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

transfer almost over....i'm getting old......:///////

Familia Larsen!!!! Que Tal?  Como les ha ido?

WOOOOO HOOOOO  way to go dad!  i'm excited for you!  that is awesome, i will be praying for you, i'm sure you'll do great, i hope everything goes well and that you get the job!  wow, what great news, that made my day!  well we had a pretty good week, some really good working days, and i feel happy.  time passes us by so fast, it's insane, i still can't believe that i've been here for almost 16 months!  transfers are next monday, we're pretty sure that elder mendez is leaving this time because he's been here for 6 months, i keep telling  him he's going to go to bakersfield haha, he needs to go there it'll be good for him. 

sooo we talked to alot of cool people this week, now we just have to contact them again haha the hard part of missionary work, i finally am starting to get my "preachers collar" back, haha i got burnt on wednesday i think and i looked like a lobster, AND we contacted this lady in the street and she started laughing at me cause i was white and speaking spanish!!!!! that's one thing i won't miss about having elder mendez with me haha it will be 2 white guys and we'll both be equally surprising when we speak spanish.  anywho, the sunburn wasn't bad, i didn't peel or anything so i'm starting to get more tan . . . well my face and neck are . . . everything else is pearly white haha, preachers collar man, crazy.  on friday it was super super super windy, like there were points when it almost knocked me over haha, it was fun, but no one was outside cause of the wind and we didn't talk to many people.  

are you all excited for conference next week?  i am!  it's gonna be awesome, my 3rd one in the mission . . . . . jeezz, elder mendez never forgets to remind me that i'm 10 months older than he is, so i'm starting to have back issues, i moved back to sleeping on the floor and it seems to help a little bit, soooo anyone know any streches or excersises that i can to do strengthen my back muscles so i can stand up more straight?  elder mendez says that's my problem, that my back muscles are weak or something, i'm trying to not hunch over, but it's hard to remember to stand up straight, anywho, any suggestions would be helpful.  

so yesterday we had church and Victor passed the sacrament!!!!  he came in a white shirt, we had to find him a tie so i'm going to give him one, and dress pants and everything, he looked super sharp, so he passed sacrament it was awesome!  so we then went back to santa paula to Emeliano's house cause Hno Aranda (who is his friend who is a member) called us and told us that Emeliano wanted to talk to us about something.  so we went and he told us basically, he got a bit nervous, that he had recieved his answer to whether or not he should get baptised.  i know that he knows, he says he feels peace and happiness when we come over, when he reads the BOM and when he goes to church.  the only problem that he might have is that his "Wife" is kind of against him getting baptised, they aren't married but have a couple of kids, Emeliano is here working to support them.  soooooo emeliano is going to call her on thursday and propose basically, or talk about marriage with her and if everything works well he should be getting baptised on the 17th of April.  we are going to fast for him on Wednesday, he's ready for baptism, i really hope and pray that this issue doens't detain him, he has great fellowship, we'll see what happens on thursday.  We finally talked to Davawn on Wednesday, we drove all the way to ventura to mutual where she was at to talk to her.  she hasn't been to church for 4 weeks and we haven't taught her all transfer, so needless to say we were quite worried and a bit frusterated.  but we finally found her and figured out that her grandma, who she lives with, for some reason always does something to keep her from going to church, one week Davawn had to go help her buy groceries, one week she had to Babysit wile grandma went and gambled, one week there was some random family funeral, and i can't remember what happened the other week, but the important thing is that she has wanted to come, she hasn't not been coming on purpose.  anywho, so she is on spring break this week and is just getting back today from visiting her mother so we are going to try to teach her on tuesday, it's about time huh?  but she is doing good.  

hey, question....can i wear a brown/light blue/white/gray/tan tie with gray pants???? it's an awesome tie . . . . i just can't figure out what i can wear it with . . . . i was going to go to a bunch of thrift stores and get me a pair of brown stove top shoes and a pair of brown pants BUT $$ is non existant and we don't have very many thrift stores here in Santa Paula, so i was wondering if i could wear the tie with something i've got or if i have to wait till i get home or sell it to someone ....... Elder Mendez is no help .... soooo you fashon experts, please help me i plead!  i'll send my camera card home next week after i get a picture of my new companion so you can see what he looks like.  how is everyone?  school?  sports?  scouts?  grades?  funny things that happen?  how is Max?  ok well i gotta get goin, i hope everything going great in your week, let me know how everyone is doing.  remember to pay attention to conference, i'm sure they will tell us some pretty awesome things!  take notes and sing loud!  i love each and every one of you, the church is true, there is no doubt in any fiber of my being, god loves us and has given us the means to complete the measure of our creation, now it's up to us, take advantage of it.

