Wow,
so this week was way sweet. Ann Arbor was soooo sweet! Elder Bednar is amazing, words cant even describe what i want to say about it. It kinda stinks that i dont have notes to tell you guys about everything he said. He gave us a list of guidlines, the first one was. Do not take copious notes, he called it a foolish tradition of our fathers, he said what we need to be writing down are impressions that come to our mind during the meeting, NOT everything that is said. So basically i have like 4 sentances written down. Elder Bednar is so dang funny, ive never heard an apostle call someone a liar so many times as he did. He was talking about the notes we take and how we lose them and never read them again and if you are saying "Well Elder Bednar i look at them and study them later....You're LYING!" the entire meeting was very spiritual though. He didnt get up and give a talk, he asked us a question, then we were able to raise our hands if we wanted and share our thoughts or answer his question. It was basically a training meeting on how to preserve our agency. How we can teach our investigators how to act without being acted upon. One of the guidelines he gave was that he would never call on anyone, and he told us why. Because when you call on someone and put them on the spot, they have now become and object rather and agent unto themselves. The way we learn life lessons, life-changing lessons, is when we put the effort into acting for ourselves and growing on our own free will. The talks we were told to study before the trip were about faith, and how faith is a principle of action and power, and how we are to use faith when we teach and when we are learning. i dont even know what all to tell you without it being too confusing, because im almost confusing myself, haha. man it was good. He let us have a little question/answer thing with him and 3 members of the seventy, he basically told us that this is one of the only times in our lives we will be around an apostle in such a small meeting, so now is your time to ask questions. i wish i could tell you guys what was said, but we were very clearly told we werent permitted to. sorry. dang i feel like i just built up to this sweet story then just hit the delete button. haha. There is no doubt in my mind that Elder David A. Bednar is an apostle to the Lord Jesus Christ. he spoke with the power of God. That man knew the answer to every question that was thrown at him. he had a response to every sentance, through the spirit he broadened and opened my mind up to possibilities i thought were only possible in scripture stories. He is concerned for each of us, he told us at the start of that meeting that if he came and just gave us a talk it would be a cake-walk. But Using the Spirit to discern and to answer questions by the Spirit and to do everyhting that he did in that meeting was physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. I dont know what else to say, learn by the spirit, learn by faith. Faith is a principle of action and of power. There are things to act, and things to be acted upon, which are you? just a few thoughts to think about throughout your day.
As far as the area goes. Things are great. Me and Elder Lloyd before the ann arbor trip were constantly amazed about how little we know. How just when you think you have got it figured out, you are dead wrong. We were thinking about our teaching and we had a pretty crappy teaching experience with Scott, which we later talked about and life is just crazy. Elder Lloyd has been out 20 months and i have been out a year and we still have no clue what we were doing. Then Elder Bednar came and basically destroyed every ounce of confidence i have in my teaching. a good kind of destruction though, so we are in the process of reconstructing the way we teach, the way we commit and the way we have our investigators learn. In one week we went from being good teachers to noobs again. haha ITS SO AWESOME!
Noel came to church yesterday!!!!! Woohooo! She is the most golden investigator i have ever had. She keeps saying how when she prays before she reads she can finally learn and understand things, then she said. "im thinking about praying every morning" just simple things like that, but its so good to hear someone that is progressing and searching. Ive had to pull teeth with most of my gators and its good to know that if i commit her to do something, she will do it. so refreshing. We told her to pray about baptism, so next time we go over there we will talk about it more. I think we might see if she wants to set a date for a baptism and talk about how showing her faith "acting" is going to get her the answer she needs, and its going to show her desire and commitment. so hopefully it all turns out good.
Valorie is kind of in a mess. Her kids are giving her some trouble. Her 16 year old girl ran away to live with her boyfriend and is basically demanding money from her. Her other son who is 14 bought these wooden roses, all different colors to give to basically every woman in his life. his mom and he gave one to his teacher and it was a black rose....which is considered a death threat, and she freaked out and now theres a big deal about going to court and possible juvi, so she told us she has been doing a lot of soul searching, and thats one of the reasons she has commited to come to church every week she doesnt work, so things are good in a spiritual sense, but bad in every other way it seems. crazy people man. im so glad every day that i didnt grow up in Michigan with a bunch of...well ill just stop there before i say something i shouldnt....
