It was a week of miracles 4-4-11

Hi everybody! Grandma could you do me a favor and send this around for me? I guess my family already took off. Thanks a ton. Well like the subject says, it really was a week of miracles. So many things happened. Just to start off, Nazaret called me last Monday and like I said she wanted to talk to us on Tuesday morning. Well Monday night her mom called and said she needed to talk to us before we came over on Tuesday morning and her daughter couldn't know that we had talked to her. We ran over there real quick and she said that Nazaret wanted to be baptized and she wanted me to do it before I left. And then she said that she wasn't going to give her permission to do it. My heart sunk but at the same time I was so happy that Nazaret wanted to be baptized. We talked for awhile and we just bore our testimonies. Pablo came with us and he shared the experience of his dad being baptized when he was young and how it blessed his life but she didn't budge. She told me that I would have to explain the situation the next morning. On Tuesday morning Nazaret called crying and said that we didn't need to come over anymore because she just had a question. Then she said "well I wanted to be baptized but I can't because I don't have my parents permission." It was really sad to hear. I just told her not to lose hope and to keep praying and that everything would turn out ok. We have been praying and fasting but her mom still hasn't given her permission. Nazaret has been happy though and I consider it a miracle that she wants to be baptized. I know there is still a chance for her to be baptized before I leave too. Its not over till its over right? Another miracle is that Isabel has come back. She told me she has been so up and down because of depression problems and that sometimes she wants to hide her faith. We explained to her that in moments like that she needs to put her faith in front of everything and know that everything is going to turn out ok. Thats when she needs to rely on the Lord. She has thought it over a lot and she is sure this is what she wants. She is going to be baptized April 16th. We were teaching investigators all week and we ended up with 20 lessons when we only taught 13 last week. More miracles haha. Me and Elder Hales just kept looking at each other shrugging and saying its the week of the miracles: I know that the Lord blessed us so much this week for our faith and our diligence and that he will continue to do so if we do our part. It was awesome to see the Lords hand so much this week. I received so many answers to questions in General Conference and from President Cleggs message this week. Elder Hales also had a personal miracle this week. His sister has been trying to adopt the little boy of his brother for over a year and half. The brother isn't able to take care of him so she has been fighting for custody for that long. His sister has also had two miscarriages and has many problems having babies on her own. The grandparents of the other family wanted the little boy too and it looked like they were going to get custody. Last week Elder Hales got the news that his sister won the case and gets to adopt the little boy this May. He was so happy and thats how the week started. Its been a good way to end out here. I'm going to miss it all. Its hard saying goodbye to members and investigators. I've learned so much from all of them and I've had so many spiritual experiences with them. Oh! One more little story. Rafa has been studying for his career and was really stressed and nervous this last week. He decided to pray and after his prayer, we showed up at his door. He said he knew we came for a reason and asked for a blessing. Everything turned out good for him. Well family and friends I love you tons. Thank you for these last two years. You've always been there for me and I'm convinced I have the best family and the best set of friends in the world haha. I love you all and I know the church is true. God is our loving Father and His Son Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. We have a living prophet. I can't wait to see you all next week! Have a good one.

