Elder Long in New York: May 2014

Hey Mom and others!

This week has been...all over the place. I'm not sure where to begin.
Elder Witbeck went home this morning...well, to the mission home. He
flys home tomorrow (Thursday) morning. Now, Elder Alivio is going home
too. It's a long story, but just pray for him. I'm gonna miss the guy.
He is such an awesome missionary and person. But, now that Witbeck AND
Alivio AND Cloward are leaving, I'm taking over 2 areas with two
missionaries. My new companions name is Elder Berube. And elder
Alivio's companion was suppose to be Elder Steiner, but now us three
will be in a trio. At least for a few weeks. So, it's gonna be rough
because Only Ray and I have the knowledge of all the people that were
in Witbecks and Alivio's area. You guys have no idea how helpful Ray
is to us. He is such a beast! We meet with him every single day. He is
like a whole other missionary, but with tons and tons of knowledge for
the area. Addresses, streets, landmarks, you name it he can help,
haha. I'm gonna miss Cloward. We were just getting along really really
well. Like, bros. but, it's time for me to leave my "Dad" haha. I'm no
longer training!!!

Dan and John are doing well. Mainly John. Dan hasn't met with us in a
few weeks cause he is so busy, but we still have faith in him. His
baptism will not be this week, haha. No way. The requirement is that
you need to attend church 3 times before your baptism. He hasn't gone
once. But John on the other hand has gone 4 times! He is working on
it. The only problem is his parents. They said he could get baptized
but first they had a few questions for us. So they emailed this list
of questions to us and Ray discovered that they copy pasted from a
website that says: "Questions that Mormons have a had time answering".
So, we aren't sure how they view it, but Ray wants to get the bishop
in on it, which would be smart. Our bishop is amazing. Ah! You guys,
I'm am so freaking blessed to be in this area and ward. Such amazing
members and people. I can't emphasize it enough. They are awesome! And
the way they say "awesome" is awesome, haha.

That's so cool about you going to Reno and vegas...again! Jeez Mom.
You are just flying all over the place. You're lucky you married a
loving and forgiving man haha. I'm sure he misses you all the time.

Oh! So, a family in our ward got sealed last week. Guess who got to
attend?!?! This Elder! Man that was so awesome!! We got to go to their
endowment and then their sealing! Again...thanks to Ray for driving
and being a boss! They are such an awesome family. They Jaya's. The J
is like an H. Like, "Hiya". He is from Ecuador and she is from Brazil,
but she's basically American, haha. She feeds us every Sunday night.
It's delicious.

Well, I will give you a better update next week. Especially since this
next week will be more hectic. I'm super excited to call you guys on
mothers day. I have skype and FaceTime on my iPad, so whichever is
easiest for you guys. Probably FaceTime on dad's iPad. You should get
John James and Jeremy and Caitlin to come!! I wanna see them too!
Haha. But mostly my momma :) Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure I saw
you in the temple last week. No joke. This lady looked EXACTLY like
you. Same hair color and curl, same height, same everything except
your face (I like your face better). I was freaking out. I just wanted
to go give her a hug and hope that it was you! I was getting mad
Trunky haha. I missed you so much after that. I love you mom!! I hope
your back is getting better! I miss you!

Love, your son,

Elder Branndin Brian Long

"This is our less active, Brother Fink. He isnt less active anymore
cause we re activated him! Cool huh. A re activation is just like a
baptism. He is awesome. He gave Cloward and me Air Force lanyards."

Hola Como Estas?!

I've been trying/wanting to learn Spanish. The Spanish sisters in my
district are helping us learn some Spanish, haha. We play soccer every
Tuesday in hopes of finding investigators. And every week, there are
more and more Hispanics there. Last night, elder Cloward and I were
the only Caucasians playing, haha! Man it was fun! Usually I play
goalie cause I've never played soccer before, but I actually played
last night and I had so much fun. Soccer is actually pretty awesome!
Not as cool as American football of baseball, but it's still pretty
cool.

