Monday, June 29, 2009

Semana 3

Family!

Thanks for the Email dad, haven't heard from you guys in a while ... or so it seems.  I'm real sorry about Kenidee's finger, soooo what happens now?  Everything is just a bit shorter or what?  Yeah send me pics if you can, if Kenidee wanted the pics taken then I had better see them eh? haha well Kenidee, at least you're unique right?  Learn to laugh about it, it won't affect your life drastically and you might just have to switch to trumpet!  Remember that I love you and hope for the best for you.  Dad, sorry about the job too ... jeezz gotta hate job politics ... but if his pop is on the Board of Directors or whatever, then he can pretty much bribe or do what ever he wants.  Keep working hard, I have faith that it will pay off.  That's great about Cody's wedding, I'm sure it was great, sorry about Jordan and his migraine ... Jordan you're too young to have migraines ... stop ... =]  Lance is going to Ecuador, eh?  Cooolll. I only know one lady from Ecuador, she is really cool and laughes funny and speaks extremely fast.  Girls camp, I want to hear about it, I'll bet you had a ton of fun mom, you're almost a kid yourself =]]  I remember you telling us stories and stuff and I think those little plastic belt buckle things from one Girl's Camp a long time ago.  haha sooo yeah, I forgive you for not writing me this week, I know you were busy.  And remember children, you can email me too, I would love to hear from all of you, I'll wait for your letters with great anticipation.  So this week was long but good, we worked hard and taught 30 lessons, felt good, haven't done that in a while.  Found some really cool people.  We seem to be having a hard time getting people to church ... don't know why, but anywho we're gonna focus on that a bit more this week.  We have 2 Baptismal interviews set up for this coming Saturday, hopefully they pull through.  It's super hot here, starting this week it was 110 yesterday and it is supposed to be above 100 for the rest of this week and all of next week ... and they randomly took 100 miles away from us so we are on bikes tomorrow and have been on bikes for the past 2 days so that we don't go over on our car miles ... soooo needless to say I'm much more tan and much more worn out at the end of the day, but we still continue on!  Elder Eaton and I have finally decided to stop being lazy in the morning and are now running the 2 miles every morning, I think it is because this is his last transfer and he wants to get in good shape before he goes home.  He's probably my best bud out here, we have alot of fun in the mornings before studys and between 9:30 and 10:30 haha.  Some funny pics and stories.  Elder Triana and I are getting along a bit better, we still butt heads a bit, he's controlling and I'm stubborn, haha we make a great pair, but we figure that we are placed with certain companions for certain reasons, so we're trying to learn something from one another.  Had a cool experience the other day, not really anything exciting or big but cool for a missionary.  We were getting ready to leave the apt the other morning and I had to reload myself with some pass along cards.  I saw our supply of DVD's and VHS's (we never ever ever give out VHS's any more, we have like 100+ but most of them are holding up Elder Eaton's desk, it's really a coffee table on top of alot of movies and boxes of LDM's) so I was looking around and I randomly thought ... hmmm I should grab a Spanish restoration VHS and jam it in my backpack (we were on bikes) so I did and didnt' think anything about it.  Going to lessons and stuff we ended up in this lady's house teaching her (we had a member with us no worries), this is like the 3rd time we've taught her and she really didn't understand anything the frist 2 times.  But this time she understood stuff and was interested and completely open with us, she can't read very well and I noticed that she had a VHS but no DVD player ... hmmm then I remembered the VHS that I had brought and we left it as homework.  I think she will be able to understand and comprehend the video much better.  Coincidence or no?  I don't know (I can't remember the thought clearly enough, memory is failing me), but that's why it's important to tune yourself spiritually, so that you can receive directions and instructions.  So Brother Quel got called as the 2nd counselor in the Young Men's presidency!  Isn't that cool?!  He has an interview with the stake so we think he's gonna get the Melchesidic Priesthood.  Kinda soon, but our ward has a great need.  He asked me what I did as a kid for mutual, like activiy-wise, lesson wise 'n stuff ... but I couldn't remember anything (he then compared me to a broken/blank hard drive) sooooo since dad has a bit more experience ... could you maybe give me some advice as to what is good for the Young Men's activity during the week so I can tell him?  I also told him that the president of the Young Men would know and it'd be fine, but if you have some time to jot down some stuff I'd be grateful.  Alright family, I'm glad that you are all still living and ok, Kenidee good luck with your surgery tomorrow, I'll be praying for you.  Remember that I love you alot and wish the very best for all of you.  I'll be sending the camera card home probably next week so you guys can have some pics.  Remember that I love you all!  Have a wonderful week.

