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
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