MY DEAREST FAMILIA
how are you all doing this wonderful fall season (although you can't tell it's fall here ... same weather allllllll year round ... which is good ..... but kinda boring). Elder McCleskey is awesome, haha we could be related, we're very similar looking and have very similar personallities. haha we don't go running, but we do workout in the mornings doing other things. he has some weird heart disease where his heart tissue is too thick or something like that sooo his chambers in his heart are smaller because of the thicker walls/tissue. he knew he had problems before the mission but i guess never really pushed his heart too hard .... then they were just running one morning in Fillmore and he dropped dead on the spot. luckily one of the Elders with whom he lived was an EMT before the mission, he was the the most capable elder to help him in the entire mission and he just happened to be serving in Fillmore at the same time as McCleskey .... interesting huh .... anywho so this Elder did CPR on him until the ambulance came. he was in the hospital in ventura for a week, then had some type of surgery then was out working the next day .... he has a cool pace maker that is also a difribulator. and if his heart rate hits 200 his difribulator shocks him to tell him to calm down ... he says it's happened a few times and that it hurts way bad. so he has a watch that he wears when he does anything cardio and it allows him to know when to calm the ol heart down. but he's awesome, he played Trombone in the band in highschool so now i can listen to "music without words" and not hear Elder Durrant complain about it haha. YAY for interviews, from your letter mom i can tell the blessing bucket is being dumped on you guys, i am glad for that. i hope that the New Dawn stuff goes well for dad .... patience is required ... we are not yet as Job ( hehe ). BHL sold the purple pimp eh? why? i don't understand how someone can be so adament about buying something, put a ton of $$ and work into it, and then want to get rid of it ... oh well, and yeah all the mexicans here lower their trucks .... not sure why ... i think it looks really dumb and defeats the purpose of a truck ... that's cool about your new job mom, at least it isn't an 8 to 5 job. it should still allow you to function normallly while being able to get a few bills paied. i will keep your Uncle Gordon in my prayers. and Jordan, you keep working for the jamboree thingy, work your hardest, and remember to pay your tithing, i can almost guratee that if you don't pay tithing you won't reach the amount of money needed. that is good, you remind me alot of brent when we were younger, he was always trying to sell stuff or find some odd way to make money, keep at it and one day you'll be well off ... which is a really rare thing here in Cali. i'd buy some donuts from ya but they'd probably be all nasty PLUS i need to relook up the word frugal cause i don't think i know what it means. naw i think i've figured out how to make the $$ last more longer. i leave my debit card from home at home in my apt. and i have figured out all my expenses for the month of SEP, which are .... $15 per week for food, $12 for laundry usage, and $10 for a books of stamps (still haven't used them cool light house ones up yet) and sooo all added up it's around $100-ish so i'm going to take it all out of my mision acount as cash the 1st of the month and buy stamps, get quarters for the laundry (ridiculously expensive) and then my food money is going to get put in 4 groups, one for each monday. then i don't have to use any of my cards for anything other than toiletry needs or other small things .... we'll see how it works, i know i've been spending too much of the home $$ .... i have no will power and Elder Durrant has negative will power so he didn't help me save money ... but from now on out it will be saved more efficiently. HA talked to Elder Durrant this morning, he got a speeding ticket, funny funny. anywho, so i'm excited for Halloween, we don't get to do anything and i get to dress up as a servant of the Lord so i'm stoked, we'll have a District Meeting on Halloween night to get all the missionaries off the streets ... i guess it's a bit more dangerous for us on halloween night ... lets just say their are some weirdies here in CALLI. Elder McCleskey was called as an English missionary, spent 3 months as an english elder then was switched to spanish (he remained in the same area) for 3 more months, then he came here to be with me. so i'm "Mom-ing" him, in mission lingo, or Followup training him spanish. he doens't really know much spanish, but he is learning very quickly and has a zeal for missionary work that is amazing. i'm trying to be a good senior comp, but it's hard ... i have to do everything almost cause he doesn't know anything about the area. and if something doesn't go right .... it's automatically my fault. i've been humbled greatly this week, probably the hardest week in my mission so far, so many things to do people to try and see and it's very overwhelming, but i think that i am beginning to see the light ..... it's a long way away ..... but i'm learning little by little how to guide this companionship. i hope to help the work progress here in oxnard ... it's a bit hard at the moment but i keep trying. Elder Eaton (who is home and at BYU) shared with me a quote from the prophet joseph smith that helped me alot.
