hi everyone,
Ok, Argentina North, California San Jose mission, or Guadalajara Mexico Mission, all spanish. thanks for the pamphlets, i have the joseph smith one, but the other 2 were new, really cool i read them over a few days ago. the church really does do alot of humanitarian aid. i think they sent 2 big planes of stuff over to Hati or wherever that big earthquake hit. i will take some final pics of me and the apart and then send them home today. HAHA and i think Salt Lake told Elder FInkle that he had to get rid of our crappy car .... it's the oldest one in the mission we figured out. i have to share thoughts and stuff?!?! haha ok, well this week we worked hard, it rained from sunday night to thursday night and then stopped, but is supposed to rain tomorrow for a day. so lots of water ... and the water caused the dumb car to start making some other odd noise when it shifts. we currently have a very large teaching pool but it was hard to contact people with all the rain. as of now we have 3 investigators with a date of baptism, Roberto Hernandez, Griselda somthing, and Devon Escobar. Roberto is a middle aged man who works alot and is married to a very less active member. he understands alot about the gospel but doesn't appear as if he does. he told us he would come to church but didn't come yesterday ..... ://// we're going to go by tonight and see what happened. Ventura is a little far, but it's worth it, we just have to help them see that. Griselda is supposedly an awesome investigator who is super smart, i've only taught her once since i've been here, she is really timid, we're hoping to get her excited for church and stuff so she will come this next week. Devon is a 16 year old girl who is one of those "preach my gospel" investigatores, she is super smart and accepts everything we say, we just set her with a date last night, my heart was beating like crazy when we extended the commitment but you could feel the peace in the air, the spirit was there, she is awesome and set to be baptised the 13th of february. we have a few other good potentiales for baptism and hopefully this week we can really buckle down and have some awesome spirit filled lessons to better prepare them for the waters of baptism. We are seeing a lot of success here, we’re being blessed a lot. Man, me being district leader I get asked all the pointless questions, but it’s ok, I guess I need to grow or something :]]] tomorrow we have Zone Conference with some general authority, so we have to be extra nice lookin and extra well behaved haha, we’ll see what happens, should be fun.
Church yesterday was fun, my first time in the Branch. The branch has more Priesthood than the 6th Ward in Oxnard. It was really cool, the branch is awesome, lots of good people. My talk went well, they started sacrament 25 mins late so my talk had to be cut down quite a bit, so I think it came out a bit unorganized, but I think they got the point, I talked about how it is our responsibility to share the gospel and that we are placed in circumstances or places of well being or the places were we physicially are because our father knows that we can touch the life of someone around us. That is why I am here in this mission, that is why the branch members live where they live and work where they work. We have to take advantage of the short life that we have. I told them about that string example dad told us in seminary one day about if we stretched a rope around the world and tied a piece of thread to it the thread would represent our life. It was good, Elder Mendez talked about how to do or fulfil with that responsibility. All in all it was good.
The Webbs sound like they are doing great and working hard. That would be quite a difficult mission. Oh, that Calendar thing is cool, I put it up next to the other one you sent me, I like the Orange Color. So yeah, not too much time left, we may possibly be getting an hour to do email from now on, so maybe I’ll be able to write more without going over, cause I usually go over …. 3 0 mins just isn’t enough. Anywho, I hope everything and everyone is still doing well, I am doing good. HA funny story, so I was on exchanges in Fillmore on Saturday and I also gave my first baptisimal interview!! Anywho, so I was in fillmore visiting a less active member of the group over there and her husband is this HUGE, like tall huge, white guy who speaks a little Spanish, she doesn’t really speak English so I don’t know how that worked out but whatever, anywho he isn’t a member and is a hard core biker so he walked in, in the middle of our lesson with an old biker jacket, from the 80’s, and said, hey, this is too small for me, if it fits one of you two you can have it. So Elder Jumper, is smaller than me so it didn’t fit him, so I tried it on, and it fit kinda, I have to grow into it a bit, but I now have a black leather biker jacket hahah funny!!!
Anywho gotta go, someone is waiting to use the computer, I love you all! Have a great week and let me know where BHL goes by calling the mission office and having them call me! Thanks!!!
