Crazy Little Miracles August 20, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!!

Well, to answer your question Dad, we are in Milano right now. Our typical internet point in Pavia is closed for ferie, so we decided to come to Milano to do it, because it's cheap. However, on our way here, we had to take the slow train, and then we pulled into a stop and we looked out the window and what did we see??? We saw Sorella Baer and her companion with all their bags (they are going home early for school). We waved from the train, but then Anz Salmon and I decided to get off at the next stop, run to the next binario and get on the train that was heading back in the other direction so that we could help them with their bags. We did and then we just kinda hung out with them while all the other 5 or so missionaries showed up. The De Simone's also showed up, so it was pretty fun. This was an awesome little miracle because I really wanted to say goodbye to Sorella Baer, but I knew that I wouldn't have the chance. Or would I!!! Heavenly Father works in funny ways. haha. It was weird to see a bunch of missionaries I know going home. It gets weirder every time. Any who, so we got to internet late, so that's why there was no email earlier Dad. Sorry!

This week has been fun. Full of lots of little miracles. This week is currently "consecration week" so the whole mission is really cracking down and getting some work done. We had a miracle last night when we got our first investigator for this month. He's a man we taught once before but we never got a return appointment, and we finally got one set up last night, so we are going to see him and his compagna tomorrow. We have a lot of potential investigators, but its been hard recently to see them often and get that return appointment. Gotta love August. That's OK,  tt's almost over. Thank heavens.

We've had a lot of little miracles this past week, but the one that I want to share with you comes from this past Monday. We went out to this paesino, Dorno, where some of our members live. We also received a referral from this family, so we wanted to pass by and see them. While walking to the paese, we got picked up by one of the sorelle's investigators, who happened to be passing by. Then we stopped by these members and turns out, they had two friends over from high school. We got to meet them and talk to them a little bit. Then we got to go with our member to visit this family they referred us, where we got to sit down with the husband and oldest daughter (who we hadn't met before) and teach them a short message. It was really awesome, because we just felt the night before in planning that we needed to go to Dorno, so we did. It really was a great day, full of many blessings.

The cool thing is, a couple nights before we went out to the same paesino to see a different member family and we were walking on a completely different road and someone came and gave us a ride too!! This man had come to a baptism before and was friends with this family. Small world, especially here in little towns in Italy. haha. 

Speaking of small world, that's cool that our current missionaries know two missionaries here. I'm not in contact with Anz Parker, so I can't tell him hi from that Elder, but he can! haha. Tell him to write Anz Parker. haha

We are hoping and praying for miracles this week, especially new investigators. We had a really great lesson with the De Simone's son yesterday and if all goes well (which I think it will), he will be baptized before this transfer ends. That would be the coolest thing ever to see that entire family baptized. We're working hard. Please pray for him.

I'm glad to hear that life is good back at home. You sound busy as ever Dad. Crazy to hear about weddings. Life moves on I guess. haha. Send my love to Brother Pine. I love them so much. I actually miss my HAM radio too. 

I can't believe that summer is almost over. It went by so fast. Crazy crazy crazy.

I love you all so much!!! I hope you all have a great week!

Anziano Langlois

Ferragosto...A Month of Holiday August 13, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!

Things are heating up here in Pavia. It's super duper muggy and gross 24/7 here...aaaaaaand loving it. Not really, at all. Only in the service of the Lord. 

So last year, I showed up just in time for Ferragosto, which is basically a missionary's worst nightmare. Basically in the month of August (is that right?) all of Italy goes on vacation for like a month. So shops are closed, the streets are empty and every says to call after the holidays. Pavia, being the small town it is, is literally empty right now. We walk outside to go do some finding work and we see maybe 15 people in an hour and a half, and just at the best time, when we need new investigators. Satan is a clever one, but that doesn't matter. We are still trying and President Dibb has challenged us all to get 3 new investigators a week during August. It's going to be hard, but we're trying. We could really use some prayers for finding new investigators right now. All 3 coppie here in Pavia are at a stand still in the new simps department, so we could use some prayers in our behalf. 

