Hello,
This was a pretty good week. Our teaching pool has grown a bit. We have definitely utilized the part member list and we also asked for a list with all the unbaptized youth in the ward. We call it a UBY list. Those definitely are good places to start and it always seems to be pleasing to the bishop when he finds out you are working with some of those families.
Well one cool story we had this week was with a man named Jerome. Jerome is a long time investigator who lives in the Newport news area. Well about 8 months ago, he starting attending the Hampton ward and this is while I was in Hampton. I while I was in Hampton he came every week to church. He never wanted missionaries to come teach him because we definitely asked him if we could come by but he said no. And at the time it would have been hard because we were serving in Hampton and he lived in the Newport news 2nd ward boundaries. But anyway, if you fast forward to now, after Jerome coming to church every week for 8 months and us and Bro S*ly talking to him as much as possible at church, I remembered when I got here that he lives in this area. So I was oh we are definitely going to stop by Jerome. So we did. And we talked with him for awhile and we read from the book of Mormon.
Then I was just thinking to myself, Jerome has such a strong testimony, he comes to church every sunday, he reads the Book of mormon daily too, there is absolutley no reason that he should not be baptized. And as I thought that the scripture Mosiah 18:8-10 came to my mind so we read that and verse 10 is a question-what have you against being baptized? And there was a long pause. and no one said anything. And finally he said that you know that I want to be baptized but its the smoking thing. And then he talked about how bad he wants to quit. And he had a sincere desire. And so we taught him as President Perry has taught us, that once people repent and sincerely decide with their whole heart to stop breaking the commandment, that at that point they can be baptized. And furthermore, they will then be armed with the Holy Ghost to help that person continue to obey. But there is no time requirement. So when we taught that to Jerome he got so happy, almost starting crying, and said that that brings him alot of hope. It was awesome.
We continued to talk and we set a date for him to be baptized on May 7! So that is great news. But there is an obstacle. You may be wondering why Jerome attends Hampton. Well besides the fact the Hampton is the greatest place in the world, Jerome had some incidents with some members with the NN2 ward and bishop addressed that and when he did Jerome got offended. So when we were with Jerome we explained to him that it would be best if he could work things out and end up going to the NN2 ward. He said he would pray about. Well he went to Hampton again this past sunday and told the elder phillips and his new companion that he is getting baptized May 7th, which is awesome to hear him say that. But we also talked to Bishop M*annis who is our bishop about ......... I am sure that the Savior would want and invite Jerome to be baptized. So anyway, we will see what happens but either way I am so happy for Jerome and believe that he will get baptized soon!
Well Elder Jones and I are having a blast together. We have alot of fun and get along great. Elder Jones is a very outgoing talkative fun person. He justs loves to have fun which is great. Sometimes I have to tell him to be more serious or more reverent cause he loves to just laugh and laugh. We have alot of fun though. He likes baspketball. he is from Salt Lake city. Well I love you and I am doing good. See you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Monday, April 18, 2011
11 Apr 2011
Hello!
Well I am doing pretty good in my new area. Still adjusting to new people and new streets and apartment and everything else. But it is going good.
We have a great ward that is excited for missionary work. This past weekend there was a ward potluck to being a fast for the fast sunday. The fast was for missionary work! Then on Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and president perry showed up to sacrament meeting unexpectedly. He apparently had some interviews down here and so he came to our sacrament meeting. It was pretty cool because though he bore his testimony on missionary work which fit in perfectly with the meeting because the focus that day was fasting for missionary work and it really got the ward excited and rejuvenated to do missionary work.
Elder jones and I bore our testimonies too as well as introduced ourselves. There was definitely a feeling of unity and being reenergized to do missionary work in the ward, which is great. It puts the pressure on us too. We are doing our best to find investigators. We have none, right now. Thats normal though for a new area when both missionaries are put in new and the last missionaries here didnt work, at all, we found out from zone leaders. So we will just focus on starting the area fresh and the Lord will definitely help us out and its the same as when we first got to Hampton. It is exciting.
It is kind of funny though to introduce myself and it seems like everyone asks about how long we have been out. Saying I have been out 21 months always gets the same type of repsonse "wow you are about to go home!" I just laugh and say yeah. Elder Jones is a good missionary too he has been out about 15 months. So we are vets which is sweet because we ahve experience and we know what to do and this area needs that.
