Happy 20th Birthday Elder Taylor Langston

Hey everybody! How are things going? Things are going great for me. Last week was a lot better than the rest have been. The area is starting to pick up! When I got here we had 1 investigator and now we have 6! I feel blessed to be here at such a good time. I´ll update you all on what has happened. Last Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Raban who is a friend of mine from the MTC. The day before he came I had been thinking about knocking doors by the church but we never got around to doing it. So when Elder Raban came, I took him out to knock doors. The first building we knocked didn´t turn out to anything. But the second building we found a family of 3! They let us in and we taught them the message of the restoration. Towards the end we asked them how they were feeling and the dad said ¨peace, happiness, just calm.¨ It was the perfect answer. He said he knew what we were saying was true just because of how he felt. We asked them to be baptized but the father doesn´t feel prepared. We told him thats what we are here for! To prepare him. He agreed to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon that we left for him and to pray about it. I can´t wait to see what happens! We also received a referral from a member. This member had hired a woman to take care of her mother and she was interested in the church. So we taught her and she has a baptismal date for the 13th of February! The branch is really excited because they haven´t seen an adult baptized in Crevillente for a year and a half. I hope everything works out! Blessings just keep flowing our way! I also received a special assignment this week. The branch presidents kids had a birthday party in the church and my companion and I were asked to be there so we could at least be seen. So I sat down at a table with some kids and by the end of the party I was famous! I told them I was American so they asked if I knew Obama or Michael Jackson haha. We had a good time. Talking with kids is something I´m comfortable with doing. Now we just have to become friends with their parents! Well I think thats about it. I don´t have time to write more. Thank you all so much for the emails wishing me a happy birthday. I´m sure today will be great. Thanks for all the support. You guys are amazing. Have a great week!

January 18, 2010

Hey everybody! How are you all? Is it starting to warm up back home because it is here! I´m trying to think back on everything I did this week. Well, last Tuesday I had to wake up at 5 so we could walk to the train station and catch our train on time to head to our Zone Conference in Murcia. It was a great conference. I feel so blessed to have President Hinckley as my president. Its a ton of fun to listen to him. I learn so much everytime. It was also a pretty emberrassing conference. I got called up to the front of the room with my companion because my birthday is this month and my companion had to say something nice about me. It sounds like I´m in elementary school huh? Well I really don´t like being the center of attention so I was already a little emberrassed, but then this is what he said. Elder Langston, where do I start, he is really good at spanish and everybody loves him, in fact, sometimes the girls love him a little too much. Are you kidding me! Everybody was laughing and I just turned bright red. Then sister Hinckley said she could feel an emergency transfer coming on. So that was my glorious moment in the spotlight in zone conference. I would have preferred something like a hard worker, or a good teacher, but hey I can´t complain right? Right now we are focusing on working with the ward and branch leaders and becoming unified with them so we can see even more baptisms this year. This last week, an inactive member died in a tragic accident and it has really hit the branch. I think they have been reminded of the importance of sharing the gospel and always looking out for other members. It hit me pretty hard too. There was such a strong spirit in the chapel yesterday. The first counselor gave a talk and he was really close friends with the man that died. He actually came to know the church through him. He said something that really made me think. He said, if God called us today, if our time on earth was up, would we be ready? It made everybody, including me, look in the mirror and think about everything I´m doing and what I could do better. I know every single one of us can always get better. We should never settle for just going through the motions. This life is so important. Its a test. I think we forget that a lot and tend to live in the moment, but if we have an eternal look on life everything makes so much sense. I just want you to know that I know God lives and Jesus Christ is our Savior. We really are children of God and He has given us this opportunity to live on earth to progress and become like Him. To have everything He has. What greater love is there? I love you all and I´m so thankful for all you do and the roles you play in my life. Have a great week! Bye bye. Love, Elder Langston

Crevillente

Howdy ya´ll. To tell you the truth there isn´t a whole lot to report this week. Everything is about the same. I´m getting to know the members a little better and starting to get a hang of the area. Its gotten REALLY cold lately. I can stand the cold but I´m not much of a fan of the wind and cold. Last night it was 3 degrees celcius. Sorry I can´t convert that for you. Its been a little tough getting in houses lately. The less actives we go to visit are never home and some have told us to just not come back. Its a little tough but I think things are going to start picking up. Domingo, our deaf investigator, is progressing so thats really good news! He should be baptized this transfer. He is doing a little better with his prayers. In fact he prayed in our last appointment we had with him and I didn´t even know haha. We brought a member with us to help us a little with translation and he was trying to persuade him to do the prayer. Next thing I know my companion and the member said amen. Thanks for the notice! Haha it was a little hard to recognize because we have to watch the person praying so nobody closes their eyes. I guess I need to be a little more focused. On Saturday we helped one of the deaf members with a service project. He is destroying the interior of an old apartment and remodeling it so we helped him out with that. It was pretty simple. He handed me a hammer and told me to get rid of the stairs! It was the most fun I´ve ever had doing a service project. Every boy wants to crush and destroy things with a hammer right? Spanish construction is a little different than U.S. too. The stair case was made out of rock, tile and concrete. Thats about all the news I have for the week. I hope things start to pick up here soon though. I love you all so much and thanks again for all you do. I know Christ lives and that living his gospel is the only way back to our Father. The only way. Have a great week and I´ll talk to you soon. Love, Elder Langston

