Hey,
Well things are going good here in Hampton. I feel like we are kind of in a rut with our investigators though, especially Joylyn. We have been seeing her alot and she just hasnt really been progressing the way we would like her to, so we are kind changing our focus to working alot with the people we are teaching to spending more time finding. We feel like there are people out there that are more prepared and ready to receive the gospel. Obviously we will keep seeing joylyn, but not as much. We are also going to try working more with members to seek for referrals......
Interviews with president perry were great. I like him alot. He mostly talked to me during the interview, telling me about the things the brethren are doing. Like one thing is to help us teach the 5 preach my gospel lessons the brethren came up with 8 simplified lessons that we are going to be teaching instead, and we are still strongly encouraged to study and apply preach my gospel, but these 8 simplified lessons will help us teach the 5 lessons in preach my gospel better. I dont really know much about them, cause I havent seen them yet. I just know of them.
President Perry also told me that he knew what is like to have children of a stake president and told me that he wouldnt have any prejudgments about me, which made me feel good. Oh and I did ask him about Joylyn, and he told me that Satan cant do any more than tempt. It was a pretty simple answer, but he said it in an encouraging way. But since then Joylyn has been talking alot to this baptist friend of hers that doesnt believe what we believe, so that hasnt helped her out at all, which is a little bit frustrating.
The work with the other lass actives has been good. We have been trying everything. We brought bishop out last week to see one guy who had been offended. And so bishop got to know him and he knows the guy who offended him, and couldnt believe that that had happened, and he knew he could get him to apologize, so we reminded bishop of that task yesterday, and he is planning on seeing him. Also, there is one great family in the ward that got sealed in the temple but recently went less active. And they are wonderful, and they always feed us and make us feel very comfortable in their home, and they are close to coming back, they know they should. So we had them agree to pick us up for church, we told them we needed a ride, and so they agreed to do that, but then yesterday morning when we went outside, there was another member in the parking lot waiting to pick us up, that the less active had called. So he snuck out of that one. I just feel like if we can just get them to come back to church once, they will feel the spirit and the ward is very good about fellowshipping and not judging, and so if they can receive that then it will be so easy for them to become active again.
Well it sounds like you had a fun week on the high adventure. There is a trek that is about to happen down here too, so alot of people have been talking about it. It seems like it wasnt very long ago I was going on the Trek. I am sure it will be a great experience. Well thank you for email and support. I got both of the emails. I will talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Sunday, July 25, 2010
July 12th 2010
Hello,
Well I am glad you got to see the pictures. I look forward to seeing the ones you send me. I cant believe Spencer is already doing cub scout day camp. I remember when I was doing that, and it doesnt seem too long ago. Time sure goes by fast. And Happy Birthday to James. Well, not too much has happened since I last wrote on Wednesday. Its kind of strange having Pday on Monday, but I am sure I will get used to it soon. I have a few stories though. First of all, on Wednesday Elder Haley and I went on splits with the Elders Quorum presidency. I went with the Elders Quorum president, and we went to go see some less actives we are working with. It went really well. We have a great president, he is very down to earth and very good at connecting with people. And we wanted to take him to some of the less actives that we think are close to coming back, so we went out with the presidency, and I went with Brother Fell, the president, and both of the people we went we had great discussions with. We were able to have a good discussion with one member and then we went and saw another less active and he told us that he has decided to come back to church. He went less active after his mission and now he is like 30, but he knows he should be at church and always has known that and now he has finally doing it. :) He has come to church the past four weeks now and stayed all three hours. And its alot different over here, almost all of the members of the ward here are converts, i think there are only 3 elders in our quorum that grew up in the church, and so there are alot of things that the members here dont know, like how to do home teaching. So anyway, this elder that has started coming back will be a great help to the ward beacuse he is raised in the church, served a mission, and knows alot.
Also yesterday we had a cool story. We are instructed to tract every Sunday, because people are usually home on Sunday. And tracting is not the funnest or most exciting part about missionary work. But, we put it in our plans to do it, and then yesterday we were kind of behind schedule, and so we had the option to skip tracting because we still had enough plans that would take the remaining time. Well we decided that since we are told to tract we would. So we biked to the street we had picked out, and locked up our bikes, and we saw a lady sitting outside. Well we did what we are supposed to do, we went and talked to her and she knew who we were and she had mormon friends back in Georgia, who she had lost contact with. So we talked with her for awhile and then she asked if we had any literature that she could have. So we gave her a book of mormon and asked if we could come back and talk to her more about it. She said yeah and so we are going back on sunday. I feel like we were led right to her, because she was the first person we talked to and we never would have gone to the street except we picked it out to tract on. Then we were about to leave and another person came outside, so we talked to him too, and he had been to Salt lake and seen the Mormon tabernacle choir. And he also asked for literature, and commented on how we seem like really great people. We gave him a restoration pamphlet, and he wanted us to come back on Sunday too. So after we talked to him we needed to go, and as soon as we started biking, like on my first couple of pedals, my chain broke, and its amazing how much people watch us, because as soon as the realized we needed help, people came outside and starting asking if we neeeded any help. Well they werent really able to help because they didnt have tools to fix a chain, but it was still neat to see how much people watch us and respect us and wanted to help us, and we were very grateful for them. So we called a member with a truck and he picked us up and fed us dinner and then took us home and then today he bought me a new chain. And I have no idea how my chain broke, but if it had broken any earlier, we definitely would have had to cancel our plans for tracting. But the Lord let us get to where we needed to be, and he put us around nice people who were willing to help. He is watching out for us, and hopefully we will be able to have good lessons with these people next sunday.
