Dear family Larson,
It was great to hear your letters. Thanks for writing me about snow, i definatly just had the warmest birthday so far in my 20 years of life. It was a fun birthday because i really saw real JOY in one of our investigators faces and he told us how he felt ¨something strange¨ when he prayed about the BoM after he read it TWICE!! We then read galatÃas 5-22-23 about fruits of the spirit and he told us that is what he felt, the spirit. This past week has been really great, alot of people read and recieved testimonies of the Bom, how marvelous it is that someone can talk to God and recieve a firm conviction of a book that they have just barely heard about. The Lord has been leading Elder Carrasco and i to ALOT of great ready people, our teaching pool is 32 people. and like Hna. Lavin said most of them are related one way or another, or related to someone who is a member already, it makes for great teaching with the members. E. Carrasco and i felt alot of responsibility drop on our shoulders yesterday when 18 people attended the church for sacrament (branch attendace broke 100). My responsibilty to teach by the spirit and with all my heart, might, mind and strength is really real and a wonderful oppurtunity. The best part is most of our investigators need to go get married which is pretty difficult/expensive so this week we´ll see who is ready to change and who just likes to listen to a gringo talk about Jesus. As always i´m excited to see how things play out here in Puerto. Unfortuantly no we do not baptize in the ocean here, maybe in another area, they have a little above ground font behind the meeting house were the righteous enter in the straight and narrow gate.
People are getting pumped up for carnival (its a month away) and yesterday was a big parade in the night time. E. Carrasco and i had an appointment at the top of the hill at the VERY LAST house (beats the heck out of Pres. Uchtdorf´s 4th floor last door story) so the hike was long but the view good. And the whole time we were teaching (on the porch) we could look down on puerto and see the parade and the music and noise of the town getting itself tanked up drifted up to us and it was so chaotic and worldy. But then the sun set and the stars came out and the contrast between the nosiey town and the silent stars was profound and obvious to us and to our investagator because we were looking. It made me think of how clear and calm the gospel is TO THOSE WHO ARE LOOKING. i always always feel like i´m searching and i´m always pleading to be lead to those who want to know. Those who are ready and willing listen, change, believe and recieve peace as the stars. And the others scoff and drink and get hit by cars (not really but cars rhymes with stars). Its just a great oppurtunity i have to be ¨the keeper of the stars¨if you will (ok i know that was pushing it but i couldnt help it, it sounds so cool). Thanks for your letters and your love.
Enjoy the snow and Mom your description of Maine in winter sounded like heaven.
Love,
Elder Larson
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
semana loco !
well feliz ano nuevo familia!
alls calmed down here in puerto and its another normal slow monday for the colombians here. New years was pretty neat we were in the house by 7, went to bed at the normal time, and asleep by 3 in the morning (which i was actually surprised at i was sure i´d be up all night). Here in colombia the party is just as big the 1st as is the 31st but the difference is we work like normal the 1st. Never seen so many drunk people in my life, germany world cup is a close second, but the whole town was just LOCO! contacting was impossible so we just went and taught a lot of members that day. They do that whole burn the dummy thing here like mexico so there have been piles of ashes in the street this week along with the normal street debris of garbage, donkey/dog poo, and chicken bones.
It was fun being the only house on the street that wasnt having a crazy party and dancing. It reminded me of when i was in 10th grade and alot of my friends started thinking drinking was cool and it was before i was friends with matt D and all them and so i didnt really know what to do. But at the time i was reading the ending of the BoM about Mormon and Moroni who lived really really righteous lives among a really REALLY fallen people. And i remember thinking of how Mormon probably didn´t have many friends until he got married and then they were his wife and kids, and that Moroni didnt have any except his family (oh yeah and the three nephites who stopped in for a chat every once in a while mormon 8-11). But even though they (mormon/moroni) grew up without being cool (because for the nephites then being cool was drinking blood and making terrible oaths) they were really righteous and were really secure about who they were and where they stood before God (and positive enough to write the best chapter ever about hope). plus mormon was really cool and led the whole nephite army at sixteen and i´m pretty sure moroni could hold his own pretty well against anybody. Something about the last prophet Moroni who was carrying golden prophicies and using the sword of laban to defend them, hiding from all the Lamanites because he WOULD NOT deny the Christ, all the while writing awesome talks on hope and forgivness struck me as really cool (thats when moroni became my favorite B o M prophet). So i remember deciding that i was going to be like moroni who had great parents (just like me) and do what was right and be friends with the people who really matter (my family) and if i got other friends along the way thats great too. I just kinda felt like that again with the whole town partying and a big gringo and a little peruvian walking around trying to tell people how the church of jesus christ is restored.
