Elder Larson & Elder Farthing Rockin' in Melba Idaho

12/7/10

Hey Everybody,

I don't have much time, but i will just give you an update on the week. well, not much happened. we got snowed in last wednesday, so we couldn't work much, but we did get some stuff done. we might have a baptism this saturday, we will see. it's the last week of the transfer, so we'll see where i am and who i'm with next week. i love you all to death, and i hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. Did you guys get to watch the christmas devotional sunday? it was so awesome. always nice to hear from the Prophet and his Counsellors. they truly are called of God, and just watching that devotional got me so excited for the season, and for the message we share. Our Savior Jesus Christ was born, He lived, He suffered and Atoned and Died for us, and He rose, and He lives again, and because of all of this.... we can be happy forever. you can look at it the other way if you want, Christ did those things so we can be happy. Regardless of how you look at it, it happened. and i know that. we live in a great time, with lots of hustle and lots of bustle and lots of crazy things happening all around us, but what a blessing we have to find solace and peace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in our Families, the most important unit of our lives. we are blessed. God loves each of us without bounds, and there are people out there who do not know that. can you imagine? i can't. and that is why this is so important. why the latter day work is so essential. we are the means of bringing happiness to those who are desperately searching it. and i don't just mean the missionaries, i mean us as members of the Church. we are each Disciples of Christ, and we have chosen to follow him, and what a great choice it is. i hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season, i miss you all immensely, and hope you have a wonderful week! i love you all and wish you the best!

Elder Larson

P.S. i ate a whole bunch of cow tongue today, then i went and milked a cow on a dairy! haha i'm such a lucky person! it was awesome!

11/23/10

Hello everybody at home. How are you all doing? not much going on here, same ol' same ol' missionary work. trying to find hispanic people to teach, and trying to keep gringos progressing. but things are definitely going well around here. we've got our baptism on saturday, so i'm very excited about that. we're planning it all out tonight. que mas.. i have to give a talk in the spanish branch on sunday, i'm a little nervous about that... you know i don't speak spanish!!! but it will be okay. so last week was a pretty busy one. I had to go to this Leadership Training meeting in boise with my comp, and i was the only guy there that wasn't a district or zone leader, or a trainer. haha people kept asking why i was there, but i had to go cause elder Farthing had a doctors appointment. anyways. i learned a lot of super secret stuff about how to be a better leader through manipulation and tyranny... well not really either of those things. i learned a lot about how we can more effectively teach and help our investigators to progress. i need to be more bold. i learned that. then yesterday we had zone conference in a little place called Middleton. it was pretty fun. we talked about the new mormon.org site and whatnot. we had a little testimony meeting, then we ate and played games cause it's thanksgiving time. then President Cannon played The Other Side of Heaven cause its the holidays. so that was cool to watch a normal movie! haha it was a lot of fun. it's kind of strange not being home for the holidays, but we're having fun and staying busy so i don't have to think about it so much. that seems to be the best way to combat it. haha we have like three dinner appointments on thanksgiving, so i'm gonna get fat as a pig. i'm pretty excited for that. i hope you all have a good thanksgiving. we have an awful lot to be thankful for. that has helped me out a lot during this time, remembering the things i'm thankful for, and then turning and giving that thanks to the Lord. Sister Cannon tells us that prayer is how we write our gratefulness in our hearts. i kinda like that. i've also learned some funny stuff being around hispanics once in a while. when you ask how they are and whatnot they often say, "gracias a Dios." i love that. i do. thanks to God... even the ones who aren't super religious know that God is the one who gives us all we have, even when it's not that much... we can be thankful for literally everything in our lives, ESPECIALLY our trials. in fact those may be the most important things of all. And of course, the greatest gift of all, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. that alone deserves not only the fourth thursday in november, but every single day of our lives in thanks. i'm still trying to figure out how i can better do that, but i suppose the best way to give our thanks everyday is to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as HE has written it. Live like He did. oh, and use the Atonement everyday in our lives. Christ didn't suffer our pains and afflictions just to have us suffer them ourselves. that is something i have experienced first hand here, and something i am still learning so much about. i am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. i am grateful for His Sacrifice, and i am grateful for the unique message that i have to share about the restored gospel, the means by which we access the healing power of the Atonement. If you aren't grateful for anything else this year (which i know you all are very grateful for lots of things, i just say that for dramatic effect) pray to Heavenly Father and thank him for helping you get this far. Thank him for His Son, and for His Sacrifice. i know that as we center our gratefulness around the savior, and go from there with recognizing the things we are thankful for, we can not only express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father, but we can access the blessings of a grateful heart, which are many. Anyways, enough preaching from Elder Larson. haha it's cold outside. 25 degrees to be exact. so be grateful you aren't HERE! haha i love you all with all my heart. and i am grateful for you too. have a wonderful thanksgiving, and get fat! pray for the missionaries, and smile! Les Amo.

