"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

"Killed it at Zone Conference, Mama Mia, Don't Spin then run, Unfinished story-Continued, He Said Yes, & Laman & Lemuel are Jerks."

BLOGGGGGG

CIAO FRIENDS!

Oh my goodness this was such a good week. We had so many miracles, it's like I don't even know where to start..... Ok after some deep thought I have decided to begin with a quote from our mission president's wife, Sister Wirthlin, to set the mood...

"It brought tears to my eyes.... and usually I only cry during dog movies!"

Anyway, let us begin. This week we...

1. Had Zone Conference. The Assistants and Pres came up to the great north and trained us on how to more effectively teach Preach my Gospel. It was super great. Sister Davis and I had the great joy to role play one of the teaching methods in front of the whole zone. We pretty much killed it. Oh man we were so, so, nervous, but it ended up ok. During these role plays President & Sister Wirthlin were throwing out all kinds of crazy quotes. To name a few...

" Religiousity! That's a new word.... everyone! Write that one down!" -President

"Everyone who has been using this has been going bananas with it. You know, bananas are pretty slick." -President

"They look properly, they dress properly, their pants are around their wastes!" -President

"Oh man, I LOVE TEXAS!" -President

2. Went on exchange with Sister Malavasi. Sister Malavasi is from Italy and pretty much the most hilarious person I have ever met. We had a super awesome time. Here are some of my favorite quotes from her...

"Oh mama mia! You have killer lady gloves on your table!"

"Langford.... its like.... a strong name. Like a business owner, or a slave owner."

"Caio bella!"

"You are just a crazy american!"

3. Hosted the YSA FHE here in Potsdam. It was pretty fun. And you may have already anticipated this, but here are some funny quotes that stemmed from planning for, and seeing out this experience.

"Have you ever tried to spin around really fast and then run in a straight line?" - Elder

"This is obviously an idea that's coming up as we're talking to you" - Elder

"These people have to... well we think its a good idea.... spin around." -Elder

"Bad things.... like adultery."
-Elder

Ok, now lets's talk about some of the cool things that happened this week.

1. To continue the unfinished story... this week we went over to this girl's house to teach her the gospel. (You will remember her.  She is the lady from the food pantry).  Well we went in and for some reason I was super nervous. Which was weird. But we got talking with them, and things seemed to be going really well. We taught them the first lesson and by the end the spirit was crazy strong. We invited them to pray about the restoration to know if it was true and they said that they believed it was! So moral of the story, we are now teaching her and her boyfriend!

2. We also had a really good lesson with our other investigator while I was on exchange with Sister Malavasi. We taught him about the plan of salvation and during the lesson Sis Malavasi told him that she would save him a seat in the Celestial Kingdom. At the end of the lesson we challenged him to baptism... AND HE SAID YES! We then asked him why he wanted to be baptized. He said "Well, I want to become a better person and continue on this path.... and this seems like the way to go! Anyway, someone is already saving me a seat in the Celestial Kingdom!" Too good! Ah, I love seeing people progress!

3. Another miracle that happened on exchange... EVERY SINGLE PERSON WAS HOME. Maybe you guys don't understand how huge of a miracle this is... but usually we have these people that we are always trying to see, but they are never home, or they are always busy... and during my 24 hours with Sister Malavasi every person we had planned to see was home, and welcomed us in. Like seriously you guys, this never happens. Not to mention that one of those people we picked up as a new investigator! amazing!

4. We went back to see this guy we found while tracting), and he had read the entire first book of Nephi and had lots to talk about! It was so good. My favorite thing he said...

"I'm gonna be honest with you guys, I think Laman and Lemuel are kind of jerks. They are my least favorite and I really don't know why they don't just leave them to die in the wilderness!"

I died.

..,.,,and then some sad things happened...

We basically had to drop all of our investigators. We realized that a lot of them were not going anywhere. This seems to be a reoccurring theme with me in Norwood... but it still is never easy. We then received a super harsh drop from one of our investigators.   She told us she wouldn't come to church anymore and that she didn't believe we had to do anything to get salvation... that grace covered it all. It reminded me a lot of Elder Holland's talk from this last conference... you know. People wanting a lazy God. But it was super heart breaking. NEVERTHELESS we found 3 new investigators this week and things will continue to progress in the north country!

Now, one more quote...

" That song should be missionary approved. There's not anything inappropriate except the deebeedee's."
-Sister Davis.

Well.... SEE YA NEXT WEEK! #ciaobella

XOXO,
Sister Langford

"New House, Flap-Jack Challenge, Floyd's Transformation, Lake Placid Nutella & Crepes, & Bicycles & the Atonement."

BLOGGGG

Hello everyone!

Man, how is it even Monday again. That makes no sense to me. Bah. Anyway, this week kind of just happened and I'm not even really sure what to write about... There were a lot of random things that happened so let us talk about those.

Here we go.