Well thank you for the email. Congratulations to James but I am pretty bummed I will not get to see him. I love you each. well I will talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Mailing Address (probably my last one :) )
47 Cypress Apt D
Newport News, VA, 23608
Well I am doing pretty good in my new area. Still adjusting to new people and new streets and apartment and everything else. But it is going good.
We have a great ward that is excited for missionary work. This past weekend there was a ward potluck to being a fast for the fast sunday. The fast was for missionary work! Then on Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and president perry showed up to sacrament meeting unexpectedly. He apparently had some interviews down here and so he came to our sacrament meeting. It was pretty cool because though he bore his testimony on missionary work which fit in perfectly with the meeting because the focus that day was fasting for missionary work and it really got the ward excited and rejuvenated to do missionary work.
Elder jones and I bore our testimonies too as well as introduced ourselves. There was definitely a feeling of unity and being reenergized to do missionary work in the ward, which is great. It puts the pressure on us too. We are doing our best to find investigators. We have none, right now. Thats normal though for a new area when both missionaries are put in new and the last missionaries here didnt work, at all, we found out from zone leaders. So we will just focus on starting the area fresh and the Lord will definitely help us out and its the same as when we first got to Hampton. It is exciting.
It is kind of funny though to introduce myself and it seems like everyone asks about how long we have been out. Saying I have been out 21 months always gets the same type of repsonse "wow you are about to go home!" I just laugh and say yeah. Elder Jones is a good missionary too he has been out about 15 months. So we are vets which is sweet because we ahve experience and we know what to do and this area needs that.
Well thank you for the email. Congratulations to James but I am pretty bummed I will not get to see him. I love you each. well I will talk to you next week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Mailing Address (probably my last one :) )
47 Cypress Apt D
Newport News, VA, 23608
Monday, April 4, 2011
4 Apr 2011
Hello,
Thank you very much for the email. Well I am being transferred. I knew it was coming. I am a little sad but I am pretty excited. Last night I was pretty dissappointed and really didnt want to think about it or talk to anyone but I am doing alot better now. I am ok about it now and actually excited. Its the final stretch of my mission so I am going to finish the best I can. I definitely will never forget hampton, and I hope I can come back and visit soon.
I am not being transferred too far though. I am still in the Newport News zone. I am going to what is called the Newport news 2nd ward. I am shotgunning it too, meaning both me and my new companion are going in new. This the third time I have gotten to shotgun an area, which is cool. The only thing is when you shotgun an area it takes much longer to get to know the area, cause you dont have a companion to talk to about it so i feel like by the time I really get to know the area I will be going home.
It is kind of weird knowing the longest you can be in an area is only 3 months lol. So I just need to work hard and quickly and I make the best of the two transfers I got left. This zone is where i started my mission, have spent most of it, and now it looks like it will be the zone I end in. Thats fine I love this zone and it always leads in baptisms. :)
Other than that things are going good. I am not sick anymore. :)
I loved conference. Probably President Monson's talk on temples and then the singing of the Spirit of God was my favorite. That was amazing and my testimony of temples was strengthened. I also enjoyed the talk on to be and to do I thought that was a good concept to understand. John C*ox got to come and watch the sunday morning session and he loved it too. We also had an investigator named Dave G*oodman watch the afternoon session on his computer and he said the message by Ricard G scott was just for him. I really liked that talk too.
So apparently I need to get married soon! Lol. That was a pretty fun topic to talk about there is one Elder in our District I have become pretty good friends with Elder L*andry and he talks about marriage all the time haha. So it was fun that there were three talks that talked about marriage, and elder L*andry is going home soon too. So we had some good talks that werent focused on missionary work.
Anyway, conference was an awesome spiritual feast and it is also kind of a party for our zone cause we spend all day at the stakecenter and then since priesthood sesssion ends so late here (10pm) we just spend the night at missionaries apartments who live near the stakecenter and then wake up and come back for more conference. Its alot of fun.
Well things are going good and I am happy to be able to go to another area. Right now I am happy, when I get there I will probably be sad again, but I dont think it will be that hard because I am not going far, from what I have heard I am getting a good companion (although I really never have any problems with my companion), and if it is hard I can remind myself that before I know I will get to see all of you and that will motivate me to keep doing my best. Well I love you and will see you soon.
Love,
Elder Larson
Thank you very much for the email. Well I am being transferred. I knew it was coming. I am a little sad but I am pretty excited. Last night I was pretty dissappointed and really didnt want to think about it or talk to anyone but I am doing alot better now. I am ok about it now and actually excited. Its the final stretch of my mission so I am going to finish the best I can. I definitely will never forget hampton, and I hope I can come back and visit soon.
