Big Things in Little Crevillente!

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I hope really really good. I´m so excited for General Conference this week! We will be watching it in Elche which is a 20 minute bus ride away. I hope I get to watch it in English. Things just get to your heart easier when they are in your native language. This week has been pretty good. There is a lot of excitement for the activity on the 10th! In the branch, the stake, and the mission! Our zone leaders are talking to President Hinckley about it at a meeting tomorrow so most of the missionaries can come to help. We should have about 16 missionaries and 50 or more members. We are going to be giving tours of the church, making contacts in the street, visiting friends of members, visiting less active members, and we are also going to have information tables stationed in different areas of the city. I know something big is going to come from this. On Wednesday Elder Mitchell and I have to give a 15 minute presentation in Zone meeting to get the other missionaries excited to come help us jumpstart things in Crevillente. We have been really blessed with a great branch president that is getting things rolling and coming up with all the good ideas. It is going to be a ton of fun. Well I´ve been reminded by quite a few of you that I have been out almost a year now. As I look back I have learned so much. I think it would be appropriate to share some things I´ve learned and my testimony.
This isn´t my mission. Its the Lords mission. I am here to represent Christ the Lord, to do exactly as He would do, to say exactly what he would say, and that has humbled me. I have learned that I am nothing, but with God I can do anything. I am so grateful to be an instrument in our Eternal Fathers hands. I have learned a lot about myself. I have found some of my strenghts and recognized my weaknesses. I know God does not only expect, but requires much of me. Only my best will be accepted in the end. I have learned that one of the sweetest feelings come from serving and helping others. I like the quote that says "When a man forgets himself, he usually does something that everybody else remembers". I have learned that if you want something, you better be ready to work for it. I know diligence is an attribute of Christ. Christ chose His disciples as they were working. Satan chooses his while they are idle. I have realized how much my family means to me. I love you all so much. God has also blessed me with so many other choice spirits to influence my life other than my family. I´m talking about all of you. Your example, love and service have helped me arrive to where I am now.
I know with perfect knowledge that God lives. I have spoken with Him through prayer and felt His love. I know Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. He is our Brother and Redeemer and His atonement is real. I have come to know my Savior better than ever before and I am eternally grateful for the relationship I have with Him. He is my friend that is always there. There to pick me up when I am down and to tell me to keep fighting. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know Christ´s church was restored through a humble boy seeking an answer that the world couldn´t give him. I know Joseph saw God the Father and His Son in the sacred grove that spring morning. The Spirit has testified of it unto me and I feel it in my heart. I know the Book of Mormon was translated by the power of God. I know it is most correct of any book on earth and that it contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know we are in the one true church. I know God has a plan and we are all part of it. We are His children and He loves us more than we could ever imagine. I love you all! Thank you over and over for all you do for me and the support and love I feel from you. It means everything. Have a great week!

Transfers Came and I'm Still Here.

Hey everybody. How is the week going? I hope good. I can´t think of anything really new going on in Crevillente. We have a HUGE activity planned for the 10th of April. We are going to have an open house in the church with all the members there and all the missionaries in the district. We have this huge Book of Mormon and Bible we are going to set outside to attract people. Its going to be an all day thing. It should be big. On Sunday José Garro our deaf member spoke in church, which means I spoke in church. I helped him write his talk and while he signed it in sacrament meeting, I read it for him. It went really well. He spoke on temples and the blessings we see from them. We had an appointment with a less active member that was really interesting. We found out that he doesn´t come to church because he has a drinking problem and he is ashamed. We had a really good appointment, sharing scriptures and testifying of the atonement and how it can fix his life. We also made an addiction recovery plan but he needs to have the desire to put it into action. We committed him to come to church this Sunday though. I hope he can turn everything around. Our Stake President came to church on Sunday and gave a powerful talk. He spoke on how our ultimate goal is to live with our families and Heavenly Father in the highest level of Celestial glory. Then he asked us to ask ourselves what we were doing to achieve this goal. It was kind of a "wake up!" talk. He explained just going to church isn´t going to cut it. We need to make sacrifices. We need to work until it hurts. It was a really inspiring talk. I know its true too. I thought about how little this life is yet how big of an impact it has on our eternal future. I´m so thankful that God sent His Son to atone for the sins of the world and to overcome physical death. The atonement is such a blessing and we need to use it every single day. I love this work. I love you all too! Thanks for all you have done for me. You all mean the world to me. Have a great week!
Love, Elder Langston

Hello

Hey everyone! I have to really hurry this week so sorry. I hope I can get in everything with the time I have. We weren't in Crevillente very much this week. An elder from Elche had to go up to Barcelona to take care of some residency problems so we had to stay with his companion. It was pretty fun though. We were preparing the activitiy for a lot of the time. The activity went really well but not very many people from our branch came. The spirit was strong and I could tell people enjoyed it. We also did a little karaoke thing before it all started too. I did something I've never done before. I sang and played the guitar in front of people. Haha Elder Malit and I performed "Im Yours" by Jason Mraz before it all started. There were about 100 people there watching so I was kind of nervous. It was a ton of fun though. We are still having trouble finding investigators but our branch president ran into the family we had been teaching and couldn磘 get in contact with. We have an appointment set up for this Sunday. All is well! Thanks for all you do everyone! I love you all.

Warmer Weather!

