April 18, 2012

Damari and Florance BOTH passed their baptismal interviews! We're hoping to have their service on the 29th of this month. We're so happy and excited for them! Our other investigators continue to progress. Hanz actually called us and told us that he wants to get baptized! We're pretty psyched for him and his mom, Darlene, as well. We also have a couple new investigators that we've started working with and tons of referrals to contact. The work is never-ending! =D

I had my FIRST EVER Cambodian street contact! We were on exchanges again (I was in Lynn with Elder Swasey) and so I was the only one who spoke Cambodian (Elder Swasey speaks Spanish, and very well, I might add). We saw the lady and he was like "She's Cambodian!" and so I went and talked to her, in Cambodian! It was so awesome. She said I spoke very well, which is a HUGE compliment coming from a native speaker. I told her who I was and why I was there, and got her address and phone number to visit her again later. We haven't gotten a hold of her yet, but regardless, I was pretty stoked!

Mission life is rough, but I refuse to be a "creature of circumstance", as I once heard from a friend of mine. No one is going to determine how my mission will go except for me; the only thing I can control about any situation is my attitude towards it. And so, I press forward in faith! Along the same lines, I saw a quote the other day that I really like. It's now on a sticky note by my desk: "Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation."

The Cambridge Massachusetts stake had stake conference this last weekend, which was pretty great! I enjoyed it. Darlene and Hanz actually came to it! They drove all the way out to the stake center (the LDS population is a tad bit more spread out on the east coast...haha!), and they liked it a lot. Apparently, my voice has grown in strength and volume - the Elders that share our apartment were sitting a few rows in front of us, and they said they could hear me singing all the way up there. To quote one of them, "You've got the lungs of a camel, or something!" It was a funny moment.

Monday was a really cool day - we got to go to Lexington (yes, THE Lexington) and see a reenactment of the battle that took place there. "The Shot Hear 'Round the World" - the combat of the Revolutionary War started there! It was awesome. It was also really cool to think about how all of this was set up and happened so that the Restoration of the Gospel could take place! After the reenactment we all went over to a member's house (I swear, I think half the missionaries in the mission were there!) - they invite the mission over every year for this! They had breakfast for us (we had to be there at 4:30 AM for the reenactment! I believe it started at 5:30...), it was really great. Then we got to go to the temple for a few hours - the Boston temple is SO beautiful. It's down in Belmont, and it sits right on the top of this hill by the highway. It's incredible. I loved being there, I've missed it! We got to go to the Provo temple every week in the MTC! I guess I took that for granted. At any rate, it was wonderful to feel of the sacred Spirit that the temple brings. Monday was a really long day though, because after getting up early and doing all that, we got home around 1:00 PM, and still had to proselyte until 9:00 PM! Needless to say, I was exhausted.

Yes, it IS a Wednesday - we have P-day today instead of on Monday this week, since tomorrow is transfer meeting. They do this for the whole mission so that everyone who is getting transferred has time to pack and whatnot, and then tomorrow starts the new transfer! I'm not going anywhere, and neither is Elder Wayne. I have a couple weeks left in the training program, and then maybe one of us will get moved next transfer. We'll find out, I guess!

Much love,

Elder DeLong