I am not being transferred too far though. I am still in the Newport News zone. I am going to what is called the Newport news 2nd ward. I am shotgunning it too, meaning both me and my new companion are going in new. This the third time I have gotten to shotgun an area, which is cool. The only thing is when you shotgun an area it takes much longer to get to know the area, cause you dont have a companion to talk to about it so i feel like by the time I really get to know the area I will be going home.
It is kind of weird knowing the longest you can be in an area is only 3 months lol. So I just need to work hard and quickly and I make the best of the two transfers I got left. This zone is where i started my mission, have spent most of it, and now it looks like it will be the zone I end in. Thats fine I love this zone and it always leads in baptisms. :)
Other than that things are going good. I am not sick anymore. :)
I loved conference. Probably President Monson's talk on temples and then the singing of the Spirit of God was my favorite. That was amazing and my testimony of temples was strengthened. I also enjoyed the talk on to be and to do I thought that was a good concept to understand. John C*ox got to come and watch the sunday morning session and he loved it too. We also had an investigator named Dave G*oodman watch the afternoon session on his computer and he said the message by Ricard G scott was just for him. I really liked that talk too.
So apparently I need to get married soon! Lol. That was a pretty fun topic to talk about there is one Elder in our District I have become pretty good friends with Elder L*andry and he talks about marriage all the time haha. So it was fun that there were three talks that talked about marriage, and elder L*andry is going home soon too. So we had some good talks that werent focused on missionary work.
Anyway, conference was an awesome spiritual feast and it is also kind of a party for our zone cause we spend all day at the stakecenter and then since priesthood sesssion ends so late here (10pm) we just spend the night at missionaries apartments who live near the stakecenter and then wake up and come back for more conference. Its alot of fun.
Well things are going good and I am happy to be able to go to another area. Right now I am happy, when I get there I will probably be sad again, but I dont think it will be that hard because I am not going far, from what I have heard I am getting a good companion (although I really never have any problems with my companion), and if it is hard I can remind myself that before I know I will get to see all of you and that will motivate me to keep doing my best. Well I love you and will see you soon.
Love,
Elder Larson
28 Mar 2011
Hello,
Well I dont really feel too good right now I got kind of sick over the weekend and I am right in the middle of it right now. We are doing pretty good though this is our last week before transfer calls. This coming Sunday we find out where we are going, if we are leaving that is. I am pretty torn between what I want to happen I do not want a new ward but I wouldnt mind a new area. I feel like I have biked these streets so many times and I know the side streets and shortcuts better than any member lol, and I feel like I have followed up with every former investigator and and every part member family in the book, so it would be nice to have a new area to bike and new prospects to try and follow up with, but I do not want to have to get to know a new ward and bishop. I just really love this ward and feel like I fit in and work well with the members here. So if I could somehow move everyone in the ward to a new area of virginia that would be ideal, but I guess that is impossible.
So one of my wishes i will have to give up. Well see what happens.
So just so you know Kelton is already baptized. He got baptized with Robert and Natalie back in February. I am sorry if I made that confusing. They are all doing really good though Robert was sick yesterday but Kelton hasnt missed a day of church just keeps doing better and better. Last week he got the priesthood and two weeks from now he is going to bless the sacrament. We have been practicing with him.
I am very excited for general conference this weekend. General conference is definietly one of the weekends I look forward to the most as a missionary so I am pretty excited about it. I love watching it myself as well as getting to bring nonmembers to it and having them see it. It is weird to think that when I got to Hampton the last April general confernce had just barely ended. Lol. It has been almost a year here.
Thanks for doing missionary work it always makes me happy to hear about your stories and your example. Well I have been talking to alot of the guys in the ward that are in the military and I am pretty convinced that I am going to do ROTC when I get home to pay for college. It seems like the perfect way to pay for college and housing and then secure a job afterwards. I am not for sure yet on anything but right now joining the Rotc sounds like the best plan. But Ill see when that time comes. Well i love you and thank you for your support and prayers and have a great week.
