Happy New Year!

Hello family!
Yes the gifts fit nicely thank you very much. That night after talking to you I was kind of sad but the next day was christmas and we had a beautiful christmas conference with music and everything. It was the whole mission together. The president of the mission had a roping lesson and called up a few elders to try it. One of them roped the calf. The rest no. He called me up there and I was so nervous. I did it on the first try and the whole mission cheered. Man it was fun. So now everyone says I need to start roping cattle.
My weekend was good. We had a miracle happen last night with a boy who was starving to hear the gospel, and the opportunity that we had in taking a less active lady with us to teach him. It was too miraculous to explain in such short, little time but today I feel good. I feel like I just beat my way out of a trial of faith and my muscles were weak when i talked to you guys but since then I finally burst out of the trial of faith, God showed me more miracles, and I know better now than I ever have that this church is true.
I enjoyed talking to everyone on the phone. Sorry I couldn't talk to everyone for a long enough time. I hope you guys set some good goals this New Years Even. Dont even worry about it Im totally going from house to house helping the ward members make their new goals. Our ward has the goal to read the Booik of Mormon 3 times together as a family and look for the 8 CHRISTLIKE ATTRIBUTES and mark them. Maybe an idea for the fam.
Well, I'm wearing the see through dress right now. Hna Campbell says I look chinese in it. I'm really enjoying it.
Dave, read the Book of Mormon and the Bible at least 30 minutes this week and tell me all about it. Did you tell Dave Roach the number to the mission office?
Ok I've gotta go.I love you all!
Love,Hermana Langston

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve Phone Call!

Jeanette and Hermana Campbell at Bishop Reyes's house on Christmas Eve. The Bishop's wife, Lexi, sent an email and the pictures to the families of the missionaries in the pictures. What a nice Christmas Gift!

We were able to talk to Jeanette on Christmas eve after this dinner. We had a good visit but it wasn't long enough! Mother's Day is just 4 1/2 months away!

Here is part of Hermana Reyes's email she sent to us:

We had them over at the house for dinner and gave them a few gifts. We played a game with them where they were to each companionship a box with a gift card in them. Each gift card was for a different thing and they had a lot of fun asking questions and trading boxes until they finally opened them up. I attached some pictures for you to see. We took many and have taken more on different occasions and I would be happy to send you more if you would like. They ate the typical Christmas foods from El Salvador and will probably get to taste holiday foods from all the countries from Mexico and Central America from the various families from the ward.Please know that your missionaries are loved and taken care of always and especially this Christmas here with Bishop Reyes and his wife (me) and all of the members of the ward that love them so much! Thank you for everything and we hope that you have a Merry Christmas. And from all of your missionaries FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

Buying Christmas!

This Pday has been a good ol fashion christmas service day so far. The district and I went to Walmart and bought some presents for some investigators in the ward. We're not sure how well off they are, but we all pitched in $8 to buy them something Real Nice.
I can't even believe that Christmas is just over a week away. Us missionaries have a lot that we need to do in order to get ready for a Christmas activity this Saturday. We're in charge of giving a tour of the church building and teaching a little bit about the life of Jesus Christ in each room. We need to do a lot of practicing to know exactly what we're going to say so that it doesn't take too long and that the spirit is still kept.
We've had some fun Christmas activities this week as a ward and as a zone in the mission. We had a sister's gift exchange in the ward, and for the first time I saw all the Latina women get all excited and riled up and dance to weird music and I felt like I was in another country and with a different culture. But the ladies in this ward really do love one another and are recognizing the need to be more united and striving to love and serve one another more so that they can be more united and happier.
Also, this Saturday we had a "service" project in downtown Houston where about 3 zones and the mission president volunteered to help with an organization called "Navidad en el Barrio." The poorest kids of about 20 schools were invited to attend this activity and so us missionaries just needed to be the chaperones for each group. We sat with them during a 3 hour long program and then guided them into another room where they opened their presents (given by various sponsors). Me and Hna Campbell were in charge of Long Fellow Elementary and those kids are amazing! I fell in love with them instantly and couldn't help but entertain them through the three hours of boredom before their presents. I even made a scene for one of the boys, Jose, because he triple dog dared me to dance in front for everyone. It wasn't in front of EVERYONE, but it seemed like all the missionaries saw. There were many who taped me dancing. Soon Hna Burke joined me. It was so much fun and Jose gave me a big ol grin while he watched me.

