Life Cereal Sale & Tennis: A Dangerous Sport

January 28, 2013 

 

Hey everyone!!

Of course as always, not a lot of time here, but man first off, right after emailing last week, there was a sale on cinnamon life at the local grocery store!! I ate that thing up as you can well imagine!!! First miracle of the week? CHECK. Also as I said before, Elder Moses and I play tennis every week with a member on Mondays, and we play a game called Austrailian Doubles. Long story short, Elder Moses, who was on the same side as Brother Crenshaw, wanted to lose on purpose for strategy. So when the ball came, he meant to just hit it out of bounds, but he turned, wacked it, and nailed Bro Crenshaw in the inner thigh!!! Hahahahaha oh man it was funny. Luckily he's a real good sport. ( and has strong legs!)

We also got to go to golden corral twice this week! Can't argue with that! It just opened down here after remodelin, and so we got to stuff ourselves twice!! Good times.

We had an experience where we helped a man dig a whole in his backyard for his dog who had passed the night before... it was around 8 in the morning, and the dog was huge... a really big St. Bernard. Even though it was just a dog, it was really close to him, and it brought us and the brother that brought us on exchange just really thinking about life and death... that's the first time I've ever buried a dead animal (unless you count my pet lizard ages ago in which I lifted up a rock in the backyard and put him under it). On the way back, I got an overwhelming feeling of joy, testifying to me of the truthfulness of the gospel, and the knowledge of the plan of salvation we have obtained from it. It's truly a feeling of comfort from the Holy Ghost to realize what our purpose really is here on earth. One thing that the brother and I came to the conclusion of really hit me. It was the fact that we are not here to let the emotions we have get the best of us, or to try to ignore and fight them, but to learn to live and have joy through them, making the best of your emotions, instead of them making the best of you. Isn't this when we truly learn things anyway? When our comfort circles of life are cracked and we realize we really can't do this on our own, and that this life is soooo small compared to our existence we Pass the test! Make the best of those emotions!

 Back to the Yost family... had a nice outing with Brother Yost... Haven't laughed that hard since I got out here! It hurt my throat a little! Never again will I look at a flamethrower from dq the same, or an Orange Julias. Good times! Had to be there!

Plus my mother would HAAAATE it out here! The humidity on the bike cuts you like a knife to the core! This is the coldest I've ever known... I'm almost... cold sometimes... hard to admit!

Well time is up way too fast today! I'll just have to say more next week! I love you all so much, and have a great February!!!! Make it count!

PS:  We just went to the beach this morning and got some great sunrise pictures on the ocean (not in)!  Forgot to mention that. That was great too! It's been so great!!! What a great week!!!! Can't wait for the next one! I love all of you! Stop growing so fast until I get back!

Love, Elder Langford

 2 New Sister Missionaries Called to Serve!!

and an Amazing Testimony!!

January 21, 2013 

 

( FYI:  This has been an incredible week.  Kaitlyn received her mission call to the Utica, New York Mission and reports to the MTC on May 29th.  Katie Kirkham also received her mission call to Orlando, Florida and reports to the MTC on June 5th.  They will both be amazing missionaries!  Hope you're all doing well!! Now on to Elder Langford's letter!!  His testimony is an example to me!! Love, Kristi)

Hi everyone,

Man this has been one trunky two weeks!!!! (Waiting to receive where and when Kaitlyn and Katie are going to serve missions!!)  But I managed to keep a really good focus.  Elder Paul Pieper from the seventy come down and talked to us and it was incredible.... just his presence and the spirit of the room was amazing!  So that's been keeping me on track! 