Love,
Elder Larson
Well I dont really feel too good right now I got kind of sick over the weekend and I am right in the middle of it right now. We are doing pretty good though this is our last week before transfer calls. This coming Sunday we find out where we are going, if we are leaving that is. I am pretty torn between what I want to happen I do not want a new ward but I wouldnt mind a new area. I feel like I have biked these streets so many times and I know the side streets and shortcuts better than any member lol, and I feel like I have followed up with every former investigator and and every part member family in the book, so it would be nice to have a new area to bike and new prospects to try and follow up with, but I do not want to have to get to know a new ward and bishop. I just really love this ward and feel like I fit in and work well with the members here. So if I could somehow move everyone in the ward to a new area of virginia that would be ideal, but I guess that is impossible.
So one of my wishes i will have to give up. Well see what happens.
So just so you know Kelton is already baptized. He got baptized with Robert and Natalie back in February. I am sorry if I made that confusing. They are all doing really good though Robert was sick yesterday but Kelton hasnt missed a day of church just keeps doing better and better. Last week he got the priesthood and two weeks from now he is going to bless the sacrament. We have been practicing with him.
I am very excited for general conference this weekend. General conference is definietly one of the weekends I look forward to the most as a missionary so I am pretty excited about it. I love watching it myself as well as getting to bring nonmembers to it and having them see it. It is weird to think that when I got to Hampton the last April general confernce had just barely ended. Lol. It has been almost a year here.
Thanks for doing missionary work it always makes me happy to hear about your stories and your example. Well I have been talking to alot of the guys in the ward that are in the military and I am pretty convinced that I am going to do ROTC when I get home to pay for college. It seems like the perfect way to pay for college and housing and then secure a job afterwards. I am not for sure yet on anything but right now joining the Rotc sounds like the best plan. But Ill see when that time comes. Well i love you and thank you for your support and prayers and have a great week.
Love,
Elder Larson
21 Mar 2011
Hey well it has been a pretty good week.
Yesterday Kelton received the aaronic priesthood. And I dont know if you remember, but Kelton's family was very opposed to him learning about the church and basically told him that he should have nothing to do with it. But Kelton, he was a great missionary he invited his family to attend yesterday to see him get the priesthood and so his brother, mother, and sister in law attended and for all three hours and they really enjoyed it. But I dont know how you couldnt love the Hampton ward :)
There was a strong spirit at sacrament meeting as a family in the ward talked about service and then sunday school was great and relief society for his sister in law and mom was great for them. Sunday school was a little interesting because Kelton's brother (William) is pretty high up in his seven day adventist church, and the lesson for sunday school was on the organization of the priesthood, and William did not like hearing that a deacon could not give the gift of the holy ghost. He raised his concern and kept challenging what people had to say. It was borderline contentious, lol, because the way we refer to deacons and think of them is much different than other faiths, but Brother S*chorr, our new ward mission leader and the teacher of the class, and other class members handled it really well and it was able to be understood that the term deacon means different things in different churches. Overall, it was wonderful and his family enjoyed it very much. I really like Brother S*horr, he is a great member and he likes basketball and alot of the same things I do. He is pretty young too. He likes to joke around and so we have fun. He has done a good job since Brother S*ly left. Brother S*ly could never be replaced, but Brother S*horr is doing a great job and I really enjoy working with him too.
So I was pretty excited when I heard that Byu was playing gonzaga. Haha. I normally would want Gonzaga to win no matter what but since I thought BYU had a better chance to go all the way I wouldnt mind if they won. And I heard that BYU won pretty well and that Fredette was making many long range shots. So that was fun to hear about. Well we are doing well. Thank you for your prayers. I love you.
Love
Yesterday Kelton received the aaronic priesthood. And I dont know if you remember, but Kelton's family was very opposed to him learning about the church and basically told him that he should have nothing to do with it. But Kelton, he was a great missionary he invited his family to attend yesterday to see him get the priesthood and so his brother, mother, and sister in law attended and for all three hours and they really enjoyed it. But I dont know how you couldnt love the Hampton ward :)
There was a strong spirit at sacrament meeting as a family in the ward talked about service and then sunday school was great and relief society for his sister in law and mom was great for them. Sunday school was a little interesting because Kelton's brother (William) is pretty high up in his seven day adventist church, and the lesson for sunday school was on the organization of the priesthood, and William did not like hearing that a deacon could not give the gift of the holy ghost. He raised his concern and kept challenging what people had to say. It was borderline contentious, lol, because the way we refer to deacons and think of them is much different than other faiths, but Brother S*chorr, our new ward mission leader and the teacher of the class, and other class members handled it really well and it was able to be understood that the term deacon means different things in different churches. Overall, it was wonderful and his family enjoyed it very much. I really like Brother S*horr, he is a great member and he likes basketball and alot of the same things I do. He is pretty young too. He likes to joke around and so we have fun. He has done a good job since Brother S*ly left. Brother S*ly could never be replaced, but Brother S*horr is doing a great job and I really enjoy working with him too.
