2nd Transfer down...3rd...Here I Come!

Hey guys! 

How are ya'll doing this week?  I'm way excited for Casey ... wow, Africa ... how come he's speaking English?  Isn't there some dialect or something?  That's awesome though ... he's got to get a lot of shots though ... bleh ... Mom, thank you so much for the Knee Wraps, I wear them everynight with the magnets ... my knees aren't too much of a problem, but the left one has not been behaving incredibly well lately, but the knee wraps seem to be helping.  So Jordan is going to be a Pirate King?  Cool, you are destined to be an actor of some type.  5 hours for a shirt?!?  wow, I want a pic of Jordan in his Pirate Garb ... fun fun fun, the Stake here is doing a huge production of Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat ... it's crazy huge, they have a full sized stage built and professional lights and sound boards and everything ... I'll take pics if I can, it's pretty amazing all the stuff they jammed into the gym in the Stake Center.  Cindy looks happy and great, her puppies are quite cute as are the kids holding them (Kenidee and Derek) ... one of the cute little old ladies that is here doing family history (we email in the Family History Center in our Stake) just asked me who those two cute kids were.  The new bishop and his wife look and sound cool.  Elder Nelson is coming to our stake again?  Wow, we got to see him in Texas too, hahah remember ... President gave him a Stetson cowboy hat haha.  Tell Debbie thank you for donating the magnets, she is awesome and her house is still my dream house.  Soooooo for transfers ... lots of rumors going around, I've heard that Pres is needing to switch Spanish missionaries to English and then I heard that he's switching young English missionaries to Spanish.  Sooo basically I don't know anything.  Elder Hawes is most likely getting transferred, but you never know, I might be getting trasnferred instead of him, or we'll both be transferred ... which is called whitewashing ... so the next letter you send to me send it to the Mission Office unless you are sure that it will get here before next Monday.  Monday morning we will recieve our calls telling us where we are going or if we're staying ... so I'll let you know in next weeks email what is happening.  So this past week we had a total low of 3 investigators at church ... lowest we've ever gotten ... but church was great because we got almost every single inactive/less active person we talked to this week to come to church ... one being a man called Abraham Alfaro ... this guy is simply amazing ... one of the coolest people I've met on my mission so far ... he used to be Ward Mission Leader a long time ago.  They had 35 convert baptisms in the ward one year and he used to work with the missionaries 40 to 60 hours a week I'm told.  Basically he was super strong and solid ... but then he got a drinking problem and he fell away (don't drink, brings the strongest of the strongest down) ... and he hasn't been active since like Oct or Nov.  But we found him and started meeting with him ... it's really hard to teach him cause he knows everything ... we basically just have discussions and stuff ... he knows what he needs to do, and we've had patience with him and he came back and hopefully he'll stay ... so Sunday, even though only 3 investigators came, was very happy day for us, alot of people came back to church.  Also we are having the baptism of Jose Campos this Saturday, so it's doubly exciting ... yeah for baptisms.  Make sure you guys go to Lorrin's farewell and take lots of pics for me!  Ok, so this is what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna take alot of pics of Elder Hawes and me this week and then I'll send you the package next Monday ... I'll just try to send the camera card home every transfer full of pics ... I took a few more cool ones.  I hope that's ok with you guys.  That's great about my tax return haha 600+!  Yeah for working at Wachovia.  I may be using it to buy a bike in a week ... who knows ... so yeah.  We found 2 more families this week and hopefully they will be strong and solid.  My Spanish is improving fairly well, I can't talk on the phone too well, but I'm doing ok.  Spanish people use their hands alot when they talk, so I fit in well haha.  My accent isn't too bad haha you'll see on Mother's Day ... I'll be callin you guys, if you have any questions ask them ... oh, do we have free long distance?  Cause if we do then I'll just call you regularly from someone's phone and then you can just call back and it'll be free.  Let me know ... anywho, let me know what you think is best.  How is the Gas Station going?  I want pics of the Gas Station and it's Manager! 