Time's a flyin by!!! Tell you what that six months I've been here has been some serious work... I've come to learn and love the value of work in a way that I've never really known.  I feel that I'm the same person, but at the same time someone completely different! Like I said, we had a member of the seventy come and talk to us, so that's been keeping me on track! Ha it was way good and I learned so much from him!!  A quote from him really got me. He said that “Telling yourself and just 'getting by' in life denies the Godliness in you. Doing your best everyday is how you obtain a remission of your sins”. Intense right?  That's hit me, and I've seen how I've really changed in just how I spend my time, and how I've realized the value of it... I'm excited for the time I get to go back to school and in a sense redeem myself.... I look back and I WISH I would've known what I know now, and just listened, and strived to be something better.... I really feel that I've in a sense, denied myself of what I can really become for so long and I've wasted so much time.... (geez it's like my life coordinates w/the lion king am I right?) and I'm ready to still be who I am, but to be my best self, and to actually progress and reach the blessings that I have been promised in my blessing.   They are not things that will happen over night, and will take my best effort every single day. This isn't a phase that I'm just going through, but it's been a literal change of heart and perspective that only through my Lord Jesus Christ have I been able to reach. The mission isn't for me primarily, it is for those who need the gospel and the specific talents and things that I can bring in as a missionary, and it's my duty, but more importantly, my Choice out of love for others, and for myself, that I strive to be my best self in the Lord's work, and for the rest of my life.  I know someday probably sooner than I can imagine, I'll start a family, and need these traits to be able to support, love, and care for them. I need to love them enough, love the people enough, love you enough to listen to all that you've been telling me for years, and love myself enough, to continue to make me my BEST self through my personal effort in applying the atonement of Jesus Christ in my life. He suffered for me, because he had faith in me. Faith that this day would come, that I would start to become the person I want to be the rest of my life. I know that it is through the diligence that we apply in our lives, and the faith, the virtue, the charity, the hope, the patience, the humility, the obedience and through OUR choice, that we can become the person that Jesus Christ knows we can be, and through applying his sacrifice, will become. I wish, I just would've been better sooner, and decided to not be acted upon, but to act, and do many things of my own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. I know that this mission was meant to bring me down to the gulf of despair in wondering who I was, what my purpose was, and how I could be better for everyone in my life to benefit and lift them up.  Missions change natures, desires, and hearts. I'll never be able to be that same person I was before I left, with the knowledge and responsibility I've been given on how to better fulfill my purpose as the patriarch of the home, and all that implies in how I need to daily prepare myself mentally, physically, and spiritually for all things. I've been so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  I need to continue daily, to progress and prepare, so that I can be someone that can fulfill all the needs of the responsibilities in the future.   What seemed so far away, is now so close in view, and I need every single day to even be remotely qualified for the next steps in the gospel. I can't express how different and lasting this is in my heart. But it's true, and I can promise that any missionary or even post or pre-missionary, can change their heart and diligence in every single aspect of their lives, if they have the faith to act, enough to change their ways and stick to them.  Then to PROMISE God every week, that you are striving and re-striving to be his obedient servant, ready to learn and act through his gift of the Holy Ghost he gives you. It is through this ongoing process that we truly learn to endure with joy to the end, and perfect ourselves through the blood of Christ. I look back at all the drops that he has individually shed for me, and I want to show him through how I live my life every day, that to me, it was not a wasted effort, and that I'm willing to accept and use the gift he so willingly and mercifully begs us to use. Christ has changed me and does everyday.  Through him, I shall be prepared to live up to my potential, and do my best and hardest work in all that I do. Through him, I'll be worthy of the blessings he is waiting to give me when I am willing to accept them. This is how I live my testimony in Jesus Christ and his church restored on the earth, and prepare myself and my future family, for the blessings of eternity.

Sorry I just, felt like writing that. 

So the YOST family in my area is amazing! So incredble! Best meals, best people, just best EVERYTHING. Man if you don't know the YOST family you should!!!!!  I hope I've sufficiently added them to my blog! They really are an amazing family, and one that I've already learned so much from. Thank you!

Next off, had a crazy experience... went on splits for the night and gave Elder Moses the phone. Apparently, the person that I went to, called and cancelled because some thing had come up, but I didn't get it, and Elder Moses couldn't hear the message in the car (member took him in a corvette... I got the high end of this split -_-) and so he never told me, but it worked out anyway to be a great, great lesson, and they came to church!  So divine intervention's always a good story to be told!

Last off, we were invited by members to teach this lady, and she was a member of the reformed LDS church, and she asked some questions, heard the message, and wants to be baptized and do temple work! She's so elect and just ready to humble herself and make those changes!! Incredible lady... definitely a miracle to be a part of. 

Sorry got to go! I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mission changes you!!!!!!!!!!

Love, Elder Langford

 EXCITED TO CALL KAITLYN (SISTER LANGFORD)!  and...  I DO LIKE PEACH COBBLER SAM I AM!!!!