Scott.....i dont know what happened with this man. You wouldnt believe the change that has taken place in the last 2 months. we went from being really friendly, laughing, teaching, the spirit was there, then we got on the Word of wisdom issue and im pretty sure Scott started lying to us and i think there were other things going on. and there were seriously times when we went over there that i wouldnt say more than a few sentances the whole time. i dont know what came over me, but it was like i was in this stupor every time we went over to teach him. Its the craziest thing. And im not sure if i can even go over there again. i dont know. Scott said in the future he might get baptized, but as of right now, things are too crazy and stressful. i dont know...
So theres the week for you. Scott Bartoszek from Muskegon called and wants to come up and see me and some other missionaries up north. So im going to email President and see if maybe next p day we can go up to Mackinac island and see the Upper Peninsula, so hopefully hes cool with it. I heard its amazing up there! so thats my weeks, hope y'all are having a good time reshingling the house, healing up from your wounds, working, playing, shredding on the guitar(Bri) Larsens rule! and the church is true, what more needs to be said? Love you guys. Peace
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
Monday, June 21, 2010
June 14,2010
Buenos dias!
Wow this week has been crazy! So we had the 5 sets of splits that the branch set up, turns out they were very ineffective like we figured. We still only got 20 lessons...we got 24 the other week with only 2, so i dont know what those guys were thinking. It was pretty funny actually, they tried to set them up again this week and i raised my hand and was like "Can i say something?" and told them they werent effective at all so the most we will ever need is 3, and they all were complaining and stuff, and it took way too long to make them understand why we couldnt have every night of our week taken up by splits, becuase the most effective time of day for anything is in the evening, and i told them i didnt want to see investigators on splits and they were like well i dont agree with that. And i tried to explain but it was hopeless, the only people that understood what i was talking about were the younger folk. hahah. but i think we got it all figured out. We'll find out next week i guess! I thanked them for all their help though and made things better, because really this branch is very missionary oriented. They are just focusing on the wrong things. Its funny because they want to help us more than we can even come up with things to do!
OH! i forgot to mention this earlier! Me and the Lloyd are staying together one more transfer in the KKK! PJ finally listened to me! woot woot! so its going to be a sweet transfer, especially because a lot of fun things are going to be happening up here, like the cherry festival in Traverse and ill be here for most of July so all the fireworks and everything. yay! Plus our gators are being way cool now! so im excited to stay, i thought for sure the way Peej was talking that i was going to be transferred and made a DL, NOT YET PLEASE! hahah
So even though Scott went crazy and threw his baptism down the drain, we are making good progress with our other gators! Valorie Palmer came to church!!!!! She called us in the middle of the week and cancelled our appointment and told us she committed herself to come to church every other week when she doesnt have to work! So now that she came to church we can commit her to baptism, booyah! Noel didnt come to church like she said. I need to call her, she really wanted to bring her inactive dad to church too, so i dont know whats going on there, if she came to church once she would be golden! GOLDEN I SAY! And i called Scott and he sounded just normal as could be....so i set up an apointment to see him, so hopefully it all goes well. Maybe he will blow up at us too, then i can give him a piece of my mind...dont throw your life away because you got mad at your dad! Dang Ganderfolk. So even though our top gator kinda went off the deep end. other good things are starting to happen. One door closes and another opens baby.
Oh and mother....Im going to be driving to Traverse to pick up my package today. It was kinda funny when i got the little slip to pick my package up, it said stop in at UPS....in Traverse City...WHAT>! hah but im actually excited, because Traverse is the bomb and there is a music store there, and i have been wanting to play an electric guitar again....im thinking about buying one.... so its a win win for me, except for miles....