This week has been ridiculous! Something pretty crazy happened last
Wednesday. Hold on to your chair mom, but our house got broken
into...Yeah. I guess "broken into" is a little worse, but someone came
into our house and took stuff. I'll tell you the story. So, last
Wednesday we were gone like all day. That was the day we watched the
Saratov approach. Well, we got home around 9:30 and I was at my study
desk doing nightly planning with Cloward. I had the urge to grab one
of my gatorades (I have some for the gym) and they were gone! So I
said to Cloward: "haha, nice one. Can I have my gatorades?" And he
just laughed and said he didn't take them. I didn't believe him at
first but but he quickly reassured me that he didn't. He looked for
his gatorades and saw that his were still there, so only mine were
gone. So who am I gonna blame next? Witbeck and Alivio, right? Yup.
That's what I did for the next day. I even searched the whole house
and couldn't find them. So the next day passes. Come Thursday night,
Cloward's Gatorade is gone now! What in the world! So now both Cloward
and I jokingly blame Witbeck and Alivio for "Hiding" our Gatorade.
Come the NEXT day, Friday, Cloward looks in his box of birthday
presents and boom. Those are gone too! Now Cloward is super mad. So
Friday morning I walk downstairs and say: "Hey guys. Do you like going
to the temple? Cause in the interview they ask you if you're honest in
the dealings with your fellow men!" And that made Witbeck mad, so he
raised his voice and said: "Long! We did NOT take your stuff! I'm
sorry your stuff is missing, but WE didint take it!" So now, who took
it? That's when we concluded that someone came into our house and took
just those items. Our Gatorade and Cloward's birthday presents. Sad
thing is, Cloward didn't know what they were because he couldn't open
them until his birthday! Ray had to email his parents and ask what he
had. It was about $70 worth of stuff. Okay, here goes the saddest
part. On Sunday, I was going to out on the watch that Alex gave me (I
only wear it with suits) and that was gone...I was so mad!!! That
watch not only had sentimental value, but it's worth $500. So now it's
completely serious. So yesterday, Tuesday, we called the non emergency
hotline to report our robbery. Within 10 minutes, we had to police
officers in our house, haha. So they investigated and gave us a paper
to fill out and report our robbery. They were awesome, so hopefully we
can figure out who did it. We are kinda suspecting that it was Ryan
because his house is connected to our house and he can just walk on
the roof and come through our window, which was unlocked. One detail
that I forgot to mention was that only stuff from upstairs was taken
and Alivio's and Witbeck's stuff wasn't even touched! So lame. But
yeah. Pretty crazy. It's been teaching us a humbling lesson. We have
actually been praying for the robber. I never thought I'd do that but
maybe he was poor, or maybe it was a child, cause who steals Gatorade?
Haha. It's just a different experience to see it in the perspective of
a missionary, a person who is trained to love all. So, I'm. It too
bitter about it. Mainly just the watch :(

I got your awesome package mom!! The shirt is a little small. I think
it's a youth XL. So, if you want I can send it back and you can get a
different size. I left the tags on too.

Oh, so you know how I said we play soccer every Tuesday? Well this
little 8 year old kid who comes to soccer was talking to me and he was
talking about all the video games he plays. Of course I agreed on some
of them, like Minecraft and call of duty, but he plays till midnight?!
Whoa! I was like: "Dude! You're 8! You need a bedtime!" Then he asked
me what a bedtime was, haha! I just face palmed. It was crazy. And
last week, the same kid was talking about cell phones and he was
complaining about how he doesn't have one. So I said: "That's okay,
you're only 8 years old." And he said: "But all the kids in my class
have iPhone 5's." My jaw dropped! I said: "dude! When I was your age,
I didn't have a cell phone!" Then he said the phrase that changed my
life..."Yeah, but you didn't have cell phones when you were my age." A
recent convert named Jesus (Hispanic) said: " Oh!!! Feel old yet Elder
Long?! Feel old yet!?" Haha. So funny.

We have this new investigator named John. I think I told you about
him. I was told he was from Jamaica and I think I told you guys that.
Well...he isn't from Jamaica, haha. He's full on white from east New
York. But he is so beast!! We have a term called "golden
investigator." It just means that they follow up on commitments and
fulfill their goals that we set with them. But John surpasses them!
He's a platinum investigator! We asked him to read part of 1 Nephi and
he read 1 Nephi, 3 Nephi and Moroni. Not just some verses. The entire
books! Crazy huh! He said: I know I'm suppose to be baptized. It says
it in Moroni." So he wants to read the entire Book of Mormon before he
gets baptized so he wants a few weeks. So we set the 24th of May as a
goal for him to reach. We tried the 7th of May but he feels like
that's not enough time to read, so we pushed it back a ways, but man!
He is so awesome! Hopefully I don't get transferred next week! Cause I
wanna see him get baptized! We are still working with Dan, our other
investigator. We haven't met with him in a while because he has been
super busy. So, pray for him.

Witbeck goes home next week. So things are crazy here. We are all
making predictions of who is going where. Some think Alivio is gonna
train, some think I'm going to the Bronks (Mainly just Cloward) and
some think Cloward is going to South Manhattan. So we will see! I
guess I will let you know next week.

Will Swenson! (From Singles Ward ) ;)