Awesome Week

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

I'm old

Dear Family and Friends,

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

More Investigators!

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

Investigators falling from Heaven

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

Happy New Year!

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

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

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

Love, Elder Langston

December 13, 2010

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

Tough week, lots learned

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

Isabel is doing better

Hi everybody! How are you all? I´m doing just great. I have a neat story to tell. Last Tuesday we passed by a member and it turned out that she wasn´t home. My companion asked where I thought we should go and I said Isabel. Its almost impossible to catch her at home with time to talk with us but for some reason she popped into my head. My companion said alright and we took off for her house. Luckily she was home doing some things on the computer and she had a couple minutes for us. We asked her how she was doing and she said so so. We could tell something was wrong. Later she told us that she lives with constant sadness and that she even got to the point where she wondered if God existed. She said she sees so many bad things in the world and in her life and that there is so much sadness that she gets depressed. We had a prayer and answered some questions she had for us and then something came to my mind. That morning I had read John chapter 16. Right now I´m reading the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants in my personal study but I had seen something in a members home that said "And even though you are sad, your sadness shall be turned into joy," so I decided to read the whole chapter that morning. I told Isabel that I wanted to share some scriptures with her that I read that morning. I told her that I believed I read them because God knew I was going to see her that day. I read her John 16:20, 22, and 33 and she began to cry. We felt the Spirit so strong and it made me so happy. Afterwards, she gave the closing prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for putting the true church in her life. That experience made my day. My week actually! I´m so thankful that Heavenly Father gave me that experience to strengthen my testimony and to help me feel that I really can be a tool in his hands. It has made me want to work even harder and to make my life even cleaner so I can always have the Spirit so that God can trust me at all times. I´m so thankful for my Savior and I know He lives. I know that He has overcome the world. We all know that we will have afflictions, but why should we be sad? As members of the church we should be the happiest people on earth because we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life. We know that Jesus Christ is our loving Savior that has sacrificed Himself so we can overcome physical and spiritual death. We know our families can be together forever. We are so blessed and Satan doesn´t want us to focus on that. But I´m going to try and focus on it more. I love you all so much and I´m thankful that each one of you is a part of my life. I hope you have a great week! Talk to you next week. Bye now.

Love, Elder Langston

I got kissed 11/22/10

Hi family and friends! How are you doing? I hope you are doing just great. About the title of the email...don´t worry too much haha. This week in Cádiz we had a little celebration for 40 years that the church has been in Cádiz. The mayor (a woman) came and spoke congratulating the members and the officials of the church for completing forty years in Cádiz and thanking the church for all the good they do in the community. The stake president also spoke and a brief little presentation of the church was given explaining our beliefs and what we do as a church. Of course, in the presentation they talked about missionaries. After it was all done and the stake president was giving the mayor a tour of the church, he walked up and introduced the mayor to me. He said, "This is Elder Langston, one of our missionaries that is serving here in the stake of Cádiz". For those of you who don´t know, when people in Spain greet eachother they touch cheeks and make kiss noises. As missionaries we aren´t allowed to do it of course. Mostly so the young women don´t take advantage of it. Anyway, you may have guess already but the mayor walked right up to me and gave me the traditional two smackaroos on the cheek. She didn´t know and I didn´t have time to react. It hasn´t happened to me in the mission yet I don´t think because I´ve always been able to explain first. But this lady was fast! And it just happens to be in front of the stake president and about 50 members all watching. Needless to say I was a little red in the face. My companion didn´t want to be rude so he let her do it to him too. You wouldn´t believe how much guff we got from the young women and some sisters in the ward. Nothing serious but they loved giving us a hard time about it. The stake president just smiled and said "I won´t tell President." Haha he was laughing about it all. Just my luck. So thats my funny story for the week. This week we had some success getting into homes to teach lessons. We had 17 this week but a lot of them were with members. We need to find more investigators! We may have found one this week. I believe it was last week that a sister from Jaen gave us the address of one of her friends here in San Fernando because she wanted us to go and talk about her son that is having problems and to see if we could some how slip the gospel in there. Her son is a member and lives in a town close by and is really depressed about life. We went to visit the lady and when we told her who sent us she let us right in. She is an older lady (about 70) and is very religious. She is evangelical but from what she told us she isn´t too sure about her religion. She said in her prayers that she tells God she is where she is right now, but tomorrow she doesn´t know. We want to help her gain a testimony that she won´t doubt. We´ll see where it goes. Isabel is still hard to get ahold of. We have only talked to her on the phone and she isn´t the same. We really need to see her! Anyway, family and friends thank you so much for everything. I love you tons and I know the church is true. If I had more time I would tell more experiences. Have a great week! Bye bye

