My first letter from the field!

Hello all!

Wow. This is absolutely insane, but here I am! I can't believe I'm actually a missionary, teaching REAL people, with REAL needs and REAL salvation. It's crazy to think about. Every morning I wake up in a state of confusion - where am I? How did I get here? What's going on? And after a second or two, I realize that I'm in my apartment in the first area of my mission, and then I remember everything that's happened so far...which is a LOT.

To start off, our area is HUGE. We cover the cities of Revere, Chelsea, Charlestown, Lynn, East Boston, and a couple others. Our apartment is in Revere. (My address should be posted soon! Thanks Mom!)

My companions are Elder Ang and Elder Wayne - yep, I'm in a trio. There are 7 Cambodian-speaking missionaries in the entire mission, so I'm the odd man out, I guess. Elder Wayne is from Cardsten, Alberta, Canada - he's my trainer. He's pretty cool - he's been helpful so far for me. He's obedient, and he speaks Cambodian most of the time. He speaks very well, but he doesn't give himself enough credit in that department. At first I thought he was sort of annoyed with me or impersonal or something, but I think that's because he doesn't speak English most of the time. We've had a few conversations in English since my first day, and we've started getting to know each other, which is good. Elder Ang is from Cambodia! He had to learn English, and he speaks pretty well - he doesn't give himself enough credit with his new language, either. He's a happy, big-hearted guy.

Speaking of languages...I don't know anywhere NEAR as much as I thought I did in Khmae. I was doing pretty well in the MTC, but I got here and I didn't catch most of what Elder Wayne said those first couple of days. I definitely have a long way to go, but I'm working hard for it.

We teach mostly in English - we have NO Cambodian investigators right now, which is a bummer. There aren't many where we are...we try to find them, though! We've gone to a couple Cambodian restaurants and grocery stores and have talked to people. Not much success yet, though. Teaching in English is good though, it helps me to develop my teaching skills.

We're in an apartment with two other Elders - Elder Phillips (our district leader) and Elder Swayse. They're both from Nevada. They speak Spanish, and I love them already! Elder Phillips is especially awesome, since he's pretty into music, like I am. He plays oboe, and piano a bit. I get along with him really well, and I hope to stay in contact with him when he goes home in 6 months.

Let me rewind a bit, back to the day I left the MTC. It was really great to talk to my family members over the phone before my flight from SLC to Boston. 2 or 3 people (all members of the Church) stopped me in the airport to talk to me a little bit about where I was headed and stuff and wished me well. This woman on the plane who was sitting behind me introduced herself - she and her children, who were with her, are all members, as is her husband (who wasn't there). They had an exchange student from Brazil with them named Leo - he's been going to church with them and going to seminary as well. He likes it, but he hasn't had the missionary lessons yet. So, this woman volunteers me to teach him the first lesson right there and then on the plane! That was crazy - I had to take a while to gather my thoughts, since I hadn't taught in English in a while! It went well, I think. I probably missed a point here or there, and maybe I didn't teach perfectly, but he liked it. He has his own copy of the Book of Mormon and is reading it!
There was a man sitting near me on the plane - he bought me a little food during the flight, talked to me for a while, and later helped me with my luggage once I got off. He was really nice, and I thanked him profusely. It's crazy how much attention this tag attracts.

So, according to the letter I got from the mission office a couple months ago, it sounded like I'd stay at the mission home my first night, meet the president and his wife, have a nice evening, wake up, meet my companion, and start the work. NOPE. Pres. and Sis. Evans picked me up at the airport (they're both really really great!) and drove me to my apartment. Got there, met my companions, dropped off my stuff, and we were off. We had 2 or 3 appointments that night - my first night! It was nuts. I was way overwhelmed, and I was getting discouraged with my lack of language ability, and I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. We didn't have time to do anything other than just go and work that first night.

