Monday, March 29, 2010

March 29,2010

Hi,So here i am in the wonderful town of Kalkaska.....Its alright i guess.. Hah everythings pale in comparison to Muskegon, but thats alright i was expecting that. So The branch up here is pretty cool.There are some sweet members. The church building is an old architect building. So its the first time i havent been in a legit church building. Its kinda funny, because people are talking to the bishop in sacrament meeting while he is giving announcements and people are throwing jokes out and stuff while he is talking. Hah i laughed at that. The branch is crazy focused on missionary work. Get this. We taught 27 lessons last week. Im pretty sure thats the most in the mission. Crazy i tell you. But that was pretty sweet. We go on splits twice a week, We have some awesome investigators, one of them looks like Jeff Foxworthy! when he is doing his spotlight on deer! That was so cool! He will be getting baptized pretty soon i think. He said he wants to take us out fishing too! Golden i tell you! bunch of dang rednecks! Then we have a gator who claims he is a dreamer. He believes that God directs him through his dreams. He had a dream about nauvoo so this summer he is going there. He's kind of a nut. I realize that god can speak to us through dreams, he is just a little too much. I actually think he might be snorting the coke, hah so we are going to teach him the word of wisdom again and ask if he has any problems with it. This guy has been taught for 3 years and he says he is just waiting for God to tell him its time to join. We went over gaining a testimony of the BoM too and all that. he says he has a testimony of the church and the book and the prophet and everything, but he is just putting it off. Dang sign-seekers! Hah. I might end up throwing him in the water. Oh and this last meeting we had with him we had our ward mission leader come....He kept whispering in my ear as we were teaching him...That wasn't cool, he kept telling me to look upcertain scriptures and teach this and that, but it didnt have anything to do with what we were talking about. His intentions were good. But whispering like that is a good way to offend an investigator so it made me pretty angry, just thought i would vent for a second, but besides that things are good. My comp is wierd. ill just leave it at that. The water here is garbage. You cant even drink it becuase it has a ton or iron and its nasty. The shower sucks too and the water stinks. so thats stupid. But good news! Page got baptitzed. So Let me tell you a story.....
Me and Elder Little one day got a phone call from a man that needed some help with a well, he had heard we were always looking for service. So we go see him of course. Turns out some of our old investigators that we dropped had told this guy to call us up to help him out. so that was neat. So we found Page in this dump of a house out in the middle of no where and knocked on the door, we explained how we were talked about religion a bit with him and his friend and we ended up setting a "Bible Study" class with him, at this class we taught him the restoration and he became our top gator, he was very interested in it. His friend Sherman came along for company, he was also training to be a priest at one point in his life so he knew his scriptures. so they sat there while we taught and Pages wife left becuase she didnt want anything to do with it. i know this is a horribly structured story, ive been out of school for two years give me a break. anyways we continued meeting with him and helping him out with his well and other crap he needed done. Well my third transfer there he dissapeared, we could never find him he was always gone and it continued like that for about 5 weeks, finally my last week in Harrison we were finally able to spot him. Turns out he had moved into harrison, in a house instead of the broken down trailer that he was living in. so now he is only a mile away from where we live. Well i left the area and the missionaries kept teaching him and i called him last week. He has been going to church every week and he is getting baptized! I wasnt able to make it to the baptism, but i called him sunday afternoon and his wife answered. She sounded really happy and she told me she went to church and now she wants to be baptized! Wootwoot, then she passed the phone off to Page and he talked to me for like an hour. He said thank you so much for knocking on my door, and he kept saying that a bunch. He talked about how he cant wait to go to the temple and get the priesthood and watch conference. He said this again " Ive always wanted to get baptized but i wanted to make sure it was done right, because i believe you only should get baptized once. I dont want to be one of those weekend swimmers." HAH! that made me soo happy! He said he feels really good and he is happy with his decision and then he said that Sherman(his friend) also came to church and he wants to get baptized "Quite the trend you started!" is what he said,SSSOOOOO cool! That made my mission hearing that! When i go down to zone confernce i am going to go see him for sure. I was running around the apartment when he was talking to me. That brought me true joy, and i finally realized the joys of missionary work. I was reading about Alma and the sons of Mosiah and how they converted thousands and the"exceedingly great joy" it brought them. They must have been floating in the clouds man! But that was the highlight of the week, of my mission really. Hopefully i will be able to go to the temple with him next year! So i thought i would share that with you guys. That made me really happy and made me a little more focused so i can have those experiences more. The church is true baby! Im loving the work outhere. Its getting warmer all the time and maybe i can go jet ski sometime this summer! Look for missionary oppotunities! I don't want to hear about being in utah so eveyone is mormon neither. Hah you guys are awesome i hope you are all happy and doing well. Ill talk to you next week. Loves! -- \m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

