Week 6, another transfer.......terminado....from the verb terminar which means to be finished or to terminate

Hi guys!

ok first to respond to mom's letter, thanks btw, i loved reading it, made me laugh and smile.  haha doug is a nickname that my first zone leader called me and my whole first apartment called me.  because supposedly i look like the character "doug" on the old cartoon "Doug".  i dunno, it hasn't followed me here, here people call me "Chicken Little" cause supposedly i look like the little chicken off of chicken little....i duunnooooo.  i hope Casy does well, i'm sure he will have alot of success on his mission, the africans are great i hear.  thanks for printing pics for Elder Triana, i'm sure he will apprieciate it.  i like the pics in the little book, or having you send me some, i only print pics when i want to send them to someone, i don't print them anymore for myself.  but what i was thinking is that i could just get 2 big picture albums, 1 for my first year and 1 for my second year.  i love the little books, and how they are split up and everything, they are just a bit difficult to haul around/pack.  your welcome for the B-day list.  so we are getting a new spanish bible in september, it's awesome, you can read about it in this months Ensign i think, i'm going to ask president murri if we get them free or if we have to purchase them, if we have to purchase them then if you want you can add that to my b-day list at the very top, cause it's a way awesome thing to have our own bible ... i don't like the catholic Spanish one very much, very hard to understand and it's very old grammar that most members don't even understand ..... yay for BHL and being excited to go on a mission to mongolia!  he'd better start studying mongolian cause i hear it's a super hard language full of clicks and whistles.  there were a few kids who turned 19 in the MTC so i know it's possible to go a bit early.  ya know, college wouldn't be so expensive if the books didn't cost so much, kind of ridiculous really, i'm glad you found a cheaper deal.  the cowboy laughs and said "HOWDY" back.  i think all spanish wards/branches don't like their bishops, people just get offended too easily, our bishop is a bit frank some times, but hey it's not an easy job, i'd rather have him be frank than be all easy going, he gets stuff done.  it's funny cause his name is franko castrejon, and franko means frank, the name as well as the way of speaking, spanish people say that alot.  "i'm going to be frank with you..."  

you said you posted a bunch of pics on my "web site" ..... my facebook or what were you referring too?  Jordan, so you rode all the way around bear lake?  haha that's awesome, it's a cool ride huh?  me and lorrin did that, we almost hit a cow moose and her calf coming out of the mountains hahah funny experience.  thanks for the pic at the temple dedication, mom's not crazy she just loves me!  i'm not going to be able to finish the BOM by the end of the year cause i'm going very slow through 2 chapters a day and kind of making my own topical guide with my own subjects ... it's a very slow and tedious process but i'm learning alot, we have some pretty awesome examples in the scriptures.  thanks for the scripture references mom, they are some really good ones, i will try to remember to bring a few of my favs to the library next week and share them with you.  my english and spelling and remembering abilities are going down, and spanish is getting a bit better, i have days when i feel like i'm on top of the world and can say anything and i have days when i feel stuck with tons of stuff to learn regarding spanish.  and mom i'm sure that your "mac" has upside down exclamation points cause i know that microsoft does .... and welll yeah if mac is better that mic then it had better have upside down exclamation points ... still haven't given up on microsoft!  hhahah Derek wants a baby brother hahaha, i remember that when mom and dad brought home the sonogram or whatever they are called that showed whether derek was a boy or girl, we watched it and i was hoping the whole time that it was a girl and when mom and dad told us it was a boy i think i might have started crying, but i know i was upset cause i wanted a baby sister haha.  but now we have derek and i wouldn't have him any other way, derek is going to be the smartest one of us all one day.  mother you shouldn't hit deer, its not nice.  jeezz i'm guessing you hit it in the Yukon cause otherwise it would have probably caused more damage.  and which younger sibling of mine backed into the versa?!?!  i'm thinking taylor cause BHL is just wayyyyyy to goooood of a driver.  Taylor, use your mirrors....maybe you could get kenidee or derek to back you out of the drive way very very slowly.....hahah ;}  us as missionaries have to back each other up whenever we are backing.  anywho, ok

