February 22, 2010

Here is good!! I had a very spiritual day yesterday. Elder Taylor in my district gave an awesome lesson in district meeting about prayer!! Felt the spirit soooo much!! After that we went to the Temple and we were able to sing for a small family- Father, daughter and 2 sons. We sang “I Hope They Call Me On a Mission” (I think) and “Families Can Be Together Forever” in front of the Provo Temple!!! It was awesome!!! I gave a talk in Spanish for the first time yesterday. It is kinda funny because you don’t know if you will talk until a minute before you are supposed to talk. It was really fun though. It was funny because my buddy and I were talking earlier how it is hard to write and talk about baptism when everybody you talk to is baptized already. I have seen Hans once for 30 seconds and that was it. We have very different schedules. I get to give the talk in a devotional on March 2!!!!!! Hopefully there is an apostle there that I can meet after I give the closing talk. It is kinda stressful because it is in front of the whole MTC but I am super excited!!!! I hope all is well!!!! I love you all!!!!!!You are all in my prayers!!!!!!!!!

February 15, 2010

I am really getting a great understanding of the gospel here. Better than I have ever had. My companion has had some hard times but I am trying to help him work it out. He is a great person and he is really strong. I have 9 elders in my district and as a district we are doing great!!! Our teahers are really cool as well!!! Hermana Rizley really pushes us to practice our Spanish and Hermano Hellewell is really focused on us becoming great missionaries. I havent been able to see Hans yet. It really stinks. Hopefully I can see him soon!!! I am soo thankful for this calling because I get to understand the gospel better. Especially when I get to teach a lesson or counsel another companionship/elder. Another zone is leaving. This is crazy. I hope that this time goes by fast. I am loving the Spanish language!!! More than I have ever before!! Soon I will be in Argentina doing the Lords Work for real!!!I love you all, my prayers are with you all!!!!!!

Goodbye Elder Hans Larson

Shane's twin brother Hans was called to the Yekaterinburg Russia Mission. He left for the MTC Febuary 10, 2010. Seven other elders left that day at the sametime. One of which was a Tongan missionary whose friends preformed a tradiotional dance for him. Not a dry eye in the airport when they were finished. What an emotional and exciting goodbye that day.

February 8, 2010

I am doing great!!! Everything here is really good!!! I am speaking well and I bore my testimony in Spanish yesterday at testimony meeting. My companion is having as really hard time though, I gave him a blessing yesterday to help him. I know that God put us here for a reason. A good friend of mine tore his acl and has gone home but he was supposed to leave on Tuesday.

Yesterday, I felt a reconfirmation that God loves me and everyone of his children when we sang "I know my Redeemer Lives". The spirit touched me and I couldn’t finish the song the spirit was so strong!! We also watched the Joseph Smith movie yesterday and that was awesome as well. It also reconfirmed my testimony of the restoration.

January 1, 2010 Shane's 1st Email

Hey Everybody!!!!!!!!!! i am doing good here at the mtc. The big news is nothing much... i am the district leader and i have been able to have good leadership opportunity. I am doing good, i have awesome teachers and awesome zone leaders. They are great examples!!! there is this missionary named elder Turner and he is awesome, much like a big brother. He leaves for Panama next week. My comps name is Elder Schultz. Everything is going good and i am having a good spiritual time. I am learning spanish really well, i have the most experience so i get to help out the other elders in the district. The food here is alright. I cant eat a whole lot because it fills me up really fast. all the elders in my district are cool. there are 9 of us including me. I cannot wait to leave for Argentina though. I was able to make a friend on the plane ride here and i was able to teach him almost the whole way here!! thanks for the letter Erik!! it means alot. thank for all of your support family.


The work here is good! I like it a lot. I can’t wait to go to Buenos Aires. I was able to teach this guy on the airplane on the way here. He had served in Iraq for 15 months a while ago and he had good LDS examples. He was telling me that they were great examples and that they lived up to the standards that the church has set. He said that he thought that was really impressive because it would be hard to act that way especially in the army. That’s how he started the conversation with me about me going on a mission. It seemed that he was looking for religion and I was telling him what we believe. I felt good after that and i got the realization that I need to go and start preaching the gospel like no other.