Oh and on tuesday night President Thomas asked me to give a talk in church, so that was stupid. But it actually turned out really well. It was on the scriptures and i got to preparing and the thought, "never get too comfortable" came to my mind so thats what direction i went with things. Dont get so comfortable with your life that you put off the things of God and stop your spiritual progression. It all turned out really well. I got to talking about when Nephi and his brothers got the brass plates and how they gave up everything they had back in Jerusalem and how the brass plates were so precious to Nephi and Lehi that they gave it all up without saying a word, because they knew that thats what the Lord wanted them to do, but Laman and Lemuel murmured from the minute the plan was presented and so the brass plates became something that was just an object, something that cost them their all their money and their lives back at jerusalem, Laman and Lemuel got stuck in this rut of murmuring and thinking more on their worldly desires that they put off the words of the Lord and eventually it led them to being a loathsome and evil people. Lehi and Nehi on the other hand loved the brass plates, they were precious in their sight, The first time Lehi read them and found out that the 5 books of Moses were in there and the other prophets, and his geneology, he felt the Spirit and he began to prophecy. It was such a simple process. He held the scriptures dear, he read, was filled with the Spirit, and because of that he was able to say things he couldnt normally say. Its the same process for us. Everytime we read our scriptures we will feel the Spirit and because of that Spirit our minds will be enlightened. so i asked the question. How do we view our scriptures? are they the Words of the Lord, sacred....or are they just something we lug around once a week. Then i talked about how most of us have had some kind of spiritual experience when reading the scriptures,( if you havent.. pray for one you will get it). These spiritual experiences are how our testimonies grow then i read alma 5:26, that talks about "if you have experienced this change of heart and have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, i would ask, can ye feel so now?"not exact...i think, but close enough. Can we feel so now? Do we still have these spiritual experiences in our lives that bolster our spiritual development? The scriptures are something we can open every day for spiritual power, do we take advantage of that blessing? Then i talked about my first time ever reading the scriptures and mom i talked about you too. haha so all in all it was good. I even had Elder Lloyd shaking his head yes or no to the questions i asked, and Kodee Oneil kept making faces until i stared at her for a good minute until she stopped. haha just like home, it was way sweet. I looked at my paper once! it was the least i had ever written down, this tiny peice of paper with a few scribbles and stuff. so im getting better at talks for real. So back to Kodee, she reminds me a lot of Brianne, so naturally i pick on her quite a bit, all in jest of course. She likes to point out every mistake i make and she gets so upset over the smallest things i swear, like i told her when she came over to meet our investigator she was the only one of the girls smiling and how awesome she was, then i told her she had a really cheesy smile and now she cant get over it. so i have a little sister to annoy again. Her dad even started siding with me a little bit, hah!(Brianne you dont have a cheesy smile, youre a lot cooler than Kodee too for sure)so that was a small side note. anyways, i gotta get going to Traverse before everything closes, sorry i cant write to all of you. Read your scriptures! love you guys, have a good week!
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
Wow this week has been crazy! So we had the 5 sets of splits that the branch set up, turns out they were very ineffective like we figured. We still only got 20 lessons...we got 24 the other week with only 2, so i dont know what those guys were thinking. It was pretty funny actually, they tried to set them up again this week and i raised my hand and was like "Can i say something?" and told them they werent effective at all so the most we will ever need is 3, and they all were complaining and stuff, and it took way too long to make them understand why we couldnt have every night of our week taken up by splits, becuase the most effective time of day for anything is in the evening, and i told them i didnt want to see investigators on splits and they were like well i dont agree with that. And i tried to explain but it was hopeless, the only people that understood what i was talking about were the younger folk. hahah. but i think we got it all figured out. We'll find out next week i guess! I thanked them for all their help though and made things better, because really this branch is very missionary oriented. They are just focusing on the wrong things. Its funny because they want to help us more than we can even come up with things to do!
OH! i forgot to mention this earlier! Me and the Lloyd are staying together one more transfer in the KKK! PJ finally listened to me! woot woot! so its going to be a sweet transfer, especially because a lot of fun things are going to be happening up here, like the cherry festival in Traverse and ill be here for most of July so all the fireworks and everything. yay! Plus our gators are being way cool now! so im excited to stay, i thought for sure the way Peej was talking that i was going to be transferred and made a DL, NOT YET PLEASE! hahah
So even though Scott went crazy and threw his baptism down the drain, we are making good progress with our other gators! Valorie Palmer came to church!!!!! She called us in the middle of the week and cancelled our appointment and told us she committed herself to come to church every other week when she doesnt have to work! So now that she came to church we can commit her to baptism, booyah! Noel didnt come to church like she said. I need to call her, she really wanted to bring her inactive dad to church too, so i dont know whats going on there, if she came to church once she would be golden! GOLDEN I SAY! And i called Scott and he sounded just normal as could be....so i set up an apointment to see him, so hopefully it all goes well. Maybe he will blow up at us too, then i can give him a piece of my mind...dont throw your life away because you got mad at your dad! Dang Ganderfolk. So even though our top gator kinda went off the deep end. other good things are starting to happen. One door closes and another opens baby.
Oh and mother....Im going to be driving to Traverse to pick up my package today. It was kinda funny when i got the little slip to pick my package up, it said stop in at UPS....in Traverse City...WHAT>! hah but im actually excited, because Traverse is the bomb and there is a music store there, and i have been wanting to play an electric guitar again....im thinking about buying one.... so its a win win for me, except for miles....
