"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.

"So Freaking Blessed!, Corning's on Fire, #Miracles, Upcoming Baptisms!!"

BLOGGGGG....

Hello everyone out there in the universe. This week was pretty chill. No wait... actually this week was SO FREAKING BLESSED.  Like you guys, I was going through my journal and I was like, "Holy COW! The Lord is truly blessing us here!" I have never seen such direct answers to prayers and success my whole mission. Like.... wow. So let us chat about this crazy roller coaster week.

THE UPS...

I don't even know how to explain it to you all except that the work is seriously progressing here in this area. We have been out trying to do a lot of tracting and finding and all that good stuff and at first.... it was a bit discouraging if we are going to be honest. Such a large task and I really felt like this entire area of Corning was resting on my shoulders. There was some serious stress you guys. After a couple of solid break downs I realized this, "I CAN'T BE PERFECT AND I CAN'T DO IT ON MY OWN." I realized this week that I can never do enough or say enough or be as kind or as diligent as I would like to be. I am going to have doubts and discouragements and all those things... but you know what? That's ok because Heavenly Father doesn't expect me to do all that. All he asks is that I go and do. He asks that I try and that I put forth my effort. Then some how, miraculously, it is enough. And because we are out and willing and there, He makes it work. He puts people in our path, He answers our prayers and He makes it happen. That is what I have seen this week. I have seen my own flaws and inadequacies swallowed up in what Jesus Christ can do. So here's what He did...

1. We found SO MANY amazing potentials. Like almost every single door we knocked on was someone who either, wanted to talk to us, or knew someone who wanted to talk to us. I'm serious you guys, THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Just to name a few experiences:
For some reason I felt compelled to walk around carrying a Book of Mormon in my hand instead or in my bag like I usually do. Then we felt to knock on a door that we hadn't planned on. Then we had a really good conversation with a guy and he gratefully accepted the Book of Mormon. #miracles. THEN we were out and we stopped at a members house to use the restroom. They led us to a less active that we had never known about. We knocked on her door and it wasn't the less- active but it WAS a couple of ladies who wanted to talk with us about the gospel. Oh yeah and THEN we were out trying a potential and I thought "Have you ever tried this potential's neighbors?" Sister Fiefia said they hadn't, so we went and knocked and ended up finding this super cool lady who talked with us for like an hour and is interested in having us back. I'm telling you guys, these are just a few of the sweet miracles we've seen this week.

2. And what about some literal and immediate answers to prayers? One day this week I prayed that we would be able to find a family who would listen to our message, be ready and prepared for what we have to say, and have a desire to investigate and be baptized. I went forth with faith, even though we didn't have much finding time that day. We went out and the second door we knocked on was this super cool guy who listened to our message and then said "yeah, My family and I would love to try and come to your church sometime! But we have to make a deal that you will come to ours!" We said "deal!" But he sincerely wants us to come back and he wants his family to hear our message! #MIRACLES

3. Oh and also, we found 2 new 'gators this week. One was a member referral, (also something that doesn't happen here), and the second is the straight up cutest family on the face of this earth. They're So sweet and have a strong desire to hear what we have to say. WE ARE SO BLESSED.

4. Then we went and saw a great couple we are teaching a few times this week. Yesterday when we saw them we had a super sweet experience. We decided to reteach them the restoration because we felt like there was something more that they could get out of the message. As we were teaching, the spirit was super strong and you could tell that they were really understanding it more than they had before. At the end of the lesson we asked Brother M what he would ask Heavenly Father about our message if He were here. Brother M said "I wouldn't know what to ask. I guess I would thank him for your message and I would say thank you for letting me know its true." We were just kind of stunned so I was like...." So if you know that this message is true, let me ask you a follow up question, Will you be baptized?" AND THEY BOTH SAID YES! It was so good! You can really tell this is something they are truly searching for.  SO GOOD!

5. And not to mention that the elders had a baptism this week which was like the first convert baptism the Corning branch has seen in a while and it was so great! you guys, CORNING IS ON FIRE!

But like I said earlier, even though we have seen so many miracles and amazing things, there have been some bumps in the road. Satan is trying to bring us down because he knows that a marvelous work and a wonder is about to come forth in this area. Too bad he can't bring us down :)

....and now a couple of quotes of humor :)

"Well Sister Langford, I think what you need to go do is go out and buy yourself a big old banana split!" -President Wirthlin's counsel

"Ok now will you put your head back in the cereal box so I can take a picture?" -Member

"I've got Dia-betis" - Sister Fiefia

"Girls, you just put your hater blockers up!" -Random lady we met while tracting.

Well, I'm outy kids. Hope you all have a stellar week. Good things to come in Corning!

