Together Again!

This is a picture of some of my CTM district. (Larsen, Brewer, Pierce, Hahne, Benson) On transfer day the whole mission gathered and we were able to eat lunch together. This was a GREAT day!

New Companions, New Digs

"Living with Elders (l to r) Santos, Segura, Larsen, I'm learning patience. I thought that I had patience before, but I'm learning more and more here that I didn't. I really like all of them. I think Elder Santos is still growing on me. He jokes and stuff, but is really hardnosed, too. But he is a good missionary. I don't know why he isn't smiling in this picture, but that kinda, only kinda reflects his personality. Elder Segura is always nice and fun, but he knows what is important. Elder Larsen is really focused , but he is the most rowdy, too. I should tell you that Elder Larsen really devours the Cliff bars, even though they give him gas, haha! Our house has cockroaches, but I haven't seen any of them yet. Everyone else has except for me... weird, huh!

Ok, please pray hard for my faith and that the hearts of the people here will be opened and they will accept our invitations to be baptised. The president has established a new rule, that every Saturday night the baptismal font will be filled and the ward will know that there will be a baptism. He wants our focus to be on weekly baptisms. It scares me a little. I don't know if I have the faith and energy, but I will go and do! We have a baptism pretty much wrapped up for this Saturday. Its a boy of 11 years who has been coming to church with a member family for the past two months straight. Our other families...one hasn't been able to come to church because he keeps getting called to work, but he is awesome! He knows that this is true and wants to be baptized, he just needs to come to church and get married to her! Good heck, nobody is married here!!! She is the problem...she is afraid to get married. If these things happened I am certain we can baptise them and their six children. Another family has been having health problems lately and they haven't been to church because he has been in the hospital and she has been attending to him. She and her daughter could be baptized this week. They have already been to church and have a lot of faith, but the others of the family still need to come to church. We are working hard with them. Still another family, she wants to be baptized, but just needs to get married. And, another that we will start teaching tonight is pure gold. They should be ready. They've lost three children and the plan of salvation is just for them. Pray that they will accept! We simply need these people to progress and we need to meet more people that are prepared. These are our needs!

That's awesome about Steve! SOUTH AFRICA! That really stinks about Cory's dental ordeal! That might mean that he will serve stateside, but I have prayed that he would come here, because by the time he gets here I could be his trainer. Tell everyone, I will write. The postal strike here was a pain.

Oh! I have news about the Mother's Day phone call WAHOOO! You'll have to call a member's home here. I'll give you the number and that Sunday we'll do a test call. Elder Larsen will pick up your test call and I'll pick up his parents' test call. You'll get to call the bishop's house here. His wife is really excited, because she really wants to thank you for the hymnbook. I am so excited! It's less than one month away!

I got two packages today...obrigado! We are going to a churrascoria today! YAY! (note: a churrascoria is a restaurant like Rodizio Grill).

So that's it for me! Thanks for everything and pray that I'll have faith and energy. Eu te amo! Ate mais! "

Elder Larsen #1

Elders Larsen #1 and #2

"Elder Larsen (the new E. Larsen) is awesome, although right now I feel like the boring quiet elder here. (There are four elders with E. Segura & E. Santos). But I guess that's just my personality. I'll grow into it. I'm getting much better at Portuguese too, which is kind of surprising as now I have an American comp. But he is amazing at the language. I don't know how he's done it. I like the fact that we can speak in English and Portuguese whenever we want.

Elder Larsen played hockey and soccer back home. He is from Vernal. He has a shih tzu named Sophie whom he misses more than anything. He has a little brother named Christian. He plays the piano, paints, and draws very well. His scriptures are green just like mine. He has a girlfriend at home. The ward can hardly believe that they have two Elder Larsens. Everyone asks if we are brothers and everyone calls us #1 and #2. What was interesting and really special to me was that so many people in the ward told me that they were happy that I was able to stay. One lady even said that she was praying, 'Let Elder Larsen stay'. I felt so loved. I've found that there are all kinds of missionaries in the mission. Some relate to some members of the ward while others relate to someone else. Elder Miranda was very intense and driven. I'm more mellow and approachable. He helped me and I love him and my mission is so much better because of him.

