Oct 5, 2009-sorry but it has to be short.....

just kidding!!!Well conference was SUPER GREAT. Thanks to the area presidente the great ELDER NASH we got to watch all the sesions, not in english, but i undestand now what they are saying. But its better to hear the apotles real voices. Elder Anderson recorded his talk into spanish.... it would have been better if he didnt, he speaks real bad. All the colombians almost laughed, but im thankful for the courage of Elder Anderson because he made all gringo misionaries serving spanish speaking feel real confident. Elder christofferson on the other hand speaks amazing spanish and has a really cool voice en español. Of course Elder Hollands talk was a favorite and im going to memorize the whole book of mormon because of it.... not all but more than i am. I love how conference goes by super fast now, i used to think it was way long when i was watching it with you all in the living room, but i guess 10 hours of sitting in cool air has to fly by here in Cartagena. I only have one more conference left so thats not fun. Im glad our DON JAUN matthew is already counting days until the next one so he can see his pale norwiegan pastora (actually i was just glad to hear mention of matthew i was beginning to doubt that he has made it this far without her). The zone is hanging in there. Weve had better days in reality. we had a old friend enter the Zone this cambio, the ocioso ELDER SHUMWAY and needless to say he is not getting along with his companion. Also thanks to the trunkiness of my last companion we are now suffering from the lack of people who were supposed to be programed for these weeks (not sure if you understood that, its kinda of mison talk) in the last cambio. All in all im doing what i usually get to do, fix things. I just feel kinda weighed down because we arent doing our part. the mison has a goal of 2000 baptized this year and to reach that goal from now until the end of the year each zone has to confirm according to its size. WE need to confirm 4 each weekend and we arent doing it as of now. BUT we have a lot of people for the last few weeks so we are not going to loose any of them so we can fill in the holes. I have two great district leaders who want to see confirmations so we are working for miracles, its good stuff.
mom said that you wanted to see how my testimony is going. Pretty good i guess, i love what im doing and how im doing it. Reading the scriptures everyday brings me some great insights and i have of book of things im going to study after my mison because i have to stay focused on the basics here. I know that the lord loves all his children and im trying to apply that knowledge in my actions. Im learning how to listen to the holy ghost and how to recognize whats from him. Im bettering my work ethic and my ability to focus my mind on what i want when i want it to. And i pray and i know God hears me and you and answers us when its right. im happy and excited to see what the future brings in these last parts of my mision and i know the lord will be with me the whole way.LOVE YA LOTSELDER LARSON

Sept 30-: me writing you all about my life as a missionry in colombia

Hey family, well it sounds like a great week up in Downingtown. Here in Cartagena it rained this morning so it wasnt so hot, which was super. My compi s really great and NOT trunky so thats a good thing for sure. He is also really short so ill send a photo the next week. Here is a detail about my misión life that for me in normal but for you all might be neat. I like to make arrepas for breakfeast which is corn meal with wáter and then you cook it with a Little bit of oil or fry it with alot of oil, they go real good with cheese or a fried egg. Then i usually make juice from a fruit called maracuyá which is the shape and size of an ostrich egg but yellow. To make the juice you cut it in half and it has a gooey substance with covering its seeds which are inside. You scoop out the seeds with the gooey and blend it in wáter and then strain the sedes out. It has a citric taste with a Little bit of peach, it needs alot of sugar but thats ok with me!!! Today we are going to barranquilla for a conferencia de lideres so it has to be a Little short (like my comp, hahaha).Thanks for all your letters and prayers, and charge up Little round top for me!LoveELDER Larson

