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