March 14, 2011

Hey Family!!!!!!!!!
Well, this weekwas not like any other week that i have had in the mission. I was with my mini, but he got some kind of lesion/ severe blister looking thing on his foot, and had to return to his house. He was a great mini missionary and was a great example to me. He had the problem with his vision, in which he could not see out of one eye and a little out of the other, and on top of that he had this problem with his foot, but he still had the desires to work and to continue. He tried to continue until he couldnt continue anymore, and he gave me a great example to never give up. I hope that he is doing well now.


On wednesday he went home and i had to stay with the office elders for the night. The next morning i got a new companion named Elder Sosa, also a mini missionary. It was horrible the first day because there was a mixup in my keys and the keys of the other elders so we left late to go to Las Flores. After we waited for a long time we caught the bus and then the got a flat half the way there, but luckily we were at an official bus stop so it took only about 45 minutes to fix it and we were on our way. We arrived at about 8 in the evening. the mission is like that though, there are always challenges and alot of the time, nothing goes as planned.

I think that the weekend went good though. It rained saturday inthe morning andwe worked good. 

Sundays i give classes for thje converts that recently got baptized and for the investigators. The class was on Our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Family. I recieved a testimony of the Love of God during the class, as well as the love of Christ. It was a great experience. Also we took a moment to talk about the power of God and His creations... one of the daughters of the members, she is 6 years old, told he that God is like the door in the room and we are like bacterias. I am always amazed of how many great truths that one can learn from children.

My prayers are with you all and i love you all!!! I hope that everybody is doiong well!!!! Tell everybody that i love them!!!Tell Pres. Tilleman i say congrats!!!!!!!!!!


love Elder Shane Larson

March 7, 2011

Hey Family!!!
I cannot write much this week, sorry, i dont have much time. This week went prety good. I am still in Las Flores and i will be here for at least the next 3 months. My comp is a mini missionary that lives in a place called Solano. He lives in the neighboring city of where i first started. He is doing what erik did right before he left on the mission. So he will be here for 6 weeks and then he gets to go home... He also says hi. He is realy excited to be here on the mission and he really likes to work. He has problems with his sight and doesnt see very well, but it is a blessing to have him as a comp and i learn things everyday from him. We are trying to work hard and stay focused in the mission and i think that we will see alot of success here in the next 6 weeks!!! It has been a good experience so far being a trainer and teaching a new missionary how to work. I will be here in Las Flores for at least 3 months from now, so it should be a good time. Other than that, today we just ate with a member, and i took a nap... pretty boring but the nap was good:)
I am sorry that the letter is soo short, but i have to go. I will writed longer next week. Thanks you for the letters and i am glad that all of you are doing well and i hope that Erik and Alisha have fun on their cruz!!! I lover you all and i hope that you all are safe!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!! you are all in my prayers!!!

February 28, 2011

Hello Family!!!!!!!1
Howare you all doing???? I hope that everybody is doing well today!!! I am doing good here!!!


This past weeek was the last week for my companion in the area. I will be training here in Las Flores the next transfer. that means that i will receive a brand new companion that has no time in the mission. I am a little nervous, but am excited as well. I want to be a good example for the new elder, and i hope that i wil be able to teach him how to be a good missionary. 

This last week went pretty well. There were a few interesting stories... well one funny story and the other sad...
The first story is sad so that you can be laughing in the 2nd. We went to a new converts house, the house of the lady that was recently baptized. Her husband doesnt want anything to do with the church... but we had a cita set and we wanted to go and teach her. We approached the house and saw this man with the new convert. We walked up the the gate to greet them and the new convert, María del Carmen, let us in. We walked to greet her husband and my comp stretched forth his hand and said "Hello brother, how are you?"... The man just sat there and stared and my comp and i and then said " I am not your brother to sart off..." he got up and told María that she knew what she had to say to us and then he walked away. María instantly started crying because of her husband... it was very sad because this woman is so strong and has a strong testimony but her husband wants nothing to do with the blessings of the Gospel.

The other story is funny...
We were knocking houses and we reached a house. A british man opens the door and says in spanish that he doesnt speak spanish. I ask him what we spoke and then we began speaking in english. It was funny though because i had a hard time doing the contact in english. I couldnt think of the words to say in english and spanish was coming out of my mouth instead of english. It isnt becasue my spanish is very good, but i could now think of the words that i had to say in english inorder to do this contact... It was pretty funny and my comp made fun of me for it.... he was wondering if i knew how to speak in english or if i knew how to teach in english. I thought it was funny, and it was a good experience for me to try and teach or do a contact in english.

Well, that was about it for the week. I will have my new comp tomorrow and we will see how the next week will go. I love you all and you are all in my prayers!!!!!!!!!

Elder Shane Larson

February 21, 2011

Hey Family!!!!!!

It really sounds like everything is going well up there. I am really proud of you mom for your efforts on reading and for really trying hard to complete your goals!!! You too dad!!! what you are doing is really really important and there are many  many people being blessed for the service that you are doing!!!!!!!!

 

I think that is cool about Erik and his cruz!!!! That sounds super fun and i hope that they have fun!!!

 

This last week we had interviews with the President and then we also had a little meetting witht the assistants and the President. It was a goood reunion all in all. I love talking to the President and you can really sense the love that he has when you talk with him. He talked about the mission and how it is the place where we need to learn and try to become more like Chirst. It was a great talk that he gave and i felt edified afterwards!!

 

Right now, Las Flores is going good. We are able to have a good number of lessons every week and the investigators are progressing, or at least i like to think of tham as progressing. I am starting to grow a stronger love for them and the people here. It is hard sometimes, but it is always worth it. If there is anything that i have learned in the mission it would have to be patience. and I know that everybody progresses at ther own rate and will progress if we have hope and help them.

 

I am doing good and it has rained here for the past couple days, but not without stopping. The clouds here look sooo beautiful and it is fun walking around in the limits of the area looking for people in the good weather.

 

I love you all and you are all in my prayers!!! I hope that everybody can continue to progress and reach their goals!!!! I hope that eveybody is safe and that we can all have the Spirit to inluence us in our lives!!!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!

Elder Shane Larson

February 14, 2011

 This is the lady that we baptized as well as her family!!! The are all super awesome!!!!! This little girl in the foto is named Maya and she is absolutely hilarious!!! The other fotos is me and my comp walking around near the outskirts of the area. There is pretty much only fields beyond that point.

Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
I am glad to hear that everything is going good for everybody there at home!!! It sounds like mom is doing a good and is really working hard on her goals!!! That is way cool too dad how you are going to go to Havasupai again!!! I loved that hike!!! It does seem to me that the goals of the church and the training is being more stressed, as well as the importance of the quality of the leaders and efforts of each memeber of the ward. I think that it is interesting because i have given, for the past 3 weeks, lessons in church about the 2nd coming and the milenium, as well as the signs to come and the signs that we have already seen. I think that this extra stress on the leaders and the organizations of the church is another sign to tel us that we need to start preparing hard core... but that is just an opininon that i have.i am not sure though.

How is all the family doing? I have heard there are broken records of the cold there where grandad and grandma are... that sounds pretty intense!!  Hans´ weather sounds pretty extreme too!!! I was also happy to hear about Blaine getting into the field and how happy and excited he is to be in the field working in the Lords work. that is wasy cool!!!!!! How are all of the kids doing?? How is Matt doing? it has been a long time since i have heard from him. I hope that grandma is doing good!

This last week was kinda slow with the work. I am not sure why it was soo slow. We have only 2 weeks left in this transfer, and things are changing it seems in the mission. We used to meet altoghter in one big meeting every transfer, but only those that are going to be transferred are going to be able to go to the transfer meeting. This is so that we will be able to spend more time in our areas and spend more time inviting people to come unto Christ. 

The weeks are going by so fast and we do alot of things in the day that i cannot remember really well what all happened last week. I am doing good though and i am very thankful for the family that i have been given. I am blessed to be able to reflect everyday on how i am doing, as well as see others so that i can set goals on how i want my family to be in the future. I am very grateful to have such an awesome family and people that really care for me. I thank you all for the great example that you have given me since my youth!!!

I love you all and i hope that you all are having a good Valentines Day!!! Mom and Dad, you should go visit Grandad and Grandma! That would be good to take a little time to go up there and enjoy the nice, fresh, cool air!!! I love you all and you are all in my prayers!!!!

Love Elder Shane Larson

Mom- dont worry about the stamps because i can send letters here. But that you very much!!!!

