Hello family and friends,
Today is Tuesday and I'm emailing. The reason for this is because we went on a 1 hour drive to Witbank early yesterday morning and didn't get home till later that night. The reason for our trek was to seek and destroy the enemies with paintball guns. I had a wonderful time shooting the people in my zone and even shooting my district leader. I got shot a couple times and even smashed my knee pretty good. I have developed a new lump on my knee and I'm hoping it goes away. It is the knee that has already gotten surgery.
The week was a good one. Bob, Rita's brother who use to be a wine bibber, is coming along nicely. We taught him the law of chastity and also the word of wisdom. He said that he hasn't drunk anything for a long time(a week and a half) and even his drinking friends don't come anymore because he's got a new friend. He said the Book of Mormon is his new friend and he's always too busy with his new friend so he can't hang with his old friends. He's pretty cool. He has to work every other Sunday so he didn't make it this week. We are putting him on date tonight for July. We were suppose to see the Zweni family yesterday, but we were in Witbank way too long. They came to church and even the movie night on Saturday.
I've been feeling the Spirit a lot more lately. I notice it as I testify of things and it feels good.
We have to go to Roodeport to drop off the other car that we borrowed while the stolen car was getting fixed up. Oh yeah, about that whole thing. I got my Bible back and my DVDs that were in my bag. Morris got his hymn book back and scripture bag. The way we got it was the Detective went to the guys house and got some of the stuff from inside the house. He said he left a lot of the stuff because they were covered in blood and brains because one of the guys shot himself in the face when the Detective rocked up to the house. They have all the others in custody and we are going to have to go identify them sometime this week. I can't do it, because I dont know what they look like.
I'm glad your memorial day was nice. I love seeing pictures of the family and can't even wait to be there with you all in less than 11 weeks, or something like that. I dont even know for sure. President still hasnt' told me the for sures but I'll ask him when I see him. Actually, I'll just write him a letter and ask him. I'll let you know as soon as I find out. I hope everyone is doing well. I got an email from Grandma and Grandpa Travis and it sounds like they are doing well. I sure love them. I've been slacking lately and haven't gotten around to writing Grandma and Grandpa Langston. If you talk to them, let them know I'm sorry. I love you all so much! I love this gospel! This work is so true and powerful and what a blessing it is for me to be here to share it with everyone! Take care and CTR!
Love,
Elder J. Langston
Friday, 29 May 2009
Monday, 18 May 2009
Greetings!
It sure was nice chattin with everyone on Mother's Day. I remembered when I got off the phone that I didn't even wish you(Mom) a happy mother's day, so, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MOM! How was that? How was your mother's day? I hope it was great!
We didn't really do much on the P-day after mother's day. We were suppose to go paintballin in Witbank but they postponed to this Monday, but for some reason, they postponed that as well. I'm not complainin because I dont have much money to go paintballin, although I would like to shoot some people with it, just to set them straight.
So this week was probably my most favorite week ever!! We met a family, the Zweni family, and they have been prepared for the gospel, I know it. We met with the fam on Tuesday and left a BOM with them. That night, we ran a Zulu BOM over there for the mom to read and we came back on Thursday night. The mom was speaking Zulu to Wandile and showing him the BOM. I was trying to follow and I was picking up the jist of things, but didn't understand everything. She had a bookmark in 2 Nephi 9 and was talking about her reading. I thought, "that's cool she read some," but when I looked at Wandile's face, I realized it was more than "some". She started from the beginning and read all the way to 2 Nephi 9, IN TWO DAYS! I asked her if she prayed to know if it was true, and she looked me straight in the eye and said, "it's true. I know the book is true." Holy COw!! The dad(Simon) and son(Khaya-7) and the daughter(Sasa-17) came to the movie night on Saturday and came early to church on Sunday. When church was over, Sasa asked what class to go to next. She wanted more! We went over there last night to begin the Plan of Salvation and they said they loved church! Oh yeah, the mom had to go somewhere for some family stuff so she couldn't make it. We taught up to the Atonement and when I mentioned the 5 things we need to do here in this life, Sasa spoke up with a question. She said she had done something and doesn't know if it was right or wrong. Now I got a little nervous because she has a baby that is about 5 months old and I was thinkin that that's what she was going to ask. She said, "I got a tongue piercing and dont' know if its bad." I shared the scripture about our bodies being a temple and I gave them a picture of the SLC Temple and asked if she would graffiti on that. She said she'd never do something like that. She took out her tongue ring and gave it to her mom to throw away right there on the spot. That girl is amazing! I am loving mission when we teach people like them! The family is so warm with us and they are gaining a testimony. We are seeing the whole family on Saturday and the game plan is this: if the mom continues reading, she'll run across 2 Nephi 31(baptism) and they will be reading the pamphlet we left where I circled the principles and ordinances of the gospel, and when we see them, we'll put them on date for baptism! I love that family so much! I'll take some pictures with them and send them home.
