It was a week of miracles 4-4-11

Hi everybody! Grandma could you do me a favor and send this around for me? I guess my family already took off. Thanks a ton. Well like the subject says, it really was a week of miracles. So many things happened. Just to start off, Nazaret called me last Monday and like I said she wanted to talk to us on Tuesday morning. Well Monday night her mom called and said she needed to talk to us before we came over on Tuesday morning and her daughter couldn't know that we had talked to her. We ran over there real quick and she said that Nazaret wanted to be baptized and she wanted me to do it before I left. And then she said that she wasn't going to give her permission to do it. My heart sunk but at the same time I was so happy that Nazaret wanted to be baptized. We talked for awhile and we just bore our testimonies. Pablo came with us and he shared the experience of his dad being baptized when he was young and how it blessed his life but she didn't budge. She told me that I would have to explain the situation the next morning. On Tuesday morning Nazaret called crying and said that we didn't need to come over anymore because she just had a question. Then she said "well I wanted to be baptized but I can't because I don't have my parents permission." It was really sad to hear. I just told her not to lose hope and to keep praying and that everything would turn out ok. We have been praying and fasting but her mom still hasn't given her permission. Nazaret has been happy though and I consider it a miracle that she wants to be baptized. I know there is still a chance for her to be baptized before I leave too. Its not over till its over right? Another miracle is that Isabel has come back. She told me she has been so up and down because of depression problems and that sometimes she wants to hide her faith. We explained to her that in moments like that she needs to put her faith in front of everything and know that everything is going to turn out ok. Thats when she needs to rely on the Lord. She has thought it over a lot and she is sure this is what she wants. She is going to be baptized April 16th. We were teaching investigators all week and we ended up with 20 lessons when we only taught 13 last week. More miracles haha. Me and Elder Hales just kept looking at each other shrugging and saying its the week of the miracles: I know that the Lord blessed us so much this week for our faith and our diligence and that he will continue to do so if we do our part. It was awesome to see the Lords hand so much this week. I received so many answers to questions in General Conference and from President Cleggs message this week. Elder Hales also had a personal miracle this week. His sister has been trying to adopt the little boy of his brother for over a year and half. The brother isn't able to take care of him so she has been fighting for custody for that long. His sister has also had two miscarriages and has many problems having babies on her own. The grandparents of the other family wanted the little boy too and it looked like they were going to get custody. Last week Elder Hales got the news that his sister won the case and gets to adopt the little boy this May. He was so happy and thats how the week started. Its been a good way to end out here. I'm going to miss it all. Its hard saying goodbye to members and investigators. I've learned so much from all of them and I've had so many spiritual experiences with them. Oh! One more little story. Rafa has been studying for his career and was really stressed and nervous this last week. He decided to pray and after his prayer, we showed up at his door. He said he knew we came for a reason and asked for a blessing. Everything turned out good for him. Well family and friends I love you tons. Thank you for these last two years. You've always been there for me and I'm convinced I have the best family and the best set of friends in the world haha. I love you all and I know the church is true. God is our loving Father and His Son Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We have a living prophet. I can't wait to see you all next week! Have a good one.

Elder Langston

This week is the week of miracles 3-28-11

Hi family and friends,

I can´t believe its here. My last week in the field. How is everybody doing? I hope you are all doing awesome! I´m doing really good. Today was a ton of fun. All of the missionaries in the zone and some of my native friends came to play soccer for our last time. We had a ton of fun. We invited Patricio to come with us and he loved it. He didn´t look like a 57 year old out there playing with us. He kept up the whole time! Well now I´ll fill you all in with what happened last week. We had our appointment with Nazaret, the girl whose mom contacted Elder Smith and Elder Barney last week. She is awesome! She is sixteen and has a boyfriend who is a member that lives in Texas. He is actually a returned missionary. We walked in her house and she had a ctr ring on, her book of mormon, and was ready to go! We explained how things were going to go the next few weeks and she said she knows the church is true already. We talked about baptism and the only thing impeding her at the moment is her mom who wants to investigate a little first. She might actually make her wait until she is 18 which would be a bummer. We gave her mom a book of mormon too so she can find out a bit more. But anyway, Nazaret came to church and everything and i think she loved it! Today she called me and said she wanted to meet with us tomorrow morning. She said there is something she wants to talk to us about. I hope its something good. We have her in our prayers and also her mom so her heart is softened and she can feel the power of the message too. We´ll see what happens tomorrow. Maria and Armando are doing ok. We just can´t get them to church! We have an appointment with them in about 20 minutes though so hopefully we´ll make progress. Rafa is doing really good. He has been really busy lately and hasn´t been able to read what we´ve left him but he loves it all still. He came to church as well. We have two investigators named Antonio and Carolina that we found a couple of weeks ago and its fun to see their progress. The first time we met with them Carolina left. But since then she has been listening and last time we went to visit her she was on page 113 in the Book of Mormon! They love us coming by but we need to help them keep their commitments. On thursday we had a conference with Elder Schutze who is from the 3rd quorum of the 70. He is German and really straightforward haha. I had to conduct the conference so I was a little nervous but it turned out great. He talked a lot about how important our appearance is and how people are always watching us. After the conference I hopped on a bus for 3 hours to do an exchange with Elder Masterson in Algeciras. Yep the Elder I trained! It was good talking with him and seeing the progress he has made. I really can´t believe its my last full week in the field. I told Elder Hales that this is the week of miracles. We are going to see them and I have no doubt about it. No matter how small or big, we are going to see them. I´ve gotta make it count right? Next week I´m not sure if I´ll be emailing so this might be my last. Its possible that I´ll be in Málaga for a zone leader conference on monday so I won´t be able to email. And I´m guessing I´ll just stay there until my family comes to meet me. I don´t know for sure though. If this is the last one, thank you so much for all the support you´ve given me the last 2 years and my whole life before that. You´ve always been there for me and I couldn´t have been surrounded by better people. You all mean the world to me and I´m excited to see you all again! I love you all so much and I know God and His Son Jesus Christ live. This is Their church. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real and was made for all that come unto Him. I love this work and I love being a missionary. Thanks for everything. I love you.

