Tis the season to be jolly fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ( a Christmas Story)

Merry Christmas! How is everybody doing? I´m doing awesome. I put the subject for TK. I had the best day yesterday thats its hungover until today haha. I´ll explain a little. Since Elder Velasquez and I have two wards here in San Fernando, we split up and go with a priesthood holder to the classes in each ward. I was sitting in Elders quorum yesterday and my companion came and got me. I asked what he needed and he just told me I´d see. He took me downstairs to the chapel and the whole 1st ward was up on the stand with hymn books. They told us to sit down and they started to sing to us. The whole entire ward sang us a Christmas carol and I just sat there looking at all of them. I felt so good i really can´t explain it. I didn´t feel far from home at all. Afterwards the bishop spoke to us. He told us that the ward just wanted to thank us for our work and that they had a present for us. They pulled out a huge basket full of sweets and presents! I thought they were joking at first but it really was for us. I´ll try and send a picture next week. The people here are so nice. We went up on the stand and gave everyone we could a hug. I couldn´t believe it haha. It just made me really happy all day and I´m still happy. This week we also had our Christmas conference this last week. We did skits again and I was the grinch that the missionaries tried to baptize. They ended up doing it. President Clegg shared Isaiah 53 with us for his message and afterwards we ate. It was a really good day too. The mission also reached 200 baptisms this week! It felt good to accomplish a baptismal goal again. I can´t believe its Christmas again. President Clegg has given us the whole day as a P day. I thought that was pretty cool. He also gave us new years day as a p day. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday. Everybody is happier. A huge blessing we have is knowing why we celebrate Christmas. Like we hear every single year, Christmas isn´t about gifts or food, but its about Christ. We already know that and we remember Him every week. Our job is to help people who don´t know why we celebrate Christmas. Our Heavenly Father gave us the gift of His Son that we might have eternal life. Thats the good news we need to share with everyone. I know Christ is our Savior. I know He came into this world to save us. He suffered that we might not have to suffer. He has overcome death and sin and only asks that we humbly follow Him and give Him our hearts. I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for being the best. Talk to you soon.

Love, Elder Langston

December 13, 2010

Hi everybody! How are ya´ll doing? Good. I´m doing pretty good. Last week we had a bad week number wise but I feel good about it. We were gone a few days so the numbers are never going to be good if we aren´t in our area. We had some success with finding new investigators. We have been teaching two equatorian ladies and they haven´t been progressing at all. They seem to be interested but they haven´t come to church. We thought maybe their husbands had something to do with it so we had been hoping to teach the husbands as well. Its been hard to meet with them because both of their husbands work for the military and they are always busy. But we had a little miracle happen and we found them both at home on the same day. They were both really nice and open with us. One had really catholic views and the other didn´t really have any beliefs other than he believed in God. I think we are going to have success with both of them. This week Elder Velasquez and I decided to do a little service as well. A girl in the ward had a birthday and we gave her a very creative gift. Since my companion is black and I´m white, we gave her two normal donuts and two chocolate donuts with our pictures on top of them. It was pretty funny and everybody got a kick out of it. I think its going to become a tradition for birthdays here in San Fernando. The mission is doing really well right now. Last week we had the most baptisms the mission has ever seen in one week and we have the fewest missionaries the mission has ever seen. Miracles are definitely happening. I got to do another interview this week too. It was the mom of the family I interviewed last week and she is just as golden. I´m really excited for her. The mission is doing great right now and I´m glad I get to be a part of it. I don´t have much more to update but just know that I love you all a ton. You are the best family and friends in the world haha. I know the church is true. I´ve been learning a lot lately about receiving spiritual knowledge and that the more you receive the higher you have to set your standards. I´m so glad I get to serve this mission because its setting a foundation for my life. Thats what President Clegg always says. What I do in the mission will set the tone for the rest of my life. Thank you all for your support and love. Talk to you next week! Bye bye

Tough week, lots learned

Hi everybody. I hope you are all just doing fine and dandy! I´m doing pretty good. Last week was a tough one. It was full of traveling and we got a little bit of bad news. I was only in my area for 3 days last week because I was traveling and doing exchanges with other missionaries. I had the privilege of doing 3 baptismal interviews last week which was awesome. There is a town in the zone called Jerez and they had 4 baptisms on Saturday. I interviewed the dad and his son and it was such an awesome spiritual experience. The dad was so excited and at the end he was like "thats it right? I´m good to go?" Haha he was pretty excited to be baptized. His son was excited too. At the end of the interview I was sharing my testimony with him and he stopped me in the middle and said "I know it too. I know it too." This was coming from a 14 year old boy and it just blew me away. All he wanted was to be closer to God and he kept saying it. I was pretty sick before and after the interviews but didn´t feel bad at all during because they were just blowing me away with how prepared they were to be baptized. On friday we went to Algeciras, the town in the zone that is right next to Africa, to do exchanges with the elders there. On the way we got a phone call from Isabel that wasn´t good news. Something happened because she said she doesn´t want us to come over anymore and that she doesn´t believe in anything. Satan is working hard on her right now. I think she is just really depressed because hard things are happening in her life. She doesn´t want to see us but I´m going to write her a letter to see if we can somehow help her feel the Spirit again. We´ll see what happens. The mission has a goal of 200 baptisms for the year and we´re at 181. I would really like to help with the goal and we don´t have any baptismal dates right now. Its frustrating because almost everybody else does and its just making me think that I need to do better. Monday and Tuesday I was in Málaga having the monthly meeting with President Clegg and he talked about trusting the Lord. He said "sometimes we just need to realize who we´re working for." I really liked the message he had for us because he talked about the Lords wisdom in letting us progress little by little and struggling to become like our Savior. I love going to the mission home once a month. President Clegg always has a message prepared that is an answer to a prayer. Well everybody I love you tons and I hope all is going well. I know the church is true and that God loves each one of us more than we can imagine. I always say it but I just realize it more and more as the time goes on. Have a good week and I´ll write you again on Monday. Bye bye