are members here. As dad would say, “I gave them a little wake up call.” They needed to change and I was sick of talking to make things happen around here. So this Wednesday night I brought all the men together and we had a big boys talk. I told them to do up their pants cause we were going to talk straight forward and get things straightened out. We talked about these kinds of things: Organization, time management, doing things the right way even when it may be a little harder, daily scripture study, service, being a man of dignity in the home, being a leader in the home and outside of the home. I had 10 points that I talked to them about. About an hour and half later we wrapped it up. They all had the deer in the head lights look... like oh crap Elder Long is right.. Well, Sunday came along and a few thanked me for what we talked about. It went well, we had a vey good talk, I presented it in the right way and it came across very well. Don’t worry… no one went home crying. There is a ton of CHANGE here right now with the people and it’s for the better. Sometimes we need to light the fire under peoples pants to see change. Things are moving along now! 

This weekend we had a baptism! It was an incredible experience. We met this young lady while out knocking doors one day. One morning about a month and a half ago we were studying in the morning and my companion and I had the strongest feeling that this day we needed to find someone new. So we followed the spirit and knew that we needed to do so. So we were contacting this one day ... sooooo hot I must say, sweating like crazy and getting more and more frustrated because not a single person wanted to listen for some reason. We were contacting this particular street. This street is long and is a hike to say the least. We walked for 3 hours and not a single lesson... frustrating. My old companion said, “Let’s go somewhere else these people want nothing and we are just wasting our time.” I said, “No, there is someone that is going to listen to us.” We contacted every house on that street and about the 10th to last house we found K. She had never gone to church in her life, but was facing difficulties at the time and wasn’t sure what she should do. We showed up this day and she was thinking that she needed to do something different. Her dad wasn’t particularly the friendliest fello. He wanted nothing and when I mean nothing to do with us I mean it, he even told us to our face. So little by litle we were visiting Karla and she knew that what we were teaching her was true. Her dad now talks to us and that is SUCH an improvement. This past Saturday she was baptized in a river, just like Jesus Christ en nueva armenia! She was very excited to find an answer to what she was looking for. She had never gone to a church, never read much in the bible, knew it existed but that’s about all. We started from scratch and now her life is completely different, and the dad is willing to listen to us. It has been an incredible experience to see her grow spiritually and see her dad open up. So it was an incredible weekend.

Also in my time here I have had the opportunity to help kids my age to try and make the decision to leave and serve the Lord. There were many (3) that were on the fence about serving. After many talks with the 3 dudes, they are going to serve. As I write today, there are currently 5 people from here in Sabana Grande that are doing their papers to leave for their mission. I am soooo excited for them! What a great time in their lives. I am so thankful that they are all making the choice to serve the Lord, it’s the best choice they could make. I am happy that I was able to help them along the way to make this sacred and amazing choice. I am sooo excited for them. 

Well, I want to thank you al for your love and support while I am here in Honduras on the best journey that I have been on in my life. I am so grateful to be serving the Lord and the people of Honduras! There is not a place in the world that I would rather be than HERE at this moment. I am loving every minute of it. I know that you guys are doing great things. Continue to choose the right or in spanish Haz Lo Justo in all that you do. When we put our lives in line with Jesus Christ we will see the blessings come our way. Thanks for everything family and friends and work hard in ALL that you do! 

Aim high in all that you do and put your best foot forward every day! 

con mucho amor, 

Elder long!