Letter from April 9th 2014

Whaddup Y'all!

So, this past week has been super awesome! Let's start with last
Friday. Our Fridays are pretty packed. We usually have 3-4 lessons
every Friday. Well, we went with Ray to a lesson and as we got there,
we realized that we forgot our bags in our car! In my mind I was like
"oh crap. How in the world are we gonna teach a lesson now?!" So we
went in there with no teaching material whatsoever. I think we had
ray's phone for scriptures, but that's it. We taught her a boss
lesson! It was so cool! We relied on the spirit 100% and it worked.
Then! After we had that lesson, we went to an appointment that we set
up earlier that week. We had gotten a referral from a member so we
decided to go look him up. We met with him and we taught him the
restoration...boy was that cool. I have the first vision memorized so
the spirit was chillin in the room with us, haha. We (I) invited him
to be baptized and he accepted. He knows that it's what The Lord
wants. He understands that he needs to be baptized to enter the
kingdom of God! Its so cool! After our lesson with him...oh his name
is Dan. After our lesson with him, I got so pumped for missionary
work. I realized what I was actually doing out here. I'm not here to
make friends. I'm not here to drive a car around New York. I'm here to
brings everyone unto Christ and change their life! I knew that from
the start but wow! It's so awesome!

We are going to the temple today. I'm excited! Oh, and I don't think I
ever told you guys, but when missionaries in our mission are about to
go home, they get to see a broadway play. So today, Elder Witbeck is
going to see Les Mis. I'm so jealous. But I get to go to the temple,
so that jealous rage should quit soon.

We had dinner at the Cotters last night. They are a family in our
ward.mi confessed my ultimate love for pizza rolls to her. So in a few
weeks, she is gonna make us homemade pizza rolls! She is Italian too!
I'm way excited.

Conference was sooooo awesome!!!!!! Mom, Dad...I don't think I have
EVER stayed awake for the entire conference. Nor have I ever taken
beast notes! But I did both! I learned so much! I too liked that
garbage one, haha. I had a ton of favorites. All of Uchtdorfs were
sweet. I'm not sure if you got a chance to see the priesthood session,
but president Uchtdorf talked about how the presidency got to tour Air
Force one. And he got to sit in the cockpit and without even realizing
it, he put his hands on the thrusters and president Monson said:
"Dieter! Don't you think about it!" Haha! It's funny to see that they
are actual human beings, haha.

Thank you for sending that package! I haven't gotten it yet cause Ray
wasn't home yesterday. I should get it shortly.

Recently I have started telling myself that my missionary work is for
The Lord and no one else. It's so hard to get caught up in other
things. I get really mad easily, you all know that. And so the people
I live with have often flipped that switch. I've never yelled at them,
but I have gotten pretty upset with them. I am learning to control it
all and to not worry about it. Elder Cloward and I are ironing out all
the kinks. We are getting along better and our work is more
productive. That stinks at the same time cause we are predicting that
he will get transferred this next cycle. So we will see.

I love you guys! I hope work won't be a huge burden for you mom. I
love you so much and I'm so grateful for yours and dad's sacrifice of
putting me on a mission. I'm so grateful for your examples and for the
way you have raised me. I'm sorry that I didn't always obey. I really
wished I had. But that's what the atonement is for! Haha. Miss and
love you guys!

Elder Branndin Brian Long

Ps, if I don't get around to emailing everyone, especially dad, it's
cause I will be in the City today. So just make sure you inform
everyone of that.

Letter from 4/2/2014

Hey!

That's a crazy story about Brennleigh and Aria Flying all over the
place! That sounds extremely frustrating! I know I would be frustrated
after all of that. Jeanne Suarez told me she messaged you. Haha, she
is pretty awesome. She is one of the less actives we are working with.
She is less active because of health problems, but she knows the
gospel pretty well. But she always provides for the missionaries.
Every time we go over, she just HAS to give us something. Food,
beverage, etc. It's funny. We ate dinner at the Merricks on Monday.
They are an older couple. Man they're so cool! Sister Merrick always
has a goodie bag for us. She gave us some healthy snacks and a few
weeks ago they went to Hawaii and she brought us back some snacks from
Hawaii. Brother Merrick plays the Bagpipes. He is one of those guys
who plays in parades and stuff. He has like 3 kilts! Haha. He also
played us some songs on the bagpipes! I took some videos that I'll
send you.

We have about 4 potential investigators and we have been working with
a few less actives. The hard part about it all, is all of our
potential investigators are supy busy ALL the time! We haven't gotten
a chance to meet with any...yet. There is this 16 year old boy named
John. He is from Jamaica. He came to church last week because he has a
friend who is a member in Connecticut. But John lives in our area, so
we will be teaching him. He wants to come to conference with us this
weekend too. Man, am I excited! We have been talking about conference
for a while! We call it the missionary Super Bowl, haha. I have never
been so excited for general conference before!! Love it! I'm glad you
liked the women's meeting! We invited a few of our sisters who are
less actives to go to that. I heard a lot of good things about it.

So, Facebook is coming along. I am still cleaning up my
Facebook...gah. It's filled with years and years of just random junk.
I wish I could just make a new one! But I can't. I'm almost done, I
just had to delete or hide some photos, delete some posts, and unlike
tons of things. But I was able to find Robert on Facebook. He has
iPads and Facebook like me! So that's cool.