so this week we had an awesome week.  we finally got our family to come to church ... then they left after sacrament cause they were hungry the bums ... but we'll get them next week.  they have been receiving alot of opposicion so it's been hard to get them to come.  they kind of fell off for a while but we're really hoping and praying that we can get them more excited, pray for them they are Marilu and Jose and family.  talked to alot of people and just worked hard.  remind me if i told you about the lady that we helped move out last monday and her Boyfriend who is abusive showed up.  we have one more week in the transfer and then next monday we will receive calls telling us if we are staying or moving, i'll be staying and we're pretty sure that Elder Durrant will stay.  oh and i probably won't be able to email on monday cause of Labor day so i'll email on Wednesday around noonish.  also i'm doing my best to be frugal with my debit card, i decided to buy a $35 electric braun shaver cause my shower time is ridiculous, Elder Durrant says my face will toughen up or he will make it toughen up.  we'll see what happens.  thank you for the continued pictures and weekly letters, reallly makes me feel loved, which is  a very good feeling i might add.  ok times just about up, lots of stuff to do on crazy P-day.  remember that i love you all a whole ton, my appreciation level for my family has grown almost as much as my testimony .... they're probably at the same level actually ;}  i wish you all the best week ever in school.  write me and tell me about all your classes and school stuff and friend and subects you're taking, BHL you too, you are not excluded from this haha.  love you mom, thanks for the weekly letters and pics. love you dad, i learn a whole bunch about attitude from your example, keep on keeping on, i pray for you daily. brandon/roommate for my whole life minus when i was born and a month when the family moved out of the house in texas, love you.  taylor, don't ruin the vehicles, love you.  Jordan, stay healthy and don't fight with mom about diabetes, she is always right, love you.  Kendiee(queen of england), you're probably closer to perfect than any of your brothers, i love you.  Derek my youngest and most innocent brother (yes taylor more innocent than you) stay creative, look for ways to express your creativity and always read.  Grandma, love you a whole bunch, your kindness and humility have been an example to me my entire life, since i can remember you've always been helping people, thank you.

until next week

Elder "chido, doug"  Larsen :]

NEW PICTURES !!!

Okay, so I have finally posted the new pictures from Christopher's camera card he sent home.  They are of his last little while in Bakersfield with Elder Triana and a few from his new place in Oxnard with Elder Durrant.  I have now just listed ONE link to his photo web site - then from there you can look at each month's pictures.  Check out July and August.  ENJOY!

The computadoras aren't tonto and despacio today!

Hey family!  

thanks for the letter and pics mom and BHL (BTW i wouldn't quit your day job just quite yet .... chlorine smells better than dog poo, speaking of which i have grown to loath dogs on my misson, just a little side note) and Whitney.  I really do love getting mail from you all, especially the pics, makes me feel as if i haven't missed anything in any of your lifes.  haha Elder Durrant and I thought it was funny that you think we look like those two Elders on the Church Bulletin thingy haha, he laughed, i'm going to keep it and use it to decorate something.  i have quite an extensive collection of pics and stuff from old church magazines and stuff to decorate planners and binders and stuff, derek you would be so proud of me haha.  ok so to respond to your inquiries.  i think Elder Triana would love some pics from when we were together cause i think he lost his whole camera card at walmart and all his pics .... really sad .... i hope he found it but i dunno, he hasn't written me back yet.  okkk mom, spanish lesson, Lorrin ha sido liberado de la carcel.  Lorrin means Mr. Lorrin F. Campbell ;]  "ha" is the 1st person singular form of the verb haber which means "to have" so "ha" means "he/she/it has".  "sido" is the past participle of the verb "ser" or "to be" so "sido" means "been".  Liberado is also a past participle, of the verb liberar which means "to free" so Liberado means "freed".  "de" is "of" and "la Carcel" means "the jail" and "The Jail" means the MTC ... good place but it's oh so good to get out to the field.  so there ya have it.  hahaha  i loved your translation though mom, i laughed real hard for a while, love you mom!  you're still a ton smarter than me, i have alot of catching up to do haha.  when you and dad go on your misson to armenia you can teach me armenian haha ;} .  

