hola hola

Hi family,

 

Mom thanks for answering my questions, it was good to read about your week, and good to know that it went good.  our week was really good we taught a ton of Less Active lessons this week and have continued our effort to save our dying branch.  Esmeralda is beind dificult to find lately, and among some drama and other things has stopped coming to church, well either that, or she is just working sundays now.  Sixto is good, we teach him every week like twice, he has this little desk full of all his books, he reads a ton and is learning and progressing, he just dives into all the manuals and stuff we give him.  he really likes the new gosple principles manuel and reads it in conjuction with the scriptures.  Elder Durrant came on exchanges with us on Tuesday, it was great to see him, he finishes in 2 weeks!  Zulema is doing good too, we gave her a permission slip to have her mom sign so that she can get baptised, she said that her mom is thinking about it, we need to pray ALOT!!!!  her mom is super catholic and it will take God's hand to soften her heart so Zulema can get baptised.  ALSO we found a new investigator eariler this week named Jose Nunez..... a mexican man with a wife and baby, he is like mid to late 30's and has a full fledged Mulet!  HILARIOUS!!!  we taught him yesterday and he took his hat off and it was almost too much for me to handle haha, i have never seen nor to i plan to see a mexican with a mulet.  anywho, he is really cool and has a strong desire to do what is right, we were able to set a baptisimal goal with him for the 4th of December so hopefully we will be able to realize that goal.  i know that he can do it if he has the desires to know for himself.  he was really excited to set the date.  

AH funny thing that happened, so we were visiting a spanish guy who is kind of less active in the english ward, i have no idea why he is in the english ward, cause he gets along better with us, anywho, so they had picked a little white puppy up off the street and he had that virus that all puppies get and he was going to die, so juan's wife got some vaccine and started to try and save the puppy, and we were over here and they asked us to give the dog a blessing..... and we were like... ummmm ok.  and what makes it funny is cause a few days earlier some other elders in our zone got the same question.  so we decided that it would really be the same thing if we just said a prayer for him and probably a little less blasfemous, if it turned out that we weren't supposed to give dogs blessings, so we said a prayer for the dog, Champuppy, and today the elders who cover juans ward told us that the dog is all better now HA.  we asked president if we were allowed to give blessings to dogs and he said no, that we're supposed to say a prayer for them, which, if done with faith, will bring about the same effect.  faith really does work, i know that to be true.  we are focusing on Patience this month and president Murri shared something really cool with us:

 

“Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father.  Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best–better than does God.  Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His.  Either way we are questioning the reality of God’s omniscience.”     –Elder Neal A. Maxwell--

...some food for thought.  Dad just got your email, glad to hear that your talk went well.  we have had a gloomy week, today is the first day the sun has been out in a couple of days so it's nice.  ok, well, the time is gone, we have a ton of stuff to do today and we have an exchange tonight so everything will be a bit rushed.  i love you all and hope that your week goes well.

 

Love,

Elder Larsen

67 days eh Derek?

Hey Family,

 

we had an excellent week!  we taught 15 Less Active/Recent Convert lessons this week, i've never taught that high in that particualar key indicator, we're making a focus on the LA's cause our Branch is DYING!  and we have a ton of YSA Less Actives as well even though we're techinically not supposted to have any LA's in a YSA ward ever.... anywho, to answer questions:  Chp 4 of preach my gosple is excellent as well as Chp 5 about the BOM, i like those two chapters alot, might be a good place to start. Sactificaion and the holy ghost...... Elder Bednar's last conference talk was about that, it was good, i dunno, you're super smart dad i'm sure it will turn out great.  and no my Google/MYLDS mail doesn't have a timer on it, i'm  pretty sure that if president wanted to he is able to get on the comp and see for how long we are logged on, but there is no timer persay on mine.  

so i'm not sure if i've told you about one of our investigators named Zulema, but she is awesome and just eating up the gosple.  she is 16 almost 17 and loves to learn more about God, she will hopefully, if we can convince her mom, be getting baptised on the 30 of October.  Sixto is doing awesome!  he has like this small desk thing were he keeps all his books, he reads them alot and is studying from Preach my Gosple and True to the Faith and the new Gosple Principles book and is learning and progressing a ton.  he's awesome, he should be getting the priesthood next week too!  Esmeralda is doing ok, she has been having to work the past 3 sundays so we're a bit worried about her, we will be doing our best to contact her this week.  we had a meeting with the stake presidency yesterday and they told us that alot of people are in an uproar about Elder Packer's talk, i don't know why.... well yeah, i do, but it's a dumb reason to be all upset about it, God sets the rules and being upset isn't gonna change anything(i learned that one from you mom haha  ;]  ), anywho, so they gave us a copy of the talk to read to be prepared for any reprocussions that we might see, they said that they don't expect much negative results here, but that some organization is like planning to march in Salt Lake or something to try and make Elder Packer refute what he said.... like that's gonna happen.... anywho, so yeah, it's an excellent talk, i hope it isn't his last.  