Elder Larsen

PS:  I'm trying to be frugal with the Debit funds, I did splurge a bit and buy some hair clippers today for $25.  They work good because all my previous hair cuts have been done on the same model, but then we gave it back to Elder Hawes (he forgot it at the Apt when he moved).  So that is why I spent that much this week.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Make sure to write to Lorrin!  He's doing great from what I can tell ... get me Matt's and Casey's address too if you can ... I don't know how long they will be in the MTC though ... or when they go in ...

Monday, June 22, 2009

Zone Conference is tomorrow

Hey guys!

week 1 has come and gone.  just got back from shopping and cleaning the car cause tomorrow is Zone Conference and it has to be inspected ... soooo we did our transfer cleaning of the car haha.  so i got BHL's letter (and yes brandon...i do know what you mean....;} ) and Mom's with Roxanne's Wedding announcement (tell her congrats for me ... maybe i'll try and write a letter if i have time) ... haven't gotten the mail yet today so i don't have anything else from you guys ... but i forgot all the cards ... so i hope you didn't ask me anything ... i don't think you did ... but you know my memory.  anywho, so this week was good ... really long and hard.  it was deathly hot 2 days ago, but these past couple of days have been absolutely beautiful in the 70's and sun shiny and stuff.  you can tell its going to be a horribly hot day when you go out to run in the Morning at 6:30 and it's already 80 .... bleh.  so everyone continues to move forward in the work.  Elder Minnick was trnaferred last week and we got a new District Leader named Elder Bennet.  he is from Kaysville and has one more transfer left on his mission.  also with this last transfer two missionaries were sent in to replace two missionaries that got transferred and the two new ones came out to the field with me.  one is Elder Whimpy ... but the Irony is that he is probably 6'5 and absolutely huge.  he's from utah and has an Identical Twin who is in the mission just north of us.  i'll try to get a picture of him.  he's hillarious too.  he replaced one of my good missionary buds who left.  his name is Elder Reeves and he is from Ferth Idaho.  i took some pics with him, he's pretty huge too, we're conspiring together to get him changed to spanish and then we're gonna be companions and tear it up!  haha i've had a really good time here, the missonaries are cool, i've made alot of buds.  so on Saturday night we went to a member's house to make sure that she and her mom were coming to church (her mom is investigating) and they were having a huge Mexican Father's Day party.  Mexicans know how to throw parties ... mexican music and beer and tons of people and it was very loud and packed ... anywho so we didn't want to interrupt but she insisted (like all mexicans do) that we come and say hi and try a little bit of the food.  The mexican people are very good hosts, very hospitable (right word or no???), always willing to bend over backwards to help you and make you feel comfortable.  so we got there and this hillarious mexican guy ran over to us (he was a bit drunk) and asked us if we wanted to dance haha, then he started to show us how, absolutly crazy mexican dance that i want to get good at one day, sooooo Elder Triana ended up with a cowboy hat on and trying to follow this guy in this dance ... hahaha i about died laughing haha. it was way interesting. sooo we sat down and talked to them about coming to church and stuff and then decided to leave cause it was almost 9. so we get up to leave and the crazy mexican dancer comes up to me (much more drunk this time) and i tell him good bye and to take care of himself and he slobberly tells me, in english i might add, man ya know ... i love you ... just between you and me ... then started to laugh and i laughed and then we left.  hahaha never been told that i was loved by a drunk mexican before ... quite hillarious haha.  we had one of our less active come to church again this week, very happy!!!  he is awesome, probably the coolest person that i've met on my mission so far.  Hermano Alfaro, he came again.  we are hoping that he will be able to come back into activity.  the ward is doing a bit better, there is still alot of gossip and unorganization, but we are doing our best and working hard.  found a few pretty solid people this week that we are hoping to progress with.  Arturo and Wendy, they have two little girls and speak more or less perfect english.  he's been looking for a church so it's perfect.  it's really sad the situation that the world is in.  there are so many religions and so much fighting between them that people just give up on religion all together and dont want to listen to us.  they just don't understand our message ... it primarily answers why there are so many stinking different religions and manners of thinking and bibles and everything.  but they don't even give us a chance to explain it ... kinda sad.  but we try still.  so something that we have been teaching to our members this week is Alma 47:10-11.  it's about the Wars between the Lamanites and the Nephites.  a Lamanite captain is trying to get a Nephite Captian to come down from the mount that he is on to talk with him.  and he trys repeatidly to do it.  and finally after a few times and a few different things he comes down and is killed in degrees with poison.  we use it like this.  we are all on our different levels of a Spiritual Mountain.  we're above all the nastyness of the world, but satan still trys to tempt us ... he knows exactly what our weaknesses are.  but no matter what we must stay on the high grounds.  if we succomb to satans temptations we slip down and it is ever so hard to get back up.  we have to do the basics, read, pray, and church if we want to have any kind of armament (is that a word?  like defense stuff like weapons???) against satan.  then you can go into the next few verses and see how the Nephite Captain was killed by degrees of poison ... not all at once ... and that is a pretty traditional scripture/way of teaching how to avoid temptations ... cause satan isn't going to try to tempt you with something hugely wrong ... just something little, something small, and then when all those seemingly insignificant things all add up, you realize how far off the path you really are, how much you really have fallen.  the scriptures can teach us loads about life.  i encourage all of you to read stuff and find out how you can apply it to your life.  i'm needing to go, but i want to let you all know that i love you alot and that i want the very best for all of you, listen to mom and dad and grandma, they know what they're talking about ... mostly ;}  remember to laugh and to love life.  i hope you all are enjoying your summer.

