"Magic Pennies, Crazy Chihuahua, and...the humble are most ready to come unto Christ."

Hello everyone! 

 

Wow, miracles this week... I'll try to be a lot more organized in the next blog... 

Sorry for the disorganized thoughts here... Next week things will be a bit more organized!
So to start off, we called a referral, and he requested a blessing last night...  I've never given a blessing that was so straight forward.  The spirit quickly took over my own words and they just flowed.  This man was a spiritual giant.  He told us right afterwards, that he had the gift to discern spirits. He then talked about how the most important thing that we can develop, and the  greatest power on this earth, is the power of unconditional love. He went on to talk about how any scenario can be overcome as we learn to develop that trait. As we walked out, I peered my head back in and told him thanks, because that's exactly what I've been studying, trying to learn and better understand.  Without  missing a beat, he said, "I know. I can discern your spirit."  It's probably one of the most powerful moments on my mission. I promise that Heavenly Father answers prayers, and a lot of the times, he answers prayers for us through others. 

Someone in sacrament meeting talked about how we all have a magic penny, that whenever we give it away, we get more, it multiplies. The hardest things to give, the biggest of our magic pennies, always have the greatest increase. It's a wonderful thing :)

We also saw a small little chiwawa (can't spell it) that bit it's own big bulging eye out... Not exactly as spiritual, but just an interesting thing you don't always see. 

We have an investigator, who literally has 0 money, his written contract with someone who was going to pay the utilities was not honored. He doesn't have a job, and has been diligently searching for weeks. He moved out here with no familiy or nothing, and has had many freezing cold nights with no water, little food, and just about nothing, living off of candles instead of electricity.  He's also been reading, praying, and coming to church... and is the most humble man you'll ever meet. We've pulled his laundry from him, because he was washing it in the sink, and have got him many warm meals in member's homes, a long with a couple jackets and blankets. He's been the most humble and ready to learn investigator that I've ever had. He's done everything, and has fought to give up smoking. He said, "I've tried before, but this time's different... I feel something inside of me, that's pulling me away from them I don't even want to smoke anymore..." He recognizes it's the spirit. (we also went on an exchange with President Bernhisel, and taught a great lesson with him!!) Yesterday, he almost broke down. He said NOTHING is going right.  He laughs so he doesn't cry, and is just ready for something to happen. We smiled and told him that's so great! The Lord has literally put him to the most humble of points, the most that he could deal with, to try his faith, and he continued to read. That same night, our exchange offered to get him showered up, and also got him a bus pass for his potential job interview. The other member that came with us, talked about how he used to work at the same place, and that they'd be able to get him transferred, if he got hired, to the closer location. The next day at ward council, someone who was subbing for the high priest group leader, talked about how he was a convert, and had a delicious coffee substitute for him. He's also coming with us to a member's home for dinner again on Tuesday. He was also walking outside last night on the road that our church is on, and was able to catch the broadcast. At church he also had some of his question's answered in Gospel Principles, and was invited to be baptized by our teacher. Needless to say, He has been guided by the Lord, as he has done the small and the simple things. Reading. praying. Trying to quit, and coming to church. God is a great paradoxical worker, and I believe that part of this is so that we have to live by faith, to understand the sense of what reality really is. Bro Brady's fought against all odds, and just like him, as we all continue to rely upon the Atonement of Jesus Christ, by keeping his small and simple commandments, you too will be able to see how many people God sends your way, to answer the troubled call of your soul. He's a lot closer than you think, and will always invite and entice those you love to do good in your behalf. I Love you all so much, and am grateful for your examples!!  

This was a great week, with about 18 lessons, and 8 new investigators. The work is hastening! Love what you live, so you can live what you love, so that you can love to share how you live, because the way you live, is love. 

Life is to be loved :) 

LOVE YOU!!

Elder Langford

New Year, New Companion, and Defending the President!!

