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

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

Love, Elder Langston

December 13, 2010

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

Tough week, lots learned

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

Isabel is doing better

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

Love, Elder Langston

I got kissed 11/22/10

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

Lots learned

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

Crazy Week

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

Hey Everybody 11-3-10

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

A Really good week! October 25, 2010

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

I'm Stuffed

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

October 11, 2010 Hi Family and Friends

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

Love, Elder Langston

General Conference was awesome

Hello familia and friends. Its me again. Sorry about not writing monday or tuesday. I had some meetings in Málaga that I knew about but I just didn´t realize they fell on Monday and Tuesday. Sorry Mom :) Anyway, wasn´t conference the best? I really loved it so much. We went to a close by town called Cadiz to watch it in the church there. I received so many answers to my prayers it was amazing. It felt like half of the talks were for me! Oh and it was really cool to listen to Bishop Edgley. I thought to myself ¨hey I talked to that guy just a few weeks ago¨. I really enjoyed his talk though and it really helps us missionaries in Spain. So many people here want evidence and things that prove what we are saying is true. Of course that is natural but what they really need is faith and sensitivity to the Spirit. Its so hard to explain but when people feel it they know it. The work here in San Fernando is going pretty good. Elder Velasquez and I are really busy making plans for the area and the whole zone so we can start to see some miracles in these parts haha. My district is really different because it has 4 missionaries who don´t have english as their native tongue. And I think in all, 5 out of 12 in the zone don´t speak english. My old italian companion is actually in my district again. Most of them here are from the Barcelona mission for some reason so its nice to see some familiar faces. The meetings we had in Málaga this week were awesome! President Clegg is such an amazing teacher and motivator. Its so easy to feel the love he has for every missionary. I´ve actually gotten to be really good friends with Sister Clegg too somehow. When I walked into the kitchen to see her in the mission home she was like ¨Elder Langston!!!¨ Yeah, we´re tight like that haha. I really just love the mission right now. I´m so happy and I know everything that is happening is going to help me so much in the future. I love being able to help people. It really is the best feeling ever. I KNOW the church is true. It really is something I can feel. I love the scriptures and our modern day prophet. I love our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know they live and that they love us so much. Thank you all for everything. I feel really selfish sometimes because I don´t feel like I let you all know how much I appreciate every single one of you for everything you do. I´m sorry I don´t have time to write all of you and things slip my mind all the time so don´t think its because I just don´t want to. Just know that I love you all so much and I truly do appreciate everything single thing you´ve done for me. I´m sorry for not being better at letting you all know that. I hope you have a great week and know that you are always in my prayers. Much love from San Fernando! The church is true. Adios

Guess what? I'm not in Cordoba

Hi everybody! Yep its true. I got transferred again! I wasn´t really expecting it but thats ok. Now I´m in San Fernando which is down on the southern coast. So far I really like it. I got here last night but so far so good. My apartment is a palace! I seriously feel spoiled. We have a dishwasher and a dryer! I never thought I´d see the day haha. Its really big with tall ceilings too. I don´t feel like I´m in Spain when I´m in there. I´m not complaining though because its pretty sweet. I like my companion a lot too. He came from the Barcelona mission as well. His name is Elder Velasquez and he´s from Ecuador but he has lived in the Canary Islands the past 8 years. I remember the first time I saw him I thought he was black in Barcelona haha. He likes to joke about him looking black. I am so glad that I finally have a native companion though to help my spanish. In San Fernando we have 2 wards that we are in charge of and I have heard that they are amazing. They work like animals and love missionary work. I can´t wait to get started. Its funny too because two elders from the Barcelona mission that have gone home live here in San Fernando. Its going to be weird seeing them as non missionaries. I´m really excited to be here in San Fernando though. Here is my new address

Calle Manuel de Falla 6,4,C
11100 San Fernando (Cádiz)
Spain

Leaving Córdoba wasn´t as hard as leaving my last two areas. I was only there 3 months so I didn´t really have the friendships that I had in the other ones. I loved the members there though and they acted like they were going to miss me so thats good haha. I have some pictures that I´ll send to my mom to put on the blog. Toñi was doing really good when I left. We visited her with the branch mission leader and he asked her some questions. Her answers really shocked me. He asked her how she knew the church was true and she said she could feel it. He asked her when she felt it for the first time and she said the very first time when she came out of her room and sat down to listen. She said everything we said just filled her and she knew her search was over. It was really awesome to hear her say that. I just wish I could be there to see her get baptized. Hopefully my old comp will send me a picture of it.
I just have one little funny story before I go. My last day in Córdoba turned out to be really interesting. There is this huge fat guy (not trying to be rude, just explaining) that always asks people for money. Everytime he saw us he asked us for money but we never gave it to him. We aren´t supposed to give money because then the people will always go to the missionaries begging. Well this guy asks everybody anyway and I just wanted him to leave me alone haha so I gave him a coin. Big mistake. He said ¨Oh amigo, give me a kiss.¨ I was like no way! But he grabbed me and kissed me right on the neck! Man it was nasty. I actually have a picture of him so I´ll send that too. Anyway, thats all I have for the week. I love you all and I hope everything is going good. The church is true. I know it because I can feel it, just like Toñi said. Have a good week and I´ll talk to you soon. Adios

