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! 

So grateful I did not make the Lord wait...

Hola mis amigos y mi familia! I hope that this letter finds you all doing great and kicking and living it up. Everything is going good here in Sabana Grande. Don’t you worry, it’s still hotter than Hatai here but all is good. Just enjoying the tan and the culture like no other. Every day brings something new and it’s always an opportunity to learn and to grow. That’s one of the best things about the mission, learning through others and their experiences. Cada dia we have the oportunidad to learn from otros. More and more I am thankful that I did not make the Lord wait to serve my mission. It’s a blast and a blessing at the same time, There is no other place in the world that I would rather be than where I am right now. Well sometimes maybe somewhere else when the gangsters are nuts but that is all a part of the experience right!? So lets get down to it shall we...

This week like many others in the whole world, the people here were celebrating Semana Santa or in English, Holy Week. So this week was full of crazy activities in the streets and pretty much a week to party. Everyone gets off work to spend time with their family and to celebrate the atonement. Well a lot of people just use it as an excuse to get drunk, go to the beach and have a good time. The beach is about an hour and half from here so literally everyone was gone like all day every day. Also there is a place cerca called Nueva Armenia that has a nice river with like water falls that a ton of people went to as well.  A lot of people though actually are very serious (the devoted Catholics) and do a lot of activities and things in the streets and at the church. So we had a lot of encounters with drunks and making them do funny stuff in the streets, many people got a kick out of it. Making them do balancing activities which not one of them could do, making them do karate and stuff like that... it was HILLARIOUS to say the least. So that was a good time!

This week we also had an activity at the temple. It was for all the recent converts and for investagadores (forgot that word in english haha sorry) but it was awesome! The whole theme was based on The Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the atonement in my life. My conocimiento (forgot that word too, cant think of it) of the atonement has changed my life. I am forever thankful for the oportunidad to learn and feel the atonement in my life. I know because we have a loving Heavenly Father we have the opportunity to return and live with Him once again, it all depends on our life here on earth. We need to make good decisions and live the best lives that we can every day. The power of the atonement is real. If you don’t feel the atonement in your life, I encourage you all to study and live out what you learn. I’ts one thing to study, but it’s otro thing to live out what you learn. I promise you all that if you learn about the atonement of our Savior, your lives will forever change and you each will feel the spirit more in your lives, and receive more blessings. I have seen it in many people that I have taught here. People that are alcoholics, drug dealers, real straight up gangsters, people that don’t believe in anything... but when they feel the power of the atonement in their lives, their lives change. Flat out change. There is nothing better than seeing someone aligning their lives on the path of our Savior. When we do the things that we know we need to do and should do, we will see change, and we will be better people for it. The power of prayer is real and we can draw closer to our Savior through prayer. It’s powerful. It also changes lives. I am so thankful for the opportunity to learn more about my Savior through my journey here and through the journey of others. I know and feel that through serving others we feel the love of the Savior more in our lives. The scriptures say that when we are serving others we really are serving our God. I challenge each of you this week to learn more about your Savior through the atonement. When you learn and feel the power of the atonement your lives will change like mine has the last 9 months. Our Savior lives. I see and feel it everyday brothers and sisters. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve here in Honduras at this time and at this place. I am thankful for each one of you in my life. You all mean so much to me and I have really have learned from each one of you. Thanks so much for your love and support while I am here 

Make it a special week brothers and sisters! Aim high in all that you do and put your best foot forward cada dia!

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Long! 

What are we doing with our time?

Hey my loving followers. I hope that you guys are all doing great. I continue to think about you guys all the time and want the best for you guys every day. Hope that you all had a great week la semana pasado y este semana is going good. Well lets get down to it shall we.

