Letter From Hermana DeLong July 4, 2012

Hello family and friends! We meet again :). Well this week has been
alright. Things are a little bit off here in Midwood. We haven't
taught a lesson since Monday. (I'm currently writing this in my
journal on Sunday be P-Day isn't until Wednesday so it might change
later in this letter.) It's weird because we had a good lesson with
Carina on Monday and there were members there with us. It went pretty
well, but since then we haven't really had success.
The thing about mission work is that you can work really hard all day
and you wont actually see the fruits of your labors. Of course as they
say, no effort is wasted. But it's hard to look back on your day and
not see much. Especially for me. After working two jobs and working
really hard at both of them, at the end of the day I could see where
my work went. I could see that something was organized or a task was
finished. Maybe I just don't have the "missionary eyes" yet. Because I
feel like when I talk to people my words don't stick.
Faith. It takes faith. Who would've thought that I would be getting up
each day at 6:30 in the morning to go out and share the gospel? I
never thought it would REALLY happen. So now that I am here, I feel
slightly lost. Is my testimony strong enough for this? Do I love my
Savior enough to share this gospel with others? The answer is of
course yes, but it takes time.
My companions keep telling me to stop being so hard on myself. But I
guess it's just Dad coming out in me. I know I can do more and when I
don't rise to the occasion, I step back for a minute, evaluate, and go
back to work. If there were on thing (out of many) that I have
learned from Dad it is that working is how you succeed in life. And
it's the exact same with the gospel. We got our new mission President
this week. President Calderwood, and that is the number 2 thing he
emphazied. That he came here to work and he isn't going to stop. The
first thing was that if we remembered anything he ever said it would
be that God is our Heavenly Father and that he, went through so much
bitter pain as a parent and sent his son Jesus Christ to earth to
atone and die for our sins. He watched his son writhe in pain, but he
did it because he loved us all. Christ is the Risen Lord, the atoning
sacrafice, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace. I learned so much
from him in just a short 20 minute talk. He is great and his whole
family came too. They have three sons and three daughters. But only
their two youngest will be living with them here in New York. Their
youngest daughter Lily is 8 and she sang in front of the whole mission
on Saturday. She has a great voice and is sooo sweet.
It's now Tuesday morning and yesterday was not the greatest. We went
to visit a less active yesterday named Armando he is pretty cool but I
guess he doesn't come to church because we don't call him every week
and invite him. We tried to explain to him that church should be there
for him to come because he loves his Heavenly Father. Not because of
the people. Afterwards we went upstairs in that same building to knock
a door and we found the roof entrance!! I've included some pictures of
it. It was so fun You can see the Brooklyn Bridge in one of them!!
Well after that we went to teach a lesson at one of our investigators
houses. Elie, It was a good lesson. Except, half way throught I
started to feel sick. We were supposed to take some less actives to a
Family Home Evening at the Bishops house, but they juked us (ditched),
it ended up being a good thing because I was really sick. So we went
home and I tried to sleep but I couldn't. So I ended up getting sick.
I think I had the 24 hour flu. My body was so achey and I was in a lot
of pain. But the work must go on! So I took a nap and we also got to
go to Target today!
We went to training meeting out in Rego Park and afterwards we went to
Target. I spent the best $20 ever spent. I bought a foam mattress
topper! Thank you to the Canfields!!! :D
It's now wednesday afternoon and we just got back from Coney Island!
It was really cool. We went out to the beach early at about 7:30 this
morning. The Elders were playing football and we just put our feet in
the water. I added some pictures of that too. After that we went and
got Hot Dogs from the ORIGINAL NATHANS HOT DOGS. They were good. Elder
Ibarra bought them for us, which was really nice of him. I had one
with saurkraut and onions! Dad you would be so proud! It was actually
pretty good, but it smells like poo. haha We watched the Men's round
of the Hot Dog Eating Contest and the guy who won ate 68 hot dogs in
10 minutes. It was pretty disgusting.
I LOVED all of my treat and stuff. ESPECIALLY my back pack. Thank you
for sending me all that I wanted for my Birthday. You are the best
family and friends ever. I feel spoiled rotten, and everyone thinks I
am because all my packages came in one day so I litterally at 9
packages all for me! We had to have everyone help us carry it all up
to our pad it was nuts! I haven't opened the wrapped presents yet,
because my companions wont let me until tomorrow. But I'm sure
whatever it is, I will love it and I will thank you again for it next
Monday. :) My district bought me and Brooklyn Industries shirt for my
birthday. It's really cute and I like it a lot. My district is the
best ever. I love them.
Other than that, things are good here in Brooklyn. After two days of
being incredibly ill I'm happy to be feeling normal again. Being sick
on the mission is worse, because you can't just drop everything. My
companions have taken really good care of me though! I love them!