7 April 2010

Dear family,

It was great to hear from you. Sounds like you had a fun spring break. And Happy Easter. Man I hoped you enjoyed general conference. I loved it. I liked saturdays session the most especially Elder Hollands talk. He was fun to watch, and inspiring. His talk was my favorite. And I also liked Elder Uchtdorfs talk, and also Elder Eyring's talk about the kid who knew to pray. And Priesthood session was really good too. I liked it all i guess. I think it was cool to see how much faith and how strong of testimonies our leaders have. You can tell that even with all the stuff going on the world they are not worried one bit about the church or anything in the future. They know the lord is in control and we just need to keep being obedient.

And in between General Conference sessions on Sunday we had lunch with a less active family who really likes us, and they fed us a nice big ham dinner and made us an easter egg hunt. It was very nice of them and they gave us little easter baskets with a new tie in them. It was very thoughtful, and made me happy. We asked them to come to general conference with us for the second session but they said no.

But the work is going well here in Kempsville. Last night we committed this super nice lady named Vicki to pray about what we had taught her, and she said she would. And we asked her if she would be baptized when she gets an answer and she said yes. :) It was exciting. She had us over for dinner because she really likes us and the church, and dinner was delicious hamburgers, and then afterwards we taught her the Plan of Salvation, and told her the requirements of the Celestial Kingdom. So she is going to read and pray to get an answer. I think she wants to be a member she doesnt have a super strong testimony yet. So maybe you could pray that Vicki will get an answer to her prayers and want to be baptized?

We also taught John and Sally. We taught them the need for the Restoration, and then we taught them the Restoration, and they said will pray about it, which is good. They are pretty old but still very active, but we are teaching them slowly to make sure they understand. They like us alot too. They are a great couple and I really hope they can receive and recognize an answer to their prayers.

Well you are right mom, it is warm here. Yesterday it was like 96. It was so hot. I am glad it is warming up but it was miserable to bike in. With a backpack, helmet, pants, and all the humidity you sweat so much, and get all sticky. Its not too comfortable. lol. But its ok, I like the warm weather, and I am getting tan. Well, my arms are, I have a nice tan line.

It makes me happy that Bishop Hugo called you. Before we left he asked us for our phone numbers, so I thought he might call you for some reason. I was kind of curious what he was going to tell you, so it makes me really happy he thought so highly of us.

Thank you for the camera charger. I got it yesterday. At first I was little worried because this new one looks a little different than my old one, but it doesnt matter because the battery fits and the charger works perfectly, and my battery is now charged and I am taking pictures. I will send them home soon.

We are still in the process of contacting all of the referrals. Each referral is someone who ordered a gift package from Gladys knight, and the ward missionaries are in charge of delivering the gifts, and then they ask them if they would like missionaries to come by, and then if they say yes we get the cards for those people. So far we have about fifteen of those cards(and there are 77 total). We have gotten a couple of appointments set up from those fifteen, and we are getting alot more cards soon. Our ward mission leader has them. So we are getting another wave of people that have agreed to meet missionaries that we can go visit. So we should be seeing alot of new people this week and next week and hopefully we will find some solid investigators. The ones we have seen so far all want to meet with us, but alot of them have said they are too busy right now. But thats ok because we have another list on the way.

Also mom, from what I have heard from other missionary's, there is a website called something like missionarymoms.com, or something like that. You could probably find it if you searched for it. Well anyway, it is some type of website that the moms of missionaries get onto and chat or talk or something. I dont know what they do. But anyway, I thought maybe you would want to search for that some time. To be honest, to me it just seems like a great way to cause drama, but im sure it could be fun too. You could talk to Elder Shelleys mom.

Well I love you. I love hearing all the news in Spokane. Congrats with the motorcycle class. And Dad I will keep a notepad by my bed and try to use. It seems like a great idea. I have been keeping lots of notes and impressions that come to my mind when I read the Book of mormon. And that has been really fun. It helps me remember and keep track of the storyline alot better and help me recognize things I never read before. It also helps me stay more focused and recognize the spirit better as I read. Ive enjoyed it.

Well I am out of time. Talk to you next week.

Love
Elder Larson