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