Oh and on tuesday night President Thomas asked me to give a talk in church, so that was stupid. But it actually turned out really well. It was on the scriptures and i got to preparing and the thought, "never get too comfortable" came to my mind so thats what direction i went with things. Dont get so comfortable with your life that you put off the things of God and stop your spiritual progression. It all turned out really well. I got to talking about when Nephi and his brothers got the brass plates and how they gave up everything they had back in Jerusalem and how the brass plates were so precious to Nephi and Lehi that they gave it all up without saying a word, because they knew that thats what the Lord wanted them to do, but Laman and Lemuel murmured from the minute the plan was presented and so the brass plates became something that was just an object, something that cost them their all their money and their lives back at jerusalem, Laman and Lemuel got stuck in this rut of murmuring and thinking more on their worldly desires that they put off the words of the Lord and eventually it led them to being a loathsome and evil people. Lehi and Nehi on the other hand loved the brass plates, they were precious in their sight, The first time Lehi read them and found out that the 5 books of Moses were in there and the other prophets, and his geneology, he felt the Spirit and he began to prophecy. It was such a simple process. He held the scriptures dear, he read, was filled with the Spirit, and because of that he was able to say things he couldnt normally say. Its the same process for us. Everytime we read our scriptures we will feel the Spirit and because of that Spirit our minds will be enlightened. so i asked the question. How do we view our scriptures? are they the Words of the Lord, sacred....or are they just something we lug around once a week. Then i talked about how most of us have had some kind of spiritual experience when reading the scriptures,( if you havent.. pray for one you will get it). These spiritual experiences are how our testimonies grow then i read alma 5:26, that talks about "if you have experienced this change of heart and have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, i would ask, can ye feel so now?"not exact...i think, but close enough. Can we feel so now? Do we still have these spiritual experiences in our lives that bolster our spiritual development? The scriptures are something we can open every day for spiritual power, do we take advantage of that blessing? Then i talked about my first time ever reading the scriptures and mom i talked about you too. haha so all in all it was good. I even had Elder Lloyd shaking his head yes or no to the questions i asked, and Kodee Oneil kept making faces until i stared at her for a good minute until she stopped. haha just like home, it was way sweet. I looked at my paper once! it was the least i had ever written down, this tiny peice of paper with a few scribbles and stuff. so im getting better at talks for real. So back to Kodee, she reminds me a lot of Brianne, so naturally i pick on her quite a bit, all in jest of course. She likes to point out every mistake i make and she gets so upset over the smallest things i swear, like i told her when she came over to meet our investigator she was the only one of the girls smiling and how awesome she was, then i told her she had a really cheesy smile and now she cant get over it. so i have a little sister to annoy again. Her dad even started siding with me a little bit, hah!(Brianne you dont have a cheesy smile, youre a lot cooler than Kodee too for sure)so that was a small side note. anyways, i gotta get going to Traverse before everything closes, sorry i cant write to all of you. Read your scriptures! love you guys, have a good week!
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
Monday, June 7, 2010
June 7,2010
This week was pretty horrible but good at the same time for real. So i think ill start with the bad stuff.
Scotts baptism is off.....hows that for a good start. He got back from detroit on thursday and i guess he blew up at his dad and apparently Scott is bipolar and he just crashed. Well after talking to his dad and stuff we called Scott that night and he basically said the baptisms off and he is going a different direction. When we asked what his plans were he said he was going back to the baptist church and cutting all ties with his dad. What the crap man. He said "you guys have more important things to do than waste your time with me" So that made me pretty mad to put it nicely. Im going to call him up tonight and tell him what we are even here on a mission for. ridiculous people man. They need to grow up, thats just it. Things were so good. he was done with everything. Ready for baptism, then this crap happens and he screws up that opportunity.
That was basically the bad thing that happened. Except Noel and Marcia didnt come to church. Plus the branch is freaking crazy, im going to have to rebuke them i think....They decided, without asking us or including us at all, to do splits every single night this week.....And we are supposed to come up with all the people to go see. So that means we have to find 20 appointments and shove them all into our 7-9 block of time..its just ridiculous im telling you. This branch is really focused on missionary work. but they dont understand what they are doing and they dont understand that the 20 lessons a week is a means to getting more investigators......i havent received one referral in the 3 months i have been here. They are focused way too much on lessons and not enough on anyhting else. we got 19 lessons this week and they were really dissapointed that we didnt reach 20.....so next week we are probably going to stand up in elders quorum and go over Elder Perrys challenge and tell them whats up basically. I love the branch, they are just missing the mark, most of my problems come from the Branch president and mission leader which is sad, and mom its going to be hard to stay away from that "wierd man" since he is our mission leader and he calls us like 8 times a day. But im doing my best, trust me. haha. He actually started calling private so we wouldnt know it was him...sneaky old man....
so on with the good stuff.