March 23,2010

Hello everyone!
So this week was pretty busy. We were out teaching a ton of people and trying to find some gators.....no luck but we did get to meet with some pretty crazy people again. So Friday morning we got our transfer calls......Im getting TRANSFERRED!!! WAAHHH! Im so depressed. Im leaving the celestial kingdom and going to outer darkness! Ill be leaving today to a place called Kalkaska, its up north by traverse city. I here its really cool up there, but i kinda dont believe that anything will come close to muskegon. This has been my home. Im so sad. Ill be serving with a kinda wierd kid Elder Weaver is the name. Woody is going to be district leader and training in N Muskegon, thats pretty crazy! Pres is a wierdo, not going to lie about that. so i have been packing all morning. I leave today at 3 and will be spending the night in Lansing then going up to Kalkaska, so i might get to stop by Harrison again. OH! So i dont know if you guys remember the investigator me and Little found, his name is Page Nichols. He is getting baptized! this saturday! Oh man i am sooooo happy! I called Bro Mckay and he told me about it, oh my gosh that makes me so happy, so im going to go see him if i can. YAY! so i hope i can find a ride down to Harrison. hah. But yeah that made my whole week right there.
So this past Saturday we went to a place called Bad Axe. Its on the thumb of michigan, Elder Wood taught a lady there that was getting baptized and he got invited to come. So Scott took us over there. 7 hours in the Jeep!(Scott is the coolest guy in Michigan)So we got to see that baptism, it was way sweet. I wish you guys could see what i see. Im talking the people over here.....wow they are so crazy. I dont even know how to explain them, they are like redneck/whitetrash/mentally challenged/crazy, so ya quite the description, but they are so dang funny. Those are true Ganders right there. You know em when you see em! thats for sure! So that took up our entire saturday. But it was a lot of fun, we had two other missionaries with us that are studs. So we had a good time.
The night before we had a benefit dinner for a member in our ward who has cancer, so we helped set up a little bit, but it was way cool they had like 400 people come and eat and so there was quite the crowd. But i was goofing arond with the youth and we decided before i leave we need to have a dodgeball championship....SOO last night we all got together at scotts. I was expecting about maybe 5 or 6 people.....ya we had 14 over in scotts basement!!! It was soooo tight. The youth here are so amazing. I have become way good friends with them all and im sad to leave them, but they might come visit me! Yay. Austin(my twin) said he would come up haha. They are all so tight i love it. So we had an amazing time over there. I won the fight of course. I always have some sweet plays. Austin calls them my ESPN highlights. I had this one where nobody was throwing a ball. And their team had most of them. sooo i went to the middle of the floor and did this breakdance move and dropped the the floor and three balls flew over me and we got all the balls on our side and just massacred them. Hah! So i had a way sweet weekend. Church was amazing. In gospel principles me and wood taught a lesson about the Life of Christ and it was really spiritual and awesome. Everyone in the room bore their testimonies and it was really cool. Im so happy that i got to serve in N Muskegon i have grown a ton since being here and i am looking forward to moving on. Its just hard. I get really attatched to my areas, hah. But im going to an area that teaches 20 lessons a week very consistently, so that will be very good for me. Our lives are so awesome. We are so blessed and i wish i could see Gods hand more in the things that i do, but it is something that becomes more visible the more i serve. I was thinking a while ago about the statement that people say when they bear their testimonies. They say "I know this church is true" And its such a simple statement but so powerful at the same time. You are saying that our church is the Church of Truth...And when we think of what truth is, or Who truth is, it leads back to Christ, He said "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life" So basically you are saying you know this is the Church of Jesus Christ. hah the circle effect. love it love it. But i do know that this church is true, that this gospel is the path that leads to eternal life, the pathway is encompassed by happiness, and truth. Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer, He Lives and He is there watching over us our times of happiness and sadness, and he will always be there for us, I have felt that more and more on my mission, The road that we travel is hard sometimes, but its the road that will make us valiant sons and daughters in His sight, and that is what we all must remember as we walk in his footsteps. I love you guys and im thankful for your support and prayers. Until next time....ive been Weely.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

March 15,2010

Ya so i had this ginormous email on testimonies and it got erased!!!!! HOW? The computer gliched and then the words. EAT IT came up on the screen and then i started punching things and yelling and there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. HEY the sun is coming out. sweet. So this week was pretty sweet. We got our lessons way up and we found two new gators! That was sweet. I was able to bring up the BoM and bear testimony of it and they said thy were looking foreward to reading it and set up another appointment! Yay! so thats way sweet. Me and Elder Hiatt had a good trade-off. Hes a stud. We saw some rare cares here in muskegon
there is a guy we met that worked for Elvis for 6 years! He has over 150 rare cars. ! He has the original batmobile, al capones car, the original ET, Muhammed Ali's coat. and all sorts of cool stuff like that. so that was pretty sweet to see. me and Woody are getting along. mom i already looked for that gift for Mama Myers, couldnt find it. so i'll think of something else. Im going to see her this week. Also. Transfer calls are this Friday. And there is a good chance that im leaving. Hiatt put in a good word for me and i think there is a chance that ill stay but m not for positive. But we will know this coming week. so ya it should be another good week. We have some good things rolling so hopefully we can make some pregress with gators and such. But we have been here too long and woody is getting antsy so i better git. But i love you guys and ill write more next week. Love you