Elder Langston

This week is the week of miracles 3-28-11

Hi family and friends,

I can´t believe its here. My last week in the field. How is everybody doing? I hope you are all doing awesome! I´m doing really good. Today was a ton of fun. All of the missionaries in the zone and some of my native friends came to play soccer for our last time. We had a ton of fun. We invited Patricio to come with us and he loved it. He didn´t look like a 57 year old out there playing with us. He kept up the whole time! Well now I´ll fill you all in with what happened last week. We had our appointment with Nazaret, the girl whose mom contacted Elder Smith and Elder Barney last week. She is awesome! She is sixteen and has a boyfriend who is a member that lives in Texas. He is actually a returned missionary. We walked in her house and she had a ctr ring on, her book of mormon, and was ready to go! We explained how things were going to go the next few weeks and she said she knows the church is true already. We talked about baptism and the only thing impeding her at the moment is her mom who wants to investigate a little first. She might actually make her wait until she is 18 which would be a bummer. We gave her mom a book of mormon too so she can find out a bit more. But anyway, Nazaret came to church and everything and i think she loved it! Today she called me and said she wanted to meet with us tomorrow morning. She said there is something she wants to talk to us about. I hope its something good. We have her in our prayers and also her mom so her heart is softened and she can feel the power of the message too. We´ll see what happens tomorrow. Maria and Armando are doing ok. We just can´t get them to church! We have an appointment with them in about 20 minutes though so hopefully we´ll make progress. Rafa is doing really good. He has been really busy lately and hasn´t been able to read what we´ve left him but he loves it all still. He came to church as well. We have two investigators named Antonio and Carolina that we found a couple of weeks ago and its fun to see their progress. The first time we met with them Carolina left. But since then she has been listening and last time we went to visit her she was on page 113 in the Book of Mormon! They love us coming by but we need to help them keep their commitments. On thursday we had a conference with Elder Schutze who is from the 3rd quorum of the 70. He is German and really straightforward haha. I had to conduct the conference so I was a little nervous but it turned out great. He talked a lot about how important our appearance is and how people are always watching us. After the conference I hopped on a bus for 3 hours to do an exchange with Elder Masterson in Algeciras. Yep the Elder I trained! It was good talking with him and seeing the progress he has made. I really can´t believe its my last full week in the field. I told Elder Hales that this is the week of miracles. We are going to see them and I have no doubt about it. No matter how small or big, we are going to see them. I´ve gotta make it count right? Next week I´m not sure if I´ll be emailing so this might be my last. Its possible that I´ll be in Málaga for a zone leader conference on monday so I won´t be able to email. And I´m guessing I´ll just stay there until my family comes to meet me. I don´t know for sure though. If this is the last one, thank you so much for all the support you´ve given me the last 2 years and my whole life before that. You´ve always been there for me and I couldn´t have been surrounded by better people. You all mean the world to me and I´m excited to see you all again! I love you all so much and I know God and His Son Jesus Christ live. This is Their church. The atonement of Jesus Christ is real and was made for all that come unto Him. I love this work and I love being a missionary. Thanks for everything. I love you.

Love, Elder Langston

Lots of Traveling

Well hello hello. How y'all doing? I'm doing awesome but really tired. P day came at just the right time haha. It feels like I have been running all over this week. Monday we got back from Gibraltar and on Tuesday I went to Jerez to do an exchange with an elder. When I got back home on Wednesday I had to change and hop right back on a bus to Chiclana to do an exchange and a couple of baptismal interviews. The rest of the week was just running all over the city trying to find people to teach. We taught Rafa again and he loved the lesson. We just talked about the importance of prayer and reading the scriptures regularly. There was a strong spirit present during the lesson and Rafa really felt it. Another thing that helped the Spirit be there was that Rafael's mother in law was there. She is a member but has been inactive for years and years. She testified that she knows the importance of reading and praying and that she has seen the difference in her life as she has put those things on hold during the last few years. She told us that we have helped her so much in the last few weeks and that when she gets back home its time to go back to church and start living the gospel again. It made us so happy to hear that. This week we also taught María and Armando. I don't know if I have talked about them in the past but they are an equatorian couple that we teach weekly. We had a mini family home evening with them to show how its done and they loved it. Pablo came with us and after the lesson he asked if he could just spend the whole day with us. It was way fun just walking around with him trying to help him see how the mission is. Last night a miracle happened but i didn't get to witness it. Elder Smith and his hijo (trainee) were walking back to the apartment and a lady stopped them so they could take a picture with them. She said that she was going to show it to her daughter to prove that she found the missionaries. It turns out that her daughter has read the book of mormon or some other church material and knows that its true. She gave Elder Smith and Elder Barney her address and told them to come visit her. It turns out she lives in our area so it was a bummer for them but a blessing for us. We have been looking all week without much success but then a little miracle like that happens and...Walah! Hopefully its as good as it sounds. I'll be praying. Well familia and friends I love you tons and I know this work is true. I just wish you all could be having the same experiences and meeting the same people I am. Have an awesome week. The church is true.

