Aug 12 Letter

Hey mom and dad,
I am doing great! Yeah, we do have a very small branch. I counted once all the people in sacrament meeting and it was like 30. Which sounds alot bigger than it really is. But everyone is really nice and they all love the missionaries. And the we are in charge of teaching the gospel doctrine class, and sometimes the priesthood lesson. So yeah we do get to do our share of work. And when I taught the gospel doctrine class there were like 5 people in the class. lol.

Thats really neat you get to meet with all the general authorities. I agree, it is so cool to be in the presence of a general authority. They always have a strong presence about them. I'm sorry about sister campbell and your bike. Thats too bad. I don't need a lock for mine, it came with one. Thanks though. But one thing I've noticed is you can never have enough ties or socks here.

Everything is going well here though. The work is going well. There are a couple of baptisms happening this weekend in our district that we are plannig on attending. And we are still set to have one on the 22nd. Hopefully we will have more set up soon. And transfers are coming up pretty quick too. Next week is our last full week. I hope I stay where I am at though, I really like it here and my companions. I'm sure something will change though. And lets see, last Wednesday after we were done emailing I went and got my Virginia's driver license. Everything went smoothly with that. But right now I am only riding bikes. Oh and yesterday it was so hot. It was like 115 with the heat index. I was so sweaty lol. And every appointment we would go to people would give us water bottles and you drink the water bottles like they are small galsses of water, just a nice little drink, cause you sweat so much.

Last Wednesday night we had like an hour left and we didnt have an appointment so were about to start knocking doors. And we had jsut got done with an appointment and a storm had started moving in. And there was lots of lightning but it was really raining too much. So we weren't sure what to do, cause a little rain is nothing but we didn't want to be dumb and be in the middle of a lightning storm, cause you could see the lighting hitting the ground a mile or two away. So anyway, we weren't sure what to do, but we decided to start knocking until it got worse, but right as we started a guy came outside his house, and yelled to us. And he said, "Hey do you guys want to come inside?" So obviously we were said yeah :) and we went inside. We started talking to him and he asked us what we do and we told him and then he told us that he never lets people in his house but he had a feeling he should invite us in. :) So we gave him a book of mormon and we read from it and taught him the Restoration. It was a good lesson and he was really interested. :) But we haven't gotten to see him since cause he works a ton. But it was a really neat story how we found him and I know the Lord was rewarding us for being diligent. :)

Then Thursday we had a zone conference with the mission president and the zone. It went well. He told us we need to wake up, step up, toughen up, grow up, and measure up. So he wants us to work hard. :) And our companionship got to do a role play in fornt of the zone. We role played teaching a member the principle of obedience. I used the scriptures Helaman 10:4-5 and used the example of Nephi. It went really well. I was happy about it.

And that night we had dinner with President Pettaway, the branch president. It was a great dinner and he makes amzing shrimp. lol. It really was so good. Apparently once he ate shrimp so much trying to perfect his recipe he lost his gall bladder. lol. But he is a really nice guy and I like him alot. He visited Clara with us (the lady set for baptism on the 22nd) and she is really excited to be baptized. She has to make it to church this Sunday to be baptized on the 22nd but she said no matter what, if she misses church, she is going to be baptized at some time. :) And she has some health concerns so its somewhat likely she could miss church.

And sundays are the best. All while I was growing up I thought Sundays were the worst day of the week but now they are my favorite cause you get to come home from church feeling great. We call them spiritual boost days. Well, Im doing great. Thanks for the emails and the letters. I always like reading your response to my emails. :) Well have a great day and week. All of you are in my prayers everyday. I love you.
Elder Larson