But, it good news! We have a new phone finally. Yay!!! At transfers we got a new sim card, so now we can function properly. haha. Speaking of transfers, we lost some good missionaries this transfer. We're going to miss Sorella McCann a lot. I don't know if you remember, but we were in the same district when I was in Prato, so it was great to serve with her again. She's now home and it's kinda weird to see her leave. It's crazy how fast time is going by. It doesn't help that Dad pointed out the dreaded month count. It's in single digits and that's terrifying....but I still have a lot of time to serve these people and help more find the truth.

In other good (sorta) news, Anz Johnson and I have been running in the morning.....it's killing me. I hate running. My body just hurts all the time. haha. I'm so tired all the time too, but I know its good for me, so that's why I'm doing it. I've got to get rid of this pasta gut. It also helps that we play soccer every Saturday with members and nonmembers. It's super fun. I love it. 

Random question, are Pat and Cheri still planning on coming to Italy? If so, when?

This past week, we planned to go visit a less active member and his wife. The wife is super active and is currently the Relief Society President, but her husband was baptized 38 years ago and then went immediately inactive. In the past year or so, he's been warming up to the church again and is coming back to church. We planned to go visit them for lunch on last Saturday, but the bus didn't run because its Agosto, so we had to cancel the appointment sadly. Luckily, we saw them on Sunday and set up a time to go the next day, Monday. We went and we had a great lesson about the Restoration with them. I have never seen this man look so interested in what we were saying. He was intently listening and the spirit was very strong. We left them with some Restoration pamphlets to give to a friend or neighbor and they gladly accepted the challenge. The husband said something that struck me during the lesson, he said that he keeps feeling like something is pulling him back to the church. His faith is growing every single day and I was so glad that we got to go and visit him and help him remember the importance of the Restoration. 

Yesterday I had an interesting experience. We passed by some less actives and one of them told us that she was baptized 20 years ago, but now she has "found Jesus" and went back to her old ways. She doesn't want to be contacted anymore or be part of the church. I couldn't help but feel really sad for her. I had a million things I wanted to say to her, but the opportunity wasn't there. It's so sad to see people go less active. Unfortunately we've had a problem here in Pavia with new converts going completely inactive for one reason or another. It breaks my heart and just makes me ask, why? How could someone who has received a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, or the prophet Joseph Smith, or the Savior, get baptized, and then just become completely inactive and sometimes even hostile towards the church? I know they have their agency, but sometimes I think the same thing as someone else I really admire once thought, "EXCUSE ME??????? What are you thinking???". It's moments like this that makes me think of the Savior and his apostles after the bread of life sermon in John. The multitudes left Him and He turns to His apostles and asks them, "will ye also go away?". I can hardly fathom what it is like for the Savior as He watches some of His faithful disciples walk away, one by one. It breaks my heart. I stand by Peter and ask "Lord, to whom shall we go?" I am lost without my elder brother, Jesus Christ. I will follow him until the day I die. Even though I slip up and make mistakes that I really wish I hadn't, through Him and His love is the only way. I testify that He is the Christ, the living son of God. He is my savior and yours. It is never too late to turn back and come again unto the fold. He loves you, and He cares about you. It will not be easy and it will require some suffering and repenting on your part, but it will be worth it. I promise you, it is worth it.

My heart if very full of gratitude for all of my friends and family. I love you all so much. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your prayers. I pray for all of you. I think about you constantly, and I try to live worthy of you every day. 

May God ever watch over you, and my you know that He DOES.

Vi voglio bene cari amici miei,

Anziano Langlois

Miracles In Disguise August 6, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!!

Well, first of all, it sounds like you are having a fun time camping in Big Sur. I miss camping a lot. Random comment about camping, the De Simone's really want to go camping in the Sequoia, but they said that they will wait until I come home to go. They want to go with our family camping. haha. I love them so much. I really hope they get to where the Lord needs them to be soon. 

Anyway, onto our week here in beautiful Pavia. Life is good. It's humid and kinda hot, but cool at the same time. It's mostly the humidity that kills us when we get home. It's so gross in our house. We are on the first floor so we can't leave our windows open. Oh well. Pazienza. 

