Week 4 - January 25, 2021

Hey I'm writing this on my phone so I'm not gonna be saying a whole lot, I'm in Castle Hills right now thats what my area is called. The area is north of San Antonio but our area goes a little bit into downtown. Holy crap I'm loving missionary life right now its so much fun. Ummm my trainer had covid so he was in quarantined till Saturday. I had another trainer till then and his name was Elder Peterson he is from San Diego. He is the coolest missionary ever he is super chill. He loves to climb he climbs a ton he climbs in Yosemite all the time. He was so funny tho I was laughing all the time. I'm actually in a trio so my other comp is Elder Hungerford he's super cool too. He is only a transfer ahead of me. Well imma tell you the most exciting stuff this week. The day we got our comps we went right to work we had so much lessons we had about 5 that night my first lesson was with this super old black man. I taught about baptism and shared a scripture. Well I can tell you that we are so busy and Texas is super chill so we are street contacting, giving lessons in person and zoom, and can have member lessons. Well Friday we were returning a baptism suit and Elder Hungerford cut off a car getting off the freeway and the car passes us and the guy was pointing a GUN at us and he was just driving next to us it was super scary. Well that was pretty crazy. Well we went street contacting that night and I talked to my first person super fun. The place we went though was an apartment complex and its apparently a super sketch area bc thats what everyone was telling us. So we left and we had some lessons but ya we have like 6-7 lessons a day we're super busy. On Saturday we had district meeting and I got my new trainer and he's super nice he's from Gilbert Arizona well thats really it. Umm on Sunday we went to church and I helped pass the sacrament because they have no youth. After that we had lessons and stuff but then we had dinner at bishops and it was super good. After dinner and stuff we had to help let a skunk go bc they caught one in a cage. So that was super fun thank goodness we didn't get sprayed. Well today is preparation day. Umm missionary life is so fun what the heck. I have to fix my language because there is no saying "sick" or "guy" so I'm still working  on that. I'm not even homesick so thats good but I'll probably be in a couple weeks well if you have any questions email me. 

Love yall Elder Larsen

MTC week 3 - January 14, 2021

Hey what's up everyone? I hope y'all had a good week/weekend! This week I don't have much to say. On Sunday I bore my testimony in stake conference. It wasn't that scary, I was more nervous about saying the right things. Everything turned out super well though which is good. It's crazy that just  a few months I would've been absolutely terrified but when you have faith in Christ to help you it gets better. This week was basically the same as every other week. We lost our morning teacher because the semester started at BYU and she had classes at the time she was supposed to teach us so we got a new teacher. Her name is Sister Jacobs. She is a new teacher so she is trying to figure things out, but I think that she is doing a really good job. You know what's super cool? She went to Texas San Antonio on her mission so me and Elder Jensen have heard some things about our mission which is super fun. Ummm well our afternoon class with Brother Sandstrom is good as always. He is such a good teacher and I love hearing what he has to say, he also gets us so excited he's just so awesome. I taught the priests on Tuesday night which was super fun but made me kind of sad, because when I was with them I started to think about memories I've made with them and made me miss some of my best friends. It's ok though because I KNOW that this is what i need to be doing right now. I am also starting to get sad because I leave in 6 days to San Antonio and I love my district so much and imma miss them so much what the! I'm pretty nervous to get out into the real mission field, but super excited to start teaching people and doing tons of service! Well tonight I'm going down to Logan to see my brother and his wife, then imma go to a Utah State basketball game so as I was saying last week the home MTC has some perks haahh. Well next email y'all get from me, I'll be in Texas!

You know the drill! Always got to have a spiritual thought. I don't really have anything real spiritual this week, but I'm starting to understand the atonement and repentance more the more we talk about it. I don't know how to say this but I've had experiences in my life where I needed to use the atonement and I have a big testimony on it. There was just things that I learned this week that I've never thought about or knew before. The things of the gospel are becoming more real haha, I sound like a dweeb but its so cool. Love this gospel with my whole heart love y'alll so much email or text me if you need anything!

Elder Larsen

MTC week 2 - January 7, 2021

Hey what’s up everyone? I didn’t send an email last week because there was nothing to say haha. Well my P day is on Thursday as you probably know now

Well I don’t know how I’m going to write these emails yet but I guess we will find out as we go. Last week was a pretty hard week, because I was having mad fomo and I was really missing some people. On Thursday I went over to my grandmas house and played board games and watched the Jazz game, home MTC has some perks hahha. My cousins were over at my grandmas with us playing games too which made it even more fun, I got to make some more memories with them before I’m gone gone into the actual mission field. On Friday we had our first real day in the MTC  and it was a blast! I got to meet my district for the first time cuz I accidentally missed my first day, ooops. Every single day is basically the same though, I wake up (late), then I read my scriptures for about 30 minutes, get ready for class, then I have class at 9:30 to 12:30 then I can do whatever I want till 2:30 then I have class for another 3 hours. Holy I don’t know why but I’m just so tired after all the classes I could go to bed at 7. Usually after class I play board games with my family. Our favorite game to play is Settlers of Catan, which is a super fun game I love it. So that’s what everyday basically looks like but every now and then we have a TRC or workshop. Then we change the time everyday but we do companionship study too. Holy crap I’m in a trio and I love it so much my original companion Elder Jensen is from Springville, Utah and is going to the same mission as me so we will fly to San Antonio together. My other companion Elder Humphries is from Cedar City, Utah and he is our companionship because his companion never showed up to class. However I’m loving missionary life right now so much, it’s the biggest blessing ever to be a missionary for our Savior Jesus Christ. Holy crap my district is so awesome!!! I literally have the best district in the whole world NO CAP. I love hearing what they have to say and learning by their example. 

So yesterday we had our first TRC and holy we did so good. The spirt was so strong and I really felt like we helped him feel of his Heavenly Fathers love. The MTC is so amazing it teaches you so much things, I know who would’ve guessed!? I feel so much better about teaching lessons, asking the right question, and how to share scriptures! I’ve learned sooo much in just one week but I still have a lot more to learn.  Guys I’m telling you that the Lord blesses you when you want to learn and want to become better. 

Lastly a spiritual message. I want to share with you something my afternoon teacher taught us. His name is Brother Sandstrom and we were talking about Jesus Christ, then he started to talk to us about the atonement! He said something that was so powerful, its something that I’ve never thought about before. He said that there was a time when our Savior thought about you! He lived your life for a second in the garden. Do you guys realize how insane that is, he took time to feel what your feeling. He didn’t say something like John, Jimmy,  and Tom are going to feel sad so let me feel sad real quick so I can understand that. NO! He personally thought about you and went through and felt what you would feel so he could understand. Our Savior and Heavenly Father love y’all so much its so insane. I love y’all so much too. If you ever need anything remember that you can email me and talk to me, but more importantly your Heavenly Father is there for you.

Elder Larsen