Holy Canoly it's almost Christmas 12/21/09

Merry Christmas everyone! How is everybody doing? Good I hope. Of course it is Christmas season and usually everyone is at least a little bit better than usual. I love this time of year. Call me crazy but I also like the weather a lot more. I´ll take the cold over heat any day. Its been cold and windy lately (Around mid 40´s during the day and freezing point at night) and today its rainy but I love it. I guess the ward found out that we don´t have heating in our apartment so they announced it in church and afterwards a family told us they were going to give us a heater for Christmas. I thought it was really nice of them. I love this ward. We taught Silvia last night. Well actually my companion and the district leader did. I had to stay in with the district leaders sick companion so he could do the interview. I got a lot of reading done haha. The appointment went really well though. We taught her the remaining commandments that she needed to be taught and she accepted them all. She has actually been paying tithing for about the last three months. She will be baptized by her son this Sunday after church. I´m so excited for her! What a great Christmas present right?! Its going to be hard to leave this area, which I am sure is going to happen, but this will be the best way to leave it. With a baptism. I love this ward and the bishop is an amazing man. We had a meeting with him yesterday morning and he was so happy when we looked over what we had done lately. A few families have been re-activated and we will have had 3 baptisms in the ward the last 2 months. I have been really blessed to see so many miracles in my mission so far. This Christmas is definitely different but it is going to be great. I hope you all have a wonderful week as we remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and the miracle that it was and is. I love Him so much. I love you all and thank you for all you do. I may be across an ocean, but I can still feel your love just as strong. Talk to you next week!

Weekly Report From Taylor Lynn Langston 12/14/09

Dear Everybody,How is everything going?! From all the emails I get it sounds like you are preparing for Christmas. And did I hear something about snow in St. George? Dang I missed it. Well the temperature is definitely dropping here in Barcelona. I´m sitting here in the internet cafe with my coat and scarf on! I don´t think it will get too cold here though. This week wasn´t very exciting to tell you the truth. It was pretty hard actually. It was full of appointments falling through,so our numbers we reported to President looked pretty bad. It is frustrating but what can you do? Keep trying right? We didn´t even get to teach Silvia this week. She works in a little city nearby during the week and is only in Barcelona on the weekends. She wasn´t able to make it to church but we are hoping we can teach her today. I´m not worried though because she is an amazing lady and had definitely been prepared after all this time. Well as for news that doesn´t really have to do with missionary work, last monday we sang carols on a stage in a plaza next to our new chapel. The thing is we sang in Catalá which is a language they speak here in Barcelona and surrounding areas. I had no idea that they actually speak about 6 different languages here in Spain! It sounds like a mix of french and spanish. It was a lot of fun even if we didn´t sound too great. We are going to do it again this week in the busiest part of Barcelona. We´ll see what happens. I can´t believe this transfer is almost over. I am sure I will be leaving this time and I really don´t want to say bye to the ward. My ward missionary leader has already started taking pictures of me haha. Its going to be tough but the work has to go on. I wonder where I´ll be heading off too??? Anyway, I love you all and thanks for everything that you do. You are all a huge blessing in my life. Talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston

One More Baptism Coming Up! 12/07/09

Wow this week was great just like the last one! Last night Elder Reynolds and I set a baptismal date with Silvia (the mother of the second counselor) for the 27th of this month! I am so excited for her. She has been investigating the church for years now and has finally decided to take the step of faith. It is just proof that there is a time for everything. Teaching her yesterday was a really spiritual experience. We went over some basic commandments and then I asked her if she had any questions or doubts that we could possibly clear up. Then through her tears she bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon. Of its truthfelness and how it has changed her life. I know the Book of Mormon with the Spirit is a powerful tool in the conversion of Gods children. It really is an amazing book. I´m so thankful for Silvia and her decision to be baptized. It is an answer to a prayer. Our misson has the goal of 400 baptisms this year and we are getting so close. We did a special fast and made plans to invite every progressing investigator to be baptized and we have seen miracles. I believe we now have around 360 in the mission with 70 new dates! It is amazing. It will be a huge increase from the 307 last year. With about 30 less missionaries! Heavenly Father is truly blessing us. Vanessa came to church and bore her testimony. She is really strong. I couldn´t believe how excited she was to pay her tithing. She loves being a part of the ward. Time is flying out here. I can´t believe its almost Christmas! Hermana Hinckley is calling it our white Christmas because we are having so many baptisms. Pretty clever if you ask me haha. Well I think thats about it. I love you all and thank you again for the support! I couldn´t ask for better family and friends. Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

A Perfect Baptism

Hey everyone! We had the baptism yesterday instead of Saturday and it was perfect. We held it on Sunday so the members didn´t have to adjust their schedules to attend. It really was amazing though. I have never been so stressed in my life! I wanted everything to go perfect for her. The only thing that could have been better was the temperature of the water. I filled up the font a little bit too early and by the time the baptism rolled around the water was a little nippy. Not too bad though. I´m just glad she didn´t gasp or anything like that haha. (I´ve seen girls pretty much scream). Overall it went extremely well. I will send my mom a picture of it for you all to see. She was so excited but so nervous haha! I was sitting next to her during the service and she kept sighing out loud so I could tell she was nervous. The best part was after her baptism when she bore her testimony. She bore a simple testimony of how she knows this church to be the church of God and the Book of Mormon to be true. It made me so happy. She is excited to share the gospel as well! Her boyfriend was there and he loved it to. I want to push them to get married in the temple in April of 2011 so I can be there haha. That would be amazing. Yesterday something else really good happened too. We went over to the second counselors house and talked about his mom. He had just gotten back from her house and she said she wants to be baptized in December before I leave the area! We don´t have a fixed date but I hope it really happens. I put a scripture on Vanessa´s baptismal program just for Silvia (second counselors mom) and I think it worked. Mosiah 18:10. We still have some work to do with her though. Earlier this week we had our conference with Elder Kopischke and it was great. When we asked questions, he went into some serious depth! It was amazing. Elder Awerkamp actually came and stayed with me in my apartment the night before the conference! He is serving a couple of hours away from Barcelona so he came in the night before for the conference. I hadn´t seen him for 6 months. It was good to see an old friend again. I hope Thanksgiving was really good for all of you! I got a package from my mom the day of thanksgiving and I laughed my head off. Turkey jerky, dried cranberries, potato pearls, and gravy mix with stuffing. That was pretty creative mom. Anyway I love you all and I´m so thankful for this opportunity I have been given to serve a mission for the Lord. It has blessed my life so much. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Langston

Baptism Coming Up. Yee Haw!

Hello everyone! How are we doing? I´m doing just dandy and I´m so excited for the baptism this weekend. We asked Vanessa who she would like to baptize her and she chose me so I´m pretty nervous. I hope I don´t have to triple dip her or anything haha. I´m happy I get to finally step in the water though. Its going to be an amazing experience. Yesterday I felt the spirit so strong when we were teaching Vanessa and her boyfriend bore his testimony and told us how thankful he was for the missionaries that brought the gospel into his life. Vanessa put her arm around him and gave him a hankerchief to wipe away his tears haha. Usually its the other way around. It was a really cool experience though. The secretary in the ward pulled a fast one on me again and asked me to speak in sacrament right before it started. Of course the subject was missionary work. I whipped something up in Sunday school and it actually went pretty well. I talked about how we can apply the Book of Mormon to our missionary work and used chapter 18 of Alma to do it. I just talked about the things he did as a missionary step by step and applied it to us today. I don´t know how I came up with it because I was already really stressed. We didn´t have the greatest week teaching wise. We mostly taught in the street and knocked doors. I actually love knocking doors so I was happy. This week Elder Kopischke from the quorum of the 70 is doing a tour of the misson so we have a conference with him on Wednesday. I´m really excited to learn from a General Authority in person. I think thats about all the news I have for the week. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving (We don´t celebrate here) and get full and fat. We have an eating appointment that day and we always get full so no worries mom. I love you all and thank you so much for the support. Oh! And congratulations on your mission call to Japan Blake. You are going to be an amazing missionary. Talk to you next week.

