"Surprise Farewell Sister Fiefia, sketchy Canned Tuna, True Prophets speak of Christ, & Sunday will Come!"

 BLOG

Hello my friends. The weeks continue to roll by here in good old Corning, NY. Life is good, and blessings are flowing. This has been kind of an interesting week in the life of Sister Langford and Sister Fiefia... So lets talk about the word.

THE NEWS.

Saturday afternoon, Sister Fiefia and I are chillin, enjoying our delicious lunch of member's leftovers, when all of a sudden the phone rings. It's the Zone Leads calling with transfer calls. They are going through the list of everyone who is getting transferred and where they are going and blah blah. Then they say "Oh and Sister Fiefia, you are going to Hamilton!" Elder say what? So that was pretty unexpected! And that's the news. Sister Fiefia is leaving me after only one short transfer to go to the blessed land of Hamilton. I will hold down the position of Sister Training Leader in Corning, now to be accompanied by Sister Glen! So it should be fun. In other super awesome news, my home girl Sister Davis is coming down to the zone to open up Ithica. So I will get to go on exchanges with her and I'm pretty stoked about that! But seriously, our world has been flipped upside down. We so did not see this one coming. I guess the Lord knows best! haha.

AND ALSO...
This week was pretty consumed with random services and weddings, and exceptionally sketchy meals including canned tuna.... but it was a good week, with some good teaching opportunities. Like with this one investigator.
Oh my. So last Monday Sister F and I had been praying and fasting that she would be able to get an answer to her prayers and that she would know the church was true and that this was the path we should take. We felt we were being pretty faith filled. Then a couple of hours later, she texts us and says

"Hey sisters! I've been able to have some really good alone time with God last night and I feel like I still believe what I have always believed to be true. If you still want to come over on Tuesday that is fine!" 

Oh so we were crazy nervous... and honestly a little disappointed. We had prayed for this miracle, and it totally seemed things were going the opposite way! So then Tuesday night we were able to go over and have a lesson with her. We just really prayed before hand that we would be able to love her, answer her questions and help her keep investigating! As we answered her questions the spirit was really strong and she agreed to keep meeting and to keep having an open mind. Then Saturday we went back over with this random girl who met at a wedding, (she is also an RM), and we read the Book of Mormon with her. She told us of this cool experience she had.

She said she was feeling like none of what we taught was true and that it was bad and such. So she opened her Bible for more direction. She then stumbled upon a verse, (I can't remember where it was), that basically said to beware of false prophets and that you will be able to tell someone is a false prophet if they don't talk of Jesus Christ. But if they do talk of Jesus Christ and His divinity, then it is true and good. 
So she shared that with us and then was like, "So then I read things like this and I think... well all they talk about is Jesus Christ! So it must be true and good... but I just don't know!"

Now, this story may not seem that cool to you all, but its these small bits of progress that really are amazing! I have received many spiritual witnesses that I may not be able to see the fruits of my labors while I'm here in Corning, but I know that good things will come. I just have to make my focus not on myself, but on the people I'm working with, and miracles will come in their lifetimes. I know I am definitely here for a reason :)

SO FINALLY...

In general, this was a pretty hard week for me. I was pretty burdened down with worries and things. I had some good conversations with some members, my companion, my Heavenly Father, and even received a blessing from the elders. I was feeling really stressed and didn't know where to turn. Finally one day during my study I was reading something in an Ensign and I came across this quote. It brought so much peace to me and answered all of my concerns. it said,

"Each of us will have our own Fridays - those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We will all experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put back together again. We will all have our Fridays.

"But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death- Sunday will come.

"No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come." 

This quote by Joseph B Wirthlin is referring to the Friday when Christ was crucified and the Sunday when He was resurrected. As I thought about the contrast of how dark to how light those two days were, I compared it to my own life. We all have Friday's (hard, dark, sad days) in our lives. Days when everything seems broken and hopeless. But Because of Christ, we also can have our Sundays. He promises us, that Sunday will come. I know that all the sad and unfair things about this life, can and will be made right because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That is my hope and my prayer. 


I hope you all have a great week. THE CHURCH IS TRUE. Ok. mmmmmmmm bye now.

Show message history

XOXO,
Sister Langford

PS. Shout out to Jeff. OH MY GOSH YOU ARE HOME. #weird

"Lovin' Owego, Prayers Answered, Planting Food Bank Seeds, McDonalds Missionary Lunch!"

THE BLOG. 

Bonjour everyone. Oh man, life in Corning has been going pretty sweet this week. I mean, I would say it was a successful week. I didn't do my hair once and I wore the same skirt for three days... but who's counting? #sistermissionarylife Ok so lets talk about this fabulous week :)

The random.

