Planting seeds...literally!

Hey my loving fans, I hope that this finds you all alive and kicking. I am thinking of you guys still all the time and hope that your all doing great. This week absolutely flew bye! Feels like yesterday I was sitting at this ghetto computer writing you guys and here we are again writing the ghetto report :) So lets get down to it shall we! 

It’s been more humid than all get out... but that’s okay other than sweating in places that I didn’t know existed. All is well! You don’t even have to walk and your sweating. It makes for long nights but we are getting used to it. So, enough about the weather. 

This week we did a lot of service with the machete and working in the fields. Everyone is getting ready for what they call winter here or the rainy season. So we have been helping plant beans, corn and all that good stuff. It’s a lot of work to say the least and we helped them all so that it could free up their Sunday and they could go to church. Well, not a single person that we helped for hours came to church.  So Mar had to learn some patience because I literally wanted to blow up I was so angry. They said all week they would go and we helped them out so much and in the end they didn’t keep their word. That is hard for me but what are ya gonna do… nothing. You keep getting after it and hope that they get a little getup in the step Sunday morning to go. So Sunday morning we walked an hour or a little more to pick people up in our four by four, or what we call zapatos (shoes) HAHA so we walked a lot Sunday morning because they all said that they were going to come to church and in the end not a single person that we passed by went. But like I said, there is nothing that we can do. We are giving it our all and the Lord will do His part. So hopefully this week we can get some people to complete with what their words mean. 

We are picking this area up though with a lot of hard work. It’s taking time and a lot of patience but it’s working. We had 45people in church this past week and when I got here we had about 20 something attending. So things are really picking up. It’s simple, you just need to be straight up with people in life and changes occur, a bunch of blah blah blah and you get no where. So that’s where we are, here in the Sabana Grande! We are doing a lot of reactivating right now along with teaching the people that we have. We are getting it done. I definitely have had to learn more patience, and love the people even when sometimes it’s hard to have the patience and love to keep going. It’s been good though. Not complaining, I am alive and kicking. The people are loving the work that we are doing and they are helping us out. 

This week I spent a lot of time studying about Christ-like attributes again. I love this section in the missionary handbook, Preach My Gospel. All the good qualities that we look for in people are things that we need to have as well. Sometimes its hard to do everything the right way and in the right manner, but we all have the opportunity to learn from everything that we do, say and see. It’s always good to learn from others. This week I spent a lot of time teaching members here. That is a GOOD thing to receive consejos or advice. That’s not a bad thing. Here in Honduras a lot of people take advice the wrong way. Its interesting how things are different in different parts of the world. So this week I focused on with some members is how to take advice in a good way and not a bad way. Once again, we put on the big boy pants and had a good talk, it went well. We saw change Sunday with some of the things that we talked about. Little by little and these people will have an AMERICAN MENTALITY with me here. HAHA. It’s been hard to change some people, but we are doing it baby! It’s all good. 

I am so happy to be serving, time is FLYING bye! Its crazy! I am loving it. Living the dream of being a missionary aqui en Honduras. Everyone is gearing up for the soccer game, Madrid vs athletico madrid. It’s a HUGE soccer game that everyone here is getting ready for. Its a little ways out, but they are crazy about their soccer. I love it. It’s such a cultural thing, their heart and soul and lives are based on these games…HAHA…gotta love it!  Well, I want you all to know that I love you all and thank you for your love and support. There is no where else that I would want to be than serving the loving Honduran people here in Sabana Grande. I know that when we do the little things right, we will see blessings in our lives. The little things make the big difference in our lives. When we put the things that our Savior wants us to do in our lives, we will be more in tune with the spirit. It’s like what we teach our people here... the little things make the difference: reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, going to church, praying in the morning and at night and before we eat. I’ve learned that we need to be thankful to have food all the time. I am surrounded by people that don’t often have that.... to say the least. We need to do the little things right. The Lord is always ready to bless us, but we need to do the things that we know we need to do as well. Don’t use the excuse that there is not enough time because we would not say that to the Lord if He was standing in front of us, so we need to getter done. If you aren’t saying your prayers, say them. If you aren’t reading the Lords words, The Bible or Book of Mormon, get it done. If you aren’t getting to church, get to church. People walk hours here to get to church. We are so lucky, we get in a car, we are so blessed. Imagine one walking 2 hours to get to church? We can get in our cars and go. It’s a blessing to go... you WILL receive blessings. I love you guys and know that you all can do it. 

Love you guys so much. Make it a special week. Aim high in all you do and put your best foot forward. I challenge you to do something different this week for the better! Love you guys!

con mucho amor,

Elder Long!!