Hello everyone! I´m still doing just fine out here in Barcelona. It is getting kind of cold though. Good thing my grandma sends me ankle length underwear haha. As for news in the past week, we had a baptism in the ward. It was weird because Elders from a neighboring town were teaching a man that lived in our ward because a lady that takes care of him is a member and goes to their ward. So he was baptized on Saturday and it went really well. It was pretty stressful though because it felt like I was in charge of everything and I had to make sure it went through smoothly. I had to run to the mission office and make programs for his baptism, run to the church and fill up the font, and prepare a message for his baptism all on Saturday morning. It was really fun figuring out how to fill up the font when nobody knows how to do it and the instructions for turning on the water heater are in spanish. I figured it out though so I guess that proves I understand spanish haha. It was a pretty crazy day but it all worked out really good. Vanessa is still excited about being baptized on the 28th. Just like everybody else that is investigating the church, she is having problems that keep coming. People at work are telling her lies and things like that. It seems that Satan always finds a way to throw obstacles in our paths. She is strong though and it really helps that her boyfriend is a member. Just as a side note, the dominican ladies invited me and my companion over to eat with them again on Saturday. They love us for some reason. They aren´t progressing so I wasn´t really expecting much when we gave the message. I started off by saying that all I had on my mind was baptism and explained how it is an essential saving ordinance and that Christ said it himself. I then read her some verses out of the Bible about baptism. Afterwards she kind of just sat there and said "What you have read has touched my heart and I think I need to let you baptize me". It was crazy! I wasn´t expecting it at all. It was an amazing experience because we hadn´t planned baptism as the lesson. It was keeping the sabbath day holy. I know the Holy Ghost directed that appointment. So as of now she wants to be baptized but she can´t come to church because of work. I explained to her before baptism we have to keep certain commitments and show God that we are ready to take upon us the covenant of baptism. We have a little bit to work with but I think she can overcome some of her obstacles. Thats about it for the week. I love my mission! I know this church is true. The small little miracles I am seeing on the mission are strenghtening my testimony and changing my life. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Love, Elder Langston

Another Great Week!

Well hello everyone. This week was great as usual. It seems like this whole transfer things have just been going really good! I remember I was worried too because I had to take over the area and schedule everything but I guess there was nothing to worry about. Anyway, Halloween was just great. We dressed up as missionaries and went out and taught people. Vicente wasn´t baptized though. I talked to him and he just doesn´t feel prepared to make that covenant. We did take a step forward though and got him to pray specifically about the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness. Another thing, we set a baptismal date with Vanessa!!! She is the one who has the boyfriend that is a member and bore his testimony the week after we found him and invited him to church. We thought they were married but they aren´t. Usually that is a problem because when people are boyfriend and girlfriend here, they live together. Buth they don´t! So we taught her after church and set the date for the 28th of November. I just hope I´m here to see it. Working with her boyfriend is going to be key. It will be such an advantage for her to always be around a member. He is a great guy and really trying to make changes in his life. I also finally got a rope around the second counselor of the bishopric and told him we are going to need his help if he wants to see his mom baptized soon along with his nephew. We set up a meeting for all of us for the next Sunday. If things go good I will see at least 3 baptisms here pretty soon. I just hope I stay! I can´t believe I have already been in this ward for 5 months. Things are going really good in this mission right now. At the end of last year they set a goal to get 400 baptisms this year. Last year they got 307. We are at about 330 I believe with a few weeks a left in the year. President Hinckley did the stats a little while ago and we needed to baptize 11 a week in the mission to reach our goal. So our mission did a special fast and I think we saw 15 or 16 people enter the waters of baptism! I am so excited! I hope I can contribute to the mission here soon. Well thats about it. I hope life is just dandy back home haha. I love you all. Love Elder Langston

Another Good Week!

Hi everyone! Well we didn´t have quite as many people to visit this week but it was still a really good week. I´m trying to think of everything that happened as I´m typing! Well we had english class again but the spiritual thought went a little better this time. Nobody argued at all! How nice right? Afterwards we taught an 18 year old girl in the church. She is actually the zone leaders investigator but she wants me to teach her because she says she trusts me and has more confidence around me and Elder Reynolds. So we team taught her with the zone leaders. One of the zone leaders was really bold with her about baptism to see if she was really interested and she started crying and said "can I do it later because I´m really nervous right now." Haha we explained we just wanted to set a date with her right now. She said she will think about it. I think it will happen. On Sunday we had stake conference in a big theater on the outskirts of Barcelona and it was great. Two members of my ward spoke and it was fun listening to them because they are like my friends here in Barcelona. They have both finished their missions within the last 5 months and help me out all the time. Their names are Elias Guerrero and Hugo Estigarribia. Two of our investigators came to the conference and they loved it! One was the wife of the less active member. Her name is Vanessa and she is really sweet. We weren´t able to meet with her to set a baptismal date though. The other investigator was Emili. He is the Spanish man I have been teaching. I didn´t even know he was there until a member told me. So I went back in to find him and we saw him talking with President Hinckley and the stake president with his counselors! Then when he saw me he said "Langston!" and he came up and gave me a big ol hug!. I think he really enjoyed the meeting and felt the spirit. Anyway, after the conference all the members were out in the lobby area talking and I have never felt so much love from my ward! Everytime I saw someone from my ward they acted so excited to see me. I kept hearing people yell my name and I was getting hugs left and right haha. Its going to be hard for me to leave this area. I really love the people here. The work is tough in Barcelona but the members are amazing. I think we are going to have to push back the date with Vicente. He just isn´t progressing and I want to make sure we baptize a real convert. Thats the motto of this mission. We baptize converts. Well as you can probably tell I am still loving my mission and I love it more and more every single day. I know this church is God´s kingdom on earth and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to its fullness. I love you all and thanks again (like always) for your love and support. Until next week Love, Elder Langston

A Really Good Week!

Hey everyone! It looks like we have finally found a bit of success. We had such a great week! Last week we only had 7 appointments inside of peoples homes and this week we had 16! We were so blessed! Oh and more good news. The less active man named Jesus came to church again and brought his wife this time that isn´t a member and she told me she wants to be baptized!!! I was so happy to hear that! The tough part is the only day she has off is Sunday and we have to squeeze all the information into a few lessons but it will be easier since her husband
is a member. I´m really excited though. As for Vicente, it is going to take some work to get him baptized on his date. We might have to wait a little longer. He still doesn´t understand that baptism in this church is the ONLY way back to Heavenly Father. He has studied with the Jehovahs witnesses, the buddhists and he reads philosophy so its hard to get those ideas out of his mind. We have explained it in every way possible to help him understand but he just seems really set on his beliefs. He still comes to church every week though. We had kind of a crazy experience in english class this week. Only three students showed up and one was a woman I recognized from a class 2 or 3 months ago. I remembered she liked to argue when we had the spiritual thought at the end. The thing is they have the option to stay or leave for the thought. So I warned my companion and told him just to bear testimony and end it if she started to argue with us. I read Matthew 3 13-17 and explained how the members of the Godhead are three seperate personages. She started swearing! The other two in the class are actually investigator of ours and they were just shaking their heads and
telling her to calm down. We just bore testimony
and closed the spiritual thought. She couldn´t deny testimony. I know that is the way to face objection. It was an awkward experience but it taught me a lot. Well the weather is really cooling down now and I´m freezing my little buns (or lack thereof) off! Luckily we have these little portable heaters to sit next to. I like the cold a lot more than the heat though so its ok. Well everyone thats about it for the week. I hope I have more good news next week. I love you all and you are in my prayers! Love, Elder Langston

I Love my Mission!

For some reason I have been really happy this week. I´m looking at the numbers that we produced as far as lessons we taught in houses and it doesn´t say a whole lot. I´m still happy. On my mission I have been trying to develop Christlike attributes to make me a better person and in turn a better missionary. I decided to focus on charity and love because if you have those two things, you are going to have everything else. Of course we can´t just expect to have the pure love of Christ in an instant. Its a gift from God. So I have been praying for opportunites each day to increase my love towards my brothers and sisters here in Spain and so far I have seen miracles. Nothing big, but miracles. Earlier this week an old man fell down in the street and was crying for help so my companion and I helped him get up and sat him down. Nothing big but it made me feel good. Then an old woman asked us to help her lift her garbage into a dumpster. So we did it. Then an older woman in the ward called me and asked me to come give her husband a blessing because he can´t walk anymore and his memory is leaving him. It made me feel so good to be able to help her in her time of need. Then Saturday night all of our appointments fell through and Elder Reynolds and I had nothing to do. I looked through my agenda and found a less active member and his non member wifes address that was nearby. On the way to their apartment I passed the man I was looking for and asked him if we could set up an appointment and he was thrilled. We also invited him to church. The next day in fast and testimony meeting he got up to share his testimony and thanked me in front of the whole ward for finding him and inviting him to church. He called us his angels. It gave me the most warm feeling inside because I knew my efforts were appreciated. So I guess I have just been happier because I love the people here more and better understand that each person I see in the street is a child of God and He wants them back. I told myself last week that I needed to work harder. I felt like i have been working hard and doing well in the mission but i could push myself harder. 100 percent isn´t enough. As a result of pushing myself harder I have felt happier than I ever have in the mission and am having more success! We set a baptismal date with Vicente for the 31 of October. We are also going to teach an 8 year old boy who´s mom is a member but his dad isn´t. I am so excited to see some baptisms this transfer. I´ve also made a goal to speak spanish as much as I can. Even when I am in the apartment with my companion I am going to try and speak spanish. Anyway thats really all I have to report this week. Everything is going great and I am learning a ton! Thank you all for the emails and letters and the support. I can feel your love from across the ocean! I hope all is well back home. I love every single one of you! Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

I'm Still Here!

