this past week was very enjoyable, due to the meetings at the beginning of the week and the weekly intercambios i get to do as a DL i wasnt really in my area alot with E Pastran. But it was fun to meet interview a few people and help them get over their unique difficulties (one investigator has the gift of being a bruja which she is trying to get over pretty interesting that one ask me about it later). It seems like the thing that the Elderes in my district are best at is reminding me of how much time i have and dont have as a missionary, its rather bothersome, we are going to have to talk about it tommorrow in district meeting haha. first off HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! i did know last week that it was going to be your birthday but i figuered that bc today is closer to your birthday than last monday i would tell you today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY. dont really have all the space to write how much you have had an influence on me and how grateful i have become (and should have always been) for your care and guidance. ive thought alot about how my life has been impacted to have the presence of a strong priesthood holder espcially i thought about you while i read the talks in GC of Elder Erying (the priesthood session one) and Elder Anderson. There are tons of things that i want to share with you about the mission and how important you have been to keep me giving all that i could but it will be better to tell you in person so when i get back just say ¨hey recently released Elder Larson tell me how important i am to you¨ and we can have a good long talk. (Mom all that applies to you as well for your birthday that is coming up).
well here comes great story time.... due to the fact that i had to been in the DL meetings all day tuesday i was in the north of B/quilla which is the Zona Paraiso which is where i started the mission. It was quite strange riding around in taxi in that part of the city because i saw alot of things that reminded me of ohh so long ago. BUT THE BEST was after the training meeting Tuesday we were leaving the stake center at around 6 and as i was walking out i saw some elders talking to a member who was waiting for an interview to go on his mission. Well i always get excited to see Costeños going on the mission so i went over to cheer him on but as i approached him he looked at me rather strange and then i could tell he recognized me like he had seen me before. i really had no idea who he was but he got really excited to see me and presented himself as Jose Perez. When i calmed him down and got him to stop smiling i asked him how did he know me and then he told me something so marvelous that i dont really know how to write it. He told me that he was a contact that i had made the last day i was in Puerto Colombia, that he was a positive contact and that we taught him the restoration and left him a BoM with the challenge to read and pray. The next day i left to go to Santa Marta as CM but he said that E Beltran (the comp i left behind) went back and kept teaching him and he accepted the Lords invitation to a better life and was baptized within the month! and now a short year later he was getting ready to go on a mission and so happy to be going and so happy to have known the goodness of the Lord. Well i just about started to cry (really im surprised i didnt... ok my eyes got pretty watered up) and give him a real big hug and didnt know what to say. He then continued to tell me that the miracle didnt stop there, but after he was baptized his family also listened to the lessons which led to the baptism of his parents and little sister who are planning on going to the temple in october! that floored me as well but THEN he told me that the Castro family (the first family that i found and was able to baptize) is doing well and especially the 2 sons John and Johnathan and John is also really close to going on the mission! ohh i almost crushed the poor skinny brown boy bc i was so happy i felt like jumping around and dancing and praying and crying all at the same time. to tell the truth im getting all teared up writing about how wonderful it is that the Lord let me be a DL my last cambio so that i had to go to a silly 3 day training meeting so that i could see the convert i never knew i had. it makes D&C 18 all the more true and special in my life, and not just a posibility but a promise. It takes so little space to write this story but i feel like im writing my whole mission, all the work, sweat, dirt, blood, noise, rejection, sun, RICE, and sadness are completely consumed in the joy that comes from serving the Lord and as alma prayed in his mission to the zoramites in Alma 31.
I remember in Puerto after i was able to see the conversion of the Castro family i felt such joy having them come with us to the lessons and was a little worried thinking that the Lord was giving me all the joy of the mission at the beginning bc really i didnt think i would be able to experience more joy than what i felt with them as my first converts. But spiritual joy is something so powerful that the Lord has let me feel it even more strongly through my time of service. through the trials and pain he has enlarged my capacity to feel spiritual joy and as Pte. Roundy always taught ¨physical pleasure or pain is nothing compared to spiritual joy¨ he was very right. The Lord loves His children so much and He has given me some of that love, He is so pained when we use are agency to scorn Him but will always forgive those who return to Him. He accepts the puny efforts of the boys of His church as they leave all that they think they know so well and magnifies them and molds them to do His marvelous work as only a God can. i still dont understand why the Lord would let me have such an amazing and marvelous this was so spiritually powerful to me which really difficults me to try to extend the experience to you all but im trying hard ( I feel like moroni in ether 12). but thinking of it all it just returns to the greatest commandments love God over all things and then your neighbor as yourself. Give God what little you have and as He includes you in His amazing plans you will really see the greatness how His power and capacity to change the hearts of men from the darkness that they are used too to the brilliant light of hope that the Savior is to the world. its wonderful the mission it really is and im so glad that the Lord has given me the chance to live it but if ive learned anything its that i can always be an instrument in the Lords hands to bring others to repentance and the Savior. He is always willing to accept my efforts to bring others to the gospel because it saves others souls but also mine as well, a great secrect that is not too secret.
well after feeling all that in the space of 5 mins with Jose i wrote down his e-mail address gave him a hug and told him good bye. Probably that was one of the most impactful 5 mins in my mission and im pretty sure ive still got a bit to learn from it still but so far that is what ive felt so far.
Thanks for all your love and letters although i love la Costa truthfully im excited to see you all and share these things in person.
Love
Elder Larson
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