Elder Larson

11/16/10

i was told once that 90 percent of the seeds in the United States are grown here in Melba Idaho.... i don't know if i believe it, but there is a big sign that says, Melba, seed heart of America! que raro!

Hope everything is well at home, things are going just dandy here! we are still working with one of our families trying to get them baptized. i had my first house raid the other day, we took coffee from an investigator. we still have it in our car... shoot. anyways! our investigator with the baptismal date is still planning on getting baptized, which is great as well! and we are struggling beyond that. haha but thats missionary work. This week was a good one, we got a lot done, and i had some cool experiences. i went to the Boise Zoo last p day, which was fun. my dad (elder farthing) took me. there were lions and tigers, and a red panda Oh... well... i guess they are sort of bears... anyways, i took pictures and stuff, but none of you get to see them cause, well, i don't really have any way to show you.

Also, on saturday, we went up to this part member home in the mountains, and we cut tons of wood, which was fun. i'm a true paul bunyan if you ask me. except i'm a technologically advanced version, and i used a wood splitter. haha same thing though.

Anyways, work is slow here, but the people we are working with are super strong, so that is very encouraging. i was sitting in the temple this morning, and the thought popped into my mind, i'm not looking very far into the future of these wonderful people. the temple, that is the real goal. i want to see these people we are teaching feel and see for themselves what happiness is. i don't know. that was a cool little bit of inspiration for me. i thought of each of our investigators and just felt such an urgency for them, cause i know it's important, i just want them to realize it too! haha someday. well, not much else going on. i love you all immensely, and hope you have a wonderful week. pray for the missionaries, and remember to keep your eyes open for people to be taught. i miss you, and hope the best for you. have a good week!

Elder Larson

11/9/10

Its been a good week! this place is such a funny little place, where dreams come true, and missionaries eat more than any normal human being should. i'm still gaining weight, for those wondering, and i had a member family laugh at me when they asked how much weight i've gained and i said 17 pounds in 3 months..... i'm getting fat. but thats okay. so not too much has happened this week. the mission has a way of staying fairly stable. is that the right stable? is there more than one way to spell stable? anyways, i did have a cool experience. that guy that said he wanted to get baptized but didn't set a date, well he set a date! it was a cool experience, and it was a great testimony to me of the power of faith and prayer. he is going to be baptized on the 27th of this month, and he asked me if i would baptize him, so i'm excited, but a bit nervous about that! i have never baptized a person before, i'm afraid i might drown him... anyways, other than that nothing to eventful going on here in the Kuna area. our spanish work is slow still. good news though, i'm not the youngest missionary in the field anymore. we got a new crop of greenies on tuesday. i'm now a pailer green, but still green haha. what else... it's cold. its 38 today, last night it was 31 degrees. the low today is 28, so that is going to be miserable if it hits there. this is where it all turns around on me i suppose. the weather held out as long as it could for me. thats okay though. so Elder Farthing and i are still getting along great. he is still getting used to english work, and i'm still getting used to missionary work, so we have fun. other than that though, not much else going on around here. we had a wonderful meal on sunday with a spanish family, which consisted of pisoli (a mexican stew) pork chops, and taco shells filled with mashed potatoes? haha it was a strange combination, but we ate a ton. people just pile food on you.. it's hard to say no. ALSO, you will never believe this, but we have a two members in the melba 1st ward who one looks IDENTICAL to Ron Burgundy, and the other looks IDENTICAL to Mr. Bean. if Brother Burgundy and Brother Bean got in a fight, who would win? i expect a response to this question by next tuesday. anyways, keep up the good work at home everyone, and remember that as members of the church, we are all expected to be doing missionary work. members are full time finders, at least thats what elder bednar tells us. haha so find someone for the missionaries to teach this week! keep your eyes peeled, there are lots of people out there who arent members, and are held from the truth, only because they know not where to find it. (Doctrine and Covenants something:something.) anyways, i love you all, and i miss you. i hope all is well at home, for everyone. pray for the missionaries! and have fun. and be happy. and.... keep the commandments? (that last one is not optional) Okay! have a good week!