Sept 14, 2009-BAUTISMO CON MANGUERAS

well we had a crazy fin de semana here in the ZONA CARTAGENA. we had 7 bautismos planed but 4 fell through, lots of crazy stuff like apotstate members, missing family members, and catholic preists stopping by to tell the investigator that if she gets baptized she´s going to limbo. but the 3 that did get baptized was a great. Me and elder vega passed by at 6 30 to make sure everything was going to plan but there was about 5 inches of water in the fount, no what we were hoping for. The member who the missionaries asked to make sure it got filled though he had other things better to do, too bad it was the bishop. but anyways all the members started showing up to see the baptism and saw that we lacked water so we all started bringing hoses from the neighbors houses and filling the fount with water. In the meantime the family showed up with the wife set that she wasnt going to get herself wet (when i had spent one hour in interview with her the day before showing her that she was ready). so all the relief society started giving her attention and she changed her mind. we finally got the fount filled and we started the baptism and it was great. the only other hitch was that the missionary who was baptizing was really short and the dad of the family is a very tall large black man so his knees kept coming out (also the misionary is a lefty so i had to stop him mid prayer so his RIGHT hand was to the square). Finally the big man just kneeled down so the water went up to his chest and it was alot easier for the little chileno. Sunday la familia herrera didnt come to church and they dont seem quite as happy to see us but we planed really hard for the lesson we are going to teach tonight so im praying hard. but we also found another family who are really great and they cameto church, the dad drives one of those crazy jeeps i told you about so he drove it to church and it was great. also in church i got asked to give a talk at the end of church in the middle of the sacrament by the 1st consuler, so i got up there and let er rip on refencias and how if someone doesnt give missionarys referncias they dont have alot of faith, but i did it with lots of love and shared Dyc 15 6 which is always a goodie. all in all everything is pretty much normal here in Colombia, that was the 4th bautismo ive had filling it by buckets and i dont think it will be the last, that was the 3rd random sunday talk and i dont think it will be the last. But i love it all.thanks for all your support and prayersELDER LARSONp.s. next week is CAMBIOS so ill write you TUESDAY!!!!! NOT MONDAY!!!! SO DONT WORRY!!! I havent even seen someone fromthe FARC for 3 weeks..... JUST KIDDING.

Sept. 11, 2009-HE AQUI ESTE ES DE SU HIJO AMADO.. LEELO TU

querido familia
It was great to hear from you this week. Good LUCK Kalan at school, i know you are loving it and everyone thinks you are so cool. When you feel like calling mom AGAIN write me a letter instead (or update my blogg deal AND write me a letter. I just got done eating a big lunch of beans rice and some eggs so im kinda sleepy. WE had a zone leader teleconference today which was fun i guess. The misión goal for the year is 2000 and we are at 1250 or something like that so we got to kick it up a notch, or as we say it redoble el paso. Thanks Lars for fasting for us here in Cartagena, how funny is it that we fasted for the same things. We were really blessed this week to find a great family. Mom , dad and 2 kids,their name is the Familia Arroyo Herrera (where there are doublé r you have to roll your tounge, have fun). The mom and dad went to church and liked it more or less, it was a bit different for them. THEY ARE going to have some adjustments to make but pray for them to recieve a strong testimony of the book of mormon and to understands what that means.The zone is doing good im loving to work with so many misioneros here. One misionero who lives in my house with me is Elder Gonzalez from Yopal santender Colombia. He was baptized by himself when he was 16 which was a big thing because his dad at the time was minister of one of those get up and shout for Jesus churches. He got his testimony of the BoM through a dream where he dreamed all the story of the BoM up to the restoracion and saw pres. Hinckley talking in a conference. Last year before he came on his misión he baptized the rest of him family and he is a great guerrero here in Cartagena.
Um not too much else, i got the contacts, we get Money today, we have a baptism this week, and the goal in the zone is 8. Dad to have 100% of the converts in the church is WONDERFUL and something we really have to improve here. Thanks for you love and prayers, i feel them.
Elder Larson

PHOTOS

well for p day last week we went to the old city and took a bunch of photos. it actaully felt like a p-day! this week have gone good a little down in the baptisms in the zone but we are working hard to have the two families progressing here baptized this weekend (im talking about the whole zone not just me and Elder Vega). i saw some pretty exciting stuff here this past week that ill be sure to share with you all after im safely in the good old USA, new experiences everyday!! This week is zone conference so we get to hear President Roundy pump us all up YAYYY!
disfrutalos! i hope you especially enjoyed the last picture (me branishing the BOM), i liked taking it. We can play a game and you can all send me which scripture you think best matches the picture! there are more but ill show you them all in a year or so. Love you all and i love every second here. Send saludos a todos the misioneros up north.