Love, elder larsen

howdy do!

Howdy Family, how are you all doing?

 

i haven't been able to check the mail today so i don't know if i got anything from you.  we had an interesting week, really hard, we had good things happen and other stuff too.  Emeliano finally has a baptisimal date, it is for the 17th of April.  we had a really good lesson with him about faith, it went well and he decided to show his faith that he says he has by putting a date for baptism.  we also had a good lesson with Candido about faith, but he still doesn't really want to get baptised, he said he is thinking about it though, he has the question in his mind.  so hopefully we can get him to church.  ahhh it's so hard to get people to church when church is 20 mins down the freeway, we talked to a lady and she asked if we had a church in town, her husband got deported and she has to work to support her two kids who are under 4 years old ... she barely makes it, so she doesn't have a car, super humble lady, but she kinda looked sad when we told her that we met in ventura ... so frusterating, we are really gonna push to get a group here in Santa Paula.  

ah, so we talked to that Catolic missionary for a good 45 mins after i finished emailing, he pretty much talked the whole time about random stuff, we told him what we do as missionaries, then two days ago we saw him contacting people on the street haha he's pretty devoted, we might try to talk to him.  my mind is drawing a blank as far as things to write.  BHL i wrote you a card and will send it tomorrow, sorry it's gonna be late, i never have any time to do anything personal sorry ... but Happy Birthday, you're good and OLD now haha, i hope you are looking forward to your mission, you'll have the time of your life if you prepare now for your mission.  

how are all my siblings?  it's spring break here in SP and all the kids are everywhere just running around and causing havoc.  i read a really cool talk this week about all the different kinds of missionaries in a mission, it really modivated me to strive for a higher level of preformance as a missionary.  i think i will send it to BHL and he can read it, it's really good, that way he can be the best missionary ever right from the beginning.  so i don't know what is happening with my ticket, i haven't recieved anything in the mail, maybe you guys can see more info on the internet or something.  my camera card is getting full, i'll send it home soon.  how is the weather?  it's starting to get hot here in Santa Paula, but we have a pretty consisten ocean breeze so it's bearable.  the transfers are coming up, we will have transfers on the 5th of April, and we're both pretty sure that Elder Mendez is getting transfered to bakersfield because bakersfield makes missionaries into men haha.  and who knows what will happen to me, i hope to stay here and continue to do my best here in Santa Paula.  my back is kinda getting better, i gave up on sleeping on a bed and am now sleeping on the floor, and it has helped a little bit.  i bought another pair of pants for $4 at goodwill to replace my black ones that i ripped, i might try to attempt to repair them cause if not i can't wear my black suit ... but we'll see, i'm not too good with a needle, maybe i'll ask Victor, he's a seamster?????  Sister hanson is going home in 2 transfers ... time flys by super fast, i don't know if it's flown by for you guys, but for me it definatly has.   i hope all is well, sorry for not having much to write about, we worked this week, just nothing seemed to happen ... who knows the reasons, the important thing is that we always continue working and giving our all so that we may find ourselves worthy of the blessings that will come.  thank you all for all your patience and support, i hope you have a fun week doing whatever you all do.  please pray for us. 

 

how is grandma larsen?  i haven't heard much about her for a while and i miss her.

 

Love ya!

