Another quicky - Week 26 - June 28, 2021

The weeks just keep going faster and faster. 

I'm writing this email at 6:40 in the morning right now (I like to get the email over with haha) and my brain isn't functioning. I'm trying to think what happened this week. 

We had exchanges this week again. Elder Keifer came to our area, he is a really cool missionary. He's from Dallas, Texas but he lived out in the country on a ranch. He's got a Texas accent and he wants to ride bulls when he gets back so thats pretty dangerous. 

This week we visited Mr Calvert one of the people I was really excited about. We go over to his house and we are standing on his front porch, he comes to the door and says who's that. I say the missionaries and ask how he's been. He said good and then said one second and he went to go grab something. He comes back with the Book of Mormon that we gave him and he said here you go and then slammed the door. So I have no idea whats up with that but it made me real sad. 

Yesterday in church the missionaries in the ward (Elder Pollock, me, Sister Obray, Sister Blackman) sang a musical number. We sang called to serve because a girl in the ward was giving her farewell talk. 

Gil was at church yesterday and we introduced him to a lot of members so he can have more friends. Super happy he came to church but we don't know what to do with him because he's read the Book of Mormon a couple of times and the Doctrine and Covenants. He knows that the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith is a prophet. The only thing that's hard is he also thinks Martin Luther (the man that nailed the paper into the catholic church saying how its wrong basically) is a prophet of God too. He doesn't believe in the great apostasy either. If anyone has any ideas of what we could share with him to help him understand more, please let me know! 

I think that's it for this week. See ya. 

Elder Larsen

85⁰ in the apartment - Week 25 - June 21, 2021

This week went by super fast!!

We did a good amount of service this week. On Saturday we went to a members neighbors house in the boonies and helped her cut down trees and mow her lawn. Its crazy they were mowing her lawn with a huge tractor because it's not like normal lawns. They are super weedy with huge bushes. So we helped cut some trees and move the trees. We were moving huge trunks and logs. That's probably the hardest and most demanding labor I've done. It was also like 95 outside. After we went and burned all of the wood in a big fire pit. It was super fun. 

We've been doing a lot of street contacting here. I did not like it at all when I first came but now I kind of like it. Even though a couple days ago someone was being a jerk to us. 

We went down to Stockdale to visit some people. Its a town that is 1000 people so its very very small. We got some food at a pizza place down there. They had amazing food. 

We had zone conference this week. It was basically about how to gain trust with the members and just how to work with members. I learned a lot, and I've already starting applying a lot of the things I've learned. 

Our friends are doing pretty well. We've got in contact with someone that we haven't been able to get ahold of in weeks. We also found someone that seems pretty promising. We introduced the Book of Mormon to him and invited him to read it. The time before that we gave him a restoration pamphlet and invited him to read that and he did. So he keeps commitments so that's something that's new here. No one ever keeps commitments. 

I've hit 5 months in Texas but I'm at 6 months including MTC so that's pretty crazy. Sorry I probably won't be posting on Facebook about that because it doesn't really help others come closer to Jesus Christ hahah. 

Oh also this week our A/C went out so for two days our apartment was at 86 degrees. At night I was so hot. Brother McLane told us we could come to his ranch or to his lake house but our mission president probably would've said no. 

Hope yall are doing well. I'd love to hear from you all! Have a great week.

Elder Larsen 

Service and more service - Week 24 - June 14, 2021

Hmm I'm trying to think what happened this week. 

Nothing crazy happened this week. We did a lot of service in the heat. I was dying. The heat is almost unbearable. Its like 95 and being super humid, we try to stay inside unless we have a lesson. We then go outside and street contact at like 7 because then its a little less hot. 

We did two exchanges this week. Back to back. The zone leader came here to Seguin and we had a good time. The next day Elder Neddo came here and that day we were supposed to have 7 lessons but all of them fell through. Everyone is super flakey. 

A kid from our ward got baptized this week and the parents asked us to give a talk on the Holy Ghost. There were so many people at the baptism it was insane. We did an object lesson and a lot of the parents loved it because their kids were actually paying attention. So that was sweet. 

Thats really it. I love love love the Elders I live with they are super cool, I'm literally laughing 24/7 Elder Huish is really funny. 

Oh and we saw a Lamborghini at the golf course here. Like what are the chances we see a Lamborghini in Seguin. 

Thats it for this week, see ya

Elder Larsen

Obedience beings blessings - Week 23 - June 7, 2021

Hey yall!

This week has been better than last week! 

We have had a member dinner every single night so that is a huge plus. We have made some good connections with members and have gotten to know them more.  

We had 9 lessons this week, only 5 of them were with non members but that is a big plus. We have had a couple lessons with people that have just been flaking on us the past few weeks. They have been telling why they havent been meeting with us, and we just tell them satan is trying to bring things up so they can't. We got in contact with a couple people that we haven't been in contact for weeks. We had a huge lesson with Charles and he's deciding to make some big decisions in his life and that's awesome. This week was a week of miracles. It took lots of praying and really asking Heavenly Father for help of how he wants us to do his work. We prayed a lot to know how he wanted us to do things, instead of us doing what we want. Super happy that things are starting to look better. 

We had zone conference this week. We did another big zone conference with half the mission and we had some great training. I got to see Elder Wallin. He is leaving to Honduras here coming up soon. That makes me super sad, he's been one of the biggest examples to me on my mission so far. 

Really some lessons I've learned this week is hard work pays off. Obedience to mission rules brings blessings. Elder Pollock and I just grinded this week, we worked harder than I've ever worked on my mission. We would just be out street contacting, making videos and street contacting while doing it, making tons of calls. Really have just been doing a lot of things that preach my gospel says. We talk to everyone. We have found 2 new people this week. And a few others that hopefully will progress.

On Sunday we cast out demons in someone's home. That was freaky. When we were blessing the home we were hearing some crazy noises. However all that does not matter at all. The power of the priesthood trumps all evil. The power of the priesthood blesses our lives so much, it can help us, motivate us, and helps others. 

Hope y'all had a great week. Love yall!