September 27, 2010

Hello Family!!

Well, this week went by really fast and i cannot believe the time is flying by soo fast. I am happy to here about the calling of Ali. That is cool that she is going to Viña del Mar. That is where one of my comps. was from and my zone leader is pretty much from there too. I hear it is a touristic place and that the bread there is super delicious. Tell her i say congrats and that she will love that mission!!!

To tell you about the people here mom. The econonmy here is aweful. The people here work wherever they can find a job, but there arent many of those either. There ways of living are more of the world than not. There are very many women that have several kids without a father because he left. It is sad seeing all the kids without any example. I am in a place that has alot of campo, which are big fields, in a part of my area. Other than that, there are many houses nad a whole lot of people. Alot of the people bought their land a while ago and havequite a bit, so there children build there house behind and there they live. so instead of having a backyard, there is another little house or shack thing. it is interesting.

I am glad that you were able to get something out of the letters that i send dad. I learn alot here in the mission. This last week, there was this drunk/druggie that wanted money from my comp and I. I told him that i didnt have any, but i forgot that i had coins in my pocket and i dropped them trying to show him that i didnt have any. He took a peso from me, which is about 25 cents. He made my comp and i really mad and we lost the spirit. But, my comp and i learned something after that. We lost the Spirit. You know how the scriptures say that if you do not have the Spirit you cannot preach. That is definelty tru. We prayed in the street a couple times because we knocked on about 5-10 houses with nothing. We became quick to anger and then afterward we realized our mistake... it wasnt good. We didnt do anything, we were just angry at what happened.We lost the Spirit and we couldnt preach like the scripture says, virtually impossible to do anything at this time.

After a while and after we cooled down and prayed a couple more times, we were then blessed with the opputunity to teach a man and his wife.

I am glad that everybody there is doing well!!! Mom i hope that you feel better!! and that the family is doing well!!!That is cool that erik is in the young mens!! Congrats!!!! Hans sounds like he is doing well over in russia.I am happy for him and i wish the best for him, i can only imagine how different it is. He has the Lord on his side though and nothing can stop him. I liked the pics erik sent!!! those were cool to see and it is different hearing that he wont be there when we get home. But that he will be in Utah!! wow, i guess you two can hang out with me for the rest of your lives because i think i am going to stay in the AZ!!! woot woot

I love you all and i am thankful that i was born in such an amazing family. I am proud of you for starting to read the Gospel Principles book mom!!! That is a really helpful book because we are reminded of the things of the Lord. It is pretty much a book to learn how we can obtain blessings: rey bueno!!!

I love you all and i pray for all of you!! Thank you for your prayers!!! Be Safe!!

Hasta Lunes!!!

Con Amor,
Elder Larson

September 20, 2010

Hello Family!!!!
Those pictures i took here this week. We are in a 4 man pension. There is my comp, Elder Molina from Utah, elder Knighton from Gilbert (he went to Mesquite high), and elder Rhoton the shorter one of the other two who is from Idaho, but he was born and basically raised in Georgia.Elder Molina was in the MTC with me but he already knew spanish so he didnt spend that much time there. We came to argentina about the same time. He is pretty cool and pretty funny. The 4 man pension is different but it is fun. The other elders are really cool and we all get along good.

This area that i am in now is called Mayol and i am in part B, the other 2 are in part A. It is kinda slow since we are basically starting new but we were able to find 4 investigators this week and they all seem really good. I hope for the best in this area. The pension was kinda difficult at first. I didnt have a bed my first day so i slept on the ground... then we didnt have any hot water for the first 4 days so i had to boil water and bath from a bucket. Other than that, the roof leaks in a part and it is not in my room soo all is good, at least for me;)

Here there are many jehova witnesses. A couple tried to interupt a contact that we were making, at least it seemed like it to me, and the other day they tried to contact my comp and I. We were in the pension and we here a clapping at our door and there they were. They try to argue the Bible but they wouldnt accept anything from us even though they were handing out pamphlets themselves. It was an interesting experience but i think that my testimony grew of it so i was happy.