This week the weather was miserable... it was so hot. This week started Semana Santa or holy week in English, and it’s always the hottest right now. I don’t think that I have ever been so hot in my life. It’s crazy... but we’re still alive. This week everyone pretty much has vacations because of Semana Santa so everyone is traveling to the north or south to hit up the beaches. So the buses to our area are packed because we are far south and have beaches. But it’s all about the journey and living it up in the Honduran culture. The heat will calm down after the next week or month – at least I hope so! HAHA

So this week nothing too exciting happened really, nothing bad or too exciting. I had interchanges with the zone leaders and I was with my zone leader who is a good guy but just the complete opposite of me, but it went good. He was amazed on how much we walk every day... I said, “Yep, now you can see when I say that I am tired at night you know why.” So that interchange went well.  

This week I spent a lot of time thinking about choices that I have made in my life and the affect that it has had. I also thought about things that I can do differently when I get back home. In other words, I was thinking about how precious time really is and how we need to make the most of every day that we have. Time can be our best friend or it can also be our worst enemy.  I have spent a lot of time teaching some missionaries about time management and all. Showing up on time, doing things the right way with proper planning. Running by the seat of your pants just doesn’t get it done. The Lord deserves better. We all need to be organized in our lives. We need to be organized daily and prioritize the things that we need to do, including those spiritual things. Like it says in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, “There is time for everything. We need to prioritize for spiritual things as well. How will the Lord bless us if we are not making time for him?  5 minutes daily and you will see a difference in your life. I promise you that.  With the time that I have here I have realized so much about time, and how we really need to be smart with our time. I am so thankful to be learning life lessons here that will carry me the rest of my life. 

Oh, we painted a house this week for service. Dad you would have been laughing your head off... all the years when you thought that I didn’t pay attention to your talent…HAHA…it finally came into play. I taught these people how to paint. I was laughing so hard because I could only imagine the whole time you guys laughing your heads off at me. But I must say it looks pretty good.  I was working with very few materials so we did what we could with what we had. I’ll attach a photo. They insisted on doing this thing with a rag so that wasn’t my idea but I took care of the rest.

The sisters in my district had a baptismo this week. It was a couple that are 87 years old... They are the grandparents of the presidente of the rama here. We had a huge part in helping them and their conversion. So it almost felt like it was our baptism too. It was wonderful and always the highlight. The grandpa is so sick with about every disease that you can think of. And he said he wanted to follow Christ before he goes. It was a very special experience.

This week we are preparing a young man to be baptized. He is 15 years old and is changing his life...  he wants to make change and he is doing so. There is nothing that makes me happier than to see people that are willing to align there lives more with Christ. The reason that it makes me so happy is because they all receive blessings. It is a promiso from our Heavenly Father. So we shall see if every thing works out this weekend for his baptism. So we all can make changes for the better every day.

Well guys I hope that you are all doing great. Enjoy every day and make the most of every day as well.  I love you guys so much. Make it a great week, aim high in all that you do and put your best foot forward every day!  

Enjoy the pictures attached…

Con mucho amor,

Elder long!!

Obedience Brings Blessings

Hey my loving followers, I hope that this letter finds you all doing great. Thanks so much for all your love and support; you guys are all amazing. I have a lot that I want to share and not a ton of time so lets get down to it. 

First, if you were wondering, we are all still sweating like crazy here? Yes, that’s nothing new. But, all good! 

So this week absolutely flew by. All the leaders in the mission had a leadership meeting with President Fortuna and it was awesome! It was all about leadership in the mission and in life. A lot of good lessons learned. In simple terms, to be a leader, we MUST lead by example, that’s the short of a 2 hour conference. The spirit was strong and there was a lot of time to reflect and think about what we can do better and change. Trying to be better in life requires change. I challenge all of you to think about what you can do better to be a better man or woman because each of us are leaders in some shape or form. 