Ok ya'll I gotta go shop n stuff n write letters and run around like I usually do on mi Dia de Preparacion.  Remember that I love you all and that I hope you have a good week.  Kenidee I'm sending your letter out today, I hope it gets there by Wednesday! ... if not ... sorry, it'll get there Thursday.

Love you all !!!

Elder Larsen

2 weeks left in the Transfer

Hey guys,

So this week has gone by way fast, this whole transfer has gone by super fast.  It’s crazy, so the president emailed us and told us to make you all aware of the Mother’s Day call.  So yeah, be aware of it, I’ll give more details when I get them … it will have to be after 12:30 my time … so I don’t know how that fits with all your church meetings and stuff.  So sounds like you guys had way fun camping, wow, I remember going camping all the time in the camper and it tents, but I like mountain camping better than Desert camping …you guys looked like you were up in the Rocks, I’ll bet you had ton’s of fun.  Taylor is driving now?!? Wow, get off the roads haha. So honestly this week went by so fast that I’m having a hard time remembering anything to write to ya, I forget what I’ve already told you and when things happened.  The Quel’s continue to progress and the Dad and Son will be baptized very soon.  We have a Baptism coming up on the 2nd of May for Jose Campos, he’s way cool, extremely intelligent guy.  We also found a 17 year old kid named Robby who has only been in the USA for 2 years, he’s way cool and thinks of us as some of his best friends, which is good in a way and bad, cause Elder Hawes is most likely leaving in 2 weeks.  He speaks a little English and is hilarious cause he speaks English like he speaks Spanish haha, he always says ”you understand me?”  in Spanish it is “Me Entiendes?” it’s quite funny.  He has accepted a date for baptism on the 16 of May and wants to be a missionary, so hopefully he’ll stay strong and all will be well.  Dad I’ll do my best to get the Drivers thing done tomorrow, sorry that I haven’t gotten it done sooner, life is just crazy here … soooo the weather is getting hotter and hotter and hotter and hotter …. I think I just might melt …seriously.  It’s supposed to get up to 120-ish, it’s in the 90’s now … knocking in the 90’s … bleh … anywho, we found a few really good potential investigators this past week and hope to work with them more this coming week.  The AP’s (Assistant to the President) are coming on exchanges tomorrow, so we will get to live with them for a day, Elder Basset from San Antonio will be coming too.  Elder Hawes’ 2nd comp came back from Mexico to visit this week, he’s way cool .  He came with us to a few lessons and is an awesome guy.  His name is Ramon Peralta.  So dad it sounds like you’re getting that gas station wipped up into shape, that’s awesome that you are able to use your talents and people skills to help get that place runnin good.  I’ll send the Camera Card home soon, I’m gonna send a few things home, Busted Camera, Camera Card,…ect ect.  that’s cool that you all went to Shaeli’s reception, I’m sure she was glad to see you all there, I’m glad that she is happy.  I’d write her and tell her Congrats, but that’d probably be weird and I don’t have her address.  I’ll have to go to the Rexburg Temple when I get back, that’s cool about those little stones, I remember seeing them in the San Antonio Temple.  So I have a question for ya, I know the name of an album of a really cool CD that one of the members has here … but they don’t know the artist and neither do I, so I was wondering if you guys could do a search for me and figure it out.  The album name is “A Child‘s Prayer”  it’s lullaby music with an acoustic Guitar and a Female vocalist, she sings primary songs, it’s way good music.  Let me know where Casey is going on his mission, give Lorrin the Mission Home address just in case I do end up leaving this next week.  Tell Kenidee that I have her card and she will be receiving it before her Birthday, it’s comin up haha cool.  Que mas que mas …….. I’m glad your Easter went well, it’s a very special time of year.  Oh, so we were knocking … Tocando puertas … and we went up and talked to this guy that was just sitting under a fence and turns out he’s been in vestigating the church for 2 months, he prayed to know what he should do in life one day and then a few days later he bumped into missionaries in Los Angeles, he says ever since then he’s been bumping into missionaries wherever he goes … it’s cool cause before he prayed he said that he didn’t even know that there were missionaries in LA … so it’s cool, he said he had been watching us and was going to see if we’d come talk to him, he was testing us, cause every pair of missionaries he’s seen in 2 months (like 6-7) has come to talk to him … wayy cool testimony on prayer builder.  We gave him some pamphlets to read and a way to get a hold of missionaries, cause he’s always out of town, and then kept on knockin in a place we call Little Mexico.  Soo yeah, times up, this week’s been way fun for me, hope it has been fun for you guys too.  Love ya, sorry I can’t write more, I’ll send the package home this week.  Que Tengan Bien Semana!!!