"If I put forth my full effort and give all of my time and effort to preaching, then it won't matter the outcome. It will be as if all men had accepted the gospel."
yeah we don't live in the hazardous waste building ... but ours should have a sign like that on it ... pretty getto. yes i do enjoy playing soccer, we play every other week usually, which is awesome cause we used to just play pure basketball .... every monday .... for hours ..... and we all know how much i enjoy that eroneous game. then Elder Cortez came and he is a huge soccer player sooooo now we get to play soccer sometimes. my knees are hanging in there still nothing more has developed with them, they still hate me. yeah swine flu is pretty crazy here, lots of mexicans have it or have a regular flu ... i don't know why but whenever it gets cold they all get sick ... but i feel fine as of now. and i'll use a padded envelope from now on to send my pics home. Taylor got a Concussion??? nice ...... aren't those helmets supposed to stop that from happening??? thanks for Matt's and Casey's letters ... i'm goin to write matt today ... is there anyway to write casey? email? mission address? how does the whole pouch mail thing work? this week we taught only 17 lessons, not too good, but i'm praying that we are able to get 20 this week cause i'd really like to not feel like a faliure senior comp. i want you all to know that i've seen alot of happy people, and alot of sad people on my mission, most of the sad ones were not members of the church or were less active members. something that i've learned is that the lord helps us when we are obedient, even though we may feel unworthy of his help. i figured out that I must learn to rely on the lord more if i want to do anything here in the misson field. i finished jacob a few days ago and have decided that Jacob was the Holland of his time. such a spiritualy strong individual and so humble. i dunno, i like the book of Jacob, especially chpt 2 it's awesome. my time has run short, i wish you all the very best week and all the blessings our father in heaven has for you. the church is true, no doubt about it. continue to be awesome, thanks for you continued love and support, i really need it. i love you all and am looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Con Carino
Elder Larsen
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
week 1 ..........wow
wow family, this transfer has just flown by, i don't know where it went. mom thanks for your informative letter i enjoyed reading it alot. Derek thanks for your letter too, it was good to read, i'm glad you are still doing great. remember to enjoy life, cause one day you'll be as old as me and wonder where life went, haha ... but seriously. soooooooooooooo TRANSFERS ...... i am staying here in Oxnard, Elder Durrant is not. Elder Durrant is whitewash training in Santa Paula. Whitewash is when they take both missionaries out of an area and put two brand new ones in the area. sooo that is hard by itself, and then you add training a greeny to it ..... needless to say Elder Durrant is going to have a fun time with his trainee in Santa Paula. I am getting a Junior Companion by the name of Elder McCleskey. i don't know if you remember, i don't remember if i told you, but in his first transfer here in the mish he had a heart attack while running in the morning and almost died ... it was about 6 months ago ish. anywho, so he just barely got switched to spanish from english 12 weeks ago. and he got switched in a city called Filmore ... which is a "zebra work" area. which means the Elders are Spanish elders but they do both spanish and english work .... soooo he supposedly hasn't really learned much spanish yet ..... which means my spanish is about to improve cause i won't be able to rely on my senior comp .... Elder Durrants spanish is going to improve even more than mine cause his comp probalby won't know any spanish and neither of them will have any experiance in the area. i'm real nervous about going senior, it's alot of responsibility and extra stress ... but i got the lord to help me so i'm pretty sure i'll be fine as long as i try my hardest. Elder Pulham and Beck are staying the same.
you're welcome for the pics .... i don't know why the thing was smashed cause i've sent it home before like that .... plussss the USPS people sent the envelope back the first time i tryied to send it cause it was too thick to be handled by machine so i had to put an extra stamp for "hand handling"..... but apparenly it went through the machines anyway .... orrrr someone has really big strong hands ...... so i'm just shy of a year ... it's really weird .... like super weird ..... i got your new numbers .... that's a bummer about losing my message ... cause it was awesome .... hahah if you guys really want you can send me whatever number and password and i'll do your answering machine, i'll do it in english first and then in spanish if you want haha ... let me know. i'll update the mission records tomorrow at transfer meeting. so Jordan destroyed mom's phone eh??? hahah two hands ... hmmmmmmm i think the last time they had Two hand phones was when they had those ones you had to Wind up like in England and stuff ... haha well i'm glad you got the whole phone thing figured out. i'll do my best to take a few good pics with Elder Durrant outside .... although the outside is just as ghetto as the inside .... hahaha and that hazourdous sign is all over in bakersfield ... and no it's on the Zone Leaders apartment complex ... i about died laughing when i read it ..... who would want to live there ...... NOT ME! sorry about the small pics ..... for a few of the pics i lowerd the ISO so i could take a pic in low light and because i don't have to hold the camera still with those .... also the ones of Elder Durrant sleeping i couldn't use flash or he'd wake up too soon .... but i won't do that anymore ... haha and no i wasn't in the basketball pics cause i didn't play! my hands aren't the most coordinated things. but Elder Cortez from SA loves soccer so now we play soccer every other week and i do play for those ... its fun although i can barely walk afterwards haha. that's cool about the paper route jordan ... i think i did that as a sub for brent a few times and for someone else ... keep saving money for your goals. Yeah the swine flu is crazy, everyone in Elder Pulhams family is sick with it .... weird ... and the MTC still has it. no one has it here though, just the regular flu cause it got cold and rainy on Tuesday and Wed .... then ok on Thursday and then Friday and Saturday were super hot and humid and nasty .... i almost died. but i'm taking care of my health. i feel fine and don't really get sick too often anyway. i have been feeling great, i love cold weather .... my knee is still bothering me but i thnk it's cause of the increased humidity. ohhhh and i almost forgot! I WAS IN AN EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!! Friday night we had a small 5 sec earthquake. we were planning for the next day and i said... "maybe we should knock doors at 4" then the whole room started shaking haha so we decided that God didn't want us to go tracting at 4 haha. supposedly there is supposed to be a bigger one coming one of these days. most missionaries have like 2 or 3 earthquakes during their mission. it was a cool experience haha. we've decided that California is going to fall off into the sea anyway cause it such a sin filled place.
