"Pollen everywhere, YSA Baptisms, Hope your Biology teacher lives!, Focus on the roots-not the branches, Favorite Toy & the Ressurection."

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What a great week it's been down here in Fort Brag!  It just keeps getting better and better.

It actually isn't that humid yet! Its more of just completely covered in pollen right now... Haha!  It's all over everywhere, and it's played a number on my eyes. I've been scratching them, but I'm finally going to just throw in the eye drops and leave them be. :)

This week in particular, we have been teaching one of our investigators.   She's been so faithful, and has lit her Book of Mormon up with highlighters and notes she's had as she's been exploring the words of Christ. She asks the best questions, helping us learn by the spirit to find the best answers. We were eating pizza with some of the YSA's, (Little Caesars of course), and she mentioned some concerns that she had. She told us that her family was talking about how they would like her to be baptized in her church in Jacksonville, NC (which happens to be located a block away from the church down there").  She has felt that this was the right church to be baptized in, yet felt a lot of pressure, and wasn't sure what she needed to do. We had a great lesson on priesthood authority. We have an analogy and asked what if her biology teacher was killed, and all her books, class outlines, and curriculum were tossed in a fire, how hard would it be for some student called up, having no authority to teach, to get it right?... and even if he had bits and pieces, helping kids to walk out with partial knowledge, it wouldn't give any college credit, or any future help for their education. She  understood it really well, and talked about how this was an answer that would have to come from God, not us, herself, or her family. We met with her a couple days later and began to talk about the plan of salvation. It was a fantastic lesson. We were talking about the kingdoms of Glory, and towards the end she paused and said, "whoa.... I have that weird feeling again... " "I'm going to be baptized here on the 26th of April, if y'all are still good for that?" We all came to a consensus of YES.

Then, we had a baptism for another YSA who had been an "almost" member his whole life, and had somehow lost, or not received record of being baptized. He didn't have a change of clothes, nor did he have a white selection of... underclothing.... so we had to double up on his baptismal suits, and had a great baptism none the less.  :)

If you haven't watched conference, you should toootally watch it -  I noticed many trends about how the storms of life are coming upon us, how we need to be bold in "showing our faith', and how most importantly, our faith needs to be centered in Jesus Christ, with no substitutes. There's  a lot of branches, leaves, and fruit on the big tree of the gospel, but as the storm comes, we need to remember that the true power of it all, comes from the root of our Savior. It's sad to see how people get so caught up and hyper focused on a branch, that they lose sight of the root, and fall away as the branch does in the bigger storms. Always put Christ first, and don't place your foundation upon anything else, no matter how nearest to the truth it is. I love Alma's council: "Preach unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart; teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil, with their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ."(alma37:33)

One of the members that we were having dinner with asked us, if we could, to incorporate the resurrection into our lesson we were having with them. We had a packed day, with nothing preplanned, but as we sat at their dinner  table, our minds were working hard... I felt a feeling of peace, and knew that something would pop in there. As we sat down for the lesson. We asked the kids, if they had the opportunity to give every kid in the world, their favorite toy, with the promise that it would never break, fade, or become boring, would they do it?  They said oh yeah!  Then we asked the kids what their favorite toy was.  They mentioned a skateboard. We told them that it could only happen, if they would be willing to give their favorite toy to us, and allow us to go break it in half, and throw it in the trash...  They said no way! We then talked about how Our loving Heavenly Father had to sacrifice his son, in order for all of us to have the chance to return to live him, and to inherit the graceful gift of resurrection that he provided for us. It was a very touching lesson, and the spirit was strong! It's moments like that that make everything worth it always and every time forever and just yeah.  So good.

Well, not as good, is the fact that my time is done!  Great to write to y'all! Keep up the good work and remember, if you haven't watched conference, you need to watch it -_-
Love you!  Elder Langford