 

Elder Larsen

Howdy Family

Howdy Family,

 

how are you all this week ... a Catholic Missionary who is on another computer just came and asked me for some pointers on missionary work ... weird ... cool guy, real nice.  well this week went by super fast!  i'm writing a little late cause we went on a hike with the Fillmore Elders ... wow ... what a hike, we went trudging through the brush of the mountains here, we drove 30 mins up some small dirt road high in the mountains, i took lots of pictures mom no worries haha.  but now i'm all sun burnt and super scratched up, i turfed it on the way back cause i was racing Elder Jumper to the car, he jumped ahead of me and i hit a rock and down i went, ripped up my jeans and my shin haha oh well, bodies are good at fixin' themselves.  

VICTOR GOT BAPTISED!!!!  we went by on Sunday morning to make sure he was coming to church and no one answered the door ... so we were all sad and depressed cause we figured that he had got called in to work again, so we get back to church in ventura and elder mendez gets the feeling to call him again, so he did, and victor answered!  he had been asleep!  the dang day light savings messed everyone up!  so we drove all the way back out to Santa Paula and picked him up and brought him to church.  as it turns out, he did get called in to work on sunday, but he told them no, and that he had something to do today!  YAY VICTOR!!!!  so his baptism was at 4 PM directly after church, Sister Hanson (my MTC District) came with Sister De Leon, cause they were close in Oxnard, and they were the ones who found him, so they both came and gave the baptism and Holy Ghost talk and it was great, President Castro baptised him and Hermano Rodriguez Confirmed him.  everything turned out great, the branch loves victor alot, they were happy to see him get baptised, then we went to the Castro's House for a celebration and we ate there and then got forced to watch "A Standard to the Nations" which talkes about the groth of the church in the world, it was good, we all then bore our testimonies for victor and he said he was really happy.  he's awesome!  

we had Zone Conference this past week, it was good, we talked alot about alot of different stuff, now it's my job to impliment the stuff i learned in ZC and put it into my District Meetings.  we found this gold mine of mexicans the other day.  we were tracting and we saw 2 small alleys on both sides of a small house, we decided to go down them and we found like 20 apartments tucked into this little U shaped road.  20 apartments in the middle of a city block.  the cool thing is that every single one of the doors we knocked on, minus one cause no one answered, told us we could come back, 2 of them had even read the Book of Mormon before, and one teenager said that her brother is a mormon and that he likes to go out and preach ... but we think she was mistaking us with the Jehova's Witnesses cause we have no idea who she is talking about ... but we'll see, i think we may go by later today.  Dad, sorry for not mentioning all the things you sent me a while ago, the talk by President Uchdorf and the other things, I read and kept them all, sorry it's hard to keep track of stuff and to remember to say thanks for stuff, my memory fails me quite often.  i slept really well last night which was good cause i haven't been sleeping well at all.  Ah mom i sent in that form, it got to me on tuesday.  i even drew a little diagram haha i took pictures, it's funny.  we'll see if by getting them to laugh i can get cleared.  and if i'm not cleared i can re-apply for a re-trial and me and elder mendez are going to come up with a mathmatical problem that proves that it was impossible for me to stop in time without hitting the guy ... should be interesting .. .Elder Mendez is good at math ... whereas i have forgotten everything i learned in High School ..... Great ... college should be fun huh?  i hope some of it comes back when i am released.  

we had a good lesson with Emeliano about Faith and baptism, he is doing good, he was really intent and paying attention during the lesson, pretty soon we will try to set him with a date, then it's do or die for him ... same with Candido, we haven't seen him all week long, it's been hard to find him.  we have met a few less actives this week that are not on our records  so that is good, we have some appointements with them.  so recently i've been going through the bible reading the new testement and finding bible scriptures to back up the restored gosple, it isn't too hard it's just alot of searching.  lots of different topics, it's helping cause i really don't know my bible by references, i can tell stories and teach doctrine, but i as far as such and such book and this specific verse, not so good at it .... but i'm improving and its strengthening my testimony .... i've also discovered that the Bible is definatly not translated correctly ..... whoever intentionally took those plain and precious stuff out is gonna be in big trouble with God .... cause i've found some really weird stuff that has been twisted by mistranslations .... anywho, it's going good so far, i'm almost done with Matthew in my reading and I am just finishing 2nd Nephi in my Book of Mormon reading .... you'd think that missionaries have a ton of time to just read but we don't ... at least i don't, i'm always studying for other people and making lessons and stuff, i have to make special time to just read .... but i'm doing better.  

