So this week was pretty interesting.....gotta pull out the old planner/brain so i can remember it....so on tuesday we had splits. I went with the Duff man and did his hometeaching basically we read the article and they werent very interested so naturally i talked for like 10 minutes to hopefully get them discuss something with me. but no luck. So we left there and went over to Nikki Wilkes house and gave her a blessing for her health, it was kinda wierd im not going to lie, but the next day a member came over and told me that Nikki was really happy that we came over and that the blessing brought her a lot of comfort and peace, so that was sweet.
President is doing some wierd things lately, thats how im going to start this story off.....So there we were...in our apartment, we get a call from the Zone leaders and they tell us that president wants them and us to go on trade-offs with the sisters......my first thought was someone is lying or playing some joke on us. but nope. we went over to traverse city and met up with the zone leaders and cruised down to cadillac, turns out we show up 30 minutes late....the sisters are nowhere to be found.... we call them and they totally didnt believe us, so they ended up calling President and he told them that it was true. so they come down to the church and meet up with us. We watched them do their weekly planning and it was super awkward, they still didnt believe us by the way....so finally the moment comes when we split up and NOW they believe us. so me and Elder Lloyd went with Sister Davies, who has been out for 3 months, and the Zone leaders went with Sister Barras who is still in training and for the whole day we went to appointments with them and it was kinda wierd, the sisters were freaking out at first but things were good after that and we had some fun. So then we went back to Traverse City, and the elders apartment there was so cool. It has this balcony and it was on a hill so we could overlook a lot of the country around there and there were hills and stuff, so it reminded me a lot about home, so that was sad, but im over it now. Me and Lloyd stayed out there for like 5 hours that night so we only got 3 hours of sleep because zone conference was the next day, so we were up and like 5 and drove for over 2 hours down to mt pleasant. Zone conference was pretty sweet i guess. Darley brought me 6 big bags of m&ms, he comes over to me so our backs are facing everyone and opens up his backpack, like we are doing some drug-deal, and the entire thing is filled with m&ms haha! hes a stud. So heres some exciting news. On June 19th the entire mission is going down to Ann Arbor to see Elder Bednar with the Detroit mission! I dont know how PJ is doing all this but i like it. so im excited for that. I guess we are all just going to meet in the chapel and gym of the stake center and he is going to talk to us for 3 hours. Answering questions and teaching us. so thats way exciting!
We had a lot of canceled appointments this week which was frustrating because we were already 2 days out of our area, so our numbers suffered from that, but its all good. Branch President Thomas called us into the young womens yesterday and had us tell all the girls about our investigators Noel and Stephanie Kimbler, so they are going to go over to their house next wednesday and see them and invite them out to church! So that was really cool. Branches are so cool like that, we also had a good-bye party after church for two members that are moving to arizona, haha. Only in a branch, thats for sure. everyone is pretty close up here. Oh heres something funny. So this branch feeds us pretty dang good like 5 times a week about. but Bro hoover had to cancel, so he called up Brother Utykanski to ask him who he should call to have them feed us. Well he wasnt able to find anyone to feed us. So bro UTY caught me yesterday and asked if we got fed and i said no, but its all good people are busy, it happens.... things like that, and he looks at me and says Thats bull crap(edited for the delicate minds out there) then goes on about how we send these kids out and the least we can do is feed them so they dont starve to death doing the Lords work, and he just went off. he was so mad that we missed one day last week. HAH! This branch is so cool. i love it. We found out Scott is still smoking, i guess its down to one a day, but that was disappointing because he said he was done. We are going over there tonight to tell him to put away the childish things dadgumit!
This coming week is going to be good though. We have trade-offs with the Zls and there is an inactive lady that buys a lot of illegal fireworks and she is going to shoot those off and golf in her backyard, plus we might be going fishing with this guy that has been coming to church for 4 years that isnt baptized. so maybe we can catch something there(if you know what i mean), so it should be pretty good. So get this Austin Allen just emailed me and he didnt go snowboarding ONCE since i left! what the crap? he is in SLC right now finishing up his massage therapy school. he says he is graduating this fall, so thats good of him.
