Monday, November 26, 2012

Turkey in Cali

DAD- glad thanksgiving was good for yall. My stake president will call once i give him the number dont ignore a 916 are code ok? and he just wants to talk to you and see who you are so he asked me to give him your number i will do that this week. Also i try my best with my compy i jsut need to get out and do stuff ya know how i am. He is pretty lame that way. Either way all is well. Things are getting kinda crazy in this mission area. Our area had 2 factories close down a lot of job losses and several strikes. One at walmart ON BLACK FRIDAY! we went black friday shopping since it was P-day and it was nuts! The factories that closed was campbells soup and hostes! so that was insane! someone from our stake is coming to our mission how crazy is that! Also for big business  things Apple is moving out of Cali. So a lot of job losses and some rioting haha! prettty fun eh? Anyway as far as Ashleys boyfriend what happened to the other one who just came out of the marshall islands? Jasons girlfriend is very pretty and i approve i swear if he gets married while im gone ill be mad though! i cant miss all this stuff goin on. speaking of marriage when are you getting married? actual date.  From what i see its 50/50 on splitting Cali now thats just what i seen. Uuuhhh..... oh fun fact Nephi had sisters. Weird huh? Im sending the pic of my bike home now but im really probably not fixing it and just going to pray i get put in a car soon. Thanks for the support dad it does help out here every now and then i have a hard time ya know. Home was easier haha!!! i know this is important work though and time is starting to speed up a bit. Thanks for keeping tabs on meg for me :) and I love brandons curly hair its adorable! I love kayla and she needs ice cream its official! Steph would love some of the people i meet out here ALL ABOUT ORGANIC food i just say, i have had as organic as it gets man. Nothing more organic than breast milk and i swear babies cant even enjoy that!!! ITS SO FREAKING GROSS!  Anyway i love black people now they are my homies and they are dope! i want one as a pet haha! sorry chinchi :) Im glad to hear she is doing well i expect her to be there when i get home if not im splitting heads! Just so you know i have started a new translation for EMT It means emergency missionary transport. :) we have a couple of those haha!  well i love you dad and sorry BYU sucks this year haha! LOVE YOU!!!! Also thanks for the package it was wonderful and the cookies are still soft :) SO AWESOME! also i need sam hunters E-mail address and tell sue that i have been mailing david and still nothing back haha! Thanksgiving was good probably 4 dinners by the way and a turkey bowel uugghhh. LOVE YOU!!!!
Kate- Glad to hear your being the friend that helps thas whats important. I tried my best to be the same to my friends but i dunno how well i did, i got kinda selfish by the end haha. Friends and family are the most important things in life! keep them close always. Your friend cassy and your friend nic be good to them help them and dont focus on the problems just go out and have fun! however much i didnt like nic i dont really care anymore. If is his kind to you then its all good in the hood right? im glad your doing your best with your work friend to help out thats important as well, anxiety sucks i would know haha! just do your best to be a friend :) Keep busy too thats always good haha I like being busy whenever im not i think of home and go bezerk! so i have to keep busy im hoping to be an office elder so i can always be busy no matter what haha! I am glad to hear that dad keeps close tabs on meg haha :) she is a sweetheart always has been! I hope that your school is not declining from your work, if it is then you need to quit! You will have a great understanding of responsibility if you work and go to school though haha! you can see waht stresses jeremy and i had to deal with haha!  Im proud of you kate your a wonderful sister and i couldnt ask for more :) keep up the good work and keep me posted on your life :)

Megan- your a sweetheart and so is krystal i love you all and i love the picture of brandon haha! keep up the good work val next is parkers hair :)

Kevin- uke is a ukealele :) the little four string guitar. I love ya kevin im glad work and school are going well and your friend is old :) Life is good. What display case?? Uhh mission is good so far i aint dead so i cant complain about that :) transfers are soon maybe i stay maybe i go to the murder capitol of the nation i dunno haha :) As far as decorating goes i love that stuff!!! when im home im helping out and i could not agree more it makes me feel closer to mom and i need that.  She is a wonderful person and my hero!!  I love her! Also i am excited to see you on christmas and maybe jeremy if we set it up right haha! 

