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!!  

Talking to my family was amazing!

Well hello my loving followers! I hope that you are all doing great and enjoying life where you all are. I am continually thinking about you guys. I hope that you all had a great Mother’s Day and did something special for your mothers. What a great day to think about our moms that do so much for us. Well, let’s get down to the jungle report shall we...

It’s been more humid than ever so other than sweating in places that I didn’t’ know existed, all is good! We are still walking a ton and right now doing a lot of service. The type of service that we are doing is pretty cool though. We have been cutting down shrubs and stuff in the mountains to get ready to plant maiz and beans and stuff like that. It is a lot of work and there are no machines here so everything is done by hand. So we have been working a lot on the mountainsides helping people out. It’s pretty fun for the first 5 minutes and then after that you are just dying it’s so humid and you can just see how much work is ahead of you. But in the end we are helping people so that they have something to eat.... so it’s all worth it. I have gotten pretty dang good at using the machete to say the least! 

We are teaching a lot of new people right now so that’s fun, getting to know the new people and loving them a lot. I love the people here so much. They are so loving and giving for the little that they do have and it amazes me every day how willing they are to give when they have basically nothing It’s a lesson to remember for the rest of my life. But teaching a lot right now, we are starting to get people to teach that live a little closer to one another and don’t have to walk an hour from lesson to lesson. Don’t get me wrong, we are still putting the miles on but it’s all good! 

Hmm… this past week the best team from San Pedro and the best team from Tegucigalpa played each other in Tegucigalpa so that was nuts... everyone was going crazy! The team here in Tegucigalpa won so everyone was very happy. The soccer culture here is so cool, I really understand now the Hispanics in the states and their love for the game. It’s literally their life. All the men come home from work and change fast and all go play while the wives cook and then go home to eat. It’s their life; I see why games now are so big! So cool to be able to live in the culture here and be a part of these experiences. I would not change this experience for anything, soaking in every minute! 

On Mother’s Day, we as missionaries had the opportunity to Skype our familias! What a great time. I am so thankful to have a loving family that is always supporting of me and that goes for all my friends and family as well! It made me do some reflecting... how grateful we are to come from loving families that support us and are there for us at any time. It is hard to see sometimes the family circumstances here... we always need to remember, “The little things in life are big things. We need to count our many blessings every day.” The little things especially... it’s not always about the big things in life. Be thankful for the little things that we take for granted in the states. I would like you all to take 5 minutes this week when you get this letter and just think about all the blessings that you have in your life. Do a little reflecting on all the things that the Lord has given us. 

Well, my loving fans keep up the good work and make good choices every day. Remember that we have so much to be thankful for. Always say your prayers and give a little time to our Heavenly Father. Put your best foot forward and aim high in all that you do! LOVES!

CON MUCHO AMOR 

Elder Long

Boom Boom Boom...what a week!

Hey familia y mis amigos! I hope that this weeks letter finds you guys doing great as always. I don’t know where time is going, it’s flying bye! I know that you are all doing great things and enjoying ever day. Thanks so much as always for your love and support throughout my mission. You guys are the bomb! So lets get down to the Humid Report shall we!

It’s SO humid right now. Like every day it rains and then it’s just so humid you can’t even imagine. It’s horrible. But we’re getting through it baby!

This week we spent a lot of time finding new people to teach. People that didn’t want anything or were not moving a long like Elder Long wanted, we said nos vemos we will return later. We are going to leave them in Gods hands. We didn’t stop visiting everyone but a good amount of them we did. So this week we hit the rocks running and finding new gators to teach. We found 15 new people this week so it was a great week. We talked like crazy in the streets! Sunday we had 45 people in church, it’s growing here, so we are working hard and it’s paying off. We had a mom come to church and it was her first time coming to church in like 5 years so that was way cool. 

So this Sunday I talked to about 12 people at church and said, ”Listen at 3:00 we are all going to leave and we’re going to visit people.. Typical Hondurions they like to give excuses... well, I didn’t give them that option. I said you are going to go and you will like it. HAHA Well, they all showed up and we killed it yesterday. We visited about 30-35 different people. So I left with the president of the rama (branch) and one other member. Well we had plans to go to a different street that we always go to and visit some of the people that we have on this one street. Well, we were walking and I had the strongest feeling to not continue walking and to make an immediate righty. So we listened to the spirit and took a righty and started talking to everyone on the streets and every house. Well, in two hours on that street we found 7 new people and two familias that we are now teaching. It gets better. We passed by this one house and there was a man outside the house. But where we were walking you could not see him. He was like behind this tree. Well I had the strongest feeling to turn around once again.. so we did. Well there was sitting a man. We started talking and getting to know him and come to find out he was a member that had not been to church in 15 years... crazy huh!! So that was way cool! The spirit is a guide in SO many ways my family and friends. You have no idea! The spirit is a guide in our lives. When we are doing the little things right and trying to always choose the right, we are going to have the guide from the spirit. I am so thankful to have this guide from my Heavenly Father. I know that each of us can have it when we do the little things right diario. Always do things to have the Lords guidance in our lives. When we do so we will receive many blessings.

Well, lets’ get to the real interesting stuff…HAHA! This week we pretty much were in the middle of a shooting... but it’s all good. It is just another journal entry, right? So we were walking down the street (the street where our church is) and we were about to turn the corner and a man was yelling go go go go and a lady was running. We asked what was going on because this area is typically SO calm. When I finished my words, what’s going on, there goes the pistol. BOOM BOOM BOOM 8 times. We were about 25 feet from where the shooting was. So the story goes, there is a place where people play pool close to our church. Well, this dude was super drunk and got kicked out and he was mad. He was also on drugs. So the owner of the business kicked him out so he was mad and went to his car and got his pistol and started shooting up the door and the building... It was nuts. I felt and it sounded like we were in a movie. But don’t you all worry, the Lord has our back. We were all safe. My adrenaline got going SO fast and I don’t think that I have ever ran so fast in my life. Literally I felt like I was flying! HAHA enough about that!

Hmm what else do I have for you all! Hna garis from my district left and now we have another hna here and she is from Arizona. She is super cool, Hermana Wagner. She loves sports and isn’t a square so that’s good! Hna garis and her are the bomb! I am lucky to have had two really strong hermanas in my district. We are moving things along together.

I am so glad that I have the opportunity to serve right now my brothers and sisters. It is such a blessing to be here in Honduras personally growing and bringing others to Christ. There is not a better feeling in the world than helping others change their lives for the better. It’s a blast! I am so thankful to be protected and serving in the Lords work. I know that this is the Lords work and I am only an instrument in His hands. I see it every day. Thanks for your love and support. Remember guys, always say your prayers and give 5 minutes to our Heavenly Father every day and read your scriptures. If you sacrifice a little time, in return you will be blessed more. If your not doing it, give it a try and you will see the blessings poor upon you. Get after it this week, serve someone else, say your prayers and always be sosososososoosos thankful for the LITTLE THINGS that we have. I love you all!

Have a great week, Aim high in all that you do and put your best foot forward every day!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Long

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!