Toni is getting baptized

Well there goes the surprise element. I guess you all know whats happened. Toñi is going to be baptized the 9th of October! But first things first how are you all doing? I'm doing great! It was kind of a surprise this week with Toñi accepting a baptismal date for the 9th of October. I actually wasn't there when it happened. I was on exchanges in Sevilla and the zone leader called me up to tell me. I guess in all that time between when we first challenged her to baptism and now she has just been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and she knows its true. She wanted to be baptized in the first place but if you remember she just said she needed to make some changes in her life. We hadn't heard from her in awhile and then all of a sudden WHAM!!! She is so excited. She really loves it all. We took her to church this Sunday and she absolutely loved it. Afterwards I asked her how she felt and she said "I don't know why I was nervous. I feel like I have fireworks going off inside of me!" I am so glad she liked it. I was kind of nervous because she is a really timid person but all the members brought her right in and they were so excited to see her there. Angels have definitely been preparing her. Elder Phillips, the zone leader, asked her why she hadn't been baptized a long time ago and she just said "I have just been waiting for someone to come tell me all of this." Well we found her and we told her and now she is getting baptized! Now looking back on it, the whole process of finding her was inspired without me even knowing. One day I was looking through the Area Book and I found the record for her sister Ana and it stuck out to me. We decided to ask a member that knew her what her story was and where she lived. I remember telling Elder Masterson we were going to teach and baptize Ana. I was wrong, at least up until now. But as we were teaching Ana, Toñi came out of the room and asked if she could listen. And now look where we are with her! I think its pretty exciting haha. I hope I'm still here in Córdoba. Transfers are this coming up Sunday!!
Sorry about now writing yesterday. We had a conference in Sevilla with President Clegg and it was awesome. It was pretty much of a review of the stuff I learned when I went to Málaga for a week. It was really intense this time. He really laid the hammer down on being diligent and working with passion. Somehow elders in the past have kind of ruined the reputation of the Málaga mission years back and its been kind of hard to break free from that. President Clegg said this isn't the mission it was in the past. Its the "New Málaga Mission" and we are hard workers. He said he had a dinner appointment with some members and they told him straight up that the Málaga mission is lazy. He told them right back that they were wrong and that this is a good mission. Its true. This mission is changing a lot and its seeing more baptisms than it ever has. I think its a really big blessing to be a part of this mission at this time. Its awesome to see the cultures and ways of 4 different missions mix together and create a successful mission. I am really glad I am where I am right now.
I just wanted to share one more thing. On Sunday I got to teach the gospel principles class to the investigators, recent converts, and less active members. We don't have a manual and usually the only person in the class is Archie so we just teach him what he needs to know personally. This week was different because about 10 people showed up and I didn't have a manual to teach from. So Elder Masterson and I taught about the Book of Mormon. I wasn't expecting it to be very good because quite frankly I wasn't prepared for it. But I just told Elder Masterson to teach like we would a normal lesson. We got to a point where I shared my testimony of how I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he translated the Book of Mormon, and I felt the Spirit stronger than i have in quite awhile. It kind of just hit me all of a sudden. It was one of those moments where I had to step back and say "Yeah i do know this is all true." I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have really been praying for it to guide and help me lately and it seems that He knows just when to come in and touch my heart to let me know everything is ok. I testify that the church is true and that is has been restored through a modern day prophet. As we base our lives on the gospel of Jesus Christ we will be reminded of that again and again. God is always there and He loves us more than we can imagine. I love you all too and I hope you have an awesome week. Until next week.

Love, Elder Langston

Learning from General Authorities

Hi everybody! I hope you are all doing great. I am doing awesome after a week full of learning and feeling the Spirit. On Wednesday Bishop Edgley from the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Worthlin's son, and Elder Texeira from the Area 70 presidency came with their wives to have a special conference with my zone. It really was awesome. We learned so much from each one of them. I loved listening to Bishop Edgley because he told mission stories from clear back when he was a missionary and then after he would just say, "what do we learn from that?". They put a ton of emphasis on digging into Preach My Gospel and inviting everybody we see to church. They promised us that if we do that we won't just have 2 or 3 investigators, struggling to get into homes. But that we would have a lot more success and really just be surprised! Elder Masterson and I have tried to apply that in the past week. We wrote down the church's address on every pass along card we handed out and invited everyone to come in every contact. Hopefully we see the fruits of it here soon. I know blessings will come, I just want to see them soon haha. I guess I should be patient. Something I like about the mission is that I've become a lot less timid. I'm still no social butterfly but I feel that I've really improved in that area. The General Authorities gave us a little free time at the end to stand up one at a time and ask questions if we had any and NOBODY was standing up. The assistant to the President asked a couple and then it was just silence so I decided to ask one. I asked them to think back on their missions and to tell us what they wished they would have put more emphasis on, what they wished they had or knew, or focused more of their time on. I knew my question was kind of vague but I kind of wanted to pick their brains haha. They had similar answers. They both said they wish they had Preach My Gospel which really testified to me that I need to make the best use of it as possible. And Bishop Edgley said he wishes he would have worked harder. He said he wasn't a lazy missionary but he just wishes he would have taken every opportunity to share the gospel. I thought it was a really interesting answer. What a blessing it is to have contact with the leaders of the church!
Yesterday was pretty fun. We got on a bus with the branch and headed two hours to stake conference in Sevilla. They just finished a new building there and it is awesome. There aren't very many church buildings here in Spain so its always really exciting for the members to see what a real chapel looks like. Most churches here are rented spaces beneath apartment buildings. It was pretty cool to see all the members get excited for brand new stake center. I learned a lot in stake conference and my favorite part was hearing the testimonies of the returned missionaries in the stake. It was kind of weird because one of the missionaries served with me in the Barcelona mission and changed to the Málaga mission, which means he was serving in his own mission. It was just a little strange to not call him Elder Ponce when I talked with him. It was just "Javi". Weird stuff.
This week Archie gave a powerful testimony in one of our appointments with him. At the end I just started to bear my testimony and he kind of butted in which made me smile because its just kind of how he is. He didn't try to be rude or anything. He just wanted to get his testimony out! He said he has heard a lot of preachers and different beliefs but he has never heard anything like what we teach him but he knows its true because its all in the Bible. He told us one of the things that he really likes is that we as missionaries are out preaching to the world. He said that was what Jesus commanded His disciples to do in Matthew (I believe its the last chapter and one of the last verses???). I thought it was awesome that he could see that this church is the same church Jesus instituted in His earthly ministry. Its always good to hear the testimony of a recent convert.
Well this week should be good. We have plans to teach over 20 lessons which the Apostles have told us to make as our goal. Its going to be hard since we only got 10 last week but I think we can do it. Its just going to take a lot of work and careful planning. And even more importantly, careful listening to the Spirit. We'll see what happens though. This week I also have to interview a lady in Sevilla for her baptism. I've never done that before but it should be a good experience.
I love you all and I hope you have a great week! I know this church is true and that the gospel definitely brings new light to the minds of people. I've seen it so many times on my mission. Its awesome haha. Welp, love you all again and know you are in my prayers. Bye bye