Love, Elder Langston

Lots of Traveling

Well hello hello. How y'all doing? I'm doing awesome but really tired. P day came at just the right time haha. It feels like I have been running all over this week. Monday we got back from Gibraltar and on Tuesday I went to Jerez to do an exchange with an elder. When I got back home on Wednesday I had to change and hop right back on a bus to Chiclana to do an exchange and a couple of baptismal interviews. The rest of the week was just running all over the city trying to find people to teach. We taught Rafa again and he loved the lesson. We just talked about the importance of prayer and reading the scriptures regularly. There was a strong spirit present during the lesson and Rafa really felt it. Another thing that helped the Spirit be there was that Rafael's mother in law was there. She is a member but has been inactive for years and years. She testified that she knows the importance of reading and praying and that she has seen the difference in her life as she has put those things on hold during the last few years. She told us that we have helped her so much in the last few weeks and that when she gets back home its time to go back to church and start living the gospel again. It made us so happy to hear that. This week we also taught María and Armando. I don't know if I have talked about them in the past but they are an equatorian couple that we teach weekly. We had a mini family home evening with them to show how its done and they loved it. Pablo came with us and after the lesson he asked if he could just spend the whole day with us. It was way fun just walking around with him trying to help him see how the mission is. Last night a miracle happened but i didn't get to witness it. Elder Smith and his hijo (trainee) were walking back to the apartment and a lady stopped them so they could take a picture with them. She said that she was going to show it to her daughter to prove that she found the missionaries. It turns out that her daughter has read the book of mormon or some other church material and knows that its true. She gave Elder Smith and Elder Barney her address and told them to come visit her. It turns out she lives in our area so it was a bummer for them but a blessing for us. We have been looking all week without much success but then a little miracle like that happens and...Walah! Hopefully its as good as it sounds. I'll be praying. Well familia and friends I love you tons and I know this work is true. I just wish you all could be having the same experiences and meeting the same people I am. Have an awesome week. The church is true.

Love, Elder Langston

I saw the Monkeys

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I hope everything is going just fine and dandy. Crazy news about Japan! I'm glad Blake is ok. I've been wondering ever since I heard but I got the good news today. This last week was a pretty rough one for us and the whole zone. A lot of traveling went on in the zone for training meetings and stake conference was this week so we turned in some pretty low numbers but we know we can do better. The zone has been doing amazing lately. We have been averaging over 20 lessons as a zone for quite a few weeks going and President Clegg said that hasn't been done in this stake for decades. We are excited and the members are too so thats what is making it work out. Last year we only had 21 baptisms in the stake when we got to December and we already have about 15 this year. Things will be better number wise this week. We had stake conference this week and I loved it. It was a little rough on me though I'll admit. A really shy boy in my ward named Pablo received his mission call to Santiago Chile and he invited us to be there. He was so excited about it and it was fun to watch it happen. We have been letting him come along with us lately to help him get ready and his mom and dad asked me to talk to him a little bit about how the mission is and how it has helped me grow. I told them that I was kind of a shy person before the mission too and that it has helped me a lot. So we have been talking me and him quite a bit in the streets when we go out. We really have lot in common. We've become really good friends in the past few months. He was asked to bear his testimony in stake conference and he thanked the missionaries in his ward for being an example and for working with him. Then he looked at me with a big ol smile and thanked me personally. My face was probably a little red but oh well. He said he knew without a doubt now that this is what he needed to do. It made me feel so good and confirmed to me again that I needed to come to this mission to help someone else even if I didn't know I was helping. Later on in the stake conference the whole congregation stood up to sing "Called to Serve" and I thought I was going to be fine but when I got to the second verse I couldn't do it anymore. The words wouldn't come out haha. I just can't believe its ending and its hard. But I know there is a time for everything too. Today for preparation day we went to Gibraltar to see the monkeys and thats why I am emailing a little late. It was hilarious though. We were soaking wet because it was raining so hard and I have some funny pictures and videos I can send next week. I have one of a monkey sitting right on top of my head. I was wearing a hooded jacket and lets just say its not very clean anymore. It was way fun though. Well I love you all and I know the church is true. I love the gospel so much. Have an awesome week and we'll talk to you soon. Adios!

Shnikeys

Hey everybody! Well we had another good week. We taught 20 lessons for the first time since we had to split the areas here. I was really surprised that we still could since before we were just barely teaching 20 with two wards and now we did it with one. We were pretty happy about that. Patricio is doing good and so is Victor. Rafael is also progressing like crazy. They came back from Valencia and we ate with them and shared a little message on Saturday. The only thing he didn't like about the message was that it was too short but I explained to him that we couldn't be in peoples houses for too long. He understood so thats good. He should be getting baptized really soon. Yesterday and this morning I was in Málaga for the meetings I have there every month. It was awesome like always. President Clegg is an amazing teacher and always brings a huge spirit. He taught us from the first 4 chapters of Ether and kept showing us things that we had never noticed before. He talked to us about being dedicated to becoming disciples of Christ. He asked us some questions that really made us think about our life and our personal conversion. He asked us how much we really understood about the gospel of Christ and if we applied it to our lives. I wish he could teach me stuff like he does everyday. Training Elder Hales is coming along good. He gets frustrated with the language but I tell him to keep going and to not worry about it cuz it will come. He is a good kid and we have a ton of fun. I hope everything is good back home. I love you all a ton. I know the church is true and Christ lives. Thanks for everything and we'll talk to you next week. Adios!

2 Baptisms!

Hey everybody! It was a good hard week but it paid off with 2 baptisms. How was your week everybody? I hope it was good and I hope this one is better. The baptisms were awesome! Patricio said he didn't care who did the baptism so I had my companion do it. It was a good experience for the second week of his mission. He did the prayer perfect and everything too. It was sweet. We told Patricio afterwards that he could share a 5 minute testimony and he went on for 20 minutes haha. He is a bit of a talker but thats alright. He was extremely happy afterwards. He had a little bit of nerves before but he settled down after. Victors baptism was one of the best I've been in. It was really organized and all the youth had a musical numbered prepared for him. Everybody was crying and his mom was there too which made me happy. She definitely felt something. I'll send pictures for sure. Rafael is doing awesome and he should be baptized really soon. He told us last time we met with him that he knew the church was true. He is just a stud! He studies a ton and just wants to know more and feel the spirit. His wife told us that he won't leave her alone haha. He always wants to read the book of mormon with her and the little pamplets we give him. She said she'll be watching something on the tv or talking to her mom and he'll come up and say "Hey can we read the chapters that the elders left us?" Its so awesome how excited he is about it. He loves the plan of salvation so he has read that pamphplet more than once. Other than that not too much has happened. We had a hard time getting in with people so that was a little frustrating. I'm having a lot of fun though and just loving seeing the miracles around me. I love you all and remember to call upon the Lord in your hard times and He will listen. He's always there. Thanks for being the best. The church is true. Love Elder Langston

One of the best weeks ever!

