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