until next week, love ya'll!

Elder Larsen

PS:  what's happening with Kenidee and with Dad's interviews n stuff?  anything exciting happening with you guys?

Monday, June 15, 2009

Week 1, WE START OVER AGAIN!

Hey Family!  just letting ya know, i'm staying here with Elder Triana for 6 more weeks, so no worries about change of address or anything.  i'm glad to hear that kenidee is doing better, and i am still keeping the faith up for the ICON job.  so this week the weather has been absolutely beutiful, windy and cool and not too hott.....we'll see how this next transfer treats me.  six weeks seems like a long time, but it really isn't....it's like high school, the farther along you get in it, the faster it goes haha.  Elder Basset (The missionary from San Antonio) is going home, so Elder Hawes is the New Assistant to the President!!!!!! hahaha i told him the whole time we were together that he would be the AP one day haha my profecy came true haha.  thank you for the MP3 player, the new music is a releif to my ears haha, i really do love music alot.  Glad to have gotten a little note from everyone, Kenidee, i'm glad that you're not giving up on Clarinet...although i'm sad that you haven't figured out that Trumpet totally trumps Clarinet any day haha.  thanks for the Band Music, makes me remember my good memories of band.  taylor if you sell anything that is mine i will be forced to do the same to you when you're on your mission, i plan on getting "huge" (according to BHL) like you, so that when i get home i can "Thrash" you around haha.  D&C 35:13-14. so the work is picking up here, and usually that happens when someone is getting ready to leave so i was pretty sure i was leaving, but no i get to stay here and work some more, we have 4 people with a Baptizimal Date, Arturo (Hermana QUel's Brother), Divina (A member's mom), Marcela (a lady that i contacted one day), and Bobby Flores!!!!!!  i don't know if you rememeber, but a while ago we were teaching a family with twins, a guy named Luis, his son bobby finally got permission from his mom to be baptized, she is catholic and was having some doubts about it all, but when she saw the changes that Bobby was making in his life, she noticed that it was because of us, so we asked her and she said yes!!! sooo yeah, the work is picking up slowly, we're doing good.  i'm trying to teach my comp how to compromise still...he still hasn't gotten that one down yet.  we will have 1 more transfer together and then most likely i will leave for somewhere else.  glad to hear that BHL is having fun in Hawaii, i hope that him and Gma return saftly.  how is the rest of the family?  Gma Larsen?  aunts, uncles, cousins?  i'll bet the Mattesons were happy to be able to come up and spend some time in beautiful Utah!  so this week has been kinda long/short, long days short weeks as always, spanish is slowly improving, some days i feel like i can do anything, and some days i feel like i'm never gonna learn it all.  anywho, so something i learned or rather re-learned this week is why the Lord restored the church when he did.  cause he could have done it much sooner than he did, but he had to wait until all the circumstances (all put into motion by himself of course) were right.  until there was a country with religious freedom, until there was enough confusion in the world.  and many other factors.  i've listened to a few talks and read alot in "Jesus the Christ" about the apostacy, cause honestly with out the apostacy, there wouldn't be a need for a restoration.  this past week it seems as if we (our apartment-ship) has been talking and discussing about other religions and where they started and stuff.  so it has really helped my testimony of the Apostacy and therefore a testimony of the Restoration.  we live in a crazy world, i realize that more every day and with everyone i talk to.  it's really sad sometimes cause alot of people tell us that they dont' want anything to do with religion because all religions do is fight and confuze doctrine.  they would rather just believe in god and leave religion to themselves.  

i hope that you have a wonderful week!  read your scriptures and spend time with the family!  Kenidee, continue to improve, and Dad keep the faith up!  Taylor don't sell my stuff, Derek continue to be brilliant, BHL get home saftly, and write in a journal your trip...write me to i want to hear, Mom, continue to be awesome and loving! Grandma continue to be you, you're almost perfect in my eyes!  and to all my friends i hope taht you have a wonderful week!  remember to smile and laugh, the best medicine for anything!

love you all!!!