Weather cooling down but Work heating up

Pictures at the Mission Home

Hi everybody! Well this week was awesome. I loved the meetings we had with the Cleggs. I really learned so much! We just learned doctrine, watched videos of missionaries teaching in San Diego, and practiced teaching. I feel like I am already teaching way better than before. Not that I was a terrible teacher but I just feel a lot more confident and I feel like I really know my purpose when I'm teaching. We really focused on listening and trying to discern the feelings and thoughts of investigators to help them the best we can. President stressed the point that we are here to bring people unto Christ and that everything we do as missionaries should have to do with that. We also talked a lot about asking good questions and how important it is to listen to the small little promptings we get while we are teaching. It was a lot of fun because we practiced teaching investigators that had certain doubts and had to come up with a question that really made them think. I still always get kind of nervous before doing practices like that so I prayed asking for help to know what to do even though it was just a practice. When the "investigator" (another missionary) came up with his doubt, a question just popped instantly into my head that made him answer his own doubt. When I gave it to him he just sat there for a second and then gave me a thumbs up haha. I knew I didn't come up with the question by myself. I made sure to thank Heavenly Father after. I am so excited to apply everything I learned there to the work here in Córdoba. I am pretty dang proud of my companion too because while i was gone he set a baptismal date with Fernando. He is the Spaniard that speaks english. He came to church yesterday and really hit it off with our member Martín. I think good things are going to happen with him. Martín will be key though. Also there is some potential with Alisia, our investigator we found last week. We just have a little more to do now and that makes me happy. Its weird to think my mission is winding down to an end. I honestly still feel like a greenie. I have so much to improve on and so much to learn. They say the last six months of the mission or so is the missionaries time to shine. To give it all and apply everything he has learned. I hope I can. I hope these last months I can start to be the missionary I want to be. I still have my weaknesses but I know the Lord has promised to make my weak things strong if i am humble and trust in him, giving it all I can. Being with President and Sister Clegg and learning so much this weekend has just made me wonder where the time has gone and reflect on my mission. I have so much more to do. All I know is that I love being a missionary. It has changed my life and continues to do so. I love you all so much and I couldn't ask for more love and support. I am definitely blessed by all of you. Thanks again. I know the church is true. Well I hope you all have a good week! I can't wait to update on what happens this week! You guys are the best. Bye!

love, Elder Langston

It's going to be a strange week.

Hi everybody! Everythings good here in Córdoba. How are things back home? Well the weather is hotter here than it has been all summer. Yesterday at church one of the sisters came up to me and told me she was thinking about us missionaries on Saturday because it was so hot. I think it was about 115-120 but i really didn't mind it. It feels just like St. George to me. As long as its not humid, I'm fine! Well, as I said in the subject its going to be a strange week. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Málaga with another missionary for meetings. I have to leave my companion here with another missionary and they both only have one transfer in the mission! its going to be kind of rough for them but i think they can handle it. Anyway, I have meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, And Friday until 12:00 and then I'm heading back home to Córdoba. President Clegg has introduced a new series of meetings we'll be having every transfer or so. I'm excited to see the Cleggs and hopefully to learn a bunch of stuff! I need to learn a bunch because things are kind of going slow here in Córdoba right now. People are always gone in the summer but this is the last week of August so things should be picking back up. We found 3 new investigators this week though. Rodrigo had a surprise work call so we weren't able to meet with him. We taught Ana but Toñi couldn't make it. It just seemed like we were in the street a lot searching and searching. Hopefully it turns into teaching and teaching! I think once all the members come back from vacation and real life kicks back in they will start giving us referrals which always makes it so nice. I think the branch president is happy with Elder masterson and I because yesterday he told me his son told him that I was leaving to Málaga and he was like "but you're coming back right? Don't abandon me." Haha I thought it was pretty funny. So for right now all we can keep doing is working and showing the members that we are serious about this and we are here to serve and help them. Speaking of service we went and visited Lorenzo this week and it was pretty fun this time. He asked me to read him chapter 19 from "Don Quijote". He was cracking up so hard that he started to cough uncontrolably and I was laughing too. Well thats all I have for the week. I wish I had more to update. I'll try to make this week more interesting for you all. I love you and I hope you have a great week! The church is true. I know testimonies are strengthened as we share them with others. Thanks again for everything. Bye bye