Our president is really urging us to baptize. We have excellent investigators that will be baptized as soon as some of them get ready. There is a family of a grandma, her daughter, her daughter's husband, and their daughter that are all golden. Then there is another big family. I know we can baptize them.

All in all everything is great. I'll take some pictures of us and our house this week so I can send you some."

Com Amor
Elder Larsen #1

........All Over Again!!!

-------------------------------------Larsen & Larsen-------------------------------------------

Deja Vu.........

"Well, I was not transferred, but Elder Miranda was....and take a guess at who my new companion is!!!....Elder Larsen!!!! No, I'm not alone, remember that other Elder Larsen I knew in the CTM. Well, he is my new companion now. I still laugh at it! It's really funny. Our ward won't know what to do. Elder Larsen and Elder Larsen (yes, his name is spelled with an e also). It's so cool! We also moved in with our zone leaders. Our house is really close to them, but if we live there we will cut our travel time by about 30 min. So we have hot water now! But, aside from that, he doesn't know my area and he has been out for only one more transfer than I, so I really feel like we're two juniors that lost their seniors. I'm learning so much because before Elder Miranda basically did everything, and now I'm thrown into greater responsibility. My comp is technically senior, but there is so little difference between the two of us that it doesn't even matter. We had a mission conference to do the transfers. This has never happened before, the entire mission has never met together at once before. It was really, really good. The best was walking into the chapel and seeing the members of my old CTM district. When they saw me they were super happy and we hugged and laughed and everything. We all ate lunch together as a district when lunch time came. It was just like old times (well, only five months ago). Elder Benson told me that he and Elder Brewer were in the same zone and when they got the news that the entire mission would meet, Elder Brewer was like, "Dude, we're going to get to see Elder Larsen!!!" That made me feel really good!

As for general conference, it was amazing! We had to go to the stake center to watch it, but that wasn't hard, because we live in that area. All the American elders watched it in English in the relief society room while everybody else was in the chapel. I got to watch every session and had to wake up a 4 am to watch the retransmission of the priesthood session in English. That was so awesome to see President Monson wiggle his ears.

I have pictures to send, but all my stuff is at my old house and we slept in our new house last night, so I'll have to send them next week. You have no idea how much I want a scone now that you told me you made them. OOOOHHH!

I love you and I am so grateful for you. Please pray that we will have the spirit to guide us and strengthen us and that we will be able to speak a lot of Portuguese. The church is true. Jesus Christ lives and loves us. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. Ate mais!"
Elder Christian Larsen

President Kimball Street Sign

"I thought you might enjoy seeing this street sign. Do we have any streets in SLC named after church presidents? There's one here for Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and James Faust, too. Pretty neat, huh!

No, we don't have hot water yet. They don't have water heaters here. They have some thing that goes on the shower to heat the water, and that is what is broken...and everything is a do it yourself type thing down here. We aren't being shocked though, so I guess that the managers of our apartment complex fixed that.

I didn't get your package yet. I checked the mission office just a few hours ago. I think it's because we have a postal service strike here. Please put that on the blog to let others know why they might not have gotten letters from me lately.

We do get to watch general conference, except for maybe the priesthood session, because that goes from 8-10 pm here, and we're supposed to be in our houses by 9 pm. I hope the president will make an exception for this.

We have an older lady, her daughter and granddaughters that we hope to baptise this Sunday. They came to church for a while, but weren't too excited about it. Then she kept having problem after problem in her life. Her son, who is a member, gave her a copy of the March Liahona about the Savior. She read it and immediately gained a strong testimony and now wants her son to baptise her. We have three other families that we are working with, but each has a problem to overcome at this point.

To Tiffany and everybody at Dr. Nelson's office: I'm so glad to hear from you. I'm really surprised to hear that I was one of your favorite patients. That makes me feel really good, thank you. I'm grateful for your support and prayers, and hope to hear from you once in a while. I don't have a retainer to worry about. Yahoo!!! My companion went to a dentist here who studied in Utah and worked for a Dr. Wilkinson. His office was in the old 5 points mall. Crazy! Small world! Ate mais!

The mission is good, I keep going. I can't wait for general conference. I expect to be transfered, and I miss you guys. The church is true and I know that our Savior lives and loves us. Ate mais!" Elder Christian Larsen