Elder Larson

10/26/10

Okay Everybody. Update on the wild wild world of Kuna/Meridian Idaho.

Everything is pretty much the same here. spanish work is slow, white people are frustrating, and my comp and i are having a lot of fun. it's starting to get pretty cold here, it is supposed to snow at some point today. we'll see. i went to the temple this morning, it was awesome as usual. we did service at a less active ladies house the other day. she is a single mom, and asked us to help her burn weeds. Great. haha so we did that the other day, i smelt like smoke the rest of the day. i saw a one winged owl the other day, at a ward party. i've never seen an owl up close. those things are HUGE! and it's true, they can spin their heads all the way around. que chito. i also got to go to oregon on friday for a baptismal interview with my zone leaders. oregon: check. it's not very pretty over there. haha but it is a different state. we picked up another investigator this week, spanish. we are teaching him tonight, i'm pumped for that.

I'm super tired. my companion said i would be tired for a month, then once i hit a month he told me that it actually lasts the rest of your mission. mentiroso. so pretty much i am going to be tired forever. this is the last week of the transfer. i can't believe it. thursday is my 100 day mark, we don't get to let off balloons or anything though. haha maybe next time. can't believe it is almost halloween. we get to sit in our house friday and saturday night, so we don't get in trouble. I'm in Idaho? someone is confused. anyways, not much else going on here. it's been a good week. lots of searching, lots of praying. and we have done a bit of walking too. we walked like five miles the other day, and the lady we went to visit wasn't even home. oh well. gotta save miles. thats pretty much everything. i got to speak a little bit in sharing time in primary this last sunday, that was really fun! i love primary. we had the primary program on sunday, and we had an investigator come for the first time. it was so so cool. nothing brings the spirit like a bunch of brats singing the Gospel! haha just kidding. anyways, i'm outta here. gotta go do some good in the world. or at least try. OKAY. love you all to death, be good, have a good week, and pray for the missionaries!

Nos Vemos,

Elder Larson

Pictures from Mission President.

Elder Larson with President & Sister Cannon &his trainer Elder Farthing.
Elder Larson & President & Sister Cannon

10/12/10

Hola hola,
how is everyone at home? I'm alive don't worry! so, this week was a good one for sure! we're getting the ball rolling now, which is really exciting. we got like 10 lessons this week, which doesn't sound like much, until you compare it to the 4 that we had the week before. definitely not how i imagined the Idaho boise spanish mission! but the story is that this mission was very successful when it opened. now, all of the hispanics have already talked to missionaries a couple times, and it's more surprising to find one who hasn't than someone who has. BUT, i'm having fun nonetheless! lots of driving, and finding, and knocking on random doors hoping a hispanic person answers. haha thats missionary work though isn't it? we found a new investigator this week. i might have mentioned her before, she is the cat lady? no se. she has like a thousand cats at her house, one of them has legitimate thumbs and sits down like a human cause it broke its back or something, and another doesn't have an eye, its funny. but i'm super allergic as we all know. we haven't had dinner with a member for a week or so, so i've been eating at this little taco truck a lot, where the lady speaks to us in spanish. i ate a lengua taco the other day, (tongue). it was surprisingly good, but i probably won't do it again. haha but i love hispanic people. quite a bit actually. they are so much fun to talk to, and everyone talks to you like they have known you for years. its just fun. it's like that with gringo members too though. the people are super nice here, and the area is beautiful. it's changing colors right now, and they are just finishing up the harvest so it's pretty. not much else to say. i'll write a hand written to the family, don't worry mom. things are going well in the idaho boise mission, and i pray that they are the same at home. i love you all, and i will ask you again, pray for the missionaries. pray for their success. pray for the people out there too, cause they are the ones who make the change. i love you all. be good, keep your chins up, smile, and be happy!
Elder Larson

