Big Things in Little Crevillente!

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I hope really really good. I´m so excited for General Conference this week! We will be watching it in Elche which is a 20 minute bus ride away. I hope I get to watch it in English. Things just get to your heart easier when they are in your native language. This week has been pretty good. There is a lot of excitement for the activity on the 10th! In the branch, the stake, and the mission! Our zone leaders are talking to President Hinckley about it at a meeting tomorrow so most of the missionaries can come to help. We should have about 16 missionaries and 50 or more members. We are going to be giving tours of the church, making contacts in the street, visiting friends of members, visiting less active members, and we are also going to have information tables stationed in different areas of the city. I know something big is going to come from this. On Wednesday Elder Mitchell and I have to give a 15 minute presentation in Zone meeting to get the other missionaries excited to come help us jumpstart things in Crevillente. We have been really blessed with a great branch president that is getting things rolling and coming up with all the good ideas. It is going to be a ton of fun. Well I´ve been reminded by quite a few of you that I have been out almost a year now. As I look back I have learned so much. I think it would be appropriate to share some things I´ve learned and my testimony.
This isn´t my mission. Its the Lords mission. I am here to represent Christ the Lord, to do exactly as He would do, to say exactly what he would say, and that has humbled me. I have learned that I am nothing, but with God I can do anything. I am so grateful to be an instrument in our Eternal Fathers hands. I have learned a lot about myself. I have found some of my strenghts and recognized my weaknesses. I know God does not only expect, but requires much of me. Only my best will be accepted in the end. I have learned that one of the sweetest feelings come from serving and helping others. I like the quote that says "When a man forgets himself, he usually does something that everybody else remembers". I have learned that if you want something, you better be ready to work for it. I know diligence is an attribute of Christ. Christ chose His disciples as they were working. Satan chooses his while they are idle. I have realized how much my family means to me. I love you all so much. God has also blessed me with so many other choice spirits to influence my life other than my family. I´m talking about all of you. Your example, love and service have helped me arrive to where I am now.
I know with perfect knowledge that God lives. I have spoken with Him through prayer and felt His love. I know Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our Brother and Redeemer and His atonement is real. I have come to know my Savior better than ever before and I am eternally grateful for the relationship I have with Him. He is my friend that is always there. There to pick me up when I am down and to tell me to keep fighting. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know Christ´s church was restored through a humble boy seeking an answer that the world couldn´t give him. I know Joseph saw God the Father and His Son in the sacred grove that spring morning. The Spirit has testified of it unto me and I feel it in my heart. I know the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God. I know it is most correct of any book on earth and that it contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know we are in the one true church. I know God has a plan and we are all part of it. We are His children and He loves us more than we could ever imagine. I love you all! Thank you over and over for all you do for me and the support and love I feel from you. It means everything. Have a great week!

Transfers Came and I'm Still Here.

Hey everybody. How is the week going? I hope good. I can´t think of anything really new going on in Crevillente. We have a HUGE activity planned for the 10th of April. We are going to have an open house in the church with all the members there and all the missionaries in the district. We have this huge Book of Mormon and Bible we are going to set outside to attract people. Its going to be an all day thing. It should be big. On Sunday José Garro our deaf member spoke in church, which means I spoke in church. I helped him write his talk and while he signed it in sacrament meeting, I read it for him. It went really well. He spoke on temples and the blessings we see from them. We had an appointment with a less active member that was really interesting. We found out that he doesn´t come to church because he has a drinking problem and he is ashamed. We had a really good appointment, sharing scriptures and testifying of the atonement and how it can fix his life. We also made an addiction recovery plan but he needs to have the desire to put it into action. We committed him to come to church this Sunday though. I hope he can turn everything around. Our Stake President came to church on Sunday and gave a powerful talk. He spoke on how our ultimate goal is to live with our families and Heavenly Father in the highest level of Celestial glory. Then he asked us to ask ourselves what we were doing to achieve this goal. It was kind of a "wake up!" talk. He explained just going to church isn´t going to cut it. We need to make sacrifices. We need to work until it hurts. It was a really inspiring talk. I know its true too. I thought about how little this life is yet how big of an impact it has on our eternal future. I´m so thankful that God sent His Son to atone for the sins of the world and to overcome physical death. The atonement is such a blessing and we need to use it every single day. I love this work. I love you all too! Thanks for all you have done for me. You all mean the world to me. Have a great week!
Love, Elder Langston