August 23, 2010

Hi familia and friendsitos. Just wanted to speak some Rich Langston spanish there. How is everybody doing?! My week was pretty tough but then again not too bad. We had one really good day where we had five appointments right in a row. We were running around like crazy and ended up being late to almost every single one. But luckily they were all patiently waiting. Archie is doing really good. He showed up late to church yesterday but at least he showed up. I had to speak in sacrament so he didn't understand half of the meeting. Poor guy. Speaking of sacrament meeting, I had to play the piano for the first hymn. Thats the second time I've done that haha. They asked me to choose the hymns we were going to sing so I picked Sweet Hour of Prayer since I knew how to play it and nobody else in the branch knows how to play the piano. I also chose my favorite sacrament hymn "In humility our Savior" and nobody knew how it went so when we started it was just me singing a solo and everybody else caught on after about 5 seconds. Needless to say I felt pretty dumb about that haha. I took it as a good sign that the branch president asked me to speak in sacrament. I think he trusts us and wants to start to kick the branch into action. Its really hard to do missionary work this time of year because everybody goes on vacation in August. Yesterday there was about 20 people in church. I think once September starts things will get rolling. We visited Lorenzo twice this week and he was a lot nicer just so you all know. He actually told us that none of his friends were going to visit him on saturday and asked if we could stop by. When we said yes he was pretty happy about it. I left with a better feeling this week haha. Oh! We found a new investigator this week named Rodrigo. He is from Brazil and just a really nice guy. He was actually an investigator about a year and a half ago but the elders dropped him because he never had time and was supposedly lazy. We actually ran into him by accident trying to find a less active member. He happily set up an appointment with us and later explained to us that when he first met the missionaries he worked during the week and was a truck driver on the weekends so he never had time to read the Book of Mormon or go to church. But now he has all the time in the world and is really excited to meet with us. It just shows how people are ready at different times to receive the gospel. I thought it was really neat because when I read his record in the area book and hit said he was lazy I was kind of worried that he would be the same. All of my fears were erased when I met the guy and saw how sincere he was. He also explained that he has felt a need for the spirit in his home. His wife doesn't believe in God and won't talk about religion with him so he said its really hard on him. I hope we can help him and make him feel happier. Well thats all the news I have for the week. I love you all so much and thank you for your support. I have the best family and friends in the world. I know God lives and that this is His church. His kingdom on earth. I hope you have a good week and you'll all be in my prayers. Bye bye!

It feels good to see another Baptism

Hey family and friends! Yep it happened. Archie got baptized! It was such a good feeling. He ended up picking me to do the ordinance and it felt so good to finally get in the water again. Its been a tough last 8 months but it was worth it in the end. Its kind of a funny story of how he picked me to do the baptism. He kept saying he didn´t care who did it but then his wife who has a really strong character overheard and said ¨Nope! It doesn´t work like that. You have to choose.¨ She is a really funny woman. She got mad at him because he forgot to bring a towell to the baptism but I let him know it was alright haha. From what the zone leader told me, he had a really cool interview. When he asked Archie what he felt about making this step of faith and being baptized he said, ¨I just want to be saved.¨ I thought it was a really simple yet powerful answer. The baptismal service went really well. Almost the whole branch showed up! They have been really nice to him. Everybody was taking pictures with him and trying to talk with him. Its a little hard right now because he doesn´t speak spanish but he still has friends in the branch. There is actually one member that speaks english pretty well so they should become good friends. We took some good pictures so I´ll try to send some this week. If not I will send them next week. The problem is where we usually do internet is closed today so I can´t figure it out here.
I also have more news about Ana and Toñi. We challenged them both to baptism and Ana said she is never sure about things like this. We promised her that if she really wanted to know and had faith to receive an answer that the church is true, she would receive it. She said she´ll let us know if something changes. However, Toñi said she is positive that the church is true and she wants to be baptized haha. She didn´t want to set a date last week though because she said she has to change her life to feel prepared to be baptized. We explained that thats what we are her for. To be her guides and help her. She just has a few bad habits she needs to drop. She is a really nice lady though and we´ll see what happens.
I haven´t told all of you about this but every week we go to a nursing home to visit an old paralized man named Lorenzo. I usually feed him, water his plants, and clean his face with a wet towell. Well this week he was kind of grumpy and wasn´t being very nice. He was really bossy and told me to give him some chocolate so I started talking like a character from Spongebob Squarepants in the episode of him selling chocolate. I don´t think he thought it was very funny but I got a kick out of it and my companion did too haha. I learned in the mission if people are being grumpy its always fun to kind of joke around and be happy anyway. Just thought I´d tell you about that haha.
Well everybody I love you so much and i hope you´ve had a great week and that you have another one this week. I love you all and I know this church is true. I know Christ is our Savior and that through His atonement all things can be made right. I love you and I´ll talk to you next week. Adios

Another good week! 8-9-10

Hey everybody! Just like I start every other email right? Sorry about that. This week was another really good one. Archie is doing awesome. He is so ready to be baptized this Saturday. Happy Birthday Momma! Everything has just gone really good with him. We usually go to his house, teach a commandment or two that he needs to follow, talk for a little bit about how he is feeling, and then we leave feeling really good. He is extremely teachable. He just makes things so easy its incredible haha. The only problem is we don't know who is going to baptize him yet. We told him he gets to choose and he said "oh don't worry about. I don't care. One of you can do it." He told us the person that does it really isn't important, he just wants to do it. We told him we both wanted to do it though haha so he has to choose! We'll see if he can decide soon. Our investigators Ana and Toñi are doing well. Actually Toñi couldn't make it to the last appointment but her sister said she is doing good so hopefully we can get in contact with her. The hard part is she doesn't have a phone and she didn't give us her address because she said the people she lives with wouldn't accept us too kindly. But we'll find her.
I didn't email yesterday because we had to go to Sevilla for interviews. It was awesome! I love President Clegg so much. He is hilarious and so is his wife. They are always making jokes. He is always punching elders in the arm and kidding around with us. He really acts like a friend to all of us. While we were waiting for our interviews we had a small meeting and Sister Clegg made us cookies! Oh my gosh they were so good. I haven't had home baked american cookies for quite awhile. She also had me pull out my pictures yesterday while we were eating so she could look at them. The Cleggs really are the best. I wish you all could meet them.
This last week I've also been running around trying to figure out stuff for my residency. 4 elders have been deported from Spain for not renewing their residency card on time and 2 of them were from this mission. They both are serving in the states now and the scary part is they had only been in Spain for 3 more weeks than me! The office has been in the process of getting mine done but things weren't working so i just went to the Police station here and figured out what I needed to do. I think I have it all figured out. I don't want to leave Spain yet!!!
Thats really all the news I have for the week. Nothing too exciting happened. I'm just loving Córdoba and trying to do my best. I am seeing a lot of blessings come our way and I'm so thankful for each one of them. Thank you all for your support and love. I hope you have a great week. The church is true.

