Galveston Greetings!

Aloha from the tropics of Galveston!

Ok just kidding its not very tropical at all. Galveston gets a lot of guff because it pretends to have pretty beaches and it pretends to hold the same amount of tropical fun as any other island, but its really quite gross. The water is literally brown and the seaweed is starting to stink a bit. But still people flock to it on the weekends and Mom the sand is white.

This week has proven to be fruitful. Maria Perez was baptized! Pico doesn't come around anymore (in fact the last time we went over there, there's a big fat chain around her little chainlink fence), and Maria told us she's been feeling a lot less stressed ever since she hasn't had to worry about her unwanted visitors. She thanked me a lot for it and I felt grateful for following the prompting to actually take action. Taking action is hard to do sometimes, you know? But Maria got baptized, almost her entire extended family showed up!, and it was the more spiritual baptism I've been to. She went into the water so peacefully--no splash. And after it was over, she stood up crying and told her family that she has never felt the way she feels right now. She knows she's entering into the church that has to be the only true church of Christ. She was so grateful to everyone for being a part of her special day. I admire that woman a lot.

We've been finding people in the most curious ways! Yesterday, for example, we had a member give us the phone number to a guy that she'd met on the street who'd talked to the missionaries a while back. He knew that Angelina was a member and asked her to tell us to give him a call. So we'll be doing that directly.

Another way we found someone AMAZING was by listening to the spirit. Sister Campbell was writing a note for a less active member and I was standing there letting me sights wander to other apartments. There was one up on the third floor of another building that caught my eye and something told me we should go knock it. There wasn't anything special about it, just something told me to go knock it and I'd probably find a family. So we made the hike up there and an asian man answered. He told us that Maria wasn't there and we were slightly confused. It turns out that his wife is a member and missionaries would pass by every once in a while to visit them but hadn't been by in a while. We got to talking and come to find out he's been having doubts about his Buddhist beliefs. He also had doubts about the mormon church but he recognized that we didn't show up by mere chance. So he let us come back the following Saturday and we've been by three more times now. He's learning more about his relationship to God, his potential to become like him, why he needs to rely on Jesus Christ to get to that point, and how he can apply the healing power of the atonement in his life. He came to church yesterday for the first time and he's starting to get a lot of his doubts answered. His son, Mikey, reminds me of Jana Kessinger's boys. Tell Jana I say hi!

We also found a couple walking into their house as we were knocking doors. We almost didn't go talk to them, but again something told us to do it anyway. She is a member who hasn't been to church since she left Hondurus years ago, and her boyfriend is just straight up curious about the church. We took a member to visit them the second visit and it was a perfect match. She bore testimony of how she overcame her own doubts about the church and now she's the happiest and strongest she's ever been. Ceci and Adan obviously have their Heavenly Father looking out for them. Hopefully they take action.

So many fun things are happening here! We're finding so many less actives and friends of members who want to learn about this stuff. And we're doing it in fun ways. We're working on getting me a Laman outfit so that I can show up to people's doors with a beard. Also, there's a 19 year old kid named Ian here who's in the Marine Corps. We've become his best friend and he wants us to help him study for his test. So what do we do? We asked a big old 24-yr-old guy to host a family home evening so that Ian can practice his moves on him. Mike is excited to be able to fight back. And Ian just needs to toughen up anyway. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Things are going good, though. Man people are feeding us A LOT!! We're riding the bikes more so hopefully that'll help work off the foods. I sure do love this mission. I'm so grateful that God gives us what we need and not what we want. I love my Heavenly Father so much and I love the perfect organization He's put on the earth for us. This church teaches perfection. I'm feeling myself being perfected through obeying the principles taught here. And I see others being perfected as well.

THIS IS SUCH AN AMAZING MISSION!!!

Take care!
Love,
Hermana LAngston