10/5/10

Hola hola hola
How is everyone at home? good? ok good! How was powell? and for those of you who weren't there, how was home without powell? haha suckers. (coming from the guy who won't see the place for two more years...) How was conference? i'll answer that for you, it was Great! it really was a wonderful conference, and i'll tell you this, my favorite talk, and i think it might have been yours too Eli, was the one by President Uchtdorf, about slowing down. oh did i need that. i think too often as people we just try to do too much, and think too much, and even more than that i feel like when we know something is going to be hard we just charge into it faster. i know that while i've been here that has been a challenge for me. it's overwhelming here at times, and sometimes you experience some disappointment, but that shouldn't weigh on our minds. if we just slow down, and just focus on what we are doing, we may learn to just take it in stride, and our minds and hearts can be lifted. that being said, the Idaho Boise mission is going great! it is hard. my view of it has most definitely changed in the short time i have been out here, and there aren't nearly as many members of the church as i was under the impression that there were! haha so there is lots of english work in our area. but the spanish... its hard. but fun! i love finding hispanic people then sitting there while my companion speaks, just nodding my head, cause i understand every other sentence when they get going. native speak is just insane. well, there are different types. mexicans are pretty easy, unless they are drunk and slurring their words and falling asleep mid sentence, (which yes, i have dealt with), peruvians aren't bad, they anunciate their words really well, so it's fun talking to them. argentinians are pretty challenging, and cubanos are impossible. so SO fast. haha so thats what i have been dealing with. oh, and gringo, which is pretty easy to understand, but hard to speak. not much going on here in the mission. we are just rollin' trying to teach lessons. we aren't doing too hot, but we are working hard. i'm so tired. we had an english investigator drop us like an hour before a lesson last week, which is normal, but so frustrating. that's okay though. we'll find some more. we're teaching a really good family in english right now, they have a bunch of kids, but they are all adopted, so there is some variation. they are awesome, but they are struggling with quitting smoking. no se, we'll just keep working on them.
OKAY, STORY. i think you will all appreciate this. so last week we were driving, and the ward mission leaders from an english ward calls us and says hey elders, you want to do some service. we thought sure why not, and i asked him what we were doing. he said we were going to work in a potato field and help did them up! hahah so i thought, PERFECT, i'm getting the Idaho experience for sure! so we went out the next day, and we dug up like 5 big Burlap sacks full, and the whole time i am asking the farmers questions about the different types of potatoes and what is considered a good potato, and all these ridiculous questions trying to pretend to be interested and being an antagonist, while my companion is just laughing. i asked some pretty absurd questions, but the farmers get all excited to answer and they give you the whole rundown on potato production, as i'm trying my best not to laugh. they like me now though, so i don't even care. i know an awful lot about potatoes now too... haha so it was a good time, and we took the potatoes around to less actives and investigators in the ward. they even let us take home a big sack for ourselves, so we have a sack of potatoes in our kitchen that we are never going to use... we made french fries yesterday! they were so good. so maybe we'll use a couple. so there are potatoes, it's true.
I don't know. other than that there is nothing going on around here. just working, getting to know people, and trying to get by and be happy! discouragement is satan's best tool here. and trust me he tries to use it. the best way to beat it though is prayer, and work. thats all you can do. I love you all immensely, and i miss you. i hope all is well back at home, and i hope you are all being good! thank you for your encouragement and your prayers. it means a lot. keep praying for the missionaries, we need it. Also, do your personal scripture study. i have never seen a bigger difference in the way i feel and the way my day goes than i have through scrupture study. it's unbelievable. and you all know how horrendous my study habits were. DO IT, it WILL make a difference. i promise. i love you. keep your chins up, and all will be well! okay, i'm gonna go buy a coat now. it's starting to get really cold here. i guess the winter is hitting in the next couple weeks, AND according to the farmers almanac, this winter is going to be an especially cold one. it's 75% accurate. hahah people here are so funny. okay. Adios loved ones. you are the best!
Elder Larson

First Day in the Field!