So this week I would like to focus my email on the topic of the importance of the little things that we do every day. What brings good habits? Good habits bring results that are good. What shall we do to see these great results? We must be obedient in all that we do. We must be obedient at all times, no matter the circumstances. ¨Selective obedience¨ isn’t the way. We must all stay steadfast and obedient during both times of good and times of turmoil. When we do things with obedience we will see that we can do all things in worthiness, and this is when we put ourselves where we will have to be to have uplifting thoughts and actions. Our gap in our standards and the world’s standards should be greater every day. Set your bar high and keep it there. Just because the world’s standards are lowering, does not mean that we should lower our personal standards. When we keep our standards high we will reap the benefits later. We may have to stand alone at times, but I tell you with all my heart it is worth it. You will see the blessings poured out upon you. I know that it is not easy.. but I do know that it’s well worth it. Our eyes need to be like a telescope. We need it to be clear. Our lens is our faith. It should always be clear, in hope, looking downrange that something good is soon to come. IN THE LORDS PLAN, THERE ARE NO ENDINGS, BUT EVERLASTING BEGINNINGS. I testify that the Lord is our Savior, but more importantly our personal Savior and counselor. 

Mis hermanos y hermanos, I know that the Lord lives, and that he is our Savior and Redeemer. Through the Savior we have the opportunity to live with our Heavenly Father once again. I am working in the Lord’s work and he bears witness to me of the truth of these things and the love that he has for each one of us every day. I know that when we are obedient we will see blessings. I know that when we sacrifice our time to serve others we will see the blessings in our life. I challenge every one of you to serve others everyday. It may be something small, but serve others. When we serve others we will de drawn closer to our Savior. I love this work. I love these people. I love my Heavenly Father and know that he has a plan for me and each one of us. I know that my time here is preparing me to be a better man in the future. I am so thankful for a loving family and friends. You are the rock in my life, just like the Savior is the rock to each of us. He is there to get us back to our Heavenly Father.

-Are you guys feeding yourselves spiritually every day? 

-Don’t limit your gratitude. Gratitude is the catalyst of Christ-like attributes, may we live in thanksgiving every day. 

I love you guys so much. Aim high in all that you do this week and put your best foot forward. 

Con mucho amor, 

Elder Long! 

I LOVE this work.

Hola mis amigos! I hope that all is going great with you guys. Thanks for everything. Your love and support is amazing. I have my family and friends in the states and now in Honduras! I couldn’t ask for more. Thanks so much for your love and support while I am here on my mission. I am so happy to be serving at this time and in this country, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now in my life. I am learning so much about life and what I can do better to draw closer to my Heavenly Father and make me a better man right now and in the future, I am so thankful for the opportunity that I have to serve right now. Thanks for your love and support. So let’s get down to the Sweat Report. 

Not going to spend so much time talking about how hot it is here because I think that you guys get the point... it’s scorching aqui. Serio es horrible. No puedo decir how hot it really is here. But we’re still alive and kicking that’s for sure. 

So this week we had to do some humbling with a guy in my zone- it was a blast! He was talking a whole bunch of smack to people about how good he was at basketball, so I took him to a challenge. Lets just put it this way, the game was over before it started. Then we had a little talk about humility - it was great. Don’t talk the talk, if you cant walk the walk. I love that saying so much. We can apply it to anything in our life. So we played basketball last Monday and that was a blast! Always a good time ballin it up. 

This week we walked hours and hours visiting our investigators, the people that we are teaching are amazing. Here it’s not like my last area where we have people out the ying yang to teach, but the people that we do have are amazing. Their progressing and doing the things that they need to do and are loving the gospel. I love to see people change for the better, and it doesn’t matter how old they are or their circumstances. The gospel and our knowledge of our Savior changes our lives, and the lives as others as well. I see it every day and it just brings the biggest smile to my face when I see that the people are changing their lives for the better and are trying to align their lives with the teachings of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

