Autumns here, me running???, watch general conference, practically know Jimmer now, investigator miracles & thank godness Kentucky is far away!"

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Hello to all my friends out there.

New York is doing good, in case any of you were wondering. The city of Saratoga is still kickin. Sister Mason and I are doing peachy and keeping the work going strong. We had a very fabulous week this week. Many adventures and blessings. Shall we discuss?

The random tid bits of excitement.

1. We had Zone Conference this week which was super uplifting and inspiring. We talked a lot about faith and also about mastering the natural man. My family will be excited to know that my companion and I now go running every morning. I know I know. We never thought we would see the day. Anyway, it was really fun to see all the other missionaries at Zone Conference. AND best part was we got to watch part of the new movie "Meet the Mormon's" which was pretty sweet. We get to see the entire movie on Thursday night before Mission Leadership Council. I'm stoked.

2. Who watched the Women's Broadcast? I thought it was too sweet. I especially loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk. Remember how powerful his message was about Heavenly Father always loving us? It's so true.

In other news, HOW EXCITED IS EVERYONE FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE?

BEST. DAY. EVER.

3. Autumn is coming in full fledge here in Saratoga. Leaves are constantly crunching under our feet. It's pretty wonderful. that's all I have to say on the matter.

4. Ok so... this actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but I keep forgetting to write about it, and I thought you all would appreciate it. JIMMER'S DAD SPOKE IN CHURCH. Haha. Jimmer is from the ward just north of us (Glens Falls) and his dad must have a stake calling or something because he seems to ALWAYS be visiting Saratoga. It's pretty chill. So yes everyone, I have chatted with Brother Fredette. (pretend like I know how to spell it). 

The miracles.

1. I'll start with probably our coolest story of the week. Sister Mason and I were walking down the road going to go and try one of our investigators. Well we are kickin along and we see this guy outside his house on the opposite side of the street. Sister Mason wants to work on OYMing so I was like, "Hey, you want to go talk to that guy?" So we awkwardly crossed the street. We started up a conversation with this guy and he turned out to be like the most solid person ever. He totally opened up to us and we taught him the restoration. Long story short he is now investigating and we have taught him one other time since. I love how when we open our mouths, (even when its seemingly awkward), the Lord puts people who are just ready to hear his words.

2. GA:  That girl is too solid. Man. She is the best. We haven't convinced her to move her baptism up yet haha, but she is so strong. Sometimes I have absolutely no idea why we are teaching her... and then I remember that she isn't actually a member yet. TOO GOOD.

3. GL:   We set him back on a date for baptism. He has been really concerned about some things and that has been holding him back from baptism. But we had a lesson with him on Saturday after a little member girl's baptism and he was really open. Then when we suggested he be baptized on Nov 1 he was kind of shocked. He said that that was the perfect day for his baptism and when things would fall into place. So awesome to see Heavenly Father inspiring us and him.

4. A:  She is also making such great progress. That girl is too good. We had a lesson where we watched the patterns of light video's with Elder Bednar. Well the first two she was analyzing all these random things (sometimes I think she is too smart for her own good haha) and we were like "COME ON! Feel the spirit dang it!" and then we watched the third and final video. There was a really tender moment at the end when she said, "I think that's how I feel the spirit. I think it's starting to make more sense." And then I realized... Heavenly Father knows what she needs. He knows how to speak directly to her. It's comforting to know that He will give her her answer. Not me.

Now a couple of giggles.

1. We volunteer at a soup kitchen every week. Well... there are some seriously creepy guys at said soup kitchen. Every week they try and find out if we are married, they ask for our numbers... Etc... Except most of them don't really speak English, so we just pretend we can't understand what they are saying and hand them a bowl of soup. Well this week one of them came up to me to tell me that he was moving to Kentucky. AND THEN, he goes in for a hug. We then experienced a really awkward moment where I hard core dodged the hug. It was a solid day. Hey, at least he's moving to Kentucky!

2. "I really just want to grow up to be one of those ruff and rugged cowboys. You know... the kind who sits out in the woods and cooks beans?" -Elder.