Love, Elder Langston

I saw the Monkeys

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I hope everything is going just fine and dandy. Crazy news about Japan! I'm glad Blake is ok. I've been wondering ever since I heard but I got the good news today. This last week was a pretty rough one for us and the whole zone. A lot of traveling went on in the zone for training meetings and stake conference was this week so we turned in some pretty low numbers but we know we can do better. The zone has been doing amazing lately. We have been averaging over 20 lessons as a zone for quite a few weeks going and President Clegg said that hasn't been done in this stake for decades. We are excited and the members are too so thats what is making it work out. Last year we only had 21 baptisms in the stake when we got to December and we already have about 15 this year. Things will be better number wise this week. We had stake conference this week and I loved it. It was a little rough on me though I'll admit. A really shy boy in my ward named Pablo received his mission call to Santiago Chile and he invited us to be there. He was so excited about it and it was fun to watch it happen. We have been letting him come along with us lately to help him get ready and his mom and dad asked me to talk to him a little bit about how the mission is and how it has helped me grow. I told them that I was kind of a shy person before the mission too and that it has helped me a lot. So we have been talking me and him quite a bit in the streets when we go out. We really have lot in common. We've become really good friends in the past few months. He was asked to bear his testimony in stake conference and he thanked the missionaries in his ward for being an example and for working with him. Then he looked at me with a big ol smile and thanked me personally. My face was probably a little red but oh well. He said he knew without a doubt now that this is what he needed to do. It made me feel so good and confirmed to me again that I needed to come to this mission to help someone else even if I didn't know I was helping. Later on in the stake conference the whole congregation stood up to sing "Called to Serve" and I thought I was going to be fine but when I got to the second verse I couldn't do it anymore. The words wouldn't come out haha. I just can't believe its ending and its hard. But I know there is a time for everything too. Today for preparation day we went to Gibraltar to see the monkeys and thats why I am emailing a little late. It was hilarious though. We were soaking wet because it was raining so hard and I have some funny pictures and videos I can send next week. I have one of a monkey sitting right on top of my head. I was wearing a hooded jacket and lets just say its not very clean anymore. It was way fun though. Well I love you all and I know the church is true. I love the gospel so much. Have an awesome week and we'll talk to you soon. Adios!

Shnikeys

Hey everybody! Well we had another good week. We taught 20 lessons for the first time since we had to split the areas here. I was really surprised that we still could since before we were just barely teaching 20 with two wards and now we did it with one. We were pretty happy about that. Patricio is doing good and so is Victor. Rafael is also progressing like crazy. They came back from Valencia and we ate with them and shared a little message on Saturday. The only thing he didn't like about the message was that it was too short but I explained to him that we couldn't be in peoples houses for too long. He understood so thats good. He should be getting baptized really soon. Yesterday and this morning I was in Málaga for the meetings I have there every month. It was awesome like always. President Clegg is an amazing teacher and always brings a huge spirit. He taught us from the first 4 chapters of Ether and kept showing us things that we had never noticed before. He talked to us about being dedicated to becoming disciples of Christ. He asked us some questions that really made us think about our life and our personal conversion. He asked us how much we really understood about the gospel of Christ and if we applied it to our lives. I wish he could teach me stuff like he does everyday. Training Elder Hales is coming along good. He gets frustrated with the language but I tell him to keep going and to not worry about it cuz it will come. He is a good kid and we have a ton of fun. I hope everything is good back home. I love you all a ton. I know the church is true and Christ lives. Thanks for everything and we'll talk to you next week. Adios!

2 Baptisms!

Hey everybody! It was a good hard week but it paid off with 2 baptisms. How was your week everybody? I hope it was good and I hope this one is better. The baptisms were awesome! Patricio said he didn't care who did the baptism so I had my companion do it. It was a good experience for the second week of his mission. He did the prayer perfect and everything too. It was sweet. We told Patricio afterwards that he could share a 5 minute testimony and he went on for 20 minutes haha. He is a bit of a talker but thats alright. He was extremely happy afterwards. He had a little bit of nerves before but he settled down after. Victors baptism was one of the best I've been in. It was really organized and all the youth had a musical numbered prepared for him. Everybody was crying and his mom was there too which made me happy. She definitely felt something. I'll send pictures for sure. Rafael is doing awesome and he should be baptized really soon. He told us last time we met with him that he knew the church was true. He is just a stud! He studies a ton and just wants to know more and feel the spirit. His wife told us that he won't leave her alone haha. He always wants to read the book of mormon with her and the little pamplets we give him. She said she'll be watching something on the tv or talking to her mom and he'll come up and say "Hey can we read the chapters that the elders left us?" Its so awesome how excited he is about it. He loves the plan of salvation so he has read that pamphplet more than once. Other than that not too much has happened. We had a hard time getting in with people so that was a little frustrating. I'm having a lot of fun though and just loving seeing the miracles around me. I love you all and remember to call upon the Lord in your hard times and He will listen. He's always there. Thanks for being the best. The church is true. Love Elder Langston

