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