Is it spring yet, or not?

I swear, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say "I'm all set," or "We're all set"...my goodness. I want to make a T-shirt that says "I'm all set" with "Boston MA" underneath that. That's the phrase here: "All set."

The weather here has been quite interesting. In the beginning/middle of March, it got really warm and SO beautiful, and then it got way cold again. And recently it's been warming up...and then the last few days it's gotten cold and windy again. It rained all day yesterday and is still raining today. I feel like nature can't make up its mind on what time of year it is.

We met these two little boys last week, who were probably about 6 and 10, ish. Their family are all Seventh-Day Adventists, and their parents were NOT interested, but they were! We talked to them for a while and had a lesson with them outside their home. It's too bad that we can't teach them without their parents, but they loved the Book of Mormon. Maybe their parents' hearts will be softened and other missionaries can teach their family at a later time.

Damari and Florance are all ready for baptism - we planned their baptismal service with them yesterday! It will be next Sunday, after church. Woo hoo! =D
I can't believe how blessed I am. In my first two transfers I will have seen 5 baptisms of our own investigators already! Wow. At any rate, we are way psyched for them!

It's back to P-days on Mondays again. At the end of each transfer, P-day is on Wednesday. So last week on Wednesday, we went and saw the Charlestown Naval Yard, home of the U.S.S. Constitution - "Old Ironsides!" She is the oldest commissioned warship afloat! So that was way cool. There's a couple museums there, and an old destroyer ship from WWII as well - the U.S.S. Cassin Young. It reminded me of my Grandpa on my dad's side, who was in the Navy, stationed on aircraft carriers.

Pres. Evans interviewed me and Elder Wayne this last week. He's a wonderful man and I had a great talk with him about my struggles as well as the things that are going well and all that I'm learning. It's going to be interesting having to adjust to the new mission president, who starts in July.

I wanted to close this email by describing what happened this last Thursday. It was an incredible day - probably the best day I've had out here. I was completely blown away by how everything turned out, and how guided we were. The hand of God was truly made manifest unto us. I will never, ever forget this day.
We had our weekly planning session, and went out to proselyte and teach and such around 4:00 PM. Our investigator who had an appointment with us at 6:00 that evening cancelled with us, but said she would be available at 8:00 instead. Our member who was supposed to come with us to the lesson couldn't make it anymore since it was later, so we scrambled around trying to find someone. We finally did, but he lives in Lynn and the appointment was in East Boston and we would have to pick him up. We were desperate though, since we wouldn't be able to teach her if we didn't have another adult male, so we agreed to pick him up. To counteract having to drive up to Lynn, we went around, trying to contact our referrals that live in Lynn. Our efforts there are usually pretty unsuccessful - people don't seem to like answering their doors or their phones for us...but not this time. We contacted several people who we haven't been able to get ahold of for about a month, and we set return appointments with 3 of them who were interested! And then, when another person we tried to contact wasn't home, we were walking down from his porch, but there was this other man on the sidewalk walking towards where we were. I had this strong, distinct impression that he was the reason why we came there at that moment. We talked to him, and actually ended up teaching him the entire first lesson and giving him a Book of Mormon right there on the side of the street. It was pretty awesome! We were so guided by the Spirit to visit all these people, in the order that we did and at the times we did. And THEN, since we had to take time to go pick up that member for the appointment, we had to take a little extra time driving to where he lives and then all the way back down to East Boston. When we were walking from the car to where our investigator there lives, we ran into this young guy who, as it turns out, is a less-active member who recently moved here from Costa Rica. He's like 20, and we're going to visit him this week. He seems really cool and excited to get back to church. Then we get to the home of our investigator, and find out from her mom that she's sleeping. But then, we found another less-active member who we haven't been able to contact until now. It blows my mind to think that if things hadn't worked out in the exact way that they did, we wouldn't have been able to talk to all of these people and set appointments with them. It's crazy, because our Heavenly Father had to have influenced the lives of all of these people to work together in the exact, perfect way for all of this to work out. He is truly preparing people for the gospel. He cares so much about each and every one of His children. AND THEN...to round off this amazing day, we went to Wendy's to grab some dinner before heading home at 9:00 PM (we didn't get to eat dinner that night). Turns out the people in front of us in line were a married couple that are members of the church, visiting here for a couple days from Seattle for the husband's cousin's wedding. They immediately offered to pay for our food. Talk about blessings! It was an unforgettable day. Being that guided by the Spirit is how every day should be out here. It was an incredible experience.

Much love and best wishes to all!

Elder DeLong