sooo this week was an awesome week, we found 5 new investigators and got out of the slump we were in. stuff is slowly starting to pick back up and hopefully me being senior comp doesn't make it go back down. i just plan on working hard and trying to get to know the area. sooooooo Elder Durrant gave me a really good idea that i want to run by you guys. Since BHL is leaving before i get back we won't see each other for 4 years. when that happens it's common (depends on mission president) for the Elder who is in the field to be able to call his brother on his birthday or while he's in the MTC to talk with him. Elder durrant said that he had a friend that was in the same position as BHL and I and what they did was, i'm just going to use our names cause i don't want to write Brother a million times. BHL would come out here with me for a week and we would have a Tri-companionship so that BHL could see what it's like to be a missionary and prepare better. he would do everything that i do just not be officially set apart as an Elder. follow schedule follow the same rules i do, wear white shirt and tie, teach, i'd teach him some spanish, i'd even let him use one of my name tags haha. and one of his other friends worked it out so that him and his brother actually got called to the same mission and they were companions at one point but i dunno cause that seems like you're picking the mission and not the Lord..... anywho, these are just some ideas that i heard, i have no idea if they are possible or how Pres Murri feels about them. i think i'm gonna try and call BHL on his birthday regardless cause it's gonna be a while. but i dunno, it will also depend on where i am in the mission area-wise and if it is feasable with BHL and you guys. it would also depend on when BHl would be going into the MTC. i dunno, tell me what you think about it. and depending on what you tell me i'll talk to Pres Murri .... or if you'd prefer it, mom you can talk to pres murri ... email better i'd think, he's a busy man.
ok gotta go, i'll take pics with Elder Durrant and with my new comp. i'll mail the new pics with new comp so you don't have to wait forever to see him. he kinda looks like me ... we'll see what happens. thanks for all your love and support. we got to give talks yesterday all the missioanries in sacrament and it was very cool, i talked on faith and having confidence in our leaders, i was kinda blunt, but it was cool, helped me build my testimony a little more ... use faith until you have a testimony, then you don't need it for that thing ... then use faith for another thing that you want a testimony of, and get that ... and little by little you gain a stronger and stronger testimony of the gospel. i know it's true! have a spectacular week everyone!
Love, Elder Larsen
you're welcome for the pics .... i don't know why the thing was smashed cause i've sent it home before like that .... plussss the USPS people sent the envelope back the first time i tryied to send it cause it was too thick to be handled by machine so i had to put an extra stamp for "hand handling"..... but apparenly it went through the machines anyway .... orrrr someone has really big strong hands ...... so i'm just shy of a year ... it's really weird .... like super weird ..... i got your new numbers .... that's a bummer about losing my message ... cause it was awesome .... hahah if you guys really want you can send me whatever number and password and i'll do your answering machine, i'll do it in english first and then in spanish if you want haha ... let me know. i'll update the mission records tomorrow at transfer meeting. so Jordan destroyed mom's phone eh??? hahah two hands ... hmmmmmmm i think the last time they had Two hand phones was when they had those ones you had to Wind up like in England and stuff ... haha well i'm glad you got the whole phone thing figured out. i'll do my best to take a few good pics with Elder Durrant outside .... although the outside is just as ghetto as the inside .... hahaha and that hazourdous sign is all over in bakersfield ... and no it's on the Zone Leaders apartment complex ... i about died laughing when i read it ..... who would want to live there ...... NOT ME! sorry about the small pics ..... for a few of the pics i lowerd the ISO so i could take a pic in low light and because i don't have to hold the camera still with those .... also the ones of Elder Durrant sleeping i couldn't use flash or he'd wake up too soon .... but i won't do that anymore ... haha and no i wasn't in the basketball pics cause i didn't play! my hands aren't the most coordinated things. but Elder Cortez from SA loves soccer so now we play soccer every other week and i do play for those ... its fun although i can barely walk afterwards haha. that's cool about the paper route jordan ... i think i did that as a sub for brent a few times and for someone else ... keep saving money for your goals. Yeah the swine flu is crazy, everyone in Elder Pulhams family is sick with it .... weird ... and the MTC still has it. no one has it here though, just the regular flu cause it got cold and rainy on Tuesday and Wed .... then ok on Thursday and then Friday and Saturday were super hot and humid and nasty .... i almost died. but i'm taking care of my health. i feel fine and don't really get sick too often anyway. i have been feeling great, i love cold weather .... my knee is still bothering me but i thnk it's cause of the increased humidity. ohhhh and i almost forgot! I WAS IN AN EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!! Friday night we had a small 5 sec earthquake. we were planning for the next day and i said... "maybe we should knock doors at 4" then the whole room started shaking haha so we decided that God didn't want us to go tracting at 4 haha. supposedly there is supposed to be a bigger one coming one of these days. most missionaries have like 2 or 3 earthquakes during their mission. it was a cool experience haha. we've decided that California is going to fall off into the sea anyway cause it such a sin filled place.