Hey everybody! I hope your week was as good as mine! It was just awesome. To tell you the truth it started off kind of rough. I was still a little bothered that Isabel didn't want anything anymore and Patricio told us something that was kind of a shock. We worked it out though and he is on track for his baptism this Saturday. More really good news! I don't think I've even mentioned him before but we had a 21 year old investigator named Victor in the 2nd ward. He came to church every week and had been investigating for a long time. All of his best friends are members of the church but the catch was he wanted to be baptized in Utah. He said it was part of his answer and thats what he was going to do. So we just kept teaching him and helping him along. He actually went to missionary prep class and seminary and everything. He's pretty much a dry member. Well a month or two ago me and him went to the bishop to talk about his plans of going to Utah so he didn't get there and then have it not go through. We talked for awhile and when bishop heard that he planned on doing it in July he said "Victor, just do it right now while you want to." Victor was a little confused since he though Utah was part of the answer to his prayer. But the bishop told him to pray and think about it. Well, this week he said he is going to be baptized this Saturday!! It was a surprise to everyone! All of the members have been waiting forever to hear that. Especially his friends. I was a little bummed because he isn't in my ward anymore but yesterday I went up to him and gave him a hug and congratulated him and he said "do you know who is baptizing me?" I said no, and he told me I was. I was so happy to hear that he wanted me to do it. The whole world has been wondering why he hasn't been baptized for the longest time and finally he just decided to do it and he asked me. I have no idea why he asked me and not one of his friends but I'm just so happy that he is going to finally do it. Its going to be an awesome memory. All of the members in the whole stake are so excited since everybody knows him. It feels like I'm going to be baptizing a friend. For those of you that have seen the pictures that members have put on facebook you can see that he is always with us. I'm pumped. We had a great zone conference this week too. I conducted it and I was asked to give my last testimony along with 7 others that are going home in April. It was hard knowing it would be the last time. President taught us a lot though and I felt really good after. President Clegg is awesome. We also had awesome teaching experiences with Rafael this week and my testimony grew. I'm really going to miss this. I love you all a ton and I hope everything is going good. I'll talk to you next week. The church is true.

Love, Elder Langston

Good things happening!

Howdy familia and friends,

How are you all doing? I hope everything is just dandy. Things are still going good here. We are busy, but in a different way. Having only one ward is different. I have had to throw out half of my options of people I can go visit. It made things a little more difficult but thats ok. We were gone for two days last week but we still got 11 lessons with only one ward. We need to get back up to 20 though. We are now teaching Rafael, the guy that came last week to church with his wife that is a member. He is liking it so far. Its nice because when we taught him last week, this is what his wife said, " I am going to say this with the elders right here in front of us. Rafael, if you don't really have interest then we aren't going to invite the elders over to waste their time. But if you do then we can invite them". She laid it down nice and clear for us and him haha. He said he does so thats great. We are excited to work with him. Training again is fun. He is a little ball of questions haha. He is pumped to be here though so I'm really glad I got him as a companion. Its fun to live in an apartment with 4 elders again. Its the first time since my first transfer. This week we did a lot of door knocking and contacting. People seemed to be extra closed this week but it was a good experience for my companion to see that its not easy out here. If we want success we need to work hard. I just love being a missionary. Yesterday was hard for me because we sang called to serve in sacrament meeting and I just thought about my mission and that for only a few more weeks I'll be Elder Langston. I have time enough to make my baptismal goal though. Its going to take a ton of work and a miracle but it can be done. Even if I'm not Elder Langston I can still be a missionary for the rest of my life. I know how important this work is and I'm not going to waste a moment. I love you all and I know the church is true. Have a good week and Happy Valentines day!

"Jolin" or in others words "holy cow"

Dear family and friends,

How are you all doing? Good good good. Well life for me is about to get more busy. We had our monthly meeting in Málaga Monday and Tuesday (Sorry for not telling you beforehand) and we had companionship interviews. President Clegg asked how the area was going and we were talking about how were busy teaching 20 lessons a week and that the zone was doing really well. Then he asked us if we were busy. We said "yes" and then he asked us if we wanted to be even more busy. I said "yes I'd like to have more baptisms" and my companion said "what does that mean? Haha then President said "I'd like both of you to train". Wasn't expecting that! Both of us are receiving new elders on Thursday to train while we are still zone leaders. So in other words we aren't companions anymore but we are still zone leaders together and we still live in the same apartment. There are going to be 4 elders in San Fernando now! He told us that we have a lot of new missionaries coming into the mission but he wasn't going to open up any new areas because we have 16 elders leaving in April. We don't have much of a net gain so he is just putting more elders where there is a lot of work right now. Thankfully San Fernando is one of those areas. We've been really busy but we are going to be even busier. I have kind of mixed emotions about it though because that means I will have to leave one of the wards since we will have a companionship for each ward now. I'll still see the other ward on Sundays though so thats good. I still don't know which one will be mine. I'm excited to train again though. The last elder I trained said he doesn't want a brother haha. But yeah, that was the big news for the week. We have a lot of preparing to do to receive two new elders. We have to split up the area book and just make the apartment suitable for 4 elders. Today will be busy. We also got some bad news this week. Isabel called me when I was in Málaga and broke my heart again. She said she was sorry for confusing us so much and going back and forth between us and the Catholic church but she has decided to stay with the Catholic church. I don't know why but we aren't going to give up on her. I know she has felt something. Patricio is doing really well so thats good. Also on Sunday a member from Valencia came to church and she brought her non member husband who is interested. We'll get started up with him soon. Well everybody, I know the church is true. I know hard times are permitted in our lives so we can be stretched and strengthened. Everything is made right through the atonement. I love you all tons and I'll talk to you on Monday. Have a super dee duper week. Adios