Hello everyone,

Hooo Boy!  What a week it was!   I said farewell to my companion, Elder Mayberry.   As he got in the truck heading towards Raleigh, and soon the airport, I had a feeling for some reason that day, as he was leaving, that this was going to be a really hard day... (a good challenge to have).  Sure enough, there was some crazy opposition that happened.  Until my new companion arrived, I got to teach about 2-3 lessons with the great help of the spirit, but a little on my own. All was well though! it was a privilege.  The opposition was with the person we were on exchange with.  He had some mixed feelings about some things, and is a little quick to start wrestling in the mud when things get dirty, if you get my drift... He started to go off, telling us how President Bernhisel, (my mission President), isn't led by the Lord, and said several other things not in the same category as fantastic.  I knew, that I had to keep up a good sense of Charity for him. I continued to simply bear my testimony that we knew that the President was being led by the Lord, and left him at that.  We had a couple mighty prayers, and told him no matter what he said, that we still loved him.  He had caught onto some super negative spirit... and it almost got us. 

  

We also that day, had a to plan for a huge zone meeting that we hadn't hardly touched for the next day for our great group of 20 companionships.  We had about an hour to prepare.  While being a bit spiritually exhausted and keeping a good ol' smile on our faces.  Well, the meeting came, and it was the most guided meeting we've ever had... Those words I spoke, were not my own, and I've never felt like I've been so carried before by my Father in Heaven. I'm so grateful for a Savior, that has carried our burdens, so that when our backs become heavy laden, he truly does the pushing... It's so great to picture that! Think of him, next to you, seeing you just down trodden, and beat down by the storms of life, and with all of the charity he has, and the strength and knowledge he's gained through experiencing our struggles, gives a huge lunge, making our burdens so much lighter! He's there! and when you start pushing, you better believe he's right next to you, pushing away as well!  He makes it light! He gives us trials, to trust in him more!!  Just keep pushing!!! :D

I got my new companion.  His name is Elder Edman.  He is from Sandy, Utah and also a zone leader.  We got along just like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

 

We went on an exchange, and I asked an experienced, 18 years of working at Subway,  worker to sign her name in my sandwich in chipotle.  I then gave her a card to our church. You can't end  better than that!

Ahh,  I wish I had more time.  Miracles are happening every day!!

-We talked to an investigator family, and they said that the two main differences that they see in our church, are, "The personal relationship that we have with Jesus Christ, and the light that's in our eyes and lives, as we live according to the truths that we've been given." He said that that's the reasons he invited us back to their home.

 

-I had the privilege of baring my testimony twice on Sunday.There was this cute little 6 year old behind me who was going to go up and gettiing ready, I turned to her and said that if she went, I'd go with her! We walked down the isle together, got to the steps, she stopped, and ran/walked back... Haha it was really sad... but good! I was writing down all the things that people were saying they were grateful for during sacrament meeting. I was able to bear a testmony through the spirit of simple gratitude and it's power.   

-Then I played the piano in the YSA branch meeting... the adventure continues!!! I

I love you all so much, and can't wait to write more next week!!!!

Love, Elder Langford

"22 Pancakes, New Lyrics to a Christmas Fav, and Let the Lord help make your New Year's Resolutions."

The blog!!

This was one of the best Christmas times I've had! We had the chance to eat. Ebel skeevers...& mini pancakes... with some homemade jam.  22 of those later, we felt pretty great and full!

We even went caroling... (We made up a song to the tune of, "Oh Come All Ye Faithful!""") 

OH COME AND BE BAPTIZED

BE YE ALL CONVERTED!!!

OH COME, TO SACRAMENT FOR WAAAATER AND BREADDDDD

FAITH TO REPENTANCE, HAVE YOUR BURDENS LIFTED

OH COME UNTO THE SAVIOR OH COME UNTO THE SAVIOR 

OH COME UNTO THE SAVIOR, YOUR YOKE, WILL  BE LIGHT!!