Hello from Crevillente

Where do I even start. Yes I know that last sentence was a question but I can´t make the question mark key work haha. I guess I´ll start with hello! and how is everybody doing. Everything is good here in Crevillente. Its been a huge change but I´m getting used to it. Its like going from Salt Lake City to Hurricane! Crevillente is just a little town of about 30,000 people. Its kind of a desert area. If I could describe it I would say it looks like...Mesquite mixed with Desert Palms California. Paint a picture for you. question mark. Haha. The branch is amazing though. There are about 40-50 active members. Hey I found the question mark key! Its mixed up with the dash key. Anyway the branch is mostly Spaniards and they are all really nice. They want to see a ward here in Crevillente so they are ready to work hard. They have big expectations for this year and I´m excited to get started. We also have some other little towns in our area that we take the train to. That reminds me. The trip down here was gorgeous! The train goes all down the coast and while it was light outside I could see the Mediterranean sea the whole time. I loved it. My companions name is Elder Forsgren and the only way I can describe him is the nicest guy in the whole world. He is only 6 foot 6 by the way and a red belt in Tae Kwan Doe. Way less scary. He is from a small branch of about 18 members in Idaho and his family of 9 makes up a big chunk of it. He is a really good guy. We don´t have very many investigators at the moment but we are trying to find some. We do have one named Domingo and I have to learn a new language to teach him. He is deaf so we teach him in spanish sign language. He doesn´t know how to read either so that makes it a little tough. He has been coming to church for about a year though and his girlfriend is a member. He is waiting for some papers to finalize a divorce with a previous marriage so they can get married. Then he can be baptized! There are also two members in the branch that are deaf so learning sign language is going to be essential. I´m excited though and I can kind of pray already. Well thats about all I have for the week. Thank you all so much for what you do for me and the support. I know you are making sacrifices and i really appreciate it. I love you all. Talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston

I'm Outta Here 12/29/09

Hey everybody. Well I am being transferred today but I don´t leave until 3 so I am doing my email before I leave. I am going to a little town called Crevillente clear down in southern Spain. I am going to take a 6 hour train ride today haha. I´m excited but really nervous. I´m not sure what to expect. I´ve heard my companion is about six foot eight and is a black belt in karate. I´ve pretty much given up all hope of being bigger and tougher than any of my companions. Oh well haha. It was so nice talking to all you guys on Christmas! It was kind of hard to hang up but I loved every minute of it. I still have my same habit of pacing mom. I was pacing around the chapel while by companion was on the phone for about the last 15 minutes. I know I´m weird. You can thank Dad. Silvia´s baptism was perfect! It was the most spiritual one I have been to by far in the mission. She is so prepared. Once again she bore her simple but sincere testimony that had everybody crying. She said it was hard for her to not have her husband or the rest of her kids there to support her but she hopes they will follow in her footsteps. She is an amazing lady. She didn´t care if she had support from her family because she knew it was right and nothing was going to stop her. I thought it was a great lesson. Never let anything get in your way to do what is right. Nothing. It sure was hard to say goodbye to all the members last night. When I went to say goodbye to the family I spent Christmas with they had like a family home evening dedicated to me haha. But really it was sweet of them. The dad asked me to share my testimony and by the time he shared his he was crying. I got really close to that family. Oh mom, he said he is expecting us to go over there on my last monday in the mission to eat with them ok? After we said goodbye to them we went to my ward mission leaders house with Jesus and Vanessa. Vanessa pulled a bunch of gifts out of nowhere! I wasn´t expecting that. She bought me some cologne and a bunch of other stuff. I´m going to miss everybody from this ward so much. They have become my family away from home but now its time to go. I hope I can build up the trust and love from the members in my new area so the work can go even better. Well everybody I love you so much. Thanks for all you do. Happy Holidays and I love you.> > Love, Elder Langston