Monday, November 29, 2010
Nov 29th 2010 Picture explanations
I forgot to write about the pictures again. The first one is with us and Joe before his baptism. The next one was fun one. One of our investogators gave us a turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and lots of stuff so we could cook our own thankgiving meal. We still have left over turkey from the Sly's, and now we have a whole turkey for ourselves we get to eat. Our turkey turned out pretty good, it was very tender but not very much flavor. It was good though. The next two pictures are of me grabbing Elder Orullians flags and taking him down. The elders from our neighboring ward played in our turkey bowl. And then the last picture is me and Elder Haley.
Nov 29th 2010
Hey,
Well we have had an excellent week. Things have gone really good. I am feeling much better and I got better just in time to play in the turkey bowl and have alot of fun. I had a couple touchdowns and an interception which was fun. We played flag football with socks as the flags. Then we had a great thanksgiving dinner at the Sly's. It was fun. The food was great and we just had a fun time laughing together and we played some games. Then we decided to watch a movie called suits on the loose which is about a couple of prisoners who take over some missionaries and then to hide their identity they pretend to be the missionaries and they go to church and everything and pretend to teach people the gospel by the spirit. It was an alright movie. We had to get permission to watch it though cause it is not an official church movie and so Brother Sly called President Perry and he just started talking about how such great missionaries we are and gave us compliments I didnt feel we deserved at all, but then President Perry said yes we could watch it and he thanked Brother Sly for feeding us.
So that was fun, and thanksgiving definitely went by too fast. We did not really feel at the time like going back to work at all cause it was such a nice little vacation. But we did. So then on Saturday we had Joe's baptismal interview. I was nervous. But he passed! I was so happy for him. It was such a relief and blessing. He was ready to be baptized and he was. The interview was on Saturday and we went to go and visit him Friday night and when we left he said a very heartfelt prayer asking God to let him become a mormon and to become a member of His "true and authentic chruch." His prayer was answered. So he was baptized Saturday by Brother Sly and then confirmed yesterday, and is excited to get a calling.
Then Sunday night we had anxiety attacks. We didnt know what was going to happen for transfers. To our great surprise and happiness which I think is what I said six weeks ago, we are both staying again!! And the sisters are both staying as well. Its crazy. But I am very happy about it. So Happy. I get to be here for Christmas and New Years which is coming very fast. I am very excited to call you all.
Funny story: There is a less active we visit each week and we have become pretty good friends with him and we saw him early in the week last week and as we finished the lesson he was like you guys are coming over for thanksgiving right? We couldnt say no, so we figured we would just go by for a quick visit and then say we had to go somewhere else. This is a very nice man and I like him alot, but his house is not exactly the most sanitary, and I get nervous sometimes when he feeds us. We have helped him clean his kitchen a few times to keep the bacteria and cockraoaches down. Yeah cockroaches.
Anyway, so we go over around lunch time for thanksgiving and there is a nice white turkey sitting on a platter on the table. I hovered my hand over it to see if it was warm and it was. lol. So then we said the blessing and since no one knew how to cut the turkey I volunteered to do it. So I didn't know what i was doing but I just started cutting down the breast and it was not cooked at all. The top half cenimeter or so was white and the rest was untouched, it was red and bloody. I guess he thought it was precooked, (he has trouble reading), so we cut up a raw turkey. We didnt really know what to do so we ate some mashed potatoes and gravy and we just laughed about the turkey and made it funny instead of a dissappointment. Then he realized he had a deep fryer so we threw some pieces into the fryer and had fried turkey. It actually tasted really good. It was a success. And I am still alive to write this email.
I love you all and thank you for your prayers. Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Well we have had an excellent week. Things have gone really good. I am feeling much better and I got better just in time to play in the turkey bowl and have alot of fun. I had a couple touchdowns and an interception which was fun. We played flag football with socks as the flags. Then we had a great thanksgiving dinner at the Sly's. It was fun. The food was great and we just had a fun time laughing together and we played some games. Then we decided to watch a movie called suits on the loose which is about a couple of prisoners who take over some missionaries and then to hide their identity they pretend to be the missionaries and they go to church and everything and pretend to teach people the gospel by the spirit. It was an alright movie. We had to get permission to watch it though cause it is not an official church movie and so Brother Sly called President Perry and he just started talking about how such great missionaries we are and gave us compliments I didnt feel we deserved at all, but then President Perry said yes we could watch it and he thanked Brother Sly for feeding us.
