Jeremys last email from Oregon

I just want to shoot out one last email to all of my friends and family from home and from Oregon. So to those here in Oregon. You have become my family and I love each of you as such. This really has become my home. Leaving here oddly enough is much harder then leaving home was. I'm going to miss my mission and serving with each of you. This has been the most amazing experience over the last 2 years, and each of you have played an important part in my conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I can never thank each of you enough for all that you have done in your own ways. I will be in Oregon with my family until Saturday this week so I hope to be able to see some of you. I love this Gospel and I know that it truly is the true Gospel of Christ, and that through it we can find the peace, stability and direction we need to succeed in this life. I'll keep in touch. To those at home I am excited to see many of you again and I'm looking forward to being able share the experiences I've had with you. I can't really put in words what this mission has meant to me and I really hope that you will bear with me because its all I'll talk about for a long time haha. I have changed, I'm going to continue to progress in this Gospel and I look forward to being a part of your lives again. I've learned something over the last 6 months from my time with Elder Norton in Newberg and now with Parkinson. There is NO FINISH LINE. I've been blessed to devote all my time to this over the last little bit and now its required of me to fulfill another calling in God's Church. Leaving this experience is the hardest thing I've had to do. I love the Lord, I love this work, and I pray that each of us can continue to move forward in life and find happiness. I know the best way to do that is through the Gospel. I love all of you! Elder Jeremy Larsen

Darkness and Miracles in Oregon

Okay, so looking at lil bullcut with ya'll the kid looks lost. I don't blame him though, I would be to. If bullcut ever needs to geek out about mission stuff just have him email me. Life has been crazy, we are seeing some serious miracles throughout the week. Weird things going on also this week... I'll tell ya a bit about it. So over the last few weeks we have heard everyday about demons and other paranormal stuff with people that have been or are stuck in very dark life styles. Anything from abuse before to selling virtue for money and a lot of drug abuse, primarily meth. All of these people's stories are so similar and we aren't the only ones who are hearing about these things. Everyone throughout the two zones are having increasing experiences with this sort of stuff. I've really come to know just exactly what 2nd Nephi is talking about when it says that we become captive to the Devil through our own choices. Seriously some of the stuff I don't want to write because it give me the willies. Its been wild. While learning about these things though I've come to know even more of the power that the Atonement has. No matter how dark it gets for anyone we can help them overcome with the Lord. (meth is nasty though, I've gotta tell ya a story about another thing to do with it though, 2 weeks and I'll tell ya) I don't have much time to write but know I love ya and think about ya'll all the time. You are in my prayers! Elder Jeremy Larsen Elder Jeremy Larsen

Miracles and Danger for Zack

well i will have to come back for the truck :) maybe i can get some help from you i have like 1200 dollars :) need another 300 and extra for myself. i can talk on that because thats been pretty much half my mission! this has been the most trialing and hard transfer but also the most rewarding i have never prayed so hard and never seen so many miracles take place. this really has been a blessing! we had a baptism last saturday and we have 3 for my last couple days here! its been so amazing! i was up on mack road last night around 830 and i never felt my life was in so much danger before haha! i also almost got hit by 3 cars on the way down. the struggle is real son! we also have the PMG lessons in eubonics if you wanna hear that haha im printing them out as we speak haha! its great! i love my life and im ssad to leave but i also want to at the same time its a bitter sweet moment! whats the surprise???????? i been asking for it! anyway im stoked for ya and we are staying with one of my favorite families here they are really true christains thats for sure tell them i said that haha! well i love you all so much! byebye!! oh for the G's im a large by the way :)