Lots learned

My family and friends. How are you?! I´m doing great here in southern Spain. The weather is cool but only enough to just wear a jacket. They say it won´t get much colder either. Well like my subject says, I learned a ton this week! Thanks for the prayers haha. For some reason everyday seemed to have a huge lesson in store for me. Two times in a row members looked me in the eyes and said some profound statement that made me think "oh. wow." For example, we shared the third lesson with a couple of members and we asked for feedback so we could improve. He gave us a few suggestions and then he talked about his conversion story which really helped. But what really impacted me came after the prayer. He looked directly into my eyes for some reason and said, "you can accomplish whatever God wants you to accomplish in this life if you just pay the price". It hit me like a bomb. The whole way home I just kept thinking about what I wanted and it hit me. Right now in the mission I want success. I want to know that I have at least helped make a difference. So what do I have to do? Pay the price. There are so many success stories from San Fernando from past years and I want to relive it all. For example, there is a family here that has had hundreds of lessons taught at their table to investigators. And these investigators happen to be now more than half of the members in San Fernando. They told us that there were people waiting in their home for their turn to hear the gospel. They were teaching in the kitchen, in the living room, and in their bedroom all at the same time. When they told us that I told them "We need to do that again." There is a ton of potential, now we just need to pay the price. I feel like we have all the tools we need right now and we have a lot of support. We talked to the son of one the counselors in the stake presidency. His name is Jose Miguel Morales and he was actually the assistant to president hinckley when I left. He is doing a lot of work for his dad right now because it is actually his sister that has cancer so his dad is busy. He told us it isn´t a coincidence that we are all here together again. We are here to help change things for the better. It made me feel really good. I feel like I have a purpose for being here. I can see how God has shaped my mission to land me where I am right now. I don´t know if I talked about this last week but if I did it just shows how excited I am about all this. Yesterday we had zone conference in Sevilla which made me even more excited. I learned a ton there too. President Clegg talked a lot about what we need to do to be more spiritual. In other words, everything we need to do to draw closer to God. Thats my goal. I want to finish these last few months on fire and just progressing a ton. Hopefully I can do so. I know the church is true. I know it with all my soul. I´ve thought about it lately and I don´t know what I did to deserve being born into the church but I am so thankful for it. We are truly blessed. Well family and friends I love you all. Thanks for everything you do for me. And congratulations to Newani and her new hubby on getting hitched. I love you guys tons and I´ll talk to you all next week. Bye!

Crazy Week

Hi everybody! How are we doing? My week was absolutely nuts. As you already know I spent last week traveling back and forth from San Fernando to the mission home trying to figure out when my companion was going to get back from the Canary Islands. Luckily he got everything done and we got back into San Fernando on Friday night late. I was only able to work in my area a total of about 3 days with Elder Goodman the office elder and my companion so we didn´t get a whole lot done. We also received bad news from Isabel. She called me up on my way back to San Fernando and told me she just wasn´t sure about everything right now. She said she wants some time to think and read and figure out if she really wants to keep going with this. It was kind of a scare for us because earlier she was ready to just jump in the font if she could! Now Satan is working on her and we have to help her to feel the Spirit again. I hope it passes quickly. She was doing so good and then all of a sudden everything just fell apart. We´re going to have to figure out what is going on. Something else kind of sad happened too. A girl in one of our wards here had a tumor found in her leg and according to the doctors 98% of the time this type of tumor is cancerous. She is only 18 years old and is the daughter of a counselor in the stake presidency. Her brother actually served with me in Barcelona. We went and visited her on Saturday night and to our surprise she is doing fine. She acted really happy and was actually joking about the whole situation. She is going to have surgery today to have the tumor removed. Everybody is fasting and praying for her. On a lighter note, I´m loving the work here! The members are hilarious and are becoming some of my best friends. On lady loves to tease me and make me eat at her house. When I finish the first plate she just looks at me in a threatening way until I scoop another load onto my plate. Then she is all smiles haha. She tells me her goal is to make me a little fat before I leave. I like how we have the same goal. I can´t believe I have been here a whole transfer already. We got transfer calls Saturday night and there was only one change in the whole zone. I think I´ll be staying here a long time. At least I hope so because there is a lot of work to do and I like it here. Well family and friends, I love you tons and thanks for everything you do for me. Congratualations on getting hitched Kylee haha. Man thats weird. It seems like just yesterday we were having sleep overs and I had to call home because I was scared of robbers haha. Thats a little embarrassing. Well have a good week! I´ll talk to you all soon. bye

Hey Everybody 11-3-10

Hi guys! How are we all doing? I´ve had a pretty good week! We didn´t have a very full week like the last one but it was still good. I am just really enjoying the mission right now. I hear a lot of elders start to slack off towards the end of the mission but I think the reverse effect is happening with me. I´m really frustrated with myself for not talking with as many people as I could have earlier in the mission so now I´m talking to EVERYBODY. Talking to people isn´t scary anymore. I love it. Isabel is doing great. She came to church and loved it. We actually had a really spiritual meeting. Almost all of the talks were on enduring. They kept talking about never giving up and remembering your testimony of the Savior. I loved it so much. Anyway, just to end this I thought I would share something cool. Yesterday I drove to San Fernando from Málaga because an office elder has to stay with me while my companion is in the Canaries doing his residency. On the way we passed the rock of Gibraltar and I saw Africa! It was pretty crazy haha. Well I´m sorry the email is short this week but I don´t have time. I love you all tons and know you are in my prayers. I love your letters and emails. The church is true. Don´t forget it! I love you tons bye!