Elder Larsen
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
HOWWWWDDYYYY
hola familia, que tal?
sorry, all the libraries were closed yesterday so we couldn't do email ... but today here i am, writing to you all from a (kinda ghetto) library in Santa Paula. well, being district leader is .......... fun. i get all the hard questions ... and the dumb ones ... and i get to give baptisimal interviews, get numbers from everyone on sunday night, and prepare district meetings .... fun=all that .... before i forget ..... places that BHL might go to ..... 1: South America 2: Mexico 3: Georgia 4: Boise 5: San Antonio .... those are my "bets". of course spanish speaking would be ideal, but we'll see what the lord has in store for him .... sooo when he does get his call, mom, you can contact the mission office and ask for Sister Benson, she's kinda like you, you two would get along, tell her where brandon is going and she will contact me so that i can know and not have to wait until monday. ummm i will try to send pics soon, i gotta get some good ones of me first though :}
so my new area is absolutely awesome, elder mendez is pretty funny, kinda acts like BHL a little bit. he is from peru ... but came here to the states when he was 3, so he is pretty much american ... but not a citizen ... supposedly. He jokes alot so i can never know, but it's funny cause i know more spanish than he does haha, and i'm white. it flows a bit better for him, but i can speak more correctly (not boasting, i gotta lot to learn). there are 4 missionaries in the city of Santa Paula, 2 sisters and 2 elders. us 4 and the 2 elders that cover the city of fillmore make up my district, just 6 missionaries, quite small and nice. Santa Paula is not as ghetto as Oxnard and the people are more nice, they have a different attitude ... people in Oxnard are just different ... it's weird and hard to explain, but i like Santa Paula pee ps better than Oxnard ones.
we are kind of in the mountains!!!!! well we are in the mountains, and they are fairly big ones too!! really green, the rockies of course are much better but hey i gotta live and take advantage of what i got. there are some cool hikes that elder Mendez is going to show me over in fillmore so i'm excited ... i'll take pics no worries. Elder Mendez and I live alone in a small 2 story apartment, brand new, elder durrant and him "opened it" or were the first elders to live there. so there is practally nothing. we have the bare essentials though so it's alright. never thought how efficient it is to only have 1 serving of silverware per person .... there are never any dishes hahaha! it's very green here, and we are very close to some orange and lemon fields. we are about 10 miles away from Ventura which is where we have church, i haven't been to church yet cause last week was stake conference, it was cool, via satalite, President Uchdorf, Elder Holland, Bishop Edgley and Sister Matsumori all spoke to us. good messages. then yesterday it started raining and it hasn't stopped yet ... well not really ... it's supposed to rain tomorrow too, and maybe thursday, but i don't think so. all the rain from the mountains, drains down to us so we get ALOT of water ..... and as usual, the sewers/gutters, never seem to work here. anyhow it's fun.
Oh and lest i forget, i now drive, not the brand new fire red corrola ... i drive a beat up old 06 mazda 3, the oldest car in the mission .... some engine manifold (i think that's what holds the engine in the car????) broke or something like that a long time ago and they had it fixed but whoever did it ...... didn't do it good ... so whenever we reach the high speed of about 30 or whenever it idles it sounds/feels/shakes like an airplane getting ready to take off. the rear left wheel sounds like it wants to fall off and i think something else is wrong cause it squicks and stuff when i go from park to reverse to drive. basically we hate the car and ... oh, it rattles constantly inside too, all the panels or something is loose or got loose cause of all the dang shaking the car makes ... it has like 48500 miles, which isn't a whole ton, but the church sells the cars at 50000, so this car has been used and beat up by a bunch of missionaries. haha and the elder in charge of all the cars, Elder Finkle, old funny guy, basically detests (HA ha big word) our car cause it's cost the mission so much money, so anywho, i think we might get something new soon ... haha ok enough ranting and raving about the car, i'll send pics of the car.
mom, just send the CD's to the mission office, Elder Hawes got released from AP (he wanted to be a regular missionary for his last transfer, he escaped) and sent out to East Bakersfield to mom someone, so the mission office will forward the CD's to his actual address. anywho, so we have some really cool investigators, one is Devon, she is 16 and way excited to learn about the church, she has a friend that is a member and a great fellowship. we have alot of others that i don't know incredibly well yet, but all are cool and very accepting so their is alot of potential. haha so this first sunday that i'll be going to church i will also be speaking to the branch, we chose to talk about "our responsibilitys as members with respect to missionary work" and "How to do missionary work" i will be speaking about the prior and my comp the latter .... should be interesting, i might have to be a little harsh the first time most of them meet me cause according to elder Mendez they aren't very good at fellowshiping ... they don't care if Less Actives come to church or investigators. i guess we brought an investigator and he just sat alone in the foyer before sacrament and no one even said hello to him, i think the elders were in a meeting. i dunno, we'll see how it turns out. our branch consists of santa paula, ventura, Ojai and that's it ... so out of those 3 cities we have a branch .... see a problem? yeah, we supposedly have enough members in santa paula alone to create a ward or at least a branch of our own .... but they are all less active ... there are 5 or 6 active families in Santa Paula. once upon a time the branch met here in santa paula, but then for some odd reason they decided to combine the branches of ventura and santa paula and move the meetings to ventura .... supposedly then, almost all the members stopped going because ventura is a long way away and they didn't want to drive so much .... i dunno, lots of work to do here in Santa Paula.