Jeremy and AMAZING spiritual experiences

Padre! So this has been just a wild experience here with Parkinson. Honestly we've just been getting blasted with miracles, its kinda been outta hand. This has oddly been the case my whole mission, I've often wondered why, cause I am so so far from perfect, there are so many other missionaries that are so much more obedient and have such stronger desires. Parkinson asked me how I do it, Lightfoot did, Norton did, so did Rees. So last night I prayed and asked what I was doing right... I just didn't know what it was. As soon as I asked I felt this horrible horrible thing come over me and I instantly began to beg for forgiveness. The Lord told me pretty quickly I had absolutely nothing to do with any of the success that I have seen and that it was really all Him. I felt super sheepish... I've just come to know for one reason or another the Lord has seen fit to hook me up with a fast paced and exciting form of success. This week we were out walking around and we prayed for help where to go next... Then we rounded a corner and this gal flagged us down and we came over. She said her daughter was a LA member who was really sick. She was from Idaho and was visiting her daughter and was praying that someone could help get her daughter a blessing. So we went in and gave a rather incredible blessing from the Lord. It was crazy to see a prayer answered so instantaneously, its happened before, I don't know why I didn't think it would happen again. Then the family we found the other day had us over and when we got there her and her boyfriend had been in a fight. So she walked out and we started to talk. He came and slammed the door and locked it....... We prayed and read with her. Turns out she is pregnant and it was all coming down on her at once... Tim (the BF) opens the door and lets us all in after being less then kind. We walk in and he lays down on the couch and starts to rant a bit. He had just recently relapsed and was coked out of his mind... So we prayed for them and we were there for about 30 more minutes. Fast forward to last night. They both have us over again and he apologized, made us chicken and gravy and we taught them the Resto again and set expectations for our visits. They are working towards baptism again and we are going to start helping him get back on the wagon. Its crazy how God put us in their lives in a time of such drastic and extreme adversity and change. He truly is always mindful of our situations. Then we had a lesson with this kid we found that was one of the more intense experiences I've had. ParkPlace and I felt we didn't talk a single time the entire lesson but it was all done as the spirit directed. We just really humbled ourselves and prayed that we wouldn't say a word in the lesson and the spirit did all of it, a lot better then we ever could have haha These are just some of the things I can think of. We had 7 people at church with 3 LA families it was just an intense week. These last few will continue in that style. Life is good padre. I love ya and hope all is well. I'll definitely talk to Mama Darlene about those things. I think I may get into a few things just for cheap product, but I don't know the details of it all. Hey if you are going to Havasupi then I'm going to that. I'm not missing that trip again, ya'll have been like 3 times since I've been gone?? That's just outta control. The Lord is preparing me to finish this up but I'll tell you, I'm extremely apprehensive. He's giving me all the warnings I need to apply in my life to avoid getting in trouble and I just need to apply everything I've learned and I'll be good for the rest of my life and bam eternal life, that easy right hahaha Well love ya'll, hope you have a great week and we'll talk to you again soon! Elder Larsen Sr.

Jeremy learns to be like Samuel the Lamanite!

oops accidentally sent it.. So for the letter I have no idea.... I hope its somewhere hahaha wish I could be of more help. Herbalife is an MLM and I was planning on becoming a distributor for it just for the cheap product and if anyone else wanted in on some. Sounds like Alex and Liam are up to the usual trouble, I'm excited to see those two again. From the sound of it they will whomp me in Pokemon... It had to happen eventually.. Also I'm thinking we'll have to hit up Salem for a day or so, then Newberg on Saturday when we are up there with President, that will be exciting stuff, I can't wait for you to meet this guy. He seriously is one of the most incredible people you'll ever meet. So as for teaching the priests and stuff I'm pumped for that, they've been my favorite group to work with my entire mission.. Youth is where its at. You'll have to hook up a job for me haha How is Kevin doing? Sounds like Jason is rocking the Casba (I don't know how to spell that, or even what it means) I've learned more and how little I actually know about anything. I know the BofM pretty well now, I lvoe that book, but everything else I'm pretty handicapped right now... LOC is always a fun one to teach. We are working with 2 families that want to be baptized but can't until they are married. We have one of the weddings going on the second to last week I'm here and then the baptism is that Saturday... Gonna be NUTS!! I just want you to know how much I appreciate you and everything you do for me.. I love you so much and am so grateful to have you as a Father. You've made this possible for me. Thank you padre. Tell everyone else I love em. Life is good. Elder Larsen Sr. On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 3:56 PM, Jeremy Larsen wrote: Padre!! You will never ever ever guess who I am with again............ ITS ELDER PARKINSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly the best and most welcome gift I've ever gotten. This last transfer was easily the hardest of the mission. Now I'm with my boy again. He's a complete and total stud in every way. He's going to be 5x's the missionary I ever could have been, he's teaching me stuff still.. Of course he did that when he first came out in the mish. So life has been so much fun for us. So I'm writing on Tuesday because we had my last Zone Conference yesterday. I was able to speak for 40min at it and it really was one of the most revelatory experiences of my life. The day before the conference Elder Parkinson and I were dive bombing again, (now that I'm with a comp that wants to do it again we are having so much fun with it!! and seeing success) and we stopped to see this guy walking a Pitbull. We pull over and he was just like "no no, sorry, no guys no, sorry..". So as we are driving away Elder Parkinson says we need to go back. Inwardly I was totally thinking "this is stupid, why do we need to do this... Whatever though lets just do it for him...." So we go. When we pull over again he just cusses us out hardcore. He tells us to leave him alone and to stop ruining his day... I felt at this time my thoughts and faithlessness in my companion were justified by the reaction. As we are driving in silence, I'm upset, saddened as well at the experience, Parky breaks the silence and says: "i know he was having one of the roughest days of his life. He needed to know the things we said to him. One day he will see missionaries again and he will apologize for the way he treated us and he will accept the gospel." I was still angry a bit... The next day at ZC I was the last to speak of the AP's. Elder McGlothin spoke about Samuel the Lamanite and how he went back twice out of faith and total humility. Elder Montierth spoke about Works and talked about always making a second effort and always following the spirit. Several stories were shared that day about second efforts and miracles that happened after the fact of the initial experience. I had prayed at the beginning and asked all of the missionaries in the zones to humble their hearts and allow the spirit to teach them what they needed to know. I did the same thing. You've got to be careful what you ask for.... It has been awhile since the Lord had humbled me in that way, however I came to know it was by the Lord's design that this all happened. I was speaking on our purpose in this life, and how we obtain it and fulfill it. If it wasn't for that experience I wouldn't have been able to speak on the topic the Lord really wanted me to talk about. So I shared the experience I had with the man and the Pitbull and it was one of the most out of body experiences that I've ever had. The Lord had a message to deliver and he just lined everything up to make it happen... It was wild. Then I lost my OSM binder and I prayed to find it in the church, we checked the car, everywhere but had to go to a lesson. When we left we were driving and talking. We dropped off a mattress to some sisters... Then on the way back from Bend to Redmond Parkinson and I looked forward out the window and my binder was right on the dash... It was crazy. It definitely wasn't there when we started off to Redmond again, we checked the dash 3 times and the car 3 times, both of us. The Lord was confirming to me that He does what he wants, he can make miracles happen however he wants to and then he told me we would have 3 baptism's before I left if I continued faithfully. Needles to say this has been a wild week. We've found 2 families to teach with 12 people total and we've got so many other families progressing its just out of this world.

