It's all about the food: Crazy Times November 13, 2013

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!

PPS. That castle and bridge are about 1000 years old. Yeah, that's pretty cool.