alright, i gotta get back to work, back to the rain. i hope you all are good and warm in Cache Valley, BHL good luck! let me know ASAP where he is going. church is true, read your scriptures and get good consequences (still a weird concept for me) or suffer the bad consequences. i love you all,
Elder Larsen (soon to be 4 of us!!!!!!)
sorry, all the libraries were closed yesterday so we couldn't do email ... but today here i am, writing to you all from a (kinda ghetto) library in Santa Paula. well, being district leader is .......... fun. i get all the hard questions ... and the dumb ones ... and i get to give baptisimal interviews, get numbers from everyone on sunday night, and prepare district meetings .... fun=all that .... before i forget ..... places that BHL might go to ..... 1: South America 2: Mexico 3: Georgia 4: Boise 5: San Antonio .... those are my "bets". of course spanish speaking would be ideal, but we'll see what the lord has in store for him .... sooo when he does get his call, mom, you can contact the mission office and ask for Sister Benson, she's kinda like you, you two would get along, tell her where brandon is going and she will contact me so that i can know and not have to wait until monday. ummm i will try to send pics soon, i gotta get some good ones of me first though :}
so my new area is absolutely awesome, elder mendez is pretty funny, kinda acts like BHL a little bit. he is from peru ... but came here to the states when he was 3, so he is pretty much american ... but not a citizen ... supposedly. He jokes alot so i can never know, but it's funny cause i know more spanish than he does haha, and i'm white. it flows a bit better for him, but i can speak more correctly (not boasting, i gotta lot to learn). there are 4 missionaries in the city of Santa Paula, 2 sisters and 2 elders. us 4 and the 2 elders that cover the city of fillmore make up my district, just 6 missionaries, quite small and nice. Santa Paula is not as ghetto as Oxnard and the people are more nice, they have a different attitude ... people in Oxnard are just different ... it's weird and hard to explain, but i like Santa Paula pee ps better than Oxnard ones.
we are kind of in the mountains!!!!! well we are in the mountains, and they are fairly big ones too!! really green, the rockies of course are much better but hey i gotta live and take advantage of what i got. there are some cool hikes that elder Mendez is going to show me over in fillmore so i'm excited ... i'll take pics no worries. Elder Mendez and I live alone in a small 2 story apartment, brand new, elder durrant and him "opened it" or were the first elders to live there. so there is practally nothing. we have the bare essentials though so it's alright. never thought how efficient it is to only have 1 serving of silverware per person .... there are never any dishes hahaha! it's very green here, and we are very close to some orange and lemon fields. we are about 10 miles away from Ventura which is where we have church, i haven't been to church yet cause last week was stake conference, it was cool, via satalite, President Uchdorf, Elder Holland, Bishop Edgley and Sister Matsumori all spoke to us. good messages. then yesterday it started raining and it hasn't stopped yet ... well not really ... it's supposed to rain tomorrow too, and maybe thursday, but i don't think so. all the rain from the mountains, drains down to us so we get ALOT of water ..... and as usual, the sewers/gutters, never seem to work here. anyhow it's fun.
Oh and lest i forget, i now drive, not the brand new fire red corrola ... i drive a beat up old 06 mazda 3, the oldest car in the mission .... some engine manifold (i think that's what holds the engine in the car????) broke or something like that a long time ago and they had it fixed but whoever did it ...... didn't do it good ... so whenever we reach the high speed of about 30 or whenever it idles it sounds/feels/shakes like an airplane getting ready to take off. the rear left wheel sounds like it wants to fall off and i think something else is wrong cause it squicks and stuff when i go from park to reverse to drive. basically we hate the car and ... oh, it rattles constantly inside too, all the panels or something is loose or got loose cause of all the dang shaking the car makes ... it has like 48500 miles, which isn't a whole ton, but the church sells the cars at 50000, so this car has been used and beat up by a bunch of missionaries. haha and the elder in charge of all the cars, Elder Finkle, old funny guy, basically detests (HA ha big word) our car cause it's cost the mission so much money, so anywho, i think we might get something new soon ... haha ok enough ranting and raving about the car, i'll send pics of the car.