Jason- Well im glad that your very happy with the chikaty have her email me some time! as far as thanksgiving goes dont even go there with me :) we had 4 maybe 5 places to eat and we had turkey bowl and then went mountain biking almost died haha :) I wanted to die the next day and probably 4 hours in the bathroom getting it all out hahah!! Anyway my basketball is improving you might even want me on your team now days :) im schooling almost everyone out here except my friend elder moss he is freaking amazing he missed 2 of his 25 3 point shots how crazy is that! Anyway glad thanksgiving was fun and im excited to hear all about the hobbit!!! i finally finished the book of mormon for the first time really reading it for knowledge and not steak haha! its a great book if i do say so myself :) i agree with your theory of repentance! thanks for writing me it means a lot honestly you and i are a lot alike :) Glad about school go to med school so you can give me a place to live when im a poor firefighter haha! sad day about obama eh? oh well. Glad about your job dont kill people ok? Well i love ya man!!!!!

Tool related to the atonement?

Okay so I was WRONG! Soundgarden has a new album! I saw it yesterday and I started to cry..  That talk was awesome though.. Read the C.S. Lewis book and tell me what you think, I'll read it vicariously through you! Speaking of vicarious (Tool) I had a really cool thought, we do baptisms for the dead, vicariously doing a ordinance for people, and Jesus vicariously saved us through the atonement. So whenever people act surprised at the idea of vicarious salvation it just kinda blows my mind, I mean its the center of what all Christians believe in.. People need to open there eyes a little wider I think.. I didn't hurt myself to bad during the Turkey Bowl. It was a whole lot of fun though! I got a few good receptions and then a touchdown. I got taken out by some guy from another ward though. Right as I touched the ball he just went BAM!! Threw me to the ground and yelled "NOT IN MY HOUSE!" hahaha I'm so sad that you didn't get to play at a Turkey bowl.. That's just wrong! We went up to a friends place and played B-Ball for 3 hours after that and that was a whole bunch of fun haha We ate so much food it was just redick!! They really made me feel at home, it was awesome! The baptism that we had this week was awesome! Leonard Castrignano was the kids name. Keep on corrupting the little one, w/o me there I don't think the lil nephews and neices are getting enough evil in their lives hahaha. I haven't heard much about B-Ball either other then that De'Antoni is the coach for the Lakers now.. Crazyness... Hopefully the Jazz will pick up soon.. I have a bunch of stuff to ask  you but to be honest there is a lot of other stuff on my mind right now so I can't remember them hahaha.. I'll get that letter to you soon for mom. It's been a crazy week, I've been sick most of it and Tammy has been sick as well so it's been nuts. My comp and I are kind of polar opposites so we're tryin to find a groove (You threw off the Emperors groove...). I'll be gettin Transfered out of my area next transfer I think so don't send boxes my way 2 weeks from now.. I'll let you know more about what's going on later. I love you Padre, and I'm happy you're lookin so happy (that is quite the smirk you got on your face hahahaha). Let me know when the Marriage is! Tell Darlene and Ashley I love em and that I hope they're well!
 
Much Love Elder Larsen Sr.
 
Katie Bug!
 
Tell GMa Adams I say hey! I wrote her a letter on a letter I sent to Aunt Jenny or Leslie, can't remember which.. Hahaha I have a lot on my mind it's hard to keep track of stuff. Sounds like you got quite a lot on your hands back in the home front!! Don't over do it haha I know that I'm tellin you to keep workin hard but heck, it's the holidays haha I love you kate and keep on trying to help your German friend. The Gospel isn't about what you can't do and people that focus on that just bug the crap outta me. Obedience is the key to freedom as Boyd K. Packer said, but we all have our agency, that's the cool thing about it! We can do what we want and she should be able to do whatever she wants. Let her know what we're really about and be that good example that I know you are! I Love you kate and i hope you are well! sorry I can't write more I always wish I could but there is no time.. I love you kate!!
 
Elder Larsen Sr.
 