This is where Jeanette's letter ends. She added another sentence but it ended in the middle of a word.

December 9, 2008

Hello Everybody!
It's Tuesday and I am going to make this email a quick one. I'm doing real great out here. Real Great. Me and my new companion Hna Campbell are pretty much best friends already. She's from Centerville? Utah and she used to be Hna Burke's companion. She loves Houston 9 area and she loves the fact that she has downgraded to an apartment full of roaches. Who wouldn't love that! But we're doing great together and Hna McDonald is doing great with Hna Burke.
This week has been crazy. The ward is going through a bit of a trial and we're all working together to try to serve each other more. The new bishop is only 28 and is shaking things up real good. The missionaries support him, but a few of the ward members need some convincing. So that's become a big part of our work here. Elsa is doing great. She went to the english ward this last Sunday to see if she'd like that one better. She really liked it. We're going to meet with her today and talk more about it. Elba and Fernando are being tried in their faith and amazingly are handling it really well. They came to church even though they are strapped financially and could have gone to work instead. Elba is starting to understand and love the Book of Mormon better. She's sort of sick right now so we've been praying a lot for her health. They both are working toward baptism.
We've come back into contact with a lady named Sylvia Luna. She's an amazingly faithful woman who believes in the miracles of God. Her kids have been taken away from her by Child Protection Service, but she has been carrying on with her life although its very hard for her. She wants to spend christmas with us missionaries because she figures its a sad time for us since we don't have our family and because for her Christmas is definitely not a happy thing. But she's begun reading the Book of Mormon and feels that its true. She wants to be baptized, but at the same time Satan has created a huge trap to prevent her from doing so. We're going to have a lesson in a member's home with her today and we KNOW that she's going to start progressing. She's that faithful and determined.
I've come to appreciate the gifts that God has given me. Have you ever wanted to feel God's love for you? Have you ever wondered how He shows it? I've realized that a HUGE way He shows his love is through words. He doesn't speak to us personally, but the words of His prophets in the scriptures do. The words in the scriptures have helped me solve a lot of problems this week. Read your scriptures. Turn to them for help. Pray in sincere prayer to your Father in Heaven and let His love speak to you through the scriptures. That is a huge gift He's given me along with so many others.
I love this gospel so much.I love my Heavenly Father. I love my big brother Jesus Christ. He's become my best friend and I'm no longer ashamed to do what He wants me to do. He knows what's best for me.I miss you all. I can't wait to talk to you all on Christmas. Remember that my call can only be 30-40 minutes so plan ahead of what you want to say.
Love,
Hermana Langston

Hi Family!
First.Thank you all very much for the package that was sent to me. I am excited to eat all that there food but even more was I excited to listen to people on the CD. I still haven't finished the CD but I liked Emily's song to me the most. I let all the sisters in my zone listen to it when we were in the car and they laughed so hard. I feel so special to have my own song created for me. And to answer your question, Emm, I'm doing great! And my companion? She's getting transferred.
Today we got the call in the morning saying who was going and who was staying. Hna McDonald is going. I hope I've trained her well enough, but truly she has grown a lot in the past weeks so I think she'll do well. I'm almost positive I know who's coming in next and I thinking I'm excited. I'll let you know who my next comanion is in my next email.

