PICTURES (June 15, 2009)

Dear family,

not too much new so im going to send pictures because they are worth a thousand words!! Its starting to rain more often here which is fun. The streets flood nice and deep so sometimes we have to wait around for them to drain because a lot of funny stuff starts to float when the streets flood (for example its got a Darwin affect on all the old cats, they don’t survive). But the temp drops quite a bit which is super. This week is Zone conference so that should be fun, we get to sit in the air conditioned church for along time and listen to revelation. Also the word on the street is that the mission has got the new conference additions to the Liahona so we´re all getting pumped up for that NEW SCRIPTURE!!!! I sent the pictures of the baptisms of the family Alvarez first the Dad and his daughter the next week. Also the picture of Anwar notice the halo around the head and the placement of him and the picture behind, sweet huh!?

Here we have us eating in the apartment and i´m making important phone calls on my special district leader phone, they sell them for real cheap here. Also here is elder JALIRI from tacna Peru he is hilarious and always looks like he´s half asleep, he also has a funny stutter every time he starts to get excited and or testify. Also when I wrote you that tiny letter its because I went to that leader conference thing and I saw Elder Wilson from my generation, we were in the same district in the MTC. He is going to teach me how to rock climb when we finish saving Colombian souls, he his from Highland and graduated from Lone peak. Umm not to much else im reading my scrips everyday and pray a lot.

Thanks for your prayers and support,
Elder Larson

Cosas para leer (June 8, 2009)

Bunas familia,
A super weekend with two more baptisms! We were blessed to baptize the daughter of the man we baptized last week (maria luisa) and a single man who teachs at the Collage here (Anwar Pertuz). The wife of Leonardo (and the mom of maria) was baptized when she was 14 but went inactive when she was 16 (thats why when maria kept coming to church by herself we taught her DAD too not just a 14 year old girl like some missionaries like to do). So now the whole family who can be baptized is baptized and there is a new family in the ward, they were even EARLY to Maria Luisa´s confirmation Sunday!! Anwar was a kick to see baptized because first of all he gave us a HUGE scare and wasnt in his house all Saturday and his phone was off. WE passed by every hour and called his phone every 30 mins to see what he was up to but we just couldnt get a hold of him, we even got yelled at by his neighbors because we jumped his fence to knock on the door because he left a Light on so we thought he might have gotten home. Finally 6 :30 came around so we had to g oto the church knowing we did all that we could do and just had to trust in the Lord (we even found a abandoned house and prayed really hard). Well we got to the church hoping and hoping (that night was Colombia verses Argentia soccer game and thats BIG temptation for Anwar) and as we walk in guess who was chatting away with the Bishop ANWAR. I almost karate chopped him, he told us he´d been waiting for 15 mins and had actually been at the church at 6:45 in the morning because he thought the baptism was at 7 in the morning. And he couldnt understand why we were extra sweaty and smelly (it was due to the extra running and praying in dirty abandoned houses). But everything went well he got baptized and i dunked him extra deep for making us so worried and also because before i baptized him he kept trying to make the sign of the cross until i told him that definatly wasnt needed to cleanse him of his sins.
Also getting Maria Luisa to be excited about her bapitism was a challenge this past week. She has alot of friends who arent too cool with mormons so she was having a hard time at school. But as we were teaching here i was prompted to use alma 36.3 and it was completely PERFECT. I had her put her name in for helaman (and change son for daughter of course) and she loved it and was so happy so fast. With this family i´ve really seen how the Spirit just makes people happy, they are just happier now and i´ve seen in lessons with them how they change during the lesson. This kind of experience has happened with the BoM before and its clearly a fulfillment of D&C 84:85. Its just been great to see some EXITO here because as you might remember when i first got here there were 4 investigadors and they all fell through in 2 weeks. As Sister Laruen Bang put it we do alot but the spirit does so much more, hearing their testimonies after the baptism i was so surprised at the depth of their testimonies, it was clear that even though i´m the senior comp here in my area i´m most certainly JUNIOR to the one whos really teaching my investigadors through me.
Prom looked like fun i´m glad Kalan actually won something worth winning after all the hours mom has put into that activity. I´m still debating if i want you to send me pictures of you all hiking in Yosemite i´m afraid it might be too much (just kidding send me them). Enjoy the summer and breaks.
love you all and thanks for the prayers,
Elder Larson


p.s i always have a long shirt on because i always take pictures on P-days and thats the day i use my long sleeve shirt because its the only one clean by then, dont send shirts i can by ones here for way cheaper
p.p..s the rain has come and its a bit cooler which is nice, just mud happens and the sewers dont handle it well , but i like cooler.