Well our investigators are slowly but surely progressing also. Joylyn kind of had a funny story, well more like weird. We told her that Satan doesnt want her to come to church and will try to stop her. And she told us that she wouldnt let that happen, and that she would be there for sure, well then she didnt come yesterday, so we went to go see her and ask what happened, and she told us that she woke up in time to come but she couldnt move, and she watned to get up so she could come but she couldnt move. So we didnt really know what to say, or even what to think. Im sure she wasnt lying and that she really did want to come, but I wonder how bad it really was. But we get to have interviews tomorrow with President Perry, and i am excited about that, so I figured I would ask him what he thinks.
Well I am doing great in Hampton, I look forward to seeing all your pictures. Ill talk to you next week.
Well I am glad you got to see the pictures. I look forward to seeing the ones you send me. I cant believe Spencer is already doing cub scout day camp. I remember when I was doing that, and it doesnt seem too long ago. Time sure goes by fast. And Happy Birthday to James. Well, not too much has happened since I last wrote on Wednesday. Its kind of strange having Pday on Monday, but I am sure I will get used to it soon. I have a few stories though. First of all, on Wednesday Elder Haley and I went on splits with the Elders Quorum presidency. I went with the Elders Quorum president, and we went to go see some less actives we are working with. It went really well. We have a great president, he is very down to earth and very good at connecting with people. And we wanted to take him to some of the less actives that we think are close to coming back, so we went out with the presidency, and I went with Brother Fell, the president, and both of the people we went we had great discussions with. We were able to have a good discussion with one member and then we went and saw another less active and he told us that he has decided to come back to church. He went less active after his mission and now he is like 30, but he knows he should be at church and always has known that and now he has finally doing it. :) He has come to church the past four weeks now and stayed all three hours. And its alot different over here, almost all of the members of the ward here are converts, i think there are only 3 elders in our quorum that grew up in the church, and so there are alot of things that the members here dont know, like how to do home teaching. So anyway, this elder that has started coming back will be a great help to the ward beacuse he is raised in the church, served a mission, and knows alot.
Also yesterday we had a cool story. We are instructed to tract every Sunday, because people are usually home on Sunday. And tracting is not the funnest or most exciting part about missionary work. But, we put it in our plans to do it, and then yesterday we were kind of behind schedule, and so we had the option to skip tracting because we still had enough plans that would take the remaining time. Well we decided that since we are told to tract we would. So we biked to the street we had picked out, and locked up our bikes, and we saw a lady sitting outside. Well we did what we are supposed to do, we went and talked to her and she knew who we were and she had mormon friends back in Georgia, who she had lost contact with. So we talked with her for awhile and then she asked if we had any literature that she could have. So we gave her a book of mormon and asked if we could come back and talk to her more about it. She said yeah and so we are going back on sunday. I feel like we were led right to her, because she was the first person we talked to and we never would have gone to the street except we picked it out to tract on. Then we were about to leave and another person came outside, so we talked to him too, and he had been to Salt lake and seen the Mormon tabernacle choir. And he also asked for literature, and commented on how we seem like really great people. We gave him a restoration pamphlet, and he wanted us to come back on Sunday too. So after we talked to him we needed to go, and as soon as we started biking, like on my first couple of pedals, my chain broke, and its amazing how much people watch us, because as soon as the realized we needed help, people came outside and starting asking if we neeeded any help. Well they werent really able to help because they didnt have tools to fix a chain, but it was still neat to see how much people watch us and respect us and wanted to help us, and we were very grateful for them. So we called a member with a truck and he picked us up and fed us dinner and then took us home and then today he bought me a new chain. And I have no idea how my chain broke, but if it had broken any earlier, we definitely would have had to cancel our plans for tracting. But the Lord let us get to where we needed to be, and he put us around nice people who were willing to help. He is watching out for us, and hopefully we will be able to have good lessons with these people next sunday.
