12/31/12

Feliz ano novo!

Two big holidays two weeks in a row! that was really fun to see Dan there. You turned on the Skype and he was there smiling like always! hahaha

I didn't get homesick, the worst was the book that you guys made because it had my golf clubs in it! I haven't seen those or The Counter burgers for a really long time. Don't take offense, everywhere I go I show my family to the people I teach. I am used to seeing you guys haha.

I liked the toilet in the book too hahahaahah
All of the presents were awesome too, am sharing all of the sweets with everyone here.

Larissa is the first baptism I had in Grageru. She was the first door we knocked in that area because I wanted to eat a cupcake. There was a cupcake sign on the front. So I called her to the door and she didn't have any cupcakes! so we shared a message with her was baptized. Also, she was super sick on the day of her baptism, threw up three times and fainted hahaha . She had a lot of faith. After she was inactive because of her job. Quit her job to keep going to church and rejected an offer to be the chef on a cruise-line. She is AWESOME.

Never knew that kyle liked to sing. That is cool that he is the lead singer in his band.

Christmas we went to a members house and the made a chicken for us and french toast for dessert! 

That's all haha.

New Years AND Christmas is just another reason to not have work and to drink. There are tons of beer sales today in all of the stores. Just like any other day really....

I will try to get Elder Gubler to buy my ticket to be able to let you guys buy the same ones. But, I have to know the dates and from where we are flying out, or if you just want him to buy tickets to Sao Paulo and after Argentina. He can only buy 3 legs of the trip I think. It would be easier from Argentina to home. Let me know.

This week was good, we tried to visit a lot of people yesterday, but no one was home! there were 4 guys that we really drugged out, that really liked talking to us though. Elder Douglas got really scared, thinking that we would get beat up by him haha. That was an interesting story of the week. 

Things are going well here, in two weeks I will back to the field. Will be so much better! 

Happy parties and new years. Hope everything is good at home.

Love you all 

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

12/24/12

Feliz Natal!!!!!Surprise visits? I am guessing that one is Dan and maybe Nate. Thomas is in Utah right? Other than that I don't know of anyone that would want to talk to me.Oh, by the way, my hair is super short.

The party was awesome. President and sister were happy, they didn't have to do much. The only problem is that the lady didn't have enough food. Sister Gonzaga got super mad. Looks like we wont be using her anymore! There were little bags of recommend holders, and there were bags with panettone (fruit cake). We had to do all of those too.

Luckily someone invited us for dinner! and it looks like we will got to McDonalds for lunch. Could be the saddest lunch that I have ever had on christmas, but its American! 

That is so cool with that family. Glad that you guys helped them out this christmas. 

Things are well here. We played volleyball today, and someone had the great idea to bring waterballoons. And me, being the biggest target, was of course the wettest after the day. This past week went really well. We taught this lady with a skin disease, and a while back she went to church. She said that church was the only place where people didn't think twice about hugging her. She said people usually judge her because of her appearance, but she will come to church with us in two weeks and should be baptized the week after too. I thought it was cool talking with her. She is 70 yrs old, and is a sweet little old lady. We took two ladies with us to teach her, and they were crying the entire time haha. 

Anyway, its fun to make people happy. :D

Hope you guys are doing well, and that you have an awesome christmas! 

Also, don't forget about the true meaning (Jesus Christ) and to try to be like him!

Love you ALL

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

12/17/12

Hello!

So today was our christmas party, but I will talk about that later. 

What time is best for you guys? I will be in the office all day, just let me know what is best for you. It will only be one hour, and I forgot the Skype account that Sara sent last time, so you will have to help me remember. 

I got a letter from Jed (bishop) I still haven't gotten used to that yet. 

That is so cool about Kyles work! glad that he finally got a break.

I haven't even measured how tall I am, since that last time 8 months ago. You will just have to wait until I get home!

So things here are going well, we just finished the christmas party, and it went pretty smoothly. We started with two messages from Pres and Sister Gonzaga then we ate. I didn't eat much because we had to help the other missionaries that are completely lost. Then I ended up at a table with just sisters because there wasn't any room, so I was scared to eat a lot. haha. After, I was the show host for the awesome talent show. There were two groups that performed, one of them was mine. In other words, it wasn't the best talent show in the world. After we played a get to know each other, the one with a bunch of questions and you have to get the signature of someone that answers the question. After we had a secret Santa with day planners. Everyone decorated a planner and traded with someone else. 