1. Zone Training Meeting. 
This week Sister Fiefia and I had the blessed opportunity to train at Zone Training Meeting. We were giving a training on having more faith in this new teaching method that we have been taught. Anyway, the planning was going disastrous. just.... bad news bears. Then we realized something super obvious, we weren't even using the new teaching method to teach them to have faith IN the new teaching method! So we reworked it and it ended up being really great! Ah... being a missionary is so good :)

2. I went on exchange to the blessed town of Owego! BEST. EXCHANGE. EVER. Why do I belong in Owego? I swear I connected so beautifully with every person we met. Their apartment is adorable (above shops and a sweet brick wall) and I just felt so at home. Ahh, I love Owego. Did I pray 4 times that I would get transferred there? .... maybe. But I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father has a better plan for me than I can think of for myself. Anyway, Owego is the best, and chillin with Sister Ashcraft is the best. So no complaints for that one.
3. So then after the exchange, we met up in Elmira to exchange back (which is about an hour from each of our typical locations).  We got all the way home to Corning.... when we realized that we didn't have our phone. One of the lovely sisters had taken our phone with her back to Owego. #facepalm. Luckily the best member ever drove us all the way back to Elmira to get our phone and then bought us delicious frozen custard, so my day got better from then on out. 

4. Also there was a parade in our area which everyone and their dog was attending (literally).  So we had no choice but to attend as well. This parade featured tractors, people walking their dogs, and 5 million marching bands (classic New York). But don't worry. We had our own parade on the side where we walked around and smiled and flashed our badges as much as possible. 
The good.
1. PRAYERS ARE BEING ANSWERED. Ok I know that you all know this. But I just wanted to make sure you knew even more. This week I had been praying for a couple of different things. 1. I prayed that our investigators would start to progress towards baptism and 2. That we would find a young girl (maybe in her 20's) who would want to learn about the gospel. Well last night I was thinking about these prayers (because I had been feeling like maybe I hadn't seen an answer yet) and then I thought about V. I'm sure I've talked about V before, but this week she really caught on fire! We taught her 3 times. She is such a sincere seeker of truth. Not to mention she is now progressing and she is a young girl in her 20's who wants to learn about the gospel! (not how I anticipated this prayer being answered, but I will take it).  Yesterday, when we met with her she had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation. We kept telling her the only way she could know about these things was to pray, and find out. Then out of the blue she said, "I've really been feeling like I need to be baptized. Its been weighing on me a lot, so I've signed up to be baptized at my church!" I then had the opportunity to testify to her that if this church is true, then she should be baptized here. We really committed her to pray to know. She told us that if she came to know this was all true, she would definitely be baptized! SO SOLID. You guys, she is seriously going somewhere and she's so sincere and I can't even handle it. ok ok. 

2. We found another new investigator named A while tracting! Not too much to say there... yet! But I definitely know miracles will be comin'! 
3. Another cool experience. We volunteer at this food pantry every week. This week there was a new girl working there. She was like 18 (which is unusual for food pantry volunteers),  Anyway, I had a chance to talk with her and she was a really cool girl. I kept praying that I would be able to talk with her about the gospel. Every time it would get close to that kind of conversation, someone would ask us a question or pull one of us away, or for some reason or another, I couldn't finish it! Then finally 10 minutes before we had to go, I had the opportunity to explain it all to her and bear my testimony. It was just a simple in, but I think it planted a seed and hopefully we will see her next week and continue to plant :)

4. ....and many other miracles that I do not have the time to write about. but just know in your heart that they happened. 

The laughs.

" That heartless redheaded scum bag did me in!" - member talking about Wendy's 


"Yeah we could chill at the beach, and have fun..." - Sister Langford
"... and steal white people's wallets..." -Sister Fiefia


*imagine this* two sister missionaries smuggle two chicken breasts, a full loaf of home made bread, two apples and a bag of carrots into Mcdonalds. They then buy a Diet Coke to make up for using their facilities. They they ask for a fork and knife. The cashier is confused. All they bought was a Diet Coke. The sisters then go to the outdoor eating area and eat their really random lunch while dodging dirty looks from the Mcdonalds customers. #casualcorninglunchhour 

Ok well.... I'm out. Can you all believe we find out about transfers again this week? Did I not just arrive in Corning? Ok, well that is all oh... and Shout out to Elder Langford! Comin' home strong this week! 
Love you bro!

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"Bug Bites, MLC #9, Prayers Answered, Powerful Testimony, and a Squirrely Joke!"

BLOG.

Hello my friends. Well this week happened. I kind of feel like that is all there is to say!  No, all is well. We have officially jumped into another wonderful New York summer. That means crazy heat, lots of rain... and bug bites out the wazoo. I just want you all to know that I just counted and I currently have at least 20 bug bites. Ok, I'm over it. Lets talk about the week.

randomzzz...