mom, just send the CD's to the mission office, Elder Hawes got released from AP (he wanted to be a regular missionary for his last transfer, he escaped) and sent out to East Bakersfield to mom someone, so the mission office will forward the CD's to his actual address. anywho, so we have some really cool investigators, one is Devon, she is 16 and way excited to learn about the church, she has a friend that is a member and a great fellowship. we have alot of others that i don't know incredibly well yet, but all are cool and very accepting so their is alot of potential. haha so this first sunday that i'll be going to church i will also be speaking to the branch, we chose to talk about "our responsibilitys as members with respect to missionary work" and "How to do missionary work" i will be speaking about the prior and my comp the latter .... should be interesting, i might have to be a little harsh the first time most of them meet me cause according to elder Mendez they aren't very good at fellowshiping ... they don't care if Less Actives come to church or investigators. i guess we brought an investigator and he just sat alone in the foyer before sacrament and no one even said hello to him, i think the elders were in a meeting. i dunno, we'll see how it turns out. our branch consists of santa paula, ventura, Ojai and that's it ... so out of those 3 cities we have a branch .... see a problem? yeah, we supposedly have enough members in santa paula alone to create a ward or at least a branch of our own .... but they are all less active ... there are 5 or 6 active families in Santa Paula. once upon a time the branch met here in santa paula, but then for some odd reason they decided to combine the branches of ventura and santa paula and move the meetings to ventura .... supposedly then, almost all the members stopped going because ventura is a long way away and they didn't want to drive so much .... i dunno, lots of work to do here in Santa Paula.
alright, i gotta get back to work, back to the rain. i hope you all are good and warm in Cache Valley, BHL good luck! let me know ASAP where he is going. church is true, read your scriptures and get good consequences (still a weird concept for me) or suffer the bad consequences. i love you all,
Elder Larsen (soon to be 4 of us!!!!!!)
Monday, January 11, 2010
week 1 otra vez.....cumpli 13 meses ayer.....ay hijole....que hago???
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHGHGHHGHAaaaaaaaaaaaaaahggghghggh
Family I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!!!!!! i didn't want to leave ...... :/ i am following Elder Durrant and taking his place in Santa Paula, moming as it is called, or Follow-up Training, Elder Durrant's greenie .... as well as being made District Leader ....... lots of changes, and i'm not exactly how i feel about them .... who stole my cheese? Santa Paula is the highest baptizing area in the mission right now, Elder Durrant tore it up .... so i have alot of responsibility on my shoulders now ... and i don't know how to be a district leader or any kind of a leader for that matter ..... i don't know what to do. carry on i guess .... don't really have an option.
this past week started out great, we had good days of lessons, found 3 new people, a couple and a lady, talked to some cool promising potentials and worked hard ... then my companion, poor kid, got food poisoning again, although a more mild form, so we were in for a day and a half ... which killed our momentum and the week didn't necessaraly end bad, but we didn't have the same momentum we had at the beginning of the week. but that's alright, we worked hard anyway. this keyboard really stinks ... and it's dirty with finger sweat ... or something white ... yuck. Elder Durrant's MTC companion is coming here to replace me. transfers transfers transfers ....
according to my new companion, Elder Mendez ... i think, he is from utah but his family is from peru ... should be interesting. i forgot about Kim's B-day ... gotta get a belated card for her ... i even had it written down ... completely flew over my head ... i feel bad .... mom you're birthday is coming up ... man, you're so lucky i'm not there, i'd probably do something way cool for your birthday hahaha (evil laugh). hey, so i might be sending some packages home of stuff that i don't need that i just seem to haul around ... i really have alot of junk, i'm going to do my best to de-junk and then send the extra stuff home, i'm just goin to get the flat rate big box and jam it full of everything so that way it's cheaper.