We got back to our apartment, planned for the next day, and I scrambled to try and unpack and figure out all my stuff before I had to be in bed by 10:30 PM. I didn't get it all done, and I went to bed all sorts of stressed out. I woke up in the morning and managed to start to figure things out, and things started chugging along. Elder Phillips and Elder Wayne made me breakfast that morning - pancakes, eggs, and a fruit smoothie, all colored green - my "greenie" breakfast! That cheered me up and made me laugh, and gave me the boost to get through the day. By the end of that day, I felt AWESOME. I had extended a baptismal invitation to someone they've been struggling with to get a commitment from, and she said yes! We had dinner with a member and the food was absolutely delicious, and then I shared the spiritual thought, which happened to fit right in with the mom's Book of Mormon study from that day. It was just a really great first day, and it got me pumped for this work! I was already way psyched to be here, but this day just made me even more so, and that excitement has lasted me till now and I have this feeling like it's going to keep on coming! I know there's going to be hard times (there already have been), but it's just so great to be out here!

Ok, so let me tell you about our investigators!
Demari - she's an older woman from Africa, and she speaks Swahili! It's so cool to hear her read the Book of Mormon and to speak. She speaks English too, but she understands Swahili much better. We have to teach super simply so she can understand in English, and the Book of Mormon helps her, since it's in her native language. She's the one that I committed to be baptized!
Cotter - he's a 19-year-old living with a member family. He's been coming to church and has a baptism planned for this next week! He's pretty great - we just have a couple things left to teach him and he's good to go!
Benedetta and Haura - these women are older, and they're from Belgium! I believe Benedetta is Haura's daughter, or maybe her younger sister. I couldn't tell, but they're family. They speak French, so we have a member from the ward come and translate for us. It was so fun trying to speak with them! I miss French. I forgot so much of it since I started learning Khmae, but I was still able to catch a lot of what they said! We had a really cool lesson with them yesterday. They both know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I can feel their faith, and they just agreed to be baptized! I'm excited for them, and I definitely want to pick up French again when I go home! I love Khmae more than French though, just to clarify. =]
Kanne - we were teaching her boyfriend, August, but he doesn't seem interested. Kanne, however, has such a strong desire to become closer to God. I hope to see her come to church soon and stuff. She wants to be baptized and know the truth, which is so great!
Florance - she's a member's friend, and she seems pretty receptive to the gospel. We just taught her the Plan of Salvation yesterday, and she liked that a lot, it seemed like.
Ricky - he's 45-ish years old and can't read, but he's such a happy guy. He wants to turn his life around and be baptized. His girlfriend that he lives with doesn't like us, though - mostly because of our last lesson we had with him. We were talking about the 10 commandments, and we got to adultery and explained what it means. She started yelling at us and almost kicked us out of their house, because the issue arose of needing to get married or separated before baptism. We have a couple other investigators with this issue, but it hasn't gotten this crazy before. Ricky was calm about it and willing to listen - he might be changing his mind, but at least he didn't go off the handle at us. It was a really uncomfortable experience...we'll see what happens this week.

We have some other investigators too, but those are our main ones that we spend the most time with!

We have dinner every Friday night with the only Cambodian family in our ward - that night was crazy. I didn't understand the majority of what they said, and they gave us SO MUCH FOOD, and we had to eat all of it...oh my goodness. It was crazy. I didn't know what to do with myself. Like I said before, I have a LONG way to go with this language. I did share a spiritual thought with them in Khmae, though! Simple and short, but still. I'm making progress!

We have a really great ward, and I'm enjoying getting to know the members when I can and when we eat dinner with them. The bishop called us Saturday night and asked us to speak in sacrament meeting the next day - all 3 of us. How's that for my first Sunday in the field? Hahaha. It went well though, I think. It was good practice for speaking last-minute!

I love being here (even though the wind can be AWFUL), and I'm so excited to see where this work goes and how these people progress! I've had all sorts of experiences the last few days, from an investigator running away from us into his house and not letting us in, to really moving and spiritual lessons as well. I'm learning a TON, and I'm psyched to see what else is in store!

Much love,
Elder DeLong