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