So that was fun, and thanksgiving definitely went by too fast. We did not really feel at the time like going back to work at all cause it was such a nice little vacation. But we did. So then on Saturday we had Joe's baptismal interview. I was nervous. But he passed! I was so happy for him. It was such a relief and blessing. He was ready to be baptized and he was. The interview was on Saturday and we went to go and visit him Friday night and when we left he said a very heartfelt prayer asking God to let him become a mormon and to become a member of His "true and authentic chruch." His prayer was answered. So he was baptized Saturday by Brother Sly and then confirmed yesterday, and is excited to get a calling.
Then Sunday night we had anxiety attacks. We didnt know what was going to happen for transfers. To our great surprise and happiness which I think is what I said six weeks ago, we are both staying again!! And the sisters are both staying as well. Its crazy. But I am very happy about it. So Happy. I get to be here for Christmas and New Years which is coming very fast. I am very excited to call you all.
Funny story: There is a less active we visit each week and we have become pretty good friends with him and we saw him early in the week last week and as we finished the lesson he was like you guys are coming over for thanksgiving right? We couldnt say no, so we figured we would just go by for a quick visit and then say we had to go somewhere else. This is a very nice man and I like him alot, but his house is not exactly the most sanitary, and I get nervous sometimes when he feeds us. We have helped him clean his kitchen a few times to keep the bacteria and cockraoaches down. Yeah cockroaches.
Anyway, so we go over around lunch time for thanksgiving and there is a nice white turkey sitting on a platter on the table. I hovered my hand over it to see if it was warm and it was. lol. So then we said the blessing and since no one knew how to cut the turkey I volunteered to do it. So I didn't know what i was doing but I just started cutting down the breast and it was not cooked at all. The top half cenimeter or so was white and the rest was untouched, it was red and bloody. I guess he thought it was precooked, (he has trouble reading), so we cut up a raw turkey. We didnt really know what to do so we ate some mashed potatoes and gravy and we just laughed about the turkey and made it funny instead of a dissappointment. Then he realized he had a deep fryer so we threw some pieces into the fryer and had fried turkey. It actually tasted really good. It was a success. And I am still alive to write this email.
I love you all and thank you for your prayers. Talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
22 Nov 2010
Hey,
Well this has been a pretty good week. It has been kind of bogged down because I have been pretty sick this weekend and before I got sick I got in a wreck. I was due for one I guess. That was on tuesday and the way it happened was Elder Haley and I borrowed some rakes from a member so we could help a lady rake her yard. And so we were riding on our bikes with the rakes across the handlebars and so the rake was sticking out kind of far to the side and mine got caught on a telephone pole and yanked my handlebars around and I fell. The handle bars hit my leg too so I have a nasty bruise on my thigh about the size of a grapefruit. But I am fine, and grateful that nothing worse happened. I also cracked the rake which I kind of felt bad about, but we still raked the yard. And then both me and Elder Haley got kind of sick with just a cold this weekend. I got it alot worse I have just stayed in bed the past couple days and hopefully I will get better soon. But besides that things are going well. I am very excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to the Sly's, which we have alot of fun at. They invite us and the Sisters over alot to correlate and it is probably our favorite place to go. Yesterday they had us over for a goodbye party for Brother Dontje. He is going to Pennsylvania for a job interview and will stay there if he can get the job, but if that doesnt work out he is going to move back to Georgia with family. He looked really hard for a job here because he wanted to stay in Hampton, but he just couldnt get one. I will miss him. We met with him once or twice a week and he is funny, and very smart, and he has a very strong testimony. Yesterday he taught the Elders Quorum class and did a great lesson on Home Teaching and he doesnt even know completely what it is. It was so cool to watch him teach. I loved it. He did so well and and bore a strong testimony. He has so much faith and knows that the Lord is guiding him. I am sure things will work out for him. Joe is doing well. Some very kind members of the ward bought him a white shirt and ties, pants and socks for him to where on Sunday. He looked great, and ready to get the priesthood. We have been meeting with him and this week we went over the baptismal interview questions and he knows them all and is converted to live them. So we are hoping he can pass the probation part of his interview. I dont know enough about probation or abotu the church's stance on it to know how likely it will be. If all goes well, he will be baptized on Saturday! Alison, the lady we met at the bus stop, she is doing pretty well. She got baptized last weekend and confirmed, and she came to church with us yesterday because she moved back into our ward. She is hard though because she is very needy and struggles with alot of depression and from not ever feeling loved her whole life. It makes it very hard for her to trust anyone. But this ward excels at fellowshipping and expressing love so she will be alright as long as she continues ot choose the right as best she can. And we will help her as much as we can too.
