Cant beat last weeks subject...

Dear family
I´m glad you all liked the last letter. We got water as of 3 days ago and that was a happy day. This is our last week together so Elder Beltran and I are really working on getting people pumped up to go to conference. The sheep (investigators) are doing well, unfortunately we trusted that they might remember the importance of going to church this last we because we had taught it so much so we didn’t pound it as much as usual (that means we didn’t preach eternal life and happiness ABSOLUTLY DEPENDS on going to church this next Sunday like we usually do). Bad idea. But I learned patience and was reminded that they are sheep and that i´m just a barely more knowledgeable sheep the Lord has called to help then along. Thanks for the letters from the northern missionaries, its fun to read them and see how different the means are but how same the joy of the fruits are. Two funny stories. Yesterday in church it was combined RS and priesthood and the BP read D&C 4 about thrusting in your sickle (hoz in Spanish). Well the branch wasn’t really sure what that an hoz was so there started to be a debate and then it got heated and the whole branched started arguing what an hoz was. It was REY COMICO! I figured when they make the next Spanish translations to just put machete and it´ll solve everything.
Number two. We taught a great lesson yesterday considering the circumstances. We taught this man in his house a part of the restoration but stopped halfway because his neighbor came home REALLY REALLy BORRACHO (drunk). Well he saw us and stood on his porch yelling into the house all about the virgin and that’s all they he believes in and that’s all that he needs and the virgin will save him and damn us (but used bad words and bad words in Spanish are a lot more descriptive than in English). We stopped teaching after 15 mins of it and made a return appointment. Super good.
I´m excited for conference (that goes with out saying) and to teach all about prophets this week. I love feeling the spirit so strong everyday.
Thanks for all your prayers and advice,
Elder LArson

Nude in a bucket!!

Hows that for a subject? I was going to write ¨bathing in a bucket¨but then i remebered what newies taught me about catchy headlines. This past week Elder Beltran and i have practised saying nice things about the office elders because the one in charge of paying the water bill FORGOT. So the past 6 days we´ve been without water. The waterguy who turned the water off gave us time to fill up whatever tank bucket cup we had with water so we´ve been able to bath, just with 3 or 4 liters of water while standing in a bucket to save the water to flush the toilet. It´s all good, blessings blessings blessings. We´ve found 2 really great familias this past week who are going to progress with the proper amount of work (that means all my heart might mind and strength). One is a single mom with 5 kids who dont really have enough to eat, wear, or sleep in (beds and house). the miracle is that they can read (usually not the case in this neighborhood) and they dont have much to read so they devour our pamphlets and the BoM. They didnt attend church this past sunday because they felt like their clothes werent nice enough. This week we´re working to fix that. Also gave good service with a progressing family the family Tejera (mom dad 3 kids one who turned 8 two weeks ago.. YES). WE helped him put up a fence colombian style which is only with sticks (the Big BAd Wolf would have a hay day down here with the fences and lots of the houses). The fences consist of a bigger stick (usually a small trunk) every 6 feet and then a longer one nailed colombian chest high (dad´s belly button). Then they stand up small sticks and tie them to the long ones that connect the posts. All the sticks are usually different sizes and shapes so the fence looks funny but works. Digging here is crazy because the sun bakes the ground and the soil is so sandy that for every shovelful you take out 2 fall back in. The dad was really greateful for our help and they attended church for the whole 3 hours yesterday for the first time so that was a servicio exitoso! The plan for firing up the branch didnt quite work in 7 days but we werent expecting it to. BUT the elders quorum president didnt fall asleep in the missionary meeting this past sunday like usualy so that was a bonus. Everything is good and we´re working hard and looking for oppurtunites to work harder (and smarter thanks matthew).
Love your letters and your prayers,
Elder Larson