Well Guess what, i made it to Idaho! haha so yesterday was my first day, and it was really a lot of fun, but crazy. after i talked to you all on the phone, i got on a tiny little plane to Boise, the flight was like 45 minutes or something. I talked to a guy who had lived there for quite a while and he just went on and on about how much he loves it, and how it really is the city of trees. when we flew in and i looked out the window, i can't exactly say it was a Land of trees, but it is definitely a lot more green than it is at home! haha it really is beautiful here, it is just like home. So we flew in and President and sister Cannon picked us up, then we went to the mission home and had a nice lunch and interviews with the President. he is an awesome man, very enthusiastic. then we went back to the mission office, which is right next to the temple (which is one of the coolest looking temples i have ever seen in my life) and had a training meeting, and after that we got our trainers, or "dads," and our area assignments! i am with Elder Farthing, from Richmond Virginia. he has been here for like 19 months, so he knows what is going on. We are working in Kuna, near Nampa, in a hybrid spanish/english area (we are the only ones doing that). basically we cover a really tiny spanish branch of about 20 people, and we just got placed in two English wards. We have 0 people in our spanish teaching pool, and someone lost the area book, so we are essentially starting form nothing. that should be quite the experience for someone with NO EXPERIENCE right? haha crazy. our english wards are in Melba, but i haven't met any of them yet. but we went tracting before a dinner appointment, and he just walked around trying to find spanish speakers and asking people if they had any spanish speaking neighbors, or if they were interested in our message.no success, but that is okay. we found some houses we can try back at later. then we had a dinner appointment with the Cook's, an english family, and they were... insane. haha they were so disfunctional, but also a really amazing family. they live back on a little farm, and they made us chicken wings, they were just super nice. they had like 10 computers though, and the son was playing world of warcraft when we got there it was funny. but we shared a short message with them, and left to see if we could catch a potential investigator at home. we didn't get to talk to him but we were next to a house, and we heard some loud mexican carnival music bumping in the back, which is a good sign for our work. hahah so we walk into the back and there was jesus, washing his mustang, which had like 4 subs in it and he is just cranking this fiesta music and it was just awesome. we got his attention, and asked if he needed help, he said no, but we asked if we could share a message with him, he said sure, lets go out front. we go into his front lawn and he grabs us some lawn chairs and we start talking to him getting to know him. he is catholic, but doesn't attend, and doesn't really understand why there are so many other churches. Perfect. now remember this is all in spanish and i am about as disoriented as it gets. so here i am sitting in the front lawn of this guy, just trying my hardest to understand him, and i hear my companion say, well, it is elder larsons first day, so he is going to teach! i look at him like, WHAT?? and he says to me in english, its all you, teach the restoration. So terrified, i reach in my bag for my preach my gospel, and i only have my english one. so i just went! it was just amazing though, obviously it wasn't a perfect lesson, and obviously it wasn't great, but i could feel the spirit, and i know that he did too.. i don't actually even know what i said, i was just talking, i was so terrified. after we talked about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, i commited him to read and pray about the book of mormon. he accepted, and we are going to go back and visit him tomorrow night.. hopefully something will happen. ah it was so cool! i think my companion was a little surprised that i could speak even my broken spanish, but when i told him about the mtc and whatnot he wasn't as surprised. haha it was just nuts. so i got to record my first lesson taught last night.

later that night, we went to a part member home, and the wife wasn't home, but the husband, who is the non-member, was. his daughter told us to go out back, and we went into this makeshift garage, and he was standing there barefoot in this like slushy ice that had fallen out of a freezer that he couldn't get to shut cause there was too much in it. so we start trying to help him, and he is talking to us in spanish and i'm doing my best to keep up and answer, and it was just crazy to be able to here from people who are just so different. he ended up giving us some plums, and said he had to go cause he needed to eat all of the food, then pointed to a bowl with like 10 frozen personal size pizzas in it. hahah so we left him to eat his pizzas, and went on our way. we'll go back and visit him hopefully sometime next week. haha so that was pretty much my first day. it was crazy.