One of those pictures that you see is indian fried bread that i made. Then we made tacos out of them with lettuce and tomates. My comp had tacoseasoning that he got from his mother.

Other than that everything is going goodhere. I am glad to hear that Jeff has his call and that Blaine is on his way... can somebody give me his adress for the MTC. I am going to send him a lettter. I love them both, and i really hope that they are excited to leave and get to work!! I hear that Blaines talk was really good.. that sounds like Blaine to me. It is also fun to hear how hans and Grandad and Granma are doing. Does Grandad have a pacemaker now? When did he get that?I hope that Hans is having fun... those people sound interesting. There are alot of "catholics" here. I dont know how many actually know in what they believe though..there are also a lot of saints, for example the saint of death which is pretty much the grim reaper... weird stuff. I know that you are doing good though hans and like that elder said, just keep working hard and have your objective in mind and the Lord will bless you!!!

I just got done reading the end of Alma´s record... pretty intense stuff.... I love you all and i hope that everything is good there!!! I challenge you all to read the Book of Mormon like the stake president challenged you? Read it!!! it is awesome!!!!

WHat is wrong with Erik and Alesha that i have not heard anything about them... tell them to at least breifly describe to me how life is going. It is not like he just got married or anything big hapened in his life that he cant...hahahaha just kidding:P

I love you all!!! I hope that you are all well!!!! you are in my prayers!

Con Amor
Elder Larson

ps. The picture with the spikes in the back, that is one common argentine haircut. this was right before i got my hair cut. Love ya´ll!!!!!!!

September 13, 2010

tHE ONE WITH All the missionaries is my old zone- Quilmes it is called. The coolest zone!!! The little elder is Elder Riquez, he was my zome leader and he finished his mission today. I am not sure what are others. Some are with members and with an investigator, The Mexican elder is my elder now. he is from Utah and he is a convert to the church!!!

My Family!!!

Wow, it sounds like a whole lot is going on up there!!!! Tel Sean i say congrats!!!!!! That is also a very crazy story about Erik and the Suburban!!! way crazy but i am veru hapy that he didnt crash and that everything is alright now!!!

To tell you a story dad... The work is very different and as people we cannot tell what the Lord has in store for us nor for his children. But we do know, however, that he loves us sooo much that we cannot comprehend. He loves us soo much that he sent his Only Begotten Son to die for the sins of the world. I was thinking the other day that if life gets so hard, that i cause myself to think that it is too hard and that i should give up, how much greater was it to think that Christ had to suffer that time infinity. That is a love imaginable big. When I frist came to Berazategui, my comp found a man in his house. He told my comp and another missionary to come back another daybecause his wife really like the religion. We went back the other day and there was this guy and his son. His son had gone to a church activity before with a friend. We began teaching him and we found that he had some problems with drinking. He had a true desire to change and had stopped in a week. Then he was baptized. Now his mother is waiting for her time to be baptized. She needs to get married before but she is in a time of waiting.

To Tell a little about my week. Elder Baggaley and i finished the transfer pretty strong! I got to know the people in Berazategui really well and the work over there was going really good! We recieved references and this week, after recieving a reference from a man, we began teaching his girlfriend. His girlfriend had a testimony becuase this guy is taking her to institue. I belive that she will be baptized very soon.

I am not in Berazategui anymore. I am in a place called Mayol. I am in my first zone and i am with an Elder named ELder Molina. He was in the MTC with me, but already speaks spanish in his house, so he spent less time there. We are together and we are reopening an area, or better said, an area was split and we are going there. Hewas there before but has never worked in the area, so it is really fresh. We will have to start from scratch. I am very excited for this new area and for the challenges that are coming. I hope for the best in this area!!! I am in a cool position now. I am going to be comps with an elder that came tO Argentina with me practically. He is way cool. He is from St. George, and there are actually alot of missionaryies here from St. George. We are pretty much starting from scratch like i said earlier and i hope that alot of Baptisms will come from this.