One of the best weeks ever!

Hey everybody! I hope your week was as good as mine! It was just awesome. To tell you the truth it started off kind of rough. I was still a little bothered that Isabel didn't want anything anymore and Patricio told us something that was kind of a shock. We worked it out though and he is on track for his baptism this Saturday. More really good news! I don't think I've even mentioned him before but we had a 21 year old investigator named Victor in the 2nd ward. He came to church every week and had been investigating for a long time. All of his best friends are members of the church but the catch was he wanted to be baptized in Utah. He said it was part of his answer and thats what he was going to do. So we just kept teaching him and helping him along. He actually went to missionary prep class and seminary and everything. He's pretty much a dry member. Well a month or two ago me and him went to the bishop to talk about his plans of going to Utah so he didn't get there and then have it not go through. We talked for awhile and when bishop heard that he planned on doing it in July he said "Victor, just do it right now while you want to." Victor was a little confused since he though Utah was part of the answer to his prayer. But the bishop told him to pray and think about it. Well, this week he said he is going to be baptized this Saturday!! It was a surprise to everyone! All of the members have been waiting forever to hear that. Especially his friends. I was a little bummed because he isn't in my ward anymore but yesterday I went up to him and gave him a hug and congratulated him and he said "do you know who is baptizing me?" I said no, and he told me I was. I was so happy to hear that he wanted me to do it. The whole world has been wondering why he hasn't been baptized for the longest time and finally he just decided to do it and he asked me. I have no idea why he asked me and not one of his friends but I'm just so happy that he is going to finally do it. Its going to be an awesome memory. All of the members in the whole stake are so excited since everybody knows him. It feels like I'm going to be baptizing a friend. For those of you that have seen the pictures that members have put on facebook you can see that he is always with us. I'm pumped. We had a great zone conference this week too. I conducted it and I was asked to give my last testimony along with 7 others that are going home in April. It was hard knowing it would be the last time. President taught us a lot though and I felt really good after. President Clegg is awesome. We also had awesome teaching experiences with Rafael this week and my testimony grew. I'm really going to miss this. I love you all a ton and I hope everything is going good. I'll talk to you next week. The church is true.

Love, Elder Langston

Good things happening!

Howdy familia and friends,

How are you all doing? I hope everything is just dandy. Things are still going good here. We are busy, but in a different way. Having only one ward is different. I have had to throw out half of my options of people I can go visit. It made things a little more difficult but thats ok. We were gone for two days last week but we still got 11 lessons with only one ward. We need to get back up to 20 though. We are now teaching Rafael, the guy that came last week to church with his wife that is a member. He is liking it so far. Its nice because when we taught him last week, this is what his wife said, " I am going to say this with the elders right here in front of us. Rafael, if you don't really have interest then we aren't going to invite the elders over to waste their time. But if you do then we can invite them". She laid it down nice and clear for us and him haha. He said he does so thats great. We are excited to work with him. Training again is fun. He is a little ball of questions haha. He is pumped to be here though so I'm really glad I got him as a companion. Its fun to live in an apartment with 4 elders again. Its the first time since my first transfer. This week we did a lot of door knocking and contacting. People seemed to be extra closed this week but it was a good experience for my companion to see that its not easy out here. If we want success we need to work hard. I just love being a missionary. Yesterday was hard for me because we sang called to serve in sacrament meeting and I just thought about my mission and that for only a few more weeks I'll be Elder Langston. I have time enough to make my baptismal goal though. Its going to take a ton of work and a miracle but it can be done. Even if I'm not Elder Langston I can still be a missionary for the rest of my life. I know how important this work is and I'm not going to waste a moment. I love you all and I know the church is true. Have a good week and Happy Valentines day!

