June 9th, 2010

Hey,

This week has been great so far. Everyone is doing awesome. Although no one came to church on sunday, but thats ok, because everyone is doing great. Last week on Thursday we had great lessons with Nicole and Joylyn. Nicole told us she knows the Book of Mormon was true, and we asked her what that meant to her, and she told us that it means this is where she needs to be. And before we asked her that we reviewed the Restoration, and we were very clear about the apostasy of the Priesthood and how it has been restored and exists only in the church of Jesus Christ, and she agreed. She is golden. I think she wants to come to church and she definitely knows we want her to, but hasnt been able to because of something with her family. I dont really know. We also taught Joylyn and she is wonderful. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and drew out the three kingdoms with sidewalk chalk, cause we teach her on her porch. And she understood well, and she told us she wants to go to the celestial kingdom. She is a really fun investigator too. We visit her alot and she likes talking to us. She gives us a hard time about our wrecks, and she has a strong accent so sometimes we dont understand her, and she makes fun of us for not being able to understand her. And in resonse we gave her a hard time about not coming to church, so she is going to come this week. She is fun, and she is from Grenadia, which is an island somewhere. And its been great being able to take members over there and to go on exchanges with them. Because they get to become involved with the missionary work and then they always ask us about the people we are teaching on sunday, which is good.

So this week has also been fun. There is a young man named Brian Stant in the ward about to go on a mission, and he is going on a mini mission with us for a week. For this week he is basically a third companion. He is with us all day, but stays at his own house at night. It is a very good experience for him to see what missionaries do all day, and to be involved with teaching people and seeing them understand and progress in the gospel and it has also been great for us having him with us. It was our Ward Mission Leader's idea, and he told us about how when he was on a mission he did that with some of the young men he was serving around, and he told us that during those mini missions it seemed like everything went really well and they had alot of success. Well so far that has been true this week. We have found new investigators, and we have tried to see people that we found earlier that said they were interested but we kind of lost contact with them just because they were never home when we went back, well we have gone and seen those people with Brian and we have been seeing lots of people.

We have two great new investigators, which we taught the Restoration to, and they told us they want us to come back before we even asked and they want to come to church sometime soon. And all of our scheduled appointments this week have held, which is not common in missionary work. So Brian has really been a boost to us, and when things are going well thats when missionary work is the funnest, so it has been alot fo fun for all three of us.

I still have both of my suits I am just down a pair of pants for each of them. And its unlucky because back when I was in Newport News I bought a cheap walmart pair of black and blue pants that I could where while biking. That way I could just save my suit pants for days when we have meetings or church etc. Well that has worked out well except this wreck and my dog bite just happened to be on days that I was wearing my suit pants, so those are the pants that got ruined. But I still have another pair for the green and black as well as my two cheap pairs so I am fine.

Yes the pavement comes very fast. This time I didnt even have time to think or to try and fall in way that might do less damage to my body. All I remember thinking while i was falling was a simple "no, not again."

I enjoyed reading Spencers story about repentance. Everytime we teach repentance I start off the lesson by saying ok today we are going to teach one of the greatest ways we can feel joy. It usually gets them interested. I am excited to see your baptism pictures.

Another thing I am excited about is tomorrow is Mission Conference. It is President Millburn's last transfer so we are having a mission conference. I am really excited for it, mostly because I get to see Elder Shelley and Elder White, and talk to them and ask them how everyone is doing in Kempsville. And then next tuesday is transfers, which is crazy because this transfer has flown by, but I am pretty sure I am staying here, which is what I am very much hoping for. I really like it here and we have found alot of people who are ready for the Gospel.

Another interesting item is my lifelong pursuit of trying to figure out how to throw a curveball has been fulfilled. Elder Haley was a high school baseball player so he taught me how. And it was funny he brought his glove and baseball hoping that there would be other missionaries for him to play catch with, but no one brought a baseball glove except him. Well he wanted to play catch really bad, and he asked me if he bought another glove if I would play with him. So I said yeah cause I really like playing catch, and so he bought himself a glove so he can play catch with whoever his companion is. So anyway, we were playing catch a few p-days ago and he taught me the curveball. It was fun, I was throwing it to the right of him and then watching it curve back to being in front if him! Its really easy too, and it all depends on how you rotate your wrist.

Well thank you for your prayers. They are working. Please keep them up, as I know you always do. We are doing great here in Hampton.

Love,
Elder Larson