Love, Elder Langston

Awesome Week

Yep it was another awesome week! How was everybody else's? Man things just keep getting better and better and better. I had a really good birthday. My birthday here was actually 3 days long because 3 different families invited us over to celebrate but we couldn't do them all the same day. On Tuesday night we ate with a couple and she got my favorite food from here...fried fish. Its so good. She made us strawberry smoothies and a cake with candles and the whole works! It was awesome. On Wednesday we ate with the Benitez family and they made me a cake too. Some of the young single adults made me a card and signed it. On Thursday we ate with the ward mission leader and they sang to me and gave me some chocolates and a card. Their son drew a picture of me on the front of the card. I'll have to take a picture of it and send it next week. But anyway it was a really good week. Patricio is doing great. He has come to church every week and his date for the 26 is still on. Oh and great news! Isabel came to church yesterday and when I asked her when we could visit her this week she asked me what she had to do to be baptized!!! I was so happy. I knew we shouldn't give up on her quite yet. After she called us that one time and said she didn't believe in God anymore and didn't want anything to do with the church, it made me sad but I knew she was just passing through a hard time. So we gave her her space and wrote her a letter telling her that we loved her and then on Christmas we sang her a Christmas Carol. Then a returned missionary came back and has started to help her son out that has a couple of problems. I think that opened her up a little bit. Just lately we have been seeing her in the street, passing by her house and letting her know we haven't forgot about her. And then she mentioned baptism!! I was so happy. We need a lot of help from the members though so the same thing doesn't happen. She needs friends in the church and a lot of support. But I'm sure she will be baptized. We just need to work. Everything is going awesome right now and the mission is super excited. I'm excited too haha. Today is going to be fun too. We are going to go play soccer and an elder is going to bring some baseball gloves and a baseball that his parents sent him. He wants to throw and I can't wait. Its been so long! Hopefully my shoulder doesn't act up. Well family and amigos I love you tons and I know the church is true. Thanks for everything and have a great week. Bye bye

I'm old

Dear Family and Friends,

Holy cow I'm getting old. I think hair is starting to grow out of my ears. No not really but its sad to say I do already feel the effects of age on my body. I can't run around as much as I used to and when I do I am sore for 3 days afterwards. Its quite depressing haha. But anyway how is everybody doing?! I'm doing really good. We had another awesome week. 3 of the last 4 weeks we have taught 20 or more lessons which is the mission goal. I am really happy about that. Patricio still has a baptismal date but we had to delay it to the 26th of February. He said he just doesn't feel like he is ready right now but he is sure he won't pass February. He is doing awesome and he has come to church every week for the past 4 weeks now. Our family home evening with Manolo went really good. He didn't come to church yesterday and according to one of the members its because of his wifes influence. She doesn't really want him going. It kind of stunk because the talk I gave yesterday was pretty much prepared for him but it still turned out good. The members seemed to like it. Even though speaking in sacrament meeting isn't as hard for me now my legs still shake uncontrolably and I don't know why haha. I spoke on Christ's life, mission, atonement, teachings, death, and resurrection or to sum it up i spoke about His Gospel. Then I spoke about the first vision and how much it means to the world. My message was that we as members have the best news in the world and that is why we should share it with everyone. Yesterday a member named Chari brought me a cake made out of candy that she made. I'll send my mom a picture of it. She is one of the nicest ladies I've ever met. We didn't find any new investigators this week but we are still moving right along. The mission as a whole is doing awesome. We had a meeting with President Clegg on Saturday and as always it turned out really good. I didn't have to translate which was nice this time. I got to take notes. Well everybody I'm going to leave you here. I love you tons and I know the church is true. I know Christ lives and that there is so much we can do to serve him. Have a great week thanks for all the emails this week. You're the best I could ask for. Talk to you next week!

More Investigators!

Hi everybody! Well we had another awesome week. How was everybody elses? We were blessed with two more new investigators this week with a lot of potential. One is named Laura. She is a mother from Mexico that had been talking through emails to a member that is from Mexico too. So the member invited her to church and she came yesterday! It turns out she had gone a couple of times in Mexico as well and she wants us to come visit her. We have a family home evening set up with her for this week. We are excited to get started with her. The other investigator is named Manolo. He is the husband of a members cousin. We met him when he came to the Christmas party and the member asked us to pass by his house and give him a pamphlet of Joseph Smiths testimony. So we did that and yesterday he came to church. He really liked it and we are having a family home evening with him tonight. We are really excited for it. Oh and we have big news for Patricio. We set a baptismal date with him for the 29th of this month. He said he wants to pray and talk to his family about it first but he said he wants to do it. I hope it all works out! He is a great guy and is so excited to learn all that he has been learning. Last night we also had the fireside with President Clegg and the two wards here in San Fernando. I was really stressed because we had been trying to plan it for months now and since it was finally happening I wanted everything to turn out good. And it did. Both of the Bishops spoke along with President and Sister Clegg. We filled the chapel so I was really happy about that. Next week I get to speak in the second ward and I'm actually looking forward to it. Its going to be a really good opportunity to let the ward know I'm excited to be here and that I expect to see miracles happen in the next couple of months. I really love the two wards here. They are really involved in the work and helping us like crazy. Everything is already starting to change. I don't know if I already said this but the stake had baptized about 21 people from January to November of last year and in December alone we baptized 10. This stake is going to be the baptizing stake again and I feel blessed to see it all happen. We have a meeting with the Stake President this Thursday and we can't wait to let him know everything we have planned and the vision we have. Well family and friends I love you tons. I know the church is true and I know that miracles happen when we exercise our faith. Have an awesome week. Talk to you later!

