Sept. 21,2009

WOOOOORD!
Hey how come im never invited to go places? every time you guys write you have gone on some trip or something dang exciting has happened. that's good that you are staying busy, things are boring otherwise. i cant believe that Eric is going to Melbourne. that is so awesome. Tell Ben and Eric to write to me or ill rip up their friend card. Josh emailed me this week. yay! he is such a cool kid. Tell Kory to send me pics of his system and i want to hear all of his new songs. tell him ill rip up his card if he doesnt too! im pretty rich this month because Sister Rogers bought us so much. Im glad you found my coat! it hasnt been too cold here its actually been about perfect. the temperature for this whole month has been like 70 so it has been very nice. You probably should send it next transfer tho. im not sure if i will be staying here or not. Transfers are the first week of October. so you will know then. But i have some requests that you can throw in with it. my shoes! i have been wearing these black globe slippers this whole time and i need some service shoes. so those black and white Circas i think they are would be nice. also, i thought i brought my retainer but i may have left it. so if you could check on that, its probably in the blue case. other matters of business. if you could find me a CHEESE CUTTER!!! like the one we have at home that would be the best present ever! ever! EVER I TELL YOU! BAAH i have looked in every store in my area and Houghton Lakes! dad never told me if he knows Bob Bartlet! his bro, or cousin.....is here and he is the funniest guy we make jokes at each other and have a jolly ol time. i already told you about him tho. mom...Turtle hunting isnt dangerous OR wrong. We just arent supposed to swim. Pres Jones says we can wade in the lakes as long as we arent swimming. I found out H Lake is the biggest inland lake in Michigan too! but its really really shallow. the deepest part is only like 25 feet. anyways thats boring stuff.
So this week we taught Sheila again, she is so awesome. Im really excited for her. she almost started crying twice! once when i was talking about the Atonement and the other when i read the scripture in Alma 40 about the Resurrection. so that was good. crying is good. yup yup. but the best part of the week...SUNDAY! we got Page Nichols to church! oh man it was good. he was asking awesome questions. and he was answering some questions that other people asked. it was perfect! He talked to pretty much the entire branch and he said this last year something has been leading him back to church and so he has studied the bible and watches tv programs and stuff and is really into it. He said the churches he has been to havent been able to answer his questions, he was catcholic, then he tried Seventh day adventists, and the church of the Nazarene. and none could answer his questions straight up. he also said he hasnt been baptized and its something he plans on doing, but he believes you should only do it once, so it should be done the right way......BOOYA! he is from Newfoundland and he was really interested in geneology and stuff. cuz i guess its a saying up there "you cant move forward unless you know your past" or something like that, pretty cool. he could talk until you died on the spot though. eveytime we go over it takes about an hour before he lets us go. haha he is a cool guy. That was probably the highlight of the week. that and we had an awesome time at Houghton Lake on trade-offs. we all played games and stuff and E Richardson taught me how to make chicken alfredo and he made me a blueberry pie and a peach pie. haha we're friends now hah.
Im glad yellowstone was fun even though i wasnt there. good news. i only have to read 8 chapters a day in the BoM to finish it this transfer....oh mercy! thats hard. but dangit im going to do it! and i started a tape to send to yous. so ill get my district to talk to you too! yay ok well im going to go for now. i might come back in like 2 hours and say some more things if i can think of anything. so ya. loves!