Anywho, i'm really at a loss for words, Elder Hawes got relieved from being AP for his last transfer and is going back to Bakersfield, the East zone, to follow-up train, or mom, someone, and i think be a district leader as well. we have been focusiing on obediance this past transfer and i found a cool scripture ... welll alot of cool scriptures, but this one is in 2 John 1:6 (i think), and DyC 6:20, the end peice of the verse is one of the reasons i strive to be obediant. we all want to be loved in some way or another, and us as missionaries have to do our best to show the people that we love them, that is our purpose, and how can we show love to others if we know not what it feels like ourselves. a constant search for love is what some people are in, we live in a world that doesn't really understand the concept of love ... well a lot here don't understand it anyhow. i dunno, i just liked those escrituras! OHHHH how could i forget, we went to the temple on Tuesday! it was awesome!!! the LA temple is so huge, almost as big as the Salt Lake Temple, so many rooms and murals and it's really just beautiful, we will have to come back and go to it. it's located in a beautiful part of LA too ... man, LA is huge, all these little sub-cities and stuff ... suberbs ... something like that. we went with a member from 4th ward who is super smart ... like probably one of the smartest people doctrine-wise, i've ever talked to. we spent a long time in the temple just talking deep doctrine ... very very cool. anyway, our temple trip was fun and totally worth the killing of last P-day. man, i don't want to pack ... or say goodbye to some of the really cool people that i've met here ... transfers are always hard ... and a little bit awkward. hey so i'm almost done with all the candy and cookies that i got for christmas ... cool huh? man my poor shattered brain is blanking right now. i'm really going to miss Elder McCleskey, we had some really good talks, he is just like me in alot of ways. he's going to be some sort of a leader some day.
hey, let me know what country in Asia Brandon is going to ok? is brent still thinking about going on a mission? the Nelsons seem really cool, i think i've only written them once though, but i'm excited to meet them one day. so will someone with a cell phone do me a favor and text Megan and Aslynn and tell them i've moved? i haven't gotten a letter or written them a letter in over a month, so i'm sure they don't know that i'm moving. i got 2 returned letters cause of a bad address from Aslynn so i'm guessing that she doesn't live at that address anymore, so i'm just waiting to be updated. anywho, i have to go start packing ... it will probably take me all day ... not a happy thought. i love you all, the church is the only true and LIVING church on the face of the earth, don't forget it, and if you don't know it, figure it out for yourself, Father will answer, He loves us and wants us to know what to do in this life that He has given us. be obedient! BYE!
sorry for the scatterdness of the letter, brain is going crazy at the moment.
Elder Larsen
Family I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!!!!!! i didn't want to leave ...... :/ i am following Elder Durrant and taking his place in Santa Paula, moming as it is called, or Follow-up Training, Elder Durrant's greenie .... as well as being made District Leader ....... lots of changes, and i'm not exactly how i feel about them .... who stole my cheese? Santa Paula is the highest baptizing area in the mission right now, Elder Durrant tore it up .... so i have alot of responsibility on my shoulders now ... and i don't know how to be a district leader or any kind of a leader for that matter ..... i don't know what to do. carry on i guess .... don't really have an option.
this past week started out great, we had good days of lessons, found 3 new people, a couple and a lady, talked to some cool promising potentials and worked hard ... then my companion, poor kid, got food poisoning again, although a more mild form, so we were in for a day and a half ... which killed our momentum and the week didn't necessaraly end bad, but we didn't have the same momentum we had at the beginning of the week. but that's alright, we worked hard anyway. this keyboard really stinks ... and it's dirty with finger sweat ... or something white ... yuck. Elder Durrant's MTC companion is coming here to replace me. transfers transfers transfers ....
according to my new companion, Elder Mendez ... i think, he is from utah but his family is from peru ... should be interesting. i forgot about Kim's B-day ... gotta get a belated card for her ... i even had it written down ... completely flew over my head ... i feel bad .... mom you're birthday is coming up ... man, you're so lucky i'm not there, i'd probably do something way cool for your birthday hahaha (evil laugh). hey, so i might be sending some packages home of stuff that i don't need that i just seem to haul around ... i really have alot of junk, i'm going to do my best to de-junk and then send the extra stuff home, i'm just goin to get the flat rate big box and jam it full of everything so that way it's cheaper.
Anywho, i'm really at a loss for words, Elder Hawes got relieved from being AP for his last transfer and is going back to Bakersfield, the East zone, to follow-up train, or mom, someone, and i think be a district leader as well. we have been focusiing on obediance this past transfer and i found a cool scripture ... welll alot of cool scriptures, but this one is in 2 John 1:6 (i think), and DyC 6:20, the end peice of the verse is one of the reasons i strive to be obediant. we all want to be loved in some way or another, and us as missionaries have to do our best to show the people that we love them, that is our purpose, and how can we show love to others if we know not what it feels like ourselves. a constant search for love is what some people are in, we live in a world that doesn't really understand the concept of love ... well a lot here don't understand it anyhow. i dunno, i just liked those escrituras! OHHHH how could i forget, we went to the temple on Tuesday! it was awesome!!! the LA temple is so huge, almost as big as the Salt Lake Temple, so many rooms and murals and it's really just beautiful, we will have to come back and go to it. it's located in a beautiful part of LA too ... man, LA is huge, all these little sub-cities and stuff ... suberbs ... something like that. we went with a member from 4th ward who is super smart ... like probably one of the smartest people doctrine-wise, i've ever talked to. we spent a long time in the temple just talking deep doctrine ... very very cool. anyway, our temple trip was fun and totally worth the killing of last P-day. man, i don't want to pack ... or say goodbye to some of the really cool people that i've met here ... transfers are always hard ... and a little bit awkward. hey so i'm almost done with all the candy and cookies that i got for christmas ... cool huh? man my poor shattered brain is blanking right now. i'm really going to miss Elder McCleskey, we had some really good talks, he is just like me in alot of ways. he's going to be some sort of a leader some day.