Transfer calls were Sunday night and I found out I´m staying here in the Barcelona third ward. Elder Cranford left though. He went to Alcoy Spain which is a little city in the southern mountains of Spain. He wanted to stay here so I felt bad for him. He took it pretty rough. My new companion is Elder Reynolds from Spanish Fork. The best way I could describe him is that we are opposite body types. That´ll do. I like him a lot. He has a really strong spirit and I can tell he is completely devoted to the work here. We should have success. Wasn´t conference great?! All the missionaries in Barcelona and surrounding areas congregated in the Barcelona stake center and we got to watch it in English. We didn´t get to watch the Sunday afternoon session though and I heard Elder Hollands talk was amazing. I can´t pick a favorite talk though for some reason. I loved Elder Bednars on setting the family in order and saying I love you. It made me miss all of my family and friends though haha. I just love all of you so much. I think this conference was based on love and listening to the spirit or personal revelation. It taught me so much and answered a lot of my questions. When president Packer told his story of the little boy praying for the cow and how his prayer was answered I was overcome with the feeling of how much love God has for us. He listened to that little boys simple earnest prayer and answered it. It made me realize He is always there listening when I speak to Him and always wants to help me. Its amazing how unconditional his love for each of us. It doesn´t matter what we´ve done, what we look like, where we live or any of that. He loves us and always will. This conference made me reflect on my own life a ton. It just made me want to be so much better and work so much harder. I have so much to improve on and its comforting to know with the help of the Lord I can do anything and become like Him. As for the work that happened last week...well there isn´t too much to talk about. Sonia the mexican girl told us not to pass by anymore. She appreciates what we are doing but she doesn´t want us to waste our time on her. It kind of broke my heart when she told us this because I saw so much in her. Maybe one day though. But we are still teaching everyone and trying to help them progress and feel and recognize the spirit. Thats the hardest part is letting them know the things they are feeling are the spirit. Thats a challenge for each of us too. Recognizing when the Spirit is trying to talk to us. We have to listen ever so carefully and seek its direction. Well I´ll stop rambling now and let you all go. I love you each so much! I miss you like the dickens (Grandma Gloria style). I know this church is true with all my heart. It is so perfect. Thanks for all you do and the support and confidence I feel from you. You guys push me to go on. Until next week! Elder Langston

A week of good eatin!

Hey ya´ll! This week was pretty darn fun. I think it was a little more fun because we actually have investigators progressing towards baptism! A few weeks ago Elder Cranford and I went to visit an investigating family just to check up on them and see if they were reading. We couldn´t go inside though because only the little boy was home. So I told Elder Cranford "well lets just knock the whole building." So we took the elevator up to the eleventh floor and started to knock the doors. Just so everybody knows, knocking doors almost never turns out with success here in Spain but we decided to give it a shot. And guess what happened? Success. On the eleventh floor a dominican woman invited us in after we had introduced ourselves but we couldn´t because there wasn´t a man in the house. So we made a return appointment and decided to come back. As of now we have visited with them 4 or 5 times and they love it! They even invited us to eat with them last week and it was delicious. She made hamburgers and ribs and it was rediculously good. Its been awhile for sure. I could tell she was so happy to serve us and it made me feel really good. Its hard to find happy people these days. The only problem is she can´t come to church because she works and she really wants to come. I hope things work out and she can somehow change her schedule. She told us she wants to be baptized! I am really praying this one goes through. This week was also fun because elder Cranford and I got to attend the ward activity. We had to wear our proselyting clothes, but it was still fun. We brought an american football with us to show them what it was all about. The little kids all ran to the bottom of the hill and told me to throw it as high as I could. When I threw it they all said "Whoooaaaaa!!". Haha it was really funny. They aren´t used to seeing people throw things. They kick em here haha. I also forgot to tell you all that Gina moved back to Colombia. Before she left, she gave Elder Cranford and I a bracelet with the Colombian flag colors. I hope she does well over there. Well thats about it for the week. The weather is up and down. About two weeks ago my shoes filled with water it rained so hard and every once in awhile it gets hot again. I just want it to stay cool! But I love it here. I love this mission and I love you all. You mean so much to me. I hope you have a great week! Love Elder Langston

Elder Langstons Report

Hey everybody,Well I´m sorry but I don´t have any exciting news for you this week. Not much is happening but we are just trudging along. I know its alright through. Things are supposed to happen when they are supposed to happen. Or maybe I just have to try even harder. Actually, something funny happened yesterday. A Bulgarian guy called us and said he wanted to meet with us. He spoke perfect english. We met him at a metro stop and he said he had met with some elders in switzerland where he has been living and he thinks its really interesting. As a matter of fact he said he wants to be a member and he wants to know what he needs to do to be baptized. Of course we told him! He doesn´t live in our area and he is going back to Switzerland but hey...its someone getting baptized! It made me happy yesterday. It shows me that people really are ready for the gospel and we just need to find them! I love teaching though. Even if they don´t accept it or want to listen, it gives me a feeling that is unmistakeably the Spirit. Its just pure happiness. Its like I have $100 dollar bills and I´m trying to pass them out to people. If they don´t want it, I´ll try someone else! When times get hard and not much is happening it is comforting to know that I have a testimony of the things I am teaching and everything is going to be ok. As for unimportant news, I sang in the ward choir yesterday in Sacrament meeting. The choir has three men in it. My companion, me and one other member. So I sang the tenor part haha. It was actually pretty fun! The ward I am in is also really getting into missionary work. Everybody wants to help and they are trying to include us missionaries in their activities. I´m so grateful to be in this ward. I hope I stay here this next transfer. I think I will because Elder Cranford has been here almost 7 months! Whatever happens happens. Thank you all for the support and encouraging words. I love the letters and emails. With God on our side, we cannot fail! I love you all.Love, Elder Langston

Guess What...That's What

Just another week of teaching and finding new people to teach. I really wish we could commit some people to baptism! I swear we always get so close and then there is just one little thing in the way or they don´t want to make that kind of commitment. Sometimes our investigators just don´t understand how important the decision is. And although I try my hardest to help them realize, sometimes it just doesn´t sink in. Don´t worry though. I´ll be reporting a baptismal date here soon. Our investigator Vicente is doing great. He has a lot of ideas but we are helping him see THE TRUTH. He really likes what we are teaching and he said he just needs to pray to know it is true. He said that himself and we didn´t have to ask him so thats always a plus! He also said something that strengthened my testimony of the power of the Spirit. At the end of a lesson last week, I told him the next time we would be bringing a member. I then explained its nice to have members present because sometimes they are more experienced with different situations and they also speak the language better. Then he said "The language doesn´t matter. Its what I can see in your eyes and feel in my heart when you are here in my house that matters." I thought that was really neat! It gave me a testimony that the language barrier really isn´t anything at all. I may not speak perfectly yet, but that doesn´t matter because the Spirit can teach a million times better than I ever could. The weather is starting to cool down here in Barcelona and I´m extremely grateful! Its been pretty cloudy and there has been a light raing here and there. I love that kind of weather. I can´t believe fall is starting! I remember last fall I was starting my mission papers and now here I am. Time flies. Sorry I don´t have much to report but it was just one of those weeks. I want each of you to know that I pray for you everyday and I´m always appreciative of your support and love. You mean the world to me. Talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston

A little bit of Discouragement...but oh well.