love, Elder Langston

Archie is doing Great 8-2-10

Hey everybody! Like it says in the subject, Archie is doing awesome! I'm so excited. He really is just flying along. We have already taught him the commandments that usually are a bit challenging for investigators to keep. He passed with flying colors haha. When we taught him about the word of wisdom he had a few questions about certain teas that you can drink because there are so many kinds of plants in Africa. He told us he wasn't sure that if some of the things he was drinking were against the word of wisdom but then he told us that his parents always taught him to drink the good things. He said there is a drink made of marijuana in Ghana but he has always stayed away from that. He also quit smoking about 4 weeks ago and he said its been really easy for him. Talk about being prepared! We also taught him about tithing yesterday and he said he would pay it without us even having to ask him haha. Its been crazy. The only question he had about tithing was how to fill out the form to give to the branch president. I told my companion that I had never seen an investigator accept tithing so easily. Archie has truly been prepared and I'm so excited to see him enter the waters of baptism. He is really excited too. I just hope he learns spanish quickly so he can become friends with the members. I wish all you could meet him because he is such a nice guy. You guys will see a picture of him dressed in white in about two weeks!
We didn't teach an overwhelming amount of lessons this week but we did good finding investigators. We continued passing by former investigators, contacting in the street, and knocking doors and we found 3 new investigators to teach. There is actually a cool little story behind two of them. One day me and my companion were trying to find a recent convert named Loli. She is a 14 year old girl that got baptized a few months ago. We talked to her brother and he told us she was out shopping with her mom and grandma but she would be back to her grandmas house soon. Well her mom and grandma came back but Loli wasn't with them so I asked where she was. They told us she was with a friend of the family named Ana. I remembered seeing her name in the Area Book so we asked a few questions about her. We found out where she lived and some other basic information and left the house. I told my companion we were going to start teaching her and we were going to baptize her haha. We then made plans to pass by her on Tuesday, and when we did she was so excited. She told us she had been wondering why the Elders didn't pass by anymore and was so surprised when she saw us there. She told us it was definitely not a coincidence. So we started teaching her and another lady walked out of a room. She asked if it was ok if she listened too. We said of course, of course haha. We shared a little message with them and they LOVED it! They kept smiling and the sister of Ana (Toni) told us she had been looking for the Book of Mormon for a long time. She is really excited about all of this. I can't wait to see what happens with those two. The only problem is that Ana has a phobia. She can't stay in the church for more than 30 minutes without getting really nervous. Her sister Toni told her its all in her head and that she could do it haha. Its always nice to have a little support from other investigators. I think good things are going to happen in the next few weeks. I'm really excited about the work here in Córdoba. I am really being blessed right now. I know this is God's work. I learn more and more every single day that if I do my part God will bless me in unexpected ways. I love you all and thank you so much for your support. Have a good week!

Baptismal Date 7/26/10

Hey everybody! I guess I'll just break the news right now. Last Tuesday Elder Masterson and I set a baptismal goal with Archie our investigator from Ghana Africa! Its for the 14th of August. Happy Birthday Mom haha. He is the one who has the wife that is already a member and I translated for him last week in church. I'm so excited for his baptism. We set the goal with him in the very first appointment. We did what this mission calls "Lesson zero". What we do is go through about 10 steps that explains who we are as missionaries, reveals the investigators intentions, and makes very clear that baptism is the ultimate goal. When we explained a little bit about what we would be teaching him and asked him if he would be baptized if he knew it was true he said, "of course!" Haha I loved it. All the teaching is done in english so its a little different for me but my companion sure likes it. Sometimes I get a little stuck when I can't remember a word. Or a spanish word will just slip out. He is patient with me though so thats good. So far all the lessons have gone really well. He told us yesterday that he believes Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I feel really blessed to be teaching him right now. He is teaching me a lot about humility because he's just a good guy. I'm really excited to work with him over the next few weeks.
This week we also had a zone conference with President Clegg and a ton of missionaries I didn't know. It was a little bit weird at first but I feel like they accepted me haha. It was funny because I was the only one there from the Barcelona mission. There were a few from the Madrid mission but I was all alone. Its so crazy how this mission is a big mix of all the spain missions. The President is from the Bilbao misson and the missionaries come from the other three missions so there are just tons of ideas and ways to do missionary work flying around. According to the other missionaries, Barcelona was kind of known as the strict professional mission. We weren't allowed to wear backpacks, play soccer with members, we had less time on preparation day and just a bunch of other stuff. The Málaga mission is a little more relaxed so I think they think that I'm kind of a Nazi haha. Its ok though. President Hinckley told us to make sure we don't lose the good things we were taught in our missions, but if we are asked to do things differently, to do it. Its been really interesting to see all the differences and I like learning from everybody else.
To end this email I just want to share something I heard in church yesterday that I liked a lot. My branch mission leader (who is actually the nephew of my bishop in Barcelona) shared an experience in Priesthood meeting. He said he and his wife asked his 4 year old son to say the prayer and he didn't want to do it. Finally they got him to do it and they continued on with whatever they were doing. Then the little boy said, "Daddy, He loves me." My mission leader then asked him who loved him and his little boy said, "The Lord. He loves me forever". Then he asked him how he knew that. His little boy said, "because He told me in a quiet voice". He loves me forever and He loves you too". My mission leader said that it impacted him a ton. When I heard the story it impacted me too. It just tells me the most simple testimonies from even little kids are the most powerful. I want to testify as well that God lives. He is our Father and He loves us more than we can imagine. He is so anxious to help us and bless us and at times we are too busy to see His hand in our life. Hearing that story has made me want to be more aware of my blessings and to let God know that I love Him more often. I love you all and I am so thankful for all your support. I hope you have an awesome week. Know that you are in my prayers. I love you all. Bye bye