sooo this week was an awesome week, we found 5 new investigators and got out of the slump we were in. stuff is slowly starting to pick back up and hopefully me being senior comp doesn't make it go back down. i just plan on working hard and trying to get to know the area. sooooooo Elder Durrant gave me a really good idea that i want to run by you guys. Since BHL is leaving before i get back we won't see each other for 4 years. when that happens it's common (depends on mission president) for the Elder who is in the field to be able to call his brother on his birthday or while he's in the MTC to talk with him. Elder durrant said that he had a friend that was in the same position as BHL and I and what they did was, i'm just going to use our names cause i don't want to write Brother a million times. BHL would come out here with me for a week and we would have a Tri-companionship so that BHL could see what it's like to be a missionary and prepare better. he would do everything that i do just not be officially set apart as an Elder. follow schedule follow the same rules i do, wear white shirt and tie, teach, i'd teach him some spanish, i'd even let him use one of my name tags haha. and one of his other friends worked it out so that him and his brother actually got called to the same mission and they were companions at one point but i dunno cause that seems like you're picking the mission and not the Lord..... anywho, these are just some ideas that i heard, i have no idea if they are possible or how Pres Murri feels about them. i think i'm gonna try and call BHL on his birthday regardless cause it's gonna be a while. but i dunno, it will also depend on where i am in the mission area-wise and if it is feasable with BHL and you guys. it would also depend on when BHl would be going into the MTC. i dunno, tell me what you think about it. and depending on what you tell me i'll talk to Pres Murri .... or if you'd prefer it, mom you can talk to pres murri ... email better i'd think, he's a busy man.
ok gotta go, i'll take pics with Elder Durrant and with my new comp. i'll mail the new pics with new comp so you don't have to wait forever to see him. he kinda looks like me ... we'll see what happens. thanks for all your love and support. we got to give talks yesterday all the missioanries in sacrament and it was very cool, i talked on faith and having confidence in our leaders, i was kinda blunt, but it was cool, helped me build my testimony a little more ... use faith until you have a testimony, then you don't need it for that thing ... then use faith for another thing that you want a testimony of, and get that ... and little by little you gain a stronger and stronger testimony of the gospel. i know it's true! have a spectacular week everyone!
Love, Elder Larsen
Monday, October 12, 2009
one more week
Que Onda familia?
hey guys, sorry that you haven't gotten my pics yet ... well i don't think you have, i sent them off and then i got it back the next day cause i had to put an extra stamp on it for "non machinable" something-ness cause i put my card in the envelope ... never had that happen before, but whatevs i put it back in the mail and i think you should get it today if you haven't already got it. ummm favor, Elder Hawes lost this camera and all his pics, so he was wondering if mom could get all the pics and vids that i took during the time i was with him and put them on a CD and send them to either me or him. he'd be really apprieciative. and i do remember that i did forget the camera for the Quel's wedding ... i'll look at the pics that i have with me and hopefully i have some, cause Elder Hawes was the one who took them all ... but we did print all of them out and we gave them a photo album of their baptizm and wedding so they for sure have copies of the pics ... sorry ... i'll look though and if i find any i'll send them home. so this week flew by as usual, we worked hard and met most of our goals, next monday we have transfers, we're pretty sure that Durrant is leaving, so we'll see who i get and if i get made senior ... kinda hoping not but we'll see what happens, it'd probably, as much as i hate to say it, be good for me, force me to strech myself n stuff. and no worries about the short letter this week, you made up for it with my wonderful B-day package. Elder Durrant got a B-day package of cookies from his Grandma, and is still waiting for the 2 from his parents ... they sent the packages fed-ex ... note ... never do that ... bad idea. i do remember the consistency talk, it was good, something i'm not very good at, i need to learn how to be more consistant. hahaha mother how could you have dozed during Hollands Talk haha he was practically yelling the whole time. his talk was very powerful, well given. he's every missionaries favorite apostol. jeezz the pic of Conner and Tyler, they're huge!!! bigger than grandma! it's getting cold here too, its supposed to rain tomorrow and wednesday! the leaves don't change here ... well ... all we have is palm tree leaves haha. i like rain and cold weather, my knees don't but i do! haha. knees are hangin in there, haven't worsened to bad yet. you have some pretty cool pics of taylor playing football. a few weeks left in the football season. mom you sound busy with all the yearbook stuff you have to do, it's alright cause you're good at multi-tasking. i honestly kinda miss yard work ... we hardly ever do any "work" as missionaries cause no one wants to let us help them cause we'll dirty our clothes. soooo i took pics and a short Vid, some members gave the other Elders in our ward some cooked ... rather just dried "crikets" to eat. kind of a delicacy/snack food i guess ..... sooo they called us up and told us and i had them bring a bag home .... soooo i ate a couple of the little suckers and they aren't that bad haha ... really really salty, kinda almost reminded me of veggimite, just crunchy. anywho, the weirdest thing i've