so BHL saw you all at conference?  i didn't... i was looking but i didn't see any of you.  we didn't have anything crazy happen this week, just working hard as always, i have a ton of thank you cards to wrtie today cause i wasn't able to last week, so Grandma Larsen and Matteson, you'll be getting a letter soon.  SO yesterday we found an awesome new investigator named Jose Nunez.... and he totally has a mullet!  it's hillarious, he's super awesome too, we believe that he has a lot of potential, we hope so cause we need to rebuild our area.  oh, so the rest of my birthday was good, we just hung out at the house all day, all the elders and sisters sung happy birthday to me after we finished emailing.  Rich and Kim sent me a gift card to target and i used that to buy a light weight jacket that is pure awesomeness.  it gets cold here at night and sometimes it's nice to have a jacket, so yeah i'll send pictures soon.  anywho, so then we went to FHE for the YSA and taught it and it was good and they all sung happy birthday and gave me a big like  2 Lbs bucket of skittles and other candy, then we drove to Venura for ZLC and had that meeting the next day then when we were in the mission office picking up supplies sister benson started the whole office singing to me, so i got sung to alot. 

 

anywho, my time is acabado, finished and i have lots of other things to do, so i hope that you all have an excellent week, i look forward to next week when i get to write you again, i love you all alot, can't vote to change God's laws, don't forget it!

 

Elder Larsen

Gracias por todos los regalos!

Buenos Dias!!!!

Hi family, how are you all doing?  man do i feel blessed, 2 reasons, #1 i most definatly have the coolest family in the entire world, #2 Conference was absolutely amazing!!!  i immensly enjoyed all the cards and words of love and encouragement that i recieved for my birthday, it is obvious that i am loved and for that i am grateful.  Thank you for all the gifts, odd or not mom they are much apprieciated, i had my comp take pics this morning as i opened them so next time i send you all my camera card you'll get to see them, thank you for the sweets, my companion and i will enjoy them.  so funny fact, last week i recieved something, a package or a letter, sometimes 2, every day last week, Mon-Sat, haha my companion was awstruck haha, i've been blessed with alot of mail throughout my entire mission, i have alot of friends that support me and brighten my day.  Hey, question, will i get a new drivers license now that i'm 21?  if i do i guess you'll probably just send it to me, you all are always on the ball like that.  also, i'll stop checking my card at non wells fargo ATMs, i thought that a balance inquiry was always free.... probably is, just not here in Cali-swindle-ya.  i cannot call though cause we're not allowed to call 800 or toll free numbers..... don't know why.... i dunno, anywho, there is a wells fargo here in town so i'll go there if i need an inquiry.  Kenidee and Derek.... you made a paper chain until i get home??? are you two trunky or what, i don't even have one of those haha, i guess a calander is enough for me huh?  you two are funny.  once again thank you all for everything you do for me, i feel truly blessed. 

#2 CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!  probably the best conference that i have ever seen up to this point in my life, i loved all the discourses and messages that were presented and given.  Elder Holland's talk was surprising but excellent, (we think the Lord maybe told him to calm down a bit with his intens-ness), i really enjoyed Elder Kearon's message in the priesthood session about being 100% obedient.  there were alot of repeated themes, topics, and surprisingly scriptures.  mom, HA ummmm so that last session of conference when the new 70 talked about no sleepovers.... i totally thought of you and how "mean" and "unfair" you were when i was younger by not letting me do sleepovers.... well, i'm sorry, i understand now and agree with it..... i was thinking alot about all the dumb, and probably stress causing, things that i did to make your lifes complicated, i truly am sorry and plan on being better when i get home (in a long long long time).  i'm super excited to be able to study the new conference issue that we'll get in November, i seem to get alot more out of the messages when i am able to study them.  HAHA what did you think about The Prophets little singing debut?  i'll bet that isn't printed in the ensign, just like his entire welcoming last conference wasn't included in the magazine cause he went off for like 5 mins on something about his wife... another funny moment "you may be asking yourselves, what does that have to do with flying airplanes?"  haha i think that was probably the funniest joke/comment in the whole conference.

