Aug 25 2009 letter

Hey,
Thanks for the email. I enjoyed reading it. I had a great birthday. We kind of celebrated it on Monday because yesterday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. One of the zone leaders came down here for the day and Elder Comer went with them for the day. So we celebrated my birthday on Monday so we could all be together. We went to dinner with this lady named Sister Whitley. She's like 80 years old and she loves being with us and we enjoy spending time with her because she is pretty funny. But anyway we went to dinner with her at a Mexican place called rey-azteca and when the employees found out it was my birthday they all sang to me, and made me where this really big hat (a chombrero) and they gave me free ice cream. It was fun, and made me happy.

And I got your letter and box on Monday as well. Thank you. I enjoyed opening the box and I needed some new socks. And I always enjoy candy too. But I had a really good birthday yesterday too. We were on exchanges with one of the zone leaders. We had fun together and we invited a lady named Pam to be baptized. We weren't really planning on it beforehand but then she started telling us how she wanted to change and be made clean from all her sins so we taught her about repentance and baptism and then invited her to be baptized. She said that she would and so we set a date for October 3. She hasn't been able to make it to church though because she is busy with school. So you could pray for her that she can find the time and be able to come to church each Sunday because you have to come to church 4 times before you can be baptized. But its wonderful that she is willing to get baptized and it made us all very happy. And that definitely made the day go really good. :)

And then later in the day we were going to an appointment and a guy standing on the corner of the street yelled out to us. He was a pretty funny guy. He told us if we fed him spiritually he would rap to us. lol. So we shared some scriptures with him, one of them was mosiah 4:30, and then he rapped to us and he was actually a pretty good singer. lol. It was funny, and enjoyable. We took pictures with him which i will send pretty soon. It was funny. He was a cool guy. His name was Rodney but his nickname is "Iron" because he said his lyrics are hard like iron. lol. It was sweet.

But backing up, for Thursday and Friday and Saturday of last week we were in Richmond with the training assistants. There names were Elder Petersen and Elder Craig. On the Thursday I went on exchanges with Elder Petersen and I went with him to all of his appointments. And then on friday Elder Carter and I were with Elder Craig and we went on exchanges with him. It was a lot of fun. The purpose of it was for them to tell us what we need to work on and where we are doing good at but we had alot of fun together. They were fun to hang out with. They gave us some good advice. They taught us how to use the area book (which is a book that contains all the people missionaries have taught and contacted before in the area) more in our planning each night. And then on Saturday we came back to Newport News.

We had interviews with the Mission President which went well. They were really short and he basically just asked how we were doing and what we were working on. Then Saturday night was sister Cherry's baptism. Overall, the baptism went really well, and the Spirit was really strong, but there were some things that could have been better. lol. First of all, it takes like two hours to fill up the font, and we are in charge of doing that. So we got there around 4 to clean it out and to start filling it. And while it was filling we would just check it every few mins. There isnt really too much to do while its filling because we have to stay at the church while it is filling. But anyway, somehow we kind of lost track of time, and we walk in to the font, and it had flooded all over the carpet. There was like an inch of water on the carpet. lol. And the baptism started in like twenty minutes. It was pretty bad, somehow the drains on the side of the font (which are there to drain the water so it doesn't overflow) were clogged and the water got everywhere. So we immediately started mopping it up and drying it with paper towels. And then people started showing up which didnt help. But we called the branch president and he knew someone with a wet/dry vacuum and so we were able to use that to vacuum most of the water. So it really wasn't that bad but it was a good story for the journal. lol. And then the baptism took like an hour and a half and they are only supposed to be 30-40 mins. People kept getting up to say stuff. And one guy started talking about how science is discovering other universes and how soon people will be able to be invisible and how that relates to the fact that science is catching up to religion. lol. I was confused. But I'm not complaining cause the baptism was great. There were just some funny memorable stories that happened. And like i said the spirit was really strong and afterwards sister cherry said that she "had never felt like this in her whole life" and she said that she felt like she "had been looking for this feeling her whole life." It was cool to hear. And then on Sunday we confirmed her. The branch president (President Pettaway) did the confirmation but we were all standing it and right after it Sister cherry gathered us three missionaries all in and hugged us. So Saturday and Sunday were pretty neat days that I will remember. And I'm looking forward to having more highlights throughout my mission too.

Well I think that's about it. It was a good week. Oh and I did not get transferred. Elder Carter is heading to a city called Poquoson. But Elder Comer and I are staying and we are getting a new missionary named Elder Beckman. We should see him tomorrow. So that'll be good. And one transfer is already done. :)
Thanks again for the letters and emails. I enjoy them. I'm glad you had a good birthday mom and you all had a fun weekend. Thanks for the prayers. I love you.
Elder Larson