I don't have too much time, but I do want to share a priceless lesson that explains the spirit very simply.   Doing the lord's will is so easy.   We all know what the right thing to do is in our hearts.   We all know the struggle that keeps us from feeling the pure love of Christ, and I hope that as you read over this story, your heart will be touched.   Especially with this season, that you'll be able to let your burdens go, and let the Savior rebuild you! 
We stopped by a less active member that we'd previously visited, and he invited his two little children of about 6 and 8 to join us. Before we prayed, we asked them if they'd ever listened with their heart before. They said sometimes, and that they'd listen to what it told them as we shared our message. After we prayed and followed up with their father's reading, he said that he'd not had the time to read throughout the week. We went on to help his two kids read the Book of Mormon. They read Alma 37:6 "by small and simple things, great things come to pass.”  Right after she read it, we said, "Great Job!" and gave her a high five, and then asked, “Now, how did that high five make you feel?”  She said that it made her feel really happy inside. We went on to talk to these great kids about how we can do small things every day to help people be happy.  A time that they had run five miles all by themselves, was just one step at a time. We asked them, "What do you think would happen, if you read one verse from the Book of Mormon everyday?  Just one verse?" The little girl’s face scrunched up a bit and she took some time to think about it, and said, "We'd be a happy family, and we'd come closer to Jesus.”   We asked her how her heart felt, and she said that is was, "all warm inside, and that it made her feel very happy.”  She leaned onto her dad and had such a sincere smile of peace on her face. We asked her what her heart was telling her to do, and she said, "We need to read the Book of Mormon every day and pray, so we can become more like our Savior". She promised that she would read to her brother every night, until he could read to her as well. Their father offered the closing prayer, with gratitude and tears, thanking the Lord for his family. We are so grateful for the spirit, and it's simple power, to testify to hearts of the Love of Jesus Christ.
It's so simple.   One day at a time.   If you've got a friend, who gave all for you, and all he asks is to feel his superior love and empathy and to do your best, would you do it? It gets easier and easier one scripture at a time.  Nothing can stop you except yourself, from feeling his love in your heart. Let him make your new years resolutions!  I Love you all so much!!! Have a great new year!! I'll probably be seeing you sometime in it!

Love,  Elder Langford

"Beward of Fans!" "Singing and Playing Piano at Church." & "Smiling because the Gospel is True."

Merrrrry Christmas!!!! 

Just to start things off, I want you all to know, that you should always be aware of your surroundings, especially when you're hanging up things on your wall... and there's a fan looking to hit you in the ear... I nailed it, hard enough that the whole fan stopped it's full rotation... We were in the middle of a phone call to the sister missionaries, and we were talking to them about a study on positivity. PERFECT TIMING!!!  I got to testify towards the fact that I have TWO EARS!!  so one didn't hurt as bad!!

I'm so sorry to everyone... I spent way to much time on emailing Christmas notes to people, and now, I'm out of time....  I'll be saying some of the points of this week in next week's letter as well...

Highlights of the Week:

We've seen miracles!

We've had the most humble of investigators!!

We've seen missionaries change their lives!!!

We've seen people feel the spirit, with a desire to change their lives!!!

We've been on exchanges with the assistants!!

Our bikes have been plastic wrapped by one of my sons (Missionaries)!

I FOUND A SRIRACHA SHIRT AT WAL MART! 

and......

I LOVE it when missionaries come up to my companion and me, asking, "Why are you so happy all the time?"  and we get to say with smiles ear to ear, "BECAUSE THE GOSPEL'S TRUE!!!"

Ahh... ok... few more things...

We sang "O Holy Night"  in sacrament meeting and...

I played "Angels We Have Heard on High" in sacrament meeting, (CRAZY!!)

... but the most touching thing, was when the President pulled out his guitar, and played,

"Silent Night!"........ Wow.... I still feel the chills from that incredible performance! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!  NEVER stop reading the Book of Mormon and you'll be able to see how many times your name is meant to be in that book!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! GIVE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING!!!
Love, Elder Langford

"Insane or in vane??, Get the roots, not just the leaves, Questions Answered, and BOGOTUS????"