 
Nivek Shinto Islamabad,
 
I miss the decorations of our house haha I had our place set up for halloween but christmas is kinda a dud I think, we don't have room for anything in our room (2 rooms 4 elders). I see that my mind trip worked! by making you think that I was feeling guilty about not writing you I made you feel guilty within more guilt.. Guiltception!!! It should be a new show hahaha Sorry for messin with you I just wanted to see if it would work and it did hahahahaha Tell Padre not to get mad at you it was all a "DECOY LOIS A DECOY, THE NEWS STAND AND THE BARN WERE DECOYS!!!" Family guy rocks hahaha. Tell Leonardo Dicaprio he can have no part of that show though.. Thank you so much for the goodies and I know that in the main letter I didn't mention this but I'll mention it here. I was looking for cheap protein, couldn't find it, then I got those Clif Bars (jacked w/ protein) so thank you! and those cookies were so freakin BOMB.com! so good!! I've been doing a atonement lesson that's keepin me in shape. I give out cookies and I have to do 10 push ups for each and its in similitude to christ paying for our sins and such. It's a cool lesson and i'm bustin out a whole lot of  pushups now haha but kev I love you and I thank you so much for all the support you've shown me and I'm sorry for the crap I gave you back in the day, I know now that you were just standing up for what you believed and thats awesome. Thank you for being such a solid example. Mucho Loveo
 
Elder Larsen Sr.
 
Jas! Nae saian luume'
 
First of all, that is quite the smile you're rockin! You look happy and that's awesome. It's great to hear from you. If you need some C.S. Lewis talk to dad, I've got his entire christian works in one book. Also go watch the Bitter Cup and the Bloody Baptism, its a talk by Holland, it's awesome. I'm glad that you found a Chicka to hang with that is so awesome!! Marriage???? that's crazy talk ahahhahaha I'll be very happy for you but pretty bummed out on missin it, but hey, this mission is a sacrafice for a reason. Do what you gotta do, I'm just so happy for you. I'm sorry for the crap I put you through back at home and I just want you to know that I am sorry for the way I treated you and that this mission has opened my eyes to a lot of stuff. That's so awesome that you're rockin school!! Keep it up, when I get back you'll be helpin me w/ my homework and stuff so be prepared haha.
I'll have to hear from Jennica some time if things get to serious haha I hope that all is well and I hope Ammon is still doing well. The Flat better not be to different by the time we get back haha I love ya bro keep on workin hard!
 
Quel fara
 
Elder Larsen Sr.

The picture of Tammy and Elder Black is a classic that we'll need forever haha The sisters donated a bunch of clothes at the church and we played dress up on our P-day hahaha. I love all of you and I hope you are all doing well! Kayla I love the heck outta ya and i wish I could see you! Padre and Darlene you keep rockin the home front and everyone else (animals included) I love you!
 
Elder Larsen Sr.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A rat as a pet???

Hey dad i got to email twice today because its an all day Pday which is great and would be better if you were checking your email right now so we could chat :) I love you and miss you and today was good. Our stake president wants to call and talk to you so dont be worried if a 916 area code is calling you.

On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 1:15 PM, Zachary Larsen <zlarsen@myldsmail.net> wrote:
DAD- so my Pday was thanksgiving this week i told ya that silly goose! its also this monday so EMAIL SOON! :) sucks about your chain saw im sorry. Yea breast milk SUCKS! also i think one elder got some kinda of herpes from it but he mainly serves in the Laotion ward so thats not me luckily or i would kill myself haha!  uuhh send a pic of jasons girlfriend so me and the other elders can go in awe over her or soemthin haha. Yea that scheels thing is dope!! i heard a lot about it. As for Christmas just guess ok? i dunno what i want, i just want to see you guys and megan because this place is intense for me i hate the city and im not even in the ghetto haha! The ghetto is next haha! I hope you have a great thanksgiving!!! i love you! turkey bowl was awesome i kicked butt with a bunch of my black homies! nothin better than hangin with my niglets and spear chuckers haha! they even call there kids that haha! i miss you all like mad crazy dawg!  I am glad that jason is getting out and about, how is his job search? Also  tell ashley she is awesome even though she dont email me which is lame. I hope she is happy with whats his face now he is back home!  i am kinda hanging with the "apostate" missionaries they are not bad they are given that name because they dont hang with the zone during Pdays Which is fine! I hate that about my comp, he does NOTHING EVER! I started hanging with the other missionaries now i go mountain biking with my busted up crap bike and get to see the American River which is cool but filled with dead fish, somethings is fishy about that water but im sure your probably asking WATER YOU talking about?!?!?  I love you father ken i got big news for you! did you know they might be splitting california into two states? East and west Cal. the west side will have 75% of the people and the east side will have 75% of the money, the west side will almost be 100% democrat and the east side will be almost 100% republican haha!!! Also im sending home a big lesson for you to teach to the fam! Our mission is at 190 missionaries and by february it will be 250. Our sister missionaries here are increasing by 250% and in the Provo MTC 600% its crazyness!  We might even be having 4 missionaries per ward where we can. sadly our baptisms fell through this week oh well it happens! Yes im ok i just want to get my teeth cleaned for cheap since there is a dentist in our ward :) uuuhhh quote for today is "we can never be perfect, but we can always do perfect things" so i hope thats inspiring in some kind of way haha! KAYLA IS TOO CUTE  i wanna see her so frickin bad haha!  well i love you dad i truly do i hope all is well :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY FRIENDS AND EXTENDED FAMILY!  
KEVIN- you are forgiven i promise but in that kind of way that cpt. long john said when he was tied up in muppet treasure island. I just enjoy your Emails they are fun :) i like kates idea its a good one, hold on to her she is a thinker :) I hope work is going well, dont let jason get married while im gone i cant miss anymore than i already have or ill experience some slight turbulence and then explode! and i dont wanna explode.  uuuhhh glad that your staying busy though idle minds blow big time i hate em!  i need to do stuff, you know like i was when i was home i just got to keep moving and such. THERE ARE WEIRD PEOPLE HERE! everyone here is a philosopher haha. Well i love you very much and miss you like mad! i hope you enjoy the Wii U :) :)