On wednesday we went on tradeofs with bear lake. I had Elder Bird.. hes a stud. We saw the Hinds who i think we have talked about and taught the restoration to the,. She brought up a bunch of questions about the priesthood and healings and stuff. Things that they had asked ministers and they didnt like the answers they had gotten. so they asked me the same questions and they liked all the answers, so that was good. but they are going to be hard. Storm started talking about how she knows she is saved and that she doesnt need to know about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith because she is already saved. They have both read the bom and prayed and never got an answer, so she still has a lot of questions and concerns with everything, eventually i told them to give the Book of Mormon another chance and i focused on praying sincerely and with real intent. and out of nowhere richard finally talks and he said " ya know what...We'll do it. We'll read it and pray about it" so hopefully they aren't too far gone and can read with open minds about it....crazy stuff.
Then we went over to see Noel! The young women came over before we started the lesson and brought some cookies and invited her out on wednesdays and it was really good. After they left she said she has been wanting to get back into youth groups and find some more friends. We taught her the plan of salvation, and it was awesome! she said it cleared up all her questions about it. The missionaries that had taught her in the past had confused her. She started bring up how they used tents and buildings to represent the kingdoms of glory and all this dumb clutter stuff. Thats why analogies and object lessons suck. Thank you Elder Jensen for saying no more to that. But it was good. i ended up leaving her with a soft baptismal commitment if you know what that is, she said yes and she told us she really wanted to come to church and she would come....but turns out they didnt. And crap i forgot to call them. Turns out she has a dang good voice too! We went to mancelona because they are having this festival up there and she made it to the finals in this singing contest. turns out she lost. She sang a Celine Dion song and i think thats why she didnt win..she hit all the notes and everything which was impressive, but its Celine dion......ya know?
We had interviews on Friday. They were a lot different than normal. We all met together in a room and he told us to think about what keeps us up at night, or something that is on your mind a lot, then think of the solution and then bear your testimony, and it was sweet. he started and then we went around the room. The spirit was there very strong and it was really good. Then we had individual interviews and he scared me a little not going to lie. He started talking about giving me "opportunities" and how he needs me in other areas for other tasks and stuff and he said that my shoulders are going to get a little broader with responsibilities....scary stuff. haha. This is what he opened everything up with "Elder Larsen, its been neat to see your growth and you are becoming a great missionary blah blah blah, and you might even amount to something." i was like wow President thank you, that means a lot. HAHA!!! Then he talked about how when we first came out with all the other mission presidents, they were all in a room and Elder Ballard got up to the pulpit and talking about the group he said "Its not much, but it will do." so it was in that kind of spirit....if that was supposed to make me feel better. haha. I told him i wanted to stay in kalkaska with Elder Lloyd one more transfer and he said its a good idea. but i cant promise you any more than that. so we will see what happens, transfer calls are this friday, so we will see how it all plays out then.
So things kinda sucked this week, but we have some new opportunities coming up, so hopefully we will see some good things happen this week. Something good is bound to happen after that crap, thats just how things work. So that my story and im sticking to it. love you guys, have a good one!
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
Scotts baptism is off.....hows that for a good start. He got back from detroit on thursday and i guess he blew up at his dad and apparently Scott is bipolar and he just crashed. Well after talking to his dad and stuff we called Scott that night and he basically said the baptisms off and he is going a different direction. When we asked what his plans were he said he was going back to the baptist church and cutting all ties with his dad. What the crap man. He said "you guys have more important things to do than waste your time with me" So that made me pretty mad to put it nicely. Im going to call him up tonight and tell him what we are even here on a mission for. ridiculous people man. They need to grow up, thats just it. Things were so good. he was done with everything. Ready for baptism, then this crap happens and he screws up that opportunity.
That was basically the bad thing that happened. Except Noel and Marcia didnt come to church. Plus the branch is freaking crazy, im going to have to rebuke them i think....They decided, without asking us or including us at all, to do splits every single night this week.....And we are supposed to come up with all the people to go see. So that means we have to find 20 appointments and shove them all into our 7-9 block of time..its just ridiculous im telling you. This branch is really focused on missionary work. but they dont understand what they are doing and they dont understand that the 20 lessons a week is a means to getting more investigators......i havent received one referral in the 3 months i have been here. They are focused way too much on lessons and not enough on anyhting else. we got 19 lessons this week and they were really dissapointed that we didnt reach 20.....so next week we are probably going to stand up in elders quorum and go over Elder Perrys challenge and tell them whats up basically. I love the branch, they are just missing the mark, most of my problems come from the Branch president and mission leader which is sad, and mom its going to be hard to stay away from that "wierd man" since he is our mission leader and he calls us like 8 times a day. But im doing my best, trust me. haha. He actually started calling private so we wouldnt know it was him...sneaky old man....
so on with the good stuff.