anywho, my time is up, thank you so much for everything, we truly are in the truth, and the truth will make us free if we CHOOSE to allow it to influence our lifes. i love you all so much and pray for your continued safty, Grandma Larsen i'll be writing you, don't think i forgot about you =].  Question....could someone maybe find me that talk in which were given those 14 points about prophets by President Benson?  i hope you have a good week, if i can do anything for you please just let me know!!

LOVE,

Elder Larsen

Howdy!

Hi everyone,

 

thanks for the letters everyone, i enjoyed reading them but i forgot to bring them so sorry if you asked me any specific questions.  BHL, i saw the pictures you sent, pretty ghetto eh?  thats awesome, i think you are the only one who understands how frusterating the whole "not being married" thing is, we run into it all the time here, but it's alot easier to get married here than there it sounds like, keep pressing forward, if it's their time, everything will work out, i know that to be true cause SIXTO GOT BAPTISED!!!! yay we had an awesome baptisimal service on friday at 8PM cause we didn't know about a child of record that was happening at 7 PM, so it was a bit late at night but luckly the spirit doesn't go to bed that early nor does Heavenly Father have a time restriction on ordinanzes of salvation.  he asked me to baptise him so i was given that blessed oportunity, everything went smoothly.  it's amazing to me how the lord prepares people if it is their time.  Sixto was found through a street contact, that almost never happens in this mission.  he began to progress randomly almost as if through no effort of our own, he was basically already living the gosple too so that made things alot easier.  he doesn't share too much of his trials or temptations but we know that he has had some, it's just miraculous how the Lord blessed us with such an awesome convert, both of the people to whom i have had the blessing of introducing the gosple to have been absolutely amazing.  

Yesterday was one of the sweetest experiences of my entire mission, we were in sacrament meeting, people were bearing their testimonies, Sixto had just been confirmed a member and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost at the beginning of the service, and nearing the end of the testimony bearing time Sixto got up and walked slowly and cool-ly with his cane up to the Pulpit and bore his testimony and shared with us (the congregation) his conversion story, part of which, we (my comp and I) had not previously known.  he said that he had been praying to God for God to change his heart and change his life, he said that he read the bible and tried to follow it but he said that he just didn't understand it and he began to plead with our Father in Heaven that someone be sent to teach him, to help him understand the word of God and change his life, then he said that "about 2 days later he was walking back home from the market and my brothers (as he calls us now) stopped me and talked to me about a message, they got my address and came over and even though i was lazy at times, for which i am truly sorry, and at times they had to drag me to do stuff, i'm here" and he went on to bear his testimony about God and the goodness of God and how he feels blessed.  it was super cool, man i love that guy, we're now working on the hand-off to the ward and it's going really good so far, it's up to them to keep him strong.  

Sad note, our branch could possibly be changed into a group attached to the english ward here, our attendance isn't very good right now, i think i might have told you that last week, but anywho, we're trying to get it back up to avoid that.  we had a good week, did some good things, nummerically it wasn't the best week but we feel like we accomplished alot of things and fulfilled with our purpose.  we have a very busy week ahead of us and are excited to attempt to get it all done haha, it almost never gets all done.  

mom you don't need to worry about the shoes, i found some old basketball shoes in our garage and they work just dandy, pretty good condition too, so yeah, i don't need shoes anymore, and about the ribbon, i'm not out yet, i'll try and send you the numbers in my next email.  yeah i'm almost 21 years old.....crazy....i'm also almost 22 months old....more crazy.....i'm not sure what to do with my life....mom are there any updates about colleges or anything? alright, well i love you all alot i hope that your week is excellent and that everything is awesome, HAVE FUN at conference, wow i'm jealious, i'll look for you, maybe i can pic you all out, try and get a photographer to take a pic of you outside the conference center so you get put in the next ensign hahaha, i'm super excited for conference!!! ok, time is out, TALK TO YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!!!