The subject says it all! Last week was really hard. We just couldn´t get into a house! A lot of people called at the last second and cancelled the appointment we set up so we would have to go to our backup plans which eventually fell through as well. I shouldn´t complain though. I love it out here. We found two more new investigators at least! A woman from Portugal named Ana that sister Hinckley contacted (I don´t know how because she hardly speaks a word of spanish) and a man named Martín from Colombia. He actually approached me a few weeks ago while we were waiting for a member to accompany us to a different appointment. All of a sudden he walked up to me and asked where our church was because he wanted to find the right church! Talk about being in the right place at the right time haha! We´ve had one appointment with him and he wants us to come back so things are moving right along. I´ve gotten a lot of questions about Sonia in my emails so I´ll give an update about her. We haven´t met with her as often because she isn´t really progressing. The sad thing is she wants physical evidence and others people word instead of finding out for herself through prayer. Honestly I think she just needs a little bit of time. She will be baptized. I might not ever see it but that doesn´t matter. I think she will. We had a great zone conference yesterday with all of the missonaries in Barcelona. Elder Cranford and I had to give a report on how we have applied some principles of a case study that the mission has been studying. Its always a little scary to get up in front of people and speak spanish because I´m not very confident, but it went well. I love hearing president Hinckley speak. He is such a spiritual man and you can just feel his love for the gospel and the mission he presides over. I´m lucky to have him as my president. President also said that we shouldn´t be suprised if we stay in the same area for 6 to 8 months to really get working with the ward. I would love that! I love this ward. It really feels like I´m in my home ward. I´m hoping thats the case. Elder Cranford has already been here 6 months so I think he might be out of here the next transfer. We´ll see. Well, thats about it. There isnt much to report because not a whole lot happened haha. But I love it. I know with all my heart that this church is true. Testimonies are strengthened in the bearing of them and also from hearing them from others. Oh yeah! One testimony that really hit me this week was from a 10 year old girl in fast and testimony meeting. Her parents don´t come to church but she comes every week with a big smile on her face. She bore her testimony about the simple truths she knows with all her heart and it hit me so hard. I love to hear the testimonies of such strong spirits. Well I love you all and I love hearing from you. Until next week. Love Elder Langston

I think I´ll start by talking about yesterday. It made me come out of my shell a little bit. In reality the mission has already done that to me but yesterday was a little different. Elder Cranford and I had to teach all of the adults in the ward about missionary work and how they can help us. We gave examples and did little practices with them. It was a ton of fun and I think they enjoyed it. They are a great ward and really trying to get missionary work going. Really the missionary work is theres and we are here as their servants. They know A LOT more people than we do so it really helps to have them looking for people. After we taught the class, my companion was playing the prelude music for sacrament meeting and I was in the back of the congregation sitting by a family. The ward secretary came up to me and asked where my companion was and so I told him, ¨He´s up front playing the piano.¨ So then he asked me if I was prepared to give an 8 minute talk on missionary work for sacrament meeting. Haha of course I couldn´t say no so I went up and sat on the stand and prepared my talk. It was a little nerve racking but I think I did alright. I tried to make a joke in spanish and they understood it so hey, it went pretty good. Needless to say I was sweating like crazy and my knees were shaking but oh well. I got a lot of encouragement after which was really nice. I think they could tell I was scared. Anyway, this week was a little different. Elder Cranford and I taught 3 new investigators. We taught the family from English class but only the mom and boy were there. They really liked it though and after we extended the baptismal invitation they said they would think about it and they want to learn a little more. We also taught a man named Vicente that was actually taught by another missionary in the Canary Islands. He said he knows he needs to be baptized but he wants to be prepared. We can help him there! So all in all we had quite a bit of success this week. We are still working with the investigators we´ve had and trying to find more. Unfortunately the Peruvian family is either losing interest or doesn´t have any time at all because they won´t let us come over. Its too bad because I was really excited to teach a whole family. Thats about it for the week so I´ll end it here. I love you all a ton and thanks for the support I always feel. Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

Guess where I am now????

Transfer calls were Sunday night and...(drumroll)...Elder Cranford and I are staying together in this area for at least six more weeks. Pretty good eh? I was excited because we have been finding new investigators like crazy lately! We also have a lot of work to do with ones we have found in the past. I just love keeping busy and I love my ward here! The members are really willing to help and have emphasized the importance of missionary work in the last few meetings. The bishop has actually asked that me and Elder Cranford give a lesson on missionary work to the whole ward in gospel doctrine class here in a few weeks. We´ll see how that goes! Unfortunately, we haven´t been able to meet with the Peruvian family this week. We have called them quite a few times but they are busy dealing with residency issues. I hope things start to pick up. We met with Sonia this week the day before her birthday. Truthfully, it didn´t go too well. We tried to watch the restoration movie but her tv didn´t work and her computer didn´t have volume. It was a little bit of a bummer. She had us stay to eat with her though and she really enjoyed our company. She actually told me that she is moving to Idaho where her family lives in about a year. I couldn´t help but think that would be perfect because there is no way you are going to escape the church in Idaho! :) I guess we need to worry about baptizing her first. I think Elder Cranford and I have found something good though. As you know, we teach english classes every Saturday evening and afterwards we share a small spiritual thought. This last Saturday we did something a little different and shared the whole first lesson which is the restoration. It went really well and everybody filed out after we had finished. Elder Cranford was having a conversation with a man that was thanking him for all his help. After everybody had left I saw a family that had just left in the door. They told me they wanted us to come over this week! I was so excited. They have a boy that is about 12 that loves me for some reason. I think its because I´m kind of goofy and he gets a kick out of it. I´m so excited to go over to their house! I hope they are really interested. I would love to see a whole family baptized. Well thats my report for the week. Time is flying and I´m loving my mission. This church is true. There is no possible way I could doubt it. I love you all.Elder Langston

Slowly but Surely

Well well well. All of you that are wondering about Sonia...she hasn´t agreed to be baptized yet because she still wants to know for herself that everything is true. That really does make me happier than her being baptized just to be baptized. She wants to know why she is doing what she is doing and I really am happy about that. I read her the baptismal questions this week so she could see what was required of her. She said she had a testimony of everything except she doesn´t know for sure if Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and that he was called as a prophet. She said she isn´t going to deny that it happened, but she just doesn´t know for sure yet. We are planning on watching the a video about the restoration with her this week and she wants us to come over and eat! She really is so nice and i know she will be ready soon. The family from Peru isn´t progressing anymore so that makes me kind of sad. They didn´t come to church this week and the father doesn´t think he needs to be baptized since he was already baptized in the catholic church. We are really trying to help him see that only our church has the priesthood authority. The good news is Elder Cranford found 3 new investigators this week with quite a bit of potential. One is the mother of the second counselor in the bishopric and she is READY. She has been coming to church for quite awhile now and I didn´t really know she wasn´t a member. Whoops! But yesterday Elder Cranford and I taught about the restoration in Gospel Principles class and she told us she didn´t have any questions and that she knew everything we said was true! That made me extremely excited! We are going to set a date with her this week. Well thats pretty much it for my report on the week. I hope you are all doing well. I pray for each of you every single day. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true church and I´ve never wanted to share the knowledge I have like I do now. I just wish everyone would listen. I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston

Loving this work!

Sorry no baptisms this week haha. But I read everyones emails and they all made me so happy. I have more support than any other missionary in the world by far! Thank you all. Well, this week we found some new investigators! A whole family from Peru! They came to church with us and we are very close to setting a baptismal date with them. They said they have a testimony of everything. Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, you know everything. We are going to meet with them again on Wednesday to try and set the date. I also asked Sonia to be baptized on the 22 of August. The response she gave me wasn´t a yes or no but it was just as good as a yes. She said she is going to pray, and if Heavenly Father wants her to be baptized on the 22nd, she will do it. It made me really happy! She really loves the church and the Book of Mormon and I´m so excited for her. Elder Cranford and I have really been blessed with investigators that are truly interested and seeking the truth. Yesterday was zone conference and President Hinckley is amazing! So is his wife. She actually contacted the Peruvian family and she hardly speaks a word of Spanish. She really wants to be part of the work. President Hinckley has a great sense of humor too. Right in the middle of the conference, he turned on some spanish music and started singing and dancing around the room! Haha it was hilarious. I can really feel his love for the missionaries in this mission and I´m grateful to have him. He bore such a powerful testimony yesterday at the end of the conference and part of it really stuck with me. He said "I wish you knew how amazing and special each of you are. I wish you had the tiniest idea. You are doing an amazing work." Something like that anyway haha. It really motivated me to try even harder. I have so much room to grow. I really love how much I´m learning out here. I love hearing your testimonies in your emails and letters. And I love how you spoil me Grandma! Holy Cow! Haha but thanks again for all of your support and know you are all in my prayers. I love you Love, Elder Langston

First Baptism!

