Dec 9th letter

Hey,

Thanks for the email. Sounds like its getting pretty cold up there. Its gotten alot colder here too. This past week it has cooled down alot. We have started seeing frost on the ground for the first time. Im sure its alot colder in Spokane though, but it still feels pretty cold here, especially when you are out in it all day. And I have been told the humidity makes it seem alot colder.

Anyway, we have had a really good week. Obviously the highlight of our week was on Sunday when we baptized Tequila and Mikila! Everything at the baptism went well. It was great. It was Sunday evening so everyone had a chance to go home and break their fast and then come back for the baptism. There were alot of people there which was great. The ward did a good job of supporting them. The talks were also good. They were short and too the point and the Spirit was strong as they spoke. And then we had the baptisms. I baptized Tequila and Elder Pierce baptized Mikila. That went good too, excpet for some reason the water had gotten cold. lol. It was warm when we finished filling the font up but that was about a half hour before the baptism started, so I guess by the time the actual baptism occured the water had cooled down. I was kind of shocked when I stepped in. I was glad we werent in it for too long. But other than that everything went well.

And then they were confirmed and welcomed into the ward. The Young womens president bought a bunch of little gifts for Tequila to welcome her into the Young womens. She bought her a journal and some other small stuff. Like one thing she bought her was a candle which she said was to remind her to always focus on the light of Christ. So it was good. And during church the bishop was able to meet with Tonya and talk to her about a calling. So the ward is doing a great job of fellowshipping them and integrating them into the ward. We are going to try and have a member invite them over for Family Home Evening this Monday to continue to "nourish them with the good word of God."

Our other investigators our doing well too. We had a lesson with James and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He says he likes and agrees with everything about the church and that it all makes sense but he just doesnt have the spiritual confirmation yet. He told us he really wants to come to church and said he would try really hard to come this week. I think he will be there.

We also taught Marie this week and she still wants to get baptized. Marie is such a great lady. I think she has more faith than anyone I have ever met. She has dialysis three times a week, she can barely see and she can barely walk cause her legs hurt really bad, yet she still manages to come to church every week simply because she knows its true and she acknowledges the Spirit she has felt there. And at one point we found out she drinks tea so we decided to teach her the Word of Wisdom. And once we were done teaching it we asked her to live it and she said, "You know what, Im not supposed to drink tea anyway because of my health, and now that I know its a commandment I wont drink it anymore at all." :) I was impressed. Shes a great investigator to have. We are still aiming to have her baptized on Jan 2nd.

Well everything else is going good. We had interviews with our mission president yesterday. He is pleased with how the work is going. He asked me about a lot of things too, like my health, he asked how my family was doing, if I was happy. I told him everything was going great. He told me to cherish my time as a missionary even if times are hard or its cold. So I will try to do that.

Spencer, good job winning the PE player of the day award. Im sure you are getting really good at PE. Annette good job getting a spot for the concert on Monday. Good luck with it, I will be thinking about you on Monday. And James, good job getting rid of your ticket. lol Kyle, I hope you guys get to go to Oregon. Im sure I would want to go too if i was there. Hopefully you can convince everyone to go.
Well just over two weeks and we'll all be talking on the phone. Times gone by fast. Talk to you later.

Love Elder Larson