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"Goodbye Norwood-Hello Corning, Freeways/2 Lanes to drive in?, New Challenges, Rapping with the Comp, Dog Bites & Hoarders."

Hey everyone.
 
Oh my goodness. I can't even begin to talk about how dramatically my life has changed in the course of this week. Like, where in the heck even am I? Ok, lets talk about the week everybody.
 
Back  in the 'wood:
 
It was a hard goodbye to leave Norwood. There were so many people that I felt really changed my life and I had really grown close with. The Potsdam branch felt like family and Sister Davis and I were basically BFF's.... so it was a lot tougher leave than Cooperstown. We went around saying our goodbye's to Floyd, Nick & Anita, Nels & Jo, the whole gang. Definitely bitter sweet. And let me tell you, Heavenly Father knew I was struggling a little bit with this whole leaving business.  
So, He made it easier.
 
 Tuesday we had two investigators drop us AND one of our services dropped us because we introduced ourselves as "sister" (what the lame?) So.... it was a little bit easier to peace out Wednesday morning!  Haha. 

 
AND THEN I CAME TO CORNING.
 
Aaaaaaahh.... Corning. Corning is like the cutest place ever. And get this, THERE ARE FREEWAYS AND STORES AND PEOPLE and I was like, where even am I right now? There were multiple lanes that I could drive in and I didn't even know what to do with myself (I'm still adjusting).  So that was great. And let me tell you, Sister Fiefia is like, the coolest ever. She brings out my crazy ghetto side. It's been good. She has only been out for a few months and is still figuring things out, but I seriously love her greenie faith and fire. It brings it out in me. So that is AWESOME. 
 
But...
 
Corning has also been a bit of a struggle so far. Let's just say that all of the previous missionaries haven't been the most diligent or obedient and as a result, we only had 2 investigators and the members really do not like the missionaries. So.... sweet. But on the plus side, I recieved some pretty straight answers to prayers. I told Heavenly Father I was ready for a bit more of a challenge. Something that would push me and help me grow. I also prayed that I would be able to recognize my purpose in being in Corning. I know Heavenly Father heard those prayers because Corning is definitely a challenge,(its almost like opening a new area and training a new missionary), but at the same time I know He trusts me enough to give me this area and my purpose is very clear. I am here to get things going in Corning. 
So its kind of exciting at the same time. 
 
Sister Fiefia and I have been working our tails off everyday so far that I've been here and so far we have found 2 new investigators!  They are older couple who had been taught by the missionaries before (recently) but had been dropped for who knows why. We went over and had the most solid lesson with them where they kept asking us about baptism and how they are really thinking about it for themselves! like, HELLO SOLID. So, there are many blessings coming our way in Corning. WE ARE TURNING THINGS AROUND! 
 
In other news,
 
SO far in Corning I have....
 
-Cleaned a hoarder's house
-Free style rapped everyday with Sister Fiefia
-Helped with a poverty walk
-Been bit by a dog
 
So...,,,GOOD THINGS TO COME IN CORNING. 
 
Now, let's finish with some quotes...
 
"Ya! We are fishing for men..... wait! I mean fishers of men!" - Sister Fiefia
 
"This room is Vegas." -Brother Rodreguiz
 
"It's like going through hot butter.... well not hot butter because then it would be melted." -President Wirthlin
 
"Do I stress you out when I'm in your pressence? Well.... there's nothing I can do! I'm here!" -President Wirthlin
 
"Are you saying Polynesians are fat?" - Sister Fiefia
"Well... stereotypically yes." -Elder

"You guys like sitting on the disgusting couches. You are like 'Ya! this is what a missions all about!" - Brother Rodreguiz
 
Well, love you all! Have a blessed week :) #langfordout  #Ozoneswag

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"Warm weather, New Home & Comp, Sheering "Spitting" Alpacas, Hidden LA's in Norwood, & Awkward Closing Prayer."

BLOG!

Hello all my friends out there! Haha, oh man. THIS WEEK. Where do we begin? I have too much info to fit into one email... ok.... deep breath....

Let's talk.

1. So first big news... IT'S SO WARM. Like, drive with your window down, short sleeves, feet getting a little sweaty in your flats, warm. I LOVE IT. Which leads me to my second big news...