A Really good week! October 25, 2010

Hey family and friends! How are we all doing? Just peachy? Good stuff. Anyway, like my subject says we had a really good week. Elder Velasquez and I taught more lessons this week that I ever have in one week in the mission. We taught 18 and the zone had an average of 19.3 lessons this week! We were pumped haha. Just two weeks ago the zone was averaging about 13 lessons a week so we have really stepped it up all over. We also had 4 baptismal dates in the zone last week and now we have 8! We are just really content right now with the work the zone is doing and the results we are seeing. The missionaries fasts, prayers, and faith are paying off. The stake also called a missionary that got home 5 days ago to be the elders quorum president in one of my wards. The stake really wants a missionary focus here. Things are going to explode pretty soon. I´m pretty dang excited.
Isabel is doing really good. The only thing is she is really busy with her brand new grandaughter. Her son has some mental problems because of a motorcycle accident and his wife is always working so she ends up having to take care of the little baby a lot of the time. She is ready for baptism though. We just have to set the date today with her. We also found some new investigators this week. One was a contact that the assistant to the President and I did in the street. She is a young mom from Ecuador named Daniela. We taught her the first lesson and she really seemed to like it. She had a few questions about the Godhead and things like that and it seems that she really is interested. Also, the Stake Presidents daughter brought her friend to church yesterday and we are going to start to teach him this week. The wards are really excited because we´re finding people to teach. Now we are just trying to get on the same page and work together. Things are just going really good. Tomorrow we have a special training meeting with the zone and President Clegg and its my turn to translate. I wish I could just sit and listen but thats ok. I just love how President Clegg teaches. Next week we also have three days of meetings in Málaga starting Monday so I don´t know what day I´ll be sending an email home. Sorry about that.
Well family and friends I love you. I know God lives. I love the scriptures so much and I know they are just full of His words. I love having experiences where I feel like the words on the pages were written just for me. I know our Heavenly Father is conscience of how we are feeling at all times and loves us more than we can imagine. The church is true guys! Talk to you next week. Love ya bye

I'm Stuffed

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I´m doing great right now but I am so full! Today we played soccer with some elders from the zone and then after we went to a chinese buffet. Poor little chinese people. They didn´t know what was coming when 8 elders walked in. It was eight euros and lets just say we got our moneys worth. I think we averaged about 5 plates per elder. It was pretty funny because the waiters and waitresses kept looking over at us and talking. I think they wanted to kick us out for eating too much. Oh well but I am still stuffed. Soccer was fun too. I have a big fat raspberry on my knee though from going down on the turf. I am going to be so sore tommorrow.
Well now I´ll update you all on how the work is going here in San Fernando. I´m writing a little late today because an investigator called just when we started to do our email and said she couldn´t have the appointment later tonight but wanted to do it at 5:30 instead. So me and my companion ran home and got changed and ran back over to her house. It was an awesome appointment! Her son is a member and she has been kind of checking the church out for the past 4 years. All by herself though. She hasn´t had the missionaries come over or anything but has been doing her own research. She told us today she is sure this is the right church for her and that its the church that she is going to be associated with for the rest of her life. I guess that means baptism! She has been an active catholic her whole life but told us today that she has realized thats its been more of a tradition to her than anything. She says our church is a lot more pure. I am so excited for her. I hope and pray everything keeps going like it is. Oh and her name is Isabel. We also have an appointment in a little bit with the ward mission leaders family. He invited the boyfriend and another friend of his daughter to church and so we set up with them yesterday for a family home evening at his house tonight. We´ll see how that goes.
Last night we attended the stake training meeting because the stake president invited us. It was amazing! They just talked about missionary work the whole time. It also made me really stressed. There are about 12 stakes in Spain and Elder Velasquez and I are the missionaries that oversee the missionaries and the work in this stake. It just so happens that the stake president told us that this stake (the Cadiz stake) is the weakest in Spain when it comes to missionary work, so we have a lot of work to do. We set up a meeting with him for Tuesday and we are going to share ideas, goals, and make plans to get things rolling here in the Cadiz stake. I hope I can do something to help.
Well thats all I have for the week family and amigos. I love you all tons and am still so grateful for all that you do for me. I have the best family and friends in the world. I know the church is true and we are blessed to be in it. Have a great week. Bye!