Before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD (on Saturday)!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could be camping with you guys, because it's always so much fun, but I'm out here having my own fun adventure here in Italia. I love it here by the way. Can't you tell? hahaha

So the other week, the other Anziani lost their phone, so they've been using ours. This week, ours just randomly stopped working. So after a few days of neither coppia having a phone, and having to use payphones and the Sorelle's phone and member's phones and what not, the other anziani got a replacement phone and we found out that when they cancelled the other number, they probably accidentally cut ours as well, because our number no longer exists. So yay, fun stuff. The office knows, so hopefully we will be getting a replacement sometime soon. I don't know how missionaries did it back in the day without phones. They are so useful, but then again, they didn't have to deal with people who basically live on their phones like we do now a days. So anyway, we are now borrowing the other anziani's phone with them. Fun stuff. I always carry ours around in hope that it magically starts working, but like I told our bishop, the only thing its good for right now is weighing down paper.

Miracle time! One day this week, we passed by a less active member that we had a lesson set up with. Unfortunately, he wasn't there. So we went to our backup, strada. When we arrived at the street that we wanted to do some finding work on, we didn't know which way to go. We said a prayer and then decided to go one direction. While walking, we saw in the distance a young man walking, and I told Anz Johnson that he needed to hear the gospel. We stopped him and ended up teaching him a lesson on the street and we set up a return appointment. Unfortunately, he did not show up to our return appointment, but we are trying to contact him again and set up another lesson. But then, right after we had talked to him, we kept walking down the street and I saw a man pull over to the side of the road on his moto. I felt like I needed to talk to him. Anz Johnson felt that he needed to talk to him, and this man felt like he needed to talk to US! He actually stopped up before we could stop him and we started up a discussion. We found out that this man, Fabrizio, met a member of the church who is now serving a mission in Sicilia with his wife in Utah while he was there on vacation and he wanted to meet with us. I couldn't believe my ears! It was crazy! We got his phone number and because our phone is broken, we could easily get his address. Miracles in disguise! Yesterday, we went and saw him and he is very open. He told us that he had many prejudices against the church, but after he went to Utah and went on a tour of Temple Square, he completely changed his mind. One thing that really stuck out to me when we were teaching was after we bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, he told us that he can see it in our eyes that we really believe what we were saying. I really learned that when you bear real, heartfelt testimony, the people can feel it. He is excited to meet us again, and he really wants us to meet his son and compagna. The Lord really does bless us in so many ways. It's amazing how he prepares people and puts them in our path for us to find. I've seen this over and over again in my mission and this week was just another example of how the Lord blesses his missionaries.

In transfer news, we had in the words of Dad, "SHOCK SHOCK SHOCK!!!". Since our phone was broken, we called the assistants the night before transfers calls on the sorelle's phone to ask what was happening, because we all figured that we would all stay together. Guess not!! Turns out Anz Erickson is getting transferred down to Livorno. We were pretty surprised. It's sad, because we were having a lot of fun together, but we pretty much know what is happening next transfer already. Salmon finishes his mission and I'm probably going to leave, and they are going to close a companionship. Fun stuff. Well, who knows what will really happen. President has been doing some weird stuff lately. Oh well, we'll leave that for 6 weeks from now.

Well, I think that's all I really have to say right now. Roast some "delicious hot shmoes" for me. haha. Toy story reference...

Have a blast camping and send me some pictures! Tell Robert congrats from me. I wish I could be there, but I'll see him in a year or so.

Thank you all for all that you do. I love you guys so much and I pray for you all every night. Please pray for us that we can find new investigators! The month of August in Italy is really tough. Basically the whole country shuts down and goes to the beach. We could really use your prayers right now.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Langlois

Baptism of the De Simone children.

Hospital visit.

District in Pavia

What A Wet July July 30, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!!!

Well, its been quite wet here in Pavia during the month of July. Between our 2 baptisms this past Saturday and the really weird summer that we've been having here. So usually, its really hot and gross at this point, but it hasn't been like that recently. It's been rainy one day, then hot the next, then rainy again, then cloudy like today and basically all of the Italians are going crazy. They need their sun. haha. I'm appreciative, because it hasn't been that hot, so we're not dying outside. 

