Letter 6-23-08

Hello Family Langston,

How is everyone? I love those pictures of everyone at the temple! I'm so excited for Jill and Vili! I can't wait for when Jacob goes on a mission and we can all sit in the Celestial Room together as one eternal family! That would be great! Speaking about families and temples, I forgot to mention that last Friday we went to the temple and it was my first time for about 5 months so it was great! I didn't even fall asleep this time, except during the prayer. I said a little prayer and asked for help to find some good families that would be receptive to the gospel. Lately as we tract, we find people who are married and have atleast one kid. We usually only find single moms or just young girls, but we are finding families!

I've been pretty sick the past few days. I've had a terrible headache and a fever of over 100. I still went out to work becuase I believe it's just a test to see how much I'm willing to sacrifice for the people the Lord has prepared for us to teach. As we tracted on Saturday, we found so many older males that would like to learn more. I really hope that they are the ones that we are suppose to teach.

We are teaching a lady named Mpho and she has many kids and they love the gospel. They still don't know if its true but we will help them gain that testimony the best we can as we continue to teach them more and bring the Spirit to their home. We even have an inside joke with them that whenever I say the word "mba" they start to laugh hysterically. I'll have to tell you the story later.

On Wednesday we go to a members house to get some food and teach them something. I bought some jenga blocks to help me teach about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I wanted to try it out there so after we ate I began to prepare the lesson. No sooner had I begun to prepare that a non-member family member walked in and sat with us. It was just so cool how I planned and prepared to teach the first lesson and there was a purpose behind it. I love how the Lord works!

There is a lady in the ward who came up to us last Sunday and told us something awesome! She said that her mother in law is not a member but the other day she saw her m-i-l reading the Book of Mormon. She said she's seen her reading it a few times so she wants us to come over and just non-chalantly teach the first lesson. We are heading over there on Tuesday. Yesterday the same lady gave a talk about the Book of Mormon and it was great! She's got a strong testimony of it and it was quite powerful!

On Thursday we were tracting and we found another great family who lived in one of the shacks. The wife use to live by the church and she's always wondered what happens there. She enjoyed what we were teaching but she didn't come to church like she said she would. We are going back there sometime soon to check up on them. I dont want to lose a good family opportunity.

Friday night we taught a pastor and it was awesome!! He believed God was a spirit so I told him the truth. He was kinda not understanding until I started to talk about our hands. I said even though his is black and huge and mine is white and skinny, they are in the same image. He started asking about the color of God, which drives me nuts!!! I told him that the color doesn't matter and how I hate that people try to worry about the color of God's skin but they can't even keep his commandments. We made another appointment for Friday and I can't even wait! We gave him a BOM and he said he'll read it. I hope he does!

Yesterday was a great day! I woke up at 1 in the morning with a burning fever of 103 and a terrible head ache and my back is killing and has been for about a month now. Around 2 in the morning I decided to take a bath and try to just relax for a bit so I can go back to sleep. I got to sleep around 5 and woke up about an hour later for church. I went to church still and after church I was feeeling ok, so we went out doing our thing. My fever started to come back and my head felt like it was spinning like a top and I had a hard time driving. So we parked and I took a short nap hoping that I would be ok after a while. Nope, still felt like junk. We ended up just going to the other guys last appointment with them and we watched a movie which I now love. It was on the Book of Mormon dvd and it was titled "...and my soul hungered." It was about how a member came to know for himself if the church was true. I loved it and I even got a little teary eyed. After that I decided that I should have the other Elders give me a blessing for my sickness. We got home and I brought it up, Elder Butler, whos head that is in the photo, said he'll do it. I told him he can annoint. They gave me a blessing and I slept so nicely! I took my temp when I woke up and it was at 97. I still have a cough and sore back but my head and my fever have left me. I'm so thankful for the priesthood and the blessings it brings to my life. I kinda took it for granted when I was at home because everyone has it there. Almost no one had the real authority for Jesus Christ here and it is great to bring the knowledge and blessings to them here in South Africa!
I've got a package to send home soon so I will once I gots the money. It really is about a third of my alotment to send something. Its lame. Well, I love you all so much! Take care and CTR! Thanks for everything!

Love,
Elder Langston