ok so i live with 2 other english elders, Elder Williams and Elder Pulham.  Elder Pulham is being trained, this is his 2nd transfer in the field, he is way cool, a tall cowboy (very southern accent) from Payson Utah.  he was 3rd or so in the nation at team roping, he is very very good.  we have alot of fun, he's my workout buddy in the morning.  Elder Williams is his trainer, he is from some small dincky town in Idaho ... bluff .... maybe i dunno, i forget.  anywho, he's pretty cool, a little wierd at times, drinks 4 gallons of milk a week .... seriously .... we keep telling him that he's gonna get kidney stones, but he doesn't believe us .... pooor pooor elder .... anywho, he has done his best to erase his "hick" accent cause he wants people to not make fun of him and be able to understand him .... sooo he sounds really funny when he talks cause its not his real voice ... he has also changed his personallity alot so we don't really know who "he" is, we just know Elder Williams, still a cool guy though, but a bit weird.  my apartment is kinda trashy and old, but HALLELUA!!!!!! we got our water heater replaced this week so we can have hot water now for showering!!!! it's wonderful.  we can also take showers at the same time and still have super hot water!  which is good cause before the 1st person to shower had like 5 mins of hot water then lukewarmness .... and the other  3 had like 2 mins of hot water if they waited a little inbetween the showers for the water heater to heat some more water up.  and we could only take one shower at a time or both were really cold .... hence it interfered with getting to studies on time and everything ........ soooo we're very happy.  

and you can print out emails from casey and send them by mail every now and then, i really enjoyed seeing all those letters from all my buds, doing that every month or so would be great, just to keep me informed and all.  soooo Ryan is engaged huh?  cool, we're not sure but his fiance might be related to Elder Durrant cause Elder Durrant is also a Great great great grandson of Wilford Woodruff.  Elder Bradley Durrant from Mesa.  maybe she knows or recognizes his name i dunno, he didn't recognize her face.  

the area is cool, weather and people wise, it's alot harder than bakersfield that is for sure, but no area is any worse or less productive than the other, only missionaries are.  the majority is spanish so it's not a problem, the thing we struggle with is finding people that actually want to talk to us, it's very liberal here for some reason, probably cause its on the coast.  and most of the mexicans are really poor, cause its so stinkin expensive here.  but we work hard and do our best, only 2 weeks left in this transfer, crazy how time flys .... jeezz... anywho, so the ward is cool, no one likes the bishop or the bishops wife though so unity is a bit of an issue, mexicans unfortunatly judge and hold grudges a whole bunch ... don't know why .... must be a culture thing. The bishop is a good man, a little bit blunt at times (that's why people don't like him) but he gets things done, the ward here is more organized than the ward in bakersfield, but there isn't the unity we had in bakes ... still a good ward though.  i had to give a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday about how can we develope/strengthen a testimony.  i thought it went well, i talked for about 13 mins or so.  Elder Durrant tells me i did good but he was out waiting for our investigator family that was supposed to come but didn't cause they got lost on the way to the chapel ........ they are receiving alot of resistance from just normal stuff.  they were supposed to come last night to an activity we had in the church, we watched the testaments in the chapel, and they told us that they would for sure come to that, and they didn't ...... soooooo very frustrating but we have to have patience with everything and everyone, they really are great investigators, they read and are interested, they just find trouble actually doing things like coming to stuff.  but yeah, the ward is cool, we meet in a stake center sized building but it's not a stake center, there are 2 spanish wards here in oxnard we are the 6th ward and the other one is the 5th ward, everyone likes 5th ward better cause there bishop is way cool ... but we work hard and do our best.  so on Saturday we had a lesson in a McDonalds haha it was way weird/fun/awkward haha this guy told us to meet him there so we did and we walked in sat down in a booth and had a regular lesson about the restoration.  it was really cool cause he totally believes the restoration, he was really excited that we have a prophet today and he was just all around interested.  we'll see what happens with him, but he seems really great.  

oh, so two things that could be added onto the "B-day List" a California Flag (not a little one, a regular sized one) and a map of Mexico and Guatemala.  out of all the latin countries Guatemala has to be my favorite, haven't met anyone from there who isn't hillarious and way cool.  i'll send some notes from my talk that i gave and my homework home today.  i love you all alot!  thanks for your continued love and support, i pray for you daily, keep the faith and fight a good fight, Satan never stops working .... neither should we.  que sean fieles en el evangelio.

recuerden que les amo!

Elder Larsen "Chido"  "Doug"

week 4 y lorrin ha sido librado de la carcel!