Sept. 14,2009

HI HI.
Sorry about the computer! Sometimes they are a pain! I got your tape on Saturday! It was so awesome and unexpected. But it was great i loved it. I will start talking into the stupid little box too. i always feel like a dork but thats ok sometimes i am.....and then other times im just really really awesome. hah.
All my friends seem to be doing really well! I havent heard from Tyler since he has been in the MTC. I think mostly because you only get 30 minutes to write. But i lost his email address somehow. I would like to hear from him and such. Mom i am happy :) Last week was rough, but we had Zone Conference and so that really kinda just fixed me up. Then the tape sealed the deal. ZC was awesome tho! Im making a lot of friends and the guys i came out with seem to be doing pretty well. We all said the same thing tho. Last week time kinda slowed down. it was wierd like time felt like it was flying bye and then all of a sudden it stopped and it was kinda depressing. whatevah. We had a lady(Sis. Wing) talk to us about her conversion story and it basically was like a 15 yr story. It was the most amazing thing i have ever heard. She was amazing. I would pass on the story but i would leave too much out so i wont. haha and we had the instruction and everything. I think i told you about the car thing. where if we dont get a new investigator our cars are taken away. Now we are supposed to be teaching 20 lessons a week. to gators. less actives, members and all that junk. so that is pretty good for me, because that is where i learn and grow the most is when im teaching. We are told we are supposed to be "full-time teachers" Thats why we are doing this. We arent only supposed to find non-members, but we are supposed to be uplifting the members in our area and by doing so we will find more people. Its kinda neat i guess.
The weather here has been so awesome. its like 70 degrees, not very humid, its just perfect. i love sitting outside in my reclining chair and just whipping out a sweet tasty jam on my 6 string for the world. mm mmm its good. Im getting scared tho. The leaves are already changing color! Winter is coming up and i dont want it! I miss snowboarding so much its rediculous. plus its going to be really cold. plus im going to be shoveling a lot of snow. and by the way. i dont have my coat. on the tape you said i have it and i dont. I only have gloves. so probably next transfer i will need my winter stuff. Oh and i think i might have forgotten my retainer for my teeth? i thought i brought it but i cant find it. so if you could check on that. it should be in a blue case. i would love to have it. My face is doing pretty good. its better than before i left.....if thats possible...haha im going to send this and ill send a lot more in a minute!
You're welcome for the info. funny stroy before i start again. after ZC the Houghton Lake elders were at our place and we went to the Lees and afterwards we played a board game. right in the middle of it Elder Simpson ( new to the district, really wierd. thats ok) he went to use our bathroom. well after like 10 minutes he comes out and asks if we have a plunger.....and a towel.! haha say what?! my towel is white buddy. anyways he cleaned up his mess and comes out with water spots all over his shirt. it was so dang funny. Poor kid. i get to go up to Houghton lake on wednesday with E Richardson. he is going to teach me to cook. and i might just get another guitar if i can return the one i have. i looked inside and one of the crossbars is broken and they used really bad pieces to begin with and there is some kind of rattle noise when i hit a certain chord. so thats strange . Thats what i get for buying a cheap guitar. it still sounds good. i just want a better one. haha
We went turtle hunting! It was so much fun. E Little saw one but didnt catch him before he went into his whole. There is this hug swampy area out on Mostetler road that seemed golden for snappers, but no luck! I was getting kinda scared actually. i was out in the middle of it with the waders on and i started wondering if there were alligators in Michigan! haha i thought i was going to get eaten. so then we checked the creek that ran next to it and it seemed really really promising. there are traps for turtles and little burrows and stuff. oh and Elder little was wading through the creek in his winter boots! The sorrels that are at Mr. Mac haha dang funny. so this week we are going out to Marion, cuz E little saw two gigantic ones crosssing the road there once so we are going to check it out. We were telling Bro. Mckay about it last night at dinner, and APPARENTLY thats where the bears like to hang out, there are a lot in that swamp and by the creek there. HAH! we were turtle hunting in the bears domain! and there was a guy shooting on the other side of the swamp and we were wondering if we were going to get shot. but nope im fine! sorry to scare you mom! hah oh but guess what i did!? so i was in the creek and i was near this dam and the sun was setting and it was really beautiful so i was like " hey i should take a picture!" i whipped out my camera making sure i was really careful not to drop it. i was trying to put the strap around my wrist for "extra" protection and my hands were really dry from being in the water all day and i totally dropped my camera.........so that was like the worst thing that has happened to me so far. but luckily it still works......it has a hard time focusing and it makes a wierd noise when i turn it on but i think its good. im kinda worried about the picture quality cuz im wierd like that. sooo i was wondering, first of all...I think we have a 2 or 3 year warranty if i remember correctly. let me know. and secondly. i was wondering if you could check to see if i could send it in to get the lenses clean because water got in there. Cuz im pretty sure if i start taking anything apart the warranty will be void. so i was curious what i should do. im an idiot i know. i havent dropped my camera ever. it doesnt even have a scratch cuz i have been so careful. and then when im trying to be super duper careful i chunk it in the water. dang my blasted luck! So thats the turtle hunting story.
We got a new gator this week! shes golden. Sheila's son joined the church in Idaho and she said he finally seems happy and it filled the whole inside of him and he is happy now and before i guess he was a pretty mean guy. and thats kinda the same things she has been looking for. that "belonging feeling" she is a catholic but she doesnt like the catcholic church. so we gave the first lesson and she started crying(booyah!) and she opened up about things. and we are going to be teaching her a bunch so that is really exciting! our other one Karen that kind of had that same story dissapeared......i have called and left her messages on her voicemail, (her cellphone....) and we left notes on her door and she is just gone. we went back and the note was gone, the plants were watered. but nobody ever answers.....so we kinda think she might have been ANTI'D!!! blagh i hate anti-mormon stuff. its so rediculous. found out Traverse City is like the biggest anti mormon distributer in the states. so stupid. hopefully she turns up. cuz she was really nice. she cooked us brownies and was going to have us over for dinner and a lesson....so it seems wierd that she just dissapeared. so this week and last week we were supposed to have like 4 or 5 gators at church and we have gotten a solid 0. Page Nichols wants to come so we have been trying to pick him up cuz he doesnt have a car, but he is never there. last week he had surgery and this week, him and his wife got in an argument the night before and he left...on foot....a few days after surgery.... and hadnt shown up when we went to pick him up. bah! its frustrating. Dang people! haha. so we havent done much teaching to them since two weeks ago because something always come up. bad eggs is what it is. This has been a ginormous email so thats kinda cool. i taught my first gospel principles class on Sunday! it was boring and scary, but i made it through. haha
Last week Sister Rogers bought us 200 dollars worth of food....she does it for all the missionaries. it was aweomse. she didnt even seem to care what the price was or anything. i said thank you and she didnt even say anything. kinda wierd but it was really nice of her. so dad about your weight comments...... i could say im downright sickened by them! I will never gain 30 or 40 pounds on my mission, thats a promise. My weight is all over the place tho. there was a time in Harrison where is was at 169, firday night i was 190, this morning i was 180. so i dont know whats going on. i should be at 175 though dangit. i guess if i would stop being so lazy and go outside to excercise i would be doing better but.... running stairs in the cold doesnt seem to appealing at 630 in the morning. haha umm im running out of stories to tell you...
Im happy that the house is finally going to be finished! thats exciting! it will look really good. Glad you are getting more hours now at work and that things are busy. you wouldnt want any down-time right? haha im glad the wedding went good and everything was just peachy. im going to want pictures and stuff like that. oh and mom you asked if Michiganders have an accent. the answer is no. BUT they are just dumb. they say yous and yas and my favorite " a couple 3 weeks ago" thats a phrase used a lot here. "are yous coming over tonight?" they pronounce houghton lake, hullton lake. The city Gaylord, Gaylerd. and there are other things that make me chuckle. but im going to stop writing cuz it will probably take you three hours to read this email! so i love you guys and im happy to be on a mission. Im learning a ton. its amazing how the simple things of the gospel that we teach(prayer, faith, repentance, atonement) really arent so simple. The more i study them the more i am blown away by the eternal aspects of them each. there is so much to learn its rediculous. i had a little struggle within myself about "faith". all my life i was taught to have faith but the more i studied the more i realized how much i need to grow in that certain area. I was very lacking and it kinda tore me up inside for quite a while. and instead of trying to do better i sat and dwelt on the lack of faith that i had. and it was amazing what happened to me in those few days that this was happening. it was the hardest week on my mission. I dont want to go into details about it but i was tempted and tried, because i had planted that seed of doubt in my heart and i wouldnt let myself look past it. but finally i was sitting there and i got this thought that instead of dwelling on it get up and start having faith. hah so simple, but at the time i was too focused on my own doubt to even think that i could fix it. it was like a "duh!" moment. i thought of the scripture in Alma where we are told to excercise faith and to experiment on the words and from that moment on everything was better. and its actually kinda funny thinking back about it because my farewell talk was about not doubting and having faith. It was one of my personal battles within myself. the battle that when you win you are given and entirely different view, a fresh view on life, and the world, and Gods children that we are out here building up and preaching the teachings of Jesus Christ, bringing peace and happiness to their homes and lives. it has strengthened my testimony greatly. I am so thankful to have lived with such an amazing family. i almost started crying when i was talking about families to one of our investigators. I dont know why i was so blessed to have grown up in a home where the teachings of our savior were taught, but i was, and i want to give others that same chance and that same opportunity that i was so blessed with. I love being out here spreading peace and joy to the people here. and i hope one day i will become a great teacher that will make my Father in Heaven proud. I was reading my patriarchal blessing and after my little battle a lot of things were brought to mind about my purpose in this life and its been laid out in front of me for so long. I am so thankful for this church and the Spirit of God that has touched my life so deeply and that continues to strengthen and edify me as i continue to be a faithful servant. Its so aweomse! and this is long so im going to end this now! I love you guys so much. Talk to you next week!