Baby pictures (June 1, 2009)

Well here is the bouncing baby boy (six foot four... tall). Sometimes i think he looks alot like Jacob Garlick which is way sweet becuase Jacob Garlick is my favorite blueberry eating boy. Let Elder Bangerter know im expecting an annoucement pretty soon from Germany.
till next week.

So I guess everywhere ELSE in the world has perfect weather (June 1, 2009)

So that was encouraging Elder Bangerter, Mom, and Dad with all your beautiful weather stories. Here in Santa Marta we are going on a long time hot streak, usually the rain is supposed to come about 3 weeks ago because the breeze stopped. Its around 37 39 degrees so that means like 97 or something neat, but i gage tempurates by my pañuelo (handkerchief). If i pull it out of my pocket and its pretty dry it´s not very hot, if i pull it out and its already sweat damp its normal, if i pull it out and its wet its hot (its been pañuelos mojados for 2 weeks)! But with sacrificio comes blessings thats for sure. We had one this past saturday his name his Leonardo Alvarez, his wife was really inactive (22 years) but we walked up a hill and talked to them and she told us to come back. this is also the family that i mentioned a while back about how we contacted the dad, and then the neighbor, and then the neighbors friend, and then the person who wanted to hear us. This saturday his daughter is planning on getting baptized as well as another man named Anwar which is great, 2 future priesthood in 2 weeks. Also the branch presidency changed so thats GREAT, the old worn out guy went to the district counsel (you might have thought gringo high council was dry but i feel like latino style is much moreso) and his young missionary accompaing grandosn is the new branch pres. So all and all things are looking up here in Santa Marta. Its really nice to think about the blessings i´ve recieved here in this area, when i got here they had 4 invest who didnt really like the church and now we´re baptizing again. I´m just greatful that the Lord sent me to a mission where if you work hard you baptize, the people are there you just have to find them. Thats what we´re working on this week, finding.
Being a District leader is fun (not sure if thats the word for it). My deber (as matthew with happily tell you from his mish memories) is really get to know and look out for the 5 other Elders in my district (my son included). This will present a challege as i´m not the most observant of others feelings as Kalan well knows so i´ve been studying the gift of discerment a bit. Pretty soon i´m expecting to be able to see into my comps mind during study but i´ll let you know how that goes (that was mostly for lars and layne i dont really think that....pero será chevere). One bonus is when i do intercambios (which is alot because there always people who need to talk about thier souls with me so they can be baptized) i get to take a taxi and if i´m lucky it´s air conditioned and i get to persuade the taxi driver to use his agency in the right way for 15 mins. Funny thing about taxi drivers here in Santa Marta is that most of them are from the interior of Colombia but have been here in the coast for along time (or recently)because they are running away from people who had intentions of breaking the 6th commandment with them. I got the whole story from one guy from Cali (the mision where they dont send gringos) and after i did i wish i didnt. But it makes for good taxi rides.
Everything is going good with my son he knows alot of spanish for where he is and he works hard. He´s from Malad Idaho so im sure we´re realted somehow.
Everything is going good and looking up like it always does when you´re working for the Lord.
Love
Elder Larson

Im going to be a DADDY (May 19, 2009)