Love Elder Larson

p.s. mom i havent got the contacts but i got the one with the tie and the CD and the rocking letters thank the primary

pps i think it would be better if you dont tell me the temp here, i like to think its cooler than it is.We never know what the temp is because we cant watch tv or listen to radio, we just walk and sweat and get super blessed!

ppps good luck at school everyone especially the freshie up in IDAHO!!

Todo Bien

Well we had a great fin de semana here in la Zona Cartagena. We were blessed to have 8 baptisms between the 6 areas and two were families that the missionaries helped get married and the two in our area are brother and sister. It was really a great experience to see how the work goes from a little bit higher up and be able to help all the areas meet their goals of confirmations. I was really impressed to see how much each companionship sacrificed to help out thier converts.
We were just really blessed and it was great to see the Lords hand. I didn’t mention this the last week but our bishop here is an American who works for the state department and his gringo family. I was super surprised when I saw them but them REALLY happy because we eat with them Sundays in the afternoon, SOOO GOOD!! She even made REAL BROWNIES from scratch and my comp almost died because they were so good and it was his first experience with REAL brownies.
The members are really nice here and love the missionaries which is a pretty big change. Before I felt more like the novia maluca (or ugly girlfriend) that all the members tolerated but did didn’t really want, but here they give us good food and tell us they have references and its great.
Maybe a funny transportation detail, there is a main road that takes a big circle that goes through all the zone we take the Cartagena verison of buses to get around. They have really old jeeps that they but seats in the back facing each other and they charge 1 mil pesos (50 cents) and you can ride the whole circut. The jeeps are super old and are basically metal shells on wheels but they work and are funny. The good thing is that because the seats face eachother the people have to look at us so its easier to contact.
My comp is anxious to write his family so it has to be a little short agian but im sending photos. The persons who were baptized are Huber and Anis Montes and are little siblings of a member here in the ward.
Love ya tons and keeping praying for me and for the Zona Cartagena.
Elder Larson

CARTAGENA TE QUIERO

Well family a new day here in Cartagena. This place is soooo cool!! Being a Zone leader here is so sweet because we have to go downtown to the old walled city to pay bills and look for birth certificates (so the people can get married) and it super pretty. It has Old buildings and old HUGE almendros trees and mango trees. I haven’t seen a city this pretty my whole time in Colombia. The chapel is an older colonial house that the church converted and its way cool, they have a terrible keyboard so im playing sacramento meeting (first time playing in 10 months I was a bit rusty to say the least). My comp is named Elder Vega and he is really great, he is from a few groups ahead to me and his group isn’t really know to be super hard working and he isn’t an exception but its good because we can work together to improve. But Elder Vega knows what hes doing and he is really efficient in getting things done once he gets started. im just the excitable sunburnt gringo who wants to baptize everybody. He is from the really cold mountain part of Peru and going up to about just my shoulder. Our Area is really big and most of it not too fruitful because its full of tourists and beaches Lots of high rises with guards (with big guns) who are paied not to let us talk to anyone. The main Colombian navy base is here (in our area) which is fun I guess (cant get in there either and we aren’t going to try). But we also have another part which is a little bit easier to work in and its all good. The Zone here has the richest part of Cartagena (and the mission) which is my area and the poorest (ironically called Ezperanza). We are a small zone of 12 elders and no sisters (thank goodness….. just KIDDING… it just because they don’t let sisters work in this zone). Im haven’t felt realy overwhelmed exactly I just know two things with very clearly 1) im the least of these my brethren here in this Zone and 2) the only way ill do any good is if I humble myself and let the lord work though me, because he can lead the zone very easily…. So heres to HUMILITY!!! Next week we´re going to go to the old castle they have here so i´ll send photos or maybe the week after (yeah there is a castle to keep pirates out way cool). Also the house we live in has a kitchen that works and a balcony and doenst loss power everyother day.
All in all with the pretty old city, a cool chapel with a ward and key board, nice house, if I just had more money i´d be serving a pampered European mission!!!

Thanks for the letters love and prayers
Elder Larson