eaten on my mission yet ... and i got a whole bag of them. Adam Kinnaman, i heard that he had lost a ton of weight, i'm glad he's home, he'll be able to help Kyle get ready for his mission, i'm going to write to kyle today if i get a chance ... i have like 7 letters to write today .... got alot of mail this week. YAY for cool stationary, i've already gotten alot of compliments about it haha. haha mom you made wheat bread? cool! thats all i buy now cause i realized how bad for you white bread really is .... haha i miss your home made bread, i just barely remember it, i remember the bread maker machine too. good memories. guessing the surgery went well with Kenidee, still looks pretty nasty. there's already snow in the mountains??? isn't that super early to have snow in the mountains???? nice costume kenidee ..... what are you? AH so for halloween we have to come in early cause they don't want us out at night .... but we have a district meeting and i think we may get to carve pumkins of something cool like that, i'll be sure to take pics. sooooo this past weekend we had 2 baptizms, Maria and Samantha, the two little girls that we almost baptized like a month ago, but then had to give them up to the english Elders .... they got baptized and confirmed memebers of the church this past weekend, it was sweet, i gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and we got to see them get confirmed. it was pretty sweet. we had a really good lesson with Ramona about gambling and making changes in our lives in order to put them more in harmony with the commandments of God. and she agreed to continue working toward baptizm! yay for her, she is doing pretty good. we found out that Carlos was lying to us and hasn't stopped smoking, butttt we had a really good lesson, and he is resolved to stop, and bought some nicotine gum to help and is still working toward baptizm. hopefully he continues in this path. other than that a pretty normal week, we are having a bit of problems finding new investigators, but are hoping to improve in that area this week. there is some kid from Logan coming into the mission this next transfer he is spanish i think, so hopefully i get to meet him. in the next 3 transfers we are getting like 20 new spanish missionaries!!! It will be good to replenish the spanish missionaries, cause alot have been going home and not alot coming in, a few areas have had to be closed because of it. Lorrin wrote me and is doing great in WI, his spanish is no longer "MTC spanish". talked to some guy from the phillipiens and he thought we spoke tagolag haha he told us that there are a ton of Elders in the phillipiens, i thought of eric and was wishing i could speak tagolag but oh well. not much time left, we're going to play soccer again this week i'm excited. i want you all to know that i know the church is true, it was restored, and it is the only church on the earth that can provide the saving ordinances of baptism and confirmation. until next week family!!!! we'll see what happens .... i'm kinda nervous ...... ahhhhhhh
Con Carino,
Elder Larsen
PS: thanks for the letters from Mat and Casey ... it's good to know that they are doing good ..... everytime i read a letter from Casey i'm more grateful i get to serve in the states ..... BHL get ready for your mission in Albania!
hey guys, sorry that you haven't gotten my pics yet ... well i don't think you have, i sent them off and then i got it back the next day cause i had to put an extra stamp on it for "non machinable" something-ness cause i put my card in the envelope ... never had that happen before, but whatevs i put it back in the mail and i think you should get it today if you haven't already got it. ummm favor, Elder Hawes lost this camera and all his pics, so he was wondering if mom could get all the pics and vids that i took during the time i was with him and put them on a CD and send them to either me or him. he'd be really apprieciative. and i do remember that i did forget the camera for the Quel's wedding ... i'll look at the pics that i have with me and hopefully i have some, cause Elder Hawes was the one who took them all ... but we did print all of them out and we gave them a photo album of their baptizm and wedding so they for sure have copies of the pics ... sorry ... i'll look though and if i find any i'll send them home. so this week flew by as usual, we worked hard and met most of our goals, next monday we have transfers, we're pretty sure that Durrant is leaving, so we'll see who i get and if i get made senior ... kinda hoping not but we'll see what happens, it'd probably, as much as i hate to say it, be good for me, force me to strech myself n stuff. and no worries about the short letter this week, you made up for it with my wonderful B-day package. Elder Durrant got a B-day package of cookies from his Grandma, and is still waiting for the 2 from his parents ... they sent the packages fed-ex ... note ... never do that ... bad idea. i do remember the consistency talk, it was good, something i'm not very good at, i need to learn how to be more consistant. hahaha mother how could you have dozed during Hollands Talk haha he was practically yelling the whole time. his talk was very powerful, well given. he's every missionaries favorite apostol. jeezz the pic of Conner and Tyler, they're huge!!! bigger than grandma! it's getting cold here too, its supposed to rain tomorrow and wednesday! the leaves don't change here ... well ... all we have is palm tree leaves haha. i like rain and cold weather, my knees don't but i do! haha. knees are hangin in there, haven't worsened to bad yet. you have some pretty cool pics of taylor playing football. a few weeks left in the football season. mom you sound busy with all the yearbook stuff you have to do, it's alright cause you're good at multi-tasking. i honestly kinda miss yard work ... we hardly ever do any "work" as missionaries cause no one wants to let us help