Any who, lets talk about that baptism we had this past week. Two of the kids got baptized this week. The father baptized one of them (soooo cool!!!!!) and Anz Salmon baptized the other kid. We keep joking around because I've given Anz Salmon a confirmation and a baptism now. He says that I'm just paying him back for how good of a job he did at training me. haha. I took a lot of pictures and I wanted to send them today, but we are at a different internet point today, because our other one was broken. Go figure. haha. So next week. But we are super excited here in Pavia. I can't believe how long I've been here, however, I can't believe how fast its flown by!!! We are almost done with this transfer! That's crazy!! The other thing I was thinking about was the fact that the Lord has blessed me so much here in Pavia. I've had 5 baptisms now in 5 months. That's crazy. It's just like I said when I left Prato, I know the Lord needs me in Pavia, and now I know why exactly he needed me here. The Lord works in strange ways, but He sure knows what he's doing. 

In other news, we are really good at throwing birthday parties here in Pavia. haha. We've had a lot of birthdays since I've been here and we always do something for the person. This past week, we celebrated the birthday of this member who's daughter is in the hospital. She is so selfless and is always thinking of her daughter, so she was really touched when we came over with a card and flowers and other small gifts from members to celebrate her special day. It was really special and heart warming. I love serving people. Its the best!!!

In sillier news, we went bowling last week in Merate with Anz Valencia and his companion. It was super fun and I won, so that's always good. I really like bowling. haha.  Back when I was in Prato, I promised Anz Windley that I would talk to him on his year mark. I didn't know how I was going to do it because he was in Verona, outside of our zone, but I still wanted to do it. I called the Assistants because I needed to talk to them anyway, check up on how their week was going, and they told me that they were actually in Verona. What luck!!!! So they passed the phone to Anz Windley and I was able to talk to him for a few minutes. It was so great. He's so awesome. I miss that kid.

That sounds like a great week with Lizzy dad. I can't wait until I randomly run into Italians, it will be too much fun. I love this language! So cool. I still can't understand opera though, because its just hard to understand the words they are saying when they sing all opera like. I hope she has a great time at girls camp. Try not to go stir crazy by yourself for a few days Dad. haha. 

That's really cool that you gave a talk in the Spanish branch. I wish we had an Italian branch at home, then I could give talks all the time! haha. That's so crazy that Brandon finishes his mission this week. Wow...time flies. And I didn't know Sabrina was getting married. That's awesome. Tell her congrats from me. 

I'm sad to hear that we lost the Russon's and the Bateman's. I love both of them. But I'm glad to hear that new people are moving in. Yay!!! I'm really sad to here that Peggy moved away. I hope we can find out where she went. It's always sad when someone distances themselves from the church. 

Thank you for those talks dad. President Dibb must have read them as well, because he's already put some of that stuff into action! haha. I know that we are lead by inspired leaders. This church is guided by Jesus Christ and we are so lucky to have such easy access to the words of his prophets and apostles. We should never take this for granted.

Well, I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great  week like always. Keep us missionaries in your prayers and pray for our investigators and more importantly, that we can find more!!!

Statemi bene!

Anziano Langlois

Allora, Ci Sono Due Brioche Dentro Un Forno... July 23, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!

Well, in case you were wondering, yes, yes it is very hot here right now. I feel like I'm in a humid oven. It's pretty gross. I'm going to be honest, but oh well. At least the mosquitoes are here to keep up company. haha.

Despite all the heat and zanzare, the week has been good. I made some lasagna, in fact, 2 different types of lasagna, and might I say, I think it was pretty good. However, I can cook more than lasagna and tiramisù. Thanks guys for having such faith in my cooking skills. Angelyn wrote me and told me that you are making fun of my cooking expertise. Well, the Lord sent me to Italy for a reason, and that might have been to learn how to cook. haha.