Investigators falling from Heaven

Good morning everyone! How are you all doing? I´m doing awesome! Like my subjects says, we have investigators falling out of the heavens! Its so cool to see how the Lord works. We have been contacting in the street and knocking doors without success but the Lord is still blessing us. I already told you the story about Patricio that we found in the youth activity in the church. Well, he lives with a bunch of people and one of them is a Bolivian named Javier. He brought him to church on Sunday and it turns out that he met the elders 2 years ago and knows a little bit about the church. We have a family home evening set up with both of them tonight! Also I´m not sure if I told you but the stake president President Lopez gave us a referrall a week or two back and we taught them for the first time last monday. They are a young couple named Enrique and Pilar and they have a lot of questions. They had actually been asking President Lopez a lot about death and where we are going to go when we die. He told us about all this so we decided to teach the plan of salvation. It turned out awesome! When we got done teaching Pilar told us how much she liked it. She said she has always been scared of dying and sometimes she can´t even sleep at night she is so worried about it. She also said she hates the thought of not being with her family after she dies. I just thought wow we have the perfect message for you. We have an appointment set up for tomorrow night and we are going to teach the rest of the plan of salvation we weren´t able to cover and talk a little more about eternal families. I´m so excited for the lesson. Also, we have a recent convert that we teach all the time named Antonio. His wife has always been kind of offish and has lost a lot of faith because of the hard times in her life. But lately she has been sitting in on the lessons and came to church yesterday! Everything is just going awesome. Elder Velasquez and I spoke in church yesterday in one of the wards and it turned out really good. I spoke about Christs life focusing on His atonement and how it is a big reason of why we do missionary work. My companion spoke about how only through Christ and baptism we can be saved. I think the members really liked it because they all came up afterwards and thanked us and asked us to come visit them this week. We have a fireside set up for this next Sunday too. President clegg is going to come speak to both the wards here about missionary work. Its going to be good for sure. Last week we had meetings in the mission home again and Elder Causse from the European Presidency came to speak to us. It was neat to hear the experiences he had and all the advice he gave us to improve. The misson is really excited right now. I´m loving the mission right now. I´m loving all that i´m learning and being able to see the Lords hand in my life. Thank you all for your support and love. I couldn´t ask for better family and friends. Have a great week! I love you all. Bye bye

Happy New Year!

Yep. Happy new year! I really can´t believe it went by so fast. It really seems like just a few months ago I got to Crevillente just before the new year. Everything is a blur. I hope everybody had an amazing Christmas. It was a lot of fun talking to all of you. I was surprised that most of the little ones sound almost the same! Thanks for everything. Christmas was really good and so was last night. We actually spent Christmas eve and new years eve with the same family. They are the party family haha. They tried to get us to stay until 12 so we could eat the traditional 12 grapes with them but we told them we had to be obedient. They were bummed out about that. Well we had a mid-transfer transfer haha. My companion got called to be the branch president in a little town called Cuenca so he will be leaving me on Wednesday. It was kind of a surprise but he is just right for the job. He is almost 28 and a native spanish speaker so they will need him there. The branch president that was there is going back to his country so thats why they need him. I´ll be getting Elder Smith. He is 28 I think as well. When President Clegg called me he said "You like to hang out with the old guys don´t you?" Haha 3 of my last 4 companions have been 26 or older. I´m excited to work with him though. I know him a little bit already and he is a nice guy. I´m hoping to have a lot of success these last few months with him. We have been finding some new investigators lately so I´m excited about that. We have Patricio who is kind of a miracle story. He had been praying one morning and reading his bible asking the Lord to guide him to His house. After that he went out searching for a Christian church and nobody knew where one was. Finally he asked a street cleaner and he pointed ours out. Luckily the youth were having an activity when he got there and it was open. He walked in and listened to the youths testimonies and was impacted. We passed by the church while he was there and taught him the first lesson. It was so good. He has a big evangelical background but thats ok. He´s going to be baptized soon I´m sure. We are also teaching Javier who is 80 years old. He is really smart and loves talking with us. He is always alone and has no family to visit him so he is always wondering when we will come back. Right now he is praying to know if what we teach him is true but he says he just hasn´t gotten an answer. We have even prayed with him to make sure he is really doing it. I´m sure it will come in the future. Well family and friends I love you tons. I hope all is well back home and I hope this new year is the best you´ve had yet. God lives and this is His church. Have a great week. Love you bye

Tis the season to be jolly fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ( a Christmas Story)

Merry Christmas! How is everybody doing? I´m doing awesome. I put the subject for TK. I had the best day yesterday thats its hungover until today haha. I´ll explain a little. Since Elder Velasquez and I have two wards here in San Fernando, we split up and go with a priesthood holder to the classes in each ward. I was sitting in Elders quorum yesterday and my companion came and got me. I asked what he needed and he just told me I´d see. He took me downstairs to the chapel and the whole 1st ward was up on the stand with hymn books. They told us to sit down and they started to sing to us. The whole entire ward sang us a Christmas carol and I just sat there looking at all of them. I felt so good i really can´t explain it. I didn´t feel far from home at all. Afterwards the bishop spoke to us. He told us that the ward just wanted to thank us for our work and that they had a present for us. They pulled out a huge basket full of sweets and presents! I thought they were joking at first but it really was for us. I´ll try and send a picture next week. The people here are so nice. We went up on the stand and gave everyone we could a hug. I couldn´t believe it haha. It just made me really happy all day and I´m still happy. This week we also had our Christmas conference this last week. We did skits again and I was the grinch that the missionaries tried to baptize. They ended up doing it. President Clegg shared Isaiah 53 with us for his message and afterwards we ate. It was a really good day too. The mission also reached 200 baptisms this week! It felt good to accomplish a baptismal goal again. I can´t believe its Christmas again. President Clegg has given us the whole day as a P day. I thought that was pretty cool. He also gave us new years day as a p day. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. Everybody is happier. A huge blessing we have is knowing why we celebrate Christmas. Like we hear every single year, Christmas isn´t about gifts or food, but its about Christ. We already know that and we remember Him every week. Our job is to help people who don´t know why we celebrate Christmas. Our Heavenly Father gave us the gift of His Son that we might have eternal life. Thats the good news we need to share with everyone. I know Christ is our Savior. I know He came into this world to save us. He suffered that we might not have to suffer. He has overcome death and sin and only asks that we humbly follow Him and give Him our hearts. I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for being the best. Talk to you soon.