 

Elder Larsen.....dang it....sorry forgot about the paragraph thing again....i'm just not good at it, sorry dad, i'll try and do better

me voy a quedar whooo hoooo

Hola Family,

how are you all doing?  good news i'm not getting transferred!!! elder skovran and I are staying together, he has broken my pattern of 2 transfer companions, which means that for sure he will be leaving next transfer and i'll be training someone as a zone leader for a transfer and then i'll be home....i'm starting my 2nd to last transfer, crazy eh?  also the 2 elders that we live with finally moved out, they had been staying with us for the past 2 transfers because they didn't have a place to stay in there area, but they found a place and moved out this morning, i love those two but it will be nice to be alone, much more easier to focus, i like 2 man apartments alot better than 4 man.  AND we FUNGSHWAYED our apartment, we now have and excersise room and a study room and my bed is no longer in my closet yay!  so today has brought some changes and most of them are welcome, the Missionary that elder skovran trained, who got switched english cause he couldn't learn spanish, is coming to be a part of our zone, so my comp is super excited to get to see him! MIRACLE, so in santa paula like my last week there we found this super cool investigator named joaquin and the ventura zone leaders called me with a message from elder bills saying that he was baptized this past weekend!  YAY ANDDDDDD Sixto was interviewed and he passed this past Saturday sooooo on this coming friday if all goes well he will be baptised!!! ALSOOOOO we found a legit new investigator this past week named sulema, she is a friend of a member, they are both juniors in high school and are good buds, we taught her a lesson about the apostacy and restoration (thanks for the suggested scriptures mom by the way, they are super good, i will study them) using Jenga and she loved it and now wants to get baptized supposedly, so everything is going good, we also have one more investigator who is 9 and is a member of a less active family, she is pretty cool, she may also possibly have a baptisimal date.  so the work is going pretty good, we are appointment hopping all the time, our week this week is the craziest/busiest that its ever been thus far my time here.   the only problem is that we rarely find time to find, like tract or walk the streets or other activities, so it's kinda hard to balance everything out.  AH also one of our "more solid" or supposedly solid investigators dropped us this past week, well, she dropped us by telling her daughter in law to tell her brother to tell us that she didn't want to meet anymore cause she was getting confuzed.....welll......we thought that was lame so we went to talk to her ourselves.  sooo once again she didn't come out, cause she didn't know how to tell us, she sent her daughter out to talk to us. so she was all confrontational and elder skovran is a feisty little guy, and she said she couldn't accept the BOM cause it wasn't the bible, and then we asked why she beleives the bible, and she said cause it was written by prophets and was inspired of God, good answer, so we told her "well thats great cause the BOM was writtten by prophets and inspired of God too" and she said "no it wasn't" and we said "yes it was" and we asked her "who do you think knows more about our church, your pastor, or us?" and she was like "my pastor"....it' was quite ridiculous, she contradicted herself a ton and had horrible logic....oh well we tried.....lost an investigator...oh well, we have faith that we will find more. 

dang, i forgot about the whole trying to make more paragraph thing.....sorry......man i blew it....i'll do better next week.  well my time is running short, the apostacy happened and in a certain sence still happens all around us, all we have to do is stay strong to what we know is right and we'll be just fine.  i hope to hear good news from you all soon.  AH mom, quick question, my indoor soccer shoes have lasted really good but i'm afraid i might have to do them in, my right one has the entire front seam undone, so i can duct tape it for now but i was wondering if anyone at home has an extra pair of shoes that i could use?  and if not i can just deal with it, the duct tape should hold pretty good, seriously it isn't that big a deal i was just wondering.  anywho, LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Larsen

Week 6....i turned 21 months old 3 days ago......ahhhhhhhh

Hey family,

OK, so i'll try to hit the enter key i guess haha usually i'm just trying to write super fast so that i can finish in time, lots of reading today, it's ok, i love reading emails from all of you!  we had an excellent week, taught a bunch of lessons and worked hard as usual. 

 

(hey look, new paragraph)

 

Mom thanks for your words about Sixto and your conversion, i don't doubt, alot, he is actually doing amazing, we gave him a really good lesson on the Apostacy and then we followed it up with a retouch on the restoration and Joseph Smith, and he really really got it, we gave him a pamphlet called "The Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith" it's like a fold out thing, maybe you're familiar with it, but anywho, so i gave him like 2 pages to read and he ended up reading the whole thing and basically quoted it to us.  that is what he does with all our invitations that we give him, he reads them over and like memoizes the message of the scriptures or assignment and then when we come over he like tells us all that he learned and it is super faith promoting and cool, he's doing awesome, and to thing we were super close to dropping him.  his interview is this saturday and his baptism is planned for the 25th.  so it's awesome, he's doing great, he even brought a friend to Stake Conference yesterday.

