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!


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\m/ ~ Elder Larsen ~ \m/