Hey everyone. This weeks email is going to be short. Nothing is happening. None of our investigators are progressing and we can´t seem to find new ones no matter how hard we try. But we keep trying. I´m thinking there is something to be learned from my time here in Crevillente. Its humbling me a lot. I realize now that I really am nothing. I am working on myself harder than ever so I can be an effective tool in the Lords hands. This weekend we are having a combined ward activity with the elders from Elche. We are having a dessert competition and a musical program about the restoration. I was going to be Joseph Smith but now I´m just in the choir. I´ll let you know how it goes. It should be a lot of fun. I hope some members bring their non member friends. Thats the whole idea anyway. Well I´ll let you all go. Thanks for everything you do. You have no idea how much it means to me. I´m sorry I don´t have time to write all of you. Don´t ever think I´ve forgotten about you. Every single one of you mean the world to me. I know this church is true. Without a doubt. I know God lives and I know Christ is my Savior. I love you all! Talk to you next week.

Dear everybody I know,
Hows it going? Good? Good. My week was pretty good. I got to go on exchanges with my district leader which was a ton of fun. It feels like I´ve known him forever. Probably because I´ve known him since the first of my mission. I´ve been following him around. We had a pretty funny appointment. I took him to the appointment with Domingo, our deaf investigator that tries to talk but doesn´t realize his volume is a little higher than it should be. So they asked my district leader elder Malit to say the prayer and I translated it for him. Then we had a lessson on scripture study and praying. It went pretty well. I did as much as I could do with the signs I know. When we walked out Elder Malit told me that was the weirdest appointment he had been in on his whole mission. And he is going home in 3 weeks. I just started cracking up laughing. You really have to be there to appreciate the humor of an appointment with a deaf man. Maybe I´ll film the next one haha. Elder Malit also helped me a ton with my teaching. He taught me how to use persoal experiences and analogies to help the people understand better. It has helped me so much. I wasn´t a very creative teacher before. Tomorrow I´ve been assigned to teach the district how to speak spanish. I am going to need a lot of help because I have no idea how to do it. Ha it just comes out! I guess I´ll just tell them to say their prayers. Not a whole lot happened this last week though. It was another week full of hard times and good times and the learning that comes with it. We still don´t have anybody thats close to baptism here but we will have one soon. Our branch has the faith that it will happen and they trust us. I have learned a lot this week about recognizing strengths. God has blessed us so much with different gifts and talents and we need to use them to the best of our ability. We had a district meeting about recognizing their strengths and it reminded me of my mom telling me to write down 5 things that i was good at. I hated it! And i still do. My district leader had to say one for me but then I realized we NEED to recognize them and use them. I wish I would have realized that when my mom tried to teach me. Welp thats all I have for the week. Lets hope something exciting happens this week. I love you all and thanks for everything. Have a good one.

Love, Elder Langston

A Really Good Week

Hey everybody! This week was a lot better than they have been in the past. We got in a ton more houses and even found some new people to teach! I´m excited because maybe it means things are going to start picking up here. I was blessed this week to feel the spirit stronger than I have for awhile. I think I was starting to get frustrated because I was trying my hardest to make things happen here in Crevillente and I had nothing to show for it. But this last week, no matter what happened I decided to tell myself to keep trying and I knew my Heavenly Father was pleased with me. We had a few appointments this week where I felt the spirit so strong. I love when that happens because my spanish just flows perfectly and I can tell that the people I am teaching understand everything. It feels so good. Yesterday my talk in sacrament meeting went really well. I spoke on miracles and what our role is as members and full time missionaries regarding missionary work. I decided to share the experience of Silvias baptism. How she had investigated the church for so long but still didn´t feel ready. I told her how she came to Vanessa´s baptism and thats when she decided to be baptized. When I told them that Silvia was baptized in my last week in Barcelona I started to get choked up and I didn´t know why. I wasn´t expecting it! I felt dumb but it went really well. It was funny because the sign language translator just stopped and looked up at me which made me feel even more dumb. Oh well! It just made me realize how much this mission means to me and all the good things I am experiencing and learning. I feel so blessed to be here. I love how I can focus on the Lords work for 2 straight years and get to know my Savior so well. Being here in Crevillent has taught me how to rely on the Lord more because things aren´t always easy. I know He has felt everything I am going through and that gives me so much comfort. I love you all and thanks again for all you do. You are the best! Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

Happy Valentines 2/15/10

Time is passing really fast isn´t it? Wow. Anyway how is everybody doing? I loved all the emails I got this week. I am so blessed to have family and friends that care about me and let me know whats going on back home. You are all the best! Anywho, news from Crevillente. Yesterday I had to translate during sunday school and priesthood and it was not the easiest thing I have ever done. When I say translate I mean sign language. It is hard because there are 4 different sign languages in Spain. There is 1 in North and South America. So everybody that teaches me, teaches me something different! Its challenging but its a lot of fun. Next week I get to speak in Sacrament meeting and translate the rest of the time so Sundays are now stressful days for me. Elder Mitchell is a good companion. He has brought a lot of ideas from his last area so we are combining our ideas to try and get some success. Something pretty funny happened yesterday. When we were greeting the members as they came to church, one member shook Elder Mitchells hand and said Welcome to Hell. Haha I thought it was pretty good. I guess its because Crevillente isn´t the easiest area to do missionary work in but I like it just fine. As for our ideas to find new investigators, we are thinking about starting up a scripture study class, having a movie night, and we are spending at least 1 hour a day knocking doors. The funny thing is I have already knocked most of the buildings in Crevillent because its so small! I think my favorite thing about Crevillente is a family that is completely chaotic. The father isn´t a member and is south American, the mother is coming back to the church, two of the kids just got baptized a couple months ago, and the other two little kids are just there. All the kids are under the age of 10 and are the closest things to devils in human form. But i have seen a lot of change in them since I have got here. We are really trying to help them progress in the gospel and get some peace in the home. We are now teaching the father and he has really warmed up to us. Yesterday we had an appointment with them and it was amazing. We showed them the movie called the Lamb of God so we could get the kids attention and after testified of Christ and His atonement. There was such a strong spirit and a calm I had never felt in the home before. It just made me feel good because even though I haven´t had any baptisms here yet, I can at least be an instrument in the Lords hands to try and help families come together and realize whats important. Its a lot of fun and we are becoming really good friends. Well I love all you. Thank you again for all you do for me and for just being the best. You are all in my prayers. Have a great week!