I want to say sorry to hans for saying he looks like he has gained weight. I have also if anybody can tell. I think that i have and i have definitely lost muscle, sadly. By the end of my last transfer i had one of my member friends calling me Pooh... but i really am not that big, he just liked to bug me.

I wish the best for everybody there at home. Maybe dad, you can put these scriptures in you talk... DC 130:5 i think; DC 92:36 and Proverbs 3 about gaining knowledge and wisdom. Through obedience to your knowledge you will be blessed... i like these scripts...

I love you all and i hope the best for you all!! My prayers are with you!!!11

CON AMOR
Elder LARSON

September 6, 2010

Hey Family!!!!
So i had a pretty busy week this week... at least it seemed to me very busy. We are working alot with the members and that is really fun because i get to know the people better and the Spirit can be.

Let us see, we had exchanges and i got to go to a neighboring area. it is called Cruce Valera. I went with a missionary named Elder Maxfield from Utah. He is pretty cool and we had a mas o menos exchange because a storm called the Santa Rosa was passing this week.This happened on wed and thursday and wednesday night we made chocolate chip cookies and it was a good time.

Other things that we did in the week. We had a service project and we went to paint a school. It was pretty fun. It was Saturday morning and lasted until midday, a little later than that. I had good old paint all over my hands in which everybody asked me on sunday what i had on my hands. This is actually funny because everybody says that my hands are cold... i think i have bad circulation in my hands, and this sunday it was, " oh qué mano fría y qué tiene en sus manos?" This is old what cold hans and what is that.hahahaha funny. But we ended that service project and then we went and had a baptism. We baptized a an 11 year old whose family is part members. His situation is different but hew is a good kid. That was a big day for us!! very long too.

A funny story for the good old Sunday Sacrament meeting. The grandparents that take this boy that was recenbtly baptized werent there and then we were thinkiong that he wasnt there but he was. I got the priviledge to confirm him. I think i was a little worried about giving him a blessing- which isnt good because it distracts the spirit- and so i went up there with my comp and the bishop and i put my hands on his head. Then i said we confirm you a member of the church... In short, I left our "of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints". I had to redo it again in front of everybody but it was a good learning experience. Another good Sunday story- We went and left with 2 members to visit another less active member. So we left and had a good lesson and what not. We were walking the members down the main street in the area pretty much and there is a group of people graffiting a metal crutain to cover the windows of a store. They were filming it and what not and it didnt seem to matter to them that they were painting on somebody´s property. I thought it was really crazy... But i guess things happen like this here. It almost seemed that they were supose to be doing it, being 5 o clock in the afternoon and on the main street. Pretty interesting i thought.

Estela, the lady that performed the little act last week didnt come.(that would be really awkward if she did.) And we finished the week like that. We have two families that have up to 5 people that can be baptized. I hope that everything goes well with these families. They are really liking the gospel, if not the whole family a good portion. I hope that they can all recieve testimonies so that they can enter in God´s fold and become eternal families.

Other than that, this is pretty much my week. Stil trying to work hard. I am thankful for the letters. I got a letter from Blaine this week. I hope that he is doing good. He is a good example. It sounds like things are changing lot there and that this are passing on. Wich is weird because it didnt feel that way when i was there. It didnt feel like anything was different when Erik was on the mission. Now it seems like that i will have to reknow everybody and everything again. I thought that that was cool about you and hunter and the Bishop dad. I would like to go hunting. Are the rabbit legs and the Quail that i shot still in the freezer? can smoebody eat that if they are, or atleast give it to the dogs... i would not like that to go to waste. Thanks for everything!!!!!!!!1 I love you all!!!!!!!! Be safe!!!! Hans looks a little bigger in the face, as well as myself- thats what i am talking about Hans. Looking at shane and seeing his beard is something different... my beard status- i sont have one and i cant have one, buut if i could it would be comin´along ;P I love you all!!!!!!!!1 sory for the random comments.