This week I spent a lot of time studying about Gratitude. I reflected en la oportunidad que I have right now to be serving my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to wake up every day and have the opportunity to help others change for the better. I love it. But last Friday I talked with my district about how important it is that we are SOSO grateful every day for the little things that we have. So my talk was based on Gratitude. We read the story titled ¨La opcion de ser agradecidos¨ de Henry B Eyring. We all had the opportunity to reflect on our lives and our tiemp aqui y los cosas que realamente son muy importante para nos. Something that I really loved from this talk said, ¨We all like to feel thankful, however, it is not easy always being thankful in all circumstances when we are facing difficulties or problems in life.¨ I really loved that, very simple but so true. We all need to be more thankful, no importa nuestro situaciones. We all can have more gratitude. This talk made me reflect on my time in Ojojona y ahorita aqui en Sabana Grande. There two pueblos, small little towns. The people in pueblos sometimes have nothing... only a tortilla and salt, that’s a meal. But yet they are so thankful. What a great lesson that we can all learn from ...  A lot of people don’t have running water, no electricity, kids with no shoes, and eat the same thing every single day… imagine that... We need to be so thankful to our Heavenly Father every day for the LITTLE THINGS that we have. This is where the importance of our prayers comes into play. We need to pray every morning and night  at least to our Heavenly Father and express our gratitude for the things that we have. The power of prayer is real. Prayer can bring miracles en nuestro vidas. I promise you that the power of prayer is real. If you aren’t praying with your Heavenly Father, do so. I have such a different view and perspective of what Gratitude really really means. I am so thankful for this. We all can come to feel this way when we understand the atonement in our lives. That Jesus really died for us and that we have such a loving Heavenly Father. Say your prayers this week my loving followers! :)

Oh so this week someone tried to break into our house... but a good ole fake conversation on the phone scared them off. It was about 10:20 at night. The electricity was out so people were trying to take advantage, but ya know, just another day in the promise land of Honduras! HAHA

Thanks for all your love and support! Make it a great week! 

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

Sacrifice, brings blessings.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Mariano Long

It's HOTTT!

Well, hello once again my loving followers! Espero que todo bien con ustedes! (I hope that everything is ok with you). I hope that you had a great last week and this one will be even better. Thanks for all your love and support. You guys are the bomb, for those who email, thanks so mucho! Well this week absolutely flew bye! Bollando! So lets get down to the sweat report shall we?

Soooo... it’s SOOO HOT. And the real heat hasn’t even technically arrived. It’s about to come in April. I can’t even explain how hot it is here. Lets just say we are trying to get through it. This week I started buying these little bolsas de water for 2 limps (un dolar es 20 limpiras which is in English; one dollar is 20 limpiras) super cheap and just dumping it down my neck. I lather sunscreen on like no other, otherwise I’ll start looking black. But just trying not to let the heat get to me, but we’re doing good! Enough about the heat, you get the picture, it’s hotter than Haiti’s here. 

So this past Miercoles my little companero from Nicaragua had cambios, (this past Wednesday my little companion from Nicaragua had changes) so he is now in the city and now I have a new companero. My new companero se llama Elder M. and he is from Bolivia. He has a sick accent and uses a lot of different words! So we are enjoying life together. He has 3 and 1/2 months in the mision y es un excelente misionero. We’re getting after it to say the least! I have been blessed to have such great companions. I love them each dearly. We have the same mindset, work baby, so we’re going to kill it with the time that we have together.

This week there are no super crazy stories of getting robbed or having to kill a snake or anything, but we did have some new people come to church this week. They live pretty close to our house too... 2 hours walking in the montanas. They live in what I call the back country here, that’s for sure. From their house you can see Nicaragua, El Salvador, y la ocean. Crazy cool! You can’t snap a picture because it’s hard to tell but you can definetly see it on a clear dia. So we go there twice a week, putting the miles on the legs that’s for sure, but it’s all worth it. I will walk 2 hours any day of the week to teach people that want to draw closer to our Heavenly Father. They are great, so we shall see.

This week I spent a lot of time studying about the family, and the importance of the family and friends. It kills me here to see how many people don’t have support from family and friends and don’t have direction from the time that they are young. So this week we spent a lot of time sharing with members and our investagadors la importancia de familia y amigos. Not all, but many homes are broken and I love trying to help the families get it together. It’s a procceso que does not happen over night but with time everything is possible. So this week I shared a scripture from the Holy Bible with some of these people. You can find the scripture in Deuteronomy 6:7 and it reads, “And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when though liest down, and when thou risest up.   I love this escritura. It shows the importance of a good example and how crucial la house is. The home is one of, if not the BEST place to be an example and to learn. Not only can we teach our family pero nuestro amigos tambien! I am so thankful to have a great brother who is an example to me in so many ways, yes he is younger than me, but I am able to learn so much from him. I thank you Giavanno for always being firm in the gospel and an example to our family. Mom and Dad, I am so thankful for you guys as well. You are my rock in my life. You are always there for me, you have taught me what a father should be like and what a mother is like as well. I can’t thank you enough for your fine example day in and day out. Thanks. To all my friends and family, I thank you as well, you are all an example to me in many ways. Without you guys I would not be the man that I am today – thank you. 