We took everyone that was on date off baptism date because they all are jokers and now we have 3 people who are serious on date. We had 8 people come to church yesterday and 5 of them was their first time to church. Rita, the girl that was baptized last month, came with her brother who we are teaching. He's about 25 and was a big time drinker and druggy, but he's stopped lately and is listening to us. Before he'd run away and avoid us, unless he was drunk. He's startin to come around so that's way cool! There are two girls, (20's) that are on date now and they are doing good. The one, Lovelight, was taught by missionaries before but wasn't too serious about it. Now she has stopped smoking and doesn't go clubbin and comes to church with her cousin, Wandile. The work is going AWESOME! I love mission so much! I just wish I got this spark of love at the beginning of my mission. Blessings come to those who are obedient.
Another blessing that came our way on Thursday morning was a call from the police saying they have our car. We got our car back but the bags and everything else is still gone. Wandile said he saw the gun man yesterday so they never caught the guys, I guess. I'm afraid to drive that car in the township so we are switching cars with some other missionaries. I couldn't sleep the night after we got the car back. The car just brought back a flood of bad memories and I was terrified of all the possibilites of what could've happend that day. I just keep thanking God that I'm alive and well. I have been sick lately though. I wear two coats sometimes because it gets freezing at night in the area and it gets dark around 5:30. The freaks come out at night!
Well, dearest family, this is my report of how things are going here in Tsakane. Oh yeah, that reminds me, we got to go to the temple on Friday and that was nice. I gave some socks to a member who recently had a baby and told her they were from you. She said she'll write a letter of thanks. They are the same socks that you sent a long time ago when I was in Thaba Nchu. Thanks for the socks.I'm gonna end this now so I can write a short one to Jeanette before I have to get off. I love you all and can't wait to see you.
Oh yeah, I haven't gotten an exact date of when I'll be home but I'm thinking maybe the same time as Jeanette. I'll go to the office on Thursday to switch the car and I'll chat with Pres. then to find stuff out. I dont know if I'm being transfered yet, but I asked him to let me just stay till I go home because I want to see all these people baptized to finish my mission off strong. Ok, I think that's all that is poppin into my head at the moment. I love you all and thanks for all your support during these hard times on my mission.
Take care and CTR!
Love, Elder Jordan Langston
We didn't really do much on the P-day after mother's day. We were suppose to go paintballin in Witbank but they postponed to this Monday, but for some reason, they postponed that as well. I'm not complainin because I dont have much money to go paintballin, although I would like to shoot some people with it, just to set them straight.
So this week was probably my most favorite week ever!! We met a family, the Zweni family, and they have been prepared for the gospel, I know it. We met with the fam on Tuesday and left a BOM with them. That night, we ran a Zulu BOM over there for the mom to read and we came back on Thursday night. The mom was speaking Zulu to Wandile and showing him the BOM. I was trying to follow and I was picking up the jist of things, but didn't understand everything. She had a bookmark in 2 Nephi 9 and was talking about her reading. I thought, "that's cool she read some," but when I looked at Wandile's face, I realized it was more than "some". She started from the beginning and read all the way to 2 Nephi 9, IN TWO DAYS! I asked her if she prayed to know if it was true, and she looked me straight in the eye and said, "it's true. I know the book is true." Holy COw!! The dad(Simon) and son(Khaya-7) and the daughter(Sasa-17) came to the movie night on Saturday and came early to church on Sunday. When church was over, Sasa asked what class to go to next. She wanted more! We went over there last night to begin the Plan of Salvation and they said they loved church! Oh yeah, the mom had to go somewhere for some family stuff so she couldn't make it. We taught up to the Atonement and when I mentioned the 5 things we need to do here in this life, Sasa spoke up with a question. She said she had done something and doesn't know if it was right or wrong. Now I got a little nervous because she has a baby that is about 5 months old and I was thinkin that that's what she was going to ask. She said, "I got a tongue piercing and dont' know if its bad." I shared the scripture about our bodies being a temple and I gave them a picture of the SLC Temple and asked if she would graffiti on that. She said she'd never do something like that. She took out her tongue ring and gave it to her mom to throw away right there on the spot. That girl is amazing! I am loving mission when we teach people like them! The family is so warm with us and they are gaining a testimony. We are seeing the whole family on Saturday and the game plan is this: if the mom continues reading, she'll run across 2 Nephi 31(baptism) and they will be reading the pamphlet we left where I circled the principles and ordinances of the gospel, and when we see them, we'll put them on date for baptism! I love that family so much! I'll take some pictures with them and send them home.