October 11, 2010 Hi Family and Friends

Hey everybody. I hope you are all doing good. I don´t really have much to say this week so it will be a short email. I went to church for the first time in San Fernando and it was a little different. I haven´t been in a ward since Barcelona and we only went to sacrament meeting for both of the wards. There was a really good spirit in the meetings too. A lot of the members had just gotten back from the temple and were sharing their experiences in the testimony meeting. It felt so good and made me miss the temple pretty bad. I really liked what one member said. " The temple is the only place in the world you can go and forget about everything that worries you outside." What a huge blessing that is for us to have. I still remember the peaceful feeling I had sitting in the celestial room in the Madrid temple. I´d give anything to go back and feel that again. Well, the work here is a little slow right now. Looking back on my areas now, it seems like God always puts me in the areas that have maybe one or two investigators and where the work is a little slow. I guess I have something to learn from that. I really appreciate having a challenging mission though. Success is so much sweeter when it comes. Right now Elder Velasquez and I are just praying, planning, fasting, and hoping for miracles. I´m sure they´ll come too. Well I miss you all so much and I hope you know how much I appreciate every single one of you. I´m so thankful for the people in my life that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I know the church is true. I know it with all my heart. Welcome home Oviatt. I´ll see you in not too long. I love you all and thanks again.

Love, Elder Langston

General Conference was awesome

Hello familia and friends. Its me again. Sorry about not writing monday or tuesday. I had some meetings in Málaga that I knew about but I just didn´t realize they fell on Monday and Tuesday. Sorry Mom :) Anyway, wasn´t conference the best? I really loved it so much. We went to a close by town called Cadiz to watch it in the church there. I received so many answers to my prayers it was amazing. It felt like half of the talks were for me! Oh and it was really cool to listen to Bishop Edgley. I thought to myself ¨hey I talked to that guy just a few weeks ago¨. I really enjoyed his talk though and it really helps us missionaries in Spain. So many people here want evidence and things that prove what we are saying is true. Of course that is natural but what they really need is faith and sensitivity to the Spirit. Its so hard to explain but when people feel it they know it. The work here in San Fernando is going pretty good. Elder Velasquez and I are really busy making plans for the area and the whole zone so we can start to see some miracles in these parts haha. My district is really different because it has 4 missionaries who don´t have english as their native tongue. And I think in all, 5 out of 12 in the zone don´t speak english. My old italian companion is actually in my district again. Most of them here are from the Barcelona mission for some reason so its nice to see some familiar faces. The meetings we had in Málaga this week were awesome! President Clegg is such an amazing teacher and motivator. Its so easy to feel the love he has for every missionary. I´ve actually gotten to be really good friends with Sister Clegg too somehow. When I walked into the kitchen to see her in the mission home she was like ¨Elder Langston!!!¨ Yeah, we´re tight like that haha. I really just love the mission right now. I´m so happy and I know everything that is happening is going to help me so much in the future. I love being able to help people. It really is the best feeling ever. I KNOW the church is true. It really is something I can feel. I love the scriptures and our modern day prophet. I love our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know they live and that they love us so much. Thank you all for everything. I feel really selfish sometimes because I don´t feel like I let you all know how much I appreciate every single one of you for everything you do. I´m sorry I don´t have time to write all of you and things slip my mind all the time so don´t think its because I just don´t want to. Just know that I love you all so much and I truly do appreciate everything single thing you´ve done for me. I´m sorry for not being better at letting you all know that. I hope you have a great week and know that you are always in my prayers. Much love from San Fernando! The church is true. Adios

Guess what? I'm not in Cordoba

Hi everybody! Yep its true. I got transferred again! I wasn´t really expecting it but thats ok. Now I´m in San Fernando which is down on the southern coast. So far I really like it. I got here last night but so far so good. My apartment is a palace! I seriously feel spoiled. We have a dishwasher and a dryer! I never thought I´d see the day haha. Its really big with tall ceilings too. I don´t feel like I´m in Spain when I´m in there. I´m not complaining though because its pretty sweet. I like my companion a lot too. He came from the Barcelona mission as well. His name is Elder Velasquez and he´s from Ecuador but he has lived in the Canary Islands the past 8 years. I remember the first time I saw him I thought he was black in Barcelona haha. He likes to joke about him looking black. I am so glad that I finally have a native companion though to help my spanish. In San Fernando we have 2 wards that we are in charge of and I have heard that they are amazing. They work like animals and love missionary work. I can´t wait to get started. Its funny too because two elders from the Barcelona mission that have gone home live here in San Fernando. Its going to be weird seeing them as non missionaries. I´m really excited to be here in San Fernando though. Here is my new address

