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 

November 28, 2011

Hey Family!!!!!

 

  

This week went really good for me. Here there is nothing such as thanksgiving. We didnt do aything special or anything for that matter for thanksgiving. However, the President of the mission left with us for a good portion of the day. He was with us in the morning and also a little bit in the afternoon and also in the evening. It was great to be able to work with him and it was also cool to see how he teaches and what i can do to get better. He is a great teacher and he is also a great leader. He loves all the missionaries in this mission and he really lets eveybody know that. He is also very understanding. I really enjoyed the time that he spent with us and i had some really great spiritual experiences with him all day thursday. I believe that my testimony grew stronger and that i was able to grow as a person.

 

This week we also had a stake conference and that wasa just normal. There were some good messages, but the sound wasnt working too good so it was just a good normal stake conference. We are trying to work hard here, and it is getting pretty hot down here. The kids are starting to buy fire crackers so we here those in the strreets often, and the christmas season is swiftly closing in on us. The time is flying by super fast it is unbelievible. This week we are gointo have Elder Aidukaitis give a zone conference, and the zone leaders are going to have another meeting with him. It is going to be interesting to see how that goes and i hope that i can learn all that i can from him while he is here. Other than that i am doing great here in the mission learning everyday and trying to become a better person. I am very happy for this opportunity that i have to be here and learn soo much. i am also very thankful for all the many blessings that i have in my life. especially my family. It is different being so far from the family, but it is good to know that familes are eternal and that we have an eternal family. I am very thankful for the gospel and for all the many blessings that i get from the gospel. I am especially grateful for Christ and the atonement. i am grateful for the scriptures and for wonderful lessons that they teach. i thank you all for all that yo uhave don e and do for me and for all your support!!! I love you all!!!!

 

Love Elder Shane Larson

congrats to matt on the engagement and what happened with erik over thanksgiving?

November 21, 2011

Hey Family!!!

 

That is crazy about Bro Woods being the bishop. He is pretty young isnt he, like 35 around there? That is way super cool. I remember that he was my teacher when i was like 15 years old. He was a great teacher and your could definelty tell that he always showed up prepared for class even with a typed out paper for each of us to study afterwards. He was way cool and i am glad that he is the new bishop. I was just thinking about that today in the morning. I rememebr that we were talking and we were saying that Bishop Griggs probably wasnt going to be the bishop when i got back from my mission. Wow, so now it is Bishop Woods, that is great!!!

 I am gald to hear that everybody is doing well there at home and that grandma made it back safe!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!! The big 85 that is quiet the long life. Grandma should be proud because she is in great condition.

This last week we had a meeting with the president and the leaders of the mision. It is always good to hear from the president and see what he would like us to do. For now in my area we are still looking for people to find because we are low on investigators. We are walking around alot and it is getting pretty hot and humid here, so that complicates things, but things are still good. I cannot believe that time is passing so fast. I cannot hardly keep track of it all.

I want to wish everybody a happy thanksgiving and i hope that everybody is doing well and that you all can enjoy this nice holiday.

I think that that is super cool dad that you are doing the genealogy for mom´s family. That is really great!!1 I would like to see everything when it is done and even help you if there is still work to do when i get home. That is also way sick that you are getting to the temple soo often. I really miss the temple. almost 2 years without the temple is a very long time.

Well, i have to be getting along now. Thank you all for all that you do!! I love the emails and i am hapy that everybody is doing. I hope that you all have great week!! You are all in my prayers!!! I love you all soo much!!!!!

 

Love Elder Larson

 

It was good to hear from erik!! I am glad that you are doing well. Tell Bishop Griggs thanks for the hard work that he has done for me and for the family. Tell Bishop Woods that i am happy for him and also bro wagner and nielson.

November 14, 2011

Hey Family!!!!!


How is everybody doing??? I am glad to hear that Matt is happy and that Shannon is helping him and i am also happy that Erik and Alesha are happy and that they are doing good. They are great exapmples for us liek hans and i. I am happy to hear that hans is doing good too. I cannot believe that he still weighs only 165 pounds. that is really good and i can see it being a good weight for hans. To let you know i am weighing about 83-84 kilos, 10 more that hans. so that means that i am weighing about 85, but i think that i am losing weight... we will see i guess though.
It sounds like that stake conference went pretty well. It is interesting that the focus on missionary work is getting bigger and bigger. it is definetely the number 1 thing that we need to do as missionaries and members: help all of our brothers and sister that dont have the Gospel, get it in their lives and hold on to the iron rod. Missionary work is great and makes one feel really good. This last week we had a baptism of a 10 year old girl. She want to be baptized even in the first visit that we had. She understood everything very well and she seem very prepared for her baptism. It was great to see her, being so happy getting baptized and also when she got confirmed. It is a great priviledge and blessing that our Father in Heaven gives us to help our brothers and sisters in this special work. 