well i guess you figured it from the subject that im going to be training this next transfer (its transfers thats why im writing at such a weird time and a day late, sorry). I´ll be getting my first son tomorrow fresh from the PROVO MTC. A gringo... i know... its another fun additive to my mission life. I named him Elder after his dad and grandpa, and his middle name is Ward becuase we are going to make our branch a ward together (his name is Elder Ward if you didnt catch that, im sure you did). Its going to be great, i´m counting on his nuevito (greenie in spanish) energy to give me a big boost after this past 6 week with a less than energetic comp. (by the way he is getting sent to the hottest part of the mission at the hottest part of the year..... so great... but i still feel charitable sorry for him...) It should be another excting 6 weeks with a son here. I was a little sad i didnt get a latino but thats ok. Umm we are going to be doing alot of activities here to raise Money to get two familys married. One is a part memeber family where we contacted into the Dads dad and then into his really inactive (22 years) wife and now him and his daughter are getting ready to be baptized. I got my hair cut at the sweetest barbershop today. Three old guys who are brothers and have been cutting hair for 30 years in some little shop in the center. The guy told me all about the history of Santa Marta which was way sweet. Told me some scary stories about la violencia 15 years ago and things like that. Of course when i mentioned i was a missionary he was catholic to the bone but thats ok, i really just felt a love for him and the culture here that wasnt mine. and i really wanted him to listen to me. I´ll go back in 4 weeks and maybe somthing has changad. We took Pictures by the misión killer (as we call the ocean here) with some of the Elderes in the district i´m looking alter. Tell grandpa Happy 80th and that i got his letter from march this week. I love his letters they´re so great and just what i need to hear.
Thanks for your prayers
Elder Larson

Chugging Along (April 27, 2009)

totally found an iguana in our yard, name is steve. We were going to keep him but its against rules. he was a great iguana. Kalan took prom pictures and i took pictures with her prom dates cousin (just kidding)

THIS WEEK. Pretty normal we were able to have 8 people in the church this week but most importantly the 2 that are getting ready for baptisms Saturday. Their names are Jorge and Orlando Gonzales and they are huge hippies. Elder Shumway and the Elder who was here before me didnt have any problem teaching the Word of wisdom because they are veggie heads and have a huge theory on how marijuana and coca plants suck up all the bad “energy” of the World so they cant use them. Fine with me as long as they dont smoke it. When they walk into the chapel they give us a little korean bow which is great. And because they learned that Amen means “asi sea” as it is or something like that, they say that instead of amen. But it good to see alot of the work pay off for elder sunshine and he´ll feel happy. We have good days and better days (never are bad ones on the misión). For as much as a guy he likes to be he keeps his feelings like a girl. He wont say anything until he´s really mad and then refuse to do stuff, and then later sees if we talk about it we dont have to have big problems. He did grow up with 4 girls so i guess it´s normal for him but just here are the things we´re working on. Him: having enthusiam and willing to sacrifice for the Lord, Me: flushing the toilet everytime, someone grew up with 4 girls and someone esle 3 boys and one SUPER AWESOME girl. But i´m in no means the perfect señor comp so i do really give myself other things more importnat to work on. Every Sunday i study and attribute of christ and make plans to improve it during the week which i really think is helping me. This week is faith and so by thing Saturday i´m asking the President for permision to g oto the beach and walk around on the water to see if i improved in that aspect or not. Well a little shorter this week but i still love you. I had a great quote that i made this week during a lesson here it is in spanish “Nuestras pruebas en esta vida pueden ser piedras de tropiezas o escaleras para acercarnos a Dios” in English “our trials in this life can be stumbling blocks, or stairs to take us closer to God” i´m pretty proud of i tina humble sort of way.
The area is improving and so am i
Love Elder larson

Things are looking up ( April 20, 2009)

