I'm PUMPED!!

Man this week has been super good. We have gotten a lot done. To start off the week we had transfers on Tuesday and my companion is Elder Boyce. He is from St George UT. Well during the week we had a lot of good lessons. So Mike Dumond is super awesome! We had some lessons with him this week and he is just on fire! Everything we teach him he just loves and wants to do it. We taught him the WoW this week and he has like a science degree is coffee. Not really, but this guy loves his coffee and knows so much about it and grinds and brews his own coffee in like 3 different ways every morning and has been to different countries to study it and farm it and stuff. This guy LOVES his coffee but when we taught it to him he was just bummed for a second and then willing to give it up for the Lord. He is super smart with all gospel related things. He is getting baptized in February for sure.

We also went to Young this week! Young is always a different experience. The drive down alone is pretty awesome. There isnt any work down there though. The best thing we can do down there is service for others. The branch is sooo excited to have missionaries though! So they are going to start a 40 day fast for missionary work. Ive seen this work a lot in my mission. Its going to be awesome and hopefully we can start something good down there.  

There are a couple people that are potential investigators that are actually starting to make appointments and things. Im excited for this transfer! We went to the Tonto Natural Bridge today and it is estimated to be the largest natural bridge in the world. It was pretty sweet! Also last and best thing. We are having Elder Oaks visit our mission this Saturday! Im super PUMPED!

Its gonna be a good transfer :)

The power of the Book of Mormon

This week was really good. Transfers are next Tuesday and we get calls this Sunday so we will see what happens. But what I wanted to talk about was this awesome couple we found tracting. I've never found any really good things from tracting but this couple is awesome! Vicky and Bill so Vicky was kind of offset and standoff-ish when we first met but now is agrees with everything we say and is super excited to meet. Her husband is really catholic but doesn't practice anymore. He had a ton of questions but we told him they would be answered if he came to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He was super excited to read it by the end of the lesson. It was super awesome! Just goes to show the power of the Book of Mormon even before he read it! 

Elder Lange, always finding an animal

No Better Place!

Merry Christmas! This week was super good. We aren't getting very many lessons but we are still sharing the message. On Christmas Eve we went over to a members house and he told us a story about his mission and how it was his first Christmas out and he was feeling a little home sick. He said as he was out there they started singing Christmas Carols and the Spirit hit him comforting him there was no better place he could be during Christmas than being a servant of the Lord. As he told his story I had a feeling the same as he did. The message we have and are sharing with people is something that no other religion has. Christ's gospel is a gospel of hope and peace and we have that message to share. I know there is no better place I could be during Christmas. I so happy to be sharing the gospel and blessing people in anyway I can. I only have 2 of them on my mission and each one were well wort it. I'm so grateful to be a servant of the Lord and serving Him at this time. I know there is no better place than to be on a mission. I hope all of you know the message you have a the power it has. I'm grateful for this gospel and the blessing it has been in my life. 

Snow for Christmas in Arizona!  They got three inches and cancelled church

Tradition at the Lange household is to build a big fort on Christmas eve.  Elder Lange just had to carry on the tradition in the mission field!  

Sleeping in the fort

Making ugly Christmas sweater cookies on Christmas eve

Blueberry pancakes, bacon, eggs with ham and cheese for Christmas morning breakfast! 

Merry Christmas!

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty good. We were pretty busy this week.  We went down to the valley this week to go do a temple session. It was super good. After we went through the temple we had a ZTM. The Zone Leaders called me the night before and asked for me to give a training. I hate giving trainings. Especially when I don't have time to prepare. I thought I would get out of that when I wasn't a zone leader anymore but I guess not. 

Well the best part of the week was our baptism! Danielle Brown got baptized. She is super awesome. She is super ready to be a member and super excited to do what she is asked. One time we were talking to some people after sacrament and she was standing next to us waiting to go to class and she just takes off and said later guys I'm going to class. It was pretty cool to see how comfortable she is and how willing she is to learn. Well that's about it for this week. Have a Merrry Christmas! 

Joints Heirs With Christ

Hey everyone. This week has been super good. This holiday season is so nice to do missionary work with. Everyone's hearts are just softened buy the spirit around this holiday. We have been trying to take advantage of it and work really hard. We found a new investigator this week and he is super awesome. His name is Mike and he says he just wants to take his spirituality to the next level and he know that by taking the lessons he can do it. He is pretty solid and we are going to try and put him on date this week. Its been pretty hard work here. We only have like 5 real investigators we are teaching and the rest of the people we have are potential investigators that we are trying to set things up with. We dont have very many people to work with here but they all seem to be doing pretty good. 

We had a zone conference this past week and it was super good. Our whole mission read the Book of Mormon in 62 days and marked the Doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost and endure to the end). We talked about how each of the doctrines apply to us daily and why they are talked about so much in the Book of Mormon. We also talked about things we learned just reading the Book of Mormon in such a small amount of time. My favorite thing applied kind of to enduring to the end. It was Suffering with Patience. There are so many things in this life that we have to suffer for. Just trial after trial. Test after test. And sometimes its hard to see the meaning behind all of it. But in Romans 8:17 it says. "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together". We must suffer WITH Christ if we are going to be joint heirs with him! Meaning that we will inherit all he has. Its pretty crazy to think about how much we are going to receive for the small suffering we do. And we dont have to do it alone we have Him to help us along the entire way! Suffering with patience is key. We just need to understand is for a purpose and the Lord is watching out for us. 

This week we are also having a baptism for Dani Brown! She is so awesome and so ready. She knows so much about the church and is so eager to learn. She is ready to turn her life around and knows the happiness that comes from the gospel already!

We went and explored a cave today!

I'm staying in Payson!

This week has been super good! So I forgot to tell you last week we had transfers and I'm staying. I'm also going to be the District Leader. It's been pretty good. We have been working really hard and just worked right through transfers. Usually everyone slows down the work during transfers just because they are worried about getting transferred and things like that but Elder Hampton and I literally didn't even think about it. We forgot we were even getting transfer news Sunday night. And I'll tell you what it payed off. We have Dani Brown planned on getting a baptismal interview Saturday and then getting dunked the next week. She is really on fire and doing super good. She had a ride planned out to come to church with her and her ride talked her out it that morning and so instead of just saying she couldn't find a ride she did everything she could to get there. She realized Satan was trying to work against her. She is super awesome and loved church and wants to come every single week. We have two more people that came to church that we are going to try and baptize this month too. They are pretty good too. They are always together and take the lessons together. They are currently living out of their car but love the gospel. It's a little bit hard with them because Laurie knows everything about God and Jesus and has them a part of her daily life while on the other hand, Brad, her friend doesn't even know who God or Jesus Christ are. So it's a little difficult teaching them together but they seem to really like it and are super excited to get baptized. It's gonna be a good transfer in Payson during this Holiday Season! We also got ourselves into a parade this week. It was really good and we just helped with the parade and walked next to the floats. It was a light parade and everything was covered with lights. It was really cool! A ton of people saw us and it was good to get our faces out in the community. Literally everyone was there. It was pretty awesome. Well take care back home and remember the reason for the season! 

Gratitude.

This week has been pretty good. Not too much of a different week. We had a few good experiences this week like always. The one I want to talk about was the Thanksgiving dinner we had with a less active. Well this less active lady called us out of the blue and said she had a friend she wanted us to meet and help get Jesus in her life. Well we went over and met the less active and her son. They are super awesome and live in a little humble trailer. We met the friend and tried to share an uplifting message that would touch her. But what touched me more than anything was the type of lives these few people were living. They had holes in the ground that they had to cover with boards so they wouldn't step in them. The turkey we had came from a food bank and we had some potatoes and gravy that came in a microwave dinner. Then they had some beans to go along with it. It was pretty different after coming from a dinner with 4 tables of food. With the little they had they were still super happy and glad to be together. The only things they wanted was a little bit of food and friends and family surrounding them. I was amazed at how humble of a dinner it was and how happy they were. Later on that night after leaving and thinking about it I was filled with gratitude for everything that I have. But most of all I'd like to express my gratitude for our Savior. Definitely the best thing I've learned on my mission is the relationship I have with my Savior. It so hard to even begin to comprehend how much he loves each of us personally. He literally took every sin I have ever committed and every sin I'm ever going to commit upon him self. He took the blame for all my wrongs. I know no matter how many times I mess up he will forgive me every time. Even if I make the same mistake over and over again. There is no limit to his love and his atonement. But the most comforting thing is that he descended below them all. He didn't just meet the requirement and go out with as little as He could get away with, but he went below them all. And I know that even if I was the one that made him suffer the most and take upon the most sins, He would love me enough to go below me and pay for everything I did. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and everything He has done for me but beyond all I'm grateful for the closeness of the relationship I've gained with him.