Then, we took a picture and ate dessert.
The worst/best part was that president talked about marriage. Not sure why he was inspired to talk about that, but everyone was thinking about home, and their future wives and husbands! it was good though, because he gave good advice. 

Anyway, now everything should start to calm down, and we should have some rest. BUT we will have to get ready because Elder Bednar is coming to our mission on January 16th. Crazy. 

Hope everything is going well at home, and that you guys have a good christmas.  Coach Rob from volleyball sent me the schedule, and when they will lift and practice, so it will be easier to choose classes now.

Love you!!!!

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

 

12/10/12

Dear friends and family,

Please take a minute to send us an email and/or picture of your family that we can forward on to Jake.  It is hard to be away from home for the holidays and we would love his inbox to be bursting with messages from all of you next week.   langloisfamily@hotmail.com
Thank you for all of your support for the past 18 months.
Love, Sheri and Doug


Hi!

The training is going well. He doesn't seem to want to learn, but I am trying to force everything onto him for me to leave earlier. He will be a little lost when I leave here.

My replacement is Elder Gubler, from Louisiana but lives in Utah now. The financial secretary is still Elder Douglas, but this next transfer will change him too I think.
 The christmas party will happen next week 18th of December. This week will have the last meeting to plan everything that we have to do last minute. e
Everything is basically planned, just some details that we need to fix. 

That is awesome that you adopted a family for christmas again.

 I will be in the office still I think, and christmas will be on pday, so probably will be on the 25th.

It will never feel like christmas here, especially since it is super hot. I am used to being cold, making a fire, and using a blanket during the christmas season. Here it's barbecue and going to the beach.

It would be cool to live with some of the guys on the volleyball team,  I don't think would respond to you though if you sent him an email though. See what Dan and Nate will do too. If I can't find anything maybe I will send an email to the volleyball coach, I think he would be able to help me. 

I still need to get those names for you, don't let me forget. And, when you buy the airline tickets let me know, also if you need help booking the hotel while I am here in the office let me know. I have tons of time to research things now that I am just helping the new secretary.

Everything here is good. Like always. This week we have a zone leader council, then next week is Christmas. Should be a little hectic, but it is fun. We played volleyball again today, and it was interesting... It gets worse and worse every time we play now. I think we are going to have to switch sports for a little, I am losing my patience playing with these people. haha. It's more of a social gathering than a volleyball game. 

We also rehearsed a hymn to sing during the christmas talent show. I wanted to do some sort of dance or something funny, but no one wanted to do it with me. 

Anyway love you guys and hope everything is going well!

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

12/3/12

Hi!

Sounds fun making the move with grandma and grandpa. How was the drive? way longer than with a car right? It was a huge truck.

This week was good, the best part was what happened today. There was a meeting with Elder Costa with all of Maceió. He is super funny, and loves to tell some cool stories. Also, we had a meeting with him as secretaries and APs, which was cool. He talked a little about China and some of the complications that are happening there. I don't think he wanted to say much about it. He said that its a sad situation, but the government likes the church.

The new elder for me to train will get here on Thursday, the transfer day. I am glad to be leaving, not because it is terrible here, but because it is so much better outside! I have never been the person to stay indoors forever, I was always playing a sport. President still hasn't told me what I will be after, nor to where I will go. I don't know much yet, because he has 6 more weeks to think about it haha.

The christmas party still isn't completely planned, but there will be a talent show, with a game with 10 questions where you have to get the signature of a missionary that answers that question. Ex. The tallest missionary. Then I would have to sign it.

There will be a huge lunch, and a fireside in the morning. Then all of us will take pictures, like last year with the entire mission together. It wont be very long, 9 in the morning till 4. All of the missionaries have to return to their areas, including those from Sergipe. Also, while we eat, there will be slideshows of pictures of everyone when they were little as a family and on the mission. Also a slideshow of all of the incoming missionaries this year, and all of those that went home. (my job)
I got Saras box! still haven't opened it yet, but its here!