Wow what a fun week! I´ll start from the beginning. 3 days before the baptism we made the program with Gina. We asked her who wanted to baptize her and she chose my companion Elder Cranford. Then she chose me to confirm her...in front of the whole ward in sacrament meeting! Whew were my knees shaking! It went really well though. I asked my companion if I messed up afterwards and he said I didn´t so thats good! Anyway, the baptism was on Saturday at 2:30 and it will be such a special memory for me the rest of my life. After she was baptized she shared her testimony and I´ve never been hit so hard with such a simple short testimony. When I heard her say she knew Joseph Smith saw God the Father and The Son, I was overcome with the spirit. I´ve never felt so happy for someone else. I feel so grateful to be able to be an instrument in the Lords hands. Now Gina has taken the first step to living with her family and her Heavenly Father for eternity and I was blessed enough to be part of it. Yesterday after church, Elder Cranford and I went to Gina´s house and ate with her family. We asked her if she had any questions for us, and she did. She had some questions about feeling the spirit. She said "You have explained that the spirit is a really soft feeling that is hard to feel, but I think I felt something different yesterday. How do you feel the spirit Elder Langston?" It caught me a little off guard but she had already asked me that question in the past so I had some time to think about it. I explained how I felt at her baptism the day before. I explained at times I feel like crying because I´m so happy and sometimes its a rushing sensation that runs down my whole body. After I said that, she said "That! That is what I felt yesterday!" That gave me the best feeling ever because earlier that day when I confirmed her, I remembered blessing her with the ability to recognize the feelings of the spirit and to understand them. Clearly Heavenly Father knew what I needed to say and He told me through the spirit. This week got me thinking a lot. I thought about how my life was just a few months ago. I could walk down the street without being yelled at, called names, or having hands put in my face. And then I thought about the baptism and how I get to share the most beautiful message with people here and help them get back to Heavenly Father. Its so worth it and I´m so happy to be here. I want to close this email with a quote I heard from Gordon B Hinckley. I thought it was really neat. " These are the two questions I should like to leave you with. It´s true isn´t it? Then what else matters?" I love you all.Love Elder Langston

Five more days!

Yes sir! Only five more days till my first baptism and I´m so excited. We are going to find out if her dad can do it but if not one of us will do it. I really hope her dad can. Well this last week was pretty crazy. I had some interesting experiences. Thats for sure. I taught a man while he was smoking and sitting on his couch in his underwear. I contacted a man that said he didn´t believe in God because if we evolved from monkeys, and man was created in Gods image, that means God is a monkey and that can´t be. What a crazy view huh!? Sometimes you just have to laugh. Another man said Jesus didn´t do miracles. He said he was just smarter than everybody and invented a fancy remote to walk on water and stuff. He said when the batteries died, so did Jesus. Talk about nuts! The people here entertain me thats for sure. Enough of that. Sonia came with us to church again and she really enjoyed it. She loves us! She called me and "elegant angel" haha. I don´t know if that is how you spell it. The only problem we have to work out with her is that this church is the ONE true church. She loves everything we teach her but she just doesn´t quite understand its the truth. Its not just a good story. She is really into Philosophy! No worries we´ll get her! Well that about does it for the report on the week. Its all I can remember right now anyway. I hope you all have a great week and I love you. I know this church is true and I love this mission. It is definitely showing me my weaknesses and what I need to become. Until next week. Elder Langston

Success at last!

Last week was easily the best week I´ve had in the mission so far! Elder Cranford and I are flying around the area and teaching like mad. Every week we turn in numbers of how many people we´ve taught, how many houses we got into, and how many lessons we had with investigators with a member present. The next week, we receive a paper in the mail and it shows three different lists of the companionships who got the best numbers. Elder Cranford and I made the highest list! And we don´t just have numbers to show for it. Last week we set a baptismal date with a girl named Gina Sanchez! She is getting baptized on August 1st and I´m so excited! We also found a 26 year old girl named Sonia from Mexico. She is very sweet and sincere and eager to learn. She actually came to church with us yesterday so she is really progressing. I´m having a lot of fun now with this huge area. Its hard work and I´m always busy but I like it that way. Remember the little boy that poked me in the eye during the prayer? Well this week I had another little experience like that. This time it was a different boy and he was slapping me in the face with a rubber glove instead. Isn´t that great? Haha little kids are hilarious. My spanish has also improved this last week. Right now in the mission we are having an english fast. So I´ve been speaking nothing but spanish the past week. It has helped me a ton. Oh and apparently I look like a Spaniard. During almost every single appointment we´ve had, someone asks me if I´m Spanish. So if any of you are wondering what a spaniard looks like, look at me. Mom they think you are too when I show them your picture. I have to point you out everytime because they think you and Dad are my brother and sister haha. Well thats my report for the week! Things are going just fine out here. We are so lucky to have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. Its sad that people have no idea. Thats what missionary work is for though right?! Anyway, I love you all and have a great week. Love Elder Langston

2nd Transfer already!

Well I have a lot of stuff to talk about! First of all, the transfer. I didn´t go anywhere (My address is the same) but they did something crazy. I am in the Barcelona 3 ward which had 4 elders and has two areas in its boundaries. There was me and Elder Young and another companionship. So we four elders split the ward. Well, President Hinckley combined the areas and put me with Elder Cranford, who already lived in the same apartment as me. So now we have the same amount of work and area with half the amount of elders! It is insane! Elder Cranford and I are in charge of 1/3 of Barcelona! If I remember correctly, Barcelona has about 7 million people in it. So, I know look over the biggest area in the Barcelona Spain Mission. I think we are ready for it though. There is a lot of work to be done! From what I hear, President Hinckley is going to try and keep elders in the same area for longer periods of time. About 4 transfers I think. There are also less missionaries these days just because there are less boys my age. So that means more work and a lot of help from the wards. A lot of crazy stuff happened last week. One day we walked outside and the Tour de France was going by our apartment haha. Maybe you saw me on TV uncle Cary! So that was pretty fun. A member also took us to a fancy restaurant on the coast. It was great! We are getting really close to setting a baptismal date with Marcos. He is excited about the church and just wants to learn more. Me and Elder Cranford also have a baptismal date set with someone from his area, which is now my area too. I´m sorry if this is confusing but I´m trying to rush through it! I hope everybody gets what I´m saying haha. Thank you all again for the letters and emails you send me. Your support means so much and I can´t help but smile when I read each of your letters with advice and love in them. Thank you and I love you. Hasta luego Love Elder Langston

Time is Flying!

Hello everyone! Sounds like the 4th of July was a blast for you all. Mine wasn´t too bad either. We ate with a guy from Provo that has lived here ten years. Dominos Pizza baby! So it almost felt like home. And the night before there were some big ol fireworks I could here but couldn´t see. So yeah, it was a little different but kind of the same. I can´t believe I´m in the last week of my first transfer. Its true the time flies out here. President Graf said the first year would crawl by but it seems like its going fast to me! I met President Hinckley this week and it was amazing. We had a meeting to get to know him and right when he walked in the room and I saw him, I knew he was meant to be my mission president. He is actually a funny guy. A missionary asked what it was like to have your dad as the prophet. He said when he was growing up, his dad wasn´t a prophet. They were just a normal family trying to do their best. He said something really funny too. He said "We had family home evening...sometimes". Everybody bust up laughing. I am really looking forward to serving the rest of my mission with him. As for the work, we are really close to getting some baptisms! One couple has their papers to get married and they are going to be setting a baptismal date any day now! My companion might be transfered to another area before it happens though. We also eat with this family every week from our ward. The Ferreyros. One of the daughters has a boyfriend and he comes to eat with us now and said he has been thinking about getting baptized! I´m really excited and I can´t wait to see it all fall into place. I don´t feel like I´m doing too much to help them along because of the language barrier but I´m trying to do my best. I get frustrated with myself sometimes haha. I want to do more but I keep reminding myself it will all come with time. Well I better go. Thank you all for your support and love. It means the world to me. I love you all. Love, Elder Langston

Hola Crazy Family!