So I was pretty excited when I heard that Byu was playing gonzaga. Haha. I normally would want Gonzaga to win no matter what but since I thought BYU had a better chance to go all the way I wouldnt mind if they won. And I heard that BYU won pretty well and that Fredette was making many long range shots. So that was fun to hear about. Well we are doing well. Thank you for your prayers. I love you.
Love
14 Mar 2011
Hey,
Well this week was kind of slow for us too. Not a whole lot has happened. I guess the most exciting thing was Elder Jensen from the presidency of the seventy visited the area for the weekend. He spoke on Friday to all military members and since elder phillips is in the military we went to that. It was very cool. Elder Jensen opened the whole time to the audience to ask questions and he gave answers. I love it when general authorities do that. Something cool that he said is when the husband is away from home that the wife or single mother if there is no husband becomes the presiding member of the family. And that means that she has stewardship over the family and has all the rights and authority to revelation etc that the husband has. I dont remember exactly how he said it but basically through the spirit the husband is made up for in those types of situations where he is away or the woman is somehow on her own.
He read Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, which by the way is the scripture that is most commonly used by President Monson, to show the support that the Lord gives. He also said that the spirit makes up for geography, which is something Elder Pieper had said, who is in the seventy and visited not too long ago. So I thought that was kind of cool, it doesnt really apply to me at all except I guess that I can teach it to others, but i thought it was neat. Something he also said at the very end, after all the questions, and after he bore testimony of Christ and of the church and especially the Book of mormon, and then he changed the closing hymn and everyone was getting their hymnals out and getting ready to sing, but then he said he had one more thing he wanted to say. And that was that the Lord is mindful of us. He challenged everyone to find out that night what the word mindful meant by reading the scriptures Alma 26:36-37, where the word mindful appears three times. So I read it and from looking at the footnotes I believe it means that God does everything in his power to help us, speicifically to help us do what is right and reach our greatest potential, and he weeps and wishes he could have done more when we choose wrong. He also said the in his patrarchal blessing he is told that the lord is mindful of him, and my patrarchal blessing says that too! :) So that was the highlight of this week. John C*ox our main investigator right now is still doing well. We didnt get to meet with him this week cause he said he was having a rough week. But it was cool he acknowledged that everytime he focuses on baptism that something bad or trying happens and he recognizes that it is satan trying to stop him and distract him. So we talked to him about that and also answered some more questions. He is doing really well, his testimony is consistenly growing and he is reading and studying daily. Well that is about it for this week. It is getting warm which is so nice and makes me more and more excited that winter is over, and excited for summer and to see you all too. :) Well take care and have a good week.
Love
Elder Larson
Well this week was kind of slow for us too. Not a whole lot has happened. I guess the most exciting thing was Elder Jensen from the presidency of the seventy visited the area for the weekend. He spoke on Friday to all military members and since elder phillips is in the military we went to that. It was very cool. Elder Jensen opened the whole time to the audience to ask questions and he gave answers. I love it when general authorities do that. Something cool that he said is when the husband is away from home that the wife or single mother if there is no husband becomes the presiding member of the family. And that means that she has stewardship over the family and has all the rights and authority to revelation etc that the husband has. I dont remember exactly how he said it but basically through the spirit the husband is made up for in those types of situations where he is away or the woman is somehow on her own.
