Awesome Mission Birthday & Prayer Challenge
February 25, 2013
Hey
everybody.
I'm so sorry. I just didn't have time to create much of a blog last
time :/ Well, I'm better this time! I've got a lot more time today so
I'll use it wisely
here and try to make up for lost time!!
First
off, we had a little exchange with the zone leaders and Elder Packard took
over the area and did fantastic! He's so solid! Man these 18 year old
missionaries are just coming out ready to work and get the ball rollin!
We had a big meeting up in Raleigh the next day for all the zone leaders
and district leaders, and I got to see my dad! (Trainer). He lives by a
gym and goes to it every morning around five thirty so he was looking
younger and skinnier than I remember! That was a really good 4 hour
meeting in which I was really able to take a lot away from it to bring back
and apply to our district, which in just a couple weeks is going to
have 4 sets of sisters instead of one... set of sisters... I have bundles of
them wherever I go! Haha oh and just a little side note, while I was in Newbern we passed by Nicholas Sparks' house. No big deal though ;)
Anyway,
it also happened to be my birthday last week, and it was on Saturday.
It started out really good! I opened some of the presents from the
family, one of which was a ¼ lb. Peanut butter cup, which I ate
instantly. (Not a good idea). We also went to breakfast at Hardy's
courtesy of my companion, and then we went out and found a new
investigator whose already reading the Book of Mormon and is excited to
come to church and learn more! Always the best birthday wish on the
mission! After that, the member we were with found out it was my
birthday and took us to Golden Corral for lunch! (It's been a big food
day) where we happened to see the Reece
family (who we live with) while
we were there. She came up to me, slapped my face a couple times softly
and said happy birthday. Haha! Mom's just can do that huh? So after
that,
we tried to continue working and not fall victim to our oncoming food
comas. We visited an investigator getting baptized, and talked
to her husband, and he's reading the Book of Mormon and seriously
considering joining, and will as soon as he
gets the answer. He's reading and praying about the Book of Mormon
sincerely so we have high hopes! After that, we went on down to the
Yost's house for a while. Then we went to a lesson, just kidding, I'll
say
more about dinner. DINNER AT THE YOST'S WAS FANTASTIC! We walked into
the Yost home,
and they had a little happy birthday thing hanging up with party hats
everywhere, and some Reese's Peanut Butter!!!!! That stuff is DAAANG
good!!! After we ate dinner, there was also... RASPBERRIES!!! One of the
greatest fruits God's given us on this earth!!!! Not to mention the
Reese's Ice Cream as well! Good grief I got spoiled sooo bad...I had a
bit of a selfish birthday! We put one candle in all of the raspberries
piled on a plate, and turned off the lights to sing! By the time the
lights went on they were almost gone! Man they were sooooo good!! I ate
them a little too fast, someone said something funny, and I may have
spit
some out.. haha oh man... It was a really good time. THANK YOU YOSTS!!!
They sure spoiled me and I'm very appreciative of it :) We went to a
lesson afterwards with another and had a great lesson and helped
him commit to the steps he has to take to be baptized, and then got
home to find a package on the stairs from a Katie Kirkham... Can't argue
with that to end the day well :):):) Haha and inside was a box of
life!!! I was overly spoiled on my birthday!!! I”m so grateful for
everything that everyone has done for me and I pray that you'll be able
to feel the blessings that come from being a charitable giver! I love
you all very much! Thanks for helping me push onto the 20's! We'll see
how these go ;)
Well, birthdays come and go, and the
mission carries on!! After church the next day, we drove back up to
Newbern so that I could interview 3 of the zone leader's investigators
for baptism. They were ready, and it was my first time doing that...
it's weird and a little scary to think that You're trusted from God to
make the decision if these people here are ready to make this promise
and covenant in their lives.. The last thing you want to do is put
someone through a promise that they're not ready to make, especially
when that promise is with God -_-. But with some prayer and preparation,
I
was able to interview them, and found them all ready to be baptized.
It's great to see that people are really changing their hearts and
preparing themselves to enter into the kingdom of God :) it's a good
place to be, so I'd like to see a lot more happening! So that was
neat, and because of this crazy week we haven't really been able to do a
lot of planning for next week, so I feel to an extent, we're flyin by
the seat of our pants here! But we're getting there ;) President
Burnhisel in the meeting said something pretty bold, but very true. He
said the thing that will change your life the most, and will become the
most valuable thing you learn on your mission, is the power and ability
of goal setting and planning. Interesting how those two things, above
everything are the things that bring the most change and growth in our
lives. Of course in high school classes you learn about why
you need to set goals and plan and what not, but I've gained such a
testimony of the importance of goals and planning!!! If you leave the
apartment, without your goals prayerfully embedded in your head, your
plans are going to mean nothing, and will not be nearly as effective or
successful, because when you don't believe or apply the goals you set,
you're denying the godliness in you :) so they're pretty important.
Another thing that has really hit me
this
last week, is the power of prayer. Now as we all know, prayer is
fantastic and does miracles! But how much do we pray? If you were to
think right now of the average times you pray everyday, is it really
that much? How many minutes, or seconds a day, do you give to your
Father in Heaven in communication? I remember very well a week on my
mission where I just felt very hopeless and a little lost on what I
needed to be doing, and how I could bring the spirit back into my life. I
studied hard on the spirit and was brought to the necessity of faith to
posses it. Faith is action, so I thought of the everyday answers of
prayer, scripture reading, and church going, and how those simple things
when used constantly allow us to keep our baptismal covenants, and
allow us to receive the Holy Ghost as we do so. That next Sunday, we
sang, “Did You Think to Pray?” and that was that push over the hill!
I've made a very sincere effort to focus on praying almost all the
time for everything, and I can promise you from personal experience,
that the difference is unquestionable. When you pray more frequently,
you are literally allowing yourself to receive God's personal will for
you all the time, and as you act on your prayers, you will have sincere
hope and happiness in all you do, with the assurance of peace that you
are doing exactly what your Father in Heaven would have you do. Ahhh
gotta go, but I challenge everyone to think of that average number in
your head for just a second, and times it by two or three!!!! Pray 2-3
times as much as you do now on a regular basis, and you will feel the
difference!! That I testify and promise to you!! You'll never know until
you try, and once you'll try, you'll never stop :) I love you all!!!!
Thanks again for a great birthday! Good-bye until next week when I write
and send this to
my mom and she puts it on the blog for you to read, again!!! Keep up the
good work y'all!
Love, Elder Langford