Friday, March 12, 2010

March 10,2010

Hello there!
So so sorry i didnt email on monday, We had some other missionaries with us and they had to get heading back and so i didnt have too much time. Plus i couldnt concentrate with everyone talking, plus i was stresssed out about our lessons that cancelled. PLUS
A ski resort in richmond? I would tear the heck outta that place! Where did you here that from? That would make me so dang happy. Our little town of Smithfield would become a ski town! WOOT WOOT! Lyndie Loo is getting married huh....what a punk she can barely think for herself! hah thats sweet though. make sure you tell them hi and congrats for me. Hah that will teach em. my hair was pretty long in some of those pics ive got it cut since and now its getting to the point where it needs to be cut again. I have an idea mother...you need to hire some younger blood, or something. But then i guess they cant really sew and thats what you need.......scratch that. So much for my ideas. Anyways
This past week kinda sucked. Just because we had like 5 appointments fall through and so we were really low on numbers but we did doorknock into someone who could be interested. It was kinda funny actually. We had been out like an hour and everything was fine. Then at her house she opened the door and i was tripping over my words bad. I gave my worst doorknock approach ever, but yet she was the only one that was intersted in talking to us. Hah! So that just goes to show you. Im looking for the elect gosh darnit and the Elect are looking for me and thats proof of it right there. "There is a less-accountable kid coming to your door, he is going to say something really stupid and stumble over his words...let him in so he can teach you." Thats what the spirit says to people before i knock on their doors. HAH! Ok not really usually i have really awesome stuff to say, i still blame it on her eyes. They were like orange-yellow. Like a dog. Thats what threw me off i think. I thought i was talking to a dog.....right. So we taught some lessons throughout the week. We had a sweet dodgeball tournament in Scotts basement with some of the youth. Im going to set another one up friday night. Hah the Youth here are freaking studly. They all love me too so we have a lot of fun. We are going to be taking them all to the ghetto of muskegon in the next little while. Go talk to some gangtser and scary black people. Hah i love talking to thugs. Were the Jesus People.! booyah! The levasseurs came down to Muskegon for a circus and they called me up and invited us too. So that was pretty cool. We got to see some guys going around the "ball of death" on their dirtbikes and stuff like that. it was way sweet. Oh and tomorrow i am going up to Hart with Brunson for trade-offs! Woot it will be like old times! Im so excited, I havent seen Mama Myers for a month! Rediculous if you ask me! I still need to get her a gift. I had this cool idea to get her one of those willow tree figurines, with like a mom with her two sons then i was going to paint ties on the boys and tags and so it would be her missionaries that come in through the years. then write her some cool note or something. hah but i cant find the right thing so i might have to scratch that idea. but then after that i have trade-offs with the ZLs Elder Hiatt is coming down here with me and we are going to have a good time. Hes one of my bros. So this week should be fun. We also have some big plans to teach more people. I made a list of 20 people i wanted to see this week so hopefully we can see most of them. so far we have like 14 of them scheduled so we will be busy. But it will be nice for a change. We didnt have the car all last week so it was pretty gay. We did a lot of walking around and doing pointless doorknocking. Hah okay not pointless just ineffective. I actually really enjoy doing it. PLUS it was warm outside all week! The snow is almost all gone! Woot woot! And its supposed to be in the 50s next week i think. O and mother. I am trying to eat up all the stuff out of the apartments so i can quit spending money, but i do go to ceasars and subway every now and again. our dinner calender has been pretty crappy the last few weeks. So we have been making our own dinners a lot. Or calling Scott and having him take us out! :) He is so dang cool. He wants me to stay here way bad. He is talking to president about it too so hopefully i can, cuz this is probably the best area in the mission. Not just sayng that either. I could stay here for another 16 months :) so thats about all i got. Im still learning a lot and still kickin! This transfer has been cool because i have been able to do most of the teaching and so i have grown a lot this transfer and i can spit out a lesson on anything now. Hah well not anything. Im getting better at asking questions and making them teach :) So things are really good. My testimony is growing all the time, and thats something that you cant take away hah mission life is great. I hope you guys are all happy and making the most out of every moment. Thats what its all about being happy.So make sure you smile and love life. I love you guys and tell the grandparents hi and i love them. I feel horrible for not writing. So im going to start doing that more. I havent written a letter in 4 months......hah! oops. So tell everyone hi and that im doing good. Love you guys
Elder Larsen