Elder Larsen

Monday, June 8, 2009

Week 6 here I come!

Hey guys.....

wow kenidee ... got dad's email today, kinda shocking but i'm glad that you're ok, probably should get a more thick cable for spot so that it's not able to wrap around any fingers n stuff.  you will be in my prayers ... if it makes you feel any better, there is an Elder here named Elder Mecham that tried to hop a curb on his bike and pretty much bent his front tire in half ... plus pretty much tearing all of the skin off of his pinky and ring finger kuckle and a few chunks on his left hand and face ... he feels' kinda dumb ... he is here with me now and thought that maybe it'd make ya feel better.  sooooo are there any more details that i get from the accident?  what is being done with spot?  clarinet still an option?  trumpet only requires the right hand wink wink.  don't know if i'm helping any ... i really do feel bad, i wish i could help.  but as with anything, Kenidee, you're tough, tougher than me when i was that age, you'll pull through i have no doubts.  prayers really do work, as well as fasting.  Moroni 7:33,37, these scriptures also have something else that is essencial.  little sister i want you to know that i love you alot and that i hope that you will be able to recover fully, you have every right to do so and i expect it.  never let the things in life slow ya down, this won't stop ya, keep on laughing, adapt, and you'll be just fine.  please let me know how you're doing, write me an email or send me a letter with mom's letter this week.  

this week was really short for some reason, we worked hard and did the best we could as far as working n stuff.  we did what is called blitzing and the whole zone went into a single area and worked it for a couple of hours, Elder Triana and I met a few interesting people, a lady from denmark, and elder triana knows dutch (note from Syd: we think he means Danish... this gave us a very good laugh!!!  ;)  ) a bit (apparently dutch and swedish are pretty much the same language) so that was cool, we also met some born again Christians ... who told us that we weren't Christians and that our view of heaven makes it seem like we're saved by our actions (cause we are)and that if we are saved by our actions that means that Christ's atonement was for nothing and a few other nonesense things that didn't quite add up.  then they prayed for us so that we would see the light and the errors of our ways.  (Elder Eaton wants me to tell you how cool he is ... he's sittin next to me too) so the blitz thing made me really really apprieciate spanish work.  the spanish people are so much more loving and kind just naturally.  english people are generally pretty rude ... anyway, so as we start the last week of this transfer i am still trying to figure out where the time went, in 2 days i'll be six months old, time flyes out here.  there is a slight slight chance that i might be transfered this next transfer, not sure, Elder Triana has only had one 2 transfer companion, the rest have only been one transfer companions, so we'll see, i'll let you know next week.  thanks so much for the art book, it's pretty cool, although i still think that that big blue box had more pictures in it, but yeah, i love the art book, we'll be able to use it alot with our members and kids and investigators that are kind of slow ... we have a few of them.  thanks for the talk and for allllll of the pics, i almost feel like i'm there with you guys.  graduation looked fun, i heard from mom and grandma M that the adult speaker was boring and useless ... probably true, they try to sound smart and impressive ... that's great about cody's wedding and all the pics and stuff going on there.  thanks for the camera card, i'll send the other one home when it gets filled up.  I was a bit sick this past week with a sore throut and very nasty side affects ... but i'm all better today, elder Eaton and I ran to Elder Minnicks house 2ish+ miles this morning to teach his companion Elder King, how to shave ... needless to say that was fun, had a few laughs, then we walked back and just chatted.  Elder triana and elder Rogers don't like to run and can't run that far so elder eaton and I run alot, he's going home next transfer and i'll miss the crazy kansan.  he's trying to convince me to go to BYU ... kinda working ... i dunno ... we'll see what happens.  so i've been studying the law of moses this week and found out some pretty cool stuff about it, it's related to alot of the things that other religions do, like sabbath on Sunday and a few other things.  what people don't realize is that the law was completed with Christ.  Abinidi gives a great chew out sesson to King noah's priests about the law of moses, i can't remember where it is in Mosiah, but it's pretty cool how he explains it.  anywho, i gotta go, we have an appointment at 3PM ... on a P-day ... so that's going to make our day a little bit more rushed than usual.  remember that i love you guys and that you are in my prayers always, let me know what happens with kenidee ... and dad's job???? never found out what happened with that.  love you guys!!!!  I'll let ya know what happens with me next week.