Hey family!

the computers here at the library are being dumb and slow today, had to switch computers and everything.....bleh.  anywho, so i had a good week, i hope that you got my letter thingy with the pics and the list that mom wanted.  i guess you can give that list to Kim and Rich cause they emailed me asking me for it as well.  i dunno.  Chido means cool.  and yeah i'm trying to learn some organization skills.  i'm doing my best to write everything down, cause before i'd just let the senior companion do all the writing.  and yes i agree 100%, you can and will learn something from every companion that you have.  yeah it's cool that veronica has my address, i just prefer the mission one cause then i don't have to remember who to tell if my address gets changed. the whole Baker and Fair experiance sounded like alot of fun!  i enjoyed seeing the pictures.  Baker got big, thats cool, i'm glad that it all turned out well and that kenidee placed so high!  way to go!  Bien Hecho!  soooo Pigs next year eh?  sounds fun and dirty haha.  no i don't remember the Eliasons that you are talking about, but they sound cool.  i'm sure i have seen them before....but my memory is not very good at the moment.  so you went to a rodeo eh?  sounds fun, i only remember going to one rodeo in my whole life.  an Elder who i live with, Elder Pulham from Payson utah, (he's been out for 2 1/2 transfers) got like 3rd in the nation for team roping or something like that.  he's got a way thick accent and is extremely good at roping stuff....like me....anywho, he's way cool we get along great.  Taylor.....you look like someone from California who is very....we'll say liberal....hahaha.  sounds like brandon had fun with sean, kyle, and dennis.....hahaha mom that is just what boys do haha.  is the purple pimp still alive and kicking?  so yeah we are back up to normal, getting at least 20 lessons a week, haha and i'm not sure i'll ever be able to get up to 41 lessons again, i'll probably just leave that as a mission high.  Elder Durrant is a hard worker, we walk a whole bunch so my feet are hurting a bit this week, but they are getting used to it.  the weather is always really nice here, it's awesome.  yeah i only have like a bit more than a month to be a teenager...kinda weird....3rd decade...yes...i feel a bit old....kinda....and i'm totally going to look for that mars thing...i still haven't seen it but i'll look.  the sun was a really cool blood red the other day..i tried to get a pic but it didn't come out all that great.  oh and that pic of the speedometer at 120...isnt' real, we changed the car to Kilometers....haha...sorry forgot to explain that in the letter i think.  haha, and mom you don't need to more brief, i love details, they help me know what you guys are doing, the more the better!      .....anywho....so we have 3 investigators with a date right now.  we had to drop a crazy lady taht had a date cause she was just going around to all the different churches looking for money cause she didn't have any and supposedly if you are a christian church it is mandatory that you give money away freely....i dunno, she was crazy, she talked to her dolls and stuff....kinda sad too though cause she was really smart and really understood what we were teaching her....oh well, maybe later.  not really any out of the ordinary experiances this week, had a few people yell at us and stuff, i have to give a talk in church next week about how to increase your testimony...should be fairly easy.  sooo Elder Durrant and Pulham and I are going on a diet(that Elder eaton taught me)/excersice program haha its awesome!  cause Elder Durrant needs to lose some weight and Elder Pulham and I have some pudge that needs to be erased...sooo we are running every morning and doing some really cool expercise routines that Elder Hawes taught me.  

so yeah our cool family marilu and Jose are doing cool minus they didn't come to church yesterday and they told us they would...they had better have a good excuse cause we're upset with them a bit.  they are still way cool though and hopefully they continue to progress.  sooo cool scripture that i found this week.  1 Cor 15:39-the end i think....:/(the last like 6 or 7 verses of the chapter)

it talkes about how grateful we must be for how christ conqured death for us and how because of that we, all of us, will recieve inmortality.  some really cool scriptures that were hiding from me.  cause i always use that chapter for explaining 3 kingdoms of glory, but i've never actually read it....soo yeah, we really need to read them thoroughly.  we are working on gratitude this transfer and its opened my eyes to what "unworthy servants" we really are according to King Benjamin, a scripture that we are trying to memorize is Alma 7:23, it talks about being grateful for everything.  cause even though the nation isn't in the best place economically and the jobs are getting fewer and fewer and it looks all depressing....we are still here as a family, we have the church, friends, food, a house, vehicles, good schools, and many other things.  there are two kinds of peace in this world.  a peace between nations, like no wars and stuff, and an internal peace that only comes by living all the commandments of god to the best of our ability.  and if we have that internal peace, it doesn't matter what is happening in the world around us, we will be alright, christ makes up for where we fail.  comp time is up, i have to go shop (healthily) haha.  remember that i love you all alot, stay strong, haz lo justo and remember to be grateful for everything.  love you all!

hasta la proxima semana

Elder Larsen

Week 3 esta empezando o empesando no me acuerdo

Hey family!  como estan todos?