Aug. 24,2009

You are working a ton! How is it? did you get your hours back? are things going good over to there or is it about the same? That is so cool that you are getting that much hay from the field, the last few years we have been getting half that! Totally sweet, and thats good that you found someone that can do your hay, that would be nice to have your own swather then you can get even more? Did you crash Jerons bike on your way up the mountain? Ill be honest i was kind of expecting something. haha no offense....just saying. Did you take pictures? are you going to record it like you did with Jeron? So the gear shifter is worse? it has always been bad and kinda hard to get in reverse. you have to push it all the way to the right and almost up a little before you go down. I cant imagine anymore slop than how it was! it always felt like it was in neutral! That sucks if you have to fix that now. Are you still going to sell it? Is it clean? i miss driving....It has been 3 months now. Im a terribly good driver compared to everyone else out here. But im the best driver there is so i guess thats nothing new right? And about the lawn. I dont think anyone waters their lawns here. it doesnt get too hot and it rains pretty often. we didnt mow it for like 3 weeks and the landlord come over and did it and all the houses near us. our grass sucks. haha. Houghton Lake was pretty neat. It super shallow but it is pretty big. I dont know if i told you guys about Houghton lake....i think i did. There are some members that live right next to that apartment that catch squirrels and drown them in the lake! haha it was dang funny. I guess The other two missionaries helped disect it and stuff. Kinda gross, they said it was purely for learning...haha the pictures were gross. How is the deck coming along? Send me pics!? of the house too! I miss the mountains....People up here are always like "ya but we have beautiful trees in the fall time.." Psh who cares! We have awesome mountains all the time! Stupid Michiganders. haha And i like your words of wisdom Study till you puke, and pray to get better. HAHA im going to right that on the wall. Dang funny! But its true! im trying to read the Book of Mormon this transfer, i started a week early tho, im almost through 2nd Nephi, Im cruisin! Haha anyways. Im out of stuff to say. Thanks for teaching me how to work! Even if i didnt do it a lot...haha It has helped me so much out here it crazy, anyways love you! keep smiling! Talk to you next time!

Aug. 17,2009

Thats the final straw for me.... ill send you my new email address. Brianne.....I never do anything stupid....everything i do is graceful and well thought out and i never slip up. ok? Tell me about Bear Lake. Were their boys? don't lie to your mission stricken brother! That's awesome that you befriended a non-member teach her! Booyah LARSEN POWER! Tha'ts pretty sweet about the guy that went on a mission and remembers what dad said! That is so cool. That just makes me think of all the people that i have talked to on the doorstep that haven't wanted to learn. maybe some of them will remember what i said and when the next opportunity for them comes they will be more open. Its pretty sweet. Well i need to write a letter to pres and set up my othe email before we go to dinner with the Cravens! love you all you are the best! The church is true! There is so much to learn in the scriptures its amazing! I'm reading the Book of Mormon in the morning and the Bible at night! I realized how much i need to learn last week when we were teaching all of our lessons, and i know the things in the scriptures come from God through his prophets and there is nothing on earth that will help us more in life than the teachings and the stories that are found in the scriptures. I LOVE to read them as much as i can, every time i pick them up i get excited, because every time i read....i learn, and i become closer to the Savior, and by being closer to Jesus Christ i gain confidence in the things that i teach people and i love it. im so excited for the experiences that will come my way and i want to be able to encounter them the the Spirit of the Lord, because without it i know i cant teach. I love you guys keep being the examples you are to those around you. We are so blessed and we need to share the things we know with Gods children so they can experience the joy that we have. I really need to go. Talk to you all next time! I'm so excited to hear from you again!!!! dang brothers getting married. haha its awesome! Love you all so much! Peace out!