Well I just got done reading everyones emails and I decided my family is nuts haha. TK tells me she just had a Michael Jackson day, Kiana is...Kiana, my dad still makes fun of me. Oh wow I love it! How is everyone doing? I´m doing just dandy. Me and Elder Young are finding people left and right now. We have contacted a ton of people and at the moment we are teaching about 14 different people. Thats a lot compared to none when I got here! Now we are just working towards baptism which is another story. A couple is extremely close though! I would be so blessed to have a baptism in my very first transfer. This week we went on companion exchanges and I got to go with the district leader. We showed up to an appointment and the guy wasn´t there. In spanish we say "nos falla" which means fired or failed us I think haha. So we decided to knock every door in the building since we had nothing better to do. Usually knocking on doors doesn´t amount to much. My companion has only gotten in four doors his whole mission when he has gone knocking. Well me and Elder Laney (District Leader) got rejected for about the first ten doors. Then we knocked on a door and a lady opened. I introduced us and told her what we were sharing. Elder Laney asked if we could come in and she said of course! Wow what luck. So we went in and taught her about the restoration. It was amazing. Right after that we knocked on the next door and it was a 16 year old Spaniard. He let us in too! So after that Elder Laney told me I could go with him whenever I wanted haha. But I told him it wasn´t me. We were really blessed for sure. The United States beat Spain in a soccer game which never happens so we are rubbing it in the members faces. No not really but we like to talk about it. I only know because the members told us. I promise we don´t watch tv haha. President Hinckley is coming in this week and I´m really excited to meet him! Well I better be going now. I don´t have much time. Thank you all for everything. I love you and I know this is the only true church. I love sharing what I know with the people here. Thanks again.Love, Elder Langston

The dealings of Elder Langston with the Kingdom of Spain

Hello everyone! Wow the weeks fly by out here. It seems like I was just barely writing an email yesterday. Anywho...the work is a little frustrating right now but there were a lot of bright points in my week too. Everybody is avoiding us. We have investigators and they seem interested and then when we try to meet with them, they don´t show up. We still haven´t met with Luis yet because everytime we make an appointment with him, he turns off his phone or forgets or...I don´t know! Its a little frustrating. Me and Elder Young actually had success this week, but it was with people that don´t live in our area. The other day on the metro, a man was staring at my tag for like five minutes. I was trying to work up the courage and the spanish in my head to contact him, but he contacted me! He asked me if we were evangelicals and I did my best to tell him we weren´t and we were our own unique church. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. We ended up getting his information and he lived close by, but not in our area. We passed him along to some other elders and he now has a baptismal date! How great huh! Also, a man named Niku from Albania really likes me and Elder Young and has been going to church with us even though he lives in a different ward. We had to tell him to go to the other ward and some other elders have to teach him. But we set a baptismal date with him for the 4th of July! So we are having success, but we just don´t have any numbers to show for it haha. I heard a quote that says "There is no end to the good you can do if it doesn´t matter who gets the credit". Maybe I have shared that in the past. I don´t remember but the important thing is people are wanting to be baptized. I´ve been lucky so far being involved in these peoples lives, even if I don´t get to baptize them. I also have a funny story. One of the members here named Jordi is a 45 year old man, but he acts just like a kid. He has an ipod touch and he is always playing with it. The other day he turned on the song "Master of Puppets" by Metallica (not missionary approved) and was singing along with it. Or at least the chorus. I told him I could play it on the guitar and so he whipped out his cheap, nylon string, acoustic guitar for me to play it on! It was hilarious! He turned on the music video on his tv and had me play along hahaha. It was kind of a fun little moment. Every member that finds out I can play has me play their guitar for them. Its a lot of fun. Well I better be off! I hope all is just fine and dandy. I love you all and I know with out doubt this church is true. Happy Fathers day yesterday Dad and Grandpas. I hope it was a good one! I love you all. Love, Elder Langston

2nd week in Barcelona with Elder Young

Whew! I need to write fast! I only get 45 minutes to read and write all the emails. I´ll try to give a good report. Me and Elder Young are working our tails off to liven up our area and ward. I found out that I have arrived into kind of a dead area and we are trying to change that. We have been working a lot with the area book and members trying to find anyone that could be possible interested. It is working so far. We found a former investigator named Douglas from Brazil (go figure) and he seems really interested. Earlier this week we met with him in a plaza and taught him about the Book of Mormon on a bench. He asked perfect questions like how he can know it is true and what he will feel when he receives an answer. It seems like he is ready for the gospel. I think I told everyone about Luis last week. He is the one that approached other missionaries and wants to be baptized. We are having a hard time getting ahold of him because he works out of town a lot. I´m not sure what he does. He was in Valencia almost all of last week. We have a set up meeting with him tomorrow though so I´m excited. I´m just praying it doesn´t fall through! The mission goal is to contact 15 different people a day just on the streets or at doors and me and Elder Young are trying to get 50 a day! We need all the leads we can get right now haha. We visit the members a lot because we need their help. For some reason, it seems like every family has a kid about 5 years old that loves to torture me. Yesterday, it was actually at an investigators house, we were saying the prayer. During the prayer, their little kid was poking me in the eye. The whole time! When his dad finished saying the prayer, he just sat there like nothing happened. He didn´t even look at me and smile! What a little turd haha. Its ok though. I thought the work would be hard here because everybody is catholic. But what I´ve come to find is that actually nobody believes in God or a specific religion. Thats really hard to work with. I know its possible to find people here though. I just have to keep searching! Oh I forgot to tell you what we do for service here. Every Saturday we give english classes and then share a spiritual thought after. It is a ton of fun. Its hilarious to hear them speak english. I wonder how funny I sound to them. Everybody made fun of me before I left about the lisp thing. Now I think it sounds a lot better than normal Spanish! You have to hear it from a native to really appreciate it. Also, everyone here speaks Catalan. Its a mix of french and Spanish. All of the signs on the streets are in this language so its not really helping me learn spanish haha. Its only like that In Barcelona though. Well I better go. I know this church is true. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the one true church. I am so thankful that I was born into it. I have been blessed tremendously. I love you all family and I hope you are all doing great. Love Elder Langston

First week as real Missionary!

Well well well. Where do I even start. This is nuts! Haha everything is just being crammed into my head and I´m trying to sort it all out. I´m serving in the Barc III Norte area and its pretty insane. Barcelona is just a huge melting pot but everybody speaks spanish. And I have found out I really don´t speak spanish haha. In my area we get fed by the members A LOT. The food is actually good. I seriously think I´m getting kind of fat. At least my face looks fat and I´m getting grossed out. Oh well, who do I have to impress with looks out here haha?! The work here is a lot different than I thought missionary would be. When I thought of missionaries before I came out here, I imagined them knocking on doors, going in the house, and teaching lessons. Not the case here. This place doesn´t have doors. There are apartment buildings everywhere and you have to ring their doorbell so they can let you in the building. This usually doesn´t work because nobody is ever home! So we do a lot of contacting on the street. It is really hard to find people that are interested here but me and my companion have made goals to keep trying. This week we are going to talk to everyone we see! Oh and the schedule is different in this mission. We wake up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30. I´m serious! This city is all about night life so we have to stay out later to catch people. Oh and its so humid its rediculous haha. These are all just things I have to get used to so its ok. I´m really lucky though. Yesterday I saw my first baptism. It wasn´t my baptism but I was a witness so that was neat. The Elders I´m living with didn´t get to see a baptism for months so I´m lucky. Me and Elder Young are also going to teach a man name Luis who approached other Elders and said he wants to be baptized! He is out of town right now but we are meeting with him on Friday. I guess I´m just lucky! A lot has happened and I wish I could remember everything but that is impossible. President Waddel is going to be my president for about 3 more weeks then in comes President Hinckley. I´m really excited. The Barcelona Mission is booming. A general authority has given our mission the name "The lighthouse mission of Europe". They say we are setting the example to Europe. I think thats pretty neat and I´m going to try my best to live up to it. I know this church is true. I know it is under the direction of Jesus Christ. When I hear all the outlooks on life here, I am reminded how lucky I am to be part of this church. I love you all and I hope I have some good stories for you next week. Adios!

Arrived in Barcelona!!