On wednesday we went on tradeofs with bear lake. I had Elder Bird.. hes a stud. We saw the Hinds who i think we have talked about and taught the restoration to the,. She brought up a bunch of questions about the priesthood and healings and stuff. Things that they had asked ministers and they didnt like the answers they had gotten. so they asked me the same questions and they liked all the answers, so that was good. but they are going to be hard. Storm started talking about how she knows she is saved and that she doesnt need to know about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith because she is already saved. They have both read the bom and prayed and never got an answer, so she still has a lot of questions and concerns with everything, eventually i told them to give the Book of Mormon another chance and i focused on praying sincerely and with real intent. and out of nowhere richard finally talks and he said " ya know what...We'll do it. We'll read it and pray about it" so hopefully they aren't too far gone and can read with open minds about it....crazy stuff.
Then we went over to see Noel! The young women came over before we started the lesson and brought some cookies and invited her out on wednesdays and it was really good. After they left she said she has been wanting to get back into youth groups and find some more friends. We taught her the plan of salvation, and it was awesome! she said it cleared up all her questions about it. The missionaries that had taught her in the past had confused her. She started bring up how they used tents and buildings to represent the kingdoms of glory and all this dumb clutter stuff. Thats why analogies and object lessons suck. Thank you Elder Jensen for saying no more to that. But it was good. i ended up leaving her with a soft baptismal commitment if you know what that is, she said yes and she told us she really wanted to come to church and she would come....but turns out they didnt. And crap i forgot to call them. Turns out she has a dang good voice too! We went to mancelona because they are having this festival up there and she made it to the finals in this singing contest. turns out she lost. She sang a Celine Dion song and i think thats why she didnt win..she hit all the notes and everything which was impressive, but its Celine dion......ya know?
We had interviews on Friday. They were a lot different than normal. We all met together in a room and he told us to think about what keeps us up at night, or something that is on your mind a lot, then think of the solution and then bear your testimony, and it was sweet. he started and then we went around the room. The spirit was there very strong and it was really good. Then we had individual interviews and he scared me a little not going to lie. He started talking about giving me "opportunities" and how he needs me in other areas for other tasks and stuff and he said that my shoulders are going to get a little broader with responsibilities....scary stuff. haha. This is what he opened everything up with "Elder Larsen, its been neat to see your growth and you are becoming a great missionary blah blah blah, and you might even amount to something." i was like wow President thank you, that means a lot. HAHA!!! Then he talked about how when we first came out with all the other mission presidents, they were all in a room and Elder Ballard got up to the pulpit and talking about the group he said "Its not much, but it will do." so it was in that kind of spirit....if that was supposed to make me feel better. haha. I told him i wanted to stay in kalkaska with Elder Lloyd one more transfer and he said its a good idea. but i cant promise you any more than that. so we will see what happens, transfer calls are this friday, so we will see how it all plays out then.
So things kinda sucked this week, but we have some new opportunities coming up, so hopefully we will see some good things happen this week. Something good is bound to happen after that crap, thats just how things work. So that my story and im sticking to it. love you guys, have a good one!
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
Sunday, June 6, 2010
June 6,2010
So Ryan went and broke the first bone in the family huh? Not a good door to be opening bill, hah. I hope you are doing good man, that sucks. You'll tell me how it happened of course. Im going to make a guess. You over-shot the landing and landed flat and your chest came down and smacked the handlebars....and you fell off the side of the bike and whimpered a little? thats my guess. Fill me in broseph! I hope you are doing good, you're in my prayers.
So last week we did really good number wise, and had some good results too! so on monday we went with Bro Mcduffie(our crazy mission leader)to help him with his hometeaching. well we got to the house and shared the message and he said we had to go, so we were there a total of like 10 minutes. When we got outside he said "I lied to those people.....Im not doing good, follow me to the hospital"......then he got in his car, so the whole time we were following him we were coming up with some pretty crazy conclusions about what was happening. We had heard that he has schizophrenia and minieres. So that leaves a whole slew of things, but after the 25 minute drive we reached the hospital and he gets out of the car and says. "im having a stroke, watch me walk in and make sure i make it." then he takes off.....leaving us more confused than ever and it was just crazy. Turns out they released him that night and everything was fine as far as i know. but dang man, He just drove 20 miles thinking he was going to have a stroke. Thats pretty crazy if you ask me. so that was our fun P-day night!