Calle Manuel de Falla 6,4,C
11100 San Fernando (Cádiz)
Spain

Leaving Córdoba wasn´t as hard as leaving my last two areas. I was only there 3 months so I didn´t really have the friendships that I had in the other ones. I loved the members there though and they acted like they were going to miss me so thats good haha. I have some pictures that I´ll send to my mom to put on the blog. Toñi was doing really good when I left. We visited her with the branch mission leader and he asked her some questions. Her answers really shocked me. He asked her how she knew the church was true and she said she could feel it. He asked her when she felt it for the first time and she said the very first time when she came out of her room and sat down to listen. She said everything we said just filled her and she knew her search was over. It was really awesome to hear her say that. I just wish I could be there to see her get baptized. Hopefully my old comp will send me a picture of it.
I just have one little funny story before I go. My last day in Córdoba turned out to be really interesting. There is this huge fat guy (not trying to be rude, just explaining) that always asks people for money. Everytime he saw us he asked us for money but we never gave it to him. We aren´t supposed to give money because then the people will always go to the missionaries begging. Well this guy asks everybody anyway and I just wanted him to leave me alone haha so I gave him a coin. Big mistake. He said ¨Oh amigo, give me a kiss.¨ I was like no way! But he grabbed me and kissed me right on the neck! Man it was nasty. I actually have a picture of him so I´ll send that too. Anyway, thats all I have for the week. I love you all and I hope everything is going good. The church is true. I know it because I can feel it, just like Toñi said. Have a good week and I´ll talk to you soon. Adios

Toni is getting baptized

Well there goes the surprise element. I guess you all know whats happened. Toñi is going to be baptized the 9th of October! But first things first how are you all doing? I'm doing great! It was kind of a surprise this week with Toñi accepting a baptismal date for the 9th of October. I actually wasn't there when it happened. I was on exchanges in Sevilla and the zone leader called me up to tell me. I guess in all that time between when we first challenged her to baptism and now she has just been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and she knows its true. She wanted to be baptized in the first place but if you remember she just said she needed to make some changes in her life. We hadn't heard from her in awhile and then all of a sudden WHAM!!! She is so excited. She really loves it all. We took her to church this Sunday and she absolutely loved it. Afterwards I asked her how she felt and she said "I don't know why I was nervous. I feel like I have fireworks going off inside of me!" I am so glad she liked it. I was kind of nervous because she is a really timid person but all the members brought her right in and they were so excited to see her there. Angels have definitely been preparing her. Elder Phillips, the zone leader, asked her why she hadn't been baptized a long time ago and she just said "I have just been waiting for someone to come tell me all of this." Well we found her and we told her and now she is getting baptized! Now looking back on it, the whole process of finding her was inspired without me even knowing. One day I was looking through the Area Book and I found the record for her sister Ana and it stuck out to me. We decided to ask a member that knew her what her story was and where she lived. I remember telling Elder Masterson we were going to teach and baptize Ana. I was wrong, at least up until now. But as we were teaching Ana, Toñi came out of the room and asked if she could listen. And now look where we are with her! I think its pretty exciting haha. I hope I'm still here in Córdoba. Transfers are this coming up Sunday!!
Sorry about now writing yesterday. We had a conference in Sevilla with President Clegg and it was awesome. It was pretty much of a review of the stuff I learned when I went to Málaga for a week. It was really intense this time. He really laid the hammer down on being diligent and working with passion. Somehow elders in the past have kind of ruined the reputation of the Málaga mission years back and its been kind of hard to break free from that. President Clegg said this isn't the mission it was in the past. Its the "New Málaga Mission" and we are hard workers. He said he had a dinner appointment with some members and they told him straight up that the Málaga mission is lazy. He told them right back that they were wrong and that this is a good mission. Its true. This mission is changing a lot and its seeing more baptisms than it ever has. I think its a really big blessing to be a part of this mission at this time. Its awesome to see the cultures and ways of 4 different missions mix together and create a successful mission. I am really glad I am where I am right now.
I just wanted to share one more thing. On Sunday I got to teach the gospel principles class to the investigators, recent converts, and less active members. We don't have a manual and usually the only person in the class is Archie so we just teach him what he needs to know personally. This week was different because about 10 people showed up and I didn't have a manual to teach from. So Elder Masterson and I taught about the Book of Mormon. I wasn't expecting it to be very good because quite frankly I wasn't prepared for it. But I just told Elder Masterson to teach like we would a normal lesson. We got to a point where I shared my testimony of how I knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he translated the Book of Mormon, and I felt the Spirit stronger than i have in quite awhile. It kind of just hit me all of a sudden. It was one of those moments where I had to step back and say "Yeah i do know this is all true." I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I have really been praying for it to guide and help me lately and it seems that He knows just when to come in and touch my heart to let me know everything is ok. I testify that the church is true and that is has been restored through a modern day prophet. As we base our lives on the gospel of Jesus Christ we will be reminded of that again and again. God is always there and He loves us more than we can imagine. I love you all too and I hope you have an awesome week. Until next week.

