January 16, 2012

Hey Family!!

 

I am glad to hear that everybody is doing well!! That is great and i am happy that Erwin is doing well and that he has strong desires to go to church. I hope that Josh can go to church too, but i can tell you all that i will be more than happy to help him!! I think that all those evidences of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon are really cool and they are really valid as well. i like knowing things like that because i know that the Book of Mormon is true and there is alot of people that dont, but maybe if they just spent some time tryingto figure out if it is true, they can come up with a logical reason before receiving a confrimation from our Father in Heaven, however that is the most important thing, asking God if it is true.

I am happy to hear that you and mom are reading the scriptures. We would really be lost without them in our lives. I really didnt take advantage of the scriptures before the mission, but know that they are true. I love reading the scriptures now. I know that i will never stop reading them until i die. Like what Hans said, there is never an end to learning.

This last week we had interviews with the president and we also gave a little lesson to the missionaries in our zone. I am happy that i have had the opportunity to serve the other misionaires in my zone. They are all great people and have good intention on helping the people. Serving a mission has been amazing. I have learned alot while i have been out here. It is kinda funny because everybody talks about me going home. But the truth is that, yes i am excited to go home, but i am sure going to miss the mision. This has been the greatest dedication that i have every commited to do in my life, and it has been for a good portion of time. It is pretty crazy. I am happy to be able to work here these next two weeks . I hope that everything can go well so that we can have some baptisms here in Tolosa. I love you all and i am thankful for all that you are doing for me at home!!1 I thank you all for the letters and the love and prayers. I hope that you all have a great week and that you can have agreat experiences!!!! Stay happy and Be safe!!!

 

I love you all very much!!

 

Love Elder Shane Larson

January 9, 2012

Dear Family-

 

I am happy to hear that everybody is doing good there at home. I am sorry to hear about your knees dad, but i know that it was a good sacrifice to play with the grandchildren. Thank you very much mom for the appointment that you have been setting me, i am very thankful for that. I hope that my body and teeth are in good condition, i have been taking care of myself so i hope everything comes out like i want it to.- perfectly FINE. thank you very much mom!!

 

That was a pretty good sstory of tim tebow dad, and i am very happy to hear that there was a baptism in the ward. That is way cool to hear and i hope that that can continue. I think that i have a couple of friends that can also need the gospel there at home, and that is a goal that i have set for this year, to help 3 of my friends recieve the gospel, so we will see when i get home who can come to church with us!! But i really think that that is great!!!!This week was a pretty good week. we went to a meeting for zone leaders with the president that we have every month. then on thursday and friday until saturday we were doing intercambios. I had a good time doing intercambios. The first one i left my area and the second one i stayed in my area. We have been lacking on finding people in my area so that makes the progression of the work a little slower, but we have hope in finding more people. I have definetly been talking to more people now than ever before in my mission, so i think that if my companion and i can keep that up we will be able to find more people.

 

The mission is great. i can hardly believe that it is coming to a close here soon. I have learned alot on the misison and i am prepared to work hard until the end. Today i was reading in Mosiah 5. As i was reading i felt very grateful to belong to the Church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I like how it talks about the baptismal covenant and that we need to always remember Christ and have him in our heart always. I also had a reassuring feeling that this is the only true church of Christ on the earth. I am thank ful for your letters and i am happy that you were bale ot share your testimony mom. We are truly blessed to be in the Gospel. I hope that you all have a great week and that youare all safe as well!!! I love you all very very much!!! thank you all for the many prayers!!!!!

 

Love Elder Shane larson

January 2, 2012

Hey Family!!!!

That is pretty crazy that you havent been home for new years in a while dad. But now that i think of it, i havent either hahaha. I am happy that you and mom were able to spend time together and that you two are doing well. That is a little funny about the classes that you had to take, but i am sure that it was a good experience. This week had also gone by pretty fast for me too. We have been pretty busy here and this week we will again be pretty busy. I think that the more you are busy, the faster time goes by.

