Ciao tutti!
Again,
I'm sorry for last week. It was just kinda crazy. But don't worry, we
have a very relaxing day planned. We are going to go play some
basketball and calcio, so I'm pretty excited. Also, shout out to Erin.
Happy Birthday! You are such an awesome sister!!
OK, temporal things first. So my package is here Mom, but I haven't got it yet. I think I should get it next Thursday
because of a mix-up, but we'll see. I know it's here in Italy though.
Next, sports. Wow! What a crazy week for sports! I'm so glad to hear
that my team got a piece of the WCC championship, and that they are into
the tourney again. I will definitely want to hear all about that when
it happens. Weber St. first? I'm OK with that. That is HUGE that bball
win against Stanford. I really hope they beat St. Mary's. I'm still
hurting from last year, but oh well. And Stanford coming through to beat
Oregon again? That's crazy and sounded like a great game! But the real
awesome thing is that good old WHS beat Oaks!!!! That game is always so
much fun to watch, and what an ending. I probably would have died if I
was there. I would have been going nuts and probably stormed the field.
That is such an awesome way to win! And now that we are actually doing
good, I'm happy, because I thought that it was going to be an
interesting year.
OK,
now onto more spiritual matters. haha. So this past week (like I
already mentioned), we had the conference with Anziano Teixiera, and
that was really awesome. But after the Capi Zona came back from
consiglio, we learned the truth. So basically our mission isn't doing
that great right now in Europe. In fact, we are the lowest baptising
mission in Europe. So hearing this, I've decided to personally do all
that I can in my own work here in Prato to move the work forward. I know
the rest of the mission feels this push to do better and work harder
and everything. So we've been trying to literally talk to everyone. We
have been passing out pass-along cards like no other and we are starting
to see results. So the other day I was on a scambio and we didn't
really have any success doing our finding work, but we were still doing
it and passing out bigliettini left and right. At the end of the night,
we still had 3 left, so we decided to pray to know who we should give
them too. After doing that, we headed off towards home searching for
these 3 people. We found two of them and they seemed slightly
interested, but nothing special. Then I stopped this ragazzo and
starting talking to him. Long story short, he wanted to hear about our
message, but didn't have time, so he gave us his address and phone
number, and told us to come by sometime and teach his family. Miracle!!!
It was literally the last 10 minutes of the night or so, like it always
is. Then during another scambio I did this week, we had 6 lessons
planned and it looked like it was going to be a good day. But before we
even left the house, 3 had cancelled on us and then the other three also
gave us bidoni. So there was every reason for this day to stink, but we
kept our heads up high and kept talking to people. At the end of the
night, we ended up teaching 3 lessons. It really was a miracle. And
another quick miracle. So like I said, we are really trying to pass out
bigliettini like crazy, so we were on our bikes yesterday
waiting at a stoplight and I decided to give one to this man next to
us, so I did. Then the light changed and we drove off. We were then
waiting at the next light, when he came up to us again and told us that
he wanted to meet with us tomorrow.
We gladly set up an appointment and got his number. We are planning on
seeing him tonight, so I'm super excited. I've seen the Lord bless my
life and my work so much this past week. I know we can turn this mission
around and put it back at the top like it was only 2 years ago.
Time
for some crazy stories. So on the same scambio where we got 6 bidoni,
we were heading in for lunch and we decided to pass by the fiume (river)
to see if anyone was there. I saw this guy sitting on a bench and just
drove past, but then I was prompted to go back, so I did. Right as we
start talking to him, he says "who sent you to me?". Turns out that he
is in a really hard place right now and was about to go drown himself in
the river. He said that he had nothing to live for and wanted to know
why we came and talked to him. I bore powerful testimony of God's love
for him and why we have these difficult times and was just really trying
to follow the spirit. He told us that he loved us and was really
grateful that we talked to him. We tried to do all that we could and
then he said bye and left. We then said a prayer for him and I really
hope he felt the spirit when we talked to him. I'm so glad that I
recognized the spirit and went to talk to him. If I hadn't, who knows
what would have happened. The Lord really does put people in our path
and puts us in their's so that we can help his children. I'm so grateful
and humbled by the opportunity to be a missionary of the Lord right
now.
Now the next few stories are just kinda silly, but still crazy. So we get ready to go to church on Sunday
and we walk out the door only to see that it's pouring. So we go and
grab our jackets and set off on our bikes...in the rain...to the
church....which is about 20 minutes away....in the rain. When we got
there, it looked like we had gone swimming. I turned my shoe upside down
and a cup of water fell out. It was nuts. And of course it stopped
right as we got to church, and then started up again right when we left
church for back home. But I guess I don't really have anything to
complain about. I didn't have that in the jungles of Guatemala for 2
years. haha. Then the past two days, we have had ridiculous amounts of
wind. It's been so bad that when we were biking home last night, the
wind literally stopped us in our tracks. It was crazy. Luckily today is
not that bad, but oh man, it was crazy.
Any who,
I can't believe that I've been out for almost 6 months. Christmas is
next month. WHAT???? I can't believe I will be skyping you all in about
40 days or so. That's crazy. It literally feels like I've been here for
about 2 weeks. The transfer is half-way over and that is nuts. I'm going
to try and see if I can send home a Christmas package. Its kinda
expensive, but I'm pretty sure I can do it. Any who, we'll see.
Thank
you so much for your love and your prayers. I have learned so much
about the power of prayer. I've literally been trying to pray before and
after we do anything, so I can have the spirit and be guided to know
how the Lord wants his work done. I know that if we ask Heavenly Father
for help and we thank him for all that he's done for us often, we will
be guided by his spirit and we will be able to recognize the promptings
that come to us everyday easier.
Continue
to be the incredible member missionaries that you are. Keep helping the missionaries. Keep being such great
examples to me and never let yourself doubt. Like President Uchtdorf
said last conference, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". I
know, without question, that this is the restored church of God and
that Thomas S. Monson is his prophet, seer, and revelator on the Earth
to help us and to guide us back to our Father in Heaven.
I
love you all so much and I want you all to know that I pray for you all
daily. Thank you for your love and support, and I wish you all the best
in this upcoming week. Remember that I love you, but more importantly,
remember that your Savior and Father in Heaven love you more than you
can even comprehend.
Vi voglio tanto bene,
Anziano Langlois
PS. We did some plan of salvation drawings the other week too!
Chalk drawing of Plan on Salvation |
1000 year old castle |
Bridge 1000 years old |
Apparently Anziano Walker thinks he is a tree |
KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK!!! YOU'RE AWESOME!!! :D
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