Well that's all for me kids. Please enjoy General Conference. I'm excited to hear everyone's insights. In the meantime I will be trying to let everyone know that a MODERN DAY MOSES WILL BE SPEAKING TO US.

XOXO,
Sister Langford

 

 

"New Baby?, thankfully not Slytherin, Heavenly Father knows & Loves us, & B of M vs South Park Challenges!"

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Hello friends.

My oh my how the weeks fly. Last night we were on the phone with out district leader and he said, "Sister Langford, this transfer is going to go so fast for you... but then next transfer is going to go EVEN faster." My response was "Why do you even have to say that?" and then hanging up the phone. Darn everyone reminding me how old I am.

On the plus side, this week has been very rewarding. It's been interesting, and there has been a bit of a learning curve, but seriously, all is well.

Remember how I got my baby this week?

Well, here's how it went down. Trainers sitting on one side of the room, trainee's filing in, all terrified and whispering in their heads "Not Slytherin, not Slytherin." I'm just chillin on the other side considering the fact that my stomach is currently in my feet and I am freaking out. Am I going to fail this new sister? What is her story. Very nervous. Then, my name is called and next thing I know I am hugging an adorable, eager sister by the name of Sister Mason.

And then much of my stress dissipated.

Anyway, here I am in Saratoga with my brand new companion, Sister Mason. It has been actually really great so far. Much much less stressful than I had originally anticipated. I love how excited she is to do everything. I love all her questions that I once wondered too. I love the newness of everything to her. It's all been great. Of course, there have been moments of stress, but much less than I would have thought. So far... the training and Sister Training Leader life is good.

Now here are the goods of the week.

1. G.  is seriously a boss. I have never seen someone with a more solid grasp on the gospel. This week as we were chatting with her she set herself with a new baptism date for beginning of December. We are trying to urge her to be baptized sooner than that... since she is seriously ready now. But we will see what happens. #whyisshesogreat

2. Paul. When we went to teach Paul this week (one of Sister Mason's first lessons) there was just a different feeling in the room. I don't even know how to describe it. All of his questions were real good questions, not the "guess what's in my head" kind of questions he usually asks. We again, invited him to come to church and feel the spirit there. AND HE CAME. He had a really great experience too, so I am very excited to see what happens in our next lesson. Good things happen every day.

All the other 'gators are also doing well. Another strong investigator came to church again, and we had a very powerful lesson with her during our church tour. We found a couple of new investigators who seem very promising. Good work is happening ya'll.

and the last little story...

3. We had just spent a day in the far away land of Corinth. Many good things had happened there, and we were about to head home. Then I thought of this less-active member who we should probably drop by. So we decided to put off dinner for another half hour and visit her. We started talking with her and it was clear that she was in distress. We had a very sweet moment of just testifying of the Plan of Salvation and bringing peace into her heart. The spirit was powerful. As we left we kneeled down in a circle with her and I offered a prayer. As I started to pray my heart was filled with such love and understanding for her. I knew that that love wasn't coming from me. That Heavenly Father's love for her had filled my heart and I was able to say to her what He would have said in that moment. When I finished the prayer, everyone was crying, but at the same time, we all knew that it was going to be alright. That everything she was worried about was in the Lord's hands. The peace was palpable.

As I left that lesson I really pondered on how aware Heavenly Father is of ALL of us. No matter who we are or where we are at He will find a way to reach us. I feel so blessed to have the gospel to guide me. That I know the truths of my Heavenly Father. I feel blessed to have made the covenant with my Father to mourn with those that mourn and to comfort those that stand in need of comfort. What a blessing to know that as we do those things, Heavenly Father works through us and we simple become a vessel.

Now to finish on a lighter note.