We started off the last week well by finding a young girl by a reference from a member. She has been going through some hard times and she is very receptive to the messages. From what we seen now, she is going to be able to be baptized before the end of the month. Then we did some exchanges on tuesday and wednesday. those were good and we were able to halp some other elders out as well, so that was good. Thursday and friday we had some pretty good days at work and saturday was a little rougher. We ate at the house of the bishop and then we went home after we were done. At midnight i was woken up by the fireworks that everybody was throwing off in the neighborhood. They were throwing off alot and many of them were pretty loud and were pretty large as they exploded in the air. So i went back to bed soon after we saw the fireworks. Then sunday we worked all afternoon after the meetings in chruch. It was overall a good week and we are pretty happy about it.

Here in la plata there is a tradition that the people make big muñecos. they are like huge piñatas that are fiiled with explosives, aerosol cans and fireworks that are make them explode. i didnt see any explode but i saw them around. They are all huge and very cool looking. There are some that are really artistic. There were some of dragons, yogi the bear, the smurfs and alot of other things. they burn them in the middle of the night at several hours.

I love you all and i thank you for all of your support!!! I hope that everybody has a great week and that you are all safe!!! Tell Nathan and the family i say hi and that i love them all!!! Keep up the good work that you are all doing there at home!!! I know that the church is true and that we are truly Blessed!!! I hope that you all can start the new year off well!!! Happy New year!!!!

 

Alot of Love

Elder Shane Larson

December 26, 2011

Hey FAMILY!!!!

 

Well, i hope that everybody had a fun time during Christmas!! That was great talking to you all and that was a huge blessing for me to be able to hear you all and talk. That is such  great blessing to be able to talk from such a long way away! I had a good time this last week. My companion and i just started this transfer this week. We got a couple of changes in the zone. There was an area that was split into 2 and there were elders taken out of one place and sisters put into it. I feel like this is going to be a good transfer here in La Plata. The time is winding down rapidly, but i know that there is still alot of work to be done. I am very happy and grateful for this last year that i was able to be here in Argentina and for the opportunity that i have had to meet some great people and teach them so that they can progress towards our Father in Heavens home. The mission is truly a great experience. This last week i was privlidged to be able to baptize a little boy named Misael. He is only 8 years old, but his parents arent members. they have to do some things in order to be able to be baptized, but he was still baptized theis last friday. He is a great little kid and is alway content. He is super funny as well. When it was time for him to be baptized, we entered the water and he was baptized. He was very happy afterwards and was also expressing his happiness before the baptism took place as well, but i can sure tell you what, i was also very happy after he was baptized. It was great!!! That was a good way to start off the Christmas weekend.

For the weekend we just ate in the pension.  the members gave us alot of food so we were happy about that as well. At night they throw off fireworks and that woke me and my compo up a little bit, but all is well. This week was pretty calm. We hope to have agreat month of missionary work here. I hope that it will be just like that: alot of work and alot of business.

 

I am really happy that i was able to talk to all of you and i am glad that yor are all doing well. I liked to converse like that. I will enjoying talking to all of you when i return, especially you two, dad and mom!! I love you all very much and i hope that you all have a great week and that you are all safe and that you can have a happy New Years!!!! My prayers are with you all!!

 

Love Elder Shane Larson

December 19, 2011

Hey Family!!!

 

This is soo crazy how time is flying by soo fast!!!! I cannot believe it. I am happy that you are all doing well there and that you are all preparing for the holidays. Here we had transfer meetings and i will be ending my mission here in Tolosa. The ward is a great ward and i love working with my companion. we get along really well and the work here is going good for us. I am excited for this next year because there were several changes in the zone and the zone is full of a bunch of great elders and hermanas. This will be a las greeat time to work here in the mission, and to be wuite honest i am really excited!!! I am doing happpy and am happy for the opportunity that i have to talk to you all next week. I will be calling aound 1 in the afternooon on christmas day. I might even try to call on saturday in order to confirm the call. I am very excited now in the mission, all is goin well. I had seen some of my good buddies leave the mission today, and that was kinda sad, but like you said dad, there are many opportunities to prove to our Father in Heaven that we will endure to the end. I thank you all for all the letters and for all the support that you always have given me and that you all give me. I love you all very much and am very thankful for all that you do for me. I hope that you all have a great week and that you have a merry Christmas!!! Be safe!!! My prayers are with all of you!!!

 

 

Love ELder Shane Larson

 

sorry that the letter is soo small.-I will sent a a larger one next week because i have run out of time.