Love, Elder Langston

A Crazy Week 7-19-10

Hi everybody! I don't even know where to begin with this e-mail. There is so much to update you guys on. Well on Tuesday morning me and Elder Anderson got a call saying that he was going to be transferred to Cartagena and I was going to Malaga to pick up my "son" the very next day. Thats what you call the elder you train haha. It was kind of a shock because I had only been here in Cordoba for about 6 days at that time. I had just barely met the membersand wasn't too familiar with Cordoba. But anyway, I went down to Malaga and met up with the zone leaders down there. I knew one of them because he came from the Barcelona mission with me. His name is Elder Romney and we're really good friends. From Malaga, I took a train to Fuengirola, where the mission home is. It is beautiful there! I think you can see pictures on the mission blog. If I'm not mistaken its spainmalagamission.blogspot.com I'm not positive about that but it's worth a try. So I met President and Sister Clegg for the first time and we had dinner in the mission home. Afterwards we had a meeting and found out which Elder we were going to be training. I got Elder Masterson! He's from Orange County and he likes to sleep a lot haha. I think the poor kid is having a hard time getting used to the mission life because he is always exhausted. He'll get the hang of it though. We have been running around all week getting lost and just working like crazy. Sometimes I need to remind myself that he doesn't really know how things are in the mission because I always find myself just assuming that he knows whats going on. Poor kid. He didn't get blessed with a very good trainer in that aspect. We are really working hard though. The truth is the last Elders kind of left this place dead. We have about 2 or 3 serious investigators. and even they are hard to get in contact with. But there is a TON of potential here. I feel spoiled because there is so much to do. The area book is full of former investigators we can pass by and the city is just huge so we always have someone to talk to or a different door to knock. We are starting to organize the area book because the truth is it is a huge mess. A lot of the records haven't been updated for a long timeand its all out of order. I guess what I am trying to say is that we have a ton of work to do and this area is going to be rolling here soon. We have and appointment with a 20 year old girl named Tania tomorrow and her Uncle is a member that lives in Utah. She has actually studied at BYU. The only problem we have with her is time. She is going back to Utah in a month and I'm not sure if it's to stay. We'll find out tomorrow. We also have a new investigator named Archie. He is from Ghana Africa and his wife was baptized here about 7 months ago. He just barely got here from Africa a week ago and he came to church yesterday. I translated the meeting for him and actually taught the gospel principles class in english. It was so weird! It was good practice though. We'll get him baptized in no time. I think we are going to have a ton of investigators soon. There is just a lot of potential here and nobody has done much with it. I'm going to be praying a lot so I know where we should start and how we should do things. I need your prayers too! Haha. Oh yeah and something crazy happened last night. We got off the bus by our appartment and we had about 30 minutes left until we had to be inside so we decided to contact people in the street. As we were walking around, I looked across the street and saw a man laying face down in the dirt with a crutch about ten feet away from him. We ran over and asked him if he needed help and he told me he fell down. He was completely drunk and when I lifted him up his pants fell down around his ankles. I hurried and pulled them up and asked if he was okay and he said yeah and started to walk. But then he started to fall again and I half caught him before he hit the ground. I picked him up again and told my companion to hold on to him while I called the ambulance. Next thing I know I hear a huge thud and he fell again but this time hard! He hit his head pretty good too. I guess my companion was grossed out and didn't want to hold on to him to good haha. So we waited for the ambulance for about 20 minutes and when it finally got there they just asked the man if he wanted to go to the doctor. He said no, so they took him to his house and that was the end of it. I just thought "are you kidding me?" The man definately needed help and they didn't do anything for him. I was kind of shocked about it all but that was the end of it. My companion just said "Well thats something I never thought I'de see on my mission." haha. I told him he had a lot of things in store for him. Well thats all I have for the week. I love you all and I miss you. I am keeping you all in my prayers and especially right now. I know God lives and that He has a plan for all of us. I know that if we live the gospel, we will live with our Heavelny Father and our families forever. I also know that God answers prayers. Sometimes he answers them when we aren't expecting them and often times through ways we aren't expecting. But He always answers. I love you all and hope you have a great week. Love you tons.
Love Elder Langston

In my new area July 12, 2010

Hi everyone. Well I'm here in cordoba now. I'm trying to think of everything that has happened so far. Everything is a little boggled though. I'll start from the beginning of last week. On Tuesday I said my last goodbyes to the members in Crevillente and then Oscar drove me to the train station. I stayed in a town called Cartagena for the night and then left at 10:15 on a bus for Granada. It was about a 5 hour bus ride. Then I took a train from Granada at 5 to Sevilla. I got in Sevilla at about 8 and my companion Elder Anderson was waiting for me. We had to run and catch a train to Cordoba right after and so I got here at about 10. It was a really long day but it was fun. All the members told me it was going to be hot and they were right. Its been about 105 to 110 all week, but it's not as humid, so I'm grateful for that. There are about 300,000 people that live here and we are the only two missionaries working here. I have a ton to learn. Our apartment has air conditioning but only in the main room. In my room there is a thermometer and its about 88 degrees in there during the night haha. It's just a little toasty. I am on of three missionaries that hasn't met President Clegg yet. Because of transfers and the conference schedule I just got left out haha. I'm excited to meet him though. There are so many changes in the mission. We have a longer "mediodia" here and we can take naps. I need to clean the apartment today because it's disgusting! The branch is just as small here as it was in Crevillente and I hear they aren't too excited to do missionary work. I hope I can get them to trust me and then I think we'll get things rolling. We have a couple of investigators here but none of them have baptismal dates. I feel pretty confident that we'll have one soon though. Last night Spain won the world cup and it was pretty crazy. We were actually in the house of a part member family and saw a lot of the game haha Oops. When they won everybody in the streets started screaming and fireworks were going off everywhere. It was pretty fun though. I can't think of anything else right now. I hope you all know I love you and keep you in my prayers. I appreciate all of yours. I know God lives and he loves us. What I love knowing is that He is our literal Father and that he is anxious to help us through any problem we might have. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ so much. I love you all too and I hope you have a great week. bye bye.