hey, let me know what country in Asia Brandon is going to ok? is brent still thinking about going on a mission? the Nelsons seem really cool, i think i've only written them once though, but i'm excited to meet them one day. so will someone with a cell phone do me a favor and text Megan and Aslynn and tell them i've moved? i haven't gotten a letter or written them a letter in over a month, so i'm sure they don't know that i'm moving. i got 2 returned letters cause of a bad address from Aslynn so i'm guessing that she doesn't live at that address anymore, so i'm just waiting to be updated. anywho, i have to go start packing ... it will probably take me all day ... not a happy thought. i love you all, the church is the only true and LIVING church on the face of the earth, don't forget it, and if you don't know it, figure it out for yourself, Father will answer, He loves us and wants us to know what to do in this life that He has given us. be obedient! BYE!
sorry for the scatterdness of the letter, brain is going crazy at the moment.
Elder Larsen
Monday, January 4, 2010
The Formidable Week 6!
Hola familia,
well, this past week was good, work suffered a bit, but we worked hard. this week that starts today is going to be an awesome week cause their aren't any HOLIDAYS!!!!! i'm so excited!!!! like i love holidays, but they make missionary work stink a bit cause everyone goes and gets drunk or has parties and then gets drunk. plus, on tuesday we were leaving from lunch and Elder Finkle called us (he's the office elder in charge of all the mission cars) and told us that the body shop was ready to fix the car ..... so we had to drive allllll the way up to almost ventura to this little, but very nice, body shop. they said that our new bumper would be on and ready for driving on thursday .... so we asked if they could shuttle us back to our area and they said sure ..... but as it turns out all that meant was that someone would ride with us and we would shuttle ourselves down to the church .... so we did that .... and the person accompanying us was a middle aged woman .... sooooo we broke the "no non church members in the car" rule and the "don't be alone with anyone from the opposite sex" rule for about 20 minutes ..... pretty funny. anywho, so then wednesday we had a "walking day" we walked all day everywhere ..... it was horrible ..... plus cause that day it just so happened to Mist/Rain the entire day ..... it wasn't rain, it was a mist in the morning that didn't apear too intimidating .... so i went out without a jacket ..... got drenched after about an hour of walking .... anywho, so that wasn't fun, but then thursday we got our car back and they had cleaned it and washed it and vacummed it and armoralled it and did something to the tires to make them look cool ..... it felt like i was driving a brand new car again. then new years happened, i was on exchanges with Elder Kay, i bought some martenellies ... sparkling apple cider stuff .... we had a count down to 10:28 then elder Kay turned on his smoke machine and we celebrated the new year, him and I .... we also set of the smoke detector with the fake smoke ... pretty funny, i got video of it all. then the next day Elder Kay proceded to kill me with his Bike. i'm not a bike missionary and i'm not used to riding a bike ... basically i'm a whimp .... but he rode my tail off and i was dead tired by the end of the day. really really made me realize two things .... as missonaries in the USA we are spoiled .... and i really learned to apprieciate the Lord's Red 2010 Toyota Corrola.
OH, and guess what i recieved last P-day? we went to the Post Office to ask if they had any packages and they did! i got both packages on monday and opened them and had a 2nd Christmas. you guys out did yourselves .... and grandma, those cookies were and are awesome, that new kind is really good, the raspberry kind. nothing was spoiled, everything arrived safely ... and i enjoyed the popcorn mom while i thought of your love for popcorn. ok i will now thank everyone according to what the tags on the presents said.
BHL, thanks for the swedish fish, i ate them in like 4 hours, they were good, and the best part is that they are fat free!!! which is good cause i need to lose the fat on my legs!
TRL, thanks for the little green car, i assembled it and it now sits on my mess of a desk, and i use the red car that uses gas to pratice my driving skills.
