week 3 is done and over with

howdy howdy howdy,

hey que pasa?  how is everyone?  well this week was pretty awesomely cool!  we had Zone conference on Monday, and on Saturday we had a 3 hour meeting with Elder Bednar and Elder Robbins of the 1st quorum of the 70, it was pretty crazy!!!  we had a pretty busy week and taught alot, worked real hard, it was a good week.  Elder Bills is continuing to learn alot, his spanish is getting alot better, now i have to get out of the habit that i got into our first week together . . . talking too much, haha i'm working on it though, we both teach and are doing better at being unified.  

so this week we went to the hospital here in Santa Paula cause one of our members, who has had a really hard life health-wise, had got some weird infection in some urine tract and then it went to all her blood and it really messed her up.  we were walking randomly on some street and her husband, who is also a member, super cool guy, was driving back to the hospital and he stopped us and asked if we could come and give her a blessing.  so we did, or rather we assisted, he gave the blessing.  she was in the ICU and not doing too good.  she has had both shoulders replaced, both knees, both hips, one elbow, and still has arthuritis, plus heart problems, i felt super bad for her.  so anyway, she got pneumonia the next day and she started hallucinating cause of the pain drugs and she started seeing kids dumping dirty water all over her and so because she was having trouble breathing they had to transfer her to Ventura cause they didn't have some apparatus for breathing . . . soooo basically the reason for all this, she could really use your prayers, her husband too.  their names are Nestor and Luisa Rodriguez.  

SOOOO Elder Bednar is hillarious, i've always taken him to be one of the more serious apostols, and he kinda is, but we were laughing alot, the good kind of laughing.  he said about 3 times "now don't put this in any blog home or i will do bad things to you" hahaha and then he would proceed to teach us and tell us things that are only for missionary ears haha.  he said that alot of times we play a game in the church "metaphoricly speaking" called "guess what is in my head" we ask or put people on the spot and aske questions where the specific answer is only in our heads.  and by doing so, we turn our investigators or whoever is recieving the question, into an object that is "acted upon", and we know that we were created to "act".  it's pretty craazy, he talked alot about how deep the priciple of agency goes, maybe i'll write more about that later, i've learned a ton about faith and agency lately.  also good news, I GOT FOUND NOT GUILTY!!!!! yay i don't have to pay the ticket and they will return the money to me in 60 days or less!!  i was quite happy to receive that notice!  i will be able to survive for a little longer now, that's a plus right?  

Elder Bednar really stregnthened my testimony, or rather, the spirit and information that elder bednar taught us helped me to strengthen my testimony about prophets and apostols in our days, it is true, he is a prophet/ seer/ revelator from God, something he taught me was that love or charity or anything that we use as missionaries really, is a gift from God, so we have to ask for it (then go do it, or try to fulfill what we asked for other wise it's a faith-less/ God do everything for me  prayer) and if we recieve it is given to us so that we can help others, and inadvertently it helps us as well . . . not entirely sure that was the correct usage of that word, but hopefully you understand me.  it was quite a mission conference . . . the entire mission was there!!!  

alright i gotta get running, oh quick story, so right before we came to do email we went to get hair cuts, HA and it's this little spanish place and we go ther cause it's cheap, but the ladies can't speak english very well. anywho, so Elder Bills didn't know what he wanted and couldn't really explain what he wanted and now he lookes like a skinhead haha super short HA and interviews are in like 4 days HA aww man we laughed for a good long time once we were in the car!  and i forgot to bring your letter, thank you so much for the letters and pictures, taylor, you're crazy.  so if there were any important questions i'll write home.  i hope all is well with everything, take care and never let anyone take your testimony, in the end it's one of the most valuable things you have!  Love you!!!

Elder Larsen

YEAH! YEAH!! Chris sent his Picture Card Home!!!

To everyone who follows Christopher's blog - here are some of the best of the three months of pictures he sent home.  Enjoy!

Elder Larsen and Elder Mendez, ready to preach the gospel!  Jan 27, 2010

So I guess they are Rubix Cube wizards, too??? 

Santa Paula.  Feb 6, 2010

Davawn's baptism day.  Feb 13, 2010

Christopher with some oranges.  Feb 24, 2010

Here's some words of wisdom right by the front door in their apartment in Santa Paula.

Chris in his apartment in Santa Paula.  Mar 14, 2010

Victor's baptism.  President Castro performed the baptism.  Mar 14, 2010

Christopher hiking on P-Day with some other elders.  Mar 15, 2010

Here's the damage to his pants (and leg I think) that happened when he raced another elder down the mountain!

Elder Larsen out on the streets.  Mar 24, 2010

Chris in his apartment.  Mar 31, 2010

District meeting.  Mar 31, 2010

A member family on Easter Sunday.  Christopher brought Easter eggs with scriptures and symbols about Christ's crucifixion and resurrection in them so after the girls found the eggs, they had an Easter lesson with them then had dinner.

Overlooking Santa Paula.  Apr 5, 2010

What can I say?

Christopher with Elder Mendez on transfer day.  Apr 6, 2010

Christopher's new companion, straight from the MTC, Elder Bills.  Apr 6, 2010

Elder Larsen is still EATING well!  Apr 11, 2010

Hey Family!!

Hey guys!

sorry for not writing yesterday, we had zone conference so we got our pday changed to tuesday, sorry for not telling you sooner, i forgot to mention it last week.  please send me our bishops address, i will definatly write him and thank him.  so we had an awesome week, we found 6 new investigators and taught alot of lessons, man i´m tellin ya my greenie likes to work hard.  we´re walkin alot cause we are taking a hard hit with miles this month, a bunch more trips to ventura because of elder bednar coming and we had zone conference in camarillo so it was a good 60 mile day yesterday.  ok, so as far as my shoes, they just split from side to side, both pairs right where my foot bends, like right under the palm of my foot???  man, i´m using a computer that is old and it´s all in spanish, it´s for spanish people but it was the only one open, the keyboard is spanish and so are all the programs . . . . . pretty trippy, that's why i´m not using capitals, cause it´s ridiculously hard to push shift anywho, so yeah i´ll take pics of the shoes and send them home, today i will print the pics for the member that wanted them.  i do ok with them as long as it isn´t raining . . . . . which it is today and tomorrow.  


Sister Benson, she is the mission nurse, she is from logan, her and her husband are here on a mission.  she is super cool, she´s just like you mom, it´s weird, you two would get along great.  anywho, i´ll be careful, my back doesn´t hurt too bad, i´m focusing on relaxing my back and shoulders at all times, my shoulders are always all tight and shrugged for some odd reason.  BHL is going to walk 11 miles a day???  wow, that is neat, we walk alot, but i´m not sure how much.  i attend elders quorum and the gosple principles class, sometimes i teach the elders quorum, elders are super humans that can do anything without a moments notice haha, or supposedly that´s how it is.  we usually have an argument about some point of doctrine and i usually end up telling them how it really is, not to sound like i know everything, but that´s what usually happens.  wow mom, your yearbook deal sounds like its consuming alot of your time, i'm sure you are happy to be over with it, you should send some examples of your PDF´s to me in a letter, i would love to see your work.  no worries about the late card from hna campos, she is awesome, i'll write her back, i'm surprised she thought i had gone home.


ah, and if we get put in a different ward/stake let me know cause i gotta tell the mission office.  so we are happy and doing well, i hope that all the preparations for BHL are going well, if there is anything i can do let me know, BHL if you have any  questions ask me eh?  i´m super excited for elder bednar to come, we´re taking a mission picture too, the entire mission, almost 200 missionaries, crazy huh?  thanks for the super hero candy stuff, it´s tasty haha.  


elder bills is getting better with his spanish, even though he doesn´t think so, you guys should write him and tell him hi, give him a little support. my spanish has improved too lately cause i've had to do most of the  talking . . . . . unfortunatly i´ve gotten a little faster . . . . . it´s bad, i gotta figure some way to slow myself down haha.  dad i´m so glad that your´job is working out fine, it sounds exciting, i´m sure a challenge is fun, being challenged is hard sometimes, but it makes us grow and it is fun usually after a while.  thank you for keeping me in your lifes kenidee and jordan and derek, it´s great to know what you are doing and what you like and stuff, that play deal sounds fun, take pictures.  my guess is that BHL continues to work and TRL continues to try to get HUGE, course he already is GIGANGTIC not much more improvment can be made i would imagine hahaha.  


well remember that i love you all, the church is true, there is not a single doubt in my mind nor heart, read the scriptures and figure out why you believe what you believe.  make the scriptures and the doctrine of christ YOURS!  that is what i have done, i can back up pretty much any point of doctrine with the words of God´s prophets or with his own words. remember to do the simple little things so that the big blessings can come.  i love you alll once again, and look forward to hearing from you soon.  until next week,

Love, Elder Larsen

Week 1 of Training........done

Hola Hola Hola!

Hi family how are you all doing?  i hope you are doing well, i'm doing excelent despite being dead tired haha, training is tough work cause i pretty much had to haul alot of weight last week, and will continue to do so until my new comp gets accustomed to the work.  i never realized how much i'm used to "The Life of a Missionary" haha all the weird things we do and the lingo and terms and way we live are quite different than those of the outside world haha, i've realized that more and more as i've gone throughout my week.  Elder Bills is awesome, he's working me into the ground, he has quite  a desire to work and to teach, we taught alot of lessons last week, pretty cool.  i've been doing my best to teach him spanish and all the things he needs to know to be a good missionary . . . not that i know them all . . . but i'm trying.  he's HUGE!!!!!  he is from provo and played on BYU's Football team . . . jeezzz just makes me look even more small . . . i swear his forarms are bigger than my biceps . . . course i'm small but still haha.  he is awesome although a little frustrated sometimes with his ability to speak spanish, but he's improving little by little.  we've been walking alot this past week cause he likes to walk so my poor knees were whining pretty badly but i think they are getting better, i think i'm going to stretch more and see if that looses up whatever is behind and under my knees, cause that's what hurts haha.  how goes the new job?  and the yearbook?  school?  mission prep?  hey what day is BHL going into the MTC?  Elder Bills has a friend going to Sao Paulo too . . . oh and what mission is BHL going to in Sao Paulo?  

hey, so guess what?  Emiliano is going to get baptised this weekend!!!  he had his interview with president yesterday and everything turned out great!  so sometime on Saturday he will be getting baptised, he has asked me to baptise him!  just a special experience.  i hope that everything turns out ok.  

oh, i hope you all got my letter last week, sorry for not emailing, we ran out of time and i forgot to mention that the website was down last week and so by the time we had waited for it to be available we had to leave and start saying goodbye to everyone.  mannn so we waited all morning long for president to call us, usually we get calls before 11 but we didn't get them till almost 12 i think, he told us we were the very last call that he had to make.  he said Elder Larsen, do you know who your companion is?  i said no, and he said We're going to the airport to pick him up right now . . . took me a few seconds to register and then he was like, do you know what that means?  and i was "I'mmmm Training???????????" ahhhhhh so scary i had no idea what to expect, but i am sure that i got the best greenie out of the whole lot!  AND i think i already told you this maybe, but Hermana Hanson is serving in our branch now, she is going home at the end of this transfer probably! AHHHHH how ironic, we came in together and now we are int he same branch as she ends her mission, CRAZYYY, and she is training tooo ohhhhhhhhhhh annnd elder bills and Hermana hatch (Hermana hanson's greenie) were both in the same district in the MTC ANNNNDDD they were in the same Branch in the MTC that Hermana Hanson and I were in!  sooo cooincidental . . . or not, but it's cool, sister Evans (my MTC branch president's wife) sent with Hermana hatch a note that had Hna hanson's name and dates of service and my name with my dates of service . . . pretty nuts if you think about it.  so we are going to take a picture and send it to the Evans, 4 missionaries from their branch in the MTC, serving together as companions.  

sooo cool, another cool thing, Elder Bednar is coming to meet with the entire mission on the 24th (i think) of April!!! the entire mission is coming to the ventura stake center!  it will be the 1st mission conference since the christmas of 2008, which was when the general Authorities said no more mission conferences.  so we get to meet with Elder Bednar and he's going to end our little mission conference with a Question and Answer session . . . ahhh so nervous/excited.  haha, it's going to be awesome.  

oooook, mom, i have a little request, Axel, the 7 year old son of Hno and Hna Presiado has finished the "Stories From The Book of Mormon"  and i told him i'd get him another book to read about the church.  there are 3 more books in the series, one about the history of the church and one for the old testimant and one for the new testimant, i was wondering if you could order the "church history" one and send it to me, i believe the shipping and handling is free, but i lost my catolog from the distrubution center so i can't order it and the mission won't do it cause he's not technically an investigator.  pay for it out of my debit account . . . PS my debit card is going to expire soon . . . how do i replace it?  not that i'll have any money on it anyway soon, haha, but i probably should have the card . . . it's set to expire in June.  soo my court date to decide what happens with my ticket is set for the 23 of April i believe, so we'll figure out what happens then, and i'm pretty sure if i lose then i'll get a bill for the court fees as well which are some where around $80 i think . . . 

ANYWAYYYY so we are doing good, working really hard to find some new investigators cause we are going to have to drop 2 of them because they just won't do anything, it's really sad . . . one knows that the BOM is true and that Joeseph Smith was a prophet, he has told me repededly this, and he still won't come to church or get baptised cause he is 100% Catholic and has alot of faith in his church . . . and the other investigator just won't keep any comitments . . . sad, but hopefully we will find some new investigators that are more willing to become closer to God.  ok well the time is up, i gotta get going, i hope you all are well, if there is anything i can do for you just let me know.  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Elder Larsen

Letter received in Mail

April 6, 2010


Hello Family,

I'm so sorry for not emailing you guys.  We got held up with so many things to do and then we had to start visiting all the members in Santa Paula because Elder Mendez is getting transferred!!!!  He is going Senior!  He is going to East Bakersfield to follow-up train an Elder Richards.  And I, oh dear, am TRAINING!  Ahhh I'm getting a greeny to be my comp here in Santa Paula.  All so scary and yet exciting at the same time we'll see what happens.  I have to give some pictures to a member but I'll get my camera card home as soon as I can.  No worries…

(typing now) haha that didn't last long, my hand is too tired, man I'm getting old.  So how was everyone's Easter?  Mine was wonderful, mom, remember those eggs that you gave me last year?  I was finally able to use them with some members last night.  We duplicated the set into 3 sets and hid the eggs all over their yard and the 3 little girls went and found them, afterward we ate dinner and had a short lesson on the atonement and Easter and it was all excellent.

So conference was awesome, wow, boy am I glad that we have Prophets and seers and revelators in our days, especially with all these random earthquakes in divers places.  After conference there was another one in Mexicali, Mexico.  The aftershock of it is supposed to hit us some time today I think, but I'm pretty sure that we won't feel anything here in Santa Paula, we're too far away.  

Mom thank you so much for your package, mother, the size doesn't matter to me a bit, it is who it's from that makes all the difference for me, thank you so much for caring for me, ha I enjoyed the cadbury eggs, they are all gone and I'm still working on the cookies  and creme eggs haha.  Derek you are quite the card maker, just like me with err when I was little, thank you for taking the time to make me a super cool Easter card.

Yeah, so my back problems kinda subsided.  I just removed my box spring and I sleep on my mattress on the floor.  I took pictures haha, and sister Benson is having me take Tylonol PM, pretty sure I didn't spell that right, and it helps me to sleep all throughout the night and makes the back pains go away.  She is going to send me some excersises to strengthen my back and loosted my vertibraes or something like that, and I'm trying hard to stand up straight.  

Ah guess what, so in our branch there are 2 sets of Elders, 1 set here in Santa Paula and 1 set in Ventura, well President is taking both Elders out of Ventura and putting in Hermana Hanson and she will also be training!  How ironic, I came in with her, and she isnow going to "die" or go home in the same ward that I am in.  Pretty crazy, she is a crazy good missionary, man how I would like to be like her.  This is her last transfer I think.  Thank you for sending me emails from Matthew and Casey, they sound like they are both doing great, I'm excited for them.

How goes the mission preparations?  Good I hope.  On Mother's Day when I call President said that I can have an extra 15 minutes to talk with Brandon because I won't be seeing him for a long time, so I'm excited for that.  I hope that he will be home.

Grandma, thank you so much for your letter and the money, it helped me to make ends meet for the month.  I'm going to write you a letter, I'm just a slacker/ I don't have any time for anything on P-day.  But next P-day I'm going to set apart some time for writing letters, I kinda got behind again.  Well, I'm sorry again for not writing yesterday… know that I am still alive and well and that I will for sure write next week.  Remember that I love you all and pray for your continued success in everything that you do.  How is Dad with the new job?

Love Elder Larsen