Aug 3,2009

Helllooo Family. Here i am in little Harrison of course. Last week was alright. We ran out of miles so we had to walk a thousan miles everyplace(crap, thats how Ryan would say it) abd Humidity is so freaking stupid i hate it. We were doorknocking a few days ago and it was probably like 60 degrees or less but it had just rained. i was sweating like a hog! i sweat worse on that day than a 85 degree day walking in the sun. blaaggh! ok im over it.....I hope i get a wedding announcement You'll send one...*fists a shaking* thats way cool though im excited. send some Hamiltons my way please! Im getting a little bit better at this missionary thing, its getting more and more exciting everyday. Every person is a new experience. its like a new challenge everytime. Im happier too, so that helps out when i talk to people. i notice people will start smiling and listening better when im happy and excited about what im sharing. so it is becoming fun. Mornings still suck terribly! OH MAN! The worst day of my life happens every morning. and then after lunch its over. But i took a Sunday nap yesterday after dinner and i think that fixed me. so im making that a requiremement from now on. Sunday nap time. I didnt appreciate a good nap until that one, mm mm it feels good. Im still learning what to say at all the situations i come to, but Elder Little is showing me what to say and stuff. Sometimes i wish he would shut up so i could get a word in, but whatev. I dont think i have reallly been yelled at yet. but im excited for the day. You can always send treats with any package you send me, thats a silly question! That way i wouldnt have to eat all of Elder Littles! haha i eat all his candy. The big doofus. He thought he could win me in an arm wrestle!(Dad will appreciate this)I thought he could too! he's 6'6" and 230 pounds and he looks muscular, But i kicked his butt. hehe, then i told him to stop being a pansy and taught him how to do it and he won, but just barely. Im huge, haha. A lady at a garage sale gave us an Arnold Swarzeneggar encyclopedia of body building book. haha so we have been reading how to get huge. its kinda funny....i think...soooo about this "amp"... you cant just say Kory Broke the amp hah.... was it mine? does it still work? Details please! has he installed his system yet? I must know!Im not sure if i told you I gave a talk? well i did last sunday. it was on Pioneers so im really happy grandma gave me those stories, cuz they really helped out..We have dinner with the Lee's every friday night. I told him i play guitar, so he pulls out his brand new Alvarez guitar! the same one Jeron had! it was so awesome. I might have to buy a guitart off ebay, because i cant find one anywhere. We had hobo dinners and just sat around the fire. I love going over there. And we also had dinner at the Bartlets. And i found out his Brother/cousin is Bob Bartlett in Newton! The name sounded familiar so i thought id pass it on. I loved going there too. it was the most "at home" i have felt since coming here to Michigan. We joked and there was lots of sarcasm, we shot squirrels off his deck. It was a good time. I even ate some spaghetti and loved it... wierd i know. Sad news, 2 of our investigators dropped us...it was really wierd. Melissa believed everything we said, she felt the Spirit. but Don, got caught up on the Spirit World and some scriptures in the Bible. They are joining the Baptists, he even said 'i think people that dont have a chance to hear about Christ will be judged accordingly after this life......' but thats not what the Baptist believe. Its either Heaven or Hell with them, so hopefully he realizes that. We are still going to go over and see them and stuff. cuz they were really cool. We picked one up yesterday at church tho, so that was good. Her mom is a member and she wants to learn more, so thats pretty sweet. We went up to Marion the other day because we had some referrals. It was the first time we had gone there and they were having some "old fashion days" so the whole town was going crazy. there was a one man band, who i took some pictures of. he would chase people around as he played his keyboard and sang. he was goofy. They had a pretty sweet car show too! there were a lot of sweet Camaros, like 6 i think. i took pictures of them all so you could see if any of them were like yours. i couldnt remember what year you had, so i took pictures of all of them. Im going to write to Grandma Larsen today. I feel so bad for not writing her sooner, oooops. Well i ran out of things to say. Im doing better all the time here and im learning a lot! There is so much i dont know its rediculous, so im studying hard and learning all i can. Hope everyone is doing good. Tell me whats happening in good ol cache valley. I really miss that place. and i miss you guys more. But its getting easier all the time. I love you all and hope you are doing well in all your adventures. talk to you next week!the one and only,Elder larsen