We went on tradeoffs with the ZL's this past wednesday. I love going with the ZL's they are always good dudes. we were actually able to see Christi Zattlin! i have tried to see her for months and finally got to talk to her and teach her. It was way cool. Shes an inactive member and she is way sweet. She has two kids that are way fun too. she said she will come back to church one of these next few sundays. so thats good. shes a recent convert that hasnt been to church in like a year or so. We are hoping we can start teaching her husband and maybe bring them all into the church.
So i cant remember if i told you guys, but this wednesday we have an appointment with the Kimblers, they are the family that we found a while back, We are mostly teaching Noel and Stephanie. But this wednesday we are going to go over and teach them the plan of salvation and 6:00 and hopefully we will get done with it by 7:30 because the young women here are going to stop by and meet her and bring some goodies(you know how girls are) and try to friendship her so she will come to church and feel welcome! How swet is that! If we can get these girls to church they are golden! So im way excited about it! We are having trade-offs that day too. And im going to have a young missionary with me, so it could be very interesting how it all plays out. im really excited for it though. that apartment is going to be crowded! ewww cooties.....
We saw grandma Haycraft again. She fed us dinner and we had a really good discussion about Prophets and the Spirit. She is so sincere when she asks too, ive never had anyone like that. I cant really pin her down yet, but i think she is a possible baptism in the near future. i call her grandma, because she is almost as sweet and nice and wonderful as my grandmas, so i go over there and sit down on the recliner and just chat with her. Shes just a little bit paranoid and crazy, hah. its all good. She wants us to come over one night with our guitars so we can sit around the fire and play for her. so that might be coming up.
We saw Scott a few different times last week. He is making progress with his coffee. or he is lying to us, im not 100 percent sure which one it is. But i have faith he will do the right thing. this is his last week to quit. The branch has been talking about setting up the food and everything for his baptism, so everyone is getting really excited about it, which is good. its been about a year since they have had a baptism. I hope i get to stay here one more transfer, i can see a bunch of good happening real soon.
Sister Wysocki had us over friday night to watch some fireworks, she buys a bunch of illegal fireworks and invites us over to watch them. haha that was sweet. We are going over there today to help her train her dog a little bit and golf a little and teach a lesson. So thats always good. This next week we are busy.....we have two sets of trade-offs, ill be staying in KKK(Kalkaska for short, or KaKaKa, like a crow would) for both of them thankfully, then we have interviews after that. plus we always have to come up with like 4 people for each split we go on with the members. so hopefully everything turns out.
This week i have been reading some of David A. Bednars training on Faith. It has been very very interesting, i wish i could remember everything from the first talk. This morning i read his talk on Asking in Faith. And i think it was very irefreshing how he brought up that asking in faith, isnt just praying its acting and asking What we should do. He used the example of Joseph Smith. When he was searching for the right church to join in his history he asks the question What is to be done? not simply what church is right. But which church should i join. He was asking for something that he fully intended to act on. he asked in Faith. He also used this example. And i have been guilty of this in the past..When we pray for the missionaries, we often say that they will be led to those searching for the gospel. and a lot of people dont know this, i didnt think about it before my mission, but missionaries are Full-time teachers, members are supposed to be the finders. in a perfect setting missionaries would never go out looking for people, members shold be giving them enough names to keep them busy so they dont have to find. There is a member here who went to Pocatello on his mission. He said he did a total of two hours of finding in his entire mission, thats becasuse the members were so good at finding for them. Elder Bednar said," Dont pawn your duty onto others!" hah so that was really interesting. just thought id share. But he said when we pray we should ask to have a missionary experience, someone to share the gospel with, pray for the strength to be able to share it and then when the opportunity comes up to do it! He said that if we would do that then missionary work would go forward ina remarkable way. And its true. Faith is the basis of everything in the gospel! everything rests upon our faith in Christ. And i know if we have enough faith, that we will grow more than we ever thought possible, and if we are truly willing to act, we will be given experiences here that will shape our lives for the better and strengthen our resolve for the work which we are called to do. I love you guys and hope everything goes well back home. Have a good week. The church is true!