Zack and the broken bike and Ebonics Bible verses

i never got the letter with all my callings, they only send them to you. im sure there is a way to get them. as for the green car, it is not my car so it must needs be expedient that i get it, i got it down to 1500 for the truck now i just need to raise the money haha! its a deal and it must not be passed up haha! as for the G's and towel thanks!! so i had an accident on my bike and now i have no money :( sorry... i suck. i spent tons of money on replacing parts i tried to do as much as i could by jerry rigging but broken axels and barrings and quick releases and chewed up cogs just cant be jerry rigged. my comp is doing a lot better. he is tough at times, we get along great he is just negative a lot and it drains me big time you know me and negative dont get along. life is good though! we found a Jamaican who is 91 years old and is getting baptized very soon she is so cool! we asked her if she believed what we taught about the book of mormon and joseph smith was true and she said OF COURSE! dont you? it was awesome! Life is great! i am happy to be here but getting ready to head out and the ward likes to remind me, i tried to keep it secret but it leaked from my comp and now its all over haha! by the way we are re-writting the bible and scripture in Ebonics my favorite one so far is "many are hallad at but few be reppin" its good :) well the work is great! we are picking up this area and the district is doing a lot better :) but back on the truck im determined to buy it, its too good a deal and ill get to have my own car so jeremy can have the lil green one :) ssooo yea....... i know i dont have lots of money for it not 1500 but ill get there haha! ill see what his time frame is. uuhh i have 2 more baptisms to go to which is awesome in the YSA ward so thats exciting. tell indy im stoked to chill with him. and how long are we staying with jeremy again? iwould you like to go to a cave or to big trees when you get here? i figured i can show you the people and some sites on my mission haha! SO YOUR CHOICE. love you all so much hope all is well that sucks that kimi cant stay with us and did you hear rock creek is closing :( i am pretty much depressed haha! love you all bye!

Zack and 4 more baptisms

Dear Dr. Banana King the greatest of all bananas..... Brandon says hello! I love ya and things are great! as for focusing on the work........ its tough. Our district is improving which is great but there were only 2 days under 100 out here and i wanted to weep and then die. brandon is in a car and is gay. as for a homecoming present i would greatly appreciate news G's and a new towel. also there is a truck for sale here 1500 to 2000 a member is going to give it to me for 1500 and i wanna drive it home soo thas great! think about it i wanna buy it regardless and i think this would be a great investment i can pay ya back!! anyway i met a guy that fought the grape vine fires he was cool, we did a huge move for him it sucked but totally worth it. anyway i got to go! i love you all and im excited for you to come back and when am i moving into Orem like right after? just curious! sounds like a party with the family! everyone is moving south but once school is done im going north :) i dont like city. Love you all and the family! thats so cool with indy doing that!! i sent him a letter and he didnt reply but i wanna chill with him upon arrival so let him know! also yea.. bye! i forgot what else i was going to write about there were some cool experience but it will have to wait till next week work is great and pride was the homelss guy we baptized. we have 4 more baptisms coming up :) :) love you!!!!