Last night we decided to go try a headquarter referral that we hadn't been able to really get in contact with. We knocked on his door... and it was his roommate... who is an Atheist. Well we ended up having a really cool conversation with this guy, and we asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon. His response "Well... I've seen the musical. But that's probably not too accurate." We laughed and told him that no it probably wasn't. I then said "well will you read the real Book of Mormon and see what you think?" He then said he would... then challenged me to watch South Park. Oh dear. My response was "You read the Book of Mormon and then we will talk about South Park."

We will see how that one goes! haha.

Well, I'm out. Have a fabulous week everyone!

XOXO,
Sister Langford

B.L.O.G.

The weeks in Saratoga just fly right on by. How have I already been here a transfer? In some ways I think back on everything that has happened here in Saratoga and I'm like... oh yeah.... we've done a lot. And then I think OH MY GOODNESS I DON'T KNOW ANYONE. It's all good. Let me tell you about the week before I start rambling again.

The little random tidbits.

1. I'm sick. Seriously. Again. I have dodged this whole sickness business for my entire mission.... until I arrived in Saratoga. I keep telling people it's because I'm allergic to Saratoga. Anyway, my point was that this little illness slowed me down a bit this week. I tried to not allow it to influence me too much... but sometimes you shouldn't run faster than you have strength. :)

2. Also, it's fall. This week I wore tights for the first time. Worst day ever. Ok really I do love fall... but winter you guys. Ugh.

Ok, now the stuff you really want to read about.

TRANSFERS.....

Ok. We got the transfer call Friday night. President NEVER calls Friday night. So as you can imagine, we were thrown for a loop. And guess what the word is? I'M TRAINING. After who knows how many transfers I get a brand new missionary. I'm actually really excited. Well... really I'm like Rapunzel on Tangled after she gets out of the tower and she's like "I'm never going back!" "That's it, I have to go back!" "I'm a terrible human being." "BEST. DAY. EVER." Except instead its kind of like this, "Oh my gosh I'm so excited for all I can teach to this new missionary!" "Oh no. I don't know anything. I'm going to be the worst trainer." "I'm going to be such a good trainer! We are going to work so hard." "I can't do this." "BEST. DAY.EVER." So that's been me the past couple of days. Oh yeah... I forgot to mention that on top of training I'm STILL a Sister Training Leader. #eternalSTL Sometimes I'm like, President, what are you thinking? Anyway, I'm excited. A lot of good things coming this transfer :) Also, Sister Lloyd is just going one area over. So I will be her Sister Training Leader next transfer. Very fun :)

BAPTISMZZZ.

Erin got baptized! It was seriously the happiest day. Her testimony is so strong and she is so sweet. So many of the members came out. There wasn't even enough seats for everyone in the Relief Society room. Plus Erin's mom came which was very awesome. (She's not a member) I think my favorite part of her baptism was after it was all over. I said "Erin, how do you feel?" She said "So. so happy. I'm mostly excited for tomorrow when I get the gift of the Holy Ghost. I think it will help me feel all warm and fuzzy." It was seriously adorable. I love that girl to bits and pieces. Very blessed to have been part of her journey.

Also, Jim Fish got baptized! He is in Corning. But hey, I found and taught him, so I feel like it counts. He was the one who had the huge long beard and then shaved it off to come to church! Anyway, I haven't talked to the sisters there, but it must have been a great day. It's awesome that even though I wasn't there to see it happen I still know I was a part of his journey, and for that, I am blessed.

OTHER 'GATORS

We have a previous investigator back to meeting with us. She kind of took a detour for a while, which was hard to see happen. But this week we were able to meet with her again. It was a really tender experience and it's clear that she loves the gospel and wants to make it a part of her life. We taught her with the member who originally introduced her to the gospel. The member,  is also a convert. Her testimony was seriously exactly what she needed, so we are excited to see how things go with her :)

Paul. Have I talked about Paul at all yet? I probably have. He's our investigator who is 91 and can hardly hear anything we say. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, he has been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy. This past week he made it to 2 Nephi 2. He was so excited to tell us about it and the cutest part was at the top of the page he wrote in big letters "Very Best" Ah Paul is very great.

