A Really good week! October 25, 2010

Hey family and friends! How are we all doing? Just peachy? Good stuff. Anyway, like my subject says we had a really good week. Elder Velasquez and I taught more lessons this week that I ever have in one week in the mission. We taught 18 and the zone had an average of 19.3 lessons this week! We were pumped haha. Just two weeks ago the zone was averaging about 13 lessons a week so we have really stepped it up all over. We also had 4 baptismal dates in the zone last week and now we have 8! We are just really content right now with the work the zone is doing and the results we are seeing. The missionaries fasts, prayers, and faith are paying off. The stake also called a missionary that got home 5 days ago to be the elders quorum president in one of my wards. The stake really wants a missionary focus here. Things are going to explode pretty soon. I´m pretty dang excited.
Isabel is doing really good. The only thing is she is really busy with her brand new grandaughter. Her son has some mental problems because of a motorcycle accident and his wife is always working so she ends up having to take care of the little baby a lot of the time. She is ready for baptism though. We just have to set the date today with her. We also found some new investigators this week. One was a contact that the assistant to the President and I did in the street. She is a young mom from Ecuador named Daniela. We taught her the first lesson and she really seemed to like it. She had a few questions about the Godhead and things like that and it seems that she really is interested. Also, the Stake Presidents daughter brought her friend to church yesterday and we are going to start to teach him this week. The wards are really excited because we´re finding people to teach. Now we are just trying to get on the same page and work together. Things are just going really good. Tomorrow we have a special training meeting with the zone and President Clegg and its my turn to translate. I wish I could just sit and listen but thats ok. I just love how President Clegg teaches. Next week we also have three days of meetings in Málaga starting Monday so I don´t know what day I´ll be sending an email home. Sorry about that.
Well family and friends I love you. I know God lives. I love the scriptures so much and I know they are just full of His words. I love having experiences where I feel like the words on the pages were written just for me. I know our Heavenly Father is conscience of how we are feeling at all times and loves us more than we can imagine. The church is true guys! Talk to you next week. Love ya bye

I'm Stuffed

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I´m doing great right now but I am so full! Today we played soccer with some elders from the zone and then after we went to a chinese buffet. Poor little chinese people. They didn´t know what was coming when 8 elders walked in. It was eight euros and lets just say we got our moneys worth. I think we averaged about 5 plates per elder. It was pretty funny because the waiters and waitresses kept looking over at us and talking. I think they wanted to kick us out for eating too much. Oh well but I am still stuffed. Soccer was fun too. I have a big fat raspberry on my knee though from going down on the turf. I am going to be so sore tommorrow.
Well now I´ll update you all on how the work is going here in San Fernando. I´m writing a little late today because an investigator called just when we started to do our email and said she couldn´t have the appointment later tonight but wanted to do it at 5:30 instead. So me and my companion ran home and got changed and ran back over to her house. It was an awesome appointment! Her son is a member and she has been kind of checking the church out for the past 4 years. All by herself though. She hasn´t had the missionaries come over or anything but has been doing her own research. She told us today she is sure this is the right church for her and that its the church that she is going to be associated with for the rest of her life. I guess that means baptism! She has been an active catholic her whole life but told us today that she has realized thats its been more of a tradition to her than anything. She says our church is a lot more pure. I am so excited for her. I hope and pray everything keeps going like it is. Oh and her name is Isabel. We also have an appointment in a little bit with the ward mission leaders family. He invited the boyfriend and another friend of his daughter to church and so we set up with them yesterday for a family home evening at his house tonight. We´ll see how that goes.
Last night we attended the stake training meeting because the stake president invited us. It was amazing! They just talked about missionary work the whole time. It also made me really stressed. There are about 12 stakes in Spain and Elder Velasquez and I are the missionaries that oversee the missionaries and the work in this stake. It just so happens that the stake president told us that this stake (the Cadiz stake) is the weakest in Spain when it comes to missionary work, so we have a lot of work to do. We set up a meeting with him for Tuesday and we are going to share ideas, goals, and make plans to get things rolling here in the Cadiz stake. I hope I can do something to help.
Well thats all I have for the week family and amigos. I love you all tons and am still so grateful for all that you do for me. I have the best family and friends in the world. I know the church is true and we are blessed to be in it. Have a great week. Bye!