first of all i'm feeling alot better, the cough i think made it's dying kick yesterday cause it was real bad yesterday, but today i feel great, no cough.  and i plan on keeping my old obediance habits, Elder Durrant isn't really disobediant or lazy he's just really relaxed on the little itty bitty rules, like i have to back him up whenever he puts the car in reverse and stuff like that.  but i'm doing my best to be obedient, while at the same time trying not to be a rule nazi, cause it's not fun to live with a rule nazi.  thanks for the quote mom, it's way cool, i'm going to put it in my Preach my Gosple...i have alot of cool quotes.  so yeah, i'm pretty sure that Elder Durrant and I are the youngest spanish companionship in the mission.  he is only 1 transfer older than me so yeah he is very young.  he isn't a trainer yet because i'm not a trainee anymore haha, he is just a senior comp.  but i think he'll go trainer soon.  he has the organization that i lack, so i gotta brush up on my organization skills and my leadership skills so i can be prepared if President decides to entrust me with someone younger than me.  i'm so excited for Brian!  thats awesome, we're all going to be able to speak spanish!  i actually haven't heard from lorrin at all, i got an email today from him, i'm going to write him today, some words of encouragement. please remember him in your prayers, being in the MTC all alone without any family or friends from the outside is really hard on missionaries, you have no idea how much a letter can help. for this i'm writing him so he can laugh a bit.  
tell me about the fair thingy with the lamb.  how much did the lamp end up costing?  food, shelter and all?  gotta make a profit.  but a good activity, builds responsibility.  Taylor i hope that you have a great birthday, i sent your card off a few days ago.  no more ditching Youth Conference.  Dad hang in there, sometimes what happens to us just doesn't make any sense whatsoever, we just have to keep pressing forward.  in spanish you say we have to "seguir/marchar adelante teniendo un fulgor perfecto en cristo..."  2 Nefi 31:20 look it up in spanish, it's powerful, at least for me it is more powerful than english.  i miss Elder Triana alot, i always seem to take things for granted...gotta stop doing that...i'll write him today and see how he is doing. you guys could write him too, he doesn't ever get mail from home, it'd be a nice surprise for him, why don't you guys write him this week instead of me (minus mom, can't live without mom's letters and pics :]]]] ).  The family reunion looked fun, thats weird that it was at mack park and not at the usual park out in neuton(it's in neuton right?).  Did Grandma get my card?  i felt so horrible that i had not gotten it out in time...... :/  i'll send the homework that mom gave me and Kenidee's "personal typewritten letter" and probably my camera card home today.  yeah having to go to a laundromat really isn't convienient for us, we already have so much stuff to do it just makes P-day more hectic.  yeah i know that the missionaries in Mexico and the latin countries have maids.....it's not fair....but neither is life....but hey i am gurranteed to get my mail and packages (and it doesn't take 2 weeks to arrive) and missionaries in latin america aren't! haha

Birthday eh?  yeah it's coming up...kinda weird to be honest, i'll send some ideas home with the homework.  thanks for the reminder about my toenails kenidee...ya know the number 1 thing in the MTC that missionaries have to have surgery is ingrown toenails....kinda nasty huh? chale.......
yeah mom, i understand what you mean when you said "no rest for the weary" we never stop here either, but the lord will sustain us if we ask.  and yeah i took alot of pics of Sister Quel's baptizm.  she and her husband got married first so it's after the marriage pics.  only her and her daughter are wearing white.  hey do you guys know any Noall's that live in Wellsville?  my zone leader is from Wellsville and he says that Margo looks really familiar, dunno, figured i'd ask.  

so this week we worked hard and got 23 lessons and found some new investigators that are really cool.  we have 2 families that are pretty solid, Marilu her husband and their 2 kids, and Baudelio and Aufelia (wierd names i know).  they didn't accept a baptism date, but they accepted what is called a softset or they said that if they recieve an answer then they will be baptised, they didn't accept the hardset or the specific date for baptism, but that's ok, we will still work with them, they are really smart.  alright, the time is long spent, 30 mins is up.  remember the gospel is here for our benifit and not to make us hate life.  i've decided that King Benjamin is probably one of my favorite guys in the book of mormon, he has some excellent counsil for all of us, when you all arrive at that point in your personal reading really pay attention to it.  it's kinda long, but it's soooo worth it.  remember i love you all demasiado.  i hope this next week goes well with the preparations for school.  love you all!!!!!