Kate- Im glad your fixing that picking issue so thats good :) I hope all works out for you. As far as any kind of social advice. Walk up to groups that hang with your friends and talk to them start with small talk, but get involved ok? By getting involved i mean do stuff with them, do activities and such! also talk to people in your class try and hang out with them. DO stuff :) The DO lesson is one im doing with you guys when i get home ok? its aweomse i have a lot of awesome lessons for ya'll. Anyway  if you see our friends say hi for us ok? i love you :) As far as colemen and nesbit keep on em ok? tell nesbit im sending him a letter but im sending it to you kate so you can give it to him ok? if coleman is sending one i wont send her one till i get it :) KEEP ON IT :) also do your best to help your friend by being her friend. Thats the best way to help her, let her know you are her friend and that your always there for her no matter what, hang out with her and stuff :) BE THE EXAMPLE :) Yea i love colemans kid she is so cute :) How is Alta? i have a friend from Alta that is coming to this mission in December which is cool!  Well love ya im out :)
P.S. to father ken i caught a rat and had him as my pet :) his name is cage and he is stuck in a cage outside haha!  also i had something else to say but forgot so on monday we will talk :) I love you so so much! Keep megan close to you ok?

Monday, November 19, 2012

Jeremy channels the anti-Nephi-Lehis for an investigator

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 11:14 AM, Jeremy Larsen <jeremyl@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Padre!! Well its been a rather uneventful week, it has gone by rather quickly though. We have a baptism this week which is awesome, the kid Leonard Castrignano. He wants me to do the baptism!! heck yeah! Also thank you so much for getting that Blessing out to me, it's been exactly what its called, a blessing. I've read through it many times and I've already seen some of the things on there in my life. It's kinda cool haha. Ashley has more thanksgiving dinners to go to then I do! hahaha We get to play in some Turkey Bowls also!!!!!!!! I hope its pouring rain and cold! Nothing better to remember the best two years then with torn MCL's, ACL's, Post. + Ant. TibFib ligaments!! It's gonna be awesome! I've jacked up my ankle a bunch already hahaha! I'm tryin to play a little safe but it's not workin so well. Every time I strain it I still have to go to work so I don't rest it ever. We'll see if I'm still in one piece when I get back, at this rate though it's not lookin so hot. It's kinda cool though, even when its totally jacked, when I'm out tracting and going to appointments it doesn't even bother me, just when I get back to the Apt. The lord provides a way! I know this is gonna sound crazy but I'm grateful for my crazy days. I've been able to get on the level with a few of our new investigators and really understand where they're coming from and help them. They have had problems with missionaries before because they didn't understand them. It's a real blessing being able to relate because I know how they can be helped and how much better it is on the other side. We've been helping a recovering Heroin Addict and she's had so many problems with Repentance and with the Atonement, and in my Patriarchal Blessing it says that I will be able to help everyone that needs to understand those things, so its just crazy! We're having a repentance party next week with her. We're getting a sword and writing all the sins we're giving up and burying it. She's quit smoking and she's going to be baptized the 30th! Hopefully we can get another of our investigators to commit, he's got the date he's just having a tough time with quiting smoking as well.. Everyone here smokes. EVERYONE! its kinda crazy haha Elder Black is pumped to start writing Ashley he'll probably get started on it today haha Tell Jas that he's gotta write me about this girly! Congrats on not being Chief anymore! why won't you ever be one again!?! You planning on retiring or something! Don't get lazy on me Dotson! (name that show) (it's Jurassic Park) hahaha I'll curse whoever stole our chainsaw, Tammy and I will do it, he's from Tonga so he knows how. He still lives with me btw. We