Before I go on, we are going to be having some baptisms this week!!! WHOO!!!!!!! 2 of the 3 kids of that new convert family are getting baptized on Saturday. The kid who's not getting baptize (yet) is really bravo, but just needs some more time. That's no problem. We'll keep right on him and help him find his answer. Please pray for this family, because Satan is working really hard on them!!! They are completely unfazed because they are the most elect people ever, but still, a pray now and then, wouldn't hurt.

Well, time for an interesting and fun story. Mom, don't worry. Nothing happened, but the other week, we had a guy come up to us and ask us for a Book of Mormon. We gave it to him and met with him on Monday. The lesson went great. No problems. We then went over to see him on Friday, and he didn't have time, but he gave us a folded piece of paper and told us to read it. We thought that he found anti-Mormon stuff on the internet, but boy, we're we wrong. Basically, this letter he "wrote" us made zero sense. It had some weird symbols on it and random things underlined. I showed it to our bishop, and he said it literally made no sense (like I thought). So basically, yeah. That was pretty weird. It still makes me laugh. haha

Any who, we had a fun week like I already said. We are working, sweating, and getting bit by zanzare. This past week, we started a weekly game of calcio with our ward to invite less actives and investigators to. It was super fun!!! However, we did not choose the right time to do it. We literally picked the hottest part of the the hottest day this week. And we were playing on a concrete court, so we were baking. haha. We still had fun anyway, but this week, we are going to play in the evening. 

OK, so I actually had a couple questions for your guys. 1. how's finding all of that genealogy stuff coming along? Don't forget pictures! 2. I read a talk from this past conference about knowing our pioneer heritage, and it made me think, I don't know Dad's conversion story. So Dad, if you could write me just a little paragraph or so about how you met the church and your conversion, that would be awesome. And 3, I know mom was born into the church, so I wanted to know if you knew the story of the person who was first converted in that line of the family. If you could do that for me, that would be awesome. I'm really trying to use more personal experiences in my teaching, because it brings the spirit, and the more I know about my ancestors, the better!!

Atticus looks adorable, but why is he wearing mittens? That might be the newest trend in the baby world of fashion, so bo, I don't know. haha

Thank you so much for the talk summaries dad. It's always cool to hear the advice that the apostles give. President Dibb is doing a great job in those areas already. He is such a great man. I love him so much. He is doing such a great job leading this mission in the way that the Lord wants it to go.

Well, I don't know what else to say at the moment, so I guess I will just end by saying how much I love you all. Thank you for your prayers and your support. I know that this is where the Lord needs me. I'm so grateful to be serving him here in Italia. I love it here so much. I love the people and I love this beautiful country.

I hope you all have a great week. I love you so much! Always remember the people on both sides of the veil rooting for you!

Fieramente, 

Anziano Langlois

PS These last 2 pictures are from our English class last night. We started in the top left hand corner with me reading a book under the tree, and then it just got crazy. We basically played "who's line is it anyway", and each person added one sentence. It got pretty crazy. Good luck following it

 

Stay On Your Toes July 16, 2014

Ciao tutti!!!!

Good news!!!!! There are going to be pictures today!!!!! WOHOOO!!!!!! I finally got the computer to read my card, so I'm going to send about the past 5 months worth of pictures. hahaha. I hope you enjoy them.

Back to this week. Well, life as a trainer is fun. I have to stay on my toes a little bit. Anz Johnson is a fun kid, crazy, but fun. He's pretty confident, even when he doesn't know what he's doing. haha. For example, he just starts talking to random people even though he doesn't really understand them. He runs across the street to talk to people. He leads us up the wrong mountain in Lecco. You know, the usual stuff that trainee's do. haha. Let me start with that last experience. So as you know, last week, we were in Lecco to go hike the mountain again. Well, turns out, we were all following Anz Johnson (don't ask me why), who has no idea where we were going, so we ended up taking the complete wrong path and ended up on a completely different peak which was twice as tall as the one we wanted to go to. The view was amazing and I loved it, but boy was that a hard hike. We were dying. It was pretty much rock climbing at certain parts. It was pretty steep. I felt like a mountain goat. You know, minus the weird rectangular pupils. Anyway, it was super fun and I will send some pictures of that.

