Monday, April 29, 2013

 Welcome to Fayetteville & Cleanliness is Next to Godliness!

Update from Elder Langford, April 29, 2013

Hi everyone,
Before you read Jeff's blog, I wanted to put an excerpt from Jeff's weekly letter to me today.  He just got transferred this week, and he is describing his new apartment.  AWESOME!!
    "mom, you’ll be so proud of me. I walked into a little bit of a mess… the kitchen was pretty bad and the desk was completely unorganized… first thing I did when I came was cleaned… I told him (new companion), that we wouldn’t be able to feel the spirit until we cleaned that place up! I spent the next couple lunch’s cleaning the kitchen and what not, so now it looks pretty good! But yeah it’s a nice little apartment!"  



Hi everyone,
Man… I don’t even know where to start…. This has been one of the longer weeks in the field! I got shipped out from Newbern to Fayetteville a day earlier because the Elder’s companion in Newbern became an assistant, so we stayed in his area for the day. Turns out that’s where Pepsi started. Pretty neat!


So Fayetteville, it’s great! The Lord’s blessed us a lot down here. We’ve really tried to stay focused on the work, and trying to see everyone as they can become. We were able to get out there this week, and found 9 new investigators! Woot! A lot of people were ready to hear the message, and we’re looking forward to further teaching and working with these people that we’ve found! In the beginning of this week, I’ve never felt more successful as a missionary. It’s a time where I think I can honestly say that I was trying my very best. 2 of the main attributes I would credit that to are: trying my best to think of others, and setting goals.


Something crazy that happened, President Bernhisel gave us a call, and told us that he’s planning on coming to the district meeting and out with us a little bit afterwards!  Plus the zone leaders of the area are planning on exchanging with us, so they’re coming as well… Should be a great meeting!

My New companion's name is Elder Pettitt, and he’s a goofball! He DJ’d a lot, played a lot of video games, and knows a lot about speakers. I’ve been able to notice that his testimony always brings peace. It’s so interesting… whenever he bears it to a member or an investigator, it truly invites the Holy Ghost, and it’s very easy to feel. We’ve seen a lot of recent success together! Before the transfer he said that in the last 12 weeks he’d taught only one lesson to someone, and now in this last week we’ve taught 11… so the work is there and ready to be done now!


Again we’ve had, a very successful week, and I felt very satisfied with my efforts throughout the week… Then, idk…, something kind of switched off… the second half of the week was a little bit more rocky… so I’m trying to figure out what I’ve stopped doing -_- So a prayer or two would always be welcomed! The main thing is just focus. If we can learn to focus 100% on what we can do to be most effective in the moment we’re in, and not spend our time in fear or worry if we aren’t successful. If we can't learn to be more focused on the moment, and focused on others, we’ll miss so much of the inspiration we need to live our lives. The reason we set goals is to direct that focus, and give us the confidence and faith we need to get everything done that we need to. Setting goals allows us to maintain the work of our plans, so when we start to become lax in following through with our goals, and forget about them, we feel like nothing we’re doing is successful. If you don’t have a conscious goal in your head to accomplish something, you will never really see a difference in your progression… Setting Goals is huge! It was huge for me at the beginning, and I feel that perhaps, that could be the problem I’m in now… I need to recommit to the goals I’ve set, and become more focused on accomplishing them… It’s the way that we can focus more on being ourselves in the work. If you can’t act confidently as yourself, then something needs to change. And so, that’s the focus now. It’s eatin at me right now because I really like to use this time to focus more on the need of others in this blog and not my own, so obviously if I’m so focused on my own self right now, something’s gotta change… hopefully by next week I’ll get back on track and will be able to make a little more sense… 
I love you all so much and you’re in my prayers!!! Don’t ever lose focus on what’s important!  Love, Elder Langford

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