just have 4 people in a 2 room apt hahaha. I've heard that Scheels is crazy awesome also, some LA's actually went there and was tellin me about it. Sounds like some I Robot action going on there though, careful.. I want you to go listen to a talk by Holland, its called The Bitter Cup and the Bloody Baptism. It pumped me up, just like he always does though. Makes me wish I could read some C.S. Lewis though, he quotes a lot of a Grief Observed and he also quotes Milton's Paradise Lost, I need to read that as well I guess. Many books I must read.. Music news! what's goin on? Make sure you keep a good list of stuff we miss so we can listen to it later.  As for Christmas.. only thing I can think of is another suit case and a Ukulele. I love you padre and i hope all is well keep up the home front! when is the marriage? and where is the photos of you on the beach? Mucho Love!
KEVIN!!
I'm so sorry for not writing you, it does suck haha. If I had only known.. My bad broski.. But it is good to hear from you, as for the package it's all good, it'll get here when it does. How's work going?? You lovin the early hours?? I love waking up early, I jump right out of bed and just start doin push ups and sit ups galore. I don't know why or how but morning I just wake up pumped most of the time.. It's been a real blessing. So the Wii U... How awesome is it?? I must know! We have Pokemon Cards out here! heck freakin YES! it's so awesome hahaha. What kind of fun adventures did you have on your mission?? I honestly don't know much about your mission experience... Crazy.. Remember them so when I get back we can geek out about it. I'm having so many crazy experiences. I imagine you did as well. Perhaps not as radical as some of mine but I feel like you would surprise me.. My new compy is rather uptight though.. I'm workin on him but I feel like he's just tellin the pres that I'm completely out of my mind and that he should send me home right away haha. I'm definitely not the average missionary when it comes to some things and I think that you know what some of those things are.. My sarcasm is BACK and so are my jokes! I don't think he likes most of them though haha.. I'll let you know how it goes. Christmas.. make sure you get that CD to me and some healthy something haha. What do you want? what does the fam want?? what do you need baby! I miss you kevo and I hope you're doin well.. Much love much love (speaking of that how's your love life) GOSSIP TIME!! hahaha jk I love you kev tell jas to write me!
KATIE BUG!
I'm glad that you seem to be doin so well!! You still sound pumped about life :) As for your friend at work, things may be hard but just be a friend to her and if she needs anything she has to come to you. Horse and water thing and such haha Hopefully she'll be okay though, just keep being a friend. As for mom and such I agree completely, I wish I knew more! An older sister out here (she's pretty much my grandma now haha) has compiled a book for her deceased husband and she's written her own biography as well. It's an awesome idea and I suggest that we do that, tell dad to get on it as well, see if he can do something for mom (if she's got a journal). I've read all about Sis. Hoppe's (my new Grandma) husbands life.. It's crazy some of the stuff that he went through and she went through and yet she's just so normal. Its a really cool idea so I thought I'd tell you about it. I want you to read C.S. Lewis' christian works, I think you'll love them! They're really helpful also. At least I think that they are. If you by chance do see Nate again or someone else tell them I say whats up!! Read the letter I wrote to dad and such. I love you kate and I hope that you are doing well. Satan is real, and he's all around us. If we think that we can be Casual Christians we will become Casualties in the war against the world around us. He tries to get us wherever we are weakest so keep praying. Keep good friends around you and keep praying! I love you!
TO ALL LOOK UP THIS TALK BY HOLLAND- The Bitter Cup and the Bloody Baptism! it's really awesome. I love all of you and I feel your prayers. I miss you and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! much love
Elder Larsen Sr.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Jeremy makes Senior!!