"Jolin" or in others words "holy cow"

Dear family and friends,

How are you all doing? Good good good. Well life for me is about to get more busy. We had our monthly meeting in Málaga Monday and Tuesday (Sorry for not telling you beforehand) and we had companionship interviews. President Clegg asked how the area was going and we were talking about how were busy teaching 20 lessons a week and that the zone was doing really well. Then he asked us if we were busy. We said "yes" and then he asked us if we wanted to be even more busy. I said "yes I'd like to have more baptisms" and my companion said "what does that mean? Haha then President said "I'd like both of you to train". Wasn't expecting that! Both of us are receiving new elders on Thursday to train while we are still zone leaders. So in other words we aren't companions anymore but we are still zone leaders together and we still live in the same apartment. There are going to be 4 elders in San Fernando now! He told us that we have a lot of new missionaries coming into the mission but he wasn't going to open up any new areas because we have 16 elders leaving in April. We don't have much of a net gain so he is just putting more elders where there is a lot of work right now. Thankfully San Fernando is one of those areas. We've been really busy but we are going to be even busier. I have kind of mixed emotions about it though because that means I will have to leave one of the wards since we will have a companionship for each ward now. I'll still see the other ward on Sundays though so thats good. I still don't know which one will be mine. I'm excited to train again though. The last elder I trained said he doesn't want a brother haha. But yeah, that was the big news for the week. We have a lot of preparing to do to receive two new elders. We have to split up the area book and just make the apartment suitable for 4 elders. Today will be busy. We also got some bad news this week. Isabel called me when I was in Málaga and broke my heart again. She said she was sorry for confusing us so much and going back and forth between us and the Catholic church but she has decided to stay with the Catholic church. I don't know why but we aren't going to give up on her. I know she has felt something. Patricio is doing really well so thats good. Also on Sunday a member from Valencia came to church and she brought her non member husband who is interested. We'll get started up with him soon. Well everybody, I know the church is true. I know hard times are permitted in our lives so we can be stretched and strengthened. Everything is made right through the atonement. I love you all tons and I'll talk to you on Monday. Have a super dee duper week. Adios

Love, Elder Langston

Awesome Week

Yep it was another awesome week! How was everybody else's? Man things just keep getting better and better and better. I had a really good birthday. My birthday here was actually 3 days long because 3 different families invited us over to celebrate but we couldn't do them all the same day. On Tuesday night we ate with a couple and she got my favorite food from here...fried fish. Its so good. She made us strawberry smoothies and a cake with candles and the whole works! It was awesome. On Wednesday we ate with the Benitez family and they made me a cake too. Some of the young single adults made me a card and signed it. On Thursday we ate with the ward mission leader and they sang to me and gave me some chocolates and a card. Their son drew a picture of me on the front of the card. I'll have to take a picture of it and send it next week. But anyway it was a really good week. Patricio is doing great. He has come to church every week and his date for the 26 is still on. Oh and great news! Isabel came to church yesterday and when I asked her when we could visit her this week she asked me what she had to do to be baptized!!! I was so happy. I knew we shouldn't give up on her quite yet. After she called us that one time and said she didn't believe in God anymore and didn't want anything to do with the church, it made me sad but I knew she was just passing through a hard time. So we gave her her space and wrote her a letter telling her that we loved her and then on Christmas we sang her a Christmas Carol. Then a returned missionary came back and has started to help her son out that has a couple of problems. I think that opened her up a little bit. Just lately we have been seeing her in the street, passing by her house and letting her know we haven't forgot about her. And then she mentioned baptism!! I was so happy. We need a lot of help from the members though so the same thing doesn't happen. She needs friends in the church and a lot of support. But I'm sure she will be baptized. We just need to work. Everything is going awesome right now and the mission is super excited. I'm excited too haha. Today is going to be fun too. We are going to go play soccer and an elder is going to bring some baseball gloves and a baseball that his parents sent him. He wants to throw and I can't wait. Its been so long! Hopefully my shoulder doesn't act up. Well family and amigos I love you tons and I know the church is true. Thanks for everything and have a great week. Bye bye