He read Doctrine and Covenants 84:88, which by the way is the scripture that is most commonly used by President Monson, to show the support that the Lord gives. He also said that the spirit makes up for geography, which is something Elder Pieper had said, who is in the seventy and visited not too long ago. So I thought that was kind of cool, it doesnt really apply to me at all except I guess that I can teach it to others, but i thought it was neat. Something he also said at the very end, after all the questions, and after he bore testimony of Christ and of the church and especially the Book of mormon, and then he changed the closing hymn and everyone was getting their hymnals out and getting ready to sing, but then he said he had one more thing he wanted to say. And that was that the Lord is mindful of us. He challenged everyone to find out that night what the word mindful meant by reading the scriptures Alma 26:36-37, where the word mindful appears three times. So I read it and from looking at the footnotes I believe it means that God does everything in his power to help us, speicifically to help us do what is right and reach our greatest potential, and he weeps and wishes he could have done more when we choose wrong. He also said the in his patrarchal blessing he is told that the lord is mindful of him, and my patrarchal blessing says that too! :) So that was the highlight of this week. John C*ox our main investigator right now is still doing well. We didnt get to meet with him this week cause he said he was having a rough week. But it was cool he acknowledged that everytime he focuses on baptism that something bad or trying happens and he recognizes that it is satan trying to stop him and distract him. So we talked to him about that and also answered some more questions. He is doing really well, his testimony is consistenly growing and he is reading and studying daily. Well that is about it for this week. It is getting warm which is so nice and makes me more and more excited that winter is over, and excited for summer and to see you all too. :) Well take care and have a good week.
Love
Elder Larson
7 Mar 2011
Hello,
Well it was good to hear from you. I am glad you enjoyed my last email. I had kind of forgotten what I wrote so I went back and read it again. And yeah it was a pretty good email. Lol. It was definitely an experience that I wont forget, as you mentioned. This week has been pretty good.
One investigator that we have been working with that i have mentioned a few times is John C*ox. I havent been able to talk about him too much because I have had baptisms to talk about, but John is doing great. A couple weeks ago we had a lesson with him and what we wanted to get out of that lesson was for John to see the importance of baptism which would make getting his marriage situation worked out his first priority. And that is exactly what we were able to accomplish and we did it by explaining the priesthood and john told us that he believes and that he would get baptized tomorrow if he could, he just needs to get married. And then this past week Elder P*hillips and I split up cause we had double appointments and I went to go see john with a member.
Whenever we see John I feel like we talk a little bit about everything before the lesson starts, just cause he always has questions and then our answers lead to more questions. And they seem to be on subjects that I do not fully comprehend like zion and the gathering of that, and the lineage of Lehi, and they are all good qeustions and are from a sincere desire to learn, but I think that it was actually good I didnt really know the answers because it allowed us to focus on what we had planned to teach. I showed him where he can read about it in his gospel principles book instead. So our lesson was the Word of Wisdom. Even though we figured John couldn't get baptized yet we wanted to fully prepare for it by teaching him the commandments so he can start living them. So we taught him the word of wisdom, and he agreed to live it. We just read it straight from the word of wisdom pamphlet and he really agreed with it and then i decided that we might as well set a date for baptism. I just thought that if we didnt have a goal, or a deadline getting the marriage situation worked out would never happen. Besides, my time is short. So we talked about his concerns and the only concern he has is getting a divorce from his long past wife so he can marry the woman he has been with for years and calls her his fiancee. He didnt know when it would ever happen because he thinks that it costs around 1500 dollars and he has mentioned money is very tight for them.
So we decided to set a goal for April 22, that date just kind of jumped out at me as I was going through the calendar on the phone and when I said that day he just gave me this wide-eyed look and said there was no way, and I kind of knew he was going to say that and even kind of thought the same thing. But i said it anyway and then in my mind I was thinking I could do some type a fundraiser, or get the ward involved to help him, I was just thinking that I will do something and everything within my power to somehow raise this money and that I would make sure it would happen. And I didnt want to be too pushy cause I didnt want to get involved with his finances or make him feel bad that he didnt have the mony but, we were able to decide to have faith that it would happen and to set the goal and then the lesson ended after that. John calls me his spiritual leader cause I am the first mormon he met. It makes me happy. And then after that I went and met up with Elder P*hillips who was with a member. And when I got there I asked the member to look up how much a divorce would cost. And to put it simply we found a lawyer who will do it for only 250 dollars! How cool is that? John was really happy when he found that out and was like now that is in my price range. So, April 22nd is going to happen.
Its next transfer though so i could be gone. I would definitely come back for it though like Elder H*aley did for Kelton. Or who knows maybe we will move the date even closer. We will see but either way I am happy with it and just want to make sure he gets baptized and confirmed. If you are wondering what his fiancee thinks of the church, I asked John if his financee would be interested in coming church and what she thinks about him meeting with us, and he says that she asks questions and that soon she will come to church. So that made me happy to know that she is not against it at all. We have said hi to her when we see her but she has always been busy with grandkids when we meet with John so we havent really been able to teach her at all. We told the sisters to go over during the day to meet with her and teach her. It is really nice to have sister missionaries to work with cause it makes teaching females much easier.
