A Really Good Week

Hey everybody! This week was a lot better than they have been in the past. We got in a ton more houses and even found some new people to teach! I´m excited because maybe it means things are going to start picking up here. I was blessed this week to feel the spirit stronger than I have for awhile. I think I was starting to get frustrated because I was trying my hardest to make things happen here in Crevillente and I had nothing to show for it. But this last week, no matter what happened I decided to tell myself to keep trying and I knew my Heavenly Father was pleased with me. We had a few appointments this week where I felt the spirit so strong. I love when that happens because my spanish just flows perfectly and I can tell that the people I am teaching understand everything. It feels so good. Yesterday my talk in sacrament meeting went really well. I spoke on miracles and what our role is as members and full time missionaries regarding missionary work. I decided to share the experience of Silvias baptism. How she had investigated the church for so long but still didn´t feel ready. I told her how she came to Vanessa´s baptism and thats when she decided to be baptized. When I told them that Silvia was baptized in my last week in Barcelona I started to get choked up and I didn´t know why. I wasn´t expecting it! I felt dumb but it went really well. It was funny because the sign language translator just stopped and looked up at me which made me feel even more dumb. Oh well! It just made me realize how much this mission means to me and all the good things I am experiencing and learning. I feel so blessed to be here. I love how I can focus on the Lords work for 2 straight years and get to know my Savior so well. Being here in Crevillent has taught me how to rely on the Lord more because things aren´t always easy. I know He has felt everything I am going through and that gives me so much comfort. I love you all and thanks again for all you do. You are the best! Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

Happy Valentines 2/15/10

Time is passing really fast isn´t it? Wow. Anyway how is everybody doing? I loved all the emails I got this week. I am so blessed to have family and friends that care about me and let me know whats going on back home. You are all the best! Anywho, news from Crevillente. Yesterday I had to translate during sunday school and priesthood and it was not the easiest thing I have ever done. When I say translate I mean sign language. It is hard because there are 4 different sign languages in Spain. There is 1 in North and South America. So everybody that teaches me, teaches me something different! Its challenging but its a lot of fun. Next week I get to speak in Sacrament meeting and translate the rest of the time so Sundays are now stressful days for me. Elder Mitchell is a good companion. He has brought a lot of ideas from his last area so we are combining our ideas to try and get some success. Something pretty funny happened yesterday. When we were greeting the members as they came to church, one member shook Elder Mitchells hand and said Welcome to Hell. Haha I thought it was pretty good. I guess its because Crevillente isn´t the easiest area to do missionary work in but I like it just fine. As for our ideas to find new investigators, we are thinking about starting up a scripture study class, having a movie night, and we are spending at least 1 hour a day knocking doors. The funny thing is I have already knocked most of the buildings in Crevillent because its so small! I think my favorite thing about Crevillente is a family that is completely chaotic. The father isn´t a member and is south American, the mother is coming back to the church, two of the kids just got baptized a couple months ago, and the other two little kids are just there. All the kids are under the age of 10 and are the closest things to devils in human form. But i have seen a lot of change in them since I have got here. We are really trying to help them progress in the gospel and get some peace in the home. We are now teaching the father and he has really warmed up to us. Yesterday we had an appointment with them and it was amazing. We showed them the movie called the Lamb of God so we could get the kids attention and after testified of Christ and His atonement. There was such a strong spirit and a calm I had never felt in the home before. It just made me feel good because even though I haven´t had any baptisms here yet, I can at least be an instrument in the Lords hands to try and help families come together and realize whats important. Its a lot of fun and we are becoming really good friends. Well I love all you. Thank you again for all you do for me and for just being the best. You are all in my prayers. Have a great week!

Transfers Came 2/09/10

Oops! I forgot to tell everyone last week that transfers were already here. My companion got transferred today to Matorell. A little town clear up north by Barcelona. My new companion is coming here. I already knew him from up north and he is the goofiest guy every haha. He was actually Elder Awerkamps companion and now he is mine. I´m excited to work with him though. I found out something knew about the mission changes. It was a really big detail I didn´t catch. If I am still down here in the south when the mission boundaries change, I will have to change missions. I would then be part of the Spain Málaga mission. I didn´t realize that and now I kind of have bitter sweet feelings about the boundary changes. It would be pretty hard to change mission presidents number one, because its President Hinckley and number two, because I would have to learn a whole new way of doing things. We´ll see what happens though. Oh my new companions name is Elder Mitchell. As for weekly news I don´t have much. Nothing really happened with our investigators. I am a little nervous now because I will be the new sign language translator for Sunday School and Priesthood on Sunday. There are so many words I still don´t know! Oh well. We met with Adriana this week too. She is the 16 year old that is friends with a member family. She liked everything we taught and now she is trying to get permission from her parents to meet with us more. She really loves learning and she had so many good questions. I can´t wait to get her baptized haha! Welp thats about it for the week. I love you all and I hope you have a really good week. Thanks for all you do. Go Jazz! Love, Elder Langston

Changes in the Mission

Good morning! How are you all doing? I´m doing real good. Well this morning we got a big announcement. The Spain Bilbao mission will be dissolved on the first of July of this year and will be part of the Spain Barcelona Mission. The Spain Bilbao mission is pretty much all of northern Spain...the pretty part! So now a lot more options of where I could go after this area have opened up. Where I am at right now won´t be part of our mission in July. A big chunk of the southern part of our mission will be part of the Spain Málaga mission. Its crazy how it is all working. Its going to be announced in church news this month I believe. The First Presidency made the annoucement recently and President Hinckley shared the news with us before it was released publicly. We are seeing growth in Spain with less and less missionaries. At one point there were 5 missions and 600 missionaries in Spain. That will be reduced to 3 missions and 300 missionaries. The church is growing! Missionary work is now becoming a focus among the members. I´ve heard one day there won´t even be a need for full time missionaries! Anyway I´ll tell you about my week now. Unfortunately we lost our baptismal date with Amanda for the 13th. She didn´t like church because it wasn´t like her old one. She had some crazy doubts. She didn´t believe that woman should speak in church, cut their hair, wear pants, and that the bread used in sacrament should be unleavened. She told us she believed in the Bible word for word. We tried to help her resolve her doubts but it didn´t work. She didn´t understand that a lot of her beliefs were Jewish customs and misinterpretations of the Bible. She told us not to come by anymore. But that just means someone else is ready to hear the gospel and the search needs to continue. We actually did find a new investigator! Her name is Adriana. She is a 15 or 16 year old girl that is a friend of some members. We actually found her by accident haha. We were teaching the family and all of a sudden their daughter showed up with her friend just as we were beginning. So they both sat down to listen and she told us she was really interested and had some questions for us. It was a blessing from Heaven that fell right in our laps! I don´t think I have much more news for the week. My birthday was really good. Elder Forsgren and I just chilled and he bought me lunch. I have a good companion. Well thats about it. I love you all and thanks for all you do. Keep on keepin on. Lifes a garden, dig it. Haha just some Joe Dirt for ya.
Love, Elder Langston