I'm old

Dear Family and Friends,

Holy cow I'm getting old. I think hair is starting to grow out of my ears. No not really but its sad to say I do already feel the effects of age on my body. I can't run around as much as I used to and when I do I am sore for 3 days afterwards. Its quite depressing haha. But anyway how is everybody doing?! I'm doing really good. We had another awesome week. 3 of the last 4 weeks we have taught 20 or more lessons which is the mission goal. I am really happy about that. Patricio still has a baptismal date but we had to delay it to the 26th of February. He said he just doesn't feel like he is ready right now but he is sure he won't pass February. He is doing awesome and he has come to church every week for the past 4 weeks now. Our family home evening with Manolo went really good. He didn't come to church yesterday and according to one of the members its because of his wifes influence. She doesn't really want him going. It kind of stunk because the talk I gave yesterday was pretty much prepared for him but it still turned out good. The members seemed to like it. Even though speaking in sacrament meeting isn't as hard for me now my legs still shake uncontrolably and I don't know why haha. I spoke on Christ's life, mission, atonement, teachings, death, and resurrection or to sum it up i spoke about His Gospel. Then I spoke about the first vision and how much it means to the world. My message was that we as members have the best news in the world and that is why we should share it with everyone. Yesterday a member named Chari brought me a cake made out of candy that she made. I'll send my mom a picture of it. She is one of the nicest ladies I've ever met. We didn't find any new investigators this week but we are still moving right along. The mission as a whole is doing awesome. We had a meeting with President Clegg on Saturday and as always it turned out really good. I didn't have to translate which was nice this time. I got to take notes. Well everybody I'm going to leave you here. I love you tons and I know the church is true. I know Christ lives and that there is so much we can do to serve him. Have a great week thanks for all the emails this week. You're the best I could ask for. Talk to you next week!

More Investigators!

Hi everybody! Well we had another awesome week. How was everybody elses? We were blessed with two more new investigators this week with a lot of potential. One is named Laura. She is a mother from Mexico that had been talking through emails to a member that is from Mexico too. So the member invited her to church and she came yesterday! It turns out she had gone a couple of times in Mexico as well and she wants us to come visit her. We have a family home evening set up with her for this week. We are excited to get started with her. The other investigator is named Manolo. He is the husband of a members cousin. We met him when he came to the Christmas party and the member asked us to pass by his house and give him a pamphlet of Joseph Smiths testimony. So we did that and yesterday he came to church. He really liked it and we are having a family home evening with him tonight. We are really excited for it. Oh and we have big news for Patricio. We set a baptismal date with him for the 29th of this month. He said he wants to pray and talk to his family about it first but he said he wants to do it. I hope it all works out! He is a great guy and is so excited to learn all that he has been learning. Last night we also had the fireside with President Clegg and the two wards here in San Fernando. I was really stressed because we had been trying to plan it for months now and since it was finally happening I wanted everything to turn out good. And it did. Both of the Bishops spoke along with President and Sister Clegg. We filled the chapel so I was really happy about that. Next week I get to speak in the second ward and I'm actually looking forward to it. Its going to be a really good opportunity to let the ward know I'm excited to be here and that I expect to see miracles happen in the next couple of months. I really love the two wards here. They are really involved in the work and helping us like crazy. Everything is already starting to change. I don't know if I already said this but the stake had baptized about 21 people from January to November of last year and in December alone we baptized 10. This stake is going to be the baptizing stake again and I feel blessed to see it all happen. We have a meeting with the Stake President this Thursday and we can't wait to let him know everything we have planned and the vision we have. Well family and friends I love you tons. I know the church is true and I know that miracles happen when we exercise our faith. Have an awesome week. Talk to you later!