In other news, we celebrated Anz Salmon's birthday on Monday. We threw him a surprise party at district meeting, and he reacted in the typical Salmon manner.....no expression. I love him. He's so funny. Then today is Simona's birthday, so we planned with her husband to throw a surprise party at the bar they own. We are going right over there after internet. So expect some crazy pictures next week. Continuing with the theme of birthdays, we visited a girl in the hospital this past week for her birthday. Her mom is a member and she wants to be baptized, but can't for health reasons. But, the ward threw a party for her at the hospital and it was really fun. We used that moldable plastic that Peter bought me to make her a dolphin because she loves the ocean. When we came back the other day, she was talking about that little dolphin more than the guitar that some members bought her. My heart was touched. She is such a great girl, and I want to help her as much as I can. I like going to visit her because I can practice my Spanish. I'm remembering more and more, but they just like that I even try. haha. 

In fun, random news, I looked at my family tree on familysearch.org the other day and I found out some really cool things. I never knew when our ancestors came over from France to Canada, or where they were from, but now I know! They are pretty much all from Normandy, and they came over in 1600 something.  I learned that we have a lot of Nicholas Langlois' on dad's side of the family. Crazy stuff. I thought it was really cool. Genealogy is fun stuff. I wish I had done more before my mission. Oh well.

Now, in way of miracles. I've got a doozie for you. At the end of our day, we were coming home and we were about to walk in the door of our palazzo, when all of a sudden a man comes running up and asks us if we are Mormons. We said yes and then he asked us if he could have a Book of Mormon, because he wanted to read it. We gladly gave him one and got his phone number and name. We were totally shocked, but he said we could call him whenever. So I called him the next day and set up an appointment to meet with him. We met with him Monday morning on a bench. Turns out that he is pretty much our neighbor. He lives just down the street about 30 seconds away. He is really interested in reading the Book of Mormon and he loved the message of the Restoration. He is very excited to learn more and when I showed him the pictures of my family on my "La Mia Famiglia" booklet, he started looking through it and got really excited when I told him about genealogical work that we do in the church. He is excited to come to church, meet with us again, and start researching his ancestors. It really was a miracle! The Lord does prepare people to accept the gospel, and sometimes they find YOU! 

In baptism news, we have the baptismal interviews for the 3 kids of the De Simone family on Saturday, so we are praying that all goes well. If so, then we have 3 more baptisms coming on the 26th. Pray for them please!! Especially for the oldest son. He is really bravo, but he doesn't want to be pushed into this, so we are praying that he can receive an answer about baptism, the Book of Mormon, and everything. I know he will, I just don't know when. All will be done in the Lord's time, so I'm not worried.

Life sounds pretty crazy back at home right now. Basically everything is coming together at the same time. That's usually how Satan works, so just keep being strong, and "all these things will be for your good", as the Lord told the prophet Joseph Smith.

I'm super jealous of your awesome vacation, it sounded sweet! Between Lizzy and Dad, I literally felt like I was there. haha. I can't believe how old Jude is getting. He's going to be completely different when I get home and Ellie will be huge too!  So will Atticus!! Holy cow! Life goes fast when you're gone for 2 years! haha. Speaking of Atticus, I'm super happy to hear that all is going well and that he is at home. Mom will have to send me some pictures of him.

In news of the mondiale, I'm sad that Argentina lost, because I wanted Messi to win his first world cup, but I'm happy that Gotze scored the winning goal, because I really like him as a player. He's young and he's good, so he deserved it. Soccer kinda goes on standby for the next month or so, and then it kicks right back up, so I'm excited. haha.

Lizzy, yes, I do remember the Turnbow farm. I was big enough to remember certain things like Linda crashing the 4 wheeler with all of us on it, or me and Dallas going out on the 4 wheelers and finding a new born calf and the dreaded Idaho farm flu that destroyed Dad and Jason. haha. Good times. Hey, I'm super pumped that you loved BYU. It's so awesome, I tell you. I love BYU so much. It was so much fun and I know that if the Lord needs you there, like he needed me there, you will get in no problem. You're a smart girl, so keep using your head. haha. I miss Slab so much. I'm pretty sure it still some of the best pizza that I've ever had. The Eric is way too good. When I tell Italians that I have a pizza named after me, they die laughing. They think its hilarious. I don't know why, but they do. haha.