JPL, that calander is exaclty what i needed, i almost bought one a few weeks ago, but then decided to wait and see if i got one for christmas. i love the pictures, Simon Dewy i think??? regardless i love the way that he portrays the savior and the events of his life.
KML, my favorite little sis who is now towering over mom, those ties are quite the ties ... wow, very good choices kenidee, i'm wearing the blue one now, and the paisly red one, wow, some of my coolest looking ties in my tie collection.
DPL, derek, i think everyone in my apartment has played with that slinky at least 8 times, classics can't be beat, it's against the laws of the land .... and probably of God haha. thank you for the slinky, i enjoy messing with it.
Grandma L, thank you for the cookies, and for the Jake White CD. he really is an awesome artist, i hope you guys got it copied to a comp before you sent it to me cause it's a really good CD to relax to.
ok and after that i forgot to write down from who the things were .... soooo, if my memory serves me right, i got some awesome PJ's which are comfortable in their awesomeness .... and great is the awesomeness thereof .... cool Batman socks that will probably be used every P-day when i just lounge around the apartment, the Bible, TONS of food and candy, the John Schmidt CD, and i think that is it .... sorry if i missed anything. mom thanks for putting all of it together and probably organizing/buying most of it, you're awesome and i'm pretty much 100% sure that there isn't a better mom in the world, or on the moon, cause apparently there is some new Hotel on the moon ..... we hear weird things from people and aren't able to confirm it, the cause being we aren't allowed to watch the news or do internet stuff. Dad, thanks so much for my Priesthood line and the cool missionary experiences. i will be able to use both probably alot here on the mission. i didn't know that you trace your line through the current office that you now hold .... so if you had ordained me when you were an Elder i'd have a different line .... or at least that is what i understood of it ....pretty interesting. thank you all for everything, i can definitely feel the love you have for me even though i'm kinda far away (but not as far away as BHL is gonna be when he gets called to South Africa!). you have to let me know as soon as he gets his call! with regards to Theresa's Package i haven't seen it ... .we haven't been able to find the land lord at home, we'll go over there today and try and find her .... but i'm pretty sure it was stolen cause there is no trace of it, the porch is in open sight to the courtyard and i'm sure that after a day it was taken by someone. =[ tell theresa thank you though anyway, and that i think she's awesome.
well next week we'll know what is happening with transfers .... Elder McCleskey thinks i'm staying, i think i'm going ..... we'll see what happens, if i leave i will miss him alot cause he is a really cool guy, i've got along better with him than i have any of my previous companions .... i've gotten along great with all of them, he just is the most like me i guess. alright, time is running short, we have a shortened P-day today cause tomorrow a member from 4th Ward is taking us and the ZL's (with whom we live) to the Temple in LA, so anywho, we have less time to shop and stuff. i know that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives today, as well as that the man and prophet Thomas S. Monson is his living oracle and mouthpiece today. by obeying and listening to the cousel that we recieve from Christ and Father by means of our prophet we can and will be able to attain the happiness and joy that we are all looking for in this life. i hope you all have a wonderful week, i'm assuming that you all started school today and stuff, have fun. love you all!
Elder Larsen
well, this past week was good, work suffered a bit, but we worked hard. this week that starts today is going to be an awesome week cause their aren't any HOLIDAYS!!!!! i'm so excited!!!! like i love holidays, but they make missionary work stink a bit cause everyone goes and gets drunk or has parties and then gets drunk. plus, on tuesday we were leaving from lunch and Elder Finkle called us (he's the office elder in charge of all the mission cars) and told us that the body shop was ready to fix the car ..... so we had to drive allllll the way up to almost ventura to this little, but very nice, body shop. they said that our new bumper would be on and ready for driving on thursday .... so we asked if they could shuttle us back to our area and they said sure ..... but as it turns out all that meant was that someone would ride with us and we would shuttle ourselves down to the church .... so we did that .... and the person accompanying us was a middle aged woman .... sooooo we broke the "no non church members in the car" rule and the "don't be alone with anyone from the opposite sex" rule for about 20 minutes ..... pretty funny. anywho, so then wednesday we had a "walking day" we walked all day everywhere ..... it was horrible ..... plus cause that day it just so happened to Mist/Rain the entire day ..... it wasn't rain, it was a mist in the morning that didn't apear too intimidating .... so i went out without a jacket ..... got drenched after about an hour of walking .... anywho, so that wasn't fun, but then thursday we got our car back and they had cleaned it and washed it and vacummed it and armoralled it and did something to the tires to make them look cool ..... it felt like i was driving a brand new car again. then new years happened, i was on exchanges with Elder Kay, i bought some martenellies ... sparkling apple cider stuff .... we had a count down to 10:28 then elder Kay turned on his smoke machine and we celebrated the new year, him and I .... we also set of the smoke detector with the fake smoke ... pretty funny, i got video of it all. then the next day Elder Kay proceded to kill me with his Bike. i'm not a bike missionary and i'm not used to riding a bike ... basically i'm a whimp .... but he rode my tail off and i was dead tired by the end of the day. really really made me realize two things .... as missonaries in the USA we are spoiled .... and i really learned to apprieciate the Lord's Red 2010 Toyota Corrola.