Investigators falling from Heaven

Good morning everyone! How are you all doing? I´m doing awesome! Like my subjects says, we have investigators falling out of the heavens! Its so cool to see how the Lord works. We have been contacting in the street and knocking doors without success but the Lord is still blessing us. I already told you the story about Patricio that we found in the youth activity in the church. Well, he lives with a bunch of people and one of them is a Bolivian named Javier. He brought him to church on Sunday and it turns out that he met the elders 2 years ago and knows a little bit about the church. We have a family home evening set up with both of them tonight! Also I´m not sure if I told you but the stake president President Lopez gave us a referrall a week or two back and we taught them for the first time last monday. They are a young couple named Enrique and Pilar and they have a lot of questions. They had actually been asking President Lopez a lot about death and where we are going to go when we die. He told us about all this so we decided to teach the plan of salvation. It turned out awesome! When we got done teaching Pilar told us how much she liked it. She said she has always been scared of dying and sometimes she can´t even sleep at night she is so worried about it. She also said she hates the thought of not being with her family after she dies. I just thought wow we have the perfect message for you. We have an appointment set up for tomorrow night and we are going to teach the rest of the plan of salvation we weren´t able to cover and talk a little more about eternal families. I´m so excited for the lesson. Also, we have a recent convert that we teach all the time named Antonio. His wife has always been kind of offish and has lost a lot of faith because of the hard times in her life. But lately she has been sitting in on the lessons and came to church yesterday! Everything is just going awesome. Elder Velasquez and I spoke in church yesterday in one of the wards and it turned out really good. I spoke about Christs life focusing on His atonement and how it is a big reason of why we do missionary work. My companion spoke about how only through Christ and baptism we can be saved. I think the members really liked it because they all came up afterwards and thanked us and asked us to come visit them this week. We have a fireside set up for this next Sunday too. President clegg is going to come speak to both the wards here about missionary work. Its going to be good for sure. Last week we had meetings in the mission home again and Elder Causse from the European Presidency came to speak to us. It was neat to hear the experiences he had and all the advice he gave us to improve. The misson is really excited right now. I´m loving the mission right now. I´m loving all that i´m learning and being able to see the Lords hand in my life. Thank you all for your support and love. I couldn´t ask for better family and friends. Have a great week! I love you all. Bye bye

Happy New Year!

Yep. Happy new year! I really can´t believe it went by so fast. It really seems like just a few months ago I got to Crevillente just before the new year. Everything is a blur. I hope everybody had an amazing Christmas. It was a lot of fun talking to all of you. I was surprised that most of the little ones sound almost the same! Thanks for everything. Christmas was really good and so was last night. We actually spent Christmas eve and new years eve with the same family. They are the party family haha. They tried to get us to stay until 12 so we could eat the traditional 12 grapes with them but we told them we had to be obedient. They were bummed out about that. Well we had a mid-transfer transfer haha. My companion got called to be the branch president in a little town called Cuenca so he will be leaving me on Wednesday. It was kind of a surprise but he is just right for the job. He is almost 28 and a native spanish speaker so they will need him there. The branch president that was there is going back to his country so thats why they need him. I´ll be getting Elder Smith. He is 28 I think as well. When President Clegg called me he said "You like to hang out with the old guys don´t you?" Haha 3 of my last 4 companions have been 26 or older. I´m excited to work with him though. I know him a little bit already and he is a nice guy. I´m hoping to have a lot of success these last few months with him. We have been finding some new investigators lately so I´m excited about that. We have Patricio who is kind of a miracle story. He had been praying one morning and reading his bible asking the Lord to guide him to His house. After that he went out searching for a Christian church and nobody knew where one was. Finally he asked a street cleaner and he pointed ours out. Luckily the youth were having an activity when he got there and it was open. He walked in and listened to the youths testimonies and was impacted. We passed by the church while he was there and taught him the first lesson. It was so good. He has a big evangelical background but thats ok. He´s going to be baptized soon I´m sure. We are also teaching Javier who is 80 years old. He is really smart and loves talking with us. He is always alone and has no family to visit him so he is always wondering when we will come back. Right now he is praying to know if what we teach him is true but he says he just hasn´t gotten an answer. We have even prayed with him to make sure he is really doing it. I´m sure it will come in the future. Well family and friends I love you tons. I hope all is well back home and I hope this new year is the best you´ve had yet. God lives and this is His church. Have a great week. Love you bye