Transfers Came 2/09/10

Oops! I forgot to tell everyone last week that transfers were already here. My companion got transferred today to Matorell. A little town clear up north by Barcelona. My new companion is coming here. I already knew him from up north and he is the goofiest guy every haha. He was actually Elder Awerkamps companion and now he is mine. I´m excited to work with him though. I found out something knew about the mission changes. It was a really big detail I didn´t catch. If I am still down here in the south when the mission boundaries change, I will have to change missions. I would then be part of the Spain Málaga mission. I didn´t realize that and now I kind of have bitter sweet feelings about the boundary changes. It would be pretty hard to change mission presidents number one, because its President Hinckley and number two, because I would have to learn a whole new way of doing things. We´ll see what happens though. Oh my new companions name is Elder Mitchell. As for weekly news I don´t have much. Nothing really happened with our investigators. I am a little nervous now because I will be the new sign language translator for Sunday School and Priesthood on Sunday. There are so many words I still don´t know! Oh well. We met with Adriana this week too. She is the 16 year old that is friends with a member family. She liked everything we taught and now she is trying to get permission from her parents to meet with us more. She really loves learning and she had so many good questions. I can´t wait to get her baptized haha! Welp thats about it for the week. I love you all and I hope you have a really good week. Thanks for all you do. Go Jazz! Love, Elder Langston

Changes in the Mission

Good morning! How are you all doing? I´m doing real good. Well this morning we got a big announcement. The Spain Bilbao mission will be dissolved on the first of July of this year and will be part of the Spain Barcelona Mission. The Spain Bilbao mission is pretty much all of northern Spain...the pretty part! So now a lot more options of where I could go after this area have opened up. Where I am at right now won´t be part of our mission in July. A big chunk of the southern part of our mission will be part of the Spain Málaga mission. Its crazy how it is all working. Its going to be announced in church news this month I believe. The First Presidency made the annoucement recently and President Hinckley shared the news with us before it was released publicly. We are seeing growth in Spain with less and less missionaries. At one point there were 5 missions and 600 missionaries in Spain. That will be reduced to 3 missions and 300 missionaries. The church is growing! Missionary work is now becoming a focus among the members. I´ve heard one day there won´t even be a need for full time missionaries! Anyway I´ll tell you about my week now. Unfortunately we lost our baptismal date with Amanda for the 13th. She didn´t like church because it wasn´t like her old one. She had some crazy doubts. She didn´t believe that woman should speak in church, cut their hair, wear pants, and that the bread used in sacrament should be unleavened. She told us she believed in the Bible word for word. We tried to help her resolve her doubts but it didn´t work. She didn´t understand that a lot of her beliefs were Jewish customs and misinterpretations of the Bible. She told us not to come by anymore. But that just means someone else is ready to hear the gospel and the search needs to continue. We actually did find a new investigator! Her name is Adriana. She is a 15 or 16 year old girl that is a friend of some members. We actually found her by accident haha. We were teaching the family and all of a sudden their daughter showed up with her friend just as we were beginning. So they both sat down to listen and she told us she was really interested and had some questions for us. It was a blessing from Heaven that fell right in our laps! I don´t think I have much more news for the week. My birthday was really good. Elder Forsgren and I just chilled and he bought me lunch. I have a good companion. Well thats about it. I love you all and thanks for all you do. Keep on keepin on. Lifes a garden, dig it. Haha just some Joe Dirt for ya.
Love, Elder Langston

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Taylor Langston

Hey everybody! How are things going? Things are going great for me. Last week was a lot better than the rest have been. The area is starting to pick up! When I got here we had 1 investigator and now we have 6! I feel blessed to be here at such a good time. I´ll update you all on what has happened. Last Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Raban who is a friend of mine from the MTC. The day before he came I had been thinking about knocking doors by the church but we never got around to doing it. So when Elder Raban came, I took him out to knock doors. The first building we knocked didn´t turn out to anything. But the second building we found a family of 3! They let us in and we taught them the message of the restoration. Towards the end we asked them how they were feeling and the dad said ¨peace, happiness, just calm.¨ It was the perfect answer. He said he knew what we were saying was true just because of how he felt. We asked them to be baptized but the father doesn´t feel prepared. We told him thats what we are here for! To prepare him. He agreed to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon that we left for him and to pray about it. I can´t wait to see what happens! We also received a referral from a member. This member had hired a woman to take care of her mother and she was interested in the church. So we taught her and she has a baptismal date for the 13th of February! The branch is really excited because they haven´t seen an adult baptized in Crevillente for a year and a half. I hope everything works out! Blessings just keep flowing our way! I also received a special assignment this week. The branch presidents kids had a birthday party in the church and my companion and I were asked to be there so we could at least be seen. So I sat down at a table with some kids and by the end of the party I was famous! I told them I was American so they asked if I knew Obama or Michael Jackson haha. We had a good time. Talking with kids is something I´m comfortable with doing. Now we just have to become friends with their parents! Well I think thats about it. I don´t have time to write more. Thank you all so much for the emails wishing me a happy birthday. I´m sure today will be great. Thanks for all the support. You guys are amazing. Have a great week!

January 18, 2010

Hey everybody! How are you all? Is it starting to warm up back home because it is here! I´m trying to think back on everything I did this week. Well, last Tuesday I had to wake up at 5 so we could walk to the train station and catch our train on time to head to our Zone Conference in Murcia. It was a great conference. I feel so blessed to have President Hinckley as my president. Its a ton of fun to listen to him. I learn so much everytime. It was also a pretty emberrassing conference. I got called up to the front of the room with my companion because my birthday is this month and my companion had to say something nice about me. It sounds like I´m in elementary school huh? Well I really don´t like being the center of attention so I was already a little emberrassed, but then this is what he said. Elder Langston, where do I start, he is really good at spanish and everybody loves him, in fact, sometimes the girls love him a little too much. Are you kidding me! Everybody was laughing and I just turned bright red. Then sister Hinckley said she could feel an emergency transfer coming on. So that was my glorious moment in the spotlight in zone conference. I would have preferred something like a hard worker, or a good teacher, but hey I can´t complain right? Right now we are focusing on working with the ward and branch leaders and becoming unified with them so we can see even more baptisms this year. This last week, an inactive member died in a tragic accident and it has really hit the branch. I think they have been reminded of the importance of sharing the gospel and always looking out for other members. It hit me pretty hard too. There was such a strong spirit in the chapel yesterday. The first counselor gave a talk and he was really close friends with the man that died. He actually came to know the church through him. He said something that really made me think. He said, if God called us today, if our time on earth was up, would we be ready? It made everybody, including me, look in the mirror and think about everything I´m doing and what I could do better. I know every single one of us can always get better. We should never settle for just going through the motions. This life is so important. Its a test. I think we forget that a lot and tend to live in the moment, but if we have an eternal look on life everything makes so much sense. I just want you to know that I know God lives and Jesus Christ is our Savior. We really are children of God and He has given us this opportunity to live on earth to progress and become like Him. To have everything He has. What greater love is there? I love you all and I´m so thankful for all you do and the roles you play in my life. Have a great week! Bye bye. Love, Elder Langston

Crevillente

Howdy ya´ll. To tell you the truth there isn´t a whole lot to report this week. Everything is about the same. I´m getting to know the members a little better and starting to get a hang of the area. Its gotten REALLY cold lately. I can stand the cold but I´m not much of a fan of the wind and cold. Last night it was 3 degrees celcius. Sorry I can´t convert that for you. Its been a little tough getting in houses lately. The less actives we go to visit are never home and some have told us to just not come back. Its a little tough but I think things are going to start picking up. Domingo, our deaf investigator, is progressing so thats really good news! He should be baptized this transfer. He is doing a little better with his prayers. In fact he prayed in our last appointment we had with him and I didn´t even know haha. We brought a member with us to help us a little with translation and he was trying to persuade him to do the prayer. Next thing I know my companion and the member said amen. Thanks for the notice! Haha it was a little hard to recognize because we have to watch the person praying so nobody closes their eyes. I guess I need to be a little more focused. On Saturday we helped one of the deaf members with a service project. He is destroying the interior of an old apartment and remodeling it so we helped him out with that. It was pretty simple. He handed me a hammer and told me to get rid of the stairs! It was the most fun I´ve ever had doing a service project. Every boy wants to crush and destroy things with a hammer right? Spanish construction is a little different than U.S. too. The stair case was made out of rock, tile and concrete. Thats about all the news I have for the week. I hope things start to pick up here soon though. I love you all so much and thanks again for all you do. I know Christ lives and that living his gospel is the only way back to our Father. The only way. Have a great week and I´ll talk to you soon. Love, Elder Langston

Hello from Crevillente

Where do I even start. Yes I know that last sentence was a question but I can´t make the question mark key work haha. I guess I´ll start with hello! and how is everybody doing. Everything is good here in Crevillente. Its been a huge change but I´m getting used to it. Its like going from Salt Lake City to Hurricane! Crevillente is just a little town of about 30,000 people. Its kind of a desert area. If I could describe it I would say it looks like...Mesquite mixed with Desert Palms California. Paint a picture for you. question mark. Haha. The branch is amazing though. There are about 40-50 active members. Hey I found the question mark key! Its mixed up with the dash key. Anyway the branch is mostly Spaniards and they are all really nice. They want to see a ward here in Crevillente so they are ready to work hard. They have big expectations for this year and I´m excited to get started. We also have some other little towns in our area that we take the train to. That reminds me. The trip down here was gorgeous! The train goes all down the coast and while it was light outside I could see the Mediterranean sea the whole time. I loved it. My companions name is Elder Forsgren and the only way I can describe him is the nicest guy in the whole world. He is only 6 foot 6 by the way and a red belt in Tae Kwan Doe. Way less scary. He is from a small branch of about 18 members in Idaho and his family of 9 makes up a big chunk of it. He is a really good guy. We don´t have very many investigators at the moment but we are trying to find some. We do have one named Domingo and I have to learn a new language to teach him. He is deaf so we teach him in spanish sign language. He doesn´t know how to read either so that makes it a little tough. He has been coming to church for about a year though and his girlfriend is a member. He is waiting for some papers to finalize a divorce with a previous marriage so they can get married. Then he can be baptized! There are also two members in the branch that are deaf so learning sign language is going to be essential. I´m excited though and I can kind of pray already. Well thats about all I have for the week. Thank you all so much for what you do for me and the support. I know you are making sacrifices and i really appreciate it. I love you all. Talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston

I'm Outta Here 12/29/09

Hey everybody. Well I am being transferred today but I don´t leave until 3 so I am doing my email before I leave. I am going to a little town called Crevillente clear down in southern Spain. I am going to take a 6 hour train ride today haha. I´m excited but really nervous. I´m not sure what to expect. I´ve heard my companion is about six foot eight and is a black belt in karate. I´ve pretty much given up all hope of being bigger and tougher than any of my companions. Oh well haha. It was so nice talking to all you guys on Christmas! It was kind of hard to hang up but I loved every minute of it. I still have my same habit of pacing mom. I was pacing around the chapel while by companion was on the phone for about the last 15 minutes. I know I´m weird. You can thank Dad. Silvia´s baptism was perfect! It was the most spiritual one I have been to by far in the mission. She is so prepared. Once again she bore her simple but sincere testimony that had everybody crying. She said it was hard for her to not have her husband or the rest of her kids there to support her but she hopes they will follow in her footsteps. She is an amazing lady. She didn´t care if she had support from her family because she knew it was right and nothing was going to stop her. I thought it was a great lesson. Never let anything get in your way to do what is right. Nothing. It sure was hard to say goodbye to all the members last night. When I went to say goodbye to the family I spent Christmas with they had like a family home evening dedicated to me haha. But really it was sweet of them. The dad asked me to share my testimony and by the time he shared his he was crying. I got really close to that family. Oh mom, he said he is expecting us to go over there on my last monday in the mission to eat with them ok? After we said goodbye to them we went to my ward mission leaders house with Jesus and Vanessa. Vanessa pulled a bunch of gifts out of nowhere! I wasn´t expecting that. She bought me some cologne and a bunch of other stuff. I´m going to miss everybody from this ward so much. They have become my family away from home but now its time to go. I hope I can build up the trust and love from the members in my new area so the work can go even better. Well everybody I love you so much. Thanks for all you do. Happy Holidays and I love you.> > Love, Elder Langston

Holy Canoly it's almost Christmas 12/21/09

Merry Christmas everyone! How is everybody doing? Good I hope. Of course it is Christmas season and usually everyone is at least a little bit better than usual. I love this time of year. Call me crazy but I also like the weather a lot more. I´ll take the cold over heat any day. Its been cold and windy lately (Around mid 40´s during the day and freezing point at night) and today its rainy but I love it. I guess the ward found out that we don´t have heating in our apartment so they announced it in church and afterwards a family told us they were going to give us a heater for Christmas. I thought it was really nice of them. I love this ward. We taught Silvia last night. Well actually my companion and the district leader did. I had to stay in with the district leaders sick companion so he could do the interview. I got a lot of reading done haha. The appointment went really well though. We taught her the remaining commandments that she needed to be taught and she accepted them all. She has actually been paying tithing for about the last three months. She will be baptized by her son this Sunday after church. I´m so excited for her! What a great Christmas present right?! Its going to be hard to leave this area, which I am sure is going to happen, but this will be the best way to leave it. With a baptism. I love this ward and the bishop is an amazing man. We had a meeting with him yesterday morning and he was so happy when we looked over what we had done lately. A few families have been re-activated and we will have had 3 baptisms in the ward the last 2 months. I have been really blessed to see so many miracles in my mission so far. This Christmas is definitely different but it is going to be great. I hope you all have a wonderful week as we remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and the miracle that it was and is. I love Him so much. I love you all and thank you for all you do. I may be across an ocean, but I can still feel your love just as strong. Talk to you next week!

Weekly Report From Taylor Lynn Langston 12/14/09

Dear Everybody,How is everything going?! From all the emails I get it sounds like you are preparing for Christmas. And did I hear something about snow in St. George? Dang I missed it. Well the temperature is definitely dropping here in Barcelona. I´m sitting here in the internet cafe with my coat and scarf on! I don´t think it will get too cold here though. This week wasn´t very exciting to tell you the truth. It was pretty hard actually. It was full of appointments falling through,so our numbers we reported to President looked pretty bad. It is frustrating but what can you do? Keep trying right? We didn´t even get to teach Silvia this week. She works in a little city nearby during the week and is only in Barcelona on the weekends. She wasn´t able to make it to church but we are hoping we can teach her today. I´m not worried though because she is an amazing lady and had definitely been prepared after all this time. Well as for news that doesn´t really have to do with missionary work, last monday we sang carols on a stage in a plaza next to our new chapel. The thing is we sang in Catalá which is a language they speak here in Barcelona and surrounding areas. I had no idea that they actually speak about 6 different languages here in Spain! It sounds like a mix of french and spanish. It was a lot of fun even if we didn´t sound too great. We are going to do it again this week in the busiest part of Barcelona. We´ll see what happens. I can´t believe this transfer is almost over. I am sure I will be leaving this time and I really don´t want to say bye to the ward. My ward missionary leader has already started taking pictures of me haha. Its going to be tough but the work has to go on. I wonder where I´ll be heading off too??? Anyway, I love you all and thanks for everything that you do. You are all a huge blessing in my life. Talk to you next week! Love, Elder Langston

One More Baptism Coming Up! 12/07/09

Wow this week was great just like the last one! Last night Elder Reynolds and I set a baptismal date with Silvia (the mother of the second counselor) for the 27th of this month! I am so excited for her. She has been investigating the church for years now and has finally decided to take the step of faith. It is just proof that there is a time for everything. Teaching her yesterday was a really spiritual experience. We went over some basic commandments and then I asked her if she had any questions or doubts that we could possibly clear up. Then through her tears she bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon. Of its truthfelness and how it has changed her life. I know the Book of Mormon with the Spirit is a powerful tool in the conversion of Gods children. It really is an amazing book. I´m so thankful for Silvia and her decision to be baptized. It is an answer to a prayer. Our misson has the goal of 400 baptisms this year and we are getting so close. We did a special fast and made plans to invite every progressing investigator to be baptized and we have seen miracles. I believe we now have around 360 in the mission with 70 new dates! It is amazing. It will be a huge increase from the 307 last year. With about 30 less missionaries! Heavenly Father is truly blessing us. Vanessa came to church and bore her testimony. She is really strong. I couldn´t believe how excited she was to pay her tithing. She loves being a part of the ward. Time is flying out here. I can´t believe its almost Christmas! Hermana Hinckley is calling it our white Christmas because we are having so many baptisms. Pretty clever if you ask me haha. Well I think thats about it. I love you all and thank you again for the support! I couldn´t ask for better family and friends. Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

A Perfect Baptism

Hey everyone! We had the baptism yesterday instead of Saturday and it was perfect. We held it on Sunday so the members didn´t have to adjust their schedules to attend. It really was amazing though. I have never been so stressed in my life! I wanted everything to go perfect for her. The only thing that could have been better was the temperature of the water. I filled up the font a little bit too early and by the time the baptism rolled around the water was a little nippy. Not too bad though. I´m just glad she didn´t gasp or anything like that haha. (I´ve seen girls pretty much scream). Overall it went extremely well. I will send my mom a picture of it for you all to see. She was so excited but so nervous haha! I was sitting next to her during the service and she kept sighing out loud so I could tell she was nervous. The best part was after her baptism when she bore her testimony. She bore a simple testimony of how she knows this church to be the church of God and the Book of Mormon to be true. It made me so happy. She is excited to share the gospel as well! Her boyfriend was there and he loved it to. I want to push them to get married in the temple in April of 2011 so I can be there haha. That would be amazing. Yesterday something else really good happened too. We went over to the second counselors house and talked about his mom. He had just gotten back from her house and she said she wants to be baptized in December before I leave the area! We don´t have a fixed date but I hope it really happens. I put a scripture on Vanessa´s baptismal program just for Silvia (second counselors mom) and I think it worked. Mosiah 18:10. We still have some work to do with her though. Earlier this week we had our conference with Elder Kopischke and it was great. When we asked questions, he went into some serious depth! It was amazing. Elder Awerkamp actually came and stayed with me in my apartment the night before the conference! He is serving a couple of hours away from Barcelona so he came in the night before for the conference. I hadn´t seen him for 6 months. It was good to see an old friend again. I hope Thanksgiving was really good for all of you! I got a package from my mom the day of thanksgiving and I laughed my head off. Turkey jerky, dried cranberries, potato pearls, and gravy mix with stuffing. That was pretty creative mom. Anyway I love you all and I´m so thankful for this opportunity I have been given to serve a mission for the Lord. It has blessed my life so much. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Langston

Baptism Coming Up. Yee Haw!

Hello everyone! How are we doing? I´m doing just dandy and I´m so excited for the baptism this weekend. We asked Vanessa who she would like to baptize her and she chose me so I´m pretty nervous. I hope I don´t have to triple dip her or anything haha. I´m happy I get to finally step in the water though. Its going to be an amazing experience. Yesterday I felt the spirit so strong when we were teaching Vanessa and her boyfriend bore his testimony and told us how thankful he was for the missionaries that brought the gospel into his life. Vanessa put her arm around him and gave him a hankerchief to wipe away his tears haha. Usually its the other way around. It was a really cool experience though. The secretary in the ward pulled a fast one on me again and asked me to speak in sacrament right before it started. Of course the subject was missionary work. I whipped something up in Sunday school and it actually went pretty well. I talked about how we can apply the Book of Mormon to our missionary work and used chapter 18 of Alma to do it. I just talked about the things he did as a missionary step by step and applied it to us today. I don´t know how I came up with it because I was already really stressed. We didn´t have the greatest week teaching wise. We mostly taught in the street and knocked doors. I actually love knocking doors so I was happy. This week Elder Kopischke from the quorum of the 70 is doing a tour of the misson so we have a conference with him on Wednesday. I´m really excited to learn from a General Authority in person. I think thats about all the news I have for the week. I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving (We don´t celebrate here) and get full and fat. We have an eating appointment that day and we always get full so no worries mom. I love you all and thank you so much for the support. Oh! And congratulations on your mission call to Japan Blake. You are going to be an amazing missionary. Talk to you next week.

Hello everyone! I´m still doing just fine out here in Barcelona. It is getting kind of cold though. Good thing my grandma sends me ankle length underwear haha. As for news in the past week, we had a baptism in the ward. It was weird because Elders from a neighboring town were teaching a man that lived in our ward because a lady that takes care of him is a member and goes to their ward. So he was baptized on Saturday and it went really well. It was pretty stressful though because it felt like I was in charge of everything and I had to make sure it went through smoothly. I had to run to the mission office and make programs for his baptism, run to the church and fill up the font, and prepare a message for his baptism all on Saturday morning. It was really fun figuring out how to fill up the font when nobody knows how to do it and the instructions for turning on the water heater are in spanish. I figured it out though so I guess that proves I understand spanish haha. It was a pretty crazy day but it all worked out really good. Vanessa is still excited about being baptized on the 28th. Just like everybody else that is investigating the church, she is having problems that keep coming. People at work are telling her lies and things like that. It seems that Satan always finds a way to throw obstacles in our paths. She is strong though and it really helps that her boyfriend is a member. Just as a side note, the dominican ladies invited me and my companion over to eat with them again on Saturday. They love us for some reason. They aren´t progressing so I wasn´t really expecting much when we gave the message. I started off by saying that all I had on my mind was baptism and explained how it is an essential saving ordinance and that Christ said it himself. I then read her some verses out of the Bible about baptism. Afterwards she kind of just sat there and said "What you have read has touched my heart and I think I need to let you baptize me". It was crazy! I wasn´t expecting it at all. It was an amazing experience because we hadn´t planned baptism as the lesson. It was keeping the sabbath day holy. I know the Holy Ghost directed that appointment. So as of now she wants to be baptized but she can´t come to church because of work. I explained to her before baptism we have to keep certain commitments and show God that we are ready to take upon us the covenant of baptism. We have a little bit to work with but I think she can overcome some of her obstacles. Thats about it for the week. I love my mission! I know this church is true. The small little miracles I am seeing on the mission are strenghtening my testimony and changing my life. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Love, Elder Langston

Another Great Week!

Well hello everyone. This week was great as usual. It seems like this whole transfer things have just been going really good! I remember I was worried too because I had to take over the area and schedule everything but I guess there was nothing to worry about. Anyway, Halloween was just great. We dressed up as missionaries and went out and taught people. Vicente wasn´t baptized though. I talked to him and he just doesn´t feel prepared to make that covenant. We did take a step forward though and got him to pray specifically about the Book of Mormon and its truthfulness. Another thing, we set a baptismal date with Vanessa!!! She is the one who has the boyfriend that is a member and bore his testimony the week after we found him and invited him to church. We thought they were married but they aren´t. Usually that is a problem because when people are boyfriend and girlfriend here, they live together. Buth they don´t! So we taught her after church and set the date for the 28th of November. I just hope I´m here to see it. Working with her boyfriend is going to be key. It will be such an advantage for her to always be around a member. He is a great guy and really trying to make changes in his life. I also finally got a rope around the second counselor of the bishopric and told him we are going to need his help if he wants to see his mom baptized soon along with his nephew. We set up a meeting for all of us for the next Sunday. If things go good I will see at least 3 baptisms here pretty soon. I just hope I stay! I can´t believe I have already been in this ward for 5 months. Things are going really good in this mission right now. At the end of last year they set a goal to get 400 baptisms this year. Last year they got 307. We are at about 330 I believe with a few weeks a left in the year. President Hinckley did the stats a little while ago and we needed to baptize 11 a week in the mission to reach our goal. So our mission did a special fast and I think we saw 15 or 16 people enter the waters of baptism! I am so excited! I hope I can contribute to the mission here soon. Well thats about it. I hope life is just dandy back home haha. I love you all. Love Elder Langston

Another Good Week!

Hi everyone! Well we didn´t have quite as many people to visit this week but it was still a really good week. I´m trying to think of everything that happened as I´m typing! Well we had english class again but the spiritual thought went a little better this time. Nobody argued at all! How nice right? Afterwards we taught an 18 year old girl in the church. She is actually the zone leaders investigator but she wants me to teach her because she says she trusts me and has more confidence around me and Elder Reynolds. So we team taught her with the zone leaders. One of the zone leaders was really bold with her about baptism to see if she was really interested and she started crying and said "can I do it later because I´m really nervous right now." Haha we explained we just wanted to set a date with her right now. She said she will think about it. I think it will happen. On Sunday we had stake conference in a big theater on the outskirts of Barcelona and it was great. Two members of my ward spoke and it was fun listening to them because they are like my friends here in Barcelona. They have both finished their missions within the last 5 months and help me out all the time. Their names are Elias Guerrero and Hugo Estigarribia. Two of our investigators came to the conference and they loved it! One was the wife of the less active member. Her name is Vanessa and she is really sweet. We weren´t able to meet with her to set a baptismal date though. The other investigator was Emili. He is the Spanish man I have been teaching. I didn´t even know he was there until a member told me. So I went back in to find him and we saw him talking with President Hinckley and the stake president with his counselors! Then when he saw me he said "Langston!" and he came up and gave me a big ol hug!. I think he really enjoyed the meeting and felt the spirit. Anyway, after the conference all the members were out in the lobby area talking and I have never felt so much love from my ward! Everytime I saw someone from my ward they acted so excited to see me. I kept hearing people yell my name and I was getting hugs left and right haha. Its going to be hard for me to leave this area. I really love the people here. The work is tough in Barcelona but the members are amazing. I think we are going to have to push back the date with Vicente. He just isn´t progressing and I want to make sure we baptize a real convert. Thats the motto of this mission. We baptize converts. Well as you can probably tell I am still loving my mission and I love it more and more every single day. I know this church is God´s kingdom on earth and that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to its fullness. I love you all and thanks again (like always) for your love and support. Until next week Love, Elder Langston

A Really Good Week!

Hey everyone! It looks like we have finally found a bit of success. We had such a great week! Last week we only had 7 appointments inside of peoples homes and this week we had 16! We were so blessed! Oh and more good news. The less active man named Jesus came to church again and brought his wife this time that isn´t a member and she told me she wants to be baptized!!! I was so happy to hear that! The tough part is the only day she has off is Sunday and we have to squeeze all the information into a few lessons but it will be easier since her husband
is a member. I´m really excited though. As for Vicente, it is going to take some work to get him baptized on his date. We might have to wait a little longer. He still doesn´t understand that baptism in this church is the ONLY way back to Heavenly Father. He has studied with the Jehovahs witnesses, the buddhists and he reads philosophy so its hard to get those ideas out of his mind. We have explained it in every way possible to help him understand but he just seems really set on his beliefs. He still comes to church every week though. We had kind of a crazy experience in english class this week. Only three students showed up and one was a woman I recognized from a class 2 or 3 months ago. I remembered she liked to argue when we had the spiritual thought at the end. The thing is they have the option to stay or leave for the thought. So I warned my companion and told him just to bear testimony and end it if she started to argue with us. I read Matthew 3 13-17 and explained how the members of the Godhead are three seperate personages. She started swearing! The other two in the class are actually investigator of ours and they were just shaking their heads and
telling her to calm down. We just bore testimony
and closed the spiritual thought. She couldn´t deny testimony. I know that is the way to face objection. It was an awkward experience but it taught me a lot. Well the weather is really cooling down now and I´m freezing my little buns (or lack thereof) off! Luckily we have these little portable heaters to sit next to. I like the cold a lot more than the heat though so its ok. Well everyone thats about it for the week. I hope I have more good news next week. I love you all and you are in my prayers! Love, Elder Langston

I Love my Mission!

For some reason I have been really happy this week. I´m looking at the numbers that we produced as far as lessons we taught in houses and it doesn´t say a whole lot. I´m still happy. On my mission I have been trying to develop Christlike attributes to make me a better person and in turn a better missionary. I decided to focus on charity and love because if you have those two things, you are going to have everything else. Of course we can´t just expect to have the pure love of Christ in an instant. Its a gift from God. So I have been praying for opportunites each day to increase my love towards my brothers and sisters here in Spain and so far I have seen miracles. Nothing big, but miracles. Earlier this week an old man fell down in the street and was crying for help so my companion and I helped him get up and sat him down. Nothing big but it made me feel good. Then an old woman asked us to help her lift her garbage into a dumpster. So we did it. Then an older woman in the ward called me and asked me to come give her husband a blessing because he can´t walk anymore and his memory is leaving him. It made me feel so good to be able to help her in her time of need. Then Saturday night all of our appointments fell through and Elder Reynolds and I had nothing to do. I looked through my agenda and found a less active member and his non member wifes address that was nearby. On the way to their apartment I passed the man I was looking for and asked him if we could set up an appointment and he was thrilled. We also invited him to church. The next day in fast and testimony meeting he got up to share his testimony and thanked me in front of the whole ward for finding him and inviting him to church. He called us his angels. It gave me the most warm feeling inside because I knew my efforts were appreciated. So I guess I have just been happier because I love the people here more and better understand that each person I see in the street is a child of God and He wants them back. I told myself last week that I needed to work harder. I felt like i have been working hard and doing well in the mission but i could push myself harder. 100 percent isn´t enough. As a result of pushing myself harder I have felt happier than I ever have in the mission and am having more success! We set a baptismal date with Vicente for the 31 of October. We are also going to teach an 8 year old boy who´s mom is a member but his dad isn´t. I am so excited to see some baptisms this transfer. I´ve also made a goal to speak spanish as much as I can. Even when I am in the apartment with my companion I am going to try and speak spanish. Anyway thats really all I have to report this week. Everything is going great and I am learning a ton! Thank you all for the emails and letters and the support. I can feel your love from across the ocean! I hope all is well back home. I love every single one of you! Have a great week. Love, Elder Langston

I'm Still Here!

Transfer calls were Sunday night and I found out I´m staying here in the Barcelona third ward. Elder Cranford left though. He went to Alcoy Spain which is a little city in the southern mountains of Spain. He wanted to stay here so I felt bad for him. He took it pretty rough. My new companion is Elder Reynolds from Spanish Fork. The best way I could describe him is that we are opposite body types. That´ll do. I like him a lot. He has a really strong spirit and I can tell he is completely devoted to the work here. We should have success. Wasn´t conference great?! All the missionaries in Barcelona and surrounding areas congregated in the Barcelona stake center and we got to watch it in English. We didn´t get to watch the Sunday afternoon session though and I heard Elder Hollands talk was amazing. I can´t pick a favorite talk though for some reason. I loved Elder Bednars on setting the family in order and saying I love you. It made me miss all of my family and friends though haha. I just love all of you so much. I think this conference was based on love and listening to the spirit or personal revelation. It taught me so much and answered a lot of my questions. When president Packer told his story of the little boy praying for the cow and how his prayer was answered I was overcome with the feeling of how much love God has for us. He listened to that little boys simple earnest prayer and answered it. It made me realize He is always there listening when I speak to Him and always wants to help me. Its amazing how unconditional his love for each of us. It doesn´t matter what we´ve done, what we look like, where we live or any of that. He loves us and always will. This conference made me reflect on my own life a ton. It just made me want to be so much better and work so much harder. I have so much to improve on and its comforting to know with the help of the Lord I can do anything and become like Him. As for the work that happened last week...well there isn´t too much to talk about. Sonia the mexican girl told us not to pass by anymore. She appreciates what we are doing but she doesn´t want us to waste our time on her. It kind of broke my heart when she told us this because I saw so much in her. Maybe one day though. But we are still teaching everyone and trying to help them progress and feel and recognize the spirit. Thats the hardest part is letting them know the things they are feeling are the spirit. Thats a challenge for each of us too. Recognizing when the Spirit is trying to talk to us. We have to listen ever so carefully and seek its direction. Well I´ll stop rambling now and let you all go. I love you each so much! I miss you like the dickens (Grandma Gloria style). I know this church is true with all my heart. It is so perfect. Thanks for all you do and the support and confidence I feel from you. You guys push me to go on. Until next week! Elder Langston