them cause we'll dirty our clothes. soooo i took pics and a short Vid, some members gave the other Elders in our ward some cooked ... rather just dried "crikets" to eat. kind of a delicacy/snack food i guess ..... sooo they called us up and told us and i had them bring a bag home .... soooo i ate a couple of the little suckers and they aren't that bad haha ... really really salty, kinda almost reminded me of veggimite, just crunchy. anywho, the weirdest thing i've eaten on my mission yet ... and i got a whole bag of them. Adam Kinnaman, i heard that he had lost a ton of weight, i'm glad he's home, he'll be able to help Kyle get ready for his mission, i'm going to write to kyle today if i get a chance ... i have like 7 letters to write today .... got alot of mail this week. YAY for cool stationary, i've already gotten alot of compliments about it haha. haha mom you made wheat bread? cool! thats all i buy now cause i realized how bad for you white bread really is .... haha i miss your home made bread, i just barely remember it, i remember the bread maker machine too. good memories. guessing the surgery went well with Kenidee, still looks pretty nasty. there's already snow in the mountains??? isn't that super early to have snow in the mountains???? nice costume kenidee ..... what are you? AH so for halloween we have to come in early cause they don't want us out at night .... but we have a district meeting and i think we may get to carve pumkins of something cool like that, i'll be sure to take pics. sooooo this past weekend we had 2 baptizms, Maria and Samantha, the two little girls that we almost baptized like a month ago, but then had to give them up to the english Elders .... they got baptized and confirmed memebers of the church this past weekend, it was sweet, i gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and we got to see them get confirmed. it was pretty sweet. we had a really good lesson with Ramona about gambling and making changes in our lives in order to put them more in harmony with the commandments of God. and she agreed to continue working toward baptizm! yay for her, she is doing pretty good. we found out that Carlos was lying to us and hasn't stopped smoking, butttt we had a really good lesson, and he is resolved to stop, and bought some nicotine gum to help and is still working toward baptizm. hopefully he continues in this path. other than that a pretty normal week, we are having a bit of problems finding new investigators, but are hoping to improve in that area this week. there is some kid from Logan coming into the mission this next transfer he is spanish i think, so hopefully i get to meet him. in the next 3 transfers we are getting like 20 new spanish missionaries!!! It will be good to replenish the spanish missionaries, cause alot have been going home and not alot coming in, a few areas have had to be closed because of it. Lorrin wrote me and is doing great in WI, his spanish is no longer "MTC spanish". talked to some guy from the phillipiens and he thought we spoke tagolag haha he told us that there are a ton of Elders in the phillipiens, i thought of eric and was wishing i could speak tagolag but oh well. not much time left, we're going to play soccer again this week i'm excited. i want you all to know that i know the church is true, it was restored, and it is the only church on the earth that can provide the saving ordinances of baptism and confirmation. until next week family!!!! we'll see what happens .... i'm kinda nervous ...... ahhhhhhh
Con Carino,
Elder Larsen
PS: thanks for the letters from Mat and Casey ... it's good to know that they are doing good ..... everytime i read a letter from Casey i'm more grateful i get to serve in the states ..... BHL get ready for your mission in Albania!
Monday, October 5, 2009
what a birthday!
hey fam,
wow, so you guys are the best party throwers ever. haha thank you for all your wonderful gifts, i'm going to write you all a small note thanking you for your love and kindness today (so i can write other stuff here) and send my camera card with them cause i realized today that you guys haven't had pics since august 11 so for like 2 months ... sorry. oh and you'll see in the pics, the Decorating idea and streamers were way cool, but on sunday morning we didn't have much time cause we had to get to conference so i quickly stuck up two streamers and then just decorated myself ... you'll see. thank you for all your cards, my favorite part of my birthday morning was reading all them ... you all should go into the card making business ... you'd make alot of $$. a few families in my ward here heard about my birthday and so we all ate lunch and cake between conference, and then later last night we had cake and ice cream at a members house, her name is rosa and she is really kind to us, we go over there every sunday and she feeds us. and then a week ago for Elder Durrant's b-day another member had a small party for him and I and we got to eat cake and celebrate our birthdays together (that will be the pic of me biting the cake, it's a tradition that usually ends up with the persons head getting smashed into the cake ... but not me!) so all in all my birthday was awesome, i recieved more than i could have asked for. PLUS i got to listen to conference ... i'm not quite sure why conference never affected me before my mission ... it's like a missionaries dream to listen to conference, seriously, it's like a little kid with candy. this past conference was filled with some great counsil about how we should treat our brothers and sisters here in the earth, i hope you all paied attention, don't be like i was and just try to find a way where mom couldn't see me sleep. the privilige that we have to listen to a modern day prophet and 12 apostols of the lord is not enjoyed by many. think about it, 14-ish million members of the church right? a million is one thousand, thousands, and we have 14-ish of those, a