okay, now i should tell you the details. i don't know my address, so if you want to send me mail, send it to the mission office, 1111 cole road or something, mom you have it. we're living in the basement of an english members home, it's actually a nice place. there are like three rooms and two bathrooms and a kitchen, of course we only use on room. haha the beds are way bigger than the mtc so that is really nice. i don't really know much else yet. my pdays are still tuesdays. my companion is a funny guy. Idaho is a lovely area, and it's true, the people here WORSHIP Boise State. there are flags and stickers EVERYWHERE around here. haha it is just fantastic. It is a lot like home. our window looks right into a farm, adn it looks just like home, i caught myself staring during lunch today. We are scheduled to have dinner with members every night this month, some we are scheduled twice. haha the members here are just great. i'm excited to go to church and start getting to know them. we'll see! i just really want to work in spanish right now. we have a dinner appointment with a reactivated family later tonight who is preparing to go to the temple, so that should be nice. we're gonna talk a little bit about enduring to the end. i'm excited. we never have dinner appointments with spanish people though. only english! haha but seeing as i am a spanglish missionary all is well! well i gotta go now, i love you all immensely, and i miss you! i hope all is well at home! have a good week, and pray for the missionaries!

love,

Elder Larson

Week 8

Hey Everybody! i don't have a ton of time to write today, had to go get a haircut and stuff so i don't have full time. but it's okay cause nothing much has changed! haha spanish is going great, teaching is going great, leaving here is very stressful but so exciting, and i have my travel plans! i leave next tuesday at 845 or so! it's so very exciting i cannot wait, but i have to. they closed up the gym and everything here so i'm not gonna miss out on too much here! it's starting to get really chilly in the mornings, but thats okay. i'm sure i will see worse. i wouldn't mind if you sent me a sweatshirt or somethin mom.. haha but if not i'll be fine! umm not much else going on here. we just have departure meetings and whatnot here, so busy busy days. i can't wait to get out in the field though. it's really a scary feeling, knowing i'm finally doing it.. i'm finally going to be using this knowledge that i've tried to pick up here.. its just crazy. i love it here, but after a while you are just ready to work. i am at that point for sure! most of the elders in my district are getting reassigned, only two got their permisos to mexico, but its all good! thats like two mission calls! Que Chito! haha okay wellllllll i gotta go. if you don't get an email next week its cause i am on an airplane! i love you all! have a wonderful week!

Elder Larson

Week 7

Hola Hola Hola Familia y Amigos,

I hope all is well back at home! things here are not changing really at all, so once again, nothin to report. it was a really quick slow week, and i know that doesn't make sense but if you were here you would understand. spanish is going great, still hard, and this week we started working on subjunctive, and if i understood what the heck that was in english i would try and explain. but i don't. so essentially, everything i know about spanish changed. haha but it is a-okay. i am missin home a bit but there is work to be done around here and soon when i finally get to enter the mission field. 2 more weeks! i like the shire comment mom! the gospel is still going great, and learning it in spanish is really quite rewarding, because somehow it makes conversational spanish so much easier. count your blessings, si? i love it here in the mission. i love getting up early, i love studying the scriptures, i love worrying about my companions wellfare and what i am going to teach, and i sorta love spanish. it's discouraging at times, but very very fun. que mas.. we don't get to go to the RC and call people anymore so things got very boring this week. only fake investigators now. haha que lastima. no se ill survive. i am forgetting more and more english everyday, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, most likely good. not much else to report. i get my travel plans this week, so next week you will all know for sure just when i get out of this little community. its really weird, cause you see the same people everyday, so you start to forget there is more out there. for example, i had no idea it was labor day yesterday? hmmmm... holidays don't matter on the mission though, haha its like birthdays. Dad, congratulations on winning the softball tourny, i always knew you had it in you. all it took was for me to leave! look at the blessings you are receiving! estoy bromiendo! okay i gotta go. i love you all, and i think of you often. have a wonderful week, and be positive. pray for those missionaries!

love

Elder Larson

Week 6

Hola everybody!

This week has been a great one! not entirely eventful, but enough worthy to write an email about! first off, i hope all is well back at home! now, last tuesday, we had the incredible opportunity to hear from Jeffrey R. Holland in our devotional, and boy was it something. he has such a passion for missionary work, and hearing him try to express his love and support of us unscripted, and from his heart.. oh it was just inspiring. he told us how much the first presidency loves us, and how much they appreciate us, which was a cool thing to hear straight from an apostle of the Lord. he spoke about how missionary work is hard, because the atonement of Jesus Christ wasn't easy. how true is this. mom thank you for your wonderful comments and insights on this topic in your email. all in all it was an incredibly spiritual experience for all of us. Our district combined with another this week, so our new district has 14 Elders. 11 are going to mexico, one to portland, and one to TEMPE! take care of him if you see him he is my comp! We cut english entirely out of our lives this week, which has been tough, and has been a massive leap of faith for me, but as we do it, i can feel the Lords hand in my life. it is amazing. ran out of time. i love you all, have a good week, more in my letter