Anyway, that's basically the story of the week. Very excited for what this new transfer will hold. I'm definitely going to miss Sister Lloyd and all her craziness (Like calling fanny packs "hippy sacks", and trying to hide from me where ever we go... and everyone calling her short jokes (like shorty-pants)) But I know great things are to come!

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"Time's Flying, Baptism this week, awkward Chastity, Lord answers prayers with others, & Jacob 4:7!"

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Hey, hey.

It's Monday everyone. How does this keep happening to me? I know, I know. You are all sick of me starting off with a little blurb about how quickly the time is going but....  IT'S SO TRUE. I never would have believed it at the beginning of my mission. Every day took an eternity. Now I swear its like "Wait! What happened today? Did we see anyone? What happened?" I don't even know what to do about it.

Anyway

This week was pretty good. We went on another exchange (which was very good times).  We headed down to Utica for another missionary leadership council. Very fun. Very fun. Also, some other good things happened. I guess we can talk about them.

1. We met a new investigator who was referred to us by elders in Indiana. She was a hardcore Atheist 7 weeks ago, and now she believes in God and thinks she might want to be baptized. Seriously it is such a miracle. She is very sweet and cool. It's also fun because she is a college student, so we can relate to her really well. (I kind of think our entire teaching pool right now is girls about our age). Anyway, I've just been feeling really blessed that she literally just landed right in our lap. I think often the best people are the ones that Heavenly Father pretty much just hands to you. Very blessed.

2. ERRRRRIIIIIIINNNN. Why is Erin my very favorite person in the world? Here are her most recent updates.

First. She is getting baptized THIS WEEK. We are super excited. Her mom is cool with it, and she is very prepared. Before her interview on Saturday we were prepping her for all the questions and she just started telling us about patriarchal blessings and all this stuff. I love that girl.

Second. She told us this week that she, (and her friend Kaylea), want to go on missions. Coolest thing ever. I've always wanted to teach someone who goes on a mission. seriously. amazing.

Third. We had probably my favorite lesson of life with her this week. We taught her the Law of Chastity. So obviously we had to tell the members that that was what we were going to teach that day. So they all prepped her that is was going to be the most awkward lesson in the world. *facepalm* But we taught it and it all went pretty well. Only minor awkwardness. AND THEN Erin said the closing prayer, which went something like this... "Thank you for this very awkward lesson and please bless that we will never have to talk about it again anytime soon." SO HILLARIOUS. We all pretty much just ended up laughing our faces off. Bless that girl.

3. We were an answer to prayers. You know, on a mission, that you are probably very often a direct answer to someone's prayers. Often they don't know it. Even more often, you don't know it. But truly, we know Heavenly Father is always guiding us in who we talk to. Well, last night a member had signed up to feed us and she lives REALLY far away, so usually she will just drop it off to us. Well for some reason she asked if we would like to come there, and after thinking it through, we said yes. We drove out, had a nice dinner, and then started for home. Out of the blue Sister Lloyd and I remembered that we had planned to see a less-active member who lived out that way. We were pretty low on time, but decided to swing by. We got there and the less-active member was home. She invited us in, and we were able to start teaching her the restoration. A few minutes in she just paused us and said, "You girls don't even know. Just before you came here I had been reflecting on how trapped I feel. I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me and guide me... and then you showed up." It was such a tender mercy to know that Heavenly Father sent us EXACTLY where we needed to be that night. I always feel blessed to know that I am in the Lord's service.

In other news and on a somewhat random note, life has been good, but also kind of hard recently. Not anything huge or life shattering in anyway... but just different. A lot of obstacles to overcome. I've been praying for humility and I think that is where this is all coming from! Haha. But seriously, it's not always fun, but I've noticed myself being humbled by the Lord A LOT recently. One day I was feeling really frustrated about it and annoyed that I wasn't doing everything quite as great as I would have hoped... I was then reading this scripture in the Book of Mormon and it really made an impact. It says, "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things." (Jacob 4:7).  I learn this over and over and yet I always seem to forget that this is not the work of Sister Langford. That I can never do enough of be enough to make Heavenly Father's work come to pass. But He can. Sometimes I just need to remember to take a step back and remember who is really in charge of it all.