2. WE GOT TRANSFER CALLS. and well... I'm leaving Norwood. It's kind of a rough leave. Bitter sweet. I feel like it's my time to go and it's definitely what's best for me and the area, but as I've been saying goodbye to everyone it's been really sad. But on the plus side, I'M GOING TO CORNING, NY! I heard good things about Corning. Like, it's where glass was invented, it's super cute, its THE MOST SOUTHERN part of our mission (talk about a change) and (here's the best part) THERE'S A TARGET. Hello civilization! This may be the biggest "city" I've served in yet... and we can pretty much guarantee it's going to be tiny. Still, I'm stoked for a new change, to go down state (WHERE ITS EVEN WARMER)! and to meet my new comp Sister Fiefia! and speaking of calls....

3. YESTERDAY I CALLED HOME! Hey everyone do you remember that? Haha. It was too weird. Even weirder was the fact that that was my last call home before I'm back in the 801. Crazy. But it was cool to chat with everyone and all that good stuff :) (Shout out to Hollie and Nat for writing me a sweet missionary song ;) ) and on a completely unrelated note...

4. THIS MORNING WE SHEERED ALPACAS. It was super funny. I almost got spit on. Dude, it was a dream come true.

But anyway, back to the work.

1. We had such a bomb lesson with an investigator. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was so excited to read it! It's so encouraging to see someone so ready and excited for God's word. When we first presented it she was like "Oh, I will have to see if I can find time to squeeze it in.." and by the end she was like "I have time every night that I could be reading this!" SO GOOD.

2. Ok ok ok. Remember last week how I was going off about us finding less-actives out the wazoo. Well, welcome to this next fine story. So one of our investigators, (mentioned previously) told us to go and try to teach her mom. So naturally we did #referral.  Well she invites us in and we start teaching her the first lesson. She's feeling good about it and then she goes "Wait. You guys are Mormon's right?" and we are like "why yes, yes we are." Then she says "Oh I've been baptized into your church!" LIKE WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON IN NORWOOD! I kind of just mentally threw my hands in the air and yelled "OF COURSE YOU HAVE!" (don't worry that was only in my head!) But then she continued to tell us how she had been excommunicated but would like to come back! Oh, Norwood is too funny of a place.

3. Then we see another person (another surprise member of the church) and last week we had given her a Book of Mormon. Before we had a chance to say anything she said "I've been reading your bible and its made me so much more peaceful." It was a really sweet moment. I'm telling you guys, the powers in the book! :)

4. We FINALLY saw an investigator couple again. It wasn't a bad visit, but you could tell they were a little distraught. They kind of laid it on the line for us and told us they were never getting married or baptized. So that was tough. But we are still praying and fasting for them so we aren't giving up! I just pray that the new sister will be able to help them out! Aaah, missionary worries.

5. And we found one more investigator and had possibly THE MOST awkward moment.  We had met him once before. He's way nice and has a lot of deep questions. So we were teaching him the restoration, and in the new teaching method that we've been using you are supposed to ask them to offer the closing prayer and then have a moment of silence with them to help them feel the spirit. Rad. It should all work and create a super spiritual experience... in theory. So we introduce the idea and he consents that he will say the closing prayer. So we all bow our heads and close our eyes.... and wait..... and wait.... and it's just silent. He doesn't say anything for like 2 minutes. So finally I look over at Sister Davis and she is awkwardly looking at me, then we both look at Tom and he looks at us.... then says "well, thanks for coming over!" OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS SO AWKWARD! I tell ya, those North Country folk! Haha!

Well, that's the gist for this week... OH WAIT #quotes

"You mature.... but you never grow up.... or something like that. Its a quote!" -Elder

"Ya, he's an addiction recovery addict." -Elder

"Hannah Montana songs do everything a good sister training leader should do!"

Ok, well I'M EXCITED TO TELL YA'LL ABOUT CORNING NEXT WEEK. Adios.

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"Hola, Member or LA?, Great 'Gators, & Answers from the Scriptures."

BLOG.


Hola amigos! <--------------- (in honor of Cinco De Mayo!)

Oh man. This week was kind of all over the place. To be honest I'm not even sure it happened.... But we have a lot to talk about, so lets chat.

The goods.

So here's to news. We find out THIS VERY WEEK if one of us is leaving the great town of Norwood. I have been operating under the assumption that it was my time to go... but you seriously never know. I have been here almost 6 months and I honestly can't believe it's been that long. I was feeling kind of bummed because... well we haven't seen that many converts since I've been here. So naturally Satan tries to discourage. But then I was thinking about all the lives that have been changed, ESPECIALLY our recent converts and less-active members, and I felt pretty good about that. Like just this week...