Well our investigators are slowly but surely progressing also. Joylyn kind of had a funny story, well more like weird. We told her that Satan doesnt want her to come to church and will try to stop her. And she told us that she wouldnt let that happen, and that she would be there for sure, well then she didnt come yesterday, so we went to go see her and ask what happened, and she told us that she woke up in time to come but she couldnt move, and she watned to get up so she could come but she couldnt move. So we didnt really know what to say, or even what to think. Im sure she wasnt lying and that she really did want to come, but I wonder how bad it really was. But we get to have interviews tomorrow with President Perry, and i am excited about that, so I figured I would ask him what he thinks.
Well I am doing great in Hampton, I look forward to seeing all your pictures. Ill talk to you next week.
July 7th 2010
Dear Family,
Well it sound like you had a wonderful reunion. I wish i could have been there. I liked hearing about Spencer's baptism, that sounds like a neat experience. We had a good weekend too. I got to meet president perry. I like him alot, and he likes you alot dad. He told me to tell you he loves you. We had a really good mission conference and he spoke. I am really excited to have him as our president because I think he is going to do great. He is very smart, and also has a strong testimony. You probably know he is a first generation convert, but I thought that was very cool, and it obviously makes him very passionate about missionary work. He spoke alot about the importance of unity. He spoke on alot of things but his main focus was unity, and that if we are unified people will be able to recognize that we are sent by the Father. He seems to know quite abit about missionary work and how to be a good missionary. So a couple of changes that have come from the apostles are that pdays are going to switch to mondays, so i will email you again in 5 days! Also interviews are no longer every transfer, but every quarter.
Did you get my pictures? I hope so.
Anyway, we had a cool story on sunday. It was testimony meeting, and there is this old lady that I am guessing is in her 90's, but she is also a convert and has an amazing strong testimony. She has been sick, and so it is hard for her to make it to church. But on sunday she was there, which she usually is even though it is hard for her, and during the testimony meeting she was sitting on the back row. During the meeting though, after one of the testimonies, she stood up from the back row and said "excuse me, its hard for me to walk up there, but I told Sister peteresen if I had a pulse she could pick me up for church." and then she continued to bear her testimony from the back row. It was sweet.
Well our investigators are doing well but they were all out of town for the 4th of July. But we taught Joylyn the Word of Wisdom and she told us she would live it. It was a great lesson. Nicole has been out of town all week, and when we were going to see her she got in an accident, so it didnt happen. She is fine though, and we should be seeing her soon. She is still doing really well though and is reading from the book of mormon. James was also are waiting on because he told us he would call us. And Im not worried about it at all and I am sure he will call us, but I think he might be one of those people that takes some time. So we will see.
Oh I have another neat story. On Monday we went on exchanges with the Elders down in the Newport news branch, which was my very first area. It was probably still my favorite area. And I got to go there and one of there elders came up here. It was realy fun to be in my old area. I got to see most of my favorite people, particularly sister whitley who was a member that always fed us and gave us rides, and sister cherry who I got to help teach and who we baptized. Well sister cherry is an angel. We saw her and shared a lesson with her around one o clock, and from the time we left to about 4 oclock she spent all her time cooking food. She was cooking all this food for a cookout during dinner, and we asked her who was coming, and she said that she had not invited anyone, but she was cooking for anyone that passed by her house that evening. And by the way, she cooks incredible food. And its neat because the area she lives in is pretty poor, and there are alot of people down there without jobs or money, and so many of them spend there time walking around. There are so many just outside down in the ghetto, and its easy to judge them as people who maybe dont deserve much because they don't really do anything, but Sister Cherry didn't judge them at all but instead cooked dinner for them. She said loves making food for people. Anyway, I was really impressed when I saw what she was doing, and how charitable she is. Well I am out of time so I have to go. Talk to you on Monday.
Love,
Elder Larson
Well it sound like you had a wonderful reunion. I wish i could have been there. I liked hearing about Spencer's baptism, that sounds like a neat experience. We had a good weekend too. I got to meet president perry. I like him alot, and he likes you alot dad. He told me to tell you he loves you. We had a really good mission conference and he spoke. I am really excited to have him as our president because I think he is going to do great. He is very smart, and also has a strong testimony. You probably know he is a first generation convert, but I thought that was very cool, and it obviously makes him very passionate about missionary work. He spoke alot about the importance of unity. He spoke on alot of things but his main focus was unity, and that if we are unified people will be able to recognize that we are sent by the Father. He seems to know quite abit about missionary work and how to be a good missionary. So a couple of changes that have come from the apostles are that pdays are going to switch to mondays, so i will email you again in 5 days! Also interviews are no longer every transfer, but every quarter.
Did you get my pictures? I hope so.