 

SOOOO we only translated the beginning piece, i translated the welcome and elder sckovran translated the sustaining, it was super hard, my mind doesn't switch back and forth too fast, anywho, so it wasn't that bad actally, i survived.  it's much easier when you're up there with the person and they say a sentance then let you translate it, much much easier that way, but we were in the clerks office with a headset and a TV and a MIC and we did the best we could.  Elder Paul V Johnson of the Seventy was there and gave an amazing discourse on following the commandments, did you know he is from Logan? i talked to him for a bit after the conference, he's a big guy.  anywho, the conference was very good, Pres and Sis Murri came and gave talks, it was a very special conference, good sunday. 

 

brandon, i think your trainer is going to the same training that we went to, it was super awesomly good training too, it will revolutionize the way missionary work is done, you are blessed to be able to serve now, you'll have most of your mission with this new perspective on things it'll be awesome.  i was kinda sad that i will only get to use the training as a missionary for the tail end of my mission, i believe i can use if afterward but it's not the same i would imagine. 

 

Mom your trip sounded like a ton of fun, i agree with BHL and want pics of this "first date" of Taylor's.  Mom could you tell that guy at work thank you for me?  i'll tell him when i get home but i don't want to delay cause i'll probably forget to.  thanks for all your loving support, the gospel (by the way my comp pointed out that i've been spelling gosple wrong my whole mission....it's el not le....man) is true, i agree dad, it's quite the feeling when people act on what you teach them and find out that what you were saying or inviting them to do really does work....funny how that works huh?

 

ok family, my time is running a bit short, i had alot to read today, know that i love you, and pray for you daily, words cannot expess the gratitude and feelings i want to tell you all, just know that you are daily a part of my life.  i hope your week goes well and i will let you know what happenes with transfers next monday, i'll be staying i'm pretty sure, we might be staying together, if someone leaves it will be elder skovran.

 

LOVE YOU!!

Elder Larsen

Hola Hola Hola

Hi Family!

how are you all doing this week?  it sounds like mom and whoever is with her is having a ton of fun, wow, i hope you took some pictures mom, i would love to see all of that.  i'm glad that everyone seems to be doing good in school, i'm trying to learn stuff too!  so i don't have BHL's Mission address and i would like it por favor.  when is his P-day?  i didn't get an emial from him this week.  well we had a bit of a slow week here in Santa Maria, still an excellent week, just a bit slow, it's super hard to find some of our really cool investigators, that is probably the hardest thing we've had to deal with this week is people not being home when we go by, but we don't give up, or at least we haven't yet.  so next week is our stake conference and Elder Johnson of the seventy is coming and guess what......we've been asked to help a little with the translating!!! ahhhh i've never translated before, and am super nervous!  i'll let you know what happens....also, MILAGRO!!!! SIXTO came to church yesterday and made my whole week of work worth it.  we were having opening excersises in Priesthood and even though Sixto has been like 4 or 5 times to church no one has ever asked him to introduce himself, so they finally did that yesterday and Sixto saundered up to the front and said that he was sixto, and that God was blessing him for being at church and that it was hard to go to church but he knew that he was in the right place and he felt good.  it basically made my day!  he has to get baptized!  i have faith that he will, our only roadblock with him is that we don't feel that he has a super strong testimony of the Restoration or Joseph Smith, so we are focusing on that this week, we are going to have a hard core lesson on the Apostacy and then follow it up with an awesome lesson on the restoration.  we would really appreciate your prayers in his behalf, he needs to continue to progress.  it's crazy how attached you get to people in such a short amount of time, Sixto has become a really good friend, i know he enjoys having us over and he gets excited about the things we teach him, he is totally doctrinaly sound, he agrees and basically already lives all the commandments, WOW, Chastity and tithing even, so he is basically prepared, just gotta get his testimony about the restoration more strong.  ALSO esmeralda is still super cool and still has more faith than i think anyone i've ever taught, she came to church yesterday and was happy to be there, the Lord has blessed her with a job and even though she has to work alot she is happy, and she can still go to church so it's all good.  she asked me to help her fill out her tithing slip cause we don't have any in spanish in our building (don't ask me why cause i already asked myself that) and so she is still super faithful.  the mission is doing amazing, we've increased almost all of our numbers from last week to this week, and we continue to increase weekly.  the church is so true, no matter what happens, even if things appear to be failing, the work rolls on, the eternal purposes of the lord can't be stopped (Mormon 8:22).  alright family, i have a ton of things to do today so i will have to end this email, i love you all alot and am grateful for your constant prayers in my behalf, remember that the lord loves and knows each of us by name, i know you all by name to ;]  hasta LUNES!!!