So life is good right now. Elder Lloyd is awesome! the work is picking up and we have some sweet goals for the rest of this transfer, so life is good, me and Elder Lloyd have gotten into some crazy discussions this last week about the gospel and the plan and its so crazy how God has made everything so complex...yet so simple. Thats always been the weirdest thing for me. At first glance, for example the Gospel, its really quite simple. We need to have faith, repent, get baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end., but when you start to study its design and the why and how it gets so dang complex i have to take a nap every 10 minutes, its like a mind-grenade! But we dont really need to know, He just tells us to follow it. I have been learning a lot lately. Seems like this week it has been about Gods organization and how everything is in order and fits perfectly where it is placed. I cant give you an example or i would just confuse myself, haha. But God is a God of Order, when you start looking around you and when you start breaking things down...its all so perfect. and its when those things get out of order that when the world or an individual starts to digress. I hope that makes sense. i dont know how to explain it without going into too much detail, but back to the basics. God Loves us thats what i know, we wouldnt have such a beautiful world if he didnt, and we sure as heck wouldnt have the blessings that we do have, He is there, and He wants the best for us. God would never give us something or do something that would hurt us spiritually. Life is full of problems yes but those are the times that we grow the most and learn the most. Just like in Alma 7 when it is talking about Christ suffering for all our temptations and pains and everything, it says "that He may know how to succor his people." and so he can know how to have mercy. And something i was thinking about is we all do the same thing up to a point, its our own trials that we overcome, but when we do overcome those, thats when we really KNOW what it feels like for other people in that same situation, THEN we can help them because we have been there. so maybe our trials aren't necessarily for our own personal growth always, but for those people that we will come in contact with that are going through a similar experience. Chew on that! But of course we always have Christ. He is our strength and our hope, Only he can save us from the Fall and He has if we will follow His gospel and thats what ill leave you with, so i hope i wasnt in ramble mode there, but there you have it. So i hope all goes well with you guys this week. Love you bunches.
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
May 17,2010
Hello all.
I got to go to the temple! Woot woot! It was really cool. Detroit has a pretty small temple, there was only one endowment room and a small baptismal font, but it was still the temple! It was really refreshing going back. I forgot a lot of stuff, so im glad Peej was able to get one approved. It was a long drive though! We left our place at 630 in the morning and got down there at 11, we ended up getting home at 6 or 7 that night. hah, so other than the kinked neck and the long drive it was pretty sweet. Oh and the awkward missionaries. I was kind of on one that day and so in the van i was just talking to everyone having a good time. getting to know the kiddies and there were two elders that were the most robotic, awkward missionaries i have come across yet. so that was fun. i ask them a question and they just give me a wierd look and turn around...whats up with that? there was a greenie sitting next to me that was more social than those guys. man im just venting now. It was a good time.
We talked to Scott last night, and he has been off of cigarettes since last wednesday! yay! We moved his date to June 12th, which is probably my last weekend here. So that worked out perfectly. now he just needs to get off of coffee and he will be set for baptism! im so excited for him. He is a stud. oh i just remembered that i still havent sent pictures to you guys, im a horrible person.
so i have been sitting here for like 10 minutes thinking of what else happened this week and i cant for the life of me think of anything....i even have my planner out. Im pretty sure it was just another boring week. Oh, our branch mission leader is kinda making me mad.....he keeps giving me all these assignments to do, like paperwork .....stuff that we shouldnt even be doing. And he calls us like 3 times a day. and he told us to be 15 minutes early to everything. its all so dumb. We were 1 minute late to a meeting that always starts 10 minutes late and he freaked out and told us that we were late, and now basically he is baby-sitting us, and its only a matter of time before i put him in his place..hah i just had to let that out. He called us this morning at 6:35...who in their right mind, besides missionaries, are up at 630? frustration is what it is. I know he is just trying to do his calling, but he is steppin over the line a bit and im going to break his leg. hah! not really, i just wanted to use that line. so hopefully next week i will have some good updates on that for you. But other than that i dont have much else to say. Im kind of in a stupor right now. So ill end this ridiculous email and say adio! love y'all
I got to go to the temple! Woot woot! It was really cool. Detroit has a pretty small temple, there was only one endowment room and a small baptismal font, but it was still the temple! It was really refreshing going back. I forgot a lot of stuff, so im glad Peej was able to get one approved. It was a long drive though! We left our place at 630 in the morning and got down there at 11, we ended up getting home at 6 or 7 that night. hah, so other than the kinked neck and the long drive it was pretty sweet. Oh and the awkward missionaries. I was kind of on one that day and so in the van i was just talking to everyone having a good time. getting to know the kiddies and there were two elders that were the most robotic, awkward missionaries i have come across yet. so that was fun. i ask them a question and they just give me a wierd look and turn around...whats up with that? there was a greenie sitting next to me that was more social than those guys. man im just venting now. It was a good time.