We took everyone that was on date off baptism date because they all are jokers and now we have 3 people who are serious on date. We had 8 people come to church yesterday and 5 of them was their first time to church. Rita, the girl that was baptized last month, came with her brother who we are teaching. He's about 25 and was a big time drinker and druggy, but he's stopped lately and is listening to us. Before he'd run away and avoid us, unless he was drunk. He's startin to come around so that's way cool! There are two girls, (20's) that are on date now and they are doing good. The one, Lovelight, was taught by missionaries before but wasn't too serious about it. Now she has stopped smoking and doesn't go clubbin and comes to church with her cousin, Wandile. The work is going AWESOME! I love mission so much! I just wish I got this spark of love at the beginning of my mission. Blessings come to those who are obedient.
Another blessing that came our way on Thursday morning was a call from the police saying they have our car. We got our car back but the bags and everything else is still gone. Wandile said he saw the gun man yesterday so they never caught the guys, I guess. I'm afraid to drive that car in the township so we are switching cars with some other missionaries. I couldn't sleep the night after we got the car back. The car just brought back a flood of bad memories and I was terrified of all the possibilites of what could've happend that day. I just keep thanking God that I'm alive and well. I have been sick lately though. I wear two coats sometimes because it gets freezing at night in the area and it gets dark around 5:30. The freaks come out at night!
Well, dearest family, this is my report of how things are going here in Tsakane. Oh yeah, that reminds me, we got to go to the temple on Friday and that was nice. I gave some socks to a member who recently had a baby and told her they were from you. She said she'll write a letter of thanks. They are the same socks that you sent a long time ago when I was in Thaba Nchu. Thanks for the socks.I'm gonna end this now so I can write a short one to Jeanette before I have to get off. I love you all and can't wait to see you.
Oh yeah, I haven't gotten an exact date of when I'll be home but I'm thinking maybe the same time as Jeanette. I'll go to the office on Thursday to switch the car and I'll chat with Pres. then to find stuff out. I dont know if I'm being transfered yet, but I asked him to let me just stay till I go home because I want to see all these people baptized to finish my mission off strong. Ok, I think that's all that is poppin into my head at the moment. I love you all and thanks for all your support during these hard times on my mission.
Take care and CTR!
Love, Elder Jordan Langston
Monday, 04 May 2009
Robbery
Good Morning Family and Friends,
I'll start from the beginning of the week first. I had my party on Monday and it turned out real nice. A few people showed up and sang songs and ate hot-dogs(my choice) and played a game called 30 Seconds. It would've been a fun game if everyone wasn't cheating and yelling at everyone. I did make the cake but I made them cupcakes so I could give them to some people. The senior couples here made the muffin mix for me because we dont have an oven. She made it a loaf and Elder Teare, from N.Z., ate almost the whole thing. It was good!
The week has been an okay week. We've been doing a lot of tracting this week trying to find new people since a lot of the people that we are teaching and are on date, aren't really doing much to progress towards baptism.