I wish you all a great week, kill it! Make sure when you lay your head down on the pillow at night you have given it your all and you feel like you gave it your all! We all need to put into practice what we learn from every day, and to make goals to live what we learn from each day. I love each and every one of you guys and am so thankful to have you guys in my life. 

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

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much... - Jim Rohn

Con mucho amor, 

Elder long! 

8 months out and I'm living my dream...

Hola mis amigos y mi familia! I hope that this letter finds you all doing great! I am doing well. Other than sweating like a crazy man I am doing great! I am enjoying the journey that I am having and taking it all in. So lets get to it, shall we.

This week absolutely flew by. It went so fast. I am lost in the work and time is flying. I am enjoying it more and more every day. I am loving Spanish and the people more and more. I really can’t express my love for the people here and the work that I am embraced in. I don’t go a day without thanking my Heavenly Father for the opportunidad que tengo para servir ahorita aqui en Sabana Gande. Don’t worry about me, my loving followers, all is good!

So we had stake conference this weekend at the temple in Tegucigalpa. It was awesome! We had three people come that we didn’t even know that they were going to come. They walked 2 hours just too get to the church where the bus was going to leave from. 2 hours… we visited them later on Sunday and it literally was 2 hours. HAHA you can see Nicaragua and El Salvador from where they live. It was a very cool experience. We will be heading there a lot now that we will be teaching them. So that was good! I got to see everyone from Ojojona because everyone was in the reunion. It was fun to see all my old friends from my old area and all. So that was really fun and rewarding.

I had intercambios this week with the zone leaders. I was with Elder M. He’s from Utah. He has like 3 months left – he’s on the tail end of his mission. So, I gave him a good talk about finishing strong and giving it all he has. He has a good mind frame and I was just helping him out. At the end some slack off but I told him to give it all he has. He will do so!

So this week we were playing in the park at some table that had chess pieces. We were playing while waiting for the other elders to come to end the intercambio and there were 7 people around us cheering and learning how to play chess - it was so funny. Like they were literally cheering HAHA it was so funny. So that was quite the experience that I never thought I would have… a crowd and cheer leaders when playing chess... HAHA…another wonderful experience here.

Also this week I had to help some missionaries out that were having some differences. They are really great missionaries, but I needed to help them work through some things and while doing so I also learned. I just love working with people. Aren’t people just so great! I love people!

I am so happy to be serving right now my brothers and sisters. There is no other place that I would rather be than Honduras serving and helping others come unto Christ. I know that this work is very important y que it’s short. I love helping and seeing people change their lives for the better. I’ve seen people change from drug addicts to people who go to church and have the spirit in their lives. We are children of God. When we act like it we will receive blessings. I am so proud to have a loving Heavenly Father that can provide direction not only for me but for all of us. When we follow the commandments, help others, and give ourselves to the Lord in all things, we will receive blessings. I know this to be true. I challenge each of you this week to serve someone in some kind of fashion and I know that you will be blessed - I promise. Hagalo! (Do it!)

Thank you so much for all the love and support guys, you are truly amazing. Thanks for the example that you guys are to me, through all your examples I have the opportunity to learn and grow and to be here. Without you all I would not be here today. I have had great example in my life and I am so thankful for that. I am so thankful for loving parents, my brother and friends who have guided me in my life. Thank you. I wish I could express this day how much I love you all and know that you guys are all doing great things. Have a great week and make a big difference. Be the example to those around you like Jesus Christ is for us.

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet and are with as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. Aim high in all that you do and put your best foot forward always!

Con much amor,
Elder Long