Love, Elder Langston

Learning from General Authorities

Hi everybody! I hope you are all doing great. I am doing awesome after a week full of learning and feeling the Spirit. On Wednesday Bishop Edgley from the Presiding Bishopric, Elder Worthlin's son, and Elder Texeira from the Area 70 presidency came with their wives to have a special conference with my zone. It really was awesome. We learned so much from each one of them. I loved listening to Bishop Edgley because he told mission stories from clear back when he was a missionary and then after he would just say, "what do we learn from that?". They put a ton of emphasis on digging into Preach My Gospel and inviting everybody we see to church. They promised us that if we do that we won't just have 2 or 3 investigators, struggling to get into homes. But that we would have a lot more success and really just be surprised! Elder Masterson and I have tried to apply that in the past week. We wrote down the church's address on every pass along card we handed out and invited everyone to come in every contact. Hopefully we see the fruits of it here soon. I know blessings will come, I just want to see them soon haha. I guess I should be patient. Something I like about the mission is that I've become a lot less timid. I'm still no social butterfly but I feel that I've really improved in that area. The General Authorities gave us a little free time at the end to stand up one at a time and ask questions if we had any and NOBODY was standing up. The assistant to the President asked a couple and then it was just silence so I decided to ask one. I asked them to think back on their missions and to tell us what they wished they would have put more emphasis on, what they wished they had or knew, or focused more of their time on. I knew my question was kind of vague but I kind of wanted to pick their brains haha. They had similar answers. They both said they wish they had Preach My Gospel which really testified to me that I need to make the best use of it as possible. And Bishop Edgley said he wishes he would have worked harder. He said he wasn't a lazy missionary but he just wishes he would have taken every opportunity to share the gospel. I thought it was a really interesting answer. What a blessing it is to have contact with the leaders of the church!
Yesterday was pretty fun. We got on a bus with the branch and headed two hours to stake conference in Sevilla. They just finished a new building there and it is awesome. There aren't very many church buildings here in Spain so its always really exciting for the members to see what a real chapel looks like. Most churches here are rented spaces beneath apartment buildings. It was pretty cool to see all the members get excited for brand new stake center. I learned a lot in stake conference and my favorite part was hearing the testimonies of the returned missionaries in the stake. It was kind of weird because one of the missionaries served with me in the Barcelona mission and changed to the Málaga mission, which means he was serving in his own mission. It was just a little strange to not call him Elder Ponce when I talked with him. It was just "Javi". Weird stuff.
This week Archie gave a powerful testimony in one of our appointments with him. At the end I just started to bear my testimony and he kind of butted in which made me smile because its just kind of how he is. He didn't try to be rude or anything. He just wanted to get his testimony out! He said he has heard a lot of preachers and different beliefs but he has never heard anything like what we teach him but he knows its true because its all in the Bible. He told us one of the things that he really likes is that we as missionaries are out preaching to the world. He said that was what Jesus commanded His disciples to do in Matthew (I believe its the last chapter and one of the last verses???). I thought it was awesome that he could see that this church is the same church Jesus instituted in His earthly ministry. Its always good to hear the testimony of a recent convert.
Well this week should be good. We have plans to teach over 20 lessons which the Apostles have told us to make as our goal. Its going to be hard since we only got 10 last week but I think we can do it. Its just going to take a lot of work and careful planning. And even more importantly, careful listening to the Spirit. We'll see what happens though. This week I also have to interview a lady in Sevilla for her baptism. I've never done that before but it should be a good experience.
I love you all and I hope you have a great week! I know this church is true and that the gospel definitely brings new light to the minds of people. I've seen it so many times on my mission. Its awesome haha. Welp, love you all again and know you are in my prayers. Bye bye

Weather cooling down but Work heating up

Pictures at the Mission Home

Hi everybody! Well this week was awesome. I loved the meetings we had with the Cleggs. I really learned so much! We just learned doctrine, watched videos of missionaries teaching in San Diego, and practiced teaching. I feel like I am already teaching way better than before. Not that I was a terrible teacher but I just feel a lot more confident and I feel like I really know my purpose when I'm teaching. We really focused on listening and trying to discern the feelings and thoughts of investigators to help them the best we can. President stressed the point that we are here to bring people unto Christ and that everything we do as missionaries should have to do with that. We also talked a lot about asking good questions and how important it is to listen to the small little promptings we get while we are teaching. It was a lot of fun because we practiced teaching investigators that had certain doubts and had to come up with a question that really made them think. I still always get kind of nervous before doing practices like that so I prayed asking for help to know what to do even though it was just a practice. When the "investigator" (another missionary) came up with his doubt, a question just popped instantly into my head that made him answer his own doubt. When I gave it to him he just sat there for a second and then gave me a thumbs up haha. I knew I didn't come up with the question by myself. I made sure to thank Heavenly Father after. I am so excited to apply everything I learned there to the work here in Córdoba. I am pretty dang proud of my companion too because while i was gone he set a baptismal date with Fernando. He is the Spaniard that speaks english. He came to church yesterday and really hit it off with our member Martín. I think good things are going to happen with him. Martín will be key though. Also there is some potential with Alisia, our investigator we found last week. We just have a little more to do now and that makes me happy. Its weird to think my mission is winding down to an end. I honestly still feel like a greenie. I have so much to improve on and so much to learn. They say the last six months of the mission or so is the missionaries time to shine. To give it all and apply everything he has learned. I hope I can. I hope these last months I can start to be the missionary I want to be. I still have my weaknesses but I know the Lord has promised to make my weak things strong if i am humble and trust in him, giving it all I can. Being with President and Sister Clegg and learning so much this weekend has just made me wonder where the time has gone and reflect on my mission. I have so much more to do. All I know is that I love being a missionary. It has changed my life and continues to do so. I love you all so much and I couldn't ask for more love and support. I am definitely blessed by all of you. Thanks again. I know the church is true. Well I hope you all have a good week! I can't wait to update on what happens this week! You guys are the best. Bye!