bit hard to comprehend for me, that is quite a big number, lots of people. now, in the world we figured around 6 or 7 billion people, a Billion is, one thousand, millions. try and pass that one through your thinker. sooooo in reality and with comparison to the world, almost no one enjoys the blessings we do by having a guide from God, a modern day moses. soooooo what does that mean, it means that i got alot of work to do, their are only 50 something thousand missionaries world wide, sooo what is the answer, MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK. we use that alot for our referal lesson to get members to get excieted about missionary work and to give us referalls. but the conference was amazing, i took some good notes, i think, and plan to study the conference talks when they come out next month. by listening to conference my testimony of the church was strengthened, how can one not believe what Elder Holland said about the Book of Mormon, or Elder Anderson when he talked of true repentance, or of our prophet when he taught us how to love in place of getting angry. haha or Elder Bednar's BIG "Smack in the Face" about hypocracy ... all i can say is that i personally have alot to work on and to improve and to fix. for me i have learned that we must progress in life, no matter what. it's like a big 6 lane highway, lots of different lanes lots of different types of cars going at different speeds ... but they are all progressing in the same direction. ok forrrrrrr responces to mom's letter. 1st i'm glad that i'm in the USA cause i like hot water and mail. 2nd i'm no longer a teenager even though when i recieved the letter i still was haha. Ramona is doing ok, we are waiting to hear back from president about a question we had concerning her, she recieves a social security check and it doesn't always make ends meet, so when she needs a little extra money ... she goes to the casino, now the church is opposed to that but it isn't a commandment so techinically she we don't think it should hold her back from getting baptized but we aren't sure. she isn't addicted to it but at the same time it's like Word of Wisdom, i could drink a beer and not get addicted, sooooo we called pres and he has to ask his supeririors ... we'll see what happens. my left knee is still being real dumb and bothersome, i think it's cause it's getting alot colder here maybe, but i'll keep wearing the magnets and wraps. Elder Durrant's fam sent him packages by Fed-Ex and he never told them our actual address, cause his family wouldn't be able to follow him around the mission, they would just keep sending stuff to that address ... by the way he explained it they just don't seem quite on the ball with things. anywho, so they sent it to the mission office and the mission office can't forward stuff unless it comes through the postal service ... so long story short, he is still waiting for birhtday packages. i got Gma's gum drop cookies and promptly put them in the freezer cause i want to make them last a long time, i still have Gma Larsen's cookies in there still. the corn maze idea sounds fun, take pics of the ward garden hahah such a Utah thing ... lagoon sounded fun, i love lagoon, and hate the scary ride there, hahaha bad experiances. and i'm sure BHL was in a sense grateful for the swine flu in that instance, is the girl ok? how was the womans conference? i think i remember the first fall festival of Thomas Edion school, or at least it was the first i remember cause got all painted up and made balloons for everyone. texas is officially 2 eh? how did you celebrate his B-day? Last pinewood derby huh? wow ... that is weird. how did the Block do? it sure looked cool! HA mom you are gonna pass me up in my reading, i just finished Isaiah ... some good stuff in there but it's like the MTC all over again, ya just want to ice your brain after you finish with a chapter ... sometimes a verse. sleeping in every once in a while is good for you (this excludes missionaries for some odd reason...;] ) just gotta make sure you do your scripture reading, like the heart surgen 70 guy said yesterday, he had stopped reading and praying intentfully and he lost his desire to attend church. the basic things are important. i've been having trouble sleeping this week, i wake up and can't fall back asleep ... first time in my life this has happened, sooooo hopefully it passes ... plus this week everyone has decided to start talking in their sleep ... seriously, Durrant talks in spanish sometimes, usually just mumbles grammatically correct sentances but with weird words, Pulham sings "Let Zion In Her Beauty Rise" loudly (they sang the song in conference, that is our mission song all the missionaries know it, its an amazing powerful song but almost no one has ever heard of it), and Beck just yells stuff and it ALL wakes me up. anywho, so we'll see where that goes. Carlos hasn't smoked for a WEEK! he is finally progressing, slow but steady, so at this rate he will be able to be baptized on the 24th of OCT!!! and Maria and Samantha, those two little girls who we taught EVERYTHING but then had to give them up to the english elders >:{ are going to get baptized this weekend! so although the work sometimes goes slow, we still have smalll miricles. time is up, the comp is gonna kick me off, i love you all alot and wish that everything is going welll with you. again thank you so much for you love and support, i really couldn't/wouldn't be here without you, you all possess some of the "ity" attributes that were talked about yesterday. thank you all for everything, the church is true and the Book Of Mormon is a true testiment of Christ, as so stated and declared by Elder Holland. I love you all!
Con Carino, (that is spelled with the squiggly thing above the n...i just can't figure out how to do it on this comp)
Elder Larsen
PS: thanks for the letters from my cousins and eric, it's good to know they are doing ok.