We talked to Scott last night, and he has been off of cigarettes since last wednesday! yay! We moved his date to June 12th, which is probably my last weekend here. So that worked out perfectly. now he just needs to get off of coffee and he will be set for baptism! im so excited for him. He is a stud. oh i just remembered that i still havent sent pictures to you guys, im a horrible person.
so i have been sitting here for like 10 minutes thinking of what else happened this week and i cant for the life of me think of anything....i even have my planner out. Im pretty sure it was just another boring week. Oh, our branch mission leader is kinda making me mad.....he keeps giving me all these assignments to do, like paperwork .....stuff that we shouldnt even be doing. And he calls us like 3 times a day. and he told us to be 15 minutes early to everything. its all so dumb. We were 1 minute late to a meeting that always starts 10 minutes late and he freaked out and told us that we were late, and now basically he is baby-sitting us, and its only a matter of time before i put him in his place..hah i just had to let that out. He called us this morning at 6:35...who in their right mind, besides missionaries, are up at 630? frustration is what it is. I know he is just trying to do his calling, but he is steppin over the line a bit and im going to break his leg. hah! not really, i just wanted to use that line. so hopefully next week i will have some good updates on that for you. But other than that i dont have much else to say. Im kind of in a stupor right now. So ill end this ridiculous email and say adio! love y'all
Monday, May 3, 2010
May 3,2010
Hello my wonderful family!
So its been a pretty bomb week. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. So ill start with transfers! Im staying here and i am getting Elder Lloyd. I have heard really good things about him. Little served with him too(by the way im not sure when his homecoming is...ill find out later.) So we should have a pretty solid time. So thats exciting. transfers are tomorrow. We get to talk as long as we want on sunday so thats sweet. Ill be at church from 8:30am - 1:30pm my time. so at maybe 12:00 your time i can call you guys. thats if my comp doesnt call home first. Hopefully a member will be cool with us using a phone or something, so we can both talk all day, hah so ill plan on planning nothing that day so we can chat it up.
So we rocked it up this week. And we only went over like 120 miles! So hopefully PJ wont beat me like last time. haha. So heres what happened. Marcia Haycraft. Shes been an investigator thats just been chillin in our stew pot. We finally were able to get a hold of her and set an appointment. We went over on Splits. I was with Bro Chowhan, and we basically team taught the restoration. He still knows how to teach good! wierd. But it was a very spiritual lesson. She wants us to come over one night and have a campfire and play guitar and stuff, so that will be exciting! Shes a sweet lady, she says if she finds us a mormon husband then she will get baptized. haha! Shes like 65 years old! she complimented me for like 20 minutes about going on a mission and how we are going to be so much ahead of everyone else. and wont have to get divorces and about my dazzling looks. hah, shes halfway blind, so i just took it in stride. hah not really. so she came to church yesterday too.
Then the next day on splits once again. This time i was with Bro Brown, we went over to Scott Schrams! We have been really confused about what Scott needs and if he has been understanding everything, so its been a little bit tough. I taught a lesson on faith and repentance and halfway through i got the thought that i should relate it into the missionary purpose and how we are out her to baptize people, i didnt say it like that but thats the result. Then i gave him a soft-baptism comittment, which is basically when you come to know the church is true we would invite you to be baptized.(which we should have done like 3 lessons ago.) but he said yes...then i asked how he felt about joining the church and getting baptized, because i was still confused about it all, and he said "I want to do it! What do i need to do to get that going?" Hah so i about fell out of my seat, because we still werent sure about how he felt about his baptism in the RLDS church. But i comitted him to May 15 which might be too early, because he smokes......But we are going over that today, The stop smoking program. I think im going to go buy the stuff for him, because he is struggling right now to buy gas to go to work. Im going to make sure he is going to do the program, go over the whole thing and make sure he will do everything. then go pull the stuff out of the trunk. haha im way excited for him. He wants his dad to baptize him so hopefully his dads health improves so he can. see what happens when i go on splits! Miracles! haha Definately was helped there.