October 11, 2010 Hi Family and Friends

Hey everybody. I hope you are all doing good. I don´t really have much to say this week so it will be a short email. I went to church for the first time in San Fernando and it was a little different. I haven´t been in a ward since Barcelona and we only went to sacrament meeting for both of the wards. There was a really good spirit in the meetings too. A lot of the members had just gotten back from the temple and were sharing their experiences in the testimony meeting. It felt so good and made me miss the temple pretty bad. I really liked what one member said. " The temple is the only place in the world you can go and forget about everything that worries you outside." What a huge blessing that is for us to have. I still remember the peaceful feeling I had sitting in the celestial room in the Madrid temple. I´d give anything to go back and feel that again. Well, the work here is a little slow right now. Looking back on my areas now, it seems like God always puts me in the areas that have maybe one or two investigators and where the work is a little slow. I guess I have something to learn from that. I really appreciate having a challenging mission though. Success is so much sweeter when it comes. Right now Elder Velasquez and I are just praying, planning, fasting, and hoping for miracles. I´m sure they´ll come too. Well I miss you all so much and I hope you know how much I appreciate every single one of you. I´m so thankful for the people in my life that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I know the church is true. I know it with all my heart. Welcome home Oviatt. I´ll see you in not too long. I love you all and thanks again.

Love, Elder Langston

General Conference was awesome

Hello familia and friends. Its me again. Sorry about not writing monday or tuesday. I had some meetings in Málaga that I knew about but I just didn´t realize they fell on Monday and Tuesday. Sorry Mom :) Anyway, wasn´t conference the best? I really loved it so much. We went to a close by town called Cadiz to watch it in the church there. I received so many answers to my prayers it was amazing. It felt like half of the talks were for me! Oh and it was really cool to listen to Bishop Edgley. I thought to myself ¨hey I talked to that guy just a few weeks ago¨. I really enjoyed his talk though and it really helps us missionaries in Spain. So many people here want evidence and things that prove what we are saying is true. Of course that is natural but what they really need is faith and sensitivity to the Spirit. Its so hard to explain but when people feel it they know it. The work here in San Fernando is going pretty good. Elder Velasquez and I are really busy making plans for the area and the whole zone so we can start to see some miracles in these parts haha. My district is really different because it has 4 missionaries who don´t have english as their native tongue. And I think in all, 5 out of 12 in the zone don´t speak english. My old italian companion is actually in my district again. Most of them here are from the Barcelona mission for some reason so its nice to see some familiar faces. The meetings we had in Málaga this week were awesome! President Clegg is such an amazing teacher and motivator. Its so easy to feel the love he has for every missionary. I´ve actually gotten to be really good friends with Sister Clegg too somehow. When I walked into the kitchen to see her in the mission home she was like ¨Elder Langston!!!¨ Yeah, we´re tight like that haha. I really just love the mission right now. I´m so happy and I know everything that is happening is going to help me so much in the future. I love being able to help people. It really is the best feeling ever. I KNOW the church is true. It really is something I can feel. I love the scriptures and our modern day prophet. I love our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know they live and that they love us so much. Thank you all for everything. I feel really selfish sometimes because I don´t feel like I let you all know how much I appreciate every single one of you for everything you do. I´m sorry I don´t have time to write all of you and things slip my mind all the time so don´t think its because I just don´t want to. Just know that I love you all so much and I truly do appreciate everything single thing you´ve done for me. I´m sorry for not being better at letting you all know that. I hope you have a great week and know that you are always in my prayers. Much love from San Fernando! The church is true. Adios