Well, I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week! Life in the mission goes on and so does life back home. Keep on reading conference talks and putting them into practice! Those are the words of living prphets who speak with God and Jesus Christ. How could we ever go wrong listening to them! haha

Vi voglio bene tutti!!

Anziano Langlois

Anziano Parker and Langlois

Anziano Salmon

Baptism of Nelson

Baptism of the De Simones

Like the Good Old Days July 9, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Well, another week passes by here in the mission field. Everyday I get older and everyday my testimony grows like a billion times every day. Having miracles every day "aaaaand loving it".

First of all, I'm super jealous of your vacation, it sounds like so much fun. We are going to have a little bit of an adventure here ourselves today. We are back in Lecco to hike up the mountain again. Its a perfectly clear day so expect some good photos, when I finally get them to you. We might go a little bit higher, so it should be good. 

But lets get into those miracles! 

This week, like every week, has been full of awesome miracles. Last night in particular. Yesterday, I was on a scambio with Anz Erickson and we had a great day. We taught 3 member present lessons and then we planned to walk home from English class instead of taking the bus. This turned out to be a super good idea. We stopped everyone that walked past (it was only a few people, but oh well), and we stopped this woman and started talking about families. She loved her family so she was willing to talk, then when we started talking about Jesus Christ, she told us that she was trying to change her life right now and find out who she is. We set up a return appointment with her and got to say a prayer with her. We were super excited, but then we kept talking to people and we talked to this man just standing on the street. His name was Mario and he was super nice. He told us that he is catholic and will never change, but after we taught him the Restoration in 5 minutes, he told us that he wish he could have both religions, because he really liked the things we were saying. When we tried to set up a return appointment, he just invited us inside his house to meet the rest of his family! We met his wife, son, daughter, son in law, and grandson. They were all super nice and we got to bear some testimony about eternal families. They are about to go on vacation, but they said that we are welcome to come by any time when they get back. It was crazy!!! We couldn't believe it. We taught 2 lessons on the street in a matter of 30 minutes, just  by walking home. I know that when we planned to do that, it was inspired.  I'm so grateful for Anz Erickson and his decision to follow that prompting.

Anz Johnson is doing well. He keeps me on my toes. haha. Anz Salmon and Erickson are way too much fun. Some times I think, what was president thinking putting us all back together? haha. We get work done, but we have fun while doing it.

I'm super pumped to hear about Atticus! I'm so glad that he's doing well. Please send my love and support to Erin, Dan, and Atticus. I can now tell people that I have another nipote! WHoo!!! 

Thank you so much in advance from the De Simone family for the lawyer. They are so awesome and literally the best members ever. In fact, a lawyer in Provo is perfect because they are looking at restaurants in Orem right now. They are so excited to go, we are just praying that everything goes well. The lord knows what they need and where they need to be and they know that, so we'll see what happens.

When I saw the score today of the game last night, my jaw dropped. That is ridiculous. 7-1. Germany is unstoppable right now. Holy moly.

Oh yeah!!! We had literally one of the craziest storms come through Pavia the other day. Luckily we were inside when it hit. We couldn't see anything through the intense rain and hail. The wind ripped up trees and 2 people actually died. It was nuts. It was crazy for about 30 minutes, then it just stopped. The Sorelle's apartment kinda flooded a bit. Our's was fine, but it was crazy. Anz Johnson and I took pictures next to the hail piles. It literally looked like snow. It was crazy.

Other things that were excited and cool happened, but I don't remember them at the moment. haha. Sorry.

 I love you all so much. Send my love to everyone you see and tell them that I miss them, but there is no place I'd rather be right now than beautiful Pavia in Italia.

Keep telling me awesome stories and I will work super hard to get you some pictures to match my crazy ones.

Vi voglio bene!

Anziano Langlois

 

PS Totally forgot something really cool!