Love, Elder Langston

December 13, 2010

Hi everybody! How are ya´ll doing? Good. I´m doing pretty good. Last week we had a bad week number wise but I feel good about it. We were gone a few days so the numbers are never going to be good if we aren´t in our area. We had some success with finding new investigators. We have been teaching two equatorian ladies and they haven´t been progressing at all. They seem to be interested but they haven´t come to church. We thought maybe their husbands had something to do with it so we had been hoping to teach the husbands as well. Its been hard to meet with them because both of their husbands work for the military and they are always busy. But we had a little miracle happen and we found them both at home on the same day. They were both really nice and open with us. One had really catholic views and the other didn´t really have any beliefs other than he believed in God. I think we are going to have success with both of them. This week Elder Velasquez and I decided to do a little service as well. A girl in the ward had a birthday and we gave her a very creative gift. Since my companion is black and I´m white, we gave her two normal donuts and two chocolate donuts with our pictures on top of them. It was pretty funny and everybody got a kick out of it. I think its going to become a tradition for birthdays here in San Fernando. The mission is doing really well right now. Last week we had the most baptisms the mission has ever seen in one week and we have the fewest missionaries the mission has ever seen. Miracles are definitely happening. I got to do another interview this week too. It was the mom of the family I interviewed last week and she is just as golden. I´m really excited for her. The mission is doing great right now and I´m glad I get to be a part of it. I don´t have much more to update but just know that I love you all a ton. You are the best family and friends in the world haha. I know the church is true. I´ve been learning a lot lately about receiving spiritual knowledge and that the more you receive the higher you have to set your standards. I´m so glad I get to serve this mission because its setting a foundation for my life. Thats what President Clegg always says. What I do in the mission will set the tone for the rest of my life. Thank you all for your support and love. Talk to you next week! Bye bye

Tough week, lots learned

Hi everybody. I hope you are all just doing fine and dandy! I´m doing pretty good. Last week was a tough one. It was full of traveling and we got a little bit of bad news. I was only in my area for 3 days last week because I was traveling and doing exchanges with other missionaries. I had the privilege of doing 3 baptismal interviews last week which was awesome. There is a town in the zone called Jerez and they had 4 baptisms on Saturday. I interviewed the dad and his son and it was such an awesome spiritual experience. The dad was so excited and at the end he was like "thats it right? I´m good to go?" Haha he was pretty excited to be baptized. His son was excited too. At the end of the interview I was sharing my testimony with him and he stopped me in the middle and said "I know it too. I know it too." This was coming from a 14 year old boy and it just blew me away. All he wanted was to be closer to God and he kept saying it. I was pretty sick before and after the interviews but didn´t feel bad at all during because they were just blowing me away with how prepared they were to be baptized. On friday we went to Algeciras, the town in the zone that is right next to Africa, to do exchanges with the elders there. On the way we got a phone call from Isabel that wasn´t good news. Something happened because she said she doesn´t want us to come over anymore and that she doesn´t believe in anything. Satan is working hard on her right now. I think she is just really depressed because hard things are happening in her life. She doesn´t want to see us but I´m going to write her a letter to see if we can somehow help her feel the Spirit again. We´ll see what happens. The mission has a goal of 200 baptisms for the year and we´re at 181. I would really like to help with the goal and we don´t have any baptismal dates right now. Its frustrating because almost everybody else does and its just making me think that I need to do better. Monday and Tuesday I was in Málaga having the monthly meeting with President Clegg and he talked about trusting the Lord. He said "sometimes we just need to realize who we´re working for." I really liked the message he had for us because he talked about the Lords wisdom in letting us progress little by little and struggling to become like our Savior. I love going to the mission home once a month. President Clegg always has a message prepared that is an answer to a prayer. Well everybody I love you tons and I hope all is going well. I know the church is true and that God loves each one of us more than we can imagine. I always say it but I just realize it more and more as the time goes on. Have a good week and I´ll write you again on Monday. Bye bye

Isabel is doing better

Hi everybody! How are you all? I´m doing just great. I have a neat story to tell. Last Tuesday we passed by a member and it turned out that she wasn´t home. My companion asked where I thought we should go and I said Isabel. Its almost impossible to catch her at home with time to talk with us but for some reason she popped into my head. My companion said alright and we took off for her house. Luckily she was home doing some things on the computer and she had a couple minutes for us. We asked her how she was doing and she said so so. We could tell something was wrong. Later she told us that she lives with constant sadness and that she even got to the point where she wondered if God existed. She said she sees so many bad things in the world and in her life and that there is so much sadness that she gets depressed. We had a prayer and answered some questions she had for us and then something came to my mind. That morning I had read John chapter 16. Right now I´m reading the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants in my personal study but I had seen something in a members home that said "And even though you are sad, your sadness shall be turned into joy," so I decided to read the whole chapter that morning. I told Isabel that I wanted to share some scriptures with her that I read that morning. I told her that I believed I read them because God knew I was going to see her that day. I read her John 16:20, 22, and 33 and she began to cry. We felt the Spirit so strong and it made me so happy. Afterwards, she gave the closing prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for putting the true church in her life. That experience made my day. My week actually! I´m so thankful that Heavenly Father gave me that experience to strengthen my testimony and to help me feel that I really can be a tool in his hands. It has made me want to work even harder and to make my life even cleaner so I can always have the Spirit so that God can trust me at all times. I´m so thankful for my Savior and I know He lives. I know that He has overcome the world. We all know that we will have afflictions, but why should we be sad? As members of the church we should be the happiest people on earth because we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life. We know that Jesus Christ is our loving Savior that has sacrificed Himself so we can overcome physical and spiritual death. We know our families can be together forever. We are so blessed and Satan doesn´t want us to focus on that. But I´m going to try and focus on it more. I love you all so much and I´m thankful that each one of you is a part of my life. I hope you have a great week! Talk to you next week. Bye now.

