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