1. Soooooowe went on EXCHANGE with the sisters in Elmira. I stayed here with the wonderful Sister Peterson. We had some really good times, wrote a song about getting on the "struggle bus", taught some sweet lessons, and tracted a street called "Norwood St." (how good is that?) and we enjoyed every minute of our exchange time.

2. Then we spent two days in Utica for MLC.  Hurray!! Let's be honest, I'm surprised they aren't sick of having me there yet. I have been at the past 8 MLC's (and a couple of other ones before that).  But it was definitely good times. We were blessed to make the 3 1/2 hour drive to Utica in the Zone Leaders' wonderful mini van. We then discussed mission business. I got to see my darling Sister Davis and spend some time with her.... and then we made the drive back to Corning!

3. We then spent much of our remaining time preparing our training that we will be giving at Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday.

*So as you can see, SO MUCH of our time was eaten up by leadership business... but we did still see some miracles. So let's talk!

Miracles...

1. Ms. B. Remember her? She was the lady who texted us and asked us to come back and talk with her about the gospel? Well, we taught her again this week, and it was a really good lesson.  :) She seems to be progressing really well. (So just a little follow up item. We will now move on). 

2. PRAYER WORKS. In case you haven't picked up on this theme, I'm going to talk about it again. So Sister Fiefia and I were out in Campbell (pronounced camp-bell not like the soup), one day this week for a lesson. Well we arrived a bit early, so we decided to do some tracting. We picked a random trailer park and went to work. Before we got out I prayed that we would be able to find someone who would accept the message of the restoration. And then we got out, and knocked, and man, it was such a successful night. Almost everyone we talked to said we could come back. THINGS WERE GOING SOOOO WELL. Then we saw this group of people, chillin on a porch, smoking and possibly drinking. We thought to ourselves "do we go and talk to them?" soooo.... we went for it. We started to talk to these people and the conversation was really picking up. We then had the opportunity to share with them THE MESSAGE OF THE RESTORATION. One of the guy's in particular really received the message. He was like "yeah, I've always wondered those things!" So bottom line, we have a return appointment with him on Tuesday! You guys, Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers :)

3. Like I said earlier, we didn't have a ton of time this week for just normal proselyting. But on Saturday night we said, "well, we've got about tow hours before we have to call it a night. lets go see what we can do!" We were out and about and EVERY person we talked to was super solid, let us share a brief restoration, and said we could come back. EVERY SINGLE PERSON. If only you guys knew how rare this was! It was like we got a full days work done in just a few hours. I'm telling you, Heavenly Father blesses you when you fulfill your calling!

4. At the end of MLC I had the opportunity to bear my testimony. We always have a testimony meeting at the end of every missionary meeting. But this time for some reason I felt really strongly that I needed to get up and share. Well, I kept trying to get up, but every time I would, someone would stand up and get there before me. I was like "c'mon! seriously!" So I was about to give up on bearing my testimony when I realized, "wait! Satan is trying to discourage me from getting up there and sharing!" and then I knew I HAD to bear my testimony. Because there had to be a really huge reason why Satan would try and stop that! Well when I bore my testimony the spirit was so strong and it was exactly what I needed. Such a strong spiritual confirmation. Ah man, everyone, go bear your testimony! haha there is no better feeling than sitting down after you have said what you wanted to say and just feeling the spirit confirm to you that what you did and said was pleasing to the Lord :)

the laughs...

and now one funny joke, one funny story, and a quote. 

1. "Hey! Sister Langford. Why did the squirrel fall out of the tree?" -Zone Leader while we are driving to MLC

"I don't know. why?" -Sister Langford

"Because he was dead!" -Zone Leader

*Sis lang dies laughing*

"Hey, Sister Langford. Why did the other squirrel fall out of the tree?" - Zone Leader

"I don't even know!" - Sis lang

"Because he was stapled to the first squirrel!" -Zone Leader

(it was a long drive! haha)

2. Sister Fiefia and Sister Langford are walking down the street. See a random guy who they have talked to before. Stop and say hi. He grabs both their hands and asks them to pray with him. They pray. He then awkwardly hugs both of them and then dramatically tells them that he will be at church on Sunday! (missionary life!)

3. "All ya'll Utah people have huge four-finger foreheads. That why ya'll stick together!" -Recent convert

oh man. Well that was my week! Good things to come this week :) Adious!

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"A Real City, Glass Factory Tour, Prayers Answered, Mormon-Ads & Dancing=Hip Damage, Upcoming Baptisms."

BLOGG!!

Hola friends. Another week of missionary life has come and passed. Where does it go? We had a pretty bomb week in a lot of ways and we have a lot more coming up soon! I'm telling you, we never slow down. So let's talk about what happened this week.

1. Zone Training Meeting. It was a really good meeting and was very inspired. I definitely received a lot of direction and answers to prayers. So that was awesome. And get this, we have another ZTM in like 10 days and this time we have to train..... so are we excited about it.... eeeeeeeeeh.....