This week we got to hear an apostle speak to us! On Saturday, Elder Ballard was in the area to visit his family, so he said, "Oh you want me to come and speak to your missionaries? Ok, sho." And that's exactly what he did. He's so down to earth. He's so full of truth. He's so put together and has the right perspective on life. I think its because he is so full of truth. Anyway, it was a neat experience and I want to tell you that if there's ever an opportunity for you to go hear or see a prophet or apostle, do it! Sacrifice whatever it takes to go see him and your own testimony will grow so much. Your hope level will skyrocket. To the MOON!!!...and back. Say that reminds me. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday on sacrifice. It was the fifth sunday and four of us missionaries spoke. I shared the story about mom punching the cake because us kids didn't know how to sacrifice. Nobody laughed. But afterward many came up to me to compliment me on the spirit i brought into the meeting. Our investigator Elsa said that she was really glad she came to see me "testify." Say that also reminds me...Elsa is progressing towards baptism! It's so exciting to see someone who actually understands and is excited about this doctrine. We watched the 25 minute restoration movie with her and she had to rewind a few parts because she liked the wording of it and she felt like she wanted to really understand the process of the Book of Mormon better. She said, "Wow these are the exact same questions that we have!" as it showed Joseph Smith's confusion before he knelt to ask which of all the churches were true. She wants to be baptized, but she realizes that her family doesn't like church and so we are going to start helping them as a family and not just her.

Also this week, we had Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. We had some good appointments during the day, we visited most of our progressing investigators, and we had 3 dinner appointments. I was sick by the end of the night. I actually ended up throwing up and getting a fever. I'm still getting over it but it's not affecting the work. I got to thinking about something the other day when I heard our mission president say, "Don't think of your lunch break as 'your time.' Pday isn't 'your time.' It all belongs to the Lord and you should never think about yourself instead of others." This stressed me out a little and I asked myself, well when will I ever have MY time? When will I not have a moment that I'm sacrificing to give to others? And as I was thinking this, my thoughts linked into other thoughts and I came to this conclusion. Why do I even want "my time"? What will I get out of it? Well, I think I'll be happier because I'm getting what I want. So ultimately I want happiness. Something inside me said, have you not been the happiest when you've been serving the Lord? When you've been giving to others instead of yourself? It's a weird thought but its true. I have been the happiest these past few months because I've been sacrificing my own wants for the needs of others. But I've been doing it with faith, knowing that the Lord is going to bless me with a better consequence than that of which I'd get if I'd thought about myself instead. It's backwards. When give others what they need, we are given what we want. And that want is HAPPINESS.

Elder Ballard said something profound. He said, "You will never find the enthusiasm to wake up in the morning until you internalize these doctrines." He was of course talking about the doctrine of Christ. So often before the mission, and even on the mission I've wondered, when will I ever be happy to wake up? Will I ever not be in a bad mood in the morning, dreading what lies ahead of me? It turns out that the answer is yes. I am waking up happier each morning. I'm actually excited to read my scriptures in the morning. I'm excited to learn spanish. I'm excited to go out the door and go to work. I'm really loving life. I don't love giving up sweets right now. But that's only because I haven't been doing it for a while so it still feels un natural. I used to HATE recording the daily miles for the car, but now I don't mind. I used to hate getting up to exercise but I now look forward to it. I used to dread approaching people on the streets to talk to them....and I still get kind of scared. But after its all said and done, I truly LOVE talking to people. So why do I love it now? I don't think my situation has gotten any easier. But the difference is that I understand the doctrine of Christ and have blindly obeyed it until my faith has become a pure knowledge and understanding. Now I see why obedience is so importance. It truly does make a person happier.

Family, I love you all so much. I'm so grateful for what you're doing to help me be out here learning and growing. I never want these feelings of happiness to go away. I hope I never fall back into the pattern of selfishness when I get back home. Help me not to do that, ok?
Jill, thank you for the pictures! I love it so much. David and Rachel, I enjoy your son. Thanks for being a support to me.Dan and Nicole, I met someone from Albequerque yesterday. They're moving to South America though.
Candice, I promise I wasn't in San Diego. But Emily should have gone and said hi anyway and given the lady a kiss. And then probably she would have magically transformed into me cuz stuff like that happens when you kiss a frog so maybe it happens when you kiss a missionary. I wouldn't know.Camille, I wrote you an email.Jacob, I wrote you an email.Jordan, I wrote you a letter and email. I love you.Dad, I still need to write you a letter. Mayber you could write me another letter to remind me to write you a letter. Then there will be letters all over the place!Mom, your spanish is almost as fluent as your french! I'm so impressed! We'll definitely have to gossip under the dinner table when I get home. Slash, on Christmas.Peggy, I loved your thanksgiving card!I love you all. Este evangelio es verdadero.Los quiero mucho!
Hermana Langston