10 Jan 2011

Hey,

thanks for the emails. Im glad you got to talk to Brother Sly last week. He is such a nice guy and they are like family to us. This past week we were near their home and we hadnt eaten lunch and we saw that Brother Sly was home (which is important because it means we can go inside) so we thought why dont we have lunch with the slys. They are so nice and always tell us to come by anytime, and they are always happy to see us. And when we went by they invited us in and sister sly threw a frozen pizza in the oven and made us hamburgers too. It was great. Brother Sly is a very smart and spiritual man, and he was a district president for awhile in Japan, so he always gives us cool insights and has cool stories to tell us. They were in Japan for the military. Unfortunaly he retires soon from the air force and they are moving back to St george in March. So if I am still here at that point I will be sad to see them leave.

Anyway, I dont know why the internet wasnt working but for some reason it was down last week, so we werent able to email. This week has been pretty good. Last night though we found out Elder Haley is leaving. Thats sad. I will miss him. That makes six transfers together and 8.5 months which is a lot of time and memories. He is pretty sad that he is leaving..... This area has become our home and neither one of us want anything to change. He is going to an area called Hopewell which is near Richmond. But Im sure it is where the Lord needs him. My new companion's name is Elder Phillips. I will meet him on Thursday.

The work is going pretty well though. We had a little miracle a couple weeks ago. A man named John C. met missionaries about a year ago and talked to them a little about the Book of Mormon and they gave him a copy. He i guess lost contact with them and in the process lost track of the Book of Mormon and kind of forgot about it. Well time passed and then recently he felt like things werent right with him, and so he prayed that God would show him a sign of where he should go in life, and what he should do. Very soon after that prayer the Book of Mormon appeared and he recognized it as a sign from God. So he opened it and inside it was a pass-along card for a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. So he called the number on the card so he could get ahold of missionaries and we went and saw him. He is a great man and very sincere, and he came to church a week before last sunday and really enjoyed it. And it was fast and testimony meeting which in some wards can be a little nervous bringing investigators to (cause you never know what types of testimonies will be bourne) but in this ward they are my favorite to bring investigators to. One thing this ward is very good at and makes a big difference in missionary work is the testimonies and talks are always centerred around Christ. So it was a great sunday and John enjoyed it. He wanted to come again this past week but he had to work. Last week we were teaching a man named Kelton and we had watched the Restoration DVD with him. He liked it alot and told us to bring by another DVD. So we brought Finding Faith in Christ the next time we saw him. Well the DVD was completely new, not even opened, and when we opened it and put it in his DVD player the player would not read the DVD. It was crazy there were no scratches or anything, but it wouldnt work. Then we tried the Restoration DVd again just to see if that would work and it did, but the Finding Faith in Christ still wouldnt. So we gave up on that idea and we decided to talk again about the Restoration again and discuss why it was so important. Kelton admitted that he felt the Spirit as we watched the Restoration DVD last time and as we were talking to him again about it, and so we set a date for him to be baptized. We set a date for February 5th. He seems excited about it and wants to come to church, although he was out of town this past week. So I believe that was another little miracle that the Lord had something planned other than watching the DVD. So thats whats been happening here.

Thats cool Sister Massey wrote you a letter. The masseys are another wonderful family that make this place feel like home. Brother Massey always takes us places when we need rides and that is usually around lunch time, so he always takes us out to lunch too. It was hard though because they did just lose their son..... Brother Massey also loves basketball. I am very blessed to be in such a great area where people care about us and help us out. We counted that eleven families bought us christmas presents. That is awesome How could the church not be true where so much love and goodness is promoted and it creates so much happiness and joy. It must be true. Well have a good week and I love you. Im sorry you have been kind of sick I hope you get well soon.

Love,
Elder Larson