2. I went on EXCHANGE! Ok you guys. This week I got to go on exchange to Binghamton. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS IN BINGHAMTON. It's like a legit city. There were so many stores I couldn't even handle it. The first 20 minutes of our exchange was just me going, "oh my gosh you have a (fill in name of a good restaurant or store).  You guys don't even know how blessed you are!" But it was super fun! I was blessed to spend the day with the wonderful Sister Miller. We had a very successful day out in Binghamton and even found them a new 'gator so that was pretty sweet :)

3. Today we went to the CMOG (Corning Museum of Glass) with our district. It was pretty fun and we looked at really expensive glass and stuff. And then we had to refrain ourselves from buying all the super cool stuff at the gift shop.

So those are my random things.

Now let's talk about the BLESSINGS.

1. The answers to prayers and constant blessings have kept on rollin' in this week. I have the most amazing story. So for the past week or so, I have been praying very specifically that someone would contact us with a desire to learn about the gospel. That is a very faith-filled thing to pray for... because there isn't much YOU personally can do to get someone to contact you. But we kept the faith and kept praying for it. Everyday that went by without someone contacting us didn't diminish the faith because I knew,  (especially with the experiences last week), that Heavenly Father will answer my prayers. So then last Monday we were in the midst of emailing when we received a Headquarter referral on our phone (it's where someone goes to mormon.org and requests a missionary visit. They are pretty few and far between up here). So I see it's a HQ referral and I start to just freak out because I KNEW that Heavenly Father would answer my prayer! Well we looked at the referral and it was none other than one of our less-active members who we meet with every week. I was like, "Dang it! Is this my answer or do I need to just keep being patient?" Well, I didn't feel like this phony headquarter referral was my answer, so I held out. Then on Saturday morning we went out to go try a potential... she wasn't available.... so we started to tract around her. We started walking up to a house and I felt different. Like "for some reason, this house is special." We knocked on the door and talked with a very friendly lady. She wasn't really interested in what we had to say, so we left her with a card and continued on our merry way. About a half hour later we looked at our phone and we had received a text from that lady saying she would like us to stop back by around 12:30. You guys. I was so excited. But we texted her back and said, "definitely! Is there anything you need help with?" She said, "No. I just had some questions about what you believe." PRAYER WORKS EVERYONE. So we went back, taught her the restoration, and now she is investigating. I can't even explain how blown away I was. It made me think of a quote from President Monson...

"We rarely have failures when we deal in specifics, we rarely have success when we deal in generalities."

So my testimony is that if you sincerely pray for something specific, you will get it. I know it. I have seen it so many times these past couple of weeks that I can't even handle it.

2. Our investigator couple are still doing super good! When we asked them how they were feeling about baptism they said, "We can't stop thinking about it. I will just be walking along and I will start thinking about it. Or I will see one of your pamphlets and read through it. It's always there!" AH! So awesome. They are doing very very well.

3. And just one more example of how the Lord is always carrying a miracle in His back pocket for us. Yesterday we were feeling super drained, #fastsunday and just really done.... but we had a lot of time and like zero appointments. So we went out and started tracting and seriously, my energy level was a zero. So I said a prayer in my heart just saying, "Heavenly Father, today I can't give you much. My energy is low and I can't go above and beyond. But somehow I trust that you will make what I can give enough." So we went out and pretty half-heartedly knocked on some doors. After a lot of knocking and no success, we finally met a super nice lady with whom we had an awesome spiritually up-lifting conversation. Just like I said, I couldn't give much, but Heavenly Father still helped us find. We are truly blessed here in Corning.

...and one funny story to end the blog...

Let me paint this picture. There is a small rim that goes around the ceiling of our living room. The room was bare and super boring so I said to myself, you know what I should do? I should cover that rim in Mormonads. So thus I went into our cupboard of old New Era's and cut out like 75 Mormonads to place around the room. So during our lunch hour I spread them out on the floor and work on hanging them up. (it's whatever I have no life). So one day this week, (after having a super bomb lesson), we came back to our apartment for lunch. I spread my Mormonads out as always.Well Sister Fiefia and I started to have a dance party to celebrate our cool lesson. So we are dancing and laughing and I choose to pull out one of my best dance moves, (the bernie-jerk as taught to me by Sister Davis).  I then lost control and slipped on the Mormonads and went down hard. hahahaha. So now I have a bruised hip and stuff.... but seriously? Slipping on Mormonads while Bernie-jerking? #mylife #missionaryprobs. I then said, "Man, I wish I had a twitter so I could tweet about this moment!" Haha, goooooood times.

Well.... I'm outy! Thanks for being the best!

XOXO,
Sister Langford

PS. Check out the sweet new painting of sister missionaries by Greg Olsen. Please explain to me why I am in this painting? Ok, awesome thanks.