Love, Elder Larsen

Espero que ustedes Tuvieran bien Pasqua

(not sure if that is spelled right...but Pasqua means Easter)

Hey Guys!!

Hope your Easter went well, I finally got the camera and WAYYYYY cool Easter package today!  Wow mom, you have out done yourself haha, gotta love that Batman!!!  Haha, I also got the camera, thank you for the videos of everyone … didn’t get to see or hear dad though, probably cause he is working hard, just how he should be.  Haha you all sound different, not to be mean, but Brandon you sound more and more like you were raised in Texas, you have a bit of a southern drawl that I don’t remember.  And I will take lots of pics of me and stuff and try and test out the camera to find faults ... I’m into takin wayy cool pics now, so get ready for some cool ones =]  also …Tell Lorrin to write me, the bum, he‘s going to speak Spanish in Milwaukee, Wisconsin haha that‘s awesome huh?  I’m glad to hear that grandma is ok, tell her to take care of herself, she is in my prayers.  Thank you so much for everything you guys do for me, I truly am very blessed to have such a wonderful supportive family.  So good news this week, WE’RE GOING TO GET A NEW SPANISH BIBLE PUBLISHED BY THE CHURCH IN SEPTEMBER!!!!  Right now we use the Reina Valera …published by the Catholics … it’s one of the oldest translations in Spanish, like the KJV, so it’s fairly correct … but this new one will have footnotes and everything, JST, hopefully some kind of TG and BD!  From what I have heard the church has been translating the KJV for a long time.  And it is being translated with the proper authority, so we can be assured that it is the most correct possible.  AHHH I’m so excited haha, I have yet to read the LDB or the SB … Santa Biblia in Spanish, but I’m still working through the Libro de Mormon.  So this past week not much happened, the wedding and baptism went well and just as planned so that’s all good.  The husband and son will get baptized, they just want to wait until the dad’s parents arrive from Guatemala on the 30th of the month, so hopefully we can get them baptized on the 2nd, cause that is the last Saturday in this transfer.  Then Elder Hawes and I will most likely get split up.  Usually the trainer leaves and someone else come and follow-up-trains.  So probably I’ll stay just were I am and I’ll get someone new to train me.  So we have right now 4 people ish set with a date for baptism, 2 are more promising than the others, sometimes Mexicans are just a bit lazy haha.  One of the more solid ones is named Juan Gomez … he was a previous investigator who was going to get baptized then all of the sudden flipped out and said that he knew that everything was false and not true (we think he was just scared of trying to stop smoking), according to what Elder Hawes tells me.  He is a hard core smoker and has read the LDM almost 7 times … he is very depressed and has no self confidence cause he thinks that he won’t be able to stop smoking.  But we finally found him and began to teach him and almost over night his attitude changed, he is trying to stop smoking and drinking coffee and is doing quite well, he smiles more and is doing better and better every day.  We have to work on his confidence level a bit, but it will come bit by bit.  It’s very cool to see the changes the gospel can bring in people.  Another person is Jose Campos, he is a brother of one of the members, and is doing very well.  He was also a former investigator that we found.  He was all set to get baptized and then when the interview time came he got scared off by one of the commandments … we don’t think he understood it cause we just taught it recently and he accepted it fine.  On our 2nd visit he was already to Nefi 5, and on the 3rd (only 2 days later) he was on Nefi 17.  He is amazingly smart, he takes notes on everything he reads.  He pretty much absorbs everything he reads if it’s not too difficult to understand.  He told us the entire story of Nefi, until he got to building the ship, with more details than you can imagine.  So it’s way cool.  Other than that just a normal week, nothing spectacular, just trying to work hard n stuff.  Oh, so in the very unlikely chance that I do get transferred … and the (hopefully) even more unlikely chance that I get put into a Bike area, would either mom or dad give me guide-lines for buying a bike?  I don’t know what kind or how much you want me to spend.  Missionaries spend 400+ usually … but that seems extremely high … like I was thinking 150 max … but then again I don’t really know anything about bikes or nothing, so yeah, and I’ll have to buy a bike eventually anyway, it’s a pretty much guarantee that I’ll get a bike area at least once in the mission, so these instructions could come in handy.  