Blog! 

Haha, Ohhh worst case scenario of procrastinating the time I have of writing this blog again! We have so many great stories to tell, so here goes!

Funny story, The Bishop's son said that he learned in church, to never take the Lord's name insane... Hahaha true doctrine. We need to take the Lord seriously! He's not crazy!

Also funny.  You've gotta love the south. When someone has approximately five seconds at a door when you're contacting them before they shut it, they choose to take that time to lift their shirt, rub their belly, and then say no thanks. Gotta love it.

We also had a great conference call this week with all of the district leaders! We've got four districts, and about 34 missionaries we serve, so we had a great talk on how it's best to serve them individually and helping them now with the problems they might struggle with forever. As missionary leaders, we have a really special calling to minister, and the Lord has given us a chance to not simply pluck the leaves off of the weeds of these missionary's problems and struggles in life, but has given us the power, to pull them up from the roots!

We talked a lot about how we can choose to help people for a day, or for a lifetime, and how it's interesting that the smallest acts of kindness, and a loving heart to simply ask, 'What can I do for you? (as Ammon of the Book of Mormon did),  the smallest things, take away the biggest problems!  The concept of faith in Christ is so simple and is sometimes hard to understand but makes so much sense!!  It's all about just doing it, and serving to take out the roots, not simply to chop the insignificant imperfections we all have down for them to grow back in a couple days!  Anyway, get to the core! It's not as hard as you think to change someone's life, all you have to do is want it, and God does the rest!!  So go for the roots ;)

We've also been meeting with the most humble man we've met named Mr. B.  He's so prepared! This man is 50-60, has no job, (searching hard!), and simply asked us one night, if he could have some candles to light his home.  He also called us saying that he might not be able to come to church if it rains because he wouldn't have sufficient means to walk and stay dry, (of course we got a ride for him!) He says that lately he's been having a problem with losing his memory, but it's been miraculous how the simple things that he's learned, have truly been by the spirit and no other way. The concepts he is grasping are so essential to his conversion... It's almost like his memory's so bad right now, that he's having to pull back to some pre-mortal info to catch up. He's doing great, and will be baptized in less than a month!

We also had a lesson in the Stake President's home with their neighbors, who are doing absolutely great! We had a church tour with them.  We invited them before they began, to ask any question they wanted, to write them down, and gave them the promise that their questions would be answered. As we ended, one of them prayed, thanking the Lord for the questions that were answered, and the spirit that was felt... 

Ahh time's up, but really quick, we ran into this man, who was a Baptist... Haha!  He came up with a new word, and kept screaming it at us BOGOTUS!!! He asked my companion what bogus means? He told him and then he screamed back in his face, "BOGOTUS!!  MEANS IT NEVER EXISTED!"  We followed this delightfully lost soul for a couple blocks and he asked us to get in his car.  We prayed, the Spirit said NO, and we gave him a Book of Mormon.   He smiled, walked away, stopped, and said, thanks...... for NOTHING!!  Haha, I love people!   Maybe one day he'll read a page or two, he'll change his perspective, and we'll be there to teach him when he's ready!

Well, I love you! all!!! Really a lot!! Keep on giving like the little stream!

Love, Elder Langford

Christmas Devotional, Let the Spirt do the Talking, and.....The Missionary work will never end!!!!

Blog

First off.... whoever didn't watch the Christmas devotional last night, I would invite you to REPENT!!  :D :D :D  That's one of the happiest words we have as a missionary.   I know if you watch it, your perspective on how cute little primary kids are when they're all singing together to Elder Nelson, will be magnified, and you'll be forever grateful for the particle of faith shown to go watch that delightful video!  :) It'll change your life.

ALSO....