I went to the post office and gave them that tracking number. All they
told me was that it was delivered on Thursday. So, if it has
insurance, USE IT! That's sooo not fair that it's just gone! That
makes me really really upset. Especially since there was money
involved! Please tell me that it wasn't a whole lot :( I hope you can
get money back or something. So, from now on. Send me packages to the
mission office or Brother Smiths house. (We call him Ray). Then when I
get transferred, only send them to the mission office. I don't want
things to get stolen. That's so upsetting. But! I got the fedex
package you sent me! Mom, you're a beast. Thank you so much!! And for
the flyer too! Haha. Thanks mom. I love you! I'm also sorry that you
lost your backpack! That thing is your life! Man...I hate losing
things!!!!!!

Things have been going okay here. More and more I feel like Cloward
annoys me with the littlest things...but I'm dealing with it. We have
been working out at the gym a lot lately. I love it. We get up at 5:45
every morning (which is surprisingly easy) and we work out for an
hour. I've ran a mile every day! I'm so proud of myself! It's awesome.
I really need to lose weight :( It's sad of how big I am now. I was
175 all through high school and now I'm like stuck at 230. It's
ridiculous! Haha.

Thanks for all of the support! I love you guys!! I hope you find your
backpack mom. You're gonna be so bored without your laptop! Haha.

Love y'all!!

Elder Branndin Brian Long

Happy Birthday Elder Long! (Letter from March 26th)

Whaddup?!

Mom, I really hope you get better :( It makes me so upset to hear that you are in pain. I can't even help you out with things like groceries and other heavy lifting. I love you mom. I hope that these last injections help. You don't deserve to be in pain >:(

Well, I got some awesome party stuff from my sister and also some snacks! Then I got a package from Caitlin that had some snacks and a Deadmau5 beanie! It's super cool! Then I got this weird package from "the Longs?" I'm not sure what it was but it was tons of delicious ingredients that made my day. I think it was suppose to be a burrito. Haha, naw. Seriously, words can NOT express of how awesome that gift was, Mom. Wow! It was soo good! And Cloward liked it too! It reminded me of home. It was so nice :) Who went with you to order the burrito? Or who helped you? It HAD to have been Jeremy, John or James. They are the only ones who knows exactly what we get. Thank you again. That was like, the most creative gift ever! It was still cold when I opened it too! Oh and a little heads up. USPS is horrible about packages. Every package I got from them has been damaged. Brianna's has a hole in it, Caitlin's was completely opened, and with yours, a couple of the items in the box were damaged. The Ziplock tubs were cracked and the lids broke :/ But we still use them in the apartment. But yeah. USPS is horrible. They're careless. Elder Alivio gave me an awesome New York hat, haha. It's sweet. The sisters also got me a cake. So needless to say, I had a pretty great birthday! Oh, and I got a bunch of Cards and Emails! So thank you to all who gave me those!

I got permission to use Facebook! So now I will be an online proselyter! It's pretty cool. President Morgan talked to is yesterday about how important Facebook really is to missionary work. We are suppose to make posts almost every day and they're called "inspired posts". Basically what that means, is we pray about what we should post about and then receive inspiration from The Lord about what to post. We have been told by the leaders of the church that Facebook was "made" for missionary work. It wasn't really, but it's an amazing tool for missionary work. So I encourage you all to use your Facebook for missionary work more! Post more about your testimony and share more about the gospel. Sooo many people see what you post. You will never know who's heart you will touch when you make an inspired post. It's remarkable. 

We have NOT played that game with Ryan yet. We play basketball with the elders quorum every Wednesday night. There are a bunch of non members who play and we invited Ryan to come to those. He and a friend came last week. It got really competitive. I was getting so heated haha. I love it when my adrenaline just pumps when I play sports. Like, my head starts throbbing and my eyes start throbbing, haha. It's weird but awesome. We are actually going up to Kingston today to play sports with our zone. 

We recently just got the LDS Tool app and I can see the records from our stake back home! It's so cool. Our family is the only family with pictures up haha. And it still says that I'm aSunday school worker. I feel like I should get more credit than that! I'm a missionary! I teach more than just Sunday school! Haha.

Hey mom, if it really isint TOO much to ask or send, would it be okay for you to send me my black Oregon hoodie? I only have formal coats and stuff. I just don't want you to pay tons of money to ship a huge package cause I already asked you to send my suit and stuff. Idk, I just want tons of stuff. I really wished I took more. What they asked me to bring is completely different than it really is. Like, we can wear khakis. So now I want khakis cause all I have are grey and black. Idk, I really hope I'm not sounding needy lol. I just want a hoodie cause when we work out in the mornings it's cold and when we have p days, it's usually cold. How is the iPod thing coming? Thank you so much for doing that. I think I'm a little confused on what you were telling me. So am I getting Dads black iPod that was in his truck and you are giving him my old iPod touch or what? I'm totally okay with anything, I'm just confused. But again, thank you! You're such a boss, mom! 

It's okay that you don't "have much to tell me this week" cause I feel the same haha. We have been teaching the same people. Which I will be able to introduce you too shortly with Facebook. Oh, and if you have questions about Facebook just let me know. We have weekly Facebook events and yes, you...my mom...are able to join the events. Just keep it gospel related. Don't be like: "Hi son! How are you?" Haha. I'll be inviting you to the events every so often. But yeah, I can introduce you to Jeanne, the lady who made me ziti and Mountain Dew. She LOVES talking to missionaries moms haha. She will give you the scoop on me for sure. I hope I'm behaving...lol. 

I love you!! I hope all is well back in A town. I sure am grateful to have come from there. I love where I grew up! I am also grateful for all my friends that I made there. It TRUELY is my home. I love it. 

Have a great week! Love you all. Especially you mom and dad!

Love, Elder Branndin Brian Long

Mom sent Elder Long and his companion his FAVORITE mexican burrito!

Hope you had a great birthday across the US! It seems like you were very spoiled! We love you! Keep on truckin'!