"I hate goodbyes!" Lloyd Christmas

Hi everybody. How are you all doing? I hope good. So guess what? I'm leaving Crevillente! Crazy huh? President Clegg called me on Saturday and told me. At first he asked me how I was doing and then asked about Crevillente. I told him things were a little slow right now but that we were working. He said he had heard that things in Crevillente weren't really progressing and then he said, "but that's not going to be your problem anymore." I didn't know what to say at first haha. He told me I was getting transfered to Cordoba on Wednesday. I'm going to have a companion for 2 weeks named Elder Anderson and then I'm going to train a new elder. I'm pretty nervous about it actually. President Clegg said it like this. "You are in a new mission, going to a new area, and you're going to train a new elder." I just keep thinking about how big the responsibility is and I've been studying my journal so I can remember how I felt at the beginning of my mission so I can do my best as a trainer. I hope I don't get too stressed with the new area thing too. All the member have told me things about Cordoba. They say it's really pretty and has a lot of history. A member told me there are buildings there that were built before Christ! Also, every member has said the same thing...that it is incredibly hot there. One member even said that it reaches 120 with humidity. Haha oh boy. We'll see though. I don't know my new address yet but I will send it next week. The reason I named this e-mail " I hate goodbyes" is because I do haha! Yesterday in church all of the members found out I was leaving and it was pretty hard. The elders quorom president called me up in front of the priesthood and thanked me for working here in Crevillente. Then he asked me to share my feelings about my
experience here and what I had learned. When I looked at the Branch President, his counselor, and Oscar Rivero who is one of my good friends here, and saw that they all had watery eyes it killed me haha. I don't do well in situations like that. I have a lot of friends here in Crevillente. A lot of people have made a big impact on my life. Now they are all ticked off because they can't learn how to play baseball haha. Not really. I have a lot of mixed feelings right now. I'm excited about my new assignment but sad because I have to say goodbye. I found out that happens a lot in the mission. There are always mixed feelings. I wish I could have brought more success to the branch as well. If Jose and his family gets baptized, that will make my mission. Crevillente needs that. Well I don't have much more to say. My mind is kind of all over the place right nowand I can't think of anything else to say. I love you all more than you know and I'm so grateful for your support and for caring. I know this church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is evence that Jesus is the Christand that Christs church was restored through Joseph Smith. It is a true book. I hope you all have an amazing week and I can't wait to hear from you next Monday. Bye bye.
Love, Elder Langston

Hello Malaga!!! 6/29/10

Hey everybody! Yep it's official. I'm a Malaga missionary now. Yesterday we had our conference and said bye to President and Sister Hinckley. I won't lie it was pretty rough on me haha. The conference was really good though. The Spirit was really strong and for a moment when President Hinckley was testifying he sounded just like his dad. It gives me the chills thinking about it. I'm really going to miss the Barcelona mission. But I'm really excited to meet President and Sister Clegg and learn tons of new things from other missionaries. We get to meet them on the 8th 0r 9th I think. I'm pretty sure I'll be staying in Crevillente 6 more weeks after this Sunday. Oh yeah that reminds me ... I spoke in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and decided to give a little dry humored joke. I got there and said " Good morning brothers and sisters. I'm pretty sure you all know me. My name is Elder Langston and I'm from Crevillente." The members thought it was pretty funny. The Branch President was cracking up behind me. Ok so its not that funny but I have been here a dang long time haha. I really love the members though. The thing about the members here is that they say whats on their mind. For example, there is a member named Pilar in the branch. She is 60, has grandkids, is one of the greatest cooks in the history of the world, and always tells my companion that he is annoying haha. I love it because we eat with her every Thursday for lunch which is the biggest meal of the day in Spain. One Thursday I wasn't there and my companion and the zone leader went to eat at her house. She had bought some fruit for me that only grows here. They are called Nisperos. She knows I love them so when she saw that I wasn't there, she wouldn't give them to the other Elders haha. She saved them and called me the next day to come pick them up from her house. According to my companion, she wouldn't even let him touch the fruit. She also always tells me that I'm going straight to Heaven for having to deal with my companion. She told me that they aren't even going to open the book haha. She says this all in front of my companion! It really is so funny. I'm always busting up laughing when we are in her house. I don't have any news about Jose this week. He left town and we haven't heard from him. I really wish I had something good to report. Oh I just remembered. The branch has an activity planned for next month that they did just for me. They want to learn how to play baseball. Oh boy. It's going to be a mess haha. But I'm excited to see if it works out. The young men in the branch are really excited. I had to say goodbye to more people this week too. The Patriarch and his family left last week for the summer because it gets too hot here. They are one of my favorite families so it was kinda tough saying goodbye. The patriarch made us scripture cases but mine didn't fit, so he just gave me his own haha. I really love that family. Well I hope all you are doing really good. The work is really slow here but we are working. That's what is important. I hope to have more news next week. I know this church is true! I know Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his Son and that through him Christ's chruch was restored. Thats what I'm trying to tell everybody but they won't listen ! Haha just kidding. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Adios.


Love, Elder Langston

Hi Guys

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I´m doing really good. After last weeks big news I feel like I don´t have much to say this week haha. We are going to have our last zone conference with President Hinckley next monday so I´m looking forward to that. Just so I can see him again but I don´t really want to say bye. I´m sure all the sister missionaries will be bawling their eyes out haha. Anway, José is doing really good. Yesterday a little miracle happened. Earlier in the week he told us he wasn´t going to be able to make it to church this Sunday. We were kind of bummed about that. But then on Saturday he called us and said he could come! So he made it to church and it happened to be the Sunday that the stake visited Crevillente. The stake president spoke and José loved his talked. The stake president here is an amazing teacher. He´s just a powerful man. I know José felt the spirit really strong in sacrament meeting. While I was up front translating, I kept looking at him and I could see in his face how hard he was thinking about everything. The good thing is all the members know who he is already. He´s already got a bunch of friends in the church. We still aren´t sure about his baptism because we need to work out a few doubts but time isn´t really an issue. He´ll be baptized, i´m sure. I heard some knews from the members that the Lakers won it all. What a shame. Haha everybody in Spain is a Lakers fan because of Pau Gasol. There is one member here named Gabriel that really likes to bother me. He always tells me Spain is better than the U.S. in everything. Speaking of sports that is. I don´t know if he watches the olympics or the special olympics because I think its quite clear the U.S.A controls the basketball world. Well thats all the news i have for the week. I hope you all have a great day and week and that i find you all as well as I did today. Thank you all for the emails and words of support. They really mean a lot to me. I love this mission so much. I know its Gods work. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity that I´m living in. What a blessing huh? Well I love you all and I hope you know it! Until next week. Elder Langston