Anyway, we had a cool story on sunday. It was testimony meeting, and there is this old lady that I am guessing is in her 90's, but she is also a convert and has an amazing strong testimony. She has been sick, and so it is hard for her to make it to church. But on sunday she was there, which she usually is even though it is hard for her, and during the testimony meeting she was sitting on the back row. During the meeting though, after one of the testimonies, she stood up from the back row and said "excuse me, its hard for me to walk up there, but I told Sister peteresen if I had a pulse she could pick me up for church." and then she continued to bear her testimony from the back row. It was sweet.
Well our investigators are doing well but they were all out of town for the 4th of July. But we taught Joylyn the Word of Wisdom and she told us she would live it. It was a great lesson. Nicole has been out of town all week, and when we were going to see her she got in an accident, so it didnt happen. She is fine though, and we should be seeing her soon. She is still doing really well though and is reading from the book of mormon. James was also are waiting on because he told us he would call us. And Im not worried about it at all and I am sure he will call us, but I think he might be one of those people that takes some time. So we will see.
Oh I have another neat story. On Monday we went on exchanges with the Elders down in the Newport news branch, which was my very first area. It was probably still my favorite area. And I got to go there and one of there elders came up here. It was realy fun to be in my old area. I got to see most of my favorite people, particularly sister whitley who was a member that always fed us and gave us rides, and sister cherry who I got to help teach and who we baptized. Well sister cherry is an angel. We saw her and shared a lesson with her around one o clock, and from the time we left to about 4 oclock she spent all her time cooking food. She was cooking all this food for a cookout during dinner, and we asked her who was coming, and she said that she had not invited anyone, but she was cooking for anyone that passed by her house that evening. And by the way, she cooks incredible food. And its neat because the area she lives in is pretty poor, and there are alot of people down there without jobs or money, and so many of them spend there time walking around. There are so many just outside down in the ghetto, and its easy to judge them as people who maybe dont deserve much because they don't really do anything, but Sister Cherry didn't judge them at all but instead cooked dinner for them. She said loves making food for people. Anyway, I was really impressed when I saw what she was doing, and how charitable she is. Well I am out of time so I have to go. Talk to you on Monday.
Love,
Elder Larson
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
June 30, 2010
Hello,
Well things are going good in Hampton. I dont have much time because I just went through all the pictures. I got caught up with looking at all of them and laughing at some of them. I hope you enjoy them. I will send them to you today.
I have one story to tell you about though. First of all, all of our investigators are still doing well. They are slowly but surely progressing! But for our story: this week we contacted an SUV referral from the Gladys knight fireside. It took us awhile because James, the referral, sent the referral form to Salt Lake. So Salt lake had to figure out what to do with it and who to send it to you. So it took a little longer than the other referral cards. But we got it a couple weeks ago, and it was for this man named James. And we were able to see him last week and share the Restoration with him and it went wonderful. It was also very good because we were with our Ward Mission Leader, who was able to become good friends with James and share his testimony with him. It was a wonderful lesson.
Our ward mission leader, Bro. Sly, told us that he has never met someone who was so prepared to receive the Gospel. James understood all of what we said, agreed with it, and had great questions. It really just went perfect. And James found out about the Gladys Knight fireside through my last bishop in Kempsville, who he works with, who is very strong minded and a great person for James to be around while he learns the gospel. And I think my favorite part of the lesson was his the closing prayer. We asked James to say it and in his prayer he said that he set up this appointment not knowing what to expect but it turned out to be a beautiful experience and he thanked god that we were able to come over. The spirit was present there. It was neat.
Well it sounds like you had a great weekend. I am excited for Adam. I will say hi to President Perry. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Well things are going good in Hampton. I dont have much time because I just went through all the pictures. I got caught up with looking at all of them and laughing at some of them. I hope you enjoy them. I will send them to you today.
I have one story to tell you about though. First of all, all of our investigators are still doing well. They are slowly but surely progressing! But for our story: this week we contacted an SUV referral from the Gladys knight fireside. It took us awhile because James, the referral, sent the referral form to Salt Lake. So Salt lake had to figure out what to do with it and who to send it to you. So it took a little longer than the other referral cards. But we got it a couple weeks ago, and it was for this man named James. And we were able to see him last week and share the Restoration with him and it went wonderful. It was also very good because we were with our Ward Mission Leader, who was able to become good friends with James and share his testimony with him. It was a wonderful lesson.
Our ward mission leader, Bro. Sly, told us that he has never met someone who was so prepared to receive the Gospel. James understood all of what we said, agreed with it, and had great questions. It really just went perfect. And James found out about the Gladys Knight fireside through my last bishop in Kempsville, who he works with, who is very strong minded and a great person for James to be around while he learns the gospel. And I think my favorite part of the lesson was his the closing prayer. We asked James to say it and in his prayer he said that he set up this appointment not knowing what to expect but it turned out to be a beautiful experience and he thanked god that we were able to come over. The spirit was present there. It was neat.
Well it sounds like you had a great weekend. I am excited for Adam. I will say hi to President Perry. Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Larson
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