I will be able to Skype whatever time I think. When is the best time for you guys?
Everything here is going well, learning more and more every day. An apostle will visit our mission in January too! so many visits in so little time! I am super excited!

Anyway, hope everything is going well with you guys.

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

11/26/12

Hello!

This week was CRAZY. We had conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, traveled on Thursday to Sergipe, and had conference on Friday. Then we came back to Maceió Friday night at midnight. Basically we have had no time to do anything in the office, and we have been teaching. In other words, we aren't able to keep up with everything in the office AND teach as much as we taught this week. This next week Claudio Costa ( seventy) is coming to visit the mission, and we had to change the transfer because of his visit. So instead of the transfer on the 4th, it will be on the 6th. I don't even know how I am going to be alive after these next two weeks. It is SO good to feel tired though.

My training went well with monsters inc. Everyone was laughing the entire time.

Dan's homecoming was good then? I love to listen to him speak, he is hilarious.

hahaha Ron talked with Bill? that is awesome!
 Rachel is going to Salvador?!!?!?!?! that is sooo coool! its the mission below us. She will love it there.

Thanks for the updates, I am happy to hear all of the things that are happening there.

Everything here is normal too. Just running a little bit trying to do everything in time. I have to do 2 visas this week, because they will go home next week. We were waiting for São Paulo to send a paper for us to go, but never came, so we have to do some other tricks to get them out of the country legally. haha Should be fun.

We made a choir for Elder Costa, and it actually is really good. I thought that it would be terrible, but it actually sounds pretty good.

We talked with Adriane, the receptionist here, and she is excited to be baptized this Friday. Everything is ready, and she is doing really well. Also this Sunday was packed with referrals from a member, but we won't contact them till Saturday.

We played volleyball today, again haha. It was better today.

So, funny story. the other day I was at the cash register and the cashier looked at me funny. She was a tiny, little lady about 22, and she just started cracking up. I didn't know what happened then I realized that I am 7 ft tall. I joked with her, and she could NOT even hand me the dumb groceries. I just stood there waiting for 5 minutes for her to stop laughing. That's my life.

The mission is great, I am tired so I think I am doing my job here ha.

Love you guys! hope you had a good thanksgiving!

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

11/19/12

Hi

Christmas plans are going well. We have almost forgotten about christmas because of the area 70 that is coming to our mission at the beginning of December. Everything is crazy here, and the next transfer will be changed too because of the 70.
We heard that there will open 7 more missions here in Brazil, but it doesn't seem like it will affect us. Tell me more about china, I told some people and they are asking me tons of questions about it and I have no idea.

That is awesome that china opened up! Its cool to see how God works little by little.

It's raining there? I miss the cold, it has been so long since I have gone outside and its cold.

Tell Thomas to score for me at his game. I will right him a letter on pday, but tell him happy birthday for me too.

The secretary is in Bahia again, so we have to wait until Monday to talk to her again. It should happen this week, she can't put it off anymore. She had to fight against her mom, and now it seems like she handled it. The friend of Wellington that we baptized two weeks ago will be baptized on December 1st. He accepted everything that we taught, and will go to church tomorrow too.
The assistants have 4 kids they will baptize so we will have to help them with the set up.

BYU football isn't doing very well. They are losing almost every game.

So many fans are dressing up as missionaries, its not very original anymore. I have already seen that 5 or 6 times.

Nothing here will happen on Thanksgiving. Everything is christmas already. Not very much, but there are some lights here on the big buildings.

Presents are still wrapped!  You know that I won't open them until Christmas day.

I will have tons of new clothes when I get home. That was a pretty sweet deal to get the 2 year guarantee, but it isn't very good quality.

Things are going well here. President got back from his trip and we had to get ready for the zone conference. I think everything is in order now, just some small things that I still have to take care of. I am excited to give my training this week, it has a clip of Monsters Inc where that old lady is really grumpy about the papers that aren't being turned in. (baptismal forms) It should be really funny, and hopefully everyone remembers what I say.

Don't have much to say this week, but hope you guys have a good week!

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS