hola hola

Hi family,

 

Mom thanks for answering my questions, it was good to read about your week, and good to know that it went good.  our week was really good we taught a ton of Less Active lessons this week and have continued our effort to save our dying branch.  Esmeralda is beind dificult to find lately, and among some drama and other things has stopped coming to church, well either that, or she is just working sundays now.  Sixto is good, we teach him every week like twice, he has this little desk full of all his books, he reads a ton and is learning and progressing, he just dives into all the manuals and stuff we give him.  he really likes the new gosple principles manuel and reads it in conjuction with the scriptures.  Elder Durrant came on exchanges with us on Tuesday, it was great to see him, he finishes in 2 weeks!  Zulema is doing good too, we gave her a permission slip to have her mom sign so that she can get baptised, she said that her mom is thinking about it, we need to pray ALOT!!!!  her mom is super catholic and it will take God's hand to soften her heart so Zulema can get baptised.  ALSO we found a new investigator eariler this week named Jose Nunez..... a mexican man with a wife and baby, he is like mid to late 30's and has a full fledged Mulet!  HILARIOUS!!!  we taught him yesterday and he took his hat off and it was almost too much for me to handle haha, i have never seen nor to i plan to see a mexican with a mulet.  anywho, he is really cool and has a strong desire to do what is right, we were able to set a baptisimal goal with him for the 4th of December so hopefully we will be able to realize that goal.  i know that he can do it if he has the desires to know for himself.  he was really excited to set the date.  

AH funny thing that happened, so we were visiting a spanish guy who is kind of less active in the english ward, i have no idea why he is in the english ward, cause he gets along better with us, anywho, so they had picked a little white puppy up off the street and he had that virus that all puppies get and he was going to die, so juan's wife got some vaccine and started to try and save the puppy, and we were over here and they asked us to give the dog a blessing..... and we were like... ummmm ok.  and what makes it funny is cause a few days earlier some other elders in our zone got the same question.  so we decided that it would really be the same thing if we just said a prayer for him and probably a little less blasfemous, if it turned out that we weren't supposed to give dogs blessings, so we said a prayer for the dog, Champuppy, and today the elders who cover juans ward told us that the dog is all better now HA.  we asked president if we were allowed to give blessings to dogs and he said no, that we're supposed to say a prayer for them, which, if done with faith, will bring about the same effect.  faith really does work, i know that to be true.  we are focusing on Patience this month and president Murri shared something really cool with us:

 

“Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father.  Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best–better than does God.  Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His.  Either way we are questioning the reality of God’s omniscience.”     –Elder Neal A. Maxwell--

...some food for thought.  Dad just got your email, glad to hear that your talk went well.  we have had a gloomy week, today is the first day the sun has been out in a couple of days so it's nice.  ok, well, the time is gone, we have a ton of stuff to do today and we have an exchange tonight so everything will be a bit rushed.  i love you all and hope that your week goes well.

 

Love,

Elder Larsen

67 days eh Derek?

Hey Family,

 

we had an excellent week!  we taught 15 Less Active/Recent Convert lessons this week, i've never taught that high in that particualar key indicator, we're making a focus on the LA's cause our Branch is DYING!  and we have a ton of YSA Less Actives as well even though we're techinically not supposted to have any LA's in a YSA ward ever.... anywho, to answer questions:  Chp 4 of preach my gosple is excellent as well as Chp 5 about the BOM, i like those two chapters alot, might be a good place to start. Sactificaion and the holy ghost...... Elder Bednar's last conference talk was about that, it was good, i dunno, you're super smart dad i'm sure it will turn out great.  and no my Google/MYLDS mail doesn't have a timer on it, i'm  pretty sure that if president wanted to he is able to get on the comp and see for how long we are logged on, but there is no timer persay on mine.  

so i'm not sure if i've told you about one of our investigators named Zulema, but she is awesome and just eating up the gosple.  she is 16 almost 17 and loves to learn more about God, she will hopefully, if we can convince her mom, be getting baptised on the 30 of October.  Sixto is doing awesome!  he has like this small desk thing were he keeps all his books, he reads them alot and is studying from Preach my Gosple and True to the Faith and the new Gosple Principles book and is learning and progressing a ton.  he's awesome, he should be getting the priesthood next week too!  Esmeralda is doing ok, she has been having to work the past 3 sundays so we're a bit worried about her, we will be doing our best to contact her this week.  we had a meeting with the stake presidency yesterday and they told us that alot of people are in an uproar about Elder Packer's talk, i don't know why.... well yeah, i do, but it's a dumb reason to be all upset about it, God sets the rules and being upset isn't gonna change anything(i learned that one from you mom haha  ;]  ), anywho, so they gave us a copy of the talk to read to be prepared for any reprocussions that we might see, they said that they don't expect much negative results here, but that some organization is like planning to march in Salt Lake or something to try and make Elder Packer refute what he said.... like that's gonna happen.... anywho, so yeah, it's an excellent talk, i hope it isn't his last.  