Elder Larsen

Que Tal les va la vida?

Buenos Dias querida familia mia,

yeah i dunno what a Favala is either mom, so i need a translator as well haha.  so we had an excellent week here in Santa maria, we found 4 new investigators who seem to be really solid and met most of our goals as far as teaching is concerned.  we went to the temple on Saturday!!! it was probably one of the most special experiences of my mission, we woke up at 4:15 and left Santa Maria at 5:30, a member from our singles ward, Ben, took us and Javier down to Los Angeles.  we arrived at like 8:30 and we met up with the Quels, they had come down the night before and were staying in the apartments directly behind the temple, the temple owns them for the purpose of houseing people that come from far away.  anywho, so i thought everything was wstarting at 9 but i forgot that they had to do the beginning stuff sooooo the session didn't start till like 10:30, but that is ok cause i got to see basically my whole ward in bakersfield, pretty much all the endowed members came!  it was so good to see all them.  anywho so the session was the most full i've ever seen a temple, there almost wasn't enough chairs, it was amazing and wonderful to see so many of the mexican saints all in the temple that day, quite an experience.  going through the temple in spanish was fun too, i almost like it better, there were some difficult pieces to understand cause everything is in Vosotros form and i never really have heard it much other than the scriptures, reading vosotros is easier than just hearing it alone.  but it was fun and exciting.  once in the Celestial room i had the blessing of seeing a whole bunch more of the members from my first ward, everyone recognized me and i got alot of really good hugs, Spanish people know how to give good hugs, the sealing was amazing, i had never been to one before and it was really cool, very peacful and good to know that they are now sealed for time and all eternity, not only for just this mortal life which is so short in comparison with what awaits us, i can't really describe affectivly the feelings and emotions that were present in the sealing room, but we were unified, i guess that is the best way i can describe it.  we took pictures afterward and ate some food then we had to get home, we arrived home at 6-ish, and begun working again, full day.  oh and i gave them what you sent me mom, what is it?  they didn't open it before i left.  i think it's a book of some kind but i'm not sure.  anywho, awesome day!  but now we have to go back to work at 1PM, we have to cut our P-day short 5 hours, but it was worth it, just don't have any time to write haha.  

another crazy thing this week, we witnessed a super bad accident.  we were leaving a lesson and i had stopped at a stop sign and i hear this POP sound and this little BMW comes flying from my right to left down the road to which i was perpendicular, she hit a dirt embankment on the other side of the road and the entire car was launched into the air, as it passed right in front of me the car flipped, JUST LIKE IN HOLLYWOOD, and it like fell apart in mid air, it skidded across the road upside down and down into this huge grassy hole on the side of the road, she slid about 100Ft upside down.  so we were flipping out, not believing what had just happened in a matter of seconds, we flipped around and parked and ran down to the wreckage, it looked like her neck was broken, and the girl was half outside of her car window and half in hanging upside down, the seatbelt had her legs strapped down, the car is still upside down mind you, someone called the cops and they got there with the ambulance and the firetruck within 5 minutes.  they started hackin at the car so they could get inside and free her legs, as the paramedics tryed to help her out and asses the situation she was all cussing and trying to hit them and stuff, she was either on her phone or on drugs or drunk, or maybe just out of it i dunno, but anywho, the cops questioned us and we told them what had happened and they finally pulled the girl out on a stretcher, she looked like she was gonna be fine.  PRETTY CRAZY!!! 

anywho, so yeah, we had a good week, and we have a really good week planned out for us, the work is picking up here alot, even in our Young Single Adult ward stuff is looking up.  Did i tell ya'll that elder durrant is AP (Assistant to the Mission President)?  i think i did, i dunno, but yeah he came up a few weeks ago to go on splits with us, it was good.  i hope and pray that all is well with school and life.  Brandon i pray for you daily and it seems as if the Lord is answering my prayers, i can't wait to hear from you all soon, if i can do anything for you let me know.  LOVE YOU ALL!!! don't forget about the truthfullness of the restored gosple, its the only way we're ever going to be able to over come trials and arrive at the presence of God.  Have an Amazing week!!

Elder Larsen (El Mas Guapo)  ;)

quihubole!

quihubole!

hello everyone, man, i just read 15 emails haha dang, i must be a popular guy.....hahah JK.  well it's good to hear from all of you, not goood to hear that Grandma was sick, i'm praying for you grandma, and i'm sure that alot of other people are as well.  it was good to hear from you brandon, sounds like you're adjusting just fine, MAN you're killing your trainer wow....don't get trunky, here in our mission that rarely happens, how long usually are trainers with their greenies in your mission?  in my mission it's usually 2 transfers.  anywho, i'm glad you seem to be learning the language, just get through your 1st few weeks and no worries, it'll come to ya, alot faster than spanish came to me.  anywho, so ESMERALDA GOT BAPTISED!!!! whooo hooooo, it was yesterday directly after church, it was awesome and super smooth and she was like crying the entire time, elder skovran baptised her and i confirmed her, it was really special, she is gonna be the coolest member ever.  our whole ward was there almost, she has a ton of member support, lots of friends.  super excited for her!!! :]]]]]] thats my happy face!  we even had warm water so it was extra good, usually it's quite a task to get the whole font filled up and keep it some-what warm, but we did it.  we had a really good week, found 4 new and super legit investigators for our spanish ward, one guy is named Juventino, and he was a bit depressed and stuff and then we ran into him and we sat down and taught him and he was super happy to see us and i think we made his day better.  our person with a date, Sixto Soto, is doing awesome, he surprises us every time we see him with how much he has progressed, at the beginning he wasn't anything special, we were even contemplating on dropping him cause he wasn't progressing a ton.  and something that we have noticed is that we can track his progression, more or less, by where we teach him the lessons, at the beginning it was just on his porch, then we went to the back patio, and now we meet in his favorite spot under a lemon tree in the back of his house tucked in the corner.  BHL where you teach them matters, the spirit is influenced by your surroundings, huge testimony builder for me, ANYWHO, so he is awesome and totally gonna get baptised Sep 25.  AND i found a ride to be able to go to the temple on Saturday!  so i'm going hopefully at 5:30 or 6 in the morning!  i'm super excited, i've never been to a sealing before, i'm happy for them.  a ver....que mas les puedo decir.  i'm blanking here.....OH so we have decided to do a new kind of street invite, it involves 3 steps, #1 ask an inspired question (question of the soul) #2 share a scripture from the Book of Mormon that answers the question  #3 testify/introduce the BOM and loan it to them and get a Return Appointment.  it totally works, we're trying it our in our district and we've had a lot of better street invites, we call them Sto's (street invites).  so how does the Driveway look?  what was the point of doing that?  sounds like alot of work, AND Taylor i didn't forget about you....i just forgot to mention it....i promise, i thought about you on your birthday, same thing with pretty much everyone, i don't forget....i just forget to send a card in time and then when it's past......i just don't.....sorry.......but good news, i'm pretty much completely caught up on my letter writing so there is now a better chance that i won't miss anyones birthday from now on.......ok so it's only Gma M's birthday left but.....AHHH sorry, i feel bad...anywho, so Jordan, don't give up on Football, anything takes time to learn, when i first started working for the forclosure departement at wachovia i had absolutely no idea what anyone was talking about, new vocabulary, new people, new system, new screens, it took me a few weeks to really get adjusted well to it all, no worries, pray alot and do what you feel is right, God will stand by you. mom thanks for the gift, i haven't got it yet but i'll make sure to bring it with me.  AH, so if anyone would like to send me anything, buying stamps is killing me, so that would be a help.....also almost ran out of white-out and ribbon for the stilly type writer, i wrote like 10 letters last week and since i left it out on the table (i'm really bad at that) the other two elders messed around on it alot and wasted alot of stuff, so it's now put away....i don't know how expensive the ribbon and whiteout are if they aren't expensive i wouldn't mind some, and if it is, then i'll write by hand like i should be doing so my handwriting gets better....well i love you all and hope that your school work is going well, you're in my prayers, the church is true, all the other churches prove that quite easily, until next week!

