Howdy!

Hi everyone,

 

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

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

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

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

 

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

me voy a quedar whooo hoooo

Hola Family,

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

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

Elder Larsen

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

Hey family,

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

 

(hey look, new paragraph)

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

LOVE YOU!!

Elder Larsen

Hola Hola Hola

Hi Family!

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

Elder Larsen