Well, I am grateful to be here and love the mission.

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"Plans change, Success in Glenville, prayers answered, and 2nd, 3rd, & 100th chances are awesome!"

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Hello my dear and lovely friends.

Another week has rolled on past. And in case anyone was wondering, September has arrived. I don't know what I have to do to make time move a little slower. I'll see who I can talk to about that one.

Anyway, let me tell you about what went down this week.

First of all, let me tell you that basically everything got thrown for a loop. I don't actually know why we even plan things. We were supposed to go on the three day exchange this week with the sisters that we are over, but we received a surprise call on Monday to let us know that one of the sisters was getting emergency transferred across the mission... so basically the 3 day exchange was off. We had been planning to be out of our area like all week... and surprise, now we are here. Which, in someways is good... but also we had NOTHING planned. We ended up going on a normal exchange with the sisters in Glenville (which will be mentioned of more later) and then we will go on exchange with the Glens Falls sisters today. Also, Glenn had to cancel his baptism... sad day. The place he was planning to move fell through last minute. On a happy note, he still wants to be baptized, but we are waiting until he has a place to live to set a date.

Suffice it to say, this week was not my best week of missionary work. Thank goodness for second and third and 100th chances to do better the next day.

But let's talk about the miracles.

1. ERIN. YOU GUYS. EEEEEERRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNN. She is such an answer to prayers I can not even begin to tell you. This week we took her on a church tour and when we got to the baptism font we invited her, again, to be baptized. She agreed that that was something she would like to do. We then asked her if she had thought about a date. She said, "Well... I was thinking I would like to do it the Saturday after school starts." So the word is that Erin's baptism will be held a week from Saturday. I swear we have been meeting with her like every day to make that happen, but she is so so solid. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon one night, the next morning we had an appointment (literally 13 hours later). When we asked her how her reading had been going she told us that she had read the first 4 chapters of the Book of Mormon and asked us really in depth and smart questions. She is so SO so great. Ah I can't even handle it.

2. So this was not our best week with 2 of our other investigators. For some reason we had felt like they were avoiding us all week and not wanting to meet with us :( which was a sad day. So we prayed that while we were in their area that we would somehow be able to make contact with them. So we went to our first appointment, and they had bailed. Second appointment, and she had left a note saying she didn't want to meet with us. Then we are driving down the street to go to the next person on our list, and who should we see meandering down the road but our 2 investigators. Seriously an answer to prayers. We quickly got out and talked with them. Thankfully we were able to set up an appointment and teach them a little lesson. I know it seems like a really small thing, but I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Even the simple and somewhat insignificant ones.

3. EXCHANGE IN GLENVILLE. I was blessed to spend two days in Glenville with my dear Sister Curtis. It was muchos fun. The sisters there had really been struggling with finding people, and we could tell they were a little disheartened about the whole situation. When we began the exchange I asked Sister Curtis what she wanted to see happen on the exchange and what goals she wanted to work on. We decided together that we should pray to find 5 new investigators for them in the two days we had to work. Then, we got to work. During the exchange we picked up 3 new investigators, and found a TON of really solid potentials. Plus, we committed their investigator to baptism. It was so great. Then the day after the exchange they told us that they had found someone, taught them the first lesson, and picked them up as an investigator. Best news was, we had met this guys girlfriend while on the exchange. It was really amazing to see how much those sisters faith to find increased!

And now a few humorous quotes...

"You look like you could be Lil Wayne's spice." -16 year old kid trying to hit on us.

"We just like to go around and share a very special message about Jesus Christ" -Sister Langford
"That's cool. You know what I like? Bikes, and rip sticks..... and also dating." - same 16 year old kid

"Thank you for that very rhythmic knock." -random guy whose door we knocked on.

"Baptism is like a really clean shower... for your spirit." -member kid.

Well that's my story everyone. We can talk again next week.

XOXO,
Sister Langford