Elder Larsen#1 

oh yeah, and someone tried to bash with us this week....a bit ridiculous, he just "happened" to be walking toward us when we were tracting (he walked like a block and a half to get to us then afterward walked right back) with a bible in his back pocket...kinda funny, really nice guy, not too much contention, tried to argue about the trinity and how they are one person, then we showed him several sciptures and he was like "ok well i can believe they are two people" and then just went on to something else....kinda funny, anywho, i hope you all remember that contention is of the devil and as Alma says in chapter 5, if we're not of the fold of the lord......we're of the fold of the devil.....Random huh!

Love you!!!!!

Week 2

Hola Familia, esta todo bien!

hey i was happy to hear from BHL, it's ok about forgetting the H, i used to do that every now and then with a few words, i still do....it was good to hear from you brandon, i'm glad you are doing well, and getting ready to leave the MTC!!! whooo hooooo i was so excited/scared when i left, you have gotten to see the real world a few times during your stay it sounds like, not me, when i left the mtc on the bus to the air port we were all pressed up against the glass looking at the outside world haha!  so the high counsilor for our YSA ward is Brother Cheney, he just got back from Brazil, Sao Paulo actually, he served his mission there, he runs or manges a business called Missionties which is like dear elder but it's specifically for Brazil, i dunno if you have heard of it but it's pretty cool sounding, the website is www.missionties.com anywho, i hope that brandon continues to prosper, it was great to get the picture of him.....looks like you're gaining a bit of weight....it's ok....it happens to all of us.  anywho, so we had a really good week, especially cause i got an awesome shirt haha mom thanks so much for thinking about me haha, we all laughed when i opened it up.  well, we had a really successful week for not having been here the previous week.  we found an awesome new investigator in our YSA ward!!!!!! super cool cause that almost never happens, the YSA work here is dead cause the colllege here isn't all that big and it makes it almost impossible to find new investigators on our own.  anywho, so her name is courtney, she is 21 and going to college to be an ultrasound technition, she wants to be baptised soon and came to church yesterday, she was being taught by the elders up in San Luiz Obispo (SLO) but then they decided that she should go to the ward to which she pertains, so we started teaching her cause she lives in our area.  she is getting into the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi already and is loving it.  so we are excited to be able to do some more YSA work, cause i'm pretty sure that our Bishop in YSA is dissapointed with us and thinks we do more spanish work than YSA....which we do, but thats cause there is no YSA work to do and it is super hard to create work in YSA.....now in spanish it's super easy to create work...which we have....Esmeralda is getting baptised this coming sunday after church so we are excited!!!! she is too, she was really bummbed cause we had to move her date.  we've had to move it like 3 times and she was tired of moving it.  i think i told you why....ok just checked my sent mail and i did tell you why....ok, so we met with her after she didn't come to church last week and told her whats up.  she wasn't happy about moving her date for the 11 of september....so we decided after we had left her house that if all went well on sunday then we would bump it up to the next weekend....so she continued to work her ridiculous job and then they told her she had to work on sunday again.....and so she said she couldn't and then she quit her job so she could go to church.....wow.....so she totally has more faith than me....she came to church, met with president speaker (he illegally gave the green light) and we set her baptism up for the next sunday!!! so its gonna be awesome.  SIXTO ALSO CAME TO CHURCH!!! we couldn't get a hold of him in the morning and he had bunked on our appointment 2 days before so our hopes weren't very high for him coming to church, BUT our member who we had asked to go pick him up walked into priesthood with him.  totally surprised us!  it was awesome!  he liked church, this is the 2nd week he has come, he also has a baptisimal date for september 25th so we are quite content with the blessings that the Lord seems to be showering down on us.  this week is super packed with appointments so it looks to be good and fun and successful.  we went to ZLC on friday in Ventura and talked about the mission, it was fun to be back in ventura for a day.  the church is undoubtedly true, it can't not be true, the scripture" ye shall know them by their fruits" come to mind.  the Lord is with us, we cannot fail, the standard of truth has been erected and nothing is going to stop it, nothing can.  i know we are in the truth, and i'm doing what i can to help others find that out.  i pray for you and hope that everything goes well with the 1st week of school.  today we have sworn not to play frolf, so we are going shopping and then HOME and writing letters the rest of the day...man, i can't write as many as i used to....i'm lucky if i get 4 or 5 done, back in the beginning i could pump out 9 or 10 with ease.....getting old.  remember that i love you all!

con carino,

Elder Larsen