December 12, 2011

Hi Family!!!

 

How are you all doing?? It appears to me that everybody is doing good and that everybody is staying busy. I am happy to hear that the family is gettting together and that Kirsten is coming down to go to that party, hahah i miss those good ol family reunions!!! I am doing goog here and staying happy!!! The chirstmas season has already got here, but it is really different here because there arent any christmas songs playing on the radio nor is the weather the same, but it is all good. I cannot believe that the time is going by soo fast. This last week went really well. I was invited to a little dinner in the house of an hermana for my birthday and they made me an apple pie. It was soo good!!! and there was also family from the states over so it was interesting talking in english and hearing them speak in english. We sure seem to maintain ourselves busy. there is alot of work that needs to be done and that is getting done, or at least i hope so because we are always busy!!! We are seeing some progress in some of the investigators that we have and we shoule have a baptism this next week for a little boy that is 8. His parents are waiting a divorce in order to get married  and then they can get married, but he has an aunt and an older brother that are already baptized. we are pretty excited about his baptism. We also had another older lady, that recently turned 78 years old, that walked about 23 blocks to go to church. She seems to be a strong woman and she moves around quite well. It is really impressive that she is even willing to walk that far, in the heat that is here, with her age, to go to church. She is a very strong woman and she is doing great, although sometimes it is hard for her to remember the things that we teach her , but she is doing good and she also has a date for the 24 to get baptized.

 

I am thankful for the time that i have to be a missionary. We had a meeting for the zone leaders in the mission on Wednesday. It usually take almost all the day to have that meeting, but i was able to learn a little more and know how to help the sone where i am in. I am excited for these months because the mission seems to be getting strong as well and the zone where i am at. I am doing great and am very happy with all that is going on. I am also thankful for all that you all do. Thanks for the letters and for the support!!! On Christmas day i will be calling around 3 o´clock. I am not sure what the difference is, i think that it is 4 hours no? i will be calling from here at about 7 o´clock this time, so everybody be ready!!! I will probably talk to Brett then too, no?? Hahaha that is great!! well i hope that you all have a great week!! I love you all!!!

 

 

Love Elder Shane Larson

December 5, 2011

Hey Family!!!!

 

 

 

I am thankful for all the birthday wishes. It is crazy that it is already my birthday and the time of year to start celebrating the birth of Christ. The time keps going faster and faster it seems, and doesnt seem to give me time to do all the things that i have planned for. I guess that is how it goes sometimes in life.

 

This week we had a special visit by the 70 Elder Aidukaitis. He is from Brazil and is now serving as the 1st counselor in the area presidency here. I had two meetings with him. 1 meeting was with all the zone leaders and him and the other was a zone conference with him speaking. He is a very inteligent man and can teach really well! He is very clear and helps so that we know what we have to do to change and get better. He is pretty up front about alot of things too, which really helped show us what we need to do to improve, or what we are doing wrong so that we can fix it. I am very happy to have had that meeting and i had felt the spirit super strong during the both meetings. He is a very spiritual man and i think that it was good for the mision that he came to speak to us.

 

Other than that, this week went really well for us. We werre able to find more people and invite more people to baptism as well. We are being very blessed in my area and we have alot of work for now. The time is quickly winding down and i want these last 2 months to be the best! I am doing good here, the work is going well. There is still things that i need to improve and thankg that i ned to get done, but i am very happy with the experiences that i have been having. I feel that i have grown in the past couple of weeks. I love the mission, it is great and it is definitely a place where you can learn sooo many things!! I love it soo much!!

 

I lovve you all and i am very grateful for all that you have done for me. Tank you very much for the package mom!!! Those truffle are delicious and i almost ate all of the beef jerkey already. I hope that you are all doing well adn that you can be feeling a little better mom. I know that the Savoir lives and that He loves  all of us. I also know that the Book of Mormon is true and am very happy that you are reading the Book of Mormon again dad!! You can always find something new everytime you read it. I am very thankful for the priesthood and to have a prophet on the earth. I love you all and i hope that you all have a great week!!!! Please be safe!!!!

My prayers are with you!!!!!!!!

 

 

Love Elder Shane Larson