Ok, ok, I'll tell you what everyone wants to hear right now. So, Saturday morning we went out doing our regular thing, but I am broke so I decided to bring my $40 that I've collected from my awesome family and convert it to rands so I can get some lunch that day. We checked on Agent, but he wasn't there. We then went to Wandile's house(branch misison leader) and ate some food there. By food I mean cupcakes. We had a 1 o'clock appointment in an area that I didn't know. It was a referral that we were going to see. As we were going there, we started to drive slow so we could see the numbers of the houses, I think that was the bad idea. We finally found the house and parked the car to go teach the gospel. We got to the gate and it was locked. I decided to call the lady to see if it was indeed her house and why the heck she wasn't home at the scheduled time that we had. I got a hold of her and figured things out. As I was getting off the phone, I noticed three guys walking towards us quite swiftly and suspiciously. I then heard the gun "cock" as they were next to E. Morris. Morris had the key in the door to get in the car and they took the key from him and one guy got in the car. Another guy went to Wandile and took his scriptures. Wandile told him that its just scriptures and that he doesn't want them. He took them anyway and came to me and told me to put the phone in the bag. I was so confused because I'd seen this done before by members trying to scare missionaries so I thought that this was what it was. I put the phone in and just had a befuddled look on my face as I watched this all play out. I remember seeing the guy with the bag pat down Wandile and Morris and as I was watching that, I suddenly saw a gun in my face. The guy asked for my bag and I reluctantly gave it to him and he started pattin me down. He emptied every pocket on me! Even a receipt that I had in my pocket, he took that too! He took my name tag and white handbook that had my temple recommend in it. I was just in a stage of shock and confusion as I watched the gunman get in the passenger side of the car and I watched our car drive away. We were lucky enough to find some random guy that was kind enough to take us to the police station to file a report but when we got there, we realized that we dont know the license plate number. One thing after another started to phase me as I realised how much I really lost. The keys to our flat were in the car along with all my church cds. In my bag were my scriptures that I had spent 20 months marking and I even started in the book of Revelation so I had loads of notes for that, but that was gone along with my rhino skinned scripture bag; my camera was also in the bag because I was starting to take pictures of every day things in the township, but not no more; all my church DVDs were in the bag as well; my license, military ID, credit cards and $40 were in my wallet; they took my planner that had everyones numbers in it and it was also the one that Jeanette decorated and sent to me; there was a copy of my passport in the white handbook; and everyones phone numbers in the phone were now lost. More things started to suck as the day went on. I spent an hour and a half filing a report in the police station and that night was a long night since we had to sleep on the floor of some other missionaries flat since ours was unable to open. The days have gotten better but my nights are still restless. I stay up all night thinking what I should've done or what could've happend to me. As we were walking around the area on Sunday, I was so paranoid. I would watch everyone and would always be lookin over my shoulder. I wouldn't even go out at night. Even tonight, we are canceling an appointment because we dont want to walk around at night. I remember when I used to not even care. I would walk around at nine at night without a fear in the world, but now that I've had a gun pointing at me being held by a scared black man, my mind goes wild of what might happen at night now. The crazy thing was that it happend in the middle of the day! There were people outside watching, but no one did anything! That's what angers me.
The misison is getting me some new cheap scriptures for free and reimbursing me of my lost money. I dont know if I'll be able to drive while I'm still here since my license is gone, but we'll see. I might try to make a bag or do something so I can carry my stuff around with me. When I leave areas, I'll just buy a disposable camera to take photos with. I think I"ll be able to make it by with these last few months. Don't worry about me, I'll be okay.
So, for Sunday, or whenever, I dont know what we're going to do. I dont know where we will call from or what. Maybe, if you want to call our cell phone whenever you get a chance that'd be good. If we get the same number when we get our new phone tomorrow it is 084-264-7120 then you just have to do the 027 or whatever you do to call in SA. If the plan changes, I'll try to let you know before it's too late. Thank you so much for all your prayers! Thanks, Camille, for the "count your blessings" sign. I've really been counting them this past weekend, belee dat! I sure love you all! I can't even wait to talk to you this weekend! I'll tell you more stories, since I have a plethera of them! I'll just talk to you more later!
Take care and CTR!
Love,Elder "lucky" Langston
I'll start from the beginning of the week first. I had my party on Monday and it turned out real nice. A few people showed up and sang songs and ate hot-dogs(my choice) and played a game called 30 Seconds. It would've been a fun game if everyone wasn't cheating and yelling at everyone. I did make the cake but I made them cupcakes so I could give them to some people. The senior couples here made the muffin mix for me because we dont have an oven. She made it a loaf and Elder Teare, from N.Z., ate almost the whole thing. It was good!
The week has been an okay week. We've been doing a lot of tracting this week trying to find new people since a lot of the people that we are teaching and are on date, aren't really doing much to progress towards baptism.
Ok, ok, I'll tell you what everyone wants to hear right now. So, Saturday morning we went out doing our regular thing, but I am broke so I decided to bring my $40 that I've collected from my awesome family and convert it to rands so I can get some lunch that day. We checked on Agent, but he wasn't there. We then went to Wandile's house(branch misison leader) and ate some food there. By food I mean cupcakes. We had a 1 o'clock appointment in an area that I didn't know. It was a referral that we were going to see. As we were going there, we started to drive slow so we could see the numbers of the houses, I think that was the bad idea. We finally found the house and parked the car to go teach the gospel. We got to the gate and it was locked. I decided to call the lady to see if it was indeed her house and why the heck she wasn't home at the scheduled time that we had. I got a hold of her and figured things out. As I was getting off the phone, I noticed three guys walking towards us quite swiftly and suspiciously. I then heard the gun "cock" as they were next to E. Morris. Morris had the key in the door to get in the car and they took the key from him and one guy got in the car. Another guy went to Wandile and took his scriptures. Wandile told him that its just scriptures and that he doesn't want them. He took them anyway and came to me and told me to put the phone in the bag. I was so confused because I'd seen this done before by members trying to scare missionaries so I thought that this was what it was. I put the phone in and just had a befuddled look on my face as I watched this all play out. I remember seeing the guy with the bag pat down Wandile and Morris and as I was watching that, I suddenly saw a gun in my face. The guy asked for my bag and I reluctantly gave it to him and he started pattin me down. He emptied every pocket on me! Even a receipt that I had in my pocket, he took that too! He took my name tag and white handbook that had my temple recommend in it. I was just in a stage of shock and confusion as I watched the gunman get in the passenger side of the car and I watched our car drive away. We were lucky enough to find some random guy that was kind enough to take us to the police station to file a report but when we got there, we realized that we dont know the license plate number. One thing after another started to phase me as I realised how much I really lost. The keys to our flat were in the car along with all my church cds. In my bag were my scriptures that I had spent 20 months marking and I even started in the book of Revelation so I had loads of notes for that, but that was gone along with my rhino skinned scripture bag; my camera was also in the bag because I was starting to take pictures of every day things in the township, but not no more; all my church DVDs were in the bag as well; my license, military ID, credit cards and $40 were in my wallet; they took my planner that had everyones numbers in it and it was also the one that Jeanette decorated and sent to me; there was a copy of my passport in the white handbook; and everyones phone numbers in the phone were now lost. More things started to suck as the day went on. I spent an hour and a half filing a report in the police station and that night was a long night since we had to sleep on the floor of some other missionaries flat since ours was unable to open. The days have gotten better but my nights are still restless. I stay up all night thinking what I should've done or what could've happend to me. As we were walking around the area on Sunday, I was so paranoid. I would watch everyone and would always be lookin over my shoulder. I wouldn't even go out at night. Even tonight, we are canceling an appointment because we dont want to walk around at night. I remember when I used to not even care. I would walk around at nine at night without a fear in the world, but now that I've had a gun pointing at me being held by a scared black man, my mind goes wild of what might happen at night now. The crazy thing was that it happend in the middle of the day! There were people outside watching, but no one did anything! That's what angers me.
The misison is getting me some new cheap scriptures for free and reimbursing me of my lost money. I dont know if I'll be able to drive while I'm still here since my license is gone, but we'll see. I might try to make a bag or do something so I can carry my stuff around with me. When I leave areas, I'll just buy a disposable camera to take photos with. I think I"ll be able to make it by with these last few months. Don't worry about me, I'll be okay.
So, for Sunday, or whenever, I dont know what we're going to do. I dont know where we will call from or what. Maybe, if you want to call our cell phone whenever you get a chance that'd be good. If we get the same number when we get our new phone tomorrow it is 084-264-7120 then you just have to do the 027 or whatever you do to call in SA. If the plan changes, I'll try to let you know before it's too late. Thank you so much for all your prayers! Thanks, Camille, for the "count your blessings" sign. I've really been counting them this past weekend, belee dat! I sure love you all! I can't even wait to talk to you this weekend! I'll tell you more stories, since I have a plethera of them! I'll just talk to you more later!
Take care and CTR!
Love,Elder "lucky" Langston
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