how is everyone?  how is the mission prep going?  had to teach the stake president anything yet?  Sister Newhall in my district is related to me somehow through our stake president .... i think .... is it presient nielson or larsen i forget .... i dunno she told me last week but i forgot hows she explained it.  anywho, the Catholic Missionary wants to talk to us about something .... we'll see how this turns out, i think he is just "starting" and wants some pointers, he says it's been really hard on him lately.  we'll do our best to help him and maybe even throw in some doctrine! haha  remember that the church is true, the scriptures help us reach perfection ... or as close as we can get to it, and that our Father in Heaven loves us all.  have a wonderful week, it's starting to get hot here in Santa Paula, until next week family!!

 

Elder Larsen

Odio California

Well Hello family,

how are you all?  mom for some odd reason the USPS is being weird, i got your letter that you sent out on the 22 of feb a week and a day later ... but i got your package just fine ... i dunno if the earthquake in Chili had anything to do with it but anyhow, i did get your letter last week of the week before, thank you so much for all your favorite scriptures, i enjoyed reading them, they made my day!  you guys are all so smart, taylor i especially liked your insite/scripture.  i'm glad to know that everyone is doing ok.  Mom thanks for helping me with my dang ticket, so i just have to fill out the form and get a money order and send it in?  and if i am found "Innocent" i don't get to be "broke" for the rest of my mission?  that would be wonderful!  i will await the form ... and the dumb Californian government sent the ticket to you guys??? i told the Cop to send it to the mission ... Biker Cops ... there's a reason they aren't authorized to drive cars ... hehehehe.  this computer is SOOOOOOOOO slow, if i type too fast it freezes up periodically ... patience.  BHL has to teach the stake pres huh? that sounds like fun, really good practice for the MTC.  ok made google down to the "basic form" and now it is running smoothly ... huh what a day.  


yesterday we had Zone Conference and it was awesome!  we learned alot about how to be better missionaries, they really give me a boost and a ton, and no joke, a ton, of things to work on as a missionary.  last week we found 6 new investigators ... thank you for your prayers they help.  not gonna lie, last week i was a bit down, but i'm doing better i think this week so no worries.  


mom and grandma and derek, thank you so much for the surprise package!  i wasn't expecting anything for St. Patrick's day, i didn't even know it was close.  i remember last year i was with elder hawes on st. patrick's day and we both wore green ties ... and Gma the cookies are amazing as always, thank you so much, i will enjoy them, they are already in the freezer.  Mom your B-day trip looked fun, i'm sure Gma and you and Rich ate some really good food.  haha but yeah, thanks for the candy, cards, and cookies and SWEET tie!  mom i like ties, no matter if i already have a lot, i am always happy with anything i recieve from my family, especially pictures, you guys look like you're getting old!  taylor you need to cut your hair you look like a California beach bum/one of those ridiculous looking "teenyboppers" who thinks they can sing and then everyone makes a big deal out of nothing ....... Californians man ....... 


So yeah, our past week was really good, we worked alot and it was good weather.  oh, and the pants that ripped were just some black dress pants ... i'm gonna get them fixed, cause it's a seam rip, not a fabirc rip ... my companion told me my butt just got too big ... i got him back for that comment though.  i will be sure and take some good pictures mom, no worries, i have alot of my comp! hahaha i'll work on getting more of me.  


we are having a baptism on Sunday of Victor Galdamez, he's super awesome and is ready. Satan is trying really really hard to stop him from getting baptized, but we are fighting hard too and he is progressing.  Sister Hanson (the one who was in the MTC with me) found him, and she is in Oxnard now, so she will be coming down to his baptism and giving a talk ... she goes home at the end of next transfer ... i'm getting alot of "you look old" and "you're old" comments, especially yesterday ... time is going too fast for me, and i can't slow it down.


how goes the passport stuff?  i forgot to ask president if i could call BHL ... i'll do that next time i write President or talk to him.  we also painted this lady's house this week, i taped it and edged it and did all the high parts on a ladder for the primer and actual paint.  it was fun, and i only almost fell off the ladder once, fun fun fun.  well i have to get running, sorry this is so short, i have to  respond to some questions mom asked me.  the gosple is true and restored, don't let anyone else tell or convince you otherwise.  love you all!