Hello

Hey everyone! I have to really hurry this week so sorry. I hope I can get in everything with the time I have. We weren't in Crevillente very much this week. An elder from Elche had to go up to Barcelona to take care of some residency problems so we had to stay with his companion. It was pretty fun though. We were preparing the activitiy for a lot of the time. The activity went really well but not very many people from our branch came. The spirit was strong and I could tell people enjoyed it. We also did a little karaoke thing before it all started too. I did something I've never done before. I sang and played the guitar in front of people. Haha Elder Malit and I performed "Im Yours" by Jason Mraz before it all started. There were about 100 people there watching so I was kind of nervous. It was a ton of fun though. We are still having trouble finding investigators but our branch president ran into the family we had been teaching and couldn磘 get in contact with. We have an appointment set up for this Sunday. All is well! Thanks for all you do everyone! I love you all.

Warmer Weather!

Hey everyone. This weeks email is going to be short. Nothing is happening. None of our investigators are progressing and we can´t seem to find new ones no matter how hard we try. But we keep trying. I´m thinking there is something to be learned from my time here in Crevillente. Its humbling me a lot. I realize now that I really am nothing. I am working on myself harder than ever so I can be an effective tool in the Lords hands. This weekend we are having a combined ward activity with the elders from Elche. We are having a dessert competition and a musical program about the restoration. I was going to be Joseph Smith but now I´m just in the choir. I´ll let you know how it goes. It should be a lot of fun. I hope some members bring their non member friends. Thats the whole idea anyway. Well I´ll let you all go. Thanks for everything you do. You have no idea how much it means to me. I´m sorry I don´t have time to write all of you. Don´t ever think I´ve forgotten about you. Every single one of you mean the world to me. I know this church is true. Without a doubt. I know God lives and I know Christ is my Savior. I love you all! Talk to you next week.

Dear everybody I know,
Hows it going? Good? Good. My week was pretty good. I got to go on exchanges with my district leader which was a ton of fun. It feels like I´ve known him forever. Probably because I´ve known him since the first of my mission. I´ve been following him around. We had a pretty funny appointment. I took him to the appointment with Domingo, our deaf investigator that tries to talk but doesn´t realize his volume is a little higher than it should be. So they asked my district leader elder Malit to say the prayer and I translated it for him. Then we had a lessson on scripture study and praying. It went pretty well. I did as much as I could do with the signs I know. When we walked out Elder Malit told me that was the weirdest appointment he had been in on his whole mission. And he is going home in 3 weeks. I just started cracking up laughing. You really have to be there to appreciate the humor of an appointment with a deaf man. Maybe I´ll film the next one haha. Elder Malit also helped me a ton with my teaching. He taught me how to use persoal experiences and analogies to help the people understand better. It has helped me so much. I wasn´t a very creative teacher before. Tomorrow I´ve been assigned to teach the district how to speak spanish. I am going to need a lot of help because I have no idea how to do it. Ha it just comes out! I guess I´ll just tell them to say their prayers. Not a whole lot happened this last week though. It was another week full of hard times and good times and the learning that comes with it. We still don´t have anybody thats close to baptism here but we will have one soon. Our branch has the faith that it will happen and they trust us. I have learned a lot this week about recognizing strengths. God has blessed us so much with different gifts and talents and we need to use them to the best of our ability. We had a district meeting about recognizing their strengths and it reminded me of my mom telling me to write down 5 things that i was good at. I hated it! And i still do. My district leader had to say one for me but then I realized we NEED to recognize them and use them. I wish I would have realized that when my mom tried to teach me. Welp thats all I have for the week. Lets hope something exciting happens this week. I love you all and thanks for everything. Have a good one.

Love, Elder Langston