I´m here and I´m a real missionary now I guess haha. We got here and went straight to the mission office where we met the president, got interviewed, ate lunch and met our companions. People in my group got sent all over Spain but I am staying right in here in Barcelona. My companion is Elder Young and he has been on his mission ten months. I like him and I hope he teaches me a ton. Tonight our plans are kind of weird. My companion is going to go with another elder and teach an investigator while me and another Elder go to a members house and have dinner. I don´t really know what is up. This is all new to me and is a big change. Its a lot different than the MTC. I don´t really know what to think right now but I am just going to keep trying to be the best missionary I can be. Love, Elder Langston


Dear Families of our new missionaries,

We are pleased to inform you that your son has safely arrived in the Spain Barcelona Mission. Hermana Waddell and I, along with the two assistants, met him at the airport. The group of missionaries we received are wonderful young men and women, ready to go to work. Their enthusiasm reflects their love for the Savior and we are grateful for the privilege of guiding them along as they serve the Lord.

Every area in the Spain Barcelona Mission is unique and beautiful, rich in history and tradition. More importantly, each city is full of children of our Heavenly Father, waiting to hear the glad news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the trust you have put in us to shepherd your son. Please know that we feel a great responsibility to guide and protect “our” missionaries. We love your sons and daughters as if they were our own. With the Lord’s help, we intend to make their mission experience in Barcelona the most memorable time of their lives.



Sincerely,

President and Hermana Waddell

Departing into the Field!

How exciting! Tomorrow at six in the morning I´m leaving the MTC and heading to the airport for Barcelona. I am pretty nervous about that but I´m excited for the adventure ahead of me! I had an experience at the park this week that really made me excited for the field! This week, the companion I had for the park and I, had really different teaching methods. It didn´t really feel like we were on the same page and I was getting a little frustrated but trying to be as patient as possible. Then he had to go to the bathroom and I had to wait outside of course. While I was waiting for him I saw a man, in about his early 20´s I´d guess, from about 50 yards away, look over at me and approach me. I didn´t know what was going to happen because usually people that approach missionaries don´t have too much good to say haha. But I just sat there and waited for him to get to me. When he finally got up to where I was standing, I said hola and he said it back. His next comment took me by suprise though. He asked me if I believed in Christ (in spanish). Of course I said yes and explained a little bit about who I was and what I was doing. He seemed like really liked the idea of missionaries. He told me he was an Evangelist. We talked about Jesus Christ for awhile and then I introduced the Book of Mormon to him. When I told him it was another testament of Jesus Christ and explained a little bit about what it contained, his eyes lit up. A huge smile spread across his face and I felt the spirit so strong. He was so excited and told me he thought it all made sense! I talked to him a little more and bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon and what it could do for his life and what it has done for mine. It made me so happy to see his excitement. I asked him if he would read the Book of Mormon and if I could send missionaries to his house and he said of course! When I watched him get down on his knees and fill out his information on a referral card with full concentration I felt the purest joy I have ever felt! It was such a testimony builder! He even gave me his email address and name and I gave him my name and email address so we can stay in contact. His name was Sergion and he was from Alicante. I found out that Alicante is part of my mission! I´m hoping I get sent to his area so I can continue teaching him. I´m so grateful for his humility and willingness to hear the message I had for him. I hope it changes his life. I know with all of my heart I was meant to be in that spot at that exact time and that he was lead to me. I know Heavenly Father prepares ways for the gospel to be taught. I´m so grateful for my Savior and His atoning Sacrifice. I´m trying each day to build my relationship with the Savior and I want to do everything I can to become as much like Him as possible. He was truly perfect. I love all of you and I love hearing from you. This mission is changing my life already and I can´t wait to experience the many adventures ahead. Have a great week! Elder Langston

5 Days Away from the Field

How is everybody doing?! I hope great. I am doing fantastic! Last week at the park my companion was from Austria and he is learning Italian so it was pretty much up to me to communicate with everybody. It was a little challenging but worth it because it helped me be more outgoing. I think I´m kind of annoying now because I say hi to everyone I see. Oh well I guess. We didn´t find many people interested in what we had to say but there were quite a few that at least listened to us. It was rainy too so there wasn´t much to work with but I loved it still! I don´t know which is harder to work with though. Atheists or "set in their ways" Catholics. There are a lot of both out here so that makes it a little more challenging. I like challenges though. I don´t want to come off my mission saying "that was easy". My real mission starts in about 5 days. Holy canoley. I´m excited though. I want everyone to know what I know. I don´t know how people survive without it. The time is flying by out here! I´ve lived in Spain for six weeks and still not very good with the language at all. I found that out today when I went to get my haircut. Yikes. I love this MTC though and I´m going to miss it. There are so many neat elders here and its going to be weird not seeing them everyday. We have a joke around here that Barcelona missionaries are better than the rest of Spain missionaries and we proved it in a basketball game the other day. I believe Elder Langston may have been the leading scorer haha. Well I don´t have much to say this week but I do want you all to know I know this is the one and only true church. I have such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and I hope it continues to grow. I love this mission so much and I can´t wait to start sharing experiences I have with all of you. I love you all and thank you again for the support. Con Amor, Elder Langston

Week 4 in Spain MTC

Hola everyone! I think I start every email off like that. How is everyone doing? Thank you all for your emails again. Well like always, I´ll tell you all how the park went this week. My companion for the park this week was from Ecuador and only spoke Spanish! It helped me a lot because if I needed to tell him something, it had to be in Spanish! It was challenging but worth it. We went crazy in the Park and talked to everyone we saw. Mostly him though since he knew the language. We handed out every pass along card we had and 4 Books of Mormon! We even found some people that spoke english. One was a Buddhist though and didn´t speak spanish so I didn´t have much help on that one from my companion haha. Oh my companions name was Elder Pastillo and he is such a great guy. He motivated me a ton when we were out there. He is always so happy and encouraged me when I was trying to speak Spanish. He got so excited when I gave a Book of Mormon to a man on the metro. He kept hugging me and laughing and I felt so good. He has made a lot of sacrifices to get here and it has inspired me. In his culture, everyone has hair down to their waist. He showed me a picture of him before his mission and I couldn´t even recognize him. He told me it was very hard for him to cut his hair. He actually got emotional about it when he was talking about it. But it touched me when he said he didn´t care if his friends made fun of him for it because he was doing it for the Lord and he would do anything for Him. I learned this week that everyone has their untold story. There are so many elders here that have sacrificed so much to be here. I feel guilty because everybody back home is supporting me and I just pretty much had to say I´m going on a mission. I am very very blessed. Also this week was the 40th anniversary of the church being in Spain and the 10th anniversary of the temple. Some Spanish government officials came to tour the temple grounds and the MTC and we had to opportunity to sing a hymn to them. The spirit was very strong and I hope they were touched. One of the government officials was actually a member and he was crying by the time we were done. I love this mission. What a blessing it is to be able to come out here and feel the spirit everyday serving the Lord. I am growing so much all the time and I love it. I can´t believe I´ll be hitting the field in about a week and a half! That is crazy to me and I hope I´m ready. I´m ready to work thats for sure. The language is something I´ll have to overcome but as long as I have my testimony I think I should be fine. The spirit is the one doing the converting not me. My quote for the week is (I´m going to try and do this every week now) "Life is a grindstone and whether it grinds a man down or polishes him up depends on what he is made of." I love you all and wish you the best. Have a great week.Con Amor, Elder Langston

Week 3 in Spain!