Jake is going to be a dad?! What the heck. He can barely tie his own shoes! He will have to teach himself while he is teaching his kid. Hah Im not sure if anyone even told me they were having a kid. Thats so cool though. I can see him being a little menace to society. Hah Thats how it should be too. We are basically doing what you were talking about. Teaching members and asking referrals. Thats why we have the 20 lessons a week goal. We are supposed to be teaching members and getting their trust and the spirit of missionary work going through the ward. I haven't been very good at it though ill be honest. Thats something we are working on this week. We have a list of people we have to go teach. So things are going a lot better. Im working harder and so that has made a big difference. I have to fight my natural laziness a lot. Hah I wasnt raised to be lazy....i just am. hah not really. just sometimes. ANYWAYS......sounds like you are still kicking. I feel bad when i dont write you because you write really awesome letters. But i do appreciate it. and i thank you for your testimony and example. I hope you and Brit are doing fantastic. Tell her hi for me. So i better get to work we have 3 lessons set up this evening. YAY! So i love you and have a good day :)

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

March 1,2010

First of all im good. This week we had zone conference and it was pretty depressing to be honest. My favorite missionaries and friends are going home :( Brunson, Schwartz, Goodin and Baros is next. That was pretty sad. I guess ill start making friends with the younger missionaries. ZC was alright. Pres talked numbers again and stuff, there were a few good things that he talked about. We had some cool stuff happen. We worked with some Part member families that i guess missionaries in the past have had a hard time with. But its probably because they were robot missionaries and offended them. So it was cool i talked to the husband of one member and he started getting a little more open and decided he wanted to cook us up some perch and bluegill and stuff. So that was way cool. We went over there and the parents were there and they took us to this winter sports comlex and showed us the luge track they have and i started a snowball fight, so mostly it was a get to know you day. So at least they are more open with the missionaries, now we can go over and start teaching him. The bishop called me low-key, im not sure what he really means by that, but whatever. HAH.Oh! HAHAHA im so funny i love it. Last night there was an eagle court of honor, and afterwards i was talking to the youth and stuff. we started walking out and i decided to start a snowball fight with scott, cuz he loves them. Well....needless to say it was about 6 against me, and i snuck up behind Scott while he was making a snowball and tackled him into the snow! It was so aweome there were a bunch of people laughing there heads off and stuff. hahaha it was the coolest thing ever. Scott is going to let me drive his jeep sometime im excited! woot woot! But basically thats all that happened this week. We got to see some pretty cool families. We have a guy that is going to take us to this big guitar center they have here, so thats cool. He hasnt been baptized yet because his wife(who is a member) wont marry him, pretty stupid if you ask me. So things are going well here. Love you guys hope you are all happy. Tell everyone at the shop to take it easy and stop being so dramatic. Drama will be the downfall of mankind. I leave you with that.

hello papa!
Thats so awesome that you made me an eagle cd. Hah i guess i was a little to busy/lazy at the time. hah! I havent had the time to watch it yet. But i saw all the pictures on the SD card. I forgot about so much! We had some good times. Scott was looking at them with me and he was surprised by how much we did. I kept saying. This is in san diego/glacier/yellowstone/arizona/canada haha and then all our toys and stuff. We have got it pretty good! And mostly becuase of you too. You deserve a vacation i think. Come to western Michigan this summer. I hear its like southern california. but with trees everywhere. hah but really. You are the greatest, hands DOWN! haha. Poor stupid dog. Has to be locked up. Im afraid one of these times he isnt going to show up again and i wont get to wrastle with him again. That stinks about work. But at least Nucor is kicking butt anyways. Thats really comforting. There are so many people unemployed out here its crazy. Too bad it hasnt humbled any of them. They are all a bunch of bible bashers. HAH dang michiGANDERS. But at least now you will have some time to catch up at the house anyways right? Sorry i didnt help more when i was back home. Hah punk kid right? Ill help you out a lot when i get home. Maybe there wont be anything to do then huh? Wishful thinking i guess. I dont know how i get away with such long hair. Pres hasnt ever said anthing about it either, haha. Well im glad you guys got the pictures and stuff. Im taking many more. Oh I held a turantula this week. It was the scariest thing i have ever done. I would rather drop off a hundred foot cliff on my snowboard than do that again! hah it was making a web on my hand for a second. nasty. Ew i hate spiders. Thanks again so much for the cd and pictures im excited to watch it. Thanks for everything you do for me dad. I hope you are happy and having a good time. Take care of yourself. You deserve it :) Love you dad.
Your son,
Elder Larsen