Elder "Chido" Larsen

I'm in Oxnard....and it's cooooold!

Hey Family!

Sooo I'm in Oxnard and kinda sick.  haha I've been having a little trouble adjusting to the weather here.  Coming from 110 degree weather to 70 in the day and 60 at night and in the mornings isn't doing so good for my lungs.  I was sick all last week and probably walked around for 2 days with a fever of 100 without knowing it.  haha at the end of the 2nd day I realized that the dizzy spells and the headache might have been from a fever.  Soooo I checked it and sure enough ..... imagine that.  Anywho, so I thought I had pnemonia for a while but I think it was just a really bad chest cold, I'm still coughing stuff up, but it's getting better every day.  By the end of this week I'll be all better I think.  

I live on Yucca Street and the street name is a good description of the apt haha.  It's not the coolest place, missionaries have been living in there for like 6 years, so it's pretty trashed/ghetto.   It's a clean place, just really old and ugly.  And the water heater comes up to my chest, so only one person can take a shower at a time and the water only gets just barely hot for a few mins.  It's kind of ridiculous, but yeah, I guess the Elders have been trying to move apts for a long time.  This area is very different from the one I came from, much much harder.  There are a ton of Mexicans, and since it's not hot here ... ever ... everyone walks around, so it's not hard to talk to people.  Kids here are alot more rude than they are in Bakersfield, they like to tell us that we are gay or make fun of us cause we look the same.  But whatever, it's ok.  My companion is cool, extremely different from Elder Triana, and not so hard core on obedience, he kinda just does what he wants sometimes, so we'll see what happens.  He's just so young and not all that organized about how he does missionary work, and I'm only one transfer younger than him so I can really say anything.  But we'll do our best and work with what we have got.  We have a few really cool investigators, I can't remember all their names, but they are cool.  Two with a date right now, a guy named Octavio, he's really cool and basically teaches himself, he reads a chapter and then outlines it and then writes a summary of it so that he can learn everything in it .... it's really intense and really crazy.  And then a granddaughter of a member we are teaching has a date too, she is pretty young but seems to be set on getting baptized.  The ward seems cool, lots of nice members, we meet in a stake center sized building, but it's not a stake center, pretty cool.  And they have the nicest copier machine I think I've ever seen in a church building .... seriously it's super nice, cause usually every copier that I've ever seen or used that the church has owned has been really temperamental and I usually ended up wanting to kick the darn thing by the time I was done with it.  Anywho, most of the people in the ward speak English as well as Spanish, which makes it a little weird sometimes, but oh well.  Elder Durrant has really good Spanish, but I've got him beat by a little bit.  He thinks that I'm going senior after this transfer .... I hope not .... but we'll see.  Ohhh so in your letter mom you said that Brian Falor was going on a mission, where is he going to?  No one has told me.  Camping looks like wayyyy too much fun for you guys.  I haven't been to the wind caves in forever, since I was a little kid .... that's crazy ... Derek's water party looked fun and I laughed when I saw that Kenidee is now taller than Aslynn.  The Lawn Mower Parade looks like a ton of fun.  Wasn't it us that helped to start that or someone on our street?  I forget ..... Warren is a nut, Kimi is too, I'm surprized she isn't married already.  Kenidee looks great in her "pink" uniform haha that's great that she is still out there playin, I'm sure she is indispensible for her team.  Tell Chris and Jamie Congrats on their baby.  He looks real healthy and all so that's good.  Sooooo saying goodbye to everyone was really really hard on monday night last week.  Especially the Quels,  they started crying and I was pushin the tears back, they are set on comin to visit us next Christmas or something like that.  Thanks for the camera card, I'm gonna send my full one home today probably.  So the Church is true wherever you go, it's true here just as well as in Bakersfield, I just have to adjust to everything which is kinda hard, but I'm working on it.  So the Seeley family in your ward sent me a package, I'm gonna write them today and say thanks, but you guys could tell them thanks from me too.  they sent me some candy a Mo-Tab CD and a cool talk by Elder Holland.  I hope that you all have a great week getting ready for school.  BHL it's gonna feel weird when everyone goes to school, and you don't.  Thanks for all your love and support.  One of my zone leaders is from Wellsville, he's pretty cool and looks and acts just like Ryan, pretty funny guy.  His name is Elder Noall.  Anywho, I gotta get going, we have to go to a laundromat to do laundry cause we don't have a washer and dryer in the apartment.

Love you all, hope to hear from you soon!