Greetings from Lowell, MA!!!

The last time all of the Cambodian elders will be together- all but 3 go home by Dec. (Elder Ang is the one with the sunglasses- my new companion)

Transfer day and saying goodbye to Elder Langford

Well everybody, I'm up in Lowell now! It's been crazy...I've already been able to use more Cambodian, and having a native-speaking companion has helped a TON! I'm getting a lot better at Cambodian, speaking AND writing. Hopefully that helps as I translate during sacrament meeting this Sunday. Yeah...that should be fun. The ward here has to translate meetings into Cambodian, Spanish, and Portuguese! It's so multicultural, I love it. We're actually also over the local singles' ward, so that'll be an interesting experience as well.

Trying to keep up with all of these new names, faces, and places has been tough, but it's been a good experience so far! I'm really starting to like it here. My first night though, I woke up and freaked out for a split second because I couldn't figure out where I was or how I got there...and then I remembered that I got transferred.

Up until Thursday morning, I was nervous and upset about having to leave Revere...but then once transfer meeting started, I was filled with this sense of peace and this "knowing" that me going to Lowell was right. After that, I just got excited for my new area! Plus, I had been in Lowell for a mere couple of hours on my first day when we started planning for this week, and I was taken by surprise to realize that I was already receiving revelation for this area. I know that the Lord has a purpose for me here - now it's my job to figure out what that purpose is!

As a quick sidenote, the missionary that Elder Langford is now training is named Elder Yu, and he's from Hong Kong, where my dad served his mission!

Driving from transfer meeting to Lowell took us through a couple of country highways, and my goodness, the leaves out here at this time of year are absolutely breathtaking. I've never seen anything like this in person. Trees everywhere are all shades of red, orange, yellow, and green...it's incredible.

In addition to the language, I'm already learning a lot from my new companion, Elder Ang. He goes about this work in such a relaxed, jovial, carefree, yet dedicated and genuine way, which is definitely something I need to work on. I really like that, and I hope to be able to apply those attributes to my own missionary service.

As of this last Sunday, I've been on my mission for 10 months, which is crazy to think about. It feels like I've been out for a long time, but then again, it feels like time is just flying by. I hope to be able to accomplish all the work that the Lord has for me to do in my time here.

General Conference was amazing! I was pretty excited for the temple in Tucson - that makes 6 in Arizona!!! There's an Elder serving here (there are 4 Elders in this ward), speaking Portuguese, who's from Gilbert - he and I were pretty happy about that. But then Pres. Monson made the announcement of the ages changing - I'm STILL absolutely thrilled about it. There's going to be so many more sister missionaries serving, which is an enormous blessing. Sisters are powerful missionaries. Elders are great too, but there's just something about sister missionaries in this work. Both the extension of ages is going to greatly advance the work of the Lord. I'm excited for my own little brothers and many others who will be able to serve at younger ages! I feel honored to be serving my mission at such a historic time. In addition to the announcements, conference was exactly what I needed to hear. I had many prayers answered through the words of the prophets and apostles, as I always do. There was a lot of fantastic counsel on raising children (hey, I'm going to be a father someday, I need to know these things!) as well as on serving others.

We got to go to the temple yesterday, which was really nice. It's been about 5 months since I last did an endowment session, so I was very grateful for the opportunity. I'm also grateful for this opportunity to be serving the Lord as one of His chosen missionaries. I'm healthy, I'm happy, and I'm doing well. May God bless you all as much as He's blessing me!

Love,
Elder DeLong