For 4th of July, we bought lanterns and wrote inspired letters and attached them. Then we let them go over the river. It looked awesome. They went super high and far away. Lets hope someone calls us! haha. It was Anz Salmon's idea. Love him.

 

Kids Say the Dardest Things July 2, 2014

Ciao tutti!

Well, we had another great week here in beautiful Pavia. Love this city. City of Dreams. Just some more daily miracles and blessings and adventures and what not.

But first of all, I have my greenie (brand new missionary) finally. They were delayed by 24 hours so on Thursday, I spent the night in Milano with Anz Taylor, a super awesome kid who is also training. He was down in Firenze when I was in Prato, so we're already good buds. Any who, so we picked up the new missionaries from the mission office on Friday and we went right to work. My new companion is Anz Johnson. He's from Maine, but lived in North Wales for 7 years so he has citizenship there. Turns out we probably knew each other at BYU. Crazy stuff. He would ride his bike down to our hall in Helaman because he was friends with Bennett, my neighbor. So turns out, I've seen him before. Crazy, right? It like Anz Walker, speaking of him, he is still in the mission. He gets home in September. He's in the same group as Anz Salmon.

But Anz Johnson is a really good kid. He speaks pretty well, but he's struggling a little to understand people (which is natural at first). I only speak to him in Italian outside the house, and he always says "oh, si?" Like he understood what I said, but then a few hours later I will refer back to something I said, and he gets mad at me for never telling him. Then he asks me if I said it in Italian, I say yes, and then he tells me "oh, then I just didn't understand you when you said it". haha.  He's a goofy kid.  He's pretty young too. Just turned 19 in January, but he's done two years at BYU because he graduated early.

Well, this week we had a huge miracle. Yesterday, we taught the De Simone children and we set baptism dates with all 3 of them for  the 26th of July!!! We are soooo pumped!!! And when we called President Dibb to tell him last night, he was so excited (which is saying something, he's pretty stoic, haha). It's crazy how much the Lord blesses his servants. I'm just so grateful to be a part of his great work.

We also went to go visit a girl in the hospital who's mom is a member, and the daughter would be too, but the doctors said that her body can't undergo the stress of baptism. She has leukemia and she's really sweet. She's turning 18 in a few days, and this will be her second birthday in the hospital, so we want to do something special for her. When we went to visit her, we had to dress up in hairnets, gowns, gloves, shoe things and we looked great. haha. Anz Salmon and I sang her a song. Then we sat and talked to her for 30 min or so. She's really cool. We tried to tell some jokes in Italian....they kinda failed. haha. Oh yeah! I totally forgot to mention. Her and her mom are from Venezuela, so they speak Spanish. I understood them when they spoke to me, but I kinda failed trying to speak back to them in Spanish. Whoops. Kinda forgot my Spanish. haha

 

I also had the opportunity to give two blessings this week to sorelle in my district. It was a really awesome and humbling experience, like always, to give a priesthood blessing. I'm so grateful for the power of the priesthood. I literally love being able to give people blessings. One of the sorelle would not stop thanking me for the blessing I gave. I really don't remember what I said, but I think it was what she needed to hear. The Lord really does work through his servants. I testify of that.

Besides all of that, there is nothing to report. haha. I'm super jealous of your vacation. It sounds dope! 

Thanks so much for the Youth Conference report Lizzy. It sounds like you had a great experience. Now just don't forget it OK?  haha. It's so important to remember the spirit that you felt and then to continue on and work to keep that spirit with you.  I couldn't listen to the video because I don't have headphones, but I bet its super funny.

Sad to hear that America lost.....ahh......oh well.....pazienza. haha. The fact that the Dodgers are in first is super awesome!!!! GO DOYERS!!! (do you remember those drunk guys in front of us that kept yelling that?) haha.

Hey, so any more news on that genealogy info I asked for/pics? If you could get that to me as soon as possible that would be awesome. Thanks!

Well, life here on the mission is awesome. I love being a missionary. I am trying as we speak to send pictures, so hopefully it works.

I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!

Anziano Langlois

PS. Well, still no luck on the pics. I'm TRYING!!!!!! I'll figure it out one of these days. Sorry!!!