we picked up a new gator too. Shes an 18 year old girl, she is definitely searching. She started getting very dramatic talking about how all the religions are so confusing and nothing makes sense. She is going through the old testament and stuff. But she agreed to come over to her grandmothers house(who is a less-active member) every week and learn the lessons. WOOT! Shes golden man, im way excited for her. so those are the biggest things that have happened here. with many more to come! But the Lord has definately blessed me this week. I have been trying really hard to do everything right I slip into lazy mode every now and then, and im sick of doing that. So these past few weeks i have really been trying to do things the Lords way instead of always doing things my way, and its helped me out a lot. Im a lot happier now and im learning a lot more too. So hopefully next transfer we can have some more baptisms coming up, i swear it feels like we are on the tipping point where everything can go amazing and we can have a ton of success. So im excited to talk to you guys next week. I have started getting into the new testament again. Its hard work man. I have been reading one chapter at a time and then going to Jesus the Christ and reading about evertyhitng that i read in that chapter. Its a tedious process but i have learned so much and its made me so much more appreciative of the things that have been done for us. We are so blessed, i never realized how awesome the Bible is too.....dang utah boy. haha its amazing! Its increased my knowledge of the savior tons, who woulda thunk? I have felt the influence of the holy ghost a lot this week, i have said some things that normally i would never say. and im completely comfortable when i teach too, thats how i notice when he is with me in the lesson. I can just sit back and talk like crazy, so things are good in my hood, talk to you next week! bye bye
So its been a pretty bomb week. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. So ill start with transfers! Im staying here and i am getting Elder Lloyd. I have heard really good things about him. Little served with him too(by the way im not sure when his homecoming is...ill find out later.) So we should have a pretty solid time. So thats exciting. transfers are tomorrow. We get to talk as long as we want on sunday so thats sweet. Ill be at church from 8:30am - 1:30pm my time. so at maybe 12:00 your time i can call you guys. thats if my comp doesnt call home first. Hopefully a member will be cool with us using a phone or something, so we can both talk all day, hah so ill plan on planning nothing that day so we can chat it up.
So we rocked it up this week. And we only went over like 120 miles! So hopefully PJ wont beat me like last time. haha. So heres what happened. Marcia Haycraft. Shes been an investigator thats just been chillin in our stew pot. We finally were able to get a hold of her and set an appointment. We went over on Splits. I was with Bro Chowhan, and we basically team taught the restoration. He still knows how to teach good! wierd. But it was a very spiritual lesson. She wants us to come over one night and have a campfire and play guitar and stuff, so that will be exciting! Shes a sweet lady, she says if she finds us a mormon husband then she will get baptized. haha! Shes like 65 years old! she complimented me for like 20 minutes about going on a mission and how we are going to be so much ahead of everyone else. and wont have to get divorces and about my dazzling looks. hah, shes halfway blind, so i just took it in stride. hah not really. so she came to church yesterday too.
Then the next day on splits once again. This time i was with Bro Brown, we went over to Scott Schrams! We have been really confused about what Scott needs and if he has been understanding everything, so its been a little bit tough. I taught a lesson on faith and repentance and halfway through i got the thought that i should relate it into the missionary purpose and how we are out her to baptize people, i didnt say it like that but thats the result. Then i gave him a soft-baptism comittment, which is basically when you come to know the church is true we would invite you to be baptized.(which we should have done like 3 lessons ago.) but he said yes...then i asked how he felt about joining the church and getting baptized, because i was still confused about it all, and he said "I want to do it! What do i need to do to get that going?" Hah so i about fell out of my seat, because we still werent sure about how he felt about his baptism in the RLDS church. But i comitted him to May 15 which might be too early, because he smokes......But we are going over that today, The stop smoking program. I think im going to go buy the stuff for him, because he is struggling right now to buy gas to go to work. Im going to make sure he is going to do the program, go over the whole thing and make sure he will do everything. then go pull the stuff out of the trunk. haha im way excited for him. He wants his dad to baptize him so hopefully his dads health improves so he can. see what happens when i go on splits! Miracles! haha Definately was helped there.
we picked up a new gator too. Shes an 18 year old girl, she is definitely searching. She started getting very dramatic talking about how all the religions are so confusing and nothing makes sense. She is going through the old testament and stuff. But she agreed to come over to her grandmothers house(who is a less-active member) every week and learn the lessons. WOOT! Shes golden man, im way excited for her. so those are the biggest things that have happened here. with many more to come! But the Lord has definately blessed me this week. I have been trying really hard to do everything right I slip into lazy mode every now and then, and im sick of doing that. So these past few weeks i have really been trying to do things the Lords way instead of always doing things my way, and its helped me out a lot. Im a lot happier now and im learning a lot more too. So hopefully next transfer we can have some more baptisms coming up, i swear it feels like we are on the tipping point where everything can go amazing and we can have a ton of success. So im excited to talk to you guys next week. I have started getting into the new testament again. Its hard work man. I have been reading one chapter at a time and then going to Jesus the Christ and reading about evertyhitng that i read in that chapter. Its a tedious process but i have learned so much and its made me so much more appreciative of the things that have been done for us. We are so blessed, i never realized how awesome the Bible is too.....dang utah boy. haha its amazing! Its increased my knowledge of the savior tons, who woulda thunk? I have felt the influence of the holy ghost a lot this week, i have said some things that normally i would never say. and im completely comfortable when i teach too, thats how i notice when he is with me in the lesson. I can just sit back and talk like crazy, so things are good in my hood, talk to you next week! bye bye
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