Con Amor,
Elder Larson

Ps. Cómo estás Erik? Cómo andas con ALesha y la apartamento y todo? todo bien? Escribeme!!!!! Quiero saber cómo es con la vida así, ni conozco Alesha entonces, escribenme!!! (si quieren ustedes)

August 30, 2010

Hey Family!!!
How is everybody doing??? I hope that everybody is relaxing and what not after the big last week and whatnot!!I have had an interesting week, or better said, weekend. But i am glad to hear that everything is going good down there. I am happy that Erik is happy and Alesha is happy and that they are settling down now!!! I cant believe Bryce is that big and tell Jack that i am proud of him!!! tell him that he is taking on the name of his big bro "stormin mormon" hahaha When i read about blaine in the temple i became really super happy!!! I consider Blaine a best friend and to hear that he has gone through the temple and preparing for his mission makes me extremly happy!!!!

It looks like it is about to rain here. It went from a clear day to a dark afternoon. We played volleyball as a zone today too, that was pretty fun. There are some funny elders in the zone and i thought that it was a pretty fun time.

I really like the duty to God that just came out too!!!! It is really goood. it is a perfect method to help young men prepare to go on a mission. then it relates there activities to there life in a way that makes it more personal. Their goals are more personal and they get the opportunity to share the experiences which will increase their testimony about the thing that they are learning or the activity that they are doing at the specific time. This also enable more spiritual experiences because they will have to actively learn and live the Gospel and thereroe there will be many more powerful missionaries in the world. This Duty to God is perfect and i think it could be taken as sign of the preperation of the 2nd coming. i dont knwo and that is not doctrinal but i like to think of it like that.

So e had an investigator named Estela. We have been teaching her for about 3-4 weeks now. She has been reading the Book Of Mormon and finally started praying if the church is true. I thougt that was interesting. Yesterday was the first time she came to regular church meeting because she came the week before but it as stake conference. So she gets all the way to sacrament, because we have sacrament last hour here. She seemed fine and everything. So he sat next to two sisters from the ward. Then she got up and went to the bathroom... came back and sat next to my comp. I was sitting with oter investigator at this time so i didnt realized what was going on, but she feel asleep. then my comp woke her up to take the sacrament... then she feel asleep again. then she started to jump in her sleep- supposedly. My comp just thought she was tired so let her sleep. Then she started shaking a little bit and a sister behind started freaking out and stuff. Luckily a man from the south who is a director of a hospital was there. Ths meeting stopped and stared at my comp and i and this lady who was now laying on the bench. the doctor told us to sit back down she is alright. Soon after that she rolled off the bench and was on the ground. Then she woke up and left to the foyer... next i hear that she is sleeping in the foyer. I was thinking "oh great - everybbody thinks that my investigators are crazy and that we arnt good missionaries and the sacreament is all distracted now. Poor speaker..." My comp and i left to talk to this doctor and he tol us that she has a mental problem and that she was fully conscience when she was doing this... that she did it in order to get atttention. This investigator hadn´t told us that she ha this problem but in the end, after almost everybody left she got up and said that se was tired and thats it. then we walked her two blocks from her house.... the story is sad but really funny becuase it was sooo outrageously crazy it was funny. We were told that she wouldnt not be able to be baptized because she would do this everytime that she comes to the church. so that as really weird and we lost her as an investigator but in the end my comp and i just laughed about it. what a crazy day.

Other than that the work is moving forward. We have a young man that we are teaching and his mother. We have the answers that nobody else can answer so i feel that we will have ome succes with them!!!

Thank you for all you doo!! and yes mom i got your package!!! Thank you!!!! I just want you to know.. dont take offense but i had to get rid of some of the candies because they had taquila in it...But i am very happy that you sent it!!! it made me feel really good!!!!! and the candies were very goood!!!!! I am really blessed to have a mother like you mom a father like you dad!!!!!

Love you family!!!!!!!!! I am praying for you all!!!!!

Con Amor
ELDER LARSON