Love, Elder Langston

I got kissed 11/22/10

Hi family and friends! How are you doing? I hope you are doing just great. About the title of the email...don´t worry too much haha. This week in Cádiz we had a little celebration for 40 years that the church has been in Cádiz. The mayor (a woman) came and spoke congratulating the members and the officials of the church for completing forty years in Cádiz and thanking the church for all the good they do in the community. The stake president also spoke and a brief little presentation of the church was given explaining our beliefs and what we do as a church. Of course, in the presentation they talked about missionaries. After it was all done and the stake president was giving the mayor a tour of the church, he walked up and introduced the mayor to me. He said, "This is Elder Langston, one of our missionaries that is serving here in the stake of Cádiz". For those of you who don´t know, when people in Spain greet eachother they touch cheeks and make kiss noises. As missionaries we aren´t allowed to do it of course. Mostly so the young women don´t take advantage of it. Anyway, you may have guess already but the mayor walked right up to me and gave me the traditional two smackaroos on the cheek. She didn´t know and I didn´t have time to react. It hasn´t happened to me in the mission yet I don´t think because I´ve always been able to explain first. But this lady was fast! And it just happens to be in front of the stake president and about 50 members all watching. Needless to say I was a little red in the face. My companion didn´t want to be rude so he let her do it to him too. You wouldn´t believe how much guff we got from the young women and some sisters in the ward. Nothing serious but they loved giving us a hard time about it. The stake president just smiled and said "I won´t tell President." Haha he was laughing about it all. Just my luck. So thats my funny story for the week. This week we had some success getting into homes to teach lessons. We had 17 this week but a lot of them were with members. We need to find more investigators! We may have found one this week. I believe it was last week that a sister from Jaen gave us the address of one of her friends here in San Fernando because she wanted us to go and talk about her son that is having problems and to see if we could some how slip the gospel in there. Her son is a member and lives in a town close by and is really depressed about life. We went to visit the lady and when we told her who sent us she let us right in. She is an older lady (about 70) and is very religious. She is evangelical but from what she told us she isn´t too sure about her religion. She said in her prayers that she tells God she is where she is right now, but tomorrow she doesn´t know. We want to help her gain a testimony that she won´t doubt. We´ll see where it goes. Isabel is still hard to get ahold of. We have only talked to her on the phone and she isn´t the same. We really need to see her! Anyway, family and friends thank you so much for everything. I love you tons and I know the church is true. If I had more time I would tell more experiences. Have a great week! Bye bye

Lots learned

My family and friends. How are you?! I´m doing great here in southern Spain. The weather is cool but only enough to just wear a jacket. They say it won´t get much colder either. Well like my subject says, I learned a ton this week! Thanks for the prayers haha. For some reason everyday seemed to have a huge lesson in store for me. Two times in a row members looked me in the eyes and said some profound statement that made me think "oh. wow." For example, we shared the third lesson with a couple of members and we asked for feedback so we could improve. He gave us a few suggestions and then he talked about his conversion story which really helped. But what really impacted me came after the prayer. He looked directly into my eyes for some reason and said, "you can accomplish whatever God wants you to accomplish in this life if you just pay the price". It hit me like a bomb. The whole way home I just kept thinking about what I wanted and it hit me. Right now in the mission I want success. I want to know that I have at least helped make a difference. So what do I have to do? Pay the price. There are so many success stories from San Fernando from past years and I want to relive it all. For example, there is a family here that has had hundreds of lessons taught at their table to investigators. And these investigators happen to be now more than half of the members in San Fernando. They told us that there were people waiting in their home for their turn to hear the gospel. They were teaching in the kitchen, in the living room, and in their bedroom all at the same time. When they told us that I told them "We need to do that again." There is a ton of potential, now we just need to pay the price. I feel like we have all the tools we need right now and we have a lot of support. We talked to the son of one the counselors in the stake presidency. His name is Jose Miguel Morales and he was actually the assistant to president hinckley when I left. He is doing a lot of work for his dad right now because it is actually his sister that has cancer so his dad is busy. He told us it isn´t a coincidence that we are all here together again. We are here to help change things for the better. It made me feel really good. I feel like I have a purpose for being here. I can see how God has shaped my mission to land me where I am right now. I don´t know if I talked about this last week but if I did it just shows how excited I am about all this. Yesterday we had zone conference in Sevilla which made me even more excited. I learned a ton there too. President Clegg talked a lot about what we need to do to be more spiritual. In other words, everything we need to do to draw closer to God. Thats my goal. I want to finish these last few months on fire and just progressing a ton. Hopefully I can do so. I know the church is true. I know it with all my soul. I´ve thought about it lately and I don´t know what I did to deserve being born into the church but I am so thankful for it. We are truly blessed. Well family and friends I love you all. Thanks for everything you do for me. And congratulations to Newani and her new hubby on getting hitched. I love you guys tons and I´ll talk to you all next week. Bye!

Crazy Week

Hi everybody! How are we doing? My week was absolutely nuts. As you already know I spent last week traveling back and forth from San Fernando to the mission home trying to figure out when my companion was going to get back from the Canary Islands. Luckily he got everything done and we got back into San Fernando on Friday night late. I was only able to work in my area a total of about 3 days with Elder Goodman the office elder and my companion so we didn´t get a whole lot done. We also received bad news from Isabel. She called me up on my way back to San Fernando and told me she just wasn´t sure about everything right now. She said she wants some time to think and read and figure out if she really wants to keep going with this. It was kind of a scare for us because earlier she was ready to just jump in the font if she could! Now Satan is working on her and we have to help her to feel the Spirit again. I hope it passes quickly. She was doing so good and then all of a sudden everything just fell apart. We´re going to have to figure out what is going on. Something else kind of sad happened too. A girl in one of our wards here had a tumor found in her leg and according to the doctors 98% of the time this type of tumor is cancerous. She is only 18 years old and is the daughter of a counselor in the stake presidency. Her brother actually served with me in Barcelona. We went and visited her on Saturday night and to our surprise she is doing fine. She acted really happy and was actually joking about the whole situation. She is going to have surgery today to have the tumor removed. Everybody is fasting and praying for her. On a lighter note, I´m loving the work here! The members are hilarious and are becoming some of my best friends. On lady loves to tease me and make me eat at her house. When I finish the first plate she just looks at me in a threatening way until I scoop another load onto my plate. Then she is all smiles haha. She tells me her goal is to make me a little fat before I leave. I like how we have the same goal. I can´t believe I have been here a whole transfer already. We got transfer calls Saturday night and there was only one change in the whole zone. I think I´ll be staying here a long time. At least I hope so because there is a lot of work to do and I like it here. Well family and friends, I love you tons and thanks for everything you do for me. Congratualations on getting hitched Kylee haha. Man thats weird. It seems like just yesterday we were having sleep overs and I had to call home because I was scared of robbers haha. Thats a little embarrassing. Well have a good week! I´ll talk to you all soon. bye

Hey Everybody 11-3-10

Hi guys! How are we all doing? I´ve had a pretty good week! We didn´t have a very full week like the last one but it was still good. I am just really enjoying the mission right now. I hear a lot of elders start to slack off towards the end of the mission but I think the reverse effect is happening with me. I´m really frustrated with myself for not talking with as many people as I could have earlier in the mission so now I´m talking to EVERYBODY. Talking to people isn´t scary anymore. I love it. Isabel is doing great. She came to church and loved it. We actually had a really spiritual meeting. Almost all of the talks were on enduring. They kept talking about never giving up and remembering your testimony of the Savior. I loved it so much. Anyway, just to end this I thought I would share something cool. Yesterday I drove to San Fernando from Málaga because an office elder has to stay with me while my companion is in the Canaries doing his residency. On the way we passed the rock of Gibraltar and I saw Africa! It was pretty crazy haha. Well I´m sorry the email is short this week but I don´t have time. I love you all tons and know you are in my prayers. I love your letters and emails. The church is true. Don´t forget it! I love you tons bye!