Wind casulties in Puerto

So this past week the wind here in Puerto has been super super strong. It´s good and bad (for me mostly good). Good because it keeps the side of your body that is facing the wind really cool (example when i´m walking into the wind my chest is dry but my back is hot and visa versa). Bad because it took off a couple of roofs here in town (it wouldnt do that in the US but the roofs here in colombia arent that strong), it makes the whole house creak at night, the power goes off more often than normal, and the waves got so strong that the MUELLE (dock) broke!! The whole reason Puerto Colombia pretty much exsits is because of this 100 year old muelle that brings a few tourists in but the waves broke the old thing in half! Well not exactly in half but the middle section (about 60 or 70 meters) is gone, like this ------------ (broken part) ---------------. There is a little house that fisherman use every once in a while and three fishermen got stranded out there. This happened Saturday so all day saturday and Sunday the town was in mourning. They had a mock funueral in the centro. It´s so funny to be in this small pueblo, teaching was impossible Saturday because everybody was at the beach looking at the Muelle and sunday attendance was low for the same reason.
Thanks for all your letters. Saturday nigh we did get enough people together to have a decent attendence at the baptism of Yulima and Mickol Castro the mother and youngest son of the Castro family. It was especially great because Jonathan Castro, who i was able to baptize a month or so ago, baptized his mom and hermanito. Our goal this transfer is to get the dad to set specific times so we can teach him. Thanks matthew for your letter, I´m excited to see what more i can do here, and i know i havent done everything yet. i was hoping maybe i could pull a miracle and heal the muelle but then i realized i´d have to go to the beach to do that so i´ll just contact higher up on the hill. Also matthew i´m glad your using my phone skills, it works great.
Thanks for knowing me good enough to pick up that i would have liked to see a different area but you are also correct that i´m just fine here in my puerto colombia. It´s a great area and i know i´m going to get to learn a lot more here.
thanks for all your love and faith
Elder Larson

CHANGES! Well not really, my companion changed but my area didnt. I´ve had a bit of time here in Puerto Colombia but 6 more weeks is going to be great, there are always people ready to listen here. MY new comp´s name is Elder Beltran, he is a Colombian but from the southern part. His city´s name is Neiva and it´s in the department of Huila. Read it and say it like a gringo and then ask matthew how it´s really pronounced and you´ll know how i feel like alot of the time, its exciting. Spanish is coming along just fine i try not to compare myself to the colombians because i mean really they´ve been speaking it their whole lives. i learn something new everyday and Elder Beltran is really good at correcting the little things that most latinos dont bother to so i´m getting better. I havent started dreaming in spanish yet but in all my dreams i end up contacting or teaching a lesson. Kalan i did get your letter and it just so funny i cant send a fitting response through letters, if you think PA is cold you just wait till you get to rexburg. I hope you´re all enjoying the snow, it rained a bit here today so the sun wasnt out as much which was nice. but it really is kinda ironic because the one day when we need the sun to dry our laundry, it rains and the sun isn´t there, i´m sure it´ll be sunny tomorrow. I hope this letter doesnt sound like i´m discouraged because i´m not. In a normal situaion when i would be thinking about myself i might be, but i´m not normal at the moment. everything i do i try to center on building up the Lords kingdom. and if the weather it cool the one day when it would be helpful if it was hot and sunny thats one more reason to thankful because every sacrifice and discomfort brings blessings and is an oppurtunity to show my faith for the Lord, if there is not murmuring. I´m so thankful everyday for the testimony i have of this gopsel. The evidences that the Lord has given to me personally to carry my through when normally i would falter. That the Lord has allowed me to know for myself that this is the only church true really comforts and personalizes everything. Also it makes my promises to others all that more real. i hope they see it in my eyes when i testify and know that I know that it´s true, i pray for that everynight. I´m grateful everyday that the Lord has allowed me to purify and sanctify my faith through these two years, the line from ¨come come ye saints´where it says ïts better far for us to strive, our useless cares from us to drive¨ has really meant alot more to me as i´ve seen my usless cares of my youth exchanged for cares for the salvation of others. Thanks for your prayers and i´ll write to you next week.
love,
Elder Larson

Alive!