1. 10 minutes ago... my companion and I decided to do what is known as the "flap-jack challenge" at a diner here in Potsdam. Basically you have to eat a giant pancake the size of 4 dinner plates in 45 minutes. Is it insane? Yes!  But if you complete the challenge you get a free t-shirt that says, "I ate it all!' So naturally, we needed that. Plus, the zone leaders here could only eat half of it, so we had to show them up! Well... we tried.... and I failed. I ate a little more than half of it. BUT Sister Davis ate all but a tiny bit. She would have done it, except she ran out of time! I guess I can count "eating ridiculous amounts of pancake" off my list of talents. 

2. We moved into our new house! Hurray! Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of it... but just know that it is fantastic! (pics to come next week!)

3. I went on exchange this week to Lake Placid again! Round 3 visiting that adorable mountainous town. This time I got to spend time with the adorable Sister Keller who has only been on her mission for 2 weeks! We had a really good time. PLUS She had her first experience OYMing (talking to people in the street), eating crepes, and eating nutella. I definitely enjoyed opening her eyes to all these wonderful things. ALSO, while in the Adirondack mountains I took a picture of me, sitting in an adirondack chair. dream = fulfilled.

4. EASTER. Easter was so fun we had 2 1/2 Easter dinners. All of which were delicious and filled us up to the brim! The members here are too good! :)

5. HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK. Floyd rolled into church looking so sharp!  This week he rolls into church in a full black suit, white shirt and tie. Not to mention he got a hair cut and was carrying an Easter basket full of goodies for Sister Davis and I. It was seriously the best transformation I have ever seen. Ah man, Floyd is the best.

The cool moments... 

(Not too many this week. Like I said earlier, I don't even know what happened with this week.....)

1. To finish my story... remember a few weeks ago when I told you the story about the young mom who we really felt like we needed to talk to? Then we saw her al Walmart and missed the opportunity again? WELL this week we had the food pantry again, and she was also there. So we knew we couldn't let her get away again. So when it was her turn to come through we offered to carry her food up so that way we could get a chance to talk to her. As if Satan knew our plan, right then her baby started screaming and she was like "sorry I have to feed him now. Will you just go put those in my car?" We were feeling pretty bummed about the whole issue, but decided to leave a note on her food. Well we finished helping out at the food pantry and just as we were going out to get into our car this girl jumped out of her car and was like "Hey! I got your note! I would love to have you over sometime!" SO we are going to go over sometime this week. So I guess the story really isn't over. Can you all take another to be continued? :)

2. We had a really good lesson with one investigator this week that really put me in the Easter mood. We were talking to her about the Atonement and repentance and all that good stuff. Anyway, the spirit was really strong and it was really hitting her hard. I then felt inspired to share a story with her, that I would now like to share with you all! This story comes from a talk given by Stephan E Robinson called "believing Christ"...

"After I had come home from school one day, I was sitting in a chair reading the newspaper. My daughter Sarah, who was seven years old, came in and said, “Dad, can I have a bike? I’m the only kid on the block who doesn’t have a bike.”

Well, I didn’t have enough money to buy her a bike, so I stalled her and said, “Sure, Sarah.”

She said, “How? When?”

I said, “You save all your pennies, and pretty soon you’ll have enough for a bike.” And she went away.

A couple of weeks later as I was sitting in the same chair, I was aware of Sarah doing something for her mother and getting paid. She went into the other room and I heard “clink, clink.” I asked, “Sarah, what are you doing?”

She came out and she had a little jar all cleaned up with a slit cut in the lid and a bunch of pennies in the bottom. She looked at me and said, “You promised me that if I saved all my pennies, pretty soon I’d have enough for a bike. And, Daddy, I’ve saved every single one of them.”

She’s my daughter, and I love her. My heart melted. She was doing everything in her power to follow my instructions. I hadn’t actually lied to her. If she saved all of her pennies she would eventually have enough for a bike, but by then she would want a car. But her needs weren’t being met. Because I love her, I said, “Let’s go downtown and look at bikes.”

We went to every store in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Finally we found it—the perfect bicycle, the one she knew in the premortal existence. She got up on that bike; she was thrilled. She then saw the price tag, reached down, and turned it over. When she saw how much it cost, her face fell and she started to cry. She said, “Oh Dad, I’ll never have enough for a bicycle.”

So I said, “Sarah, how much do you have?”

She answered, “Sixty-one cents.”

“I’ll tell you what. You give me everything you’ve got and a hug and a kiss, and the bike is yours.” Well, she’s never been stupid. She gave me a hug and a kiss. She gave me the sixty-one cents. Then I had to drive home very slowly because she wouldn’t get off the bike. She rode home on the sidewalk, and as I drove along slowly beside her it occurred to me that this was a parable for the Atonement of Christ.

We all want something desperately—it isn’t a bicycle. We want the celestial kingdom. We want to be with our Father in Heaven. And no matter how hard we try, we come up short. At some point we realize, “I can’t do this!” It is at that point that the sweetness of the gospel covenant comes to our taste as the Savior proposes, “I’ll tell you what. All right, you’re not perfect. How much do you have? What can you do? Where are you now? Give me all you’ve got, and I’ll pay the rest. Give me a hug and a kiss; enter into a personal relationship with me, and I will do what remains undone.”

