It's all about the food: La Vita E Bella July 3, 2013

Ciao tutti!!

Another week here at the MTC has flown by! I can't believe that it's already P-day again! The days here are really long, but they also seem to just fly on by. It's a weird feeling. We have now seen 3 new waves of missionaries here so it makes us feel really old and like we have been here forever because we have!!!! I'm so ready to go to Italy!!!!!! Only twenty more days! I'm so excited to go and everyday I get even more excited. I know I still have alot to learn here, but I just love speaking Italian, and teaching in Italian, and I'm just loving the Italian people already!!!! As I told you last week, Anziano Erickson and I have two investigators, Sebastian and Daniel. We have taught them both twice now and we have our third lesson with both tomorrow. I can't wait. During our last few lessons, we have been really prepared to teach our lesson, but then we don't even use it because the Spirit directs us on an entirely different path. I have a very strong testimony that if we put in the work to prepare ourselves to teach, the Lord will bless us with knowledge and guidence even it is for a lesson that was in no way planned to be taught!!

I have felt the Spirit more than I ever have in my life and I treasure every small encounter I have with Him. I can't wait to go out to Italy and teach real people who are waiting to hear the gospel and my testimony. I pray for them every night.

On Sunday night, we had the opportunity to watch Elder Bednar's talk from the MTC Christmas Devotional from 2010 entitled "The Character of Christ". That talk seriously changed my life. I look at the world in a completely different way now. There aren't enough words to describe what I was feeling, what I still am feeling, but I will share one part of his talk with you. He said that the character of Christ is turning outward towards others when the natural man would turn inward towards himself. He told us that we must be like the Savior and even when the world seems to be against us, we must turn out and help others. Obviously Elder Bednar said it in much more beautiful language, but I would encourage you all to try and find this talk and read it. It seriously has helped me come closer to my Savior as I try and emmulate his perfect example.

I love speaking Italian. I love learning more of it and speaking it and just everything about it! I study it all the time and I'm pretty good at not having to struggle really hard to find the words to talk anymore. The Lord has helped me so much and I thank him everysingle day. Sunday night as Anziano Erickson and I were leaving our District meeting, a member of our Branch Presidency stopped us and told us that he looked at our teaching records and he was very impressed. He said that we were doing an amazing job. As he said that, I immediately thought of Alma 26:12. I come back to that scripture everytime I recieve a compliment or I learn something new. It is so true, the Lord is helping me every step of the way and I would be nothing without him.

In less spiritual news, I see old BYU friends everywhere and I always get so happy when I see them, especially Elder Brown. How can I not smile when I'm around him! Our district plays soccer or calcio every gym time and I love it!!! I miss watching games so much, but I love doing the Lord's work. I'm really jealous that you all get to go visit Erin and Dan in New Jersey. I miss family vacations. I'm so happy to see that Terry's lawn is finally finished! It looks great!!!!! Please tell Elder Jackson to tell the rest of his district that I miss going district meetings with them and to thank them again for letting me tag along with them so much! I got the package today. THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I love everything in it, especially Jude's flag. He is so cute and I miss him a lot. It is really really REALLY hot here and I'm pretty much dying everyday. But the best part is that it is only going to get hotter and Italy is going to be even hotter!! Yay!!!!

I love you all and I love hearing from you all!!! So please write me or email me! I want to find out what's happening in the real world! Speaking of people writing me, I want to give a special shout-out to Holly for writing me last week. I got her letter after my email time so I couldn't mention her in last week's email. I hope you are getting all of the pictures! And don't worry Mom, I will get a picture in front of the map. Vi amo tantissimo!!!!!

Anziano Langlois