THANKS Lars and Layne for praying for us, its only been a week but its a bit better than last week. Last week the Lord blessed me with a clear sense of determinaton and a feeling that i we succeed, i just had to be patient. Weve been able to find some good familias here in the Bastidas Uno area. Its kind funny how we got to find them, we contacted the father who is 68 and taught him, then when we came back his grandson was there who listened to us and liked it so we set up an appointment to teach his family. Did that and while we did his friend was over who liked the message and so we taught his family and BAM! we have 3 familias who are investigating and all know eachother and want to go to church together. This happens pretty often here Latino land because they have got so many different people always hanging out in the same house who are realted some how. And i just struck me that we do all this is Spanish crazy huh, two gringos together is alot different. We get hissed at alot more (thats what girls do here when they like boys) which is extremely ironic because we call them snakes,because they are. The was a den of snakes at a corner that we have to walk past everyday and we were getting sick of listening to them (i was anyway because Elder Shumway cant understand them which i envied) so we gave them Law of Chastity folletos and the next day they stopped, enough said. All the little kids want to know our names and ask us to speak in english, sometimes i tell them my name is george washington, or abraham lincoln just to make myself more gringo. Ive been wearing my glasses for the past week because its so dusty and my eyes hurt so that makes me really makes me look like the classic gringo missionary with all the little bown kids, too bad i cant get the part down or else i would definatly make the cover of the nest conference issuse (which on the mission we count down the days to get it). My area is pretty different than good old puerto. Alot more people to talk to and the houses are really close together is some neighborhoods which is great because contacting is super fast. We have 3 gated communities we need to get into so we can teach tithing. But we also have the mountain side were the people live in huts and work longer hours than us breaking big rocks with little ones (its for a cement company thats nearby). There are 4 missionares in the branch and the building we use is going to be the stake center when they make it here. They have a little piano that is SUPER out of tune and it doesnt matter because they memebers have theyre own tune for every song. Theyre also other fun little details about our area that i can share with you in a year 1/2 or so (haha just kidding...not really). Tell Elder BANG the picture is super sweet and it looks like hes in the 2nd best mission in the world (the name of the best one is in his picture of course). thanks for the words of encouragement Spencer and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Elder Larson.
thanks for your love and prayers
Elder Larson

April 13, 2007

He shared an apartment with three other elders

View of a parade in Santa Marta

Changes (April 13, 2009)

so i did change this time. I´m here in the lovely beach town Santa Marta! it´s pretty sweet they have grocery stores here and the main mode of transportation is NOT burro. Its in a little valley and there are some pretty big hills and off in the distance BIG mountains. ´The ocean is really close but i havent seen it yet. The hills are really steep and dry with alot of cactus. Its hot and drier which is nicer than hot and humid like puerto was. I miss puerto a bit but there is a new capilla here that is WAY sweet. Santa Marta is a stake and a zone. Probably would be good if it was a little bit bigger zone because my ne area is really big. I missed puerto alot when i got to see the list of investigadors.....seven..... 3 men and 4 women.... we had 28 in puerto which included 4 familias. In reality this area is going to be a challenge for that reason and two is i´m babysitting/ dragging my new junior compaion (i´m senior companion now, go figure).
My new companion is from the mysterious land and beautiful valley our most favorite american town.....the lovely Toole! I know you can awim in the irony. Elder Shumway has got 5 months in the mission and he is satisfied with his spanish language abilities. He is so confident that he likes to make fun of the peruvian elder´s accents and fails to hear his own, i´ve never heard anyone say sacerdocio and mejor so gringoish. he also doesnt want to speak in Spanish when we´re in the street and just talks to me in english. He hates practicing and refuses to do it. The only thing he likes to talk about is Lake powell, shooting guns, what makes a good truck, how his girlfriend is more attractive than anygirl i´ll ever find, and how stupid our liders are as well as the members here (the gun part is fine with me but he talks in english). In the 5 days i´m been with him i´ve gotten 4 calls from the ZL´s and one from nuestro queirdo Presidente about what he´s doing and how he´s going to get better. He just have any ambition to do anything and he thinks i´m an idiot, which is fine with me if he would just PRACTICE. But with all this things i´m not really very discouraged, i´m really actually excited to see how the Lord is going to take this area and companionship into his hand and change it, it´s going to be a big change and probably a rather painful one for our dear Tooleian. So yeah i´m glad i got the easy area for my first cambio as senior comp.
But hey i´m in the mission and miracles happen everyday here so why not for us. I pray hard. so far i´ve been blessed to keep my enthusiam but in a quote book of prophets that Elder shumway has but never has read Pres. Monson said ¨the only thing more contagious than enthusiam is un-enthusiasm¨. So i´m praying that on that one i´m the only exception to our wise prophet´s words. It´s only been 6 days in the area and ´they´ve been long ones Hurrah for israel! nephi 3:7 helps me alot.
thanks for your love and prayers i´m not discouraged or frusturaded yet, just slightly amazed at the wall i´m been given to yell down (like joshua and his jew buddies).
Love Elder Larson

Apologies

HEY QUINNS FANS!!

Sorry I've been so bad at updating this (pretty sure I've said that before too...) But I decided to try my hardest...again. So please enjoy! Write any comments and I promise I will forward them to Quinn to enjoy as well. Thanks!

Quinns neglectful sister,

Kalan