Elder larsen

week 2 and ouch

hola familia,

well we had a kind of slow week last week, a few bad days and a few good things happened.  the mission goes by super fast and it just keeps getting faster and faster.  week one flew by and now week 2 is already here.  well the Presiado family is doing great, they are almost pretty much 100% active now, Bro Presiado sometimes has to work on sundays, but other than that they are there in ventura every sunday, they are really cool and love to feed us, she makes some really good food.  we went by this guy named Nicolas, a member's brother, he is super catholic and we talked for a good long while about various subjects, he's basically really stubborn and we weren't getting anywhere, so we decided to ask him this question: "If Christ himself appeared to you right now, and told you the Book of Mormon was true and that the Church of JESUS CHRIST of latter-day saints was the only living and true church on the face of the earth today would you be baptized into the church?" and he said no ... well we got our answer and left it at that.  Emiliano continues to learn more but lacks the faith to act, so we're going to have a good "Faith Boosting" lesson with him next time we go over there.  he didn't come to church on Sunday cause he had to go to Tijuana for something ... and lastly Victor ... he is doing good, we had some really good lessons with him, he's super ready to get baptized ... but he was called to work on sunday again at about 3 in the morning ... which means he is one sunday short of meeting the criteria for baptism, 3 sundays ... plus since he was working he couldn't come to his baptismal interview, so we had to push his date back yet another week, we went by last night after he had gotten home from work to talk to him and let him know and he was pretty sad, but we had a good lesson and i think he'll be ok.  The Devil is really trying hard to impede him from getting baptized, he told us it is super rare that they call him to work on sunday, it almost never happens ... but these past two weeks he has been called in.  satan knows the member he has the potential to be, and for that reason is doing
all he can to stop him.  he already tried tempting him to drink and smoke again, and now since that didn't work he is working through other means.  it's futile and pathetic really, but he is trying to stop him, so we have to pray harder and try harder, your prayers for victor would be appreciated i know by him and by us. so that is all about victor.  


Saturday was a long long day, Fillmore had a baptism and one of the people that was going to get baptized got cold feet (we think) and went to Tijuana for something, so that was sad too, but hopefully they find him soon and then he can get baptized, cause he really was a solid guy, super willing and humble.  


Sunday was good, it was the farewell of a sister missionary leaving from our branch to go to Houston Texas!  it was a good meeting.  in Priesthood we taught the class, having been told only an hour before hand that they wanted us to teach ... it's that mentality in spanish work that the missionaries can do anything with a moments notice!!!!  baptisms, classes, bulletins, talks in sacrament, don't get me wrong i love to serve and am more than willing, it's just the mentality of "oh i don't need to work or prepare anything cause the elders can do it" that bugs me sometimes.  


Davawn is doing ok, she is struggling a bit in school and her and her dad aren't doing so well, i think her dad took up drinking again after getting out of prison for something related to drinking, we try to help her but we can't really do anything about the situation, plus we're guys and don't really connect that well with girls.  ah, and last monday mom i sorted out about 200 boxes of girl scout cookies for a member whos young daughters are in girl scouts, and i told them that you liked girl scouts and stuff.  and at the end they gave me a box of the minty circly ones that are good and i have eaten half the box (i've done my best to hold back).  


well that's pretty much my week, ups and downs, depressing moments and happy ones, the scriptures really do contain what we need in them, we've discovered some really cool passages, read 3 Nephi 27, it's an awesome chapter about life, it really gave us the boost we needed.  read the scriptures, that's why we have 'em.  there is no better preparation for a mission than reading the Book of Mormon and the New Testament, quote me on that, no class no manuel can prepare you better than the holy scriptures that God has given us so that we can learn the way back home.  If there is anything i can do for any of you please let me know ... remember that i love you all and miss you lots, stay strong and hold onto that Iron Rod = Word of God = Words of Prophets = Scriptures and modern day revelation!

love,

Elder Larsen

Week 1 y de nuevo empezamos

Hola Familia!!!

como estan?  con frio creo ... jaja.  how is everyone doing?  i'm doing great for the most part!  Elder Mendez and I are staying together for one more transfer, and we're pretty sure he'll leave after this one is over.  wow, Transfer # 10!!!!  I feel and look older and older every day.  i start my days fine and stuff and then by the time we are done with planning at night time i have these huge black bags under my eyes .... and i know this because elder mendez constantly reminds me and has this fetish for taking or rather trying to take pics of me when i make my nightly phone calls to the members of my district .... so this week was good in some aspects and bad in others, number of lessons took a dive bomb here in santa paula, us and the sisters both weren't able to teach many lessons.  the good news is that Davawn and Victor are still progressing, Davawn came to church and is still reading and we have a FHE with her and Lucy tonight, she is going to teach us about Strength For Youth and we are going to teach a lesson about the Gosple.  Victor is doing well minus the fact that he couldn't come to church yesterday cause he randomly got called to work at like 3 in the morning .... dang adversary ..... so we had to push his date back a week cause he has to come to church 3 times before he can get baptised.  we are making some head way with Candido Garcia and Emiliano Gaxiola, they are both interested and want to learn, but shy away from baptism alot, please pray for them, they need it.  The Presiado family is doing AWESOME!!!! we had a really really cool lesson with them where we watched "Between Heaven and Earth" and talked about the temple and now they are excited to go one day and are going to make a family goal to go to the temple!!! hopefully i am still here so i can go.  on the mission and off, people tell you, OH you'll learn to love the people, well with them and a few other individuals i have realized that statement.  i have grown to love the Presiado Family and it's a weird feeling kinda to worry and care about someone that i haven't known for that long, anywho, they are awesome and progressing and coming back to church even though they don't own a car, they find some way to get to church which is a good 20 mins away by car.  but we are trying to combine the group in fillmore and all the members in Santa Paula and maybe the ones in Ventura and make a branch/ward that meets in Santa Paula, cause that really is and would be much easier for everyone, i dunno, it's a work in progress. 

AHHHH Elder Hawes and Triana are dying this week (leaving to their homes) ..... i'm super sad, both my Parents (from the mission) are going home at the same time and because nothing is happening with us i can't go to transfer meeting and say bye .... i called Elder Triana a few days ago and said bye and Elder Hawes is going to try to stop by on his way to transfer meeting and say bye ..... AND!!! THE QUELS ARE GOING TO TRANSFER MEETING TO SAY BYE AND I CAN'T EVEN GO!!!!  ahhhhh i so want to see them, i told Elder Hawes to  tell them to stop by santa paula cause it's on the way to bakersfield from ventura and say hi to me .... man i miss them alot ..... 

Lets seeee we kinda got into a bash with this Christian guy that was right about alot of stuff but wrong on the simplist things, and he knew his bible super well, like amazingly good. but he also had a little cheat sheet of scripture references that his pastor had given him and he had to look at it a few times.  elder mendez is much more competitive than i am and so he kinda took charge and then got owned by this guy ..... for 3 hours ..... i felt bad.  i dunno, bible bashing is pointless and a big waste of time and this guy just went on and on and on, and when i tried to stop it he kinda just ignored me and kept going.  in the end we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it, i think he's just gonna go on the internet and find some Anti-Mormon stuff ..... and he said that he liked us cause we belive that Jehova and Christ are the same person ... but he doesn't like how we don't beleive that the Holy Ghost is the father of Christ .... ANYWHO, it didn't really get heated, but it was a good discussion/ argument, we're gonna go back in a few days and see if he actually read, if he gets converted he'd be a super strong member.  

OK well 2 other things that happened this week both bad ...... the first, not so bad, i got hit on by a cashier at Rite Aid, a CVS type of place, she always says when we buy stuff from there, cause she is our cashier alot, do you guys save people?  or who did you save today?  or what do you save people from?  soooo this time she called me hun and winked at me and gave me like 20 tickets for this monopoly game that Rite Aid is doing when i was only supposed to get 1 .... it was creepy and now i'm scared to go in there ..... second and worse thing .... i got pulled over ..... here in California they have these random cross walks and you push a button on the sidewalk and a bunch of lights built into the road start blinking, it's really quite a smart invention, anywho, so a person pushes the button, the lights light up and the cars stop the person crosses and the cars go again, really quite simple.  now i wasn't speeding, but i guess i didn't see the guy on the sidewalk who was about 5 ft from the button when i was like 15 ft from the lights, and he was walking rather fast, got to the light pushed the button, didn't even wait to see if it was clear and walked, by the time the lights started to flash i was within 10 ft of the lights so i couldn't really stop cause i was going like 25, the speed limit, anywho, so he was like within 5 ft of me when i crossed the crosswalk.  it was a really close call as far as me getting a ticket cause it was the guys fault too cause he didn't look nor wait, but the ideal should have been that i saw him walking on the sidewalk and stopped in anticipation that he would hit the button, but half the people that cross those buttons on the sidewalk just hit them for fun and keep walking ...... so i didn't think, or stop and there was a dumb little bike cop sitting back from the corner perpendicular to the road on which i was driving and he stopped me and gave me a ticket .... California is bankrupt, the economy here is dive bombing and so tickets are super costly here, i asked a member of our branch who is going to college to be a cop about how much she thinks it could turn out and she said anywhere from $100 to $300 probably in the 200's ..... absolutely ridiculous, for that reason alone i will never live here in CA after my mission, this all happened on Wed and it takes a week for them to process stuff, so this member is going to look it up for me and tell me how much it is and i'll let you know, i'll just pay it out of whats on my home card, i think there should be enough on there, and i'll make do with what i have on there till Dec cause it really is my fault even if it isn't 100% fair .... life really isn't fair i guess.  alright, well i have to get going, the church is true, i have felt the Saviors love for me this week i want you to know.  He does love us, Rev 20:19-20 or somewhere in Rev 20 talkes about the love that Christ has for us, we should do our very best to show our love to him by being obedient to the commandments with which we have been entrusted, for truly only by being obedient will we ever accept the sacrifice that he gave us.  

BHL how goes the preparation????? any other cool things you have learned about your mission?  AH bought a pair of pants for 4 bucks cause my other ones ripped from the pocket down about 6 inches ... i'm gonna try and sew it but .... well ..... i'm an elder and we don't do that very well.  

Remember that i love you!!!!!

Elder Larsen

Here's a recent picture taken mid January.  I'll try to get some pictures uploaded soon!

week 6 and counting

hey family, how are you all?

BRAZIL??????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WHOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, que lastima que BHL va a hablar portugese, pero caiga como caiga.  wow, sister benson called me ...... on thursday i think in the morning and told me to guess where my brother was going .... i'm pretty sure mom asked her to do that .... and i guessed Brazil on the 1st guess, wow, Sao Palo Brazil, i think i know someone who knows someone who is in that mission.  that's awesome, i'm very exticed for you BHL.  and wow .... you just get thrown into the MTC over there .... wow .... be patient and pray alot and you'll pick up the language faster that you'll think, Portugese and Spanish are very similar ... i think it sounds like retarded spanish personally but i'm kind of Biased =]   When do you go to the MTC?  some time early june i think ..... i'll miss ya by 6 1/2 ish months, oh well i'll see ya again.  well cool, i'm glad that the waiting is over .... TRL you're next.

Well this past week was very interesting, we played soccer last monday as a ZONE and had lots of fun, we had a FHE on the Isaiah Chapters of 2nd nephi .... that was fun .... with Davawn, she is awesome, then tuesday it rained for alot of the day ...... stupid rain, man, makes missionary work not as fun, but then it stopped and we went tracting, and we ran into this catholic guy ..... we said that the only way to know if our messege was true was to pray about it .... i'm pretty sure he didn't understand us, he must have thought that we wanted to say a prayer with him, so he invited us in and we watched him do a "Rosary", which is a prayer that catholics pray to the Virgin, those cruzafixes that they wear have a certain number of beads on them and each bead represents a prayer ....... the same prayer ...... over and over and over and over.  so we watched this guy do that and he would randomly look at us for us to participate with him but we had no idea how to do anything so we just sat there and he was like "what a shame it is that you don't know how to pray" so we spent (wasted) about 40 mins with this guy and his wife, we talked about Catholic doctrine and stuff and we basically confuzed him pretty bad cause he kept contradicting himself and we kind lovingly called him out on it .... sigh .... anywho, so that was tuesday, then wednesday we had District Meeting and it went well, my 3rd, we also had presidents interviews, which also went well in spite of us not having keys and having to have our interviews in our car.  i also taught a drunk guy some english ..... that was fun, i doubt he remembered anything.  Thursday was a good day, we talked with Victor, our investigator that is going to get Baptised on the 27th, he is from Guatemala and is quite awesome, super ready.  Friday something funny happened, we were at lunch and i guess i had something on my face and my comp said (he obviously wasn't thinking and wasnt in the apartment mentally) "here are some napkins babe".  oh i pretty much died laughing, and he was super embarrased and now thinks that i think that he is gay. hahaha poor elder mendez, he'll survive though.  

SATURDAY!!!!!!  awesome day Davawn got baptised!!!!! YAY!!!!! we had the baptism at 6 PM, didn't start till about 6:30, took pics and practiced haha she was so scared elder mendez was going to drop her they practiced like 5 times, but everything went fine, during the baptism, and i confirmed her after the baptism cause she was going to bakersfield the next day to visit her dad.  PRESIDENT MURRI and his wife came and made everything worse as far as nerves ahhhh.  i got to do the intermediate piece and showed the last clip of "The Testaments" and bore testimony, then i compared the story in 2 Kings 22-23 to making a big change and getting baptised and we watched the new "old testaments" clip of that story in 2 Kings.  it is entitled,"One Voice" Josh Groban sung a song and it was the narroration of the story in 2 Kings.  it was super cool cause i had a super dry mouth cause of nerves, but my spanish came out perfect, crystal clear, i got like 4 comments on how good i spoke spanish after the service, i don't consider myself an incredibly good spanish speaker cause i speak too fast and i don't speak clear, but apparently the spirit was there helping everything to come out the way it was supposed to, it was really cool.  so then we had the baptism and ended up staying there till like 9:30 cause we couldn't get the dumb door to lock so we had to wait for someone with keys to lock it.  then we went home and forgot to fill up with gas AGAIN! so we spent alot of sunday walking like we did a few sundays ago, but it was alright and we did just fine.  

It was a good week, our Zone set standard for the mission this past week so we are doing really good.  gotta work hard.  so how is everything in smithfield?  how was valentines day?  it's been super hot here yesterday and today, 80 degrees man ..... humidity and sunny, i much prefer to be cold, not wet, not hot, but cold.  oh well.  so i have a request for you all when you get the chance will you send me your favorite scripture and tell me why it is your favorite and what you learn from it?   this will help me get some really good scriptures quick in my mind to pull out when circumstance permits.  thanks!  remember that i love you all, the library people are gonna kick me off soon cause i only have 30 mins.  the church is true, do the little things to get the big blessings.  BHL if you have any questions for me about anything just ask, i'll do my best to respond them.  sorry this is short, i look forward to learning from you and your favorite scriptures.  LOVE YA!

Elder Larsen

PS: both elder Hawes and Triana are dying ... going home ... next wednesday .... it's a sad time for me, both my "parents" are dying..... =/

Elder Larsen's LITTLE brother is soon to be Elder Larsen TOO!!!

Okay so I know this is Chris's blog... but I couldn't resist putting this info in for all those that know Brandon too.  Brandon received his mission call on Wednesday to the Sao Paulo Interlagos Brazil mission!  He reports to the Brazil MTC on June 16th and will be speaking Portuguese (eventually).  We left a message at the mission office in Ventura for them to call Chris and tell him (because he instructed us to do that).  The secretary called back the next day and spoke to Brandon and relayed Christopher's reaction - so that was cool.  Fun times ahead!