Ok so it’s time for me to head out, lots of stuff to do as usual.  Remember that I love you all, thank you so much for all your love and support.  I hope that your Easter was filled with Christ and chocolate … Christ coming first of course =]  I read a lot this morning about the crucifixion of Christ and all of the events leading up to it … just like the Roman Guard … This man truly was the Son of God… you’re all in my prayers.

Love ya, Elder Cristobal Larsen =]

Mom thanks for the Easter Eggs with the scriptures, I can definitely use them in some kind of lesson, and no worries, remember the scriptures are the same more or less in Spanish and English, so all I have to do is switch Matthew to San Mateo haha.  Thanks for all your creative stuff, it’s awesome and makes me laugh and smile.  =]

Easter Week!

Hey guys whats up??

I'm doing fine, and we had a baptizm this past weekend between the conference sessions! haha  It was way cool, very spiritual and special day.  We had the first session and then a wedding of the Quel family, then the baptizms and confirmations of Juana and her daughter Katerine.  I baptized Katherine and confirmed Juana ... the confirmation was again in spanish ... jeezz scary.  Juana's husband Jose and son Steven will soon be baptized, we're going to try and set them this night for April 25 I think.  They know it's true and stuff.  They just have a few things that they want to work on before they get baptized.  Sooo we also set 2 more people with dates this week, a man named Saul, who calls me "little red" in his broken english and a man named Martin Barrera, whose family are all members but slightly less active.  Sooo the Lord is blessing us alot, we are stilll having trouble finding more people to teach, but we keep up the hope.  I hope you all enjoyed conference, I watched it in english so that i could understand fully what was being said ... some pretty amazing talks, my favorite was Elder Hollands ...very powerful.  Could you guys send me the DVD and CD(english) versions of Conference when they come out?  We could use them alot in lessons and stuff and I don't think that we can order them through the mission office.  So this week has been busy, we contine to average 25ish lessons.  Had a cool experiance too.  So we took Juana to one of our appointments with us (a few days before she was baptized) cause we thought that she would connect with the lady we were going to teach ... so we go over there, start the lesson and it went well, good and spiritual, strong, Juana is a very good teacher, then the doorbell rings and in walks some guy ... this lady's pastor ... sooo he kept quiet and listened to the end of the lesson about the Libro de Mormon and then just exploded with all this anti stuff ... basically started yelling and stuff ... telling us we had demons inside us and that we weren't Christian.  Then started on the list of standard anti stuff ... he was pretty hard core, we are sure that he prints anti literature and teaches against us.  So Elder Hawes shot him down a few times ... we didn't yell or anything, just defended ourselves ... we didn't want to be hypocrites ... and then the pastor turned to Juana and started on her ... I was scared for a bit cause this guy had some pretty hard core stuff....he tried to get her on polygamy and told her that she was a liar and that she had been misled ... then she started defending us and the church and herself ... I was very moved, she had a testimony that could not be shaken.  They continued to argue, him almost yelling at her ... which was totally un-Christ-like and rude ... plus she had brought her 3 year old with her cause she follows her everywhere ... and he was still yelling in front of a 3 year old ... so this guy is unbeliefable and I was getting frustrated ... cause he was being ridiculous ... Anywho, so we decided to leave and Elder Hawes asked if we could close with a prayer so we did and then he started to pray because apparently God wouldn't accept Elder Hawes' prayer ... so he prayed that the evil spirits would leave us and that we wouldn't waste our lives and that there is more to God than mormonisim and the book of Joseph Smith.  His prayer lasted like 5-10 mins no joke ... I find that funny cause we were just given a talk in General Conference about prayers haha ... anywho so we left, Juana said that she felt soo strong and resolved ... and she got baptized a few days later.  Moral of the story is ... pastors who have closed minds and no manners are ridiculous, and anyone with the spirit and with a testimony built upon the rock of Christ will never fall.