JANUARY 14, 2013

 Hey,

 Sadly, I have like two minutes to write today, but for a good cause! I found out that I'm allowed to call and talk to Kaitlyn on wednesday night to see where she's going on her mission!!!!! wooooot! So I've been typing up how that's going to work with my madre and working it out with the Mission President so now my blog time has been depleted severely.  Look up the history place in Morehead City! We did some painting and moving bookshelves there for a couple weeks, and are teaching now one of the people that work there! Woot! Um, also, we got caught on our bikes in a rainstorm, always nice to ride on a soaking wet bike ride... Yeah totally soaked! Luckily the quad was left in the apartment!

To the surprise of many I'm sure, I've decided that peach cobbler's suuuuper good! Why didn't anyone tell me it was? ;) The mission changes your LIFE.

Oh and we taught on Sunday a lesson to a former, reformed LDS church member, and answered a lot of her questions... Her husband isn't a fan of Mormons, but she's going to be :) Through her exercising of faith to the message and the spirit bearing personal witness of course! ;) Anyway sad, but this is it... pretty short blog huh? Next week will be a lot longer! I gotta write to the President and then go get my haircut! Oh PS: a general authority is coming to speak to us on Thursday, so I'm getting my hair cut today... the mini mullet is probably a bit too long... Haha I love you all soo much and will write you sooner than you know!!!!!!! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHERE KATIE AND KAITLYN GO!!!!!!!

Love,  Elder Langford

 Elder Langford's Weekly Update:

January 7, 2013

Hey everyone,

K, I've only got like ten minutes... so sad I know. But lets see... first off, Elder Moses knows a lot of good music! But to my surprise.... he didn't know who Rush was -_- I was so shocked, that I had to write about it, so there you go!

We had a wonderful zone conference on the reasons we serve being fear, duty, and love. It was a really powerful lesson on how in order to really reach our greatest potential as missionaries, we have to dig deep into the core of our desires and ambitions of why we do this work. I've really been trying to focus a lot on trying to recognize, account for, and I guess gain more charity for the work. It's been a week of some really great studies and a lot of personal revelation. It's always been apparent that God knows what he wants you to be, and when you're ready to accept that, humble yourself and follow his guidance, you further your steps and strides towards becoming your best self, and reaching your fullest potential. It's hard to look back and see how much I've changed since I've come out, and yet how much of the same I am. Ether 12:27 is very true, and I've gained such a strong testimony of the action of faith. Faith to me literally means action! If you don't act on it, than it's no more than a belief or a good idea. Faith is when the thought in your head comes, then it's pondered, examined, planned out, and then done! If there is not action, it is not complete faith. I've seen so many situations where I've just done things instead of thinking about them, or striving to do them, that have helped me grow in so many ways. It takes a humble, or a humbled heart to truly act on faith, and to slowly acquire the recognition of the spirit, as it speaks personally to you. Preparing ourselves to receive and recognize that spiritual guidance, is the prerequisite to faith, giving us knowledge on what to act on, or for. Faith in Jesus Christ allows us to physically get on our knees and repent when necessary. It allows us to grab our scriptures, open them up, and start to read. I can bare testimony that it will begin to create a desire, that will succumb others that could never bring such eternal blessings. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we really allow ourselves to change our natures and desires, to becoming more Christlike, more charitable, and more open to receiving our guidance on this earth to reach our full potential. Preparing to meet God is an everyday process, and it is through faith, that these desires to do so, can truly be planted, and nurtured, as we allow ourselves to aspire to higher things. Just thought I'd toss that in here...

Oh yeah and, I was having lunch a while back, and I accidentally swallowed a brussel sprout whole! Just fyi, if it's on your bucket list/to-do list, take it off. I felt sick and almost puked for the next hour! But hopefully I still received all the nutrients from it. That'd make it all worth it.

Haha and one more thing, we met a drunk guy at a store, and I gave him a pair of gloves and he was like (right next to my face, to the Less active member cashier and my companion...) “hmmmm aint he just perdy? Now I ain't callin you gay, but your just, perdy am I right? I LIVE IN THE WOODS! JESUS IS EVERYWHERE! HE LOVES ME YOU AND YOU AND EVEN YOU!” ahh man. The wonderful world of the drunken... don't think I'll ever go there. Anyway, that's all I have time for!!! Love you!!!!!!!!!!!   Elder Langford