but alls is back to normal and there arent any more big parties until carnival (i´ve heard thats the BIG one). We´ve just been re-teaching the word of wisdom alot since alot of our investigators seemed to forget over the holiday season. Sunday was fun because president Roundy stopped by and surprised us by coming to church. But we were prepared and had 10 investigators so it was great to see him. He is a great man and loves us and the work and his attitude always brings the level of intensity up. Well it´s that time again. It was great to read about all your talents Dad keep the jabberwocky memorizied so you kind recite it for me mothers day, i miss poems like that, and i dont really feel guilty about it because president monson recites alot of poems.
thanks for your prayers and ill write you next week love elder larson
alls calmed down here in puerto and its another normal slow monday for the colombians here. New years was pretty neat we were in the house by 7, went to bed at the normal time, and asleep by 3 in the morning (which i was actually surprised at i was sure i´d be up all night). Here in colombia the party is just as big the 1st as is the 31st but the difference is we work like normal the 1st. Never seen so many drunk people in my life, germany world cup is a close second, but the whole town was just LOCO! contacting was impossible so we just went and taught a lot of members that day. They do that whole burn the dummy thing here like mexico so there have been piles of ashes in the street this week along with the normal street debris of garbage, donkey/dog poo, and chicken bones.
It was fun being the only house on the street that wasnt having a crazy party and dancing. It reminded me of when i was in 10th grade and alot of my friends started thinking drinking was cool and it was before i was friends with matt D and all them and so i didnt really know what to do. But at the time i was reading the ending of the BoM about Mormon and Moroni who lived really really righteous lives among a really REALLY fallen people. And i remember thinking of how Mormon probably didn´t have many friends until he got married and then they were his wife and kids, and that Moroni didnt have any except his family (oh yeah and the three nephites who stopped in for a chat every once in a while mormon 8-11). But even though they (mormon/moroni) grew up without being cool (because for the nephites then being cool was drinking blood and making terrible oaths) they were really righteous and were really secure about who they were and where they stood before God (and positive enough to write the best chapter ever about hope). plus mormon was really cool and led the whole nephite army at sixteen and i´m pretty sure moroni could hold his own pretty well against anybody. Something about the last prophet Moroni who was carrying golden prophicies and using the sword of laban to defend them, hiding from all the Lamanites because he WOULD NOT deny the Christ, all the while writing awesome talks on hope and forgivness struck me as really cool (thats when moroni became my favorite B o M prophet). So i remember deciding that i was going to be like moroni who had great parents (just like me) and do what was right and be friends with the people who really matter (my family) and if i got other friends along the way thats great too. I just kinda felt like that again with the whole town partying and a big gringo and a little peruvian walking around trying to tell people how the church of jesus christ is restored.
but alls is back to normal and there arent any more big parties until carnival (i´ve heard thats the BIG one). We´ve just been re-teaching the word of wisdom alot since alot of our investigators seemed to forget over the holiday season. Sunday was fun because president Roundy stopped by and surprised us by coming to church. But we were prepared and had 10 investigators so it was great to see him. He is a great man and loves us and the work and his attitude always brings the level of intensity up. Well it´s that time again. It was great to read about all your talents Dad keep the jabberwocky memorizied so you kind recite it for me mothers day, i miss poems like that, and i dont really feel guilty about it because president monson recites alot of poems.
thanks for your prayers and ill write you next week love elder larson
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