That was the most interesting experience of this week, hopefully we don't meet too many more pastors cause they waste our time with anti junk that isn't true.  I hope that grandma is feeling better and that she got my letter.  Also I hope  that you are all enjoying spring break ... it's spring break here so I'm assuming that it's somewhat the same for you guys.  Wade wrote me and told me that Lorrin got his mission call to Milwaukee WI!!! Spanish speaking!!!! hahah yay!!! tell that bum to write me, I want to hear from him ... he will see the importance of mail soon enough ... ojala.  

I'm doing my best to learn how to study, that's my biggest issue right now ... cause honestly ... I've never really studied before ... soooo I'm trying to learn how to do so effectively.  Oh and the camera came but I think you put that I had to sign for it or something cause I got a slip in the mail that said that they missed me and they couldn't just leave it on my door ... soooo I called and signed the paper thing authorizing them to re-deliver it and put in on my door step ... so hopefully I get it tomorrow or Wednesday ... I'm thinkin tomorrow.  This is my 2nd transfer so Elder Hawes and I only have like 4 more weeks left together ... then he'll get transferred most likely and I'll get a new comp ... a follow-up trainer.  

K I think it's time to leave, busy busy busy siempre estoy corriendo.  Tell Lorrin and Matthew and Casey (when he gets his call) congrats.  Remember this week, this week commemorates the last week of the Savior's life, there is a chapter in "Jesus the Christ" that I encourage you to read about his last week, I read most of it this morning and it's great.  Everything that Christ did for us happened mostly in this last week, all the events leading up to the garden the cross and his resurrection.  Christ did what he did for us so that we wouldn't have to go through the pain that he went through.  Read Doctrine and Covenants 19, it's great.  Because of Christ none of us have a one way ticket to this earth.  Always remember this.  Use the atonement of Jesus Christ, or else what he did was in vain ... which is a no no.  Enjoy Easter!  Que Les Vayan bien
love you guys

Sinceramente,

Elder Larsen

Study something each day this week about the Savior and you will grow stronger ... you will build your testimony more strongly upon the rock of our salvation ... on Christ ... just like Juana =]

Why Did Jesus Fold The Linen Burial Cloth?

Here is an email that Chris forwarded to us from his Mission President:

Why did Jesus fold the facial linen burial cloth after His resurrection?

 

The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin which was placed over the face of Jesus was not just thrown aside like the other grave clothing.  This verse tells us that the napkin was folded ("wrapped together in a place by itself") and placed elsewhere in that stony coffin.

 

Early Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.  She ran and found Simon Peter and "the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved."  She said, "They have taken away the Lord's body out of the sepulchre, and we don't know not where they have laid him!"  Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see.  The other disciple outran Peter and got there first.  He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside.  He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying to the side, "wrapped together in a place by itself."

 

Is that important?  Is it really significant?  Yes!

 

In order to understand the significance of a folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.  When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it.  The table was furnished perfectly, then the servant would wait just out of sight until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table until the master was finished. Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, clean his beard, and wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.  The servant would then know to clear the table; for in those days, the wadded napkin meant, 'I'm done'. But if the master got up from the table and folded his napkin and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because ... the folded napkin meant, 'I'm coming back!'

 

"Yes, He is coming back!"