Wow so many more things have happened this week... I LOVE being a zone leader... We had our first zone leader training meeting, and it was one of the best moments I've had on my mission so far.  Seeing these 32 missionaries, under our ministry and responsibility, was truly touching as we sang, "Dear To the Heart of the Shepherd." I truly felt my Savior's love for them.  We taught a good 20 minutes on just the simplicity of what we teach. Faith and repentance!  It relates to everything we doo! Oh whoops I did a typo... doo... I better show some faith now that I've realized my imperfections, and show forth a desire to improve so that my perspective can change! 'do'. There. Now I can feel more confident at typing, and I'll be able to have a more firm faith in the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how I can tackle bigger words, like SUCCESSFUL, because that's how the zone conference went!

As we finished the meeting, we gave some concluding thoughts... I have never felt as much as a conduit of the spirit.  They truly were not my words, and they just kept on coming out!  It's incredible what the mixture of the 3 wanna be missionary words do when they get mixed together.  When you LOVE those you serve, you do your BEST. When you're doing your BEST out of LOVE, the SPIRIT takes over. It's a great feeling, when you have a surety of knowledge, that everything you say, is exactly what Christ would have you say... I've been so humbled this week, and I'm incredibly grateful for the many chances that I've had to change my life! Ahh time's a going quickly, but something else great happened,   We had a FANTASTIC lesson with three new investigators at the Stake President's house.  Ahh I just love how the spirit takes over! (Then right after, it gives you a slap in the face of how much better you can become).  Needless to say, I'm slapping myself back into shape this week! We also got called to give talks on Friday night for Sunday in the YSA Ward.  I don't know how to explain it, but literally again, fifteen minutes flew by on the pulpit! The spirit is the best teacher, and the more I simply get out of the way of it's teachings, the more effective of a missionary I've become. It's always been there, it just needs more and more attention!   Miracles are happening!  We're having a blast, working out hard, and praying that it snows!!

I LOVE being a missionary! The great thing is, it never has to end!  Just the name tag part. ...and the suits. ...and the shoes.  ...and the North Carolina barbecue! 
That's about it though. I love y'all so much!!  I'll talk to some of you soon on Christmas!

Love, Elder Langford

"Polite Rolls on Thanksgiving, I'm melting, I'm melting.... & A changed Heart."

Hello, 

Haha, well, I'm terrible... I didn't save too much time for this, but I'll hurry and get as much as I can out! 

 

Had a great week and a great Thanksgiving! We ate at the Walker's home, and had a wonderful meal!  I ate, (Politely) about 8 roles, and even had some pie.... Oh how the mission changes us... Then we planned for the zone, and basically did that... That was about all of our Thanksgiving Day. Wouldn't have it any other way!!

We had a fantastic week! I'll tell you about some of the miracles/stories.  

GREAT STORY: We contacted a man who came out in a towel, had a decent conversation. We handed him a mormon.org card, and he said, "Ha,oh no thanks, I'm a witch..." Hahaha oh man... Probably shouldn't shower, he may melt... Funny part was my companion and I, were both not surprised, because it was the second witch we'd both seen. Praise the south.

GREATER STORY: , I had the great opportunity to bear my testimony on Sunday.  Someone from Mebane came all the way down to say goodbye... He was an investigator, and he said, that the influence that I specifically had on him, has changed his life, and has led him to seriously consider being a member of this church. He drove 3-4 hours, just to see me... I felt so honored...  A man later in priesthood informed me that he had worked with this man for many years on a shuttle.  He said that he was a hard man to crack.... I know that it was all the spirit. It was nothing I've done! I know that the Lord puts us in places with specific people, because he loves all his children. Only a loving Father in Heaven knows how to use all of the tools perfectly; to uplift, strengthen, and bless all of his children at the same time.   Like a successful parent once said, "Killing one bird with two stones." ;) (Personal family joke)! 

Sorry time is short. This was a great week.  We've given many a blessing, and we are seeing miracles!!!

I love all y'all!! 

Love, Elder Langford  :)