It seems like the time is going fast. All of my days get scrammbled together because the time goes by so fast. I cannot belive it. In my area we are really trying to find more people becasue we dont have many investigators now. So that means alot of wlking. The weather rght now here is alright. Sometimes it gets pretty hot and other times, like today, it gets prtty nice. there is one thing that i dont really like about the weather here is the humidity. But it is alright the work goes on :) I think that i have already got burned a couple of times, in fact today we played futbol and i think that i got a little burned because when i saw my face in the mirror i looked all red. 

Other than that i continue working here in Tolosa. I am very blessed to be here and to have all of your support. I hope that eveybody is doing well and that eveybody has a great week!! I love you all!!! My prayers are with you!!

Love Elder Shane LARSON

November 7, 2011

Hey Family!!!!!

 

How are you all doing? I am doing good here. This week we had a busy week with alot of meetings. I already mentioned what happened for alot of the week becasue i wrote just last thursday- but that was the only time that i will be writting on thursday. There  was a change in the transfer because of a seminar of mission presidents and our president had to go, so we had pday on thrusday and now again today. Other than those meetings we had a good week. Nothing super special happened, but it seems like the ward where i am at as gotten more excited to work on the service and missionary responsibilities. Which makes me happy to hear mom sharing her testimony in church. That is great!!!! I alos had the opportunity to share my testimony this last week in fast and testimony meeting. I was the last one to go in my ward. there was already a strong spirit in the sacrament hall and all the testimonies were great. i am happy to have been able to participate last sunday and for the strong spirit that was there present.

 

The days are getting pretty hot here and it had rained a little this past week which makes it really humid and that isnt too fun to walk in, but the sacrifice is good. The misison seems to be going by super fast, i cannot hardly believe that. We are trying to accoplish the goals that we have set and i think that also makes time go fast because we are getting, or at least trying to be busy all the time. The service is really good and i am thankful for the joy that i feel when the investigadors follow through with there committments. I am really blessed to be in the mission and to be able to learn and grow every day.

 

i think that that is col that you are working out alot dad. Do go too hard now ;) I am also trying to do my workouts in the morning when i have time and my comp and i go running in the morning sometimes as well.  that sounds fun and i think i will have to join you with some of those workouts when i get home!!

 

Well time is flying by. I love you all very much and my prayers are with you all. I am sorry that my emails are short, is ther anything that you all want to know or are there any other questions that you may have? Please be safe and keep up the good work!!!

 

Love Elder Shane Larson

November 3, 2011

Hey Family!!!!

 

 Hans stories sound pretty crazy about the car crashes and what not and that is also super cool to hear about the baptism that he has been seeing over there on the other side of the world. I am also glad to hear that the family is doing good and that everybody is doing well. that is great that your knee is feeling better mom, and that your are having opportunities to share the gospel dad. It is one of the saving services, you know, missionary work brings salvation. that is super cool and am happy that you are having fun sharing the gospel. it is really a great blessing that we have to shre the gospel because we get soo much joy from doing it that it is a blessing just sharing the gospel. I am also happy to hear that Kirsten came down to visit and that she is doing good. I also like the story of Nimrod and the way that he talked with animals, i havent really ever looked at it that way.

 

For my week... well first of all it went by really fast. I can hardly keep track of the days noiw and i am not really sure why. We are pretty busy working, but it doesnt seem like there is enough time in the day to get everything done. We are busy trying to get some people baptized this month, so far we have some pretty high goals that we are hoping that we can reach. I am wlaking around like nobody´s business either, but it is all great!! There was changes in the mission, but i am not going anywhere and i think that i will end the mission in this place with this same companion. I am glad though because i get along really well with my comp and we are doing alot of good work together.

 

this last week i did an exchange with an elder from panama in my area. and then on thursday we had interviews with the president. those are always way cool and i love talking to the president. Then  after interviews i did exchanges with the assistants, with one that i had worked with before. This week already i had another meeting with the President and we are going strong. I am sorry that i couldnt write you all on monday. Pday got switched to today but i will write again on  monday to let you all know how things are going- i love you all and i hopoe that you all have a great week!!! I pray for you all and i wish you the best blessings!!!

 

unitl monday

 

Love Elder Shane Larson