so BHL saw you all at conference?  i didn't... i was looking but i didn't see any of you.  we didn't have anything crazy happen this week, just working hard as always, i have a ton of thank you cards to wrtie today cause i wasn't able to last week, so Grandma Larsen and Matteson, you'll be getting a letter soon.  SO yesterday we found an awesome new investigator named Jose Nunez.... and he totally has a mullet!  it's hillarious, he's super awesome too, we believe that he has a lot of potential, we hope so cause we need to rebuild our area.  oh, so the rest of my birthday was good, we just hung out at the house all day, all the elders and sisters sung happy birthday to me after we finished emailing.  Rich and Kim sent me a gift card to target and i used that to buy a light weight jacket that is pure awesomeness.  it gets cold here at night and sometimes it's nice to have a jacket, so yeah i'll send pictures soon.  anywho, so then we went to FHE for the YSA and taught it and it was good and they all sung happy birthday and gave me a big like  2 Lbs bucket of skittles and other candy, then we drove to Venura for ZLC and had that meeting the next day then when we were in the mission office picking up supplies sister benson started the whole office singing to me, so i got sung to alot. 

 

anywho, my time is acabado, finished and i have lots of other things to do, so i hope that you all have an excellent week, i look forward to next week when i get to write you again, i love you all alot, can't vote to change God's laws, don't forget it!

 

Elder Larsen

Gracias por todos los regalos!

Buenos Dias!!!!

Hi family, how are you all doing?  man do i feel blessed, 2 reasons, #1 i most definatly have the coolest family in the entire world, #2 Conference was absolutely amazing!!!  i immensly enjoyed all the cards and words of love and encouragement that i recieved for my birthday, it is obvious that i am loved and for that i am grateful.  Thank you for all the gifts, odd or not mom they are much apprieciated, i had my comp take pics this morning as i opened them so next time i send you all my camera card you'll get to see them, thank you for the sweets, my companion and i will enjoy them.  so funny fact, last week i recieved something, a package or a letter, sometimes 2, every day last week, Mon-Sat, haha my companion was awstruck haha, i've been blessed with alot of mail throughout my entire mission, i have alot of friends that support me and brighten my day.  Hey, question, will i get a new drivers license now that i'm 21?  if i do i guess you'll probably just send it to me, you all are always on the ball like that.  also, i'll stop checking my card at non wells fargo ATMs, i thought that a balance inquiry was always free.... probably is, just not here in Cali-swindle-ya.  i cannot call though cause we're not allowed to call 800 or toll free numbers..... don't know why.... i dunno, anywho, there is a wells fargo here in town so i'll go there if i need an inquiry.  Kenidee and Derek.... you made a paper chain until i get home??? are you two trunky or what, i don't even have one of those haha, i guess a calander is enough for me huh?  you two are funny.  once again thank you all for everything you do for me, i feel truly blessed. 

#2 CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING!!!!  probably the best conference that i have ever seen up to this point in my life, i loved all the discourses and messages that were presented and given.  Elder Holland's talk was surprising but excellent, (we think the Lord maybe told him to calm down a bit with his intens-ness), i really enjoyed Elder Kearon's message in the priesthood session about being 100% obedient.  there were alot of repeated themes, topics, and surprisingly scriptures.  mom, HA ummmm so that last session of conference when the new 70 talked about no sleepovers.... i totally thought of you and how "mean" and "unfair" you were when i was younger by not letting me do sleepovers.... well, i'm sorry, i understand now and agree with it..... i was thinking alot about all the dumb, and probably stress causing, things that i did to make your lifes complicated, i truly am sorry and plan on being better when i get home (in a long long long time).  i'm super excited to be able to study the new conference issue that we'll get in November, i seem to get alot more out of the messages when i am able to study them.  HAHA what did you think about The Prophets little singing debut?  i'll bet that isn't printed in the ensign, just like his entire welcoming last conference wasn't included in the magazine cause he went off for like 5 mins on something about his wife... another funny moment "you may be asking yourselves, what does that have to do with flying airplanes?"  haha i think that was probably the funniest joke/comment in the whole conference.

anywho, my time is up, thank you so much for everything, we truly are in the truth, and the truth will make us free if we CHOOSE to allow it to influence our lifes. i love you all so much and pray for your continued safty, Grandma Larsen i'll be writing you, don't think i forgot about you =].  Question....could someone maybe find me that talk in which were given those 14 points about prophets by President Benson?  i hope you have a good week, if i can do anything for you please just let me know!!

LOVE,

Elder Larsen