Well there goes the surprise element. I guess you all know whats happened. Toñi is going to be baptized the 9th of October! But first things first how are you all doing? I'm doing great! It was kind of a surprise this week with Toñi accepting a baptismal date for the 9th of October. I actually wasn't there when it happened. I was on exchanges in Sevilla and the zone leader called me up to tell me. I guess in all that time between when we first challenged her to baptism and now she has just been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and she knows its true. She wanted to be baptized in the first place but if you remember she just said she needed to make some changes in her life. We hadn't heard from her in awhile and then all of a sudden WHAM!!! She is so excited. She really loves it all. We took her to church this Sunday and she absolutely loved it. Afterwards I asked her how she felt and she said "I don't know why I was nervous. I feel like I have fireworks going off inside of me!" I am so glad she liked it. I was kind of nervous because she is a really timid person but all the members brought her right in and they were so excited to see her there. Angels have definitely been preparing her. Elder Phillips, the zone leader, asked her why she hadn't been baptized a long time ago and she just said "I have just been waiting for someone to come tell me all of this." Well we found her and we told her and now she is getting baptized! Now looking back on it, the whole process of finding her was inspired without me even knowing. One day I was looking through the Area Book and I found the record for her sister Ana and it stuck out to me. We decided to ask a member that knew her what her story was and where she lived. I remember telling Elder Masterson we were going to teach and baptize Ana. I was wrong, at least up until now. But as we were teaching Ana, Toñi came out of the room and asked if she could listen. And now look where we are with her! I think its pretty exciting haha. I hope I'm still here in Córdoba. Transfers are this coming up Sunday!!
Sorry about now writing yesterday. We had a conference in Sevilla with President Clegg and it was awesome. It was pretty much of a review of the stuff I learned when I went to Málaga for a week. It was really intense this time. He really laid the hammer down on being diligent and working with passion. Somehow elders in the past have kind of ruined the reputation of the Málaga mission years back and its been kind of hard to break free from that. President Clegg said this isn't the mission it was in the past. Its the "New Málaga Mission" and we are hard workers. He said he had a dinner appointment with some members and they told him straight up that the Málaga mission is lazy. He told them right back that they were wrong and that this is a good mission. Its true. This mission is changing a lot and its seeing more baptisms than it ever has. I think its a really big blessing to be a part of this mission at this time. Its awesome to see the cultures and ways of 4 different missions mix together and create a successful mission. I am really glad I am where I am right now.
I just wanted to share one more thing. On Sunday I got to teach the gospel principles class to the investigators, recent converts, and less active members. We don't have a manual and usually the only person in the class is Archie so we just teach him what he needs to know personally. This week was different because about 10 people showed up and I didn't have a manual to teach from. So Elder Masterson and I taught about the Book of Mormon. I wasn't expecting it to be very good because quite frankly I wasn't prepared for it. But I just told Elder Masterson to teach like we would a normal lesson. We got to a point where I shared my testimony of how I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he translated the Book of Mormon, and I felt the Spirit stronger than i have in quite awhile. It kind of just hit me all of a sudden. It was one of those moments where I had to step back and say "Yeah i do know this is all true." I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have really been praying for it to guide and help me lately and it seems that He knows just when to come in and touch my heart to let me know everything is ok. I testify that the church is true and that is has been restored through a modern day prophet. As we base our lives on the gospel of Jesus Christ we will be reminded of that again and again. God is always there and He loves us more than we can imagine. I love you all too and I hope you have an awesome week. Until next week.
Love, Elder Langston
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