20 Dec 2010

Hey,

Thank you for the email. Before I forget, on christmas I will call you and it will be the phone number 757-344-1803, which is our cell phone. And I was thinking I will probably call around like 7 my time. I know that is kind of late but I would like to save it for the end of the day. Last year i called in the early afternoon and then for the rest of the day there was nothing to look forward to. So i think this time I will wait til later so it will probably be around 7 which is 4 your time. If that is not a good time I guess you could write me a quick letter and let me know when would be better for you.
Well we have a had a good week. We have found some investigators that seem pretty promising. One of them is named Reggie. He is a cool guy and he lives with his wife and one of kids. We discussed the Restoration and the Book of mormon early last week and he wanted to know why people dont like the Book of mormon if it testifies of Christ. So we explained the need for the authority and what it means if the Book is true and then he asked how can we know that we have the authority. So we used that question as a lead for our next lesson and we set up a time to meet with him yesterday, which we did and we had a great lesson with him. We brought a young man who is great and he is getting ready to go on a mission. He gives us lots of rides and sometimes comes to appointments with us. And he came and him and Reggie talked alot and this guy we brought, named Bubba who is a convert, talked about how he was searching to know which church to go to, and he felt like the baptist church left an emptiness inside of him but when he tried the mormon church that emptiness was filled. It was a great story and testimony and we taught the Restoration a little more fully to explain the authority and after the lesson reggie said he had a very warm feeling while we were there. We are going back this thursday and we are bringing bubba again.
We also have a guy who came to church and said he wants to be baptized. So we are hoping to baptize him the tuesday after Christmas. He has a very strong belief in God and knows the book of Mormon is true. He has had some crazy experiences though and believes he has actually died physically and been reborn in Christ which i guess is good but teaching the Plan of Salvation was a little weird because when we discussed what happens after we die he thought he had already been through it all. He was like yeah I have been resurrected and judged. Ive been there. So we are trying to help him understand the difference between what he has gone through and what the Plan of Slavation and acknowledge that he probably has had a very spiritual experience but that doesnt mean he is finished having spiritual experiences. He is a cool guy though and we are doing our best to help him. His name is Wesley. This ward is great too and they never judge. Wesley doesnt have church clothes so a ward member gave him one of his old suits and got his clothing sizes so he can get him a white shirt and shoes and stuff. The ward always helps us out alot, which is a wonderful blessing, cause not all wards do.
On thursday we got a couple inches of snow and the city shut down. The whole state did actually. The entire mission got told to stay inside all day, which was pretty nice and relaxing and kind of boring. And then a member called us and invited us over for dinner and told us they would pick us up in their 4wheel drive truck and we said yeah sure. It sounded great. And then we figured we should probably ask for permission since we were told to stay inside and when we asked they said it was really bad outside and it was not a good idea. We were a little bit frustrated and regretted asking, and it is a lttle bit hard when you grew up in spokane where you get lots of snow and we didnt have a truck and then being told that even a truck is unsafe, but anyway I didnt say anything and I understand that they really want to be careful to make sure we are safe. So we called the member back and told him we werent able to leave the apt at all and then he said well how about I drop you off some pizza. :) So it worked out better in the end. :)
Well we are doing good. This Thursday is mission conference which I am excited about. I dont think I will see Elder Shelley or Elder Comer though, who are my favorites. Elder Comer goes home after Christmas though which is pretty crazy. He was my first companion.
Well Merry Christmas. I cant wait to talk to you. Have a good week. I love you.
Love,
Elder Larson