Padre!! This week has flown by.. Seriously I can't believe that it's monday again.. I had a great lesson about Patriarchal Blessings, Aunt Lesily sent me a part of moms and I was able to use that story for it and it really helped her see how great they are.. I needed to hear that part of moms journal and blessing, it's helped me so much out here and it's just motivated me so much more. We've had some amazing things happen this week. First of all I'm going to be leading in my area now. Elder Taumoelau is going to be with his ZL companion cause our zone as a whole is floundering a bit.. Our area is doin great but some pps are havin troubles. I'm pumped to be in charge but I'm kind of scared haha have faith right.. that's what everyone keeps sayin haha We had 6 investigators at church sunday! One of our investigators that came and told us she wants to be baptised also! So right now we have 2 on schedule and we think that we could have at least 2 more by the end of the month! I challenged Bullcut to get at least 2 also so we can have 6 baptisms between the both of us by the 30th! That's cool that Ashleys BF is back, Elder Black was sad hahaha I saw a picture of the snow in Utah, some LA's keep me up to date on the homestead. We also spent friday night eating at applebees.. Kinda diso but we met some investigators there and we watched football and basketball w/ them hahaha.. I know shame on me but it was fun.. If Mark gets them batptized then tell me asap haha That would be the most awesome missionary story ever! speaking of missionary stories Bullcut is havin some crazy times haha I miss that boy, but I'm glad he's havin a good time! I can't think of a better position for Bob to be in, he belongs in the YM's. I'll try and write Mike soon, could you send me his address again?? TELL JASON AND KEVIN TO WRITE ME! First of all I should hear from Jas that he's datin some hot sista! Picture? Name? more info!! Tell Jas I'm happy for him and that those Halloween set up was awesome! Thank you for the care package!! I have some bad news though, Pres said the boots were no beuno, so i'll send em back at ya.. Thank you still sorry for puttin you through all that work for nothin.. Hopefully i'll find somethin, I just never have time haha I love you popaa and I hope that you're doin well and same with Darlene and the rest of the fam.. Love ya tons and keep up the Homestead.
 
Elder Larsen Sr.

Chocolate breast milk???

Oh and also did you get that info to the fire department? and i have a quote for you. If you are worrying, you are spending USELESS energy. notice there is a problem, analyze it, and then do something about it, the lord will never give you more than you can handle and he is always there to help you"

On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Zachary Larsen <zlarsen@myldsmail.net> wrote:
also tell Mark kunz he is doing the right thing! A mission is the best thing he can be doing at this point!!!!


On Mon, Nov 12, 2012 at 12:14 PM, Zachary Larsen <zlarsen@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Yes sir big tornado just gods way of saying repent now Sacramento because you suck haha! I love the picture by the way!! she is so cute!! Also my bike is pretty busted haha you will see pictures whenever you send back my other sim card :) The bike still runs so thats important! As far as Mark goes he is still set for the 24th!!! im excited he almost bailed on us but thats just the adversary at work. We actually warn people of that, when we give them a baptism date we say look, things are going to get crazy and you are going to want to back out of this commitment just so you know. DONT BACK OUT! thats what we say haha! My members skype address is slund15 just so you know :) uuhh also i had to get something at deseret book for expensive could you maybe reimburse my debit card? :) :) Well the story with the laotions, dont ever accept milk from them. We had hot coco from a member and i found out the milk they use is breast milk..... i pretty much threw up haha! i also eat mexican food. Beans are not so bad and yes for those of you who tried to get me to cafe rio all the time I WILL NOW EAT THERE! beans and such were pretty much forced on me haha. Sad day about ashleys window, but i heard the snow was pretty crazy there! its super cold here so i can only imagine what Utah is like. I met an elder here who is from Moab Utah and he climes a lot we are now best friends!!! Good to hear about Ashley's boy we have a lot of marshelees people here missionaries and investigators, its one of our bigger branches. Thanks for the box of goodies by the way, they were delicious! i need rain pants and more work pants because the pants at mens wearhouse sucks haha! they rip all the time i learned how to sew because of them. So i may need money for that sorry :( when is the wedding date by the way?? Also could i get moms written testimony please :) :) i love you forever! uuuhhh oh! next Pday will be on thanksgiving just so you knows! also i learned that J-dubs are more feared than mormons here, problem is that everyone thinks we are J-dubs haha!!! just a funny thought! i have a quick qquestion father ken, should i go home early for school? my go home date is technically sep 2 but if i go home early it would by july 22ed and at first i was all "yea im goin home early for school" but now im not so sure, what do you say? Also tell kevin to get on that CD for me, he knows what im talkin about. I see good works going down in the priest quorum especially with all ya'll in there. so good work, keep it up! tell jeason to tell mike stewart to write me back, he did once haha!  Well i love you all very much! i truly do! and i love it here! im doing good works for sure! i love all that fun times that go down! im getting better at basketball and im actually gaining muscle!! thats exciting! i wanted to leave with a good thought. I saw a drunk guy about 2:00 P.M. and i thought how sad is that? and then we talked to him. He told us his sob story which may or may not have been true. I started thinking how sad is it that homeless people and drunks dont have a family that loves them enough to take them in? not a brother or sister or anyone! Families need to stick together! I have learned so much about families. i cant stress how important that family unit is. stay close together, have family dinners, have family night, talk to eachother. always be looking out for eachother! families can and will be together forever! i love you all! I know we are all a good family stay close! i love you all so much and you are so important! thank you for all your support!!! 