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
So last week we did really good number wise, and had some good results too! so on monday we went with Bro Mcduffie(our crazy mission leader)to help him with his hometeaching. well we got to the house and shared the message and he said we had to go, so we were there a total of like 10 minutes. When we got outside he said "I lied to those people.....Im not doing good, follow me to the hospital"......then he got in his car, so the whole time we were following him we were coming up with some pretty crazy conclusions about what was happening. We had heard that he has schizophrenia and minieres. So that leaves a whole slew of things, but after the 25 minute drive we reached the hospital and he gets out of the car and says. "im having a stroke, watch me walk in and make sure i make it." then he takes off.....leaving us more confused than ever and it was just crazy. Turns out they released him that night and everything was fine as far as i know. but dang man, He just drove 20 miles thinking he was going to have a stroke. Thats pretty crazy if you ask me. so that was our fun P-day night!
We went on tradeoffs with the ZL's this past wednesday. I love going with the ZL's they are always good dudes. we were actually able to see Christi Zattlin! i have tried to see her for months and finally got to talk to her and teach her. It was way cool. Shes an inactive member and she is way sweet. She has two kids that are way fun too. she said she will come back to church one of these next few sundays. so thats good. shes a recent convert that hasnt been to church in like a year or so. We are hoping we can start teaching her husband and maybe bring them all into the church.
So i cant remember if i told you guys, but this wednesday we have an appointment with the Kimblers, they are the family that we found a while back, We are mostly teaching Noel and Stephanie. But this wednesday we are going to go over and teach them the plan of salvation and 6:00 and hopefully we will get done with it by 7:30 because the young women here are going to stop by and meet her and bring some goodies(you know how girls are) and try to friendship her so she will come to church and feel welcome! How swet is that! If we can get these girls to church they are golden! So im way excited about it! We are having trade-offs that day too. And im going to have a young missionary with me, so it could be very interesting how it all plays out. im really excited for it though. that apartment is going to be crowded! ewww cooties.....
We saw grandma Haycraft again. She fed us dinner and we had a really good discussion about Prophets and the Spirit. She is so sincere when she asks too, ive never had anyone like that. I cant really pin her down yet, but i think she is a possible baptism in the near future. i call her grandma, because she is almost as sweet and nice and wonderful as my grandmas, so i go over there and sit down on the recliner and just chat with her. Shes just a little bit paranoid and crazy, hah. its all good. She wants us to come over one night with our guitars so we can sit around the fire and play for her. so that might be coming up.
We saw Scott a few different times last week. He is making progress with his coffee. or he is lying to us, im not 100 percent sure which one it is. But i have faith he will do the right thing. this is his last week to quit. The branch has been talking about setting up the food and everything for his baptism, so everyone is getting really excited about it, which is good. its been about a year since they have had a baptism. I hope i get to stay here one more transfer, i can see a bunch of good happening real soon.
Sister Wysocki had us over friday night to watch some fireworks, she buys a bunch of illegal fireworks and invites us over to watch them. haha that was sweet. We are going over there today to help her train her dog a little bit and golf a little and teach a lesson. So thats always good. This next week we are busy.....we have two sets of trade-offs, ill be staying in KKK(Kalkaska for short, or KaKaKa, like a crow would) for both of them thankfully, then we have interviews after that. plus we always have to come up with like 4 people for each split we go on with the members. so hopefully everything turns out.
This week i have been reading some of David A. Bednars training on Faith. It has been very very interesting, i wish i could remember everything from the first talk. This morning i read his talk on Asking in Faith. And i think it was very irefreshing how he brought up that asking in faith, isnt just praying its acting and asking What we should do. He used the example of Joseph Smith. When he was searching for the right church to join in his history he asks the question What is to be done? not simply what church is right. But which church should i join. He was asking for something that he fully intended to act on. he asked in Faith. He also used this example. And i have been guilty of this in the past..When we pray for the missionaries, we often say that they will be led to those searching for the gospel. and a lot of people dont know this, i didnt think about it before my mission, but missionaries are Full-time teachers, members are supposed to be the finders. in a perfect setting missionaries would never go out looking for people, members shold be giving them enough names to keep them busy so they dont have to find. There is a member here who went to Pocatello on his mission. He said he did a total of two hours of finding in his entire mission, thats becasuse the members were so good at finding for them. Elder Bednar said," Dont pawn your duty onto others!" hah so that was really interesting. just thought id share. But he said when we pray we should ask to have a missionary experience, someone to share the gospel with, pray for the strength to be able to share it and then when the opportunity comes up to do it! He said that if we would do that then missionary work would go forward ina remarkable way. And its true. Faith is the basis of everything in the gospel! everything rests upon our faith in Christ. And i know if we have enough faith, that we will grow more than we ever thought possible, and if we are truly willing to act, we will be given experiences here that will shape our lives for the better and strengthen our resolve for the work which we are called to do. I love you guys and hope everything goes well back home. Have a good week. The church is true!
--
\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/
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