Well, it's official.....

Boston temple trip Sept. 2012

Boston temple trip Sept. 2012

The Cambodian program of the Massachusetts Boston Mission has officially been closed. Actually, I'm not sure what it takes to "officially" close a language program...but we found out that the Church will no longer be sending Cambodian-speaking missionaries to this mission. Elder Cannon, the newest Cambodian Elder, was transferred to Cambodia and left a couple weeks ago. This means that Elder Langford will be the very last Cambodian Elder to ever serve here, making me the second-to-last, and his trainer. It's pretty crazy to think about. They'll keep us here in this mission, but no more will be called here. It's going to be interesting...by the end of this year, there will only be 3 of us left (add in my trainer, Elder Wayne). I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen to us...only time will tell.

The weather here has been cooling down, and it's absolutely beautiful! This is the kind of weather that I love the best - high 60s, low 70s. Summer's over, and it seemed to go by really REALLY fast! I'm getting scared for this winter...this last winter was very mild, and according to natives, this winter should be pretty intense. I'm trying not to think about it!

Ginnette and her son Roberto are our two newest progressing investigators! They're solid, and we're really excited to be working with them. Roberto is 12 and he really loves coming to church and going to Young Men's activities. He AND his mom accepted a baptismal invitation this week! Also, another one of our current investigators, Rob (not to be confused with Roberto) came to serve with us at the soup kitchen in Lynn this week! It's really cool to see how getting people to serve WITH us rather than just serving them helps them to learn more. As people serve alongside us, they are able to feel the Spirit testifying to them of their kind actions and good deeds in a unique way that they wouldn't be able to feel from anything else.

We've been doing a LOT of "detective work" for our Bishop these last 2 or 3 weeks, and it's going really well. We met with him this week and he was very impressed with our efforts. We've also been meeting with the presidents of the priesthood quorums and auxiliaries to see how we can help each of them in their missionary work and in their callings. The results from our push with the members of the ward here to do more missionary work and to have us over to teach these "Member Missionary Lessons" has been pretty incredible! I really love this ward, and Elder Langford and I are having a blast helping these members as they strive to share the gospel with others.

On Saturday, our ward had a temple trip for the youth and recent converts to do baptisms for the dead, and our zone leaders gave us permission to go. It was amazing! We had 7 recent converts there, 3 of which haven't even been members for a month yet! They all loved it, as did we. Elder Langford and I got to help out by doing confirmations. I really, really love the temple. Even though we didn't get to do an endowment session, we still felt the indescribable Spirit that is always present in the House of the Lord.

This last Friday, I hit my 9-month mark. I can't believe I've been a missionary for that long already! What's even more crazy is that if I was a sister missionary, I'd be halfway done now. Time is going by so quickly, much faster than I'd like. I hope to learn everything I'm supposed to learn and become who I need to be in the time I'm here. I love our Savior and I am so thankful to Him for the changes that He is making in me.

Godspeed, everyone!

Elder DeLong