February 7, 2011

Hey Family!!!!!!!!

It sounds like everybody is doing good there at home and that you were able to spend time with the family!!!! I think that is cool that you are puttting in for elk again dad. I hope that you can get drawn!!! but if not, next year willl be the year and i will also be able to go!!! I am happy that mom is still going good with her goal!!! that is great mom!!!! it would be good to read the Book of Mormon as well and do refrencing, but remember to have patience!! I cannot believe that you are reading so fast, i cannot not read that fast- and that is the truth!!!

 

I hope that the rest of the family is doing goood!!! I hope that ryan is doing well with the new house and that Erik and Alesha are doing good together. How is the rest of the family doing??? I hope greaat!!!!!

Now to anwser your questions: In Las Flores i still have to clap houses. Not all of them, but there is still houses that i cannot get to the door to knock or the door bell is out of reach so i have to clap. There are not any official restaurants from the states nor stores, but they do sell things from the states here. Alot of the things that they sell here from there are expensive, so i dont usually buy that stuff, but there are times where you can find places that sell things similar for much less.

 

This last week went really good for us. I was worried that we werent going to have a good work because the week before wasnt very good, but this last week went really well. We were able to find 7 more people and teach some good lessons. I like geting to know the people here. I like it because it is almost like they become my family that i have known for a long time when really i havent known them for more than 3 months is that. I have been blessed to recognize the importance of the Priesthood in our lives. I gave my first blessing of Comfort this last week. It was my first time so it was a little different than the blessing for the sick, but i tried to listen to the Spirit during the blessing. I felt really good afterward and i think that the man that recieved the blessing felt good afterward and i hope that he could feel the Love of God. I think that through the blessing, we have grown closes as friends.

 

There are alot of things that one learns from the mission.I am very grateful that i have been blessed to be able to come here and get to know these people and be a part in their lives. I hope that the people i teach can recieve a testimony of the things that we teach them. The Gospel is great!!!!!! I was also able to give my testimony in church Sunday. I felt prompted to go up and testify of Christ as our Savior. I felt really good afterward and i known that Christ lives and that what ever problem that we have we can recieve help form Him because He knows us personally. Heavenly Father really answers prayers and we are very blessed to be able to live in a time that, is a little rough like mom said, but is soo good and with the fulnesss of the Gospel!!!

 

I love you all and you are all in my prayers!!!!!

 

Elder Shane Larson

 

ps. tell erik to look up the artist Dread Mar-e i think is him. He is a reggae/christian singer with really good music!! I think that erik would like to listen to him. Alot of people listen to him here and he has really good relaxing music.

 

My comp wants to know if you can help him find a Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration DVD in spanish. Then he can pay me and you can take the money off of my card, but if you cant find one, that is alright.

 

Mom, that is alright, you dont have to send me anything... i am actually losing weight and feeling good and it is alright that you dont send me anything if you really want to, let it be a surprise and it can be something small. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

 

January 31, 2011

Dear Family!!!!

 It sounds like everything there is going great!!!!! I am happy to hear that!!! I cannot believe that everybody is taller than you now dad, i can harldy imagine that. I very much like your goal as well, mom. The old testament is hard to understand, but there are good stories in it that we can learn from, as well as dad is super smart and know sooo much that you can always ask him to explain what is going on.

It sounds like the family is doing good and that dad is busy with church and the activities and stuff. That is really good. This last week we had a baptism!!! It went super well and i was priviledged to confirm the lady. She is super cool and was super prepare for her baptism. I loved teaching her because it make her soo happy to her about the Gospel and the truth. I live the feeling that i was able to help her recieve the very important ordinances!! I was also able to gain more knowledge and a stronger testimony about the importance of the Priesthood in the world. I felt that i was an instrument in the Lord´s hands and that this is a very important and special experience and privilege. It was something super special to me and i am glad and thankful that i could experience it.

Other than that, this week has not been filled with alot of action. I have seen some good storms this last week, but other than that not much. We need to find more investigators here because we are lacking investigators. I hope that we can find more!! There is a family that used to take the lessons a while back that we had found, and we hope to have a good lesson with them this week!!!

I hope that everybody is doing well there at home!!!! I love you all!! and you are in my prayers!!!

Elder Shane Larson