As we shared that parable with our investigator a strong sweet spirit entered the room and I knew that the message was true. The purpose of Christ's atonement wasn't just to make up for our sins. Or even just our sicknesses or pains. The atonement is there to help us with our every day weaknesses and shortcomings. It's there to help when we want desperately to do our best, but still constantly come up short. That's the greatest blessing of this Easter season. Because of Jesus Christ, we can do it. I am truly grateful for my Savior and His love for me.

Let's finish up with some funny quotes...

"Ok lets play rock, paper, scissors to see who has to ask. ok shoot, now be honest, what did you get?" - Atext message recieved from the elders.

 "hey Sister Davis... do you want to go get some... with me... too?" -Elder

"What in the heck is a cheesecake" - Sister Langford forgetting what cheesecake is...

 "I think someone just had a bunch of words in their mouth that they wanted to use, swished them around in their mouth a bit and then spit them on the paper. Because seriously this makes zero sense." - Sister Davis reading Isaiah

Hey, have a good week friends! Pinky promise that next week I will have exciting stories to share! Love you all!

XOXO,

Sister Langford

"No coat needed, We have bushes in Norwood, Buried Bicycles, & When in Doubt, Tract it out!!"

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Aloha everyone. I'm sorry but I just need all of you to know that it is 77 degrees today in Potsdam, NY. This is crazy business. I even went out without a coat and tights. I don't even know who I am anymore. Also, this week we discovered there were some nice bushes in front of our house. No one told me they were there since there has been at least 3 feet of snow covering it my ENTIRE time in Norwood. Also, Sister Davis and I discovered that we own bikes (these were also buried under the snow), and even though they were pretty rusted, had two flat tires, and we had to wear dorky helmets, we took 'em for a spin and it was sweet. What I'm trying to say is, SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

Anyway, lets talk about the week.

1. Lets just say a lot of people we are teaching have seen a little too much of the missionaries as of late and have done a little too little progressing in the gospel. So we dropped them. :/ Which meant we had oodles of time to tract (our favorite!) Let me tell you a story about tracting.

So we were supposed to have a dinner appointment one night, but they canceled last minute. So we said, "well, let us tract" and we did. First house we knocked on was this teenage girl who was like super solid and totally wanted to learn about the gospel. We talked with her for about 30 minutes and it was super awesome! So we are feeling pretty good about our tracting. We are walking down the stairs from her house when LITERALLY RIGHT IN FRONT OF US this lady crashes her car. like... what? So naturally we stop and talk to this lady who was just dropped into our laps. We ended up talking to her for about 30 minutes while the tow truck came. (unfortunately, she wasn't interested in the gospel... but it was still sweet).  Meanwhile, this teenage girl we just found was directing traffic near by. It was hilarious. Finally the tow truck comes, and we continue on our merry way. Next door we knock on, Amish lady. Next door, gay couple. Next door, family of preachers. You could say it was a successful night. THEN to finish the night we almost got sprayed by a skunk. BEST NIGHT EVER.

Moral of the story: when in doubt, tract it out!  :)

2. Remember how last week I told you about our new investigator? That super solid guy who called us, and then we had a really cool chat with him? Well, we taught him again this week and it was so great! He really seems genuine about the gospel and is really excited to learn. We asked him if he had seen any answers to his prayers lately. His answer was "Well ya! I mean you are all sitting on my couch right now, aren't you?" So good!

3. We definitely saw some answers to prayers this week with this other investigator! She had moved in with a different member of the branch a couple of weeks ago and it really was not going well. She was feeling really bummed and was pretty negative about the gospel. We kind of didn't know what to do.... So naturally we prayed. Then yesterday, we received a huge answer to both our, and her prayers. Another member (probably one of the coolest member families), rescued her from her situation and it's helping her get back on her feet. We were talking to her and she was like, "I have been to A LOT of churches, and I've never seen one where the members demonstrate such Christ-like service. There MUST be something behind it. So, I'm going to stop fighting it. Obviously Heavenly Father led me here for a reason!" Ah, it was so good! We then had a super powerful lesson about faith :) It was such an incredible answer to prayers!

4. Did I tell you about the random less-active that we tracted into last week? I can't remember... but anyway, we tracted into this guy. We start to tell him that we are missionaries and he's like, "I know. I was baptized Mormon when I was 9!"  Hi, what? So we ended up teaching him a super good lesson and he said he would give the church another try. He then said he would read all of first Nephi by the next time we saw him. I'll keep ya posted on if it actually happens. But, it's so crazy how small Norwood is, yet how many less-active members of the church are kickin' around that town. Man, we got to get them back!

Well that was pretty much the week (kind of boring... sorry) but please enjoy all these random pictures we took... and... THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Also, we move into our new house tonight! We are super excited!
Hurray!!

*One quick funny quote*

"If I didn't know better I would think you two come ever here high!" - Brother Brown

Adios!

XOXO,
Sister Langford