So this past week hasent been too bad at all. My second day in lockdown went well because i got to go serve in Santa Marta for two days. Santa Marta is a city about 2 hours south of Barr. along the coast. It has REALLY big and steep mountains that are utah foothill dry right now, but have alot of cacti. REally really windy and dry. It was really great to be able to work. It was an exchange of sorts and so an Elder came to Barranquilla to be with my companion and i worked with his in Santa Marta. When i left carnival hadnt started in full swing but when i came back to Barr. it was going strong. Lots of wickedness. November is the month with the most births here in the coast for a reason (carnival). The little latino kids paint their skin black with carbon and make fake guns out of wood (the black kids just make guns) and try to hold up cars along the freeway that runs through their towns. They do this after speed bumps like unto the ones in Mexico that Dad knows so well. Pretty fun. Also Elder Carrasco and I got to go back to puerto to gather our investigators for chruch for 4 hours sunday. The bus to puerto in the morning was full of borrachos and also the same slightly less drunk in the afternoon heading back for more.
But us 8 missionaries just sit in our house and study and i really feel like that city on a hill. All night of course is music music music but our house is quite at 10-30. Living a moderate righteous life is strange anywhere but here now it´s especially strange. i could tell you alot more about carnival but it´s not needed now, after the mission is better. But we´re all safe and living and us missionaries are learing really well how to be patient with eachother, but really all in all there havent been any problems with being cooped up. They´re all good missionaires and all of us are putting in effort not to be annoyed. We´ve learned alot from eachother and its been a good week. Tommorrow is the last day and we also find out whos leaving and whos staying. Wednesday we´re FREE and we travel. Well thats that, thanks for your prayers, love, examples, and support.
Love,
Elder Larson

Beginning of Carnival

Dear family,
Hope that everything is going well as you are skiing away. Its so warm here (and it hasnt even gotten as hot as it will) it´s hard to imagne cold right now. It was fun to hear from all the cousins. The email was a bit strangled by all the exclamation points but i think i got the message. Thanks for all your excitment and encouragement its great to know i have such a great bunch of cold cheerleaders up north. Had a rather disappointing sunday ayer. We had three people who if they attended yesterday would have been able to be baptizied this next saturday but only one went to church. The other two took off to another pueblo to party before carnival (as if carnival wasnt enough of a party). When we visited them in the nightime they were really dissapointed that they were going to be baptized this Saturday and wished they would have listened to us this past week when we explained that it was really important to go to church. Oh well, and so it goes.
On a much brighter note this week has been really great because the hermanos castro are on FIRE!!! Each of them have taught with us this week and they love to share thier testimonies. They love helping us and talking about when they are going to go on a mission. This coming Sunday the two oldest brothers (John and Johnathan) are going to be called as ward missionaries and be able to help us even more. It´s so great to see how different each of their three testimonies are but each one is centered on the Book of Mormon. Johnathan (the oldest) is really smart and he new the BoM was true when he read about the Jaredites and the tower of babel! But what is better that he´s smart enough to know that his true and firm testimony is when he prayed about it and felt peace like he´d never felt before and he bears testimony of that when he teaches with us. John knew the BoM was true because after he read and prayed about it he felt happier than he ever had before. And he testifies of how that happiness hasnt left him since he was baptized and confirmed and for me is so clear to see the change in him before he had the gospel and now as he has recieved the Holy Ghost and is living it. Manuel loves the fact that he has the Holy Ghost with him. He has asked me so many questions about how he can use and recognize it in his life. I wish i had more experience so that i could help him more! He said that as he read the BoM and prayed just knew it was true and th:at God wanted him to follow Him and recieve blessings in His church. What a marvelous work and a wonder is the BoM and such an oppurtunity for the true seeker of God. John is going to exercise his newly ordained priesthood authority and baptize his friend this coming Saturday (the investigator that came to church). It´s so great to feel such joy with my friends here in Puerto. I feel happy because they are making saving covenants with their father. I feel happy because it strentghens my testimony of the truth of the BoM and the fact that God will guide all of us if we will but ask. And i feel happy because as Alma 29:10 teaches as others are penitent it reminds us how merciful God is to them and also to us.
This coming week is going to be a bit less action than normal because starting Wednesday Carnival starts for real so we get locked up in our houses for REAL. All the missionaries in Barranquilla are going to be locked up in different houses from Wednesday to Wednesday. We cant leave for anything and the member will bring food to our house. It´s going to be like the extra time i had at the MTC, study study study. Today and tommorrow we are going to teach the Word of Wisdom and chastity like crazy to our investigators because they are going to need it. But i heard that in Rio in Brazil the missionaries are locked up for 3 weeks so there always something to be thankful for. Unfortunatly because we cant leave for anything P-day and writing to family is overruled so don´t expect a letter next monday, kinda a bummer but saftey first.
Hope everything is going well and that you all ski safe and eat some extra snow for me. Mama get well soon!!
Love
Elder Larson