Well some other things are President Perry is awesome. He has encouraged missionaries to play in their ward's turkey bowl. I am super excited about that because we have a great elder's quorum. I was worried he was not gonig to let us, but he said go ahead. Hopefully I am over this sickness by then. Also, missionaries are getting texting. I was very surprised to hear that. I really didnt think that would ever happen, but it is part of the church's push to use technology more and more for missionary work. It is just crazy to me to think about missionaries texting each other, but it is going to happen. President Perry is extremely trusting, which I really like but sometimes I wonder if other missionaries take advantage of it. Also Happy Birthday Kyle. Next week we have transfer calls which I am basically dreading. I remember it was kind of hard when I first got here because we opened the area up and didnt know anyone, but now I love this area more than anything and the ward, and I dont want to leave. I just dont want anything to change. I want it all to stay the same for Christmas but change is always so inevitable and never seems to work out quite the way we want it too. But, it is good for us, especially me cause i dont like it, so whatever happens I will just keep working hard, and I will probably end up liking the next situation just as much as I like where I am at now.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! Tell Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave and Makenna hi. I love you.
Love,
Elder Larson
Well this has been a pretty good week. It has been kind of bogged down because I have been pretty sick this weekend and before I got sick I got in a wreck. I was due for one I guess. That was on tuesday and the way it happened was Elder Haley and I borrowed some rakes from a member so we could help a lady rake her yard. And so we were riding on our bikes with the rakes across the handlebars and so the rake was sticking out kind of far to the side and mine got caught on a telephone pole and yanked my handlebars around and I fell. The handle bars hit my leg too so I have a nasty bruise on my thigh about the size of a grapefruit. But I am fine, and grateful that nothing worse happened. I also cracked the rake which I kind of felt bad about, but we still raked the yard. And then both me and Elder Haley got kind of sick with just a cold this weekend. I got it alot worse I have just stayed in bed the past couple days and hopefully I will get better soon. But besides that things are going well. I am very excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to the Sly's, which we have alot of fun at. They invite us and the Sisters over alot to correlate and it is probably our favorite place to go. Yesterday they had us over for a goodbye party for Brother Dontje. He is going to Pennsylvania for a job interview and will stay there if he can get the job, but if that doesnt work out he is going to move back to Georgia with family. He looked really hard for a job here because he wanted to stay in Hampton, but he just couldnt get one. I will miss him. We met with him once or twice a week and he is funny, and very smart, and he has a very strong testimony. Yesterday he taught the Elders Quorum class and did a great lesson on Home Teaching and he doesnt even know completely what it is. It was so cool to watch him teach. I loved it. He did so well and and bore a strong testimony. He has so much faith and knows that the Lord is guiding him. I am sure things will work out for him. Joe is doing well. Some very kind members of the ward bought him a white shirt and ties, pants and socks for him to where on Sunday. He looked great, and ready to get the priesthood. We have been meeting with him and this week we went over the baptismal interview questions and he knows them all and is converted to live them. So we are hoping he can pass the probation part of his interview. I dont know enough about probation or abotu the church's stance on it to know how likely it will be. If all goes well, he will be baptized on Saturday! Alison, the lady we met at the bus stop, she is doing pretty well. She got baptized last weekend and confirmed, and she came to church with us yesterday because she moved back into our ward. She is hard though because she is very needy and struggles with alot of depression and from not ever feeling loved her whole life. It makes it very hard for her to trust anyone. But this ward excels at fellowshipping and expressing love so she will be alright as long as she continues ot choose the right as best she can. And we will help her as much as we can too.
Well some other things are President Perry is awesome. He has encouraged missionaries to play in their ward's turkey bowl. I am super excited about that because we have a great elder's quorum. I was worried he was not gonig to let us, but he said go ahead. Hopefully I am over this sickness by then. Also, missionaries are getting texting. I was very surprised to hear that. I really didnt think that would ever happen, but it is part of the church's push to use technology more and more for missionary work. It is just crazy to me to think about missionaries texting each other, but it is going to happen. President Perry is extremely trusting, which I really like but sometimes I wonder if other missionaries take advantage of it. Also Happy Birthday Kyle. Next week we have transfer calls which I am basically dreading. I remember it was kind of hard when I first got here because we opened the area up and didnt know anyone, but now I love this area more than anything and the ward, and I dont want to leave. I just dont want anything to change. I want it all to stay the same for Christmas but change is always so inevitable and never seems to work out quite the way we want it too. But, it is good for us, especially me cause i dont like it, so whatever happens I will just keep working hard, and I will probably end up liking the next situation just as much as I like where I am at now.
Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! Tell Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave and Makenna hi. I love you.
Love,
Elder Larson
8 Nov 2010
Hey,
We are doing well. Ethan''s baptism was great Saturday. There was a very strong spirit and many people showed up. I got to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and Elder Haley baptized him. After the baptism a bunch of people bore their testimony while Elder Haley and Ethan were changing which really brought a strong sprit. For the closing song we sang when I am baptized which sealed the deal. Then his family came to church yesteray and he was confirmed. Now we want to start teaching his 14 year old brother. Well Joe and Allison are doing well. Allison actually moved so she is not in our ward anymore she found some family in the live near Hampton that she is staying with. She is still just as excited about the gospel though and made sure we had no plans this Saturdayevening so we could come to her baptism. We told her of course we would be there. We also taught Joe yesterday, we brought a member so he can get to know the ward a little better. We had a good lesson and talked more about the plan of salvation. He is learning well and receiving well and is gaining a testimony more and more as he comes to chruch and listens to us. We are being blessed. Brother Dontje and Andrew White are also doing great. They have both been coming every sunday and they both just got made as teachers in the Elders Quorum which is sweet. Brother Dontje couldnt believe it but he will do great because he knows the Bible really well and has a very strong testimony. There was kind of a funny story during the baptism. I just realized that maybe it was the Lord's hand helping things out but it was funny. Immediatly after Ethan was baptized he and Elder Haley obviously went to change. And he had on an under shirt under his jumpsuit and he was taking it off and Elder Haley said that he dropped it in the toilet. lol. But that wasnt too bad because it was already wet and he had a dry one to change into. So he came out and grabbed the dry one, and then took the dry one into the stall to put it on and then somehow he dropped it into the toilet too. lol. I laughed pretty hard when they told me about it. So he did not get to wear an undershirt after the baptism. But I think it was good because it made them take forever to change and allowed for lots of people to bear their testimony. Even after they got back people were still bearing their testimony. It was a good baptism. So I was wondering if you could pray for Brother Dontje because he is out of work and is running out of time to find a job. There is one member who is going to let him to some jobs for him until he can find a better job, and Brother Dontje has alot of faith so I am sure something will work out. But I think some extra prayers will help. Thanks.
It is definitely getting cooler here. I think I have everything I need though. I have everything I had last year. It is exciting because it makes me excited for the Holidays. Oh and the Sly's did invite us over for Thanksgiving. So we get to go there for that day! Thank you for the email.
Love,
Elder Larson
We are doing well. Ethan''s baptism was great Saturday. There was a very strong spirit and many people showed up. I got to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and Elder Haley baptized him. After the baptism a bunch of people bore their testimony while Elder Haley and Ethan were changing which really brought a strong sprit. For the closing song we sang when I am baptized which sealed the deal. Then his family came to church yesteray and he was confirmed. Now we want to start teaching his 14 year old brother. Well Joe and Allison are doing well. Allison actually moved so she is not in our ward anymore she found some family in the live near Hampton that she is staying with. She is still just as excited about the gospel though and made sure we had no plans this Saturdayevening so we could come to her baptism. We told her of course we would be there. We also taught Joe yesterday, we brought a member so he can get to know the ward a little better. We had a good lesson and talked more about the plan of salvation. He is learning well and receiving well and is gaining a testimony more and more as he comes to chruch and listens to us. We are being blessed. Brother Dontje and Andrew White are also doing great. They have both been coming every sunday and they both just got made as teachers in the Elders Quorum which is sweet. Brother Dontje couldnt believe it but he will do great because he knows the Bible really well and has a very strong testimony. There was kind of a funny story during the baptism. I just realized that maybe it was the Lord's hand helping things out but it was funny. Immediatly after Ethan was baptized he and Elder Haley obviously went to change. And he had on an under shirt under his jumpsuit and he was taking it off and Elder Haley said that he dropped it in the toilet. lol. But that wasnt too bad because it was already wet and he had a dry one to change into. So he came out and grabbed the dry one, and then took the dry one into the stall to put it on and then somehow he dropped it into the toilet too. lol. I laughed pretty hard when they told me about it. So he did not get to wear an undershirt after the baptism. But I think it was good because it made them take forever to change and allowed for lots of people to bear their testimony. Even after they got back people were still bearing their testimony. It was a good baptism. So I was wondering if you could pray for Brother Dontje because he is out of work and is running out of time to find a job. There is one member who is going to let him to some jobs for him until he can find a better job, and Brother Dontje has alot of faith so I am sure something will work out. But I think some extra prayers will help. Thanks.