love, Elder Langston

It's going to be a strange week.

Hi everybody! Everythings good here in Córdoba. How are things back home? Well the weather is hotter here than it has been all summer. Yesterday at church one of the sisters came up to me and told me she was thinking about us missionaries on Saturday because it was so hot. I think it was about 115-120 but i really didn't mind it. It feels just like St. George to me. As long as its not humid, I'm fine! Well, as I said in the subject its going to be a strange week. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Málaga with another missionary for meetings. I have to leave my companion here with another missionary and they both only have one transfer in the mission! its going to be kind of rough for them but i think they can handle it. Anyway, I have meetings Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, And Friday until 12:00 and then I'm heading back home to Córdoba. President Clegg has introduced a new series of meetings we'll be having every transfer or so. I'm excited to see the Cleggs and hopefully to learn a bunch of stuff! I need to learn a bunch because things are kind of going slow here in Córdoba right now. People are always gone in the summer but this is the last week of August so things should be picking back up. We found 3 new investigators this week though. Rodrigo had a surprise work call so we weren't able to meet with him. We taught Ana but Toñi couldn't make it. It just seemed like we were in the street a lot searching and searching. Hopefully it turns into teaching and teaching! I think once all the members come back from vacation and real life kicks back in they will start giving us referrals which always makes it so nice. I think the branch president is happy with Elder masterson and I because yesterday he told me his son told him that I was leaving to Málaga and he was like "but you're coming back right? Don't abandon me." Haha I thought it was pretty funny. So for right now all we can keep doing is working and showing the members that we are serious about this and we are here to serve and help them. Speaking of service we went and visited Lorenzo this week and it was pretty fun this time. He asked me to read him chapter 19 from "Don Quijote". He was cracking up so hard that he started to cough uncontrolably and I was laughing too. Well thats all I have for the week. I wish I had more to update. I'll try to make this week more interesting for you all. I love you and I hope you have a great week! The church is true. I know testimonies are strengthened as we share them with others. Thanks again for everything. Bye bye

August 23, 2010

Hi familia and friendsitos. Just wanted to speak some Rich Langston spanish there. How is everybody doing?! My week was pretty tough but then again not too bad. We had one really good day where we had five appointments right in a row. We were running around like crazy and ended up being late to almost every single one. But luckily they were all patiently waiting. Archie is doing really good. He showed up late to church yesterday but at least he showed up. I had to speak in sacrament so he didn't understand half of the meeting. Poor guy. Speaking of sacrament meeting, I had to play the piano for the first hymn. Thats the second time I've done that haha. They asked me to choose the hymns we were going to sing so I picked Sweet Hour of Prayer since I knew how to play it and nobody else in the branch knows how to play the piano. I also chose my favorite sacrament hymn "In humility our Savior" and nobody knew how it went so when we started it was just me singing a solo and everybody else caught on after about 5 seconds. Needless to say I felt pretty dumb about that haha. I took it as a good sign that the branch president asked me to speak in sacrament. I think he trusts us and wants to start to kick the branch into action. Its really hard to do missionary work this time of year because everybody goes on vacation in August. Yesterday there was about 20 people in church. I think once September starts things will get rolling. We visited Lorenzo twice this week and he was a lot nicer just so you all know. He actually told us that none of his friends were going to visit him on saturday and asked if we could stop by. When we said yes he was pretty happy about it. I left with a better feeling this week haha. Oh! We found a new investigator this week named Rodrigo. He is from Brazil and just a really nice guy. He was actually an investigator about a year and a half ago but the elders dropped him because he never had time and was supposedly lazy. We actually ran into him by accident trying to find a less active member. He happily set up an appointment with us and later explained to us that when he first met the missionaries he worked during the week and was a truck driver on the weekends so he never had time to read the Book of Mormon or go to church. But now he has all the time in the world and is really excited to meet with us. It just shows how people are ready at different times to receive the gospel. I thought it was really neat because when I read his record in the area book and hit said he was lazy I was kind of worried that he would be the same. All of my fears were erased when I met the guy and saw how sincere he was. He also explained that he has felt a need for the spirit in his home. His wife doesn't believe in God and won't talk about religion with him so he said its really hard on him. I hope we can help him and make him feel happier. Well thats all the news I have for the week. I love you all so much and thank you for your support. I have the best family and friends in the world. I know God lives and that this is His church. His kingdom on earth. I hope you have a good week and you'll all be in my prayers. Bye bye!

