Kid sauced me up in b-ball🏀- Week 48 - November 29, 2021

Thanksgiving week!

On Tuesday we did exchanges. I was with Elder Demmerly. It was fun, we had service and we rode in the back of a moving truck🤫. We then biked around a little bit and had a good lesson. 

On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving so we had two dinner appointments. The first one was with the Hadden's and then the second was with the Freelove's. The Freelove's are a super awesome and the dad is a killer cook, so it was amazing. Other than that it was pretty lonely. I weighed like an extra 5 pounds that night, haha. 

Nothing crazy has happened besides I was playing b-ball with some kids the other day and almost dunked on one of them. It was this 12 year old African American kid that thought he was all that and a bag of chips. Not gunna lie this 8 year old kid sauced me up and scored on me (I'll attach a video of the kid below). 

Lately, I've been pondering the grace of Jesus Christ and His devine help in our lives. That's all I wanted to say about that haha. 

This week wasn't the best for missionary work. We only found like 2 people to teach and only 4 came to church. We only had like 5 lessons, because a ton of them didn't end up happening. It's whatever though. 

Elder Larsen

Zone Conference - Week 47 - November 22, 2021

Hello everyone,

On Tuesday we had zone conference and it was all about working with members. We have been implementing the things that we've been learning, and I feel like we are gaining super trust with the members. Also in zone conference President Tveten gave Elder Hogan and I a shoutout for getting 16 people at church! 

We had a lesson with Vacianna family. The dad is from Jamaica and was converted when he was 11, it was a pretty cool conversion story. He has a wife, 6 kids, then a sister, and her 2 kids that all aren't members. He wants his kids to learn and then get baptized. Things are going super well with them. 

Friday we had a movie night with a bunch of our friends. We watched the Restoration movie. We had a pretty good turn out and all of them loved it. 

This holiday season is making being on a mission hard. That's for sure. It's good growing experience though. 

That's it!

What's happening... - Week 46 - November 15, 2021

I apologize that this email will be a long one. This week, especially the last 2 days were crazy. 

So not much happened during the beginning of the week. The Elders told us about all their people, because they all got passed off to us. We then had transfers on Thursday, we took the Elders, then just left right away. We did some service for a member when we got back. 

It's been just Elder Hogan and I in the apartment and it's so nice. However it is a lot different than a 4 person apartment. 

So Saturday we had a packed day! We didn't have time for lunch, we started off with service which was a 30 minute drive both ways. Then we came back daily planned, changed, then made a sandwich and started personal study, then companionship study, then back to back to back lessons, then had dinner with a member 30 minutes away then 30 back, then another lesson and then we had a ton of contacts to do. 

Even though it was so crazy; it was worth it. We had 16 people at church yesterday!!! It was so stressful. Luckily the ward is awesome! They talked and sat by these people. The people who came LOVED church so much. One even started tearing up from hearing the testimonies. Also one of our friend gave us a shout out in Elders Quorum. We are gaining so much trust with the ward; it's great. I feel like I'm best friends with all the members. It's so awesome to see this ward starting to get excited with missionary work, especially when I first got here the ward was straight up dying. There are probably a consistent 90 people at church now. Where when I got here it was like 60. 

Last night, at 2am I wake up to hearing someone doing donuts just out side our window. I was just listening for about 30 second then I hear a BOOM. In my head I said,"Oh shoot he crashed." I jumped up quickly and just ran to the window and I didn't see anything. Then I went out to the porch and there was a crashed car into 2 other cars. The cops came and I saw the person running away. So I told the cops. Then a man came out of his apartment right below us and said that it was him and a girl messing around. They were chasing each other in the parking lot. When she hit his car then crashed into 2 other cars. Holy dumb, I mean what were these people thinking. I lost like 45 minutes of sleep from this haha. 

That's it for this week! Love y'all have a great week. 

People bashing/transfers🥶 - Week 45 - November 8, 2021

 Howdy everyone, 

This week was a interesting one. Yesterday(Sunday), was so awesome. We had stake conference and Weatherford T. Clayton from the seventy came to speak to us. He had some great thoughts. That was something I really have been needing. We also got to sing in the choir. 

Also yesterday I saw some "missionaries" from another church while we were driving. I told Elder Hogan to stop and park. We got out and pretended like we were going street contacting. Oh boy this man ran right up to us and I mean ran; he was sprinting. He just started bashing with us--he was just tripping to the max though. Him and his companion said that you don't need ANY works to get to heaven. I asked him if he believes in the Bible and of course, he said yes, so I said do you believe in the commandments, and he said yes. I then said well keeping the commandments is a work. I also pointed out how Jesus says you need to be baptized to enter heaven, and that is also a work. He just started speaking loudly and fast to try and mix us up. He then said you don't have to keep the commandments to go to heaven. Man is straight tripping. 

Then his friend was dissing on the Book of Mormon, and asked us if we believe in the King James version of the Bible. I said yes. He starts flipping to Revelations where it says no words can be added or taken away. Before he even got there I said to him,  "I know exactly where you're turning man." Then he closed the Bible and just kept bashing. Holy, it's crazy how important the Book of Mormon is to help clarify the doctrine of Christ.

My testimony wasn't shaken at all, the Holy Ghost has testified to me that these things are true. I can't deny the feelings of the Holy Ghost. The Book of Mormon is true; no doubt in my mind. 

Other cool things that happened:

-We put two people on date

-It's been cold this past week

-We got to sleep in yesterday

Some of my goals(keep me accountable):

-Finish Book of Mormon before Christmas 

-Finish Old Testament before end of my mission 

-Repent daily

-More meaningful prayers 

-Understand the nature of God, and implement attributes he has 

-Recognizing and acting on promptings from the Holy Ghost 

That's it for this week! Love y'all!

Elder Larsen 

P.S. we got transfers and Elder Hogan and I are staying together. The other Elders got doubled out and now there is only one set of Elders in this area. 

13 people at church‼️ - Week 44 - November 1, 2021

Welp. 

This week was pretty good. Yesterday at church we had 13 people!! It was so insane. We had Joe and her kids there, Alejandro (we got a referral this week from him), a part member/less active family, and we had some members bring some friends. It was crazy. In young mens/young women's there was more non members than actual members. 

We have been grinding in this area, we are working really hard. I'm trying to get to Deerfield (assistants area).....just kidding. I hope I never have to do that. I'm chilling with junior companion. 

On Wednesday, I just sat in the apartment the whole night watching "Saints Unscripted." One of the Elders was sick, so I stayed with him and let the other Elder get out and do stuff. I was thinking how terrible it must be to be home; I felt so unproductive. 

Nothing too crazy is happening though, we are starting to work with part member families/less actives. It's a blast, I hope I can stay in this area for another 6 months. 

Oh ya and I hit 10 months the other day. Crazy, times goes too slow...this past transfer has gone by soo fast though. 

Love y'all!

Elder Larsen