Monday, November 5, 2012

Persistance is NOT futile 2 and never trust Laotian food...

From Zack,
Well first off i wanted to see wreck it ralph!! Also those costumes are perfect! i love them! we had a costume, but i thought of a better one for next year. Im putting together a "title of liberty" flag for next year :) I wish yall did that cool costume stuff when i was around! Although might i add i was the first to hang someone in our yard for Halloween, and it was a black guy hahaha!!!!!! I LOVE KAYLA!!!! she is so cute!! I had no idea that Disney bought Lucas films, thats very sad actually haha. Yea i been watching all the football games, im getting an official last years NBA jersey. Like used in the NBA its durants jursey. THE MEMBERS HOOK YOU UP HERE!!! if i go to Folsom the members buy the missionaries $900 suits!! I love that place they give you such nice stuff in Folsom and Eldarado hills. However its the most apostate part of the mission haha! the girls there are like snakes of the adversary, we call the FDOA= (fiery darts of the adversary) I got lots of candy and lots of scary stories from Halloween in California haha!! However these are not stories for the blog so maybe in a letter. Also in a letter remind me to tell you what i had to eat the other day When i found out what it was i almost threw up haha, never ever accept food from a loation person!  As far as MTC and new age, check this out. Before the age change they were getting 350 on average mission papers a week, Now they are getting over 4000 papers a week! it is estimated that by february there will be over 9000 MTC students. How are the visits to G-ma adams going? the nightlight thing ill send the website next week ok? ok, ok, ok time for a miracle story. this guys name is mark. We ran into him on the streets, he rejected us at first but we kept talking to him. Then we had a lesson and prayer on the street, then we had a lesson another day and gave him a baptism date and he believed everything we said. Then the next day we came over and he dropped us.... he rejected everything! because he saw an anti mormon website. Then the next day he showed up to an activity we invited him to and said "this is my new home, this is my new family" he is being baptized on the 24th this month. He said after he dropped us he went back inside his home and he looked up all the churches in the sacramento area, he came across the Joseph smith video and watched it. he believes it all now and he is a firm for baptism, so we didnt really do anything haha.  Now i have a request, move the futon from outside before it snows please and then let me know when its done :)  I also found a member so i can SKYPE!!!!! YAy!!!!! Has anyone seen mikey T? if so tell him to write me ok? also i need sam hunters E-mail address please :) :) Well i love you all i truly do! i am happy to be out here, I love all the service i get to do out here with the occasional baptism hah!! yea there is some weird stuff but oh well! well love you all, i have to go bye!!!!

Persistance is NOT Futile!!

On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 11:39 AM, Jeremy Larsen <jeremyl@myldsmail.net> wrote:
The Halloween lay out was awesome, wish I could have been there for that!! Our Halloween was cool, we got an Investigator to our chili cook off and we were the judges. The Investigator John