elder larson

Week 5

Week 5 down! i can't believe it! its insane how quickly time goes when you are busy and confused and don't know what is being said most of your day! haha but all is well. spanish is going great, my companionship is going great, pretty much the MTC is going great! it is a great learning and growing experience, and it's fun to have the opportunity to mess up and get better (hopefully i am). not a ton has changed this week, it is just same ol' same ol' work hard and play hard. we have been working entirely in spanish, and it has been insane, but it has been a great learning experience. i hated it at first, but now i really enjoy it. it really just feels right now... it's a fun language, and it is almost an opportunity for me to learn the gospel over again, which changes your perspective of the simplicity immensely. the gospel is beautiful. Nephi said several times, my soul delights in simpleness, and that is exactly what this gospel is. if we teach and believe the simple truths which make our gospel the ONLY true gospel, then we are truly understanding what it means. it is amazing here. i wish you could all experience it. i love you all so much, and i hope you have a fantastic week. work hard, and pray for the missionaries. like i always say, they need it!

love

Elder Larson

Week 4

hey youuuu guysssss!

can you believe its been a month? this has been absolutely amazing! i hope everything has been the same for you! it was a great week. we worked on the second lesson in english, but this week, starting yesterday, we made the transition to all spanish. so this will be a trip! i'm sitting in the laundry room right now, so its strange trying to think about the week. haha but we did have a lot of great experiences. i say we because it's weird not referring to my companion and i that way. we're getting along really well finally, which has been super helpful to me this week. new roomates, one from hawaii, and one from yuma. the hawaiian is a great guy. we taught the second lesson on saturday, and the way we were told to plan was for a single young adult going to college who is catholic. well guess what... that didn't happen. we get to the "room" in the trc, fake investigators, and there is a full family, with 4 ninos under the age of five, crawling all over the place! well fortunately for me, i grew up in a situation like that, even with teenagers crawling around. haha so we ended up changing our plan in the lesson, but the spirit was there, and somehow, someway, we knew exactly what to say. it was so amazing to feel that, being able to just open your mouth and say at least something right, even if you aren't sure. haha so that was a great experience. i finally got your letter today mom, so i was super happy. i'm glad rocket is doing well.. i strangely enough was really worried, haha so it's good to hear he is doing well. i'm glad all is well in the queen crizzle, and you are all having a good time without me! i wrote a letter family so i'm sorry if this doesn't seem really like much of an email. it's harder than you think it would be! have a great week everyone, and remember PLEASE pray for the missionaries! i love you all!

love,

Elder Larson

Week 3

This week has been quite a week. nothing new really, but the same ol' same ol' here is crazy! lots of class, and lots of spanish! It's coming along just fine, and it's truly amazing the blessing of the Lord's hand in my life as i try to figure out this language. it has been a lot of fun! i enjoy just speaking nonsense and translating stuff whenever i get the chance. after this saturday, we are required to speak only espanol durante los classes! i'm a bit nervous about that, but i think it'll be alright. this coming saturday Elder Lovett and I are teaching the second lesson en ingles, but from then on, all our lessons will be en espanol! muy bueno. i am excited to grow more thats for sure. the district has been a lot of fun! we lose two Elders to the Peru mtc tomorrow morning, two of my favorite elders tambien. oh well, esta bien. six more weeks in this place! time does fly here it's hard to believe. the food is... okay, but getting old. i'm up seven pounds from when i left though, which is a bit of a difference! i'd like to share an experience i had this week. as an intermediate spanish speaker, one of the benifits is the opportunity to go to the Referal center and talk to people who have contacted the church and ordered BoMs or dvds or whatever. I have gotten two people to commit to having the missionaries over, and set appointments for both. one of them was quite an experience for me. the woman was from somewhere in africa but living in new york, taking care of her ninety year old mother. i started to talk to her about her experience with the church, and she said she was interested, but hardly ever home. i bore testimony of everything to her, and as we spoke, she told me, you know, it's amazing that you caught me at home today. i was just about to leave to the hospital, and i was running late.. right then i thanked the Lord for that experience. how inspired. she agreed to see the missionaries, and i have been praying for her since. what if we had never tried to call. i pray that it makes a difference in her life, and that that little time off of her schedule changes her life with the gospel. i am out of time, so i will email next week. i love you all, and miss you, and once again ask you to pray for the missionaries. always. i love you all have a good week

elder larson

Week 2

Hey Everyone!