Well our recent converts are doing great. Robert had a cool story where he didnt like his job and prayed for another one and he got a different that he loves and it pays much better. He called and told us. The nepales males have gotten the priesthood and are doing well. Kelton is doing good too and came to church yesterday. Next week elder jensen is coming to our building from the presidency of the seventy. Sorry this last part is rsuhed my time is up. Love you
Love
Elder Larson
Well it was good to hear from you. I am glad you enjoyed my last email. I had kind of forgotten what I wrote so I went back and read it again. And yeah it was a pretty good email. Lol. It was definitely an experience that I wont forget, as you mentioned. This week has been pretty good.
One investigator that we have been working with that i have mentioned a few times is John C*ox. I havent been able to talk about him too much because I have had baptisms to talk about, but John is doing great. A couple weeks ago we had a lesson with him and what we wanted to get out of that lesson was for John to see the importance of baptism which would make getting his marriage situation worked out his first priority. And that is exactly what we were able to accomplish and we did it by explaining the priesthood and john told us that he believes and that he would get baptized tomorrow if he could, he just needs to get married. And then this past week Elder P*hillips and I split up cause we had double appointments and I went to go see john with a member.
Whenever we see John I feel like we talk a little bit about everything before the lesson starts, just cause he always has questions and then our answers lead to more questions. And they seem to be on subjects that I do not fully comprehend like zion and the gathering of that, and the lineage of Lehi, and they are all good qeustions and are from a sincere desire to learn, but I think that it was actually good I didnt really know the answers because it allowed us to focus on what we had planned to teach. I showed him where he can read about it in his gospel principles book instead. So our lesson was the Word of Wisdom. Even though we figured John couldn't get baptized yet we wanted to fully prepare for it by teaching him the commandments so he can start living them. So we taught him the word of wisdom, and he agreed to live it. We just read it straight from the word of wisdom pamphlet and he really agreed with it and then i decided that we might as well set a date for baptism. I just thought that if we didnt have a goal, or a deadline getting the marriage situation worked out would never happen. Besides, my time is short. So we talked about his concerns and the only concern he has is getting a divorce from his long past wife so he can marry the woman he has been with for years and calls her his fiancee. He didnt know when it would ever happen because he thinks that it costs around 1500 dollars and he has mentioned money is very tight for them.
So we decided to set a goal for April 22, that date just kind of jumped out at me as I was going through the calendar on the phone and when I said that day he just gave me this wide-eyed look and said there was no way, and I kind of knew he was going to say that and even kind of thought the same thing. But i said it anyway and then in my mind I was thinking I could do some type a fundraiser, or get the ward involved to help him, I was just thinking that I will do something and everything within my power to somehow raise this money and that I would make sure it would happen. And I didnt want to be too pushy cause I didnt want to get involved with his finances or make him feel bad that he didnt have the mony but, we were able to decide to have faith that it would happen and to set the goal and then the lesson ended after that. John calls me his spiritual leader cause I am the first mormon he met. It makes me happy. And then after that I went and met up with Elder P*hillips who was with a member. And when I got there I asked the member to look up how much a divorce would cost. And to put it simply we found a lawyer who will do it for only 250 dollars! How cool is that? John was really happy when he found that out and was like now that is in my price range. So, April 22nd is going to happen.
Its next transfer though so i could be gone. I would definitely come back for it though like Elder H*aley did for Kelton. Or who knows maybe we will move the date even closer. We will see but either way I am happy with it and just want to make sure he gets baptized and confirmed. If you are wondering what his fiancee thinks of the church, I asked John if his financee would be interested in coming church and what she thinks about him meeting with us, and he says that she asks questions and that soon she will come to church. So that made me happy to know that she is not against it at all. We have said hi to her when we see her but she has always been busy with grandkids when we meet with John so we havent really been able to teach her at all. We told the sisters to go over during the day to meet with her and teach her. It is really nice to have sister missionaries to work with cause it makes teaching females much easier.
Well our recent converts are doing great. Robert had a cool story where he didnt like his job and prayed for another one and he got a different that he loves and it pays much better. He called and told us. The nepales males have gotten the priesthood and are doing well. Kelton is doing good too and came to church yesterday. Next week elder jensen is coming to our building from the presidency of the seventy. Sorry this last part is rsuhed my time is up. Love you
Love
Elder Larson
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