Transfers Came and.... 6/15/10

Hey everybody! Yep transfers came and there were some changes. But not like I expected. I stayed here in Crevillente with Elder Paolinelli but that means I have a bigger change ahead of me. I´m changing missions. Haha I´m now a missionary in the Spain Málaga mission. Well not right now but as of July 1st I will be. President Hinckley left almost everything the same down here in the south. He only moved one missionary and that was because he called him as his assistant. So yeah, I´m changing missions! Its going to be an adventure thats for sure. It feels like I´m starting my mission all over again. I have a new mission president, I don´t know any of the missionaries, and I will have to learn a new system of doing things. Also, the Málaga mission has a different transfer cycle than the Barcelona mission. Their transfers are in three weeks which means this transfer will be really short! It also means my mission will be lengthened or shortened by 3 weeks. I´m not sure which yet. I´m really excited to meet the new mission president, President Clegg, but its also really hard for me to say goodbye to President Hinckley. He has taught me so much and I loved working under him. President Clegg was actually the mission president in the Spain Bilbao mission but since it got dissolved and the Málaga mission president was at the end of his time, he is now the president in Málaga. Or will be on July 1st. Its been a really interesting transfer. As I said earlier, we have transfers again in 3 weeks but since President Clegg will be new I´m not sure he will change anything here. That means I could be here in Crevillente for 9 more weeks! That would be by far the longest a missionary has been here haha. I already know the name of every single person in Crevillente and their dog haha! So yeah, thats my big news for the week. Also this is for you Dad. I was doing companion exchanges this week with the zone leader and I was in a city called Murcia. We were waiting for a train to come and some guy said ¨We´re going to follow the missionaries¨, but he said it in english. I turned around and asked him where he was from and he said...ST. GEORGE! Haha so I asked him his name and he said Stan Horlacher. I think thats how you spell it. I knew Horlacher sounded really familiar and he said you might know his uncle that is your age and he also has a brother named Rich. Then when I showed him the picture of you and mom and he said ¨Yep I know your dad and mom. I played softball with your dad and he´s really funny¨. Haha I can only imagine. I thought that was pretty crazy though. I told him to say hi if he sees you when he goes back home. Anyway, as for our investigators, José is doing really well. We had a family home evening last night in the branch presidents home with José and his family. It turned out really good so that made me happy. He should be baptized anytime now haha. I don´t have much else to report. Its been a crazy couple of days and I´m still trying to figure it all out. I know God lives and this is His work! I never thought I would change missions but I´ll go where He wants me to go. I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Langston

I love Crevillente

Hey everybody! Are you all doing good? I hope so. I´m doing so good! You are probably wondering why I titled my email ¨I love Crevillente¨. Its because I do haha. Serving here has been the hardest thing I´ve ever done but I´m not complaining. I´ve loved it. Transfers are next week and its very possible that i´ll be leaving. Yesterday in testimony I felt like I had to get up and tell the branch how much they mean to me and how much they´ve helped my testimony. Its true. I told them I come from a huge ward in Utah, but because this is Christ´s church, the only difference between here and there is the number of people in church every week. The doctrine is the same, the organization is the same, and the same spirit is felt. I thanked the members for their testimonies because it has really helped mine so much. I told them about an experience I had with a member in one of the appointments that I will never forget. We were teaching a couple with a member named Gabriel Rivero. He is a big fat happy guy that is always cracking jokes in the branch. Usually when I´m with him I am laughing but this time was different. I remember he was testifying and he said ¨We KNOW this is the true church. And you can know too if you pray and ask God.¨ It was such a simple testimony but it really made my heart burn. I remember thinking ¨He´s right, I do know with every fragment of my soul that this is the true church.¨ It sounds really simple and unspectaculor but to me it means a lot haha. I don´t know if anybody will miss me from the branch if I leave but I do know that i´ll miss them. Actually thats not true. I do know that a little girl named Jennifer will miss me because her mom told me haha. She is always hanging on my arm in church. This week we had success with our investigators again. We taught José and we had a family home evening with him and the branch president. He loved it! He said next time he is going to bring the whole family. Lorena has been difficult to contact again because she moved in with her cousin and we don´t know where to find here. But I think she is doing good. I had a really cool experience with a couple of new investigators this week. They are an african family that study with the Jehovah´s Witnesses so we knew that we were in for a treat. I´ll start the story a few days before the appointment though. I realized that my studies in the morning weren´t as efficient as they could be. I had been selfish and studied too much for my personal needs instead of the investigators needs. So I made a study plan based around my investigators and put it into action. One morning I felt like I needed to study the plan of salvation, so I did. I didn´t know why exactly, but I did. Anyway, in the appointment with the african family, they came up with a whole bunch of doubts for every point of doctrine we taught them. But luckily I was prepared. Somehow I was coming up with scriptures from the old and new testament to back up what I was saying. The husband was trying to find some fault in the doctrine we were teaching but he just couldn´t do it haha. I say that the scriptures came in to MY head because the man had an english bible so my companion didn´t understand. He could have done just as well if it were in spanish. Anyway it just felt cool. Well I´m running out of time but i hope you all know that I love you and you mean the world to me. Thanks for being the best. Talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston