Hola Crazy Family!

Well I just got done reading everyones emails and I decided my family is nuts haha. TK tells me she just had a Michael Jackson day, Kiana is...Kiana, my dad still makes fun of me. Oh wow I love it! How is everyone doing? I´m doing just dandy. Me and Elder Young are finding people left and right now. We have contacted a ton of people and at the moment we are teaching about 14 different people. Thats a lot compared to none when I got here! Now we are just working towards baptism which is another story. A couple is extremely close though! I would be so blessed to have a baptism in my very first transfer. This week we went on companion exchanges and I got to go with the district leader. We showed up to an appointment and the guy wasn´t there. In spanish we say "nos falla" which means fired or failed us I think haha. So we decided to knock every door in the building since we had nothing better to do. Usually knocking on doors doesn´t amount to much. My companion has only gotten in four doors his whole mission when he has gone knocking. Well me and Elder Laney (District Leader) got rejected for about the first ten doors. Then we knocked on a door and a lady opened. I introduced us and told her what we were sharing. Elder Laney asked if we could come in and she said of course! Wow what luck. So we went in and taught her about the restoration. It was amazing. Right after that we knocked on the next door and it was a 16 year old Spaniard. He let us in too! So after that Elder Laney told me I could go with him whenever I wanted haha. But I told him it wasn´t me. We were really blessed for sure. The United States beat Spain in a soccer game which never happens so we are rubbing it in the members faces. No not really but we like to talk about it. I only know because the members told us. I promise we don´t watch tv haha. President Hinckley is coming in this week and I´m really excited to meet him! Well I better be going now. I don´t have much time. Thank you all for everything. I love you and I know this is the only true church. I love sharing what I know with the people here. Thanks again.Love, Elder Langston

The dealings of Elder Langston with the Kingdom of Spain

Hello everyone! Wow the weeks fly by out here. It seems like I was just barely writing an email yesterday. Anywho...the work is a little frustrating right now but there were a lot of bright points in my week too. Everybody is avoiding us. We have investigators and they seem interested and then when we try to meet with them, they don´t show up. We still haven´t met with Luis yet because everytime we make an appointment with him, he turns off his phone or forgets or...I don´t know! Its a little frustrating. Me and Elder Young actually had success this week, but it was with people that don´t live in our area. The other day on the metro, a man was staring at my tag for like five minutes. I was trying to work up the courage and the spanish in my head to contact him, but he contacted me! He asked me if we were evangelicals and I did my best to tell him we weren´t and we were our own unique church. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. We ended up getting his information and he lived close by, but not in our area. We passed him along to some other elders and he now has a baptismal date! How great huh! Also, a man named Niku from Albania really likes me and Elder Young and has been going to church with us even though he lives in a different ward. We had to tell him to go to the other ward and some other elders have to teach him. But we set a baptismal date with him for the 4th of July! So we are having success, but we just don´t have any numbers to show for it haha. I heard a quote that says "There is no end to the good you can do if it doesn´t matter who gets the credit". Maybe I have shared that in the past. I don´t remember but the important thing is people are wanting to be baptized. I´ve been lucky so far being involved in these peoples lives, even if I don´t get to baptize them. I also have a funny story. One of the members here named Jordi is a 45 year old man, but he acts just like a kid. He has an ipod touch and he is always playing with it. The other day he turned on the song "Master of Puppets" by Metallica (not missionary approved) and was singing along with it. Or at least the chorus. I told him I could play it on the guitar and so he whipped out his cheap, nylon string, acoustic guitar for me to play it on! It was hilarious! He turned on the music video on his tv and had me play along hahaha. It was kind of a fun little moment. Every member that finds out I can play has me play their guitar for them. Its a lot of fun. Well I better be off! I hope all is just fine and dandy. I love you all and I know with out doubt this church is true. Happy Fathers day yesterday Dad and Grandpas. I hope it was a good one! I love you all. Love, Elder Langston

2nd week in Barcelona with Elder Young

Whew! I need to write fast! I only get 45 minutes to read and write all the emails. I´ll try to give a good report. Me and Elder Young are working our tails off to liven up our area and ward. I found out that I have arrived into kind of a dead area and we are trying to change that. We have been working a lot with the area book and members trying to find anyone that could be possible interested. It is working so far. We found a former investigator named Douglas from Brazil (go figure) and he seems really interested. Earlier this week we met with him in a plaza and taught him about the Book of Mormon on a bench. He asked perfect questions like how he can know it is true and what he will feel when he receives an answer. It seems like he is ready for the gospel. I think I told everyone about Luis last week. He is the one that approached other missionaries and wants to be baptized. We are having a hard time getting ahold of him because he works out of town a lot. I´m not sure what he does. He was in Valencia almost all of last week. We have a set up meeting with him tomorrow though so I´m excited. I´m just praying it doesn´t fall through! The mission goal is to contact 15 different people a day just on the streets or at doors and me and Elder Young are trying to get 50 a day! We need all the leads we can get right now haha. We visit the members a lot because we need their help. For some reason, it seems like every family has a kid about 5 years old that loves to torture me. Yesterday, it was actually at an investigators house, we were saying the prayer. During the prayer, their little kid was poking me in the eye. The whole time! When his dad finished saying the prayer, he just sat there like nothing happened. He didn´t even look at me and smile! What a little turd haha. Its ok though. I thought the work would be hard here because everybody is catholic. But what I´ve come to find is that actually nobody believes in God or a specific religion. Thats really hard to work with. I know its possible to find people here though. I just have to keep searching! Oh I forgot to tell you what we do for service here. Every Saturday we give english classes and then share a spiritual thought after. It is a ton of fun. Its hilarious to hear them speak english. I wonder how funny I sound to them. Everybody made fun of me before I left about the lisp thing. Now I think it sounds a lot better than normal Spanish! You have to hear it from a native to really appreciate it. Also, everyone here speaks Catalan. Its a mix of french and Spanish. All of the signs on the streets are in this language so its not really helping me learn spanish haha. Its only like that In Barcelona though. Well I better go. I know this church is true. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the one true church. I am so thankful that I was born into it. I have been blessed tremendously. I love you all family and I hope you are all doing great. Love Elder Langston

First week as real Missionary!

Well well well. Where do I even start. This is nuts! Haha everything is just being crammed into my head and I´m trying to sort it all out. I´m serving in the Barc III Norte area and its pretty insane. Barcelona is just a huge melting pot but everybody speaks spanish. And I have found out I really don´t speak spanish haha. In my area we get fed by the members A LOT. The food is actually good. I seriously think I´m getting kind of fat. At least my face looks fat and I´m getting grossed out. Oh well, who do I have to impress with looks out here haha?! The work here is a lot different than I thought missionary would be. When I thought of missionaries before I came out here, I imagined them knocking on doors, going in the house, and teaching lessons. Not the case here. This place doesn´t have doors. There are apartment buildings everywhere and you have to ring their doorbell so they can let you in the building. This usually doesn´t work because nobody is ever home! So we do a lot of contacting on the street. It is really hard to find people that are interested here but me and my companion have made goals to keep trying. This week we are going to talk to everyone we see! Oh and the schedule is different in this mission. We wake up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30. I´m serious! This city is all about night life so we have to stay out later to catch people. Oh and its so humid its rediculous haha. These are all just things I have to get used to so its ok. I´m really lucky though. Yesterday I saw my first baptism. It wasn´t my baptism but I was a witness so that was neat. The Elders I´m living with didn´t get to see a baptism for months so I´m lucky. Me and Elder Young are also going to teach a man name Luis who approached other Elders and said he wants to be baptized! He is out of town right now but we are meeting with him on Friday. I guess I´m just lucky! A lot has happened and I wish I could remember everything but that is impossible. President Waddel is going to be my president for about 3 more weeks then in comes President Hinckley. I´m really excited. The Barcelona Mission is booming. A general authority has given our mission the name "The lighthouse mission of Europe". They say we are setting the example to Europe. I think thats pretty neat and I´m going to try my best to live up to it. I know this church is true. I know it is under the direction of Jesus Christ. When I hear all the outlooks on life here, I am reminded how lucky I am to be part of this church. I love you all and I hope I have some good stories for you next week. Adios!

Arrived in Barcelona!!

I´m here and I´m a real missionary now I guess haha. We got here and went straight to the mission office where we met the president, got interviewed, ate lunch and met our companions. People in my group got sent all over Spain but I am staying right in here in Barcelona. My companion is Elder Young and he has been on his mission ten months. I like him and I hope he teaches me a ton. Tonight our plans are kind of weird. My companion is going to go with another elder and teach an investigator while me and another Elder go to a members house and have dinner. I don´t really know what is up. This is all new to me and is a big change. Its a lot different than the MTC. I don´t really know what to think right now but I am just going to keep trying to be the best missionary I can be. Love, Elder Langston


Dear Families of our new missionaries,

We are pleased to inform you that your son has safely arrived in the Spain Barcelona Mission. Hermana Waddell and I, along with the two assistants, met him at the airport. The group of missionaries we received are wonderful young men and women, ready to go to work. Their enthusiasm reflects their love for the Savior and we are grateful for the privilege of guiding them along as they serve the Lord.

Every area in the Spain Barcelona Mission is unique and beautiful, rich in history and tradition. More importantly, each city is full of children of our Heavenly Father, waiting to hear the glad news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for the trust you have put in us to shepherd your son. Please know that we feel a great responsibility to guide and protect “our” missionaries. We love your sons and daughters as if they were our own. With the Lord’s help, we intend to make their mission experience in Barcelona the most memorable time of their lives.



Sincerely,

President and Hermana Waddell

Departing into the Field!

How exciting! Tomorrow at six in the morning I´m leaving the MTC and heading to the airport for Barcelona. I am pretty nervous about that but I´m excited for the adventure ahead of me! I had an experience at the park this week that really made me excited for the field! This week, the companion I had for the park and I, had really different teaching methods. It didn´t really feel like we were on the same page and I was getting a little frustrated but trying to be as patient as possible. Then he had to go to the bathroom and I had to wait outside of course. While I was waiting for him I saw a man, in about his early 20´s I´d guess, from about 50 yards away, look over at me and approach me. I didn´t know what was going to happen because usually people that approach missionaries don´t have too much good to say haha. But I just sat there and waited for him to get to me. When he finally got up to where I was standing, I said hola and he said it back. His next comment took me by suprise though. He asked me if I believed in Christ (in spanish). Of course I said yes and explained a little bit about who I was and what I was doing. He seemed like really liked the idea of missionaries. He told me he was an Evangelist. We talked about Jesus Christ for awhile and then I introduced the Book of Mormon to him. When I told him it was another testament of Jesus Christ and explained a little bit about what it contained, his eyes lit up. A huge smile spread across his face and I felt the spirit so strong. He was so excited and told me he thought it all made sense! I talked to him a little more and bore my testimony about the Book of Mormon and what it could do for his life and what it has done for mine. It made me so happy to see his excitement. I asked him if he would read the Book of Mormon and if I could send missionaries to his house and he said of course! When I watched him get down on his knees and fill out his information on a referral card with full concentration I felt the purest joy I have ever felt! It was such a testimony builder! He even gave me his email address and name and I gave him my name and email address so we can stay in contact. His name was Sergion and he was from Alicante. I found out that Alicante is part of my mission! I´m hoping I get sent to his area so I can continue teaching him. I´m so grateful for his humility and willingness to hear the message I had for him. I hope it changes his life. I know with all of my heart I was meant to be in that spot at that exact time and that he was lead to me. I know Heavenly Father prepares ways for the gospel to be taught. I´m so grateful for my Savior and His atoning Sacrifice. I´m trying each day to build my relationship with the Savior and I want to do everything I can to become as much like Him as possible. He was truly perfect. I love all of you and I love hearing from you. This mission is changing my life already and I can´t wait to experience the many adventures ahead. Have a great week! Elder Langston

5 Days Away from the Field

How is everybody doing?! I hope great. I am doing fantastic! Last week at the park my companion was from Austria and he is learning Italian so it was pretty much up to me to communicate with everybody. It was a little challenging but worth it because it helped me be more outgoing. I think I´m kind of annoying now because I say hi to everyone I see. Oh well I guess. We didn´t find many people interested in what we had to say but there were quite a few that at least listened to us. It was rainy too so there wasn´t much to work with but I loved it still! I don´t know which is harder to work with though. Atheists or "set in their ways" Catholics. There are a lot of both out here so that makes it a little more challenging. I like challenges though. I don´t want to come off my mission saying "that was easy". My real mission starts in about 5 days. Holy canoley. I´m excited though. I want everyone to know what I know. I don´t know how people survive without it. The time is flying by out here! I´ve lived in Spain for six weeks and still not very good with the language at all. I found that out today when I went to get my haircut. Yikes. I love this MTC though and I´m going to miss it. There are so many neat elders here and its going to be weird not seeing them everyday. We have a joke around here that Barcelona missionaries are better than the rest of Spain missionaries and we proved it in a basketball game the other day. I believe Elder Langston may have been the leading scorer haha. Well I don´t have much to say this week but I do want you all to know I know this is the one and only true church. I have such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and I hope it continues to grow. I love this mission so much and I can´t wait to start sharing experiences I have with all of you. I love you all and thank you again for the support. Con Amor, Elder Langston

Week 4 in Spain MTC

Hola everyone! I think I start every email off like that. How is everyone doing? Thank you all for your emails again. Well like always, I´ll tell you all how the park went this week. My companion for the park this week was from Ecuador and only spoke Spanish! It helped me a lot because if I needed to tell him something, it had to be in Spanish! It was challenging but worth it. We went crazy in the Park and talked to everyone we saw. Mostly him though since he knew the language. We handed out every pass along card we had and 4 Books of Mormon! We even found some people that spoke english. One was a Buddhist though and didn´t speak spanish so I didn´t have much help on that one from my companion haha. Oh my companions name was Elder Pastillo and he is such a great guy. He motivated me a ton when we were out there. He is always so happy and encouraged me when I was trying to speak Spanish. He got so excited when I gave a Book of Mormon to a man on the metro. He kept hugging me and laughing and I felt so good. He has made a lot of sacrifices to get here and it has inspired me. In his culture, everyone has hair down to their waist. He showed me a picture of him before his mission and I couldn´t even recognize him. He told me it was very hard for him to cut his hair. He actually got emotional about it when he was talking about it. But it touched me when he said he didn´t care if his friends made fun of him for it because he was doing it for the Lord and he would do anything for Him. I learned this week that everyone has their untold story. There are so many elders here that have sacrificed so much to be here. I feel guilty because everybody back home is supporting me and I just pretty much had to say I´m going on a mission. I am very very blessed. Also this week was the 40th anniversary of the church being in Spain and the 10th anniversary of the temple. Some Spanish government officials came to tour the temple grounds and the MTC and we had to opportunity to sing a hymn to them. The spirit was very strong and I hope they were touched. One of the government officials was actually a member and he was crying by the time we were done. I love this mission. What a blessing it is to be able to come out here and feel the spirit everyday serving the Lord. I am growing so much all the time and I love it. I can´t believe I´ll be hitting the field in about a week and a half! That is crazy to me and I hope I´m ready. I´m ready to work thats for sure. The language is something I´ll have to overcome but as long as I have my testimony I think I should be fine. The spirit is the one doing the converting not me. My quote for the week is (I´m going to try and do this every week now) "Life is a grindstone and whether it grinds a man down or polishes him up depends on what he is made of." I love you all and wish you the best. Have a great week.Con Amor, Elder Langston

Week 3 in Spain!

Well hello everybody! I have some awesome experiences I´d like to share this week. First, I´ll talk about my park experience I had. It was great! Me and my companion from Provo, Elder Hunsaker, were paired up for the park. At first it was a little discouraging. We got a lot of hands in our face and when we´d say hola to someone, they´d say adios. So it was kind of hard for me. But we kept trying and it ended up being so worth it! Once again we found a man on a bench reading a newspaper this time. My companion noticed it was talking about soccer so he decided to open the conversation up by talking about soccer. His name was Iván and he was from Peru. He was very nice to us and understood we weren´t the best at Spanish. We asked him about his religion and he couldn´t have given us a better response! He said he was catholic but he didn´t believe you should have to go through the catholic to communicate with God. He believed that we should each have an indivual relationship with God and pray to Him whenever we want. It was perfect! I was so happy because I knew we had the message he needed! I handed him a pamphlet about the restored gospel and he willingly accepted it. He also gave us his address and number so the missionaries could come to his house. We explained they would be much more fluent. So he was grateful haha. I´m so excited for him still! I have a really good feeling he will accept what those missionaries teach him. I loved how he wanted to pray to God himself. It is something I may have taken for granted in the past. I never knew that other people didn´t believe you could communicate with God when I was younger. It is such a beautiful gift. Speaking of prayer, I had an experience this week that strengthened my testimony so much this week. It is a very sacred experience, but I think it would be appropriate to share most of it. This last week, I had a question about something spiritual. I wanted to know why something was the way it was. So I prayed and I prayed hard. I have learned that God will always answer my prayers, but I wasn´t expecting it to happen as fast as it did this time. When I finished praying I opened my scriptures to a random page, just wanting to study a little more. I happed to open up to Doctrine and Covenants 45. What I saw still gives me the chills. All over the page were the words Hearken, listen, Hear my voice, Give ear to Him, all underlined in my scriptures. I knew I need to prepare for my answer. For some reason, I started to flip backwards through D+C and again I saw a scripture highlighted. It was my answer. It was so amazing. I have never felt so comforted and happy. I kept going backwards and I saw another scripture highlighted in D+C 35:3 where it said I have looked upon thee and heard thy prayers, and prepared thee for a greater work. Something like that anyway. It felt SO cool. I wish I could explain it exactly how it happed but it is something I will never forget. I know prayer works. I know God listens to each one of our prayers and if we are sincere and really want to receive an answer and have faith that we will, we will get one. I know the scriptures are the word of God. They contain answers to every question we have. Whether they be spiritual or temporal, it doesn´t matter. Search the scriptures. There is so much in there! I hope you all read as much as possible. I have found a love for the Book of Mormon on my mission and I´m in Alma again. I can´t stop! Haha but thank you all so much for caring. Thanks for taking the time to read these emails because I get so excited to share my experiences with you. I love you all so much. Good luck to you Branson. I know you are heading out soon. You will love it. Oh and Tim, there are missionaries here from Moscow right now to renew their visa. They have a lot of good stories. Sorry if my emails are a little confusing. I have heard that family members of other missionaries are a little confused because the emails are organized like spanish sentences. Oh well. I wish I had more time to write. Have a great week! Con Amor, Elder Langston

Week 2 In Madrid

Hola friends and family! Wow, I found that last sentence very hard to write in English! Just kidding, but Spanish is coming along pretty well. I´m going to start this e-mail by answering a very important question I received from my beautiful little cousin Kelsey. Unfortunately I forgot to answer this questions weeks ago when I was in Provo. She asked me if the Easter Bunny still comes when you are missionary. Of course he does! He gave me lots of candy but he didn´t hide the eggs very well this time. So if someone could please pass the news to her I´d be very grateful. :) This last weeks experience in the park went a lot better. I didn´t talk to as many people, but me and my companion had a conversation with a man named Orlando from Venezuela for about 45 minutes. We actually weren´t sure if we should bother him at first, because he was reading a book. But of course, this is salvation we are talking about here! So we bugged him haha. When we said "hello", I wasn´t expecting anything back really. The people in the park are good at ignoring us haha. But to my suprise he looked up from his book and with a warm smile said hello back! I was thinking whoa! So we started off our conversation about his book. Somehow our conversation got into ways we can be happy. Orlando found happiness in himself. He said he didn´t need other people to make him happy or get him down. It was very interesting. His opinion was everybody has their own way to live their life. He was very polite and said he respected us for coming halfway across the world to share our message and was very impressed that we were so young and doing all of this! Towards the end of our conversation, I felt prompted to give him a Book of Mormon. It seemed obvious he liked reading and learning new things. He gladly accepted it and had many questions about it and our church. It felt so good to share something so precious with someone else who is seeking truth! I fasted for Orlando this last Sunday and I hope and pray he takes the time to read The Book of Mormon. Speaking of this fast Sunday, it was one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve ever had. I feel so lucky to hear the testimonies of missionaries from all over the world that come from different ways of life. It helps strengthen me so much! God answers our prayers. I know that to be true. It seems like everything I pray for comes in a way I don´t expect, but I always know its my answer and I just smile. I love it. Now I´d like to answer some frequently asked questions I´ve been getting. There are about 45 Elders and Sisters here in the Madrid MTC so its a lot different than Provo. But there aren´t any locals in here. I think I told you we all play soccer with the natives during gym and this week we had a pretty sweet game. We played with a bunch of guys that were probably 25-30 years old. Believe it or not, we beat them 3-2! And I scored! Haha but it was a ton of fun and they were nice guys. It was kind of funny to watch a bunch of missionaries with parted hair and two shirts on, play a bunch of guys with tattoos and no shirts. They were awesome guys. Each one of them shook our hand afterwards. I love the people in Spain. I´m still gaining weight haha. About 15 pounds since I started my mission. Oh, it was great to hear from Jenny that I´m going to have another boy cousin! It will be a little bit of a gap but thats ok! Congratulations! And Kiana, I can´t believe you got a car. Thats insane. Don´t drive it into a lake or hit a tree or something. Just playing. I love hearing from all of you. It makes me so happy to hear about each of your lives. I don´t think anybody could be as lucky as me when it comes to loving family and friends. I love each of you. I want all of you to know, I know this church is true. I know it was restored through Joseph Smith. I feel the spirit so strong everytime i hear his own words of the first vision in Joseph Smith History. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and is the contains the most truth of any other book on earth. I know God is our loving Heavenly Father and is always mindful of us. I know He sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to come to earth to make it possible to overcome spiritual and physical death. I owe Him so much. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I know I can communicate with my Father through prayer. I am so thankful for this gift. It has helped me so much. We are never alone. I love you all and I hope the best for each of you. Con amor, Elder Langston

Hola from Spain!

This is looking out of his bedroom window!

Well hello everyone! I don´t even know where to start to tell you the truth. I guess I´ll explain why I didn´t email on Thursday this week (my usual P Day). Today, Friday, is labor day in spain so we didn´t have teachers and they switched our P day to Friday this week. Sorry for the confusion. Now I´ll talk about my travels over here. Talk about some jet lag! I woke up in Provo at 4 in the morning and travled for a good 18 hours, then I had to stay up for about another 7 hours at the MTC when I got here! I was so tired. They let us go to bed early though. The MTC is beautiful here! Its right on Temple grounds. The MTC is the top 3 floors in a 7 story building. The other floors are for people to stay in that come to the temple from all over spain and portugal and places like that. I´m going to try and send some pictures so you can all see it. I have a picture I took from my window that will show how close the temple is. The Madrid Temple is so beautiful! I loved going through it for the first time. I actually got to the day after I arrived. The Celestial room is so awesome. It is lit by natural light which makes it even more beautiful. Its definitely my second favorite temple (St. George is first of course :) ) On Saturdays here, everybody from the MTC goes to the huge park in Madrid. Its like central park would be in New York. We go around talking to people about our message and just try to work on our spanish skills. I thought it would be scary but I had fun with it. Half the time I didn´t know what they were saying or how to respond, but I would just smile and keep going! Its like real missionary work already! I also actually experienced for the first time, feeling bad for someone I was teaching. Me and Elder Nielson were set up as companions for the park and we decided to talk to a policeman in the park. At first he went along with us just listening to what we had to say, but when we started talking about The Book of Mormon and how it testified of Christ, he simply said "No creo en Dios" which means, I don´t believe in God. We asked him why he felt that way and he told us because he is a cop, he sees horrible things happen all the time so he doensn´t believe there is a God. We both tried to bear our testimony to him but he just put his hand on my companions shoulder and said, "No creo en Dios." I felt horrible after. I wanted him to realize all the happiness he was missing out on and the feeling of love we can always have. It was very frustrating being limited by the language and that I couldn´t express all of my feelings and testimony to him. I guess its going to happen though. The weather is pretty nice. It feels like St. George in March I´d say. Maybe late March. The teachers here are really nice. Most of them don´t speak a lot of English so that helps a lot. Its a lot more laid back here too compared to Provo. For P Days, they let us go explore the city, pretty much wherever we want to go. During our physical activity each day, we either go to a small little stadium and play soccer with the natives or play basketball in the stake center. Its a ton of fun! Thank you so much everyone for sending me emails! I had 20 in my inbox when I got on here! I´m sorry but my letters to you are probably going to come a lot less frequently. It is pretty expensive to send letters from here and it takes about 7 days. But I love all of your letters and emails! They make me so happy! Oh I just remembered something else! I eat like a Pig here! Im gaining quite the reputation. Today at lunch I heard someone say they didn´t want something on their plate. Someone else said, "Give it to Elder Langston". Hahahahaha. I love it. I´m gaining weight too. I´ll let you know in two weeks how much I weigh. That way it will seem like more. :) Well I hope all is going well back home. Continue to write because I love it. My testimony is growing miles each day and I´m so thankful for this opportunity I have to share the gospel. I KNOW IT IS TRUE. I love you all. Talk to you next week.

Breaking News April 20th 2009

Breaking news everyone! There has been a change of plans. I got my VISA late last week and I will be heading to Spain as scheduled. Tomorrow! I know this is kind of late notice mom but sorry, I couldn't tell you until today. I leave the MTC tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. I will leave from the Salt Lake airport at 8:35 am to the New York Kennedy airport. I will arrive there at 3:25 est time. I will leave the New York airport at 5:45 pm est. From there I will be flying to Paris! Crazy huh?! I will arrive in Paris at 7:30 (Paris time). I will then leave Paris at 9:35 am (Paris time) to Madrid Spain. After all that traveling I will arrive in Madrid Spain at 11:40 am (Madrid time) on the 22 of April. Its insane! I'm so excited though! On Tuesday of last week I had another moment change my life. We have firesides every sunday and tuesday. We were all singing hymns to prepare for the fireside when Jeffrey R Holland walked in the room. The strongest spirit I have ever felt entered the room. I had to stop singing for a second. It was so amazing to see everybody stand up in his honor. I get the chills thinking about it!He spoke to us very plainly about our purpose as missionaries. He doesn't sugar coat anything and I am very thankful for that! He built my testimony up so much as to why I am serving this mission. This mission isn't for me. Its to serve the Lord and to bring His children back to Him. I was so thankful for his words. He doesn't speak the same to missionaries as he would in General Conference. You can tell he has a sense of urgency and that he knows how important this work is. I also forgot to tell everyone that I was able to give my first blessing about two weeks ago! A sister in my district was feeling sick for quite awhile and couldn't focus on her work. So she came to me and asked me to give her a blessing. It felt so awesome to be able to help someone and I'm glad I was ready. I was a little nervous but it went well and I know the spirit was felt and in control. I see so many of my friends all of the time. I talked for about an hour with Gimmie yesterday at the temple. It was nice to talk to a friend again. Also last Sunday he sat by my for a second at dinner and he bore his testimony in chinese and I bore mine in Spanish. Never thought I'd see the day! I'm so excited to bring this gospel to Spain! My testimony has grown so much and last night I couldn't stop smiling because I kept thinking about how I knew perfectly that this is the true church and I get to bring it in to other peoples lives. I have also realized this gospel is based on love. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for us and our love for each other. It seems so simple. I wish and hope all of you could feel exactly as I do now. I'm so happy! I know with all my heart that this is the true church. I have changed so much and I love it. I love all of you and thank you for your support. You all mean so much to me. Spain MTC address 4a. PlantaCalle del Templo No. 2Madrid 28030Spain I might not get all of your mail for awhile if you just recently sent it. I'm sorry! And I also know I said to send me handwritten letters but I have changed my mind and would also like emails since I won't get mail very often. If you'd like you can respond to this email today and I will check it later. Thank you :)

Week 2

Hello everybody!Wow what a week its been! First of all I'm going to thank everyone for sending me letters and packages! I've never had so much candy in my life! This week had so many things happening in it I don't know where to start! Well first of all I don't know quite when I'll be leaving the MTC yet. Me and my companion (And a lot of other elders going to spain) got a notice that the arrival of our VISA's will be a bit delayed. It said to not expect to leave on my original departure date. Oh well right? Everything happens for a reason. I'll get there when I need to get there. Man I miss all of you and I'm so lucky to have all this support. I think everybody in my district hates me because I get mail everyday and I even got three packages in one day! Its alright though I love it. I want to share an experience I had this week with everyone. On Saturday, one of my teachers told our class to make a goal to strengthen one area of our testimony. I thought about it and decided to strengthen my testimony of Joseph Smith. Here at the MTC we practice teaching lessons a lot! I had been having trouble with lessons because...well, I'm not a very good teacher. I would dread giving lessons to teachers and other missionaries because I never felt like I was doing it right. Well, Saturday night we had a teaching appointment and I decided to go about it with a different attitude. I was going to listen to the "investigator" and his concerns and try to listen to the spirit to tell me what I should say. I said a prayer to help me and I finally had confidence. As we were towards the end of the lesson (that was going very well!) I bore my testimony of Joseph Smith and the first vision. I started to get emotional and I knew Joseph Smith was a true prophet. This wasn't even a real investigator and I felt like I was changing his life for the better. I have never felt so good! I am growing so much spiritually here, and physically actually! Haha I gained 6 pounds from Tuesday to Saturday of this last week! I hope it continues. I would really love it if you all continued to write me letters. I love them so much. I can be having the hardest day and then I'll get a letter from anyone and it raises my spirit so high. I'm going to use these emails just to give everybody a quick overview of my week. I will still write you personal letters though so I can address each of your questions. I would really appreciate it, if it is possible, for you all to just write me letters because I will have to go to a different building and print off your emails and I just don't have much time here! Thank you so much! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday. I feel so grateful for the Savior and the sacrifices He made for each of us. Its a love I can't even come close to comprehending. I am so excited for the day I get to behold His face and to kneel at his feet thanking Him for His love and sacrifices He made for me. I love the Savior. I love all of you and I hope you all the best. Love Elder Langston P.S. I can only write letters on Monday on my P Day so I'm sorry if it takes awhile to get my letters. And sometimes I get mail that was sent last week after I have already written my letters to you. Sorry for the confusion and I'll try to keep up. Love you all!

First Week

Hola everyone! I'm sending this to kiana because I don't remember my moms email address! Kiana if you could please send this to mom, jboyce83@hotmail.com, paige_me12@hotmail.com, and whoever else you want it to go to. Everything is going great here! Happy Birthday Paige! I'm only allowed to email family members or I would send you all one. Sorry I have to obey the rules :) Thank you for all your support. I really appreciate the letters and would really like if you could all write me as much as possible. You can get it from my mom or kiana or paige. I love letters and it helps ease the homesickness. The first week is kind of overwhelming and is bit of a shock at first. But its all settling in just nicely. Today is P day and we all went to the temple. It was great! Mom thank you so much for writing me twice already...Only one problem, you didn't send my social security card with it. Oops. Oh well haha. I guesss do what you need to do now. I don't think I need anything else with the package you are sending me. Once again please write me as much as possible. I love it. It doesn't have to be long. Just little notes on DearElder or whatever. My companion is Elder Hunsaker from Wyoming. He is awesome. He is the greatest example to me. Conference helped me so much this week! It was awesome! I hope you all got to see it. Paige I heard tryouts went really good. I was worried you weren't going to make it (wink wink). I miss you all so much. The best way to keep my mind off home is to humble myself and and keep focused on the work thats ahead of me. I haven't gotten to frustrated yet. Paige I hope you are having a wonderful birthday. Sorry I can't be there. I hope this email even gets to you on time. Kiana you better check it! Family, friends, I miss you so much. You guys are great examples and have strengthened me so much. I can't believe I am leaving here in two weeks! Its going to fly by! They say the first week goes by the slowest and it hasn't been so bad so I can only imagine how fast the rest will go. I'm sorry. I changed my mind. I'm going to send this email to Paige too because I know she'll check her email today haha. I hope all goes well. Keep writing. Until next week.> > Elder Langston>

Entering the MTC April 1 2009

Me and Mom

Mom putting on my Missionary name badge

Entering the MTC
Kyle meeting me in front of the MTC

Last night home and getting set apart as a MISSIONARY! 03/31/09

I My mom invited all of my friends over for a last dinner. She made my favorite beef enchiladas that I love. We all hung out until 9:00 and then I was set apart by President Graff and it was an amazing feeling to now be a missionary. The blessing was so powerful and the spirit was so strong. It was awesome.
We then had a few games of basketball at the church with all the guys and my Dad until 12:00. We went back to my house after for dessert and good-byes. This is very hard for me to say goodbye to everyone, but I know it's what I'm meant to do. I report to the MTC tomorrow at 12:30.

Open House and Farewell on March 22nd 2009

Langston clan

Jensen crew

Both sides

Tay & Paige

Enjoying the yummy prime rib made for me

My cousins: Nealani-Tyson-Tausha

My crazy sister and Paige

Me & aunt Teek

My buddies @ my open house

My mom had an open house for me on March 21st so I could visit and say good-bye to everyone. My Farewell was on March 22nd. Kiana was the youth speaker and Paige Allred sang Because I Believe. It was a perfect day! My parents invited all the family over after for a prime rib dinner that was awesome. We took pictures and watched a video that my Aunt T.K. made for me out of all the pictures my mom has taken of me through the years. Thanks Fam

Preparing for the Mission!

Shopping, shots, and lots of studying!

Going to the Temple!

Andelyn is my little buddy

I took out my endowments on Jan. 24th, 2009 in the St. George Temple. My Uncle Chad was my escort. Chad was like a brother to me and also one of my young mens leaders. It was a beautiful day with all my family around me and many members of our ward. I am so lucky.

Mission Call!

I received my Misson Call on Friday November 14th at 9:00 a.m. in the morning. I went to pick it up at the post office and kept it with me all day until that evening when my family could all be there. I'm going to Spain, Barcelona and I enter the MTC in Provo on April 1, 2009!!! I will stay there for 3 weeks and then fly to the Madrid MTC for 6 weeks. I have a long wait of 4 1/2 months. I'm so excited!