wow, so you guys are the best party throwers ever. haha thank you for all your wonderful gifts, i'm going to write you all a small note thanking you for your love and kindness today (so i can write other stuff here) and send my camera card with them cause i realized today that you guys haven't had pics since august 11 so for like 2 months ... sorry. oh and you'll see in the pics, the Decorating idea and streamers were way cool, but on sunday morning we didn't have much time cause we had to get to conference so i quickly stuck up two streamers and then just decorated myself ... you'll see. thank you for all your cards, my favorite part of my birthday morning was reading all them ... you all should go into the card making business ... you'd make alot of $$. a few families in my ward here heard about my birthday and so we all ate lunch and cake between conference, and then later last night we had cake and ice cream at a members house, her name is rosa and she is really kind to us, we go over there every sunday and she feeds us. and then a week ago for Elder Durrant's b-day another member had a small party for him and I and we got to eat cake and celebrate our birthdays together (that will be the pic of me biting the cake, it's a tradition that usually ends up with the persons head getting smashed into the cake ... but not me!) so all in all my birthday was awesome, i recieved more than i could have asked for. PLUS i got to listen to conference ... i'm not quite sure why conference never affected me before my mission ... it's like a missionaries dream to listen to conference, seriously, it's like a little kid with candy. this past conference was filled with some great counsil about how we should treat our brothers and sisters here in the earth, i hope you all paied attention, don't be like i was and just try to find a way where mom couldn't see me sleep. the privilige that we have to listen to a modern day prophet and 12 apostols of the lord is not enjoyed by many. think about it, 14-ish million members of the church right? a million is one thousand, thousands, and we have 14-ish of those, a bit hard to comprehend for me, that is quite a big number, lots of people. now, in the world we figured around 6 or 7 billion people, a Billion is, one thousand, millions. try and pass that one through your thinker. sooooo in reality and with comparison to the world, almost no one enjoys the blessings we do by having a guide from God, a modern day moses. soooooo what does that mean, it means that i got alot of work to do, their are only 50 something thousand missionaries world wide, sooo what is the answer, MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK. we use that alot for our referal lesson to get members to get excieted about missionary work and to give us referalls. but the conference was amazing, i took some good notes, i think, and plan to study the conference talks when they come out next month. by listening to conference my testimony of the church was strengthened, how can one not believe what Elder Holland said about the Book of Mormon, or Elder Anderson when he talked of true repentance, or of our prophet when he taught us how to love in place of getting angry. haha or Elder Bednar's BIG "Smack in the Face" about hypocracy ... all i can say is that i personally have alot to work on and to improve and to fix. for me i have learned that we must progress in life, no matter what. it's like a big 6 lane highway, lots of different lanes lots of different types of cars going at different speeds ... but they are all progressing in the same direction. ok forrrrrrr responces to mom's letter. 1st i'm glad that i'm in the USA cause i like hot water and mail. 2nd i'm no longer a teenager even though when i recieved the letter i still was haha. Ramona is doing ok, we are waiting to hear back from president about a question we had concerning her, she recieves a social security check and it doesn't always make ends meet, so when she needs a little extra money ... she goes to the casino, now the church is opposed to that but it isn't a commandment so techinically she we don't think it should hold her back from getting baptized but we aren't sure. she isn't addicted to it but at the same time it's like Word of Wisdom, i could drink a beer and not get addicted, sooooo we called pres and he has to ask his supeririors ... we'll see what happens. my left knee is still being real dumb and bothersome, i think it's cause it's getting alot colder here maybe, but i'll keep wearing the magnets and wraps. Elder Durrant's fam sent him packages by Fed-Ex and he never told them our actual address, cause his family wouldn't be able to follow him around the mission, they would just keep sending stuff to that address ... by the way he explained it they just don't seem quite on the ball with things. anywho, so they sent it to the mission office and the mission office can't forward stuff unless it comes through the postal service ... so long story short, he is still waiting for birhtday packages. i got Gma's gum drop cookies and promptly put them in the freezer cause i want to make them last a long time, i still have Gma Larsen's cookies in there still. the corn maze idea sounds fun, take pics of the ward garden hahah such a Utah thing ... lagoon sounded fun, i love lagoon, and hate the scary ride there, hahaha bad experiances. and i'm sure BHL was in a sense grateful for the swine flu in that instance, is the girl ok? how was the womans conference? i think i remember the first fall festival of Thomas Edion school, or at least it was the first i remember cause got all painted up and made balloons for everyone. texas is officially 2 eh? how did you celebrate his B-day? Last pinewood derby huh? wow ... that is weird. how did the Block do? it sure looked cool! HA mom you are gonna pass me up in my reading, i just finished Isaiah ... some good stuff in there but it's like the MTC all over again, ya just want to ice your brain after you finish with a chapter ... sometimes a verse. sleeping in every once in a while is good for you (this excludes missionaries for some odd reason...;] ) just gotta make sure you do your scripture reading, like the heart surgen 70 guy said yesterday, he had stopped reading and praying intentfully and he lost his desire to attend church. the basic things are important. i've been having trouble sleeping this week, i wake up and can't fall back asleep ... first time in my life this has happened, sooooo hopefully it passes ... plus this week everyone has decided to start talking in their sleep ... seriously, Durrant talks in spanish sometimes, usually just mumbles grammatically correct sentances but with weird words, Pulham sings "Let Zion In Her Beauty Rise" loudly (they sang the song in conference, that is our mission song all the missionaries know it, its an amazing powerful song but almost no one has ever heard of it), and Beck just yells stuff and it ALL wakes me up. anywho, so we'll see where that goes. Carlos hasn't smoked for a WEEK! he is finally progressing, slow but steady, so at this rate he will be able to be baptized on the 24th of OCT!!! and Maria and Samantha, those two little girls who we taught EVERYTHING but then had to give them up to the english elders >:{ are going to get baptized this weekend! so although the work sometimes goes slow, we still have smalll miricles. time is up, the comp is gonna kick me off, i love you all alot and wish that everything is going welll with you. again thank you so much for you love and support, i really couldn't/wouldn't be here without you, you all possess some of the "ity" attributes that were talked about yesterday. thank you all for everything, the church is true and the Book Of Mormon is a true testiment of Christ, as so stated and declared by Elder Holland. I love you all!
Con Carino, (that is spelled with the squiggly thing above the n...i just can't figure out how to do it on this comp)
Elder Larsen
PS: thanks for the letters from my cousins and eric, it's good to know they are doing ok.
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