It is definitely getting cooler here. I think I have everything I need though. I have everything I had last year. It is exciting because it makes me excited for the Holidays. Oh and the Sly's did invite us over for Thanksgiving. So we get to go there for that day! Thank you for the email.
Love,
Elder Larson
15 Nov 2010
Hey,
Well we have had a good week. Yesterday Joe came to church and we asked Bishop if he would interview joe to discuss his probation and according to bishop he is actually not on probation and can be baptized! So that is still set to happen on the 27th. Joe is doing good and has been coming to church weekly. This past week we taught him the Word of Wisdom because we figured it was time for him to start living it to prepare for his baptism. To our surprise and our joy, he has already started living it completely. So he is doing really well, and is getting to know members of the ward as well. It is pretty funny, Joe and the member he has been coming with have absolutely no idea how to read music. And they both sing pretty loud, which is a good thing but not if you are not singing the right notes. So anyway, the song in Priesthood was I Feel my Saviors Love, and they were singing it to a completely different tune. It was a really funny. When I wasnt laughing I was trying to sing them back on course but it didnt work. Some other members heard them and they thought it was funny too. Joe is funny. We have some other investigators that we have had good lessons with that I think are getting closer to baptism. One of them is a lady named Emma. She is very nice and has been learning since we got here. She goes out of town alot to visit her sister who has cancer. But anyway, we have talked to her aot about the Restoration, and right now her concern is that the having the priesthood in only one church is a limit on God, so we are trynig to explain to her somehow that it is not. That is our main concern. This week are going to try and see her with our relief society president who is a convert, and a missionary atom bomb. Some other good news is that Alison got baptized on Saturday! It was kind of crazy, but still really good. She was a bit scared to go into the water and thought it was really cold and then she was really cold afterwards although I dont why. But anyway it was good and she felt the Spirit. She felt the cleanliness that comes with baptism and there was really a strong spirit there the whole time. We found out too that she might be moving back to our ward too. So she moved away just long enough to be baptized by other missionaries. Oh well.
It makes me really happy hearing about Tavia. I brag about how you do missionary work to other missionaries. That is really exciting. I would love to see some pictures of you all. Thank you for your prayers. We are doing really well and are being blessed with the Spirit. Have a great week. I love you.
Love,
Elder Larson
Well we have had a good week. Yesterday Joe came to church and we asked Bishop if he would interview joe to discuss his probation and according to bishop he is actually not on probation and can be baptized! So that is still set to happen on the 27th. Joe is doing good and has been coming to church weekly. This past week we taught him the Word of Wisdom because we figured it was time for him to start living it to prepare for his baptism. To our surprise and our joy, he has already started living it completely. So he is doing really well, and is getting to know members of the ward as well. It is pretty funny, Joe and the member he has been coming with have absolutely no idea how to read music. And they both sing pretty loud, which is a good thing but not if you are not singing the right notes. So anyway, the song in Priesthood was I Feel my Saviors Love, and they were singing it to a completely different tune. It was a really funny. When I wasnt laughing I was trying to sing them back on course but it didnt work. Some other members heard them and they thought it was funny too. Joe is funny. We have some other investigators that we have had good lessons with that I think are getting closer to baptism. One of them is a lady named Emma. She is very nice and has been learning since we got here. She goes out of town alot to visit her sister who has cancer. But anyway, we have talked to her aot about the Restoration, and right now her concern is that the having the priesthood in only one church is a limit on God, so we are trynig to explain to her somehow that it is not. That is our main concern. This week are going to try and see her with our relief society president who is a convert, and a missionary atom bomb. Some other good news is that Alison got baptized on Saturday! It was kind of crazy, but still really good. She was a bit scared to go into the water and thought it was really cold and then she was really cold afterwards although I dont why. But anyway it was good and she felt the Spirit. She felt the cleanliness that comes with baptism and there was really a strong spirit there the whole time. We found out too that she might be moving back to our ward too. So she moved away just long enough to be baptized by other missionaries. Oh well.
It makes me really happy hearing about Tavia. I brag about how you do missionary work to other missionaries. That is really exciting. I would love to see some pictures of you all. Thank you for your prayers. We are doing really well and are being blessed with the Spirit. Have a great week. I love you.
Love,
Elder Larson
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