PS: Brandon just for you ... i lost 10 LBS this week ... down to 150!!  haha NOT FAT!  k see ya, hope BHL has fun in Hawaii.

Elder larsen

Monday, June 1, 2009

week 5

Sup Familia?!  Que Pasa?

soooo i didn't get a letter this week from you guys, minus Brandon's grad announcement, so i was going to wait until after recieving the mail to email you guys, but Elder Triana had to come here early because he is calling home to sweden today, and the time difference is such that we had to go to email early, so if there were any pending questions or anything that needed answering in your letter (that more than likely i'll recieve today) i'll send a letter home the old fashon way ... by pony ... haha

anywho, so this week was long but good, we're already in week 5!! that's crazy...where did the transfer go?  more than likely i'll stay here with Elder Triana for 1 more transfer and then i'll get transferred.  soo it continues to be super hot here in bakersfield, high 90's every day.  plus we didn't really "Budget" our miles very well at the beginning of the month cause we didn't know the area very well ... so we kinda ran short this week and ended up doing alot of biking ... which is very hard to do with a dead bike that has been through 3 missionaries.  but i'm still smiling and alive so no worries.  we found a family this week that we hope will be solid, we were tocando puertas and they let us in, we taugth a pretty good 1st lesson and then as we were leaving one of the kids who was 6 or 7 said "so you guys go around and talk about jesus and god?"  and i was like yup, that's what we do and then he was like "so you guys can't die?"  haha it was kind of funny haha...i immediatly thought of Star wars when Annikin says almost the same thing to quigon jin or whatever his name is. haha funny story.  also met a few crazy people this week, crazy guy from Jalisco mexico who talked really weird and moved his eyes funny and a black lady that got super mad at us cause we wouldn't let her use our phone ... mexicans are nice...maybe i'll go live in mexico when i get home haha ... i'll go with Grandma Matteson =]  anywho, so we have a pretty much set guy with a baptizm, el hermano de la hermana Quel quiere ser bautizado he just doesn't know if he feels ready yet, we're gonna work with him and hopefully he will get baptized before the end of June.  sooooooo two big things are happening this week, Lorrin is going to the MTC ... maybe matthew???? and Brandon is Graduating!!!  yay!!!  two way cool things, two wayy big steps in life.  you guys have to get me Lorrin's MTC address cause he's gonna be there for a while.  best wishes to BHL, i hope he liked my card haha ... Elder Eaton and I were gonna try and sing something, but we never got around to it haha ... i can hear my companion blabin around in swedish ... haha sounds kinda weird.  i hope that dad's interview went good, if not, never give up, trust in the lord.  i liked the quote that you gave me dad.  haha i have to try to translate the poem to spanish haha ... probably won't ryhme worth nothing but still a good message.  the Quel's and Jose Campos continue to do great, we gave them alot of old "Teachings of the presidents" books and they are reading them.  The Hernandez family is struggling a bit, brother hernandez's work moved him to a town that is very far away and doesn't have a spanish branch ... soooo they aren't able to come to church anymore.  he still reads and studies ... but church is a very important part of the baptizmal covenant soo yeah.  anywho, so this next week should be fun and long, my knees are ok, still functioning.  still healthy and all.  i don't really know what more to write, oh, i did get grandma Larsen's letter, made me smile, thanks for the letter, i'm glad that she is doing good.  and it should jsut continue to warm up over there so hopefully pnemonia won't be any more of a problem.  give hugs to Rich Kim and the cousins as well as to Grandma Matteson.  have fun in Hawaii brandon, try surfing or something.  i gotta get going, thank you all for everything that you do for me, in 10 days i'll hit my 6 month mark ... crazy how time flys.  i wish all of you a wonderful week.  if any of you get a chance give lorrin a hug for me, tell him i'll write him as soon as i get his address.  love you guys!  remember the lord always!  nothing is possible with out him.

Elder Larsen

PS: brandon i'm not fat

PPS: send my Mp3 and camera card back soon cause i've been takin alot of pics and i'll need the blank one.  maybe take some pics and vids of brandon and the family and send it off ... if you can.  love you!