Week 2 of the MTC down and it was a good one. not a lot changes here at the mtc, but there are plenty of spiritual experiences worth talking about! i wish i had time to talk about them all, but unfortunately, i don't. i have learned a lot though. this week especially, my testimony was strengthened. i have learned a lot the importance of just opening your mouth and talking to someone, even if you feel like you sound stupid. the Lord will provide, and he doesn't give us challenges He doesn't think we can handle. (1 nephi 3:7) i also found that one of the spirits greatest means of communication for me is through music. i had the opportunity to listen to a member of my district do some renditions of hymns for me, and as i sat there and listened, and i was in awe as my heart was touched. through this time, and through singing in spanish, i have found a lot of my answers. the spirit is so so strong here at the mtc. i also got to attend the temple today, and i did work for a man born in 1792 in baltimore! OH and i met an elder in my zone, elder labar, who is related to Mons Larson! he thinks it's a different wife though! small world in the church. well, i don't have much time left, but i love you all, and i miss you, and i wish you all the best. Keep moving on, endure to the end, and pray for the missionaries!

Love,

Elder Larson

Letter #1 7/27/10

Hellllooooo Everyone,

Lets see.. This week has been so crazy. its gone so fast, yet so extremely slow. i am enjoying it though. i am getting the language better, and i'm able to understand what people are saying at least. lets see, i can pray, bear testimony, recite the first vision, and contact all in spanish so i am learning pretty quick considering i didn't really know anything before. i'm sitting in the laundry room right now next to my companion, Elder Lovett, from Canada/California, as if it matters. i don't know what to say. i did have a really amazing experience last night i could talk about. well a couple. first, i taught the first lesson on the restoration to two other Elders, and i didn't have time to look at the lesson so we went into it really quite unprepared, which was actually apparently the point. we started and when i started to talk, the spirit just hit so hard, and even though it was just roleplay, there was an amazing and powerful spirit which you could see in each other as we spoke and testified. i was amazed at how the story of the restoration still gets me, no matter how many hundreds of times i've heard it. second, one of our roomates, Elder Mills, finally went to his mission in mexico after 16 weeks in the MTC for visa issues. so last night, our entire floor, about 50 or so guys, crowded into a tiny room and we sang spanish hymns at the tops of our lungs, in reverance of course. the spirit there was so incredible as well, and it was cool to see so many great men gathered together as a chorus singing the lords hymns in a language that isn't even theirs. you don't see that anywhere else. thirdly, this one is funny. my companion snores like a bear, even worse than dad. so last night, after 2 hours of not sleeping and going insane i had had enough. I jumped off my top bunk, walked over to his bed and shook him. he did not even budge. so, being smart as i am not, i reached up and grabbed his nose and plugged it. he jumped about four feet in the air after realizing he couldn't breathe, and i just said, Elder, roll over or something, you are driving me insane. needless to say, the MTC is full of funny experiences which i wish i could share. i did get to go to the temple today, which was comforting seeing something familiar, and i bought a picture of our temple at home to make me feel better. i love this place, and i wish i had more time to tell you all about it. but i don't. so I love you all, and i miss you. Pray for the missionaries, please, cause there are guys who need it far far more than I.

Ps. mom my teachers are Hermana Borghalthaus, (from Boise) and Hermano Galan (from ecuador)

Adios familia y amigos,

Elder Larson

He DID it!

Elder Larson is at the MTC! The family has already mailed letters & sent off a package. Hopefully we can continue on throughout the next 2 years. We''ll post letters & pictures as they come in!

pictures are out of sequence, and i can't seem to do anything to change that!

Riding the escalator to his gate

walking to the elevators

Saying their goodbyes! Josh & Elder Larson

The whole family before his departure!

The fam, Elder & his two bff's.