A Really good week! October 25, 2010

Hey family and friends! How are we all doing? Just peachy? Good stuff. Anyway, like my subject says we had a really good week. Elder Velasquez and I taught more lessons this week that I ever have in one week in the mission. We taught 18 and the zone had an average of 19.3 lessons this week! We were pumped haha. Just two weeks ago the zone was averaging about 13 lessons a week so we have really stepped it up all over. We also had 4 baptismal dates in the zone last week and now we have 8! We are just really content right now with the work the zone is doing and the results we are seeing. The missionaries fasts, prayers, and faith are paying off. The stake also called a missionary that got home 5 days ago to be the elders quorum president in one of my wards. The stake really wants a missionary focus here. Things are going to explode pretty soon. I´m pretty dang excited.
Isabel is doing really good. The only thing is she is really busy with her brand new grandaughter. Her son has some mental problems because of a motorcycle accident and his wife is always working so she ends up having to take care of the little baby a lot of the time. She is ready for baptism though. We just have to set the date today with her. We also found some new investigators this week. One was a contact that the assistant to the President and I did in the street. She is a young mom from Ecuador named Daniela. We taught her the first lesson and she really seemed to like it. She had a few questions about the Godhead and things like that and it seems that she really is interested. Also, the Stake Presidents daughter brought her friend to church yesterday and we are going to start to teach him this week. The wards are really excited because we´re finding people to teach. Now we are just trying to get on the same page and work together. Things are just going really good. Tomorrow we have a special training meeting with the zone and President Clegg and its my turn to translate. I wish I could just sit and listen but thats ok. I just love how President Clegg teaches. Next week we also have three days of meetings in Málaga starting Monday so I don´t know what day I´ll be sending an email home. Sorry about that.
Well family and friends I love you. I know God lives. I love the scriptures so much and I know they are just full of His words. I love having experiences where I feel like the words on the pages were written just for me. I know our Heavenly Father is conscience of how we are feeling at all times and loves us more than we can imagine. The church is true guys! Talk to you next week. Love ya bye

I'm Stuffed

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I´m doing great right now but I am so full! Today we played soccer with some elders from the zone and then after we went to a chinese buffet. Poor little chinese people. They didn´t know what was coming when 8 elders walked in. It was eight euros and lets just say we got our moneys worth. I think we averaged about 5 plates per elder. It was pretty funny because the waiters and waitresses kept looking over at us and talking. I think they wanted to kick us out for eating too much. Oh well but I am still stuffed. Soccer was fun too. I have a big fat raspberry on my knee though from going down on the turf. I am going to be so sore tommorrow.
Well now I´ll update you all on how the work is going here in San Fernando. I´m writing a little late today because an investigator called just when we started to do our email and said she couldn´t have the appointment later tonight but wanted to do it at 5:30 instead. So me and my companion ran home and got changed and ran back over to her house. It was an awesome appointment! Her son is a member and she has been kind of checking the church out for the past 4 years. All by herself though. She hasn´t had the missionaries come over or anything but has been doing her own research. She told us today she is sure this is the right church for her and that its the church that she is going to be associated with for the rest of her life. I guess that means baptism! She has been an active catholic her whole life but told us today that she has realized thats its been more of a tradition to her than anything. She says our church is a lot more pure. I am so excited for her. I hope and pray everything keeps going like it is. Oh and her name is Isabel. We also have an appointment in a little bit with the ward mission leaders family. He invited the boyfriend and another friend of his daughter to church and so we set up with them yesterday for a family home evening at his house tonight. We´ll see how that goes.
Last night we attended the stake training meeting because the stake president invited us. It was amazing! They just talked about missionary work the whole time. It also made me really stressed. There are about 12 stakes in Spain and Elder Velasquez and I are the missionaries that oversee the missionaries and the work in this stake. It just so happens that the stake president told us that this stake (the Cadiz stake) is the weakest in Spain when it comes to missionary work, so we have a lot of work to do. We set up a meeting with him for Tuesday and we are going to share ideas, goals, and make plans to get things rolling here in the Cadiz stake. I hope I can do something to help.
Well thats all I have for the week family and amigos. I love you all tons and am still so grateful for all that you do for me. I have the best family and friends in the world. I know the church is true and we are blessed to be in it. Have a great week. Bye!

October 11, 2010 Hi Family and Friends

Hey everybody. I hope you are all doing good. I don´t really have much to say this week so it will be a short email. I went to church for the first time in San Fernando and it was a little different. I haven´t been in a ward since Barcelona and we only went to sacrament meeting for both of the wards. There was a really good spirit in the meetings too. A lot of the members had just gotten back from the temple and were sharing their experiences in the testimony meeting. It felt so good and made me miss the temple pretty bad. I really liked what one member said. " The temple is the only place in the world you can go and forget about everything that worries you outside." What a huge blessing that is for us to have. I still remember the peaceful feeling I had sitting in the celestial room in the Madrid temple. I´d give anything to go back and feel that again. Well, the work here is a little slow right now. Looking back on my areas now, it seems like God always puts me in the areas that have maybe one or two investigators and where the work is a little slow. I guess I have something to learn from that. I really appreciate having a challenging mission though. Success is so much sweeter when it comes. Right now Elder Velasquez and I are just praying, planning, fasting, and hoping for miracles. I´m sure they´ll come too. Well I miss you all so much and I hope you know how much I appreciate every single one of you. I´m so thankful for the people in my life that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I know the church is true. I know it with all my heart. Welcome home Oviatt. I´ll see you in not too long. I love you all and thanks again.

Love, Elder Langston