It feels good to see another Baptism

Hey family and friends! Yep it happened. Archie got baptized! It was such a good feeling. He ended up picking me to do the ordinance and it felt so good to finally get in the water again. Its been a tough last 8 months but it was worth it in the end. Its kind of a funny story of how he picked me to do the baptism. He kept saying he didn´t care who did it but then his wife who has a really strong character overheard and said ¨Nope! It doesn´t work like that. You have to choose.¨ She is a really funny woman. She got mad at him because he forgot to bring a towell to the baptism but I let him know it was alright haha. From what the zone leader told me, he had a really cool interview. When he asked Archie what he felt about making this step of faith and being baptized he said, ¨I just want to be saved.¨ I thought it was a really simple yet powerful answer. The baptismal service went really well. Almost the whole branch showed up! They have been really nice to him. Everybody was taking pictures with him and trying to talk with him. Its a little hard right now because he doesn´t speak spanish but he still has friends in the branch. There is actually one member that speaks english pretty well so they should become good friends. We took some good pictures so I´ll try to send some this week. If not I will send them next week. The problem is where we usually do internet is closed today so I can´t figure it out here.
I also have more news about Ana and Toñi. We challenged them both to baptism and Ana said she is never sure about things like this. We promised her that if she really wanted to know and had faith to receive an answer that the church is true, she would receive it. She said she´ll let us know if something changes. However, Toñi said she is positive that the church is true and she wants to be baptized haha. She didn´t want to set a date last week though because she said she has to change her life to feel prepared to be baptized. We explained that thats what we are her for. To be her guides and help her. She just has a few bad habits she needs to drop. She is a really nice lady though and we´ll see what happens.
I haven´t told all of you about this but every week we go to a nursing home to visit an old paralized man named Lorenzo. I usually feed him, water his plants, and clean his face with a wet towell. Well this week he was kind of grumpy and wasn´t being very nice. He was really bossy and told me to give him some chocolate so I started talking like a character from Spongebob Squarepants in the episode of him selling chocolate. I don´t think he thought it was very funny but I got a kick out of it and my companion did too haha. I learned in the mission if people are being grumpy its always fun to kind of joke around and be happy anyway. Just thought I´d tell you about that haha.
Well everybody I love you so much and i hope you´ve had a great week and that you have another one this week. I love you all and I know this church is true. I know Christ is our Savior and that through His atonement all things can be made right. I love you and I´ll talk to you next week. Adios

Another good week! 8-9-10

Hey everybody! Just like I start every other email right? Sorry about that. This week was another really good one. Archie is doing awesome. He is so ready to be baptized this Saturday. Happy Birthday Momma! Everything has just gone really good with him. We usually go to his house, teach a commandment or two that he needs to follow, talk for a little bit about how he is feeling, and then we leave feeling really good. He is extremely teachable. He just makes things so easy its incredible haha. The only problem is we don't know who is going to baptize him yet. We told him he gets to choose and he said "oh don't worry about. I don't care. One of you can do it." He told us the person that does it really isn't important, he just wants to do it. We told him we both wanted to do it though haha so he has to choose! We'll see if he can decide soon. Our investigators Ana and Toñi are doing well. Actually Toñi couldn't make it to the last appointment but her sister said she is doing good so hopefully we can get in contact with her. The hard part is she doesn't have a phone and she didn't give us her address because she said the people she lives with wouldn't accept us too kindly. But we'll find her.
I didn't email yesterday because we had to go to Sevilla for interviews. It was awesome! I love President Clegg so much. He is hilarious and so is his wife. They are always making jokes. He is always punching elders in the arm and kidding around with us. He really acts like a friend to all of us. While we were waiting for our interviews we had a small meeting and Sister Clegg made us cookies! Oh my gosh they were so good. I haven't had home baked american cookies for quite awhile. She also had me pull out my pictures yesterday while we were eating so she could look at them. The Cleggs really are the best. I wish you all could meet them.
This last week I've also been running around trying to figure out stuff for my residency. 4 elders have been deported from Spain for not renewing their residency card on time and 2 of them were from this mission. They both are serving in the states now and the scary part is they had only been in Spain for 3 more weeks than me! The office has been in the process of getting mine done but things weren't working so i just went to the Police station here and figured out what I needed to do. I think I have it all figured out. I don't want to leave Spain yet!!!
Thats really all the news I have for the week. Nothing too exciting happened. I'm just loving Córdoba and trying to do my best. I am seeing a lot of blessings come our way and I'm so thankful for each one of them. Thank you all for your support and love. I hope you have a great week. The church is true.

love, Elder Langston