1. S. We saw him and he told us that he had read almost all of 2 Nephi. I'm serious this kid is cruisin' through the Book of Mormon, which is so so sweet. He really understands it too and asks very intelligent questions about what's going on. So when we were talking with him, we asked him if he had seen a difference in his life since he had started reading the Book of Mormon. (Keep in mind we haven't really taught him anything BESIDES the Book of Mormon) and he said "Well, to be honest with you guys, I was into some pretty rough stuff before I met you. And seriously ever since I started reading the Book of Mormon, I haven't wanted any part of it and I've stayed completely away!" Dude, how awesome is that? My testimony of the power of The Book of Mormon is continuously being strengthened. It amazes me the power that one book has to change lives. IT'S SO TRUE!

2. P. Remember how we picked P up as a new investigator last week? Well, this week we went to teach her about the restoration. We had introduced it to her and had just finished saying that she would "want to make changes in her life to bring her closer to God, and be baptized..." and she goes "Oh, I've already been baptized into your church."

"I'm sorry.... WHAT?"

"Seriously P this is like the 5th time we have sat down and talked with you and you JUST NOW feel like you should let us know you are really secretly a less-active member of our church."
Crazy. So now we are working on re-activating her. I seriously don't know how we keep finding all the less-actives left and right. We think our new tracting approach should be "Hi, we are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,  are you or anyone you know secretly a member of our church?" There could be a lot of success from that. But hey, Paulette is doing good! She is especially stoked to read the Book of Mormon (remember how cool and powerful that book is?)

3. A. We went to teach A this week and she had a surprise for us. You may recall a couple of weeks ago the story I shared about her asking me how I knew Heavenly Father loved me. Well, I asked her the question back and she told me that she didn't know. Well this week when we went over she had a list of 12 specific ways that she knew that Heavenly Father loved and knew her. It was such a sweet moment as she shared her list with us. Especially since one of the 12 reasons on the list was, "He sends missionaries to help me." that really made me feel happy. I really feel like I was sent here to strengthen . Like I said earlier, its easy to get discouraged when every investigator you have, who you think is going to be solid and get baptized, doesn't make it. But then, I think about how intensely I've seen people's lives change, especially theirs, and I know I was sent to Potsdam for a reason.

And the 'gators

the few that we still have are doing pretty good. I mean, here's the run down...

1. D. Still solid. still out of town :(

2. A and J. Doing really good so far! We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they really liked it and felt like it answered a lot of their questions!

3. C. We hadn't been able to get a hold of C and he had bailed on church which was kind of disappointing. So we decided to drop by and see if we could catch him at home. Turns out that Saturday night his tooth/face was really hurting so he went to the ER. Bad news, his tooth got infected and the infection had spread to his whole face. So they kept him in the hospital until Sunday afternoon (that's a decent reason to miss church), then on the way home from the hospital he dropped him phone in a puddle so he hasn't had a phone. It's crazy how hard Satan works to try and keep people from doing the right thing! Jokes on you Satan. So we are still working with him and have a ton of faith and hope in him!

4. N & J. We haven't been able to see in a really long time. We called them this week to see if we could stop by and they told us that "they would never be baptized into our church" because they don't want to get married. Ugh!!. But we are going to see them this week and hopefully we can figure things out!

5. A. Still doing good. :)

Bah!! We will find more people soon!

And then one more thing about the Book of Mormon.

I'm realizing now as I am typing this how much Heavenly Father has been strengthening my faith in the Book of Mormon recently. I had the coolest two experiences this week that involve that book. The first happened Friday night. We went down to Utica Thursday and Friday for a meeting and while we were down there I found out that one of my favorite missionaries was going home early because of health problems. I felt super sad for her and was feeling a little discouraged myself. I can't even describe it. But I was sitting on my bed just talking with Heavenly Father and letting Him know how I was feeling about the matter when I got a prompting to open my Book of Mormon. I did, and this was the scripture I read,

"Blessed art thou [Sister Langford]; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God for the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you."  -Alma 8:15

I had never had such a powerful and direct answer given to me through the scriptures. I was amazed. You guys, Heavenly Father really does talk to us through the scriptures!

So then during church yesterday, I was trying to get direction as to what I should do to be better this week. Again, I felt compelled to open the scriptures and this was my answer,

"Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." - 2 Nephi 32:3

It was such a direct answer. I had asked specifically "what I should do." Then Heavenly Father answered me saying "The words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."

So moral of the story, when in doubt, ask Heavenly Father, then open your Book of Mormon and He will seriously answer you!

Ok. I will now leave you with some quotes...

"Don't go all Taylor Swift on me!"- A
"There ain't no free lunch." -President Wirthlin

"There are some missionaries who don't know how to handle failure, but some of you don't know how to handle success!" -President Wirthlin (he has a lot of faith in us haha)

"When I was a new missionary, I would see the Zone Leaders and I thought 'Ah! Zone gods!" - Elder

Well, adios my friends!

XOXO,
Sister Langford