OH, and guess what i recieved last P-day? we went to the Post Office to ask if they had any packages and they did! i got both packages on monday and opened them and had a 2nd Christmas. you guys out did yourselves .... and grandma, those cookies were and are awesome, that new kind is really good, the raspberry kind. nothing was spoiled, everything arrived safely ... and i enjoyed the popcorn mom while i thought of your love for popcorn. ok i will now thank everyone according to what the tags on the presents said.
BHL, thanks for the swedish fish, i ate them in like 4 hours, they were good, and the best part is that they are fat free!!! which is good cause i need to lose the fat on my legs!
TRL, thanks for the little green car, i assembled it and it now sits on my mess of a desk, and i use the red car that uses gas to pratice my driving skills.
JPL, that calander is exaclty what i needed, i almost bought one a few weeks ago, but then decided to wait and see if i got one for christmas. i love the pictures, Simon Dewy i think??? regardless i love the way that he portrays the savior and the events of his life.
KML, my favorite little sis who is now towering over mom, those ties are quite the ties ... wow, very good choices kenidee, i'm wearing the blue one now, and the paisly red one, wow, some of my coolest looking ties in my tie collection.
DPL, derek, i think everyone in my apartment has played with that slinky at least 8 times, classics can't be beat, it's against the laws of the land .... and probably of God haha. thank you for the slinky, i enjoy messing with it.
Grandma L, thank you for the cookies, and for the Jake White CD. he really is an awesome artist, i hope you guys got it copied to a comp before you sent it to me cause it's a really good CD to relax to.
ok and after that i forgot to write down from who the things were .... soooo, if my memory serves me right, i got some awesome PJ's which are comfortable in their awesomeness .... and great is the awesomeness thereof .... cool Batman socks that will probably be used every P-day when i just lounge around the apartment, the Bible, TONS of food and candy, the John Schmidt CD, and i think that is it .... sorry if i missed anything. mom thanks for putting all of it together and probably organizing/buying most of it, you're awesome and i'm pretty much 100% sure that there isn't a better mom in the world, or on the moon, cause apparently there is some new Hotel on the moon ..... we hear weird things from people and aren't able to confirm it, the cause being we aren't allowed to watch the news or do internet stuff. Dad, thanks so much for my Priesthood line and the cool missionary experiences. i will be able to use both probably alot here on the mission. i didn't know that you trace your line through the current office that you now hold .... so if you had ordained me when you were an Elder i'd have a different line .... or at least that is what i understood of it ....pretty interesting. thank you all for everything, i can definitely feel the love you have for me even though i'm kinda far away (but not as far away as BHL is gonna be when he gets called to South Africa!). you have to let me know as soon as he gets his call! with regards to Theresa's Package i haven't seen it ... .we haven't been able to find the land lord at home, we'll go over there today and try and find her .... but i'm pretty sure it was stolen cause there is no trace of it, the porch is in open sight to the courtyard and i'm sure that after a day it was taken by someone. =[ tell theresa thank you though anyway, and that i think she's awesome.
well next week we'll know what is happening with transfers .... Elder McCleskey thinks i'm staying, i think i'm going ..... we'll see what happens, if i leave i will miss him alot cause he is a really cool guy, i've got along better with him than i have any of my previous companions .... i've gotten along great with all of them, he just is the most like me i guess. alright, time is running short, we have a shortened P-day today cause tomorrow a member from 4th Ward is taking us and the ZL's (with whom we live) to the Temple in LA, so anywho, we have less time to shop and stuff. i know that Jesus is the Christ and that he lives today, as well as that the man and prophet Thomas S. Monson is his living oracle and mouthpiece today. by obeying and listening to the cousel that we recieve from Christ and Father by means of our prophet we can and will be able to attain the happiness and joy that we are all looking for in this life. i hope you all have a wonderful week, i'm assuming that you all started school today and stuff, have fun. love you all!
Elder Larsen
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