Well hello everybody! I have some awesome experiences I´d like to share this week. First, I´ll talk about my park experience I had. It was great! Me and my companion from Provo, Elder Hunsaker, were paired up for the park. At first it was a little discouraging. We got a lot of hands in our face and when we´d say hola to someone, they´d say adios. So it was kind of hard for me. But we kept trying and it ended up being so worth it! Once again we found a man on a bench reading a newspaper this time. My companion noticed it was talking about soccer so he decided to open the conversation up by talking about soccer. His name was Iván and he was from Peru. He was very nice to us and understood we weren´t the best at Spanish. We asked him about his religion and he couldn´t have given us a better response! He said he was catholic but he didn´t believe you should have to go through the catholic to communicate with God. He believed that we should each have an indivual relationship with God and pray to Him whenever we want. It was perfect! I was so happy because I knew we had the message he needed! I handed him a pamphlet about the restored gospel and he willingly accepted it. He also gave us his address and number so the missionaries could come to his house. We explained they would be much more fluent. So he was grateful haha. I´m so excited for him still! I have a really good feeling he will accept what those missionaries teach him. I loved how he wanted to pray to God himself. It is something I may have taken for granted in the past. I never knew that other people didn´t believe you could communicate with God when I was younger. It is such a beautiful gift. Speaking of prayer, I had an experience this week that strengthened my testimony so much this week. It is a very sacred experience, but I think it would be appropriate to share most of it. This last week, I had a question about something spiritual. I wanted to know why something was the way it was. So I prayed and I prayed hard. I have learned that God will always answer my prayers, but I wasn´t expecting it to happen as fast as it did this time. When I finished praying I opened my scriptures to a random page, just wanting to study a little more. I happed to open up to Doctrine and Covenants 45. What I saw still gives me the chills. All over the page were the words Hearken, listen, Hear my voice, Give ear to Him, all underlined in my scriptures. I knew I need to prepare for my answer. For some reason, I started to flip backwards through D+C and again I saw a scripture highlighted. It was my answer. It was so amazing. I have never felt so comforted and happy. I kept going backwards and I saw another scripture highlighted in D+C 35:3 where it said I have looked upon thee and heard thy prayers, and prepared thee for a greater work. Something like that anyway. It felt SO cool. I wish I could explain it exactly how it happed but it is something I will never forget. I know prayer works. I know God listens to each one of our prayers and if we are sincere and really want to receive an answer and have faith that we will, we will get one. I know the scriptures are the word of God. They contain answers to every question we have. Whether they be spiritual or temporal, it doesn´t matter. Search the scriptures. There is so much in there! I hope you all read as much as possible. I have found a love for the Book of Mormon on my mission and I´m in Alma again. I can´t stop! Haha but thank you all so much for caring. Thanks for taking the time to read these emails because I get so excited to share my experiences with you. I love you all so much. Good luck to you Branson. I know you are heading out soon. You will love it. Oh and Tim, there are missionaries here from Moscow right now to renew their visa. They have a lot of good stories. Sorry if my emails are a little confusing. I have heard that family members of other missionaries are a little confused because the emails are organized like spanish sentences. Oh well. I wish I had more time to write. Have a great week! Con Amor, Elder Langston

Week 2 In Madrid

Hola friends and family! Wow, I found that last sentence very hard to write in English! Just kidding, but Spanish is coming along pretty well. I´m going to start this e-mail by answering a very important question I received from my beautiful little cousin Kelsey. Unfortunately I forgot to answer this questions weeks ago when I was in Provo. She asked me if the Easter Bunny still comes when you are missionary. Of course he does! He gave me lots of candy but he didn´t hide the eggs very well this time. So if someone could please pass the news to her I´d be very grateful. :) This last weeks experience in the park went a lot better. I didn´t talk to as many people, but me and my companion had a conversation with a man named Orlando from Venezuela for about 45 minutes. We actually weren´t sure if we should bother him at first, because he was reading a book. But of course, this is salvation we are talking about here! So we bugged him haha. When we said "hello", I wasn´t expecting anything back really. The people in the park are good at ignoring us haha. But to my suprise he looked up from his book and with a warm smile said hello back! I was thinking whoa! So we started off our conversation about his book. Somehow our conversation got into ways we can be happy. Orlando found happiness in himself. He said he didn´t need other people to make him happy or get him down. It was very interesting. His opinion was everybody has their own way to live their life. He was very polite and said he respected us for coming halfway across the world to share our message and was very impressed that we were so young and doing all of this! Towards the end of our conversation, I felt prompted to give him a Book of Mormon. It seemed obvious he liked reading and learning new things. He gladly accepted it and had many questions about it and our church. It felt so good to share something so precious with someone else who is seeking truth! I fasted for Orlando this last Sunday and I hope and pray he takes the time to read The Book of Mormon. Speaking of this fast Sunday, it was one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve ever had. I feel so lucky to hear the testimonies of missionaries from all over the world that come from different ways of life. It helps strengthen me so much! God answers our prayers. I know that to be true. It seems like everything I pray for comes in a way I don´t expect, but I always know its my answer and I just smile. I love it. Now I´d like to answer some frequently asked questions I´ve been getting. There are about 45 Elders and Sisters here in the Madrid MTC so its a lot different than Provo. But there aren´t any locals in here. I think I told you we all play soccer with the natives during gym and this week we had a pretty sweet game. We played with a bunch of guys that were probably 25-30 years old. Believe it or not, we beat them 3-2! And I scored! Haha but it was a ton of fun and they were nice guys. It was kind of funny to watch a bunch of missionaries with parted hair and two shirts on, play a bunch of guys with tattoos and no shirts. They were awesome guys. Each one of them shook our hand afterwards. I love the people in Spain. I´m still gaining weight haha. About 15 pounds since I started my mission. Oh, it was great to hear from Jenny that I´m going to have another boy cousin! It will be a little bit of a gap but thats ok! Congratulations! And Kiana, I can´t believe you got a car. Thats insane. Don´t drive it into a lake or hit a tree or something. Just playing. I love hearing from all of you. It makes me so happy to hear about each of your lives. I don´t think anybody could be as lucky as me when it comes to loving family and friends. I love each of you. I want all of you to know, I know this church is true. I know it was restored through Joseph Smith. I feel the spirit so strong everytime i hear his own words of the first vision in Joseph Smith History. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and is the contains the most truth of any other book on earth. I know God is our loving Heavenly Father and is always mindful of us. I know He sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to come to earth to make it possible to overcome spiritual and physical death. I owe Him so much. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I know I can communicate with my Father through prayer. I am so thankful for this gift. It has helped me so much. We are never alone. I love you all and I hope the best for each of you. Con amor, Elder Langston

Hola from Spain!

This is looking out of his bedroom window!

Well hello everyone! I don´t even know where to start to tell you the truth. I guess I´ll explain why I didn´t email on Thursday this week (my usual P Day). Today, Friday, is labor day in spain so we didn´t have teachers and they switched our P day to Friday this week. Sorry for the confusion. Now I´ll talk about my travels over here. Talk about some jet lag! I woke up in Provo at 4 in the morning and travled for a good 18 hours, then I had to stay up for about another 7 hours at the MTC when I got here! I was so tired. They let us go to bed early though. The MTC is beautiful here! Its right on Temple grounds. The MTC is the top 3 floors in a 7 story building. The other floors are for people to stay in that come to the temple from all over spain and portugal and places like that. I´m going to try and send some pictures so you can all see it. I have a picture I took from my window that will show how close the temple is. The Madrid Temple is so beautiful! I loved going through it for the first time. I actually got to the day after I arrived. The Celestial room is so awesome. It is lit by natural light which makes it even more beautiful. Its definitely my second favorite temple (St. George is first of course :) ) On Saturdays here, everybody from the MTC goes to the huge park in Madrid. Its like central park would be in New York. We go around talking to people about our message and just try to work on our spanish skills. I thought it would be scary but I had fun with it. Half the time I didn´t know what they were saying or how to respond, but I would just smile and keep going! Its like real missionary work already! I also actually experienced for the first time, feeling bad for someone I was teaching. Me and Elder Nielson were set up as companions for the park and we decided to talk to a policeman in the park. At first he went along with us just listening to what we had to say, but when we started talking about The Book of Mormon and how it testified of Christ, he simply said "No creo en Dios" which means, I don´t believe in God. We asked him why he felt that way and he told us because he is a cop, he sees horrible things happen all the time so he doensn´t believe there is a God. We both tried to bear our testimony to him but he just put his hand on my companions shoulder and said, "No creo en Dios." I felt horrible after. I wanted him to realize all the happiness he was missing out on and the feeling of love we can always have. It was very frustrating being limited by the language and that I couldn´t express all of my feelings and testimony to him. I guess its going to happen though. The weather is pretty nice. It feels like St. George in March I´d say. Maybe late March. The teachers here are really nice. Most of them don´t speak a lot of English so that helps a lot. Its a lot more laid back here too compared to Provo. For P Days, they let us go explore the city, pretty much wherever we want to go. During our physical activity each day, we either go to a small little stadium and play soccer with the natives or play basketball in the stake center. Its a ton of fun! Thank you so much everyone for sending me emails! I had 20 in my inbox when I got on here! I´m sorry but my letters to you are probably going to come a lot less frequently. It is pretty expensive to send letters from here and it takes about 7 days. But I love all of your letters and emails! They make me so happy! Oh I just remembered something else! I eat like a Pig here! Im gaining quite the reputation. Today at lunch I heard someone say they didn´t want something on their plate. Someone else said, "Give it to Elder Langston". Hahahahaha. I love it. I´m gaining weight too. I´ll let you know in two weeks how much I weigh. That way it will seem like more. :) Well I hope all is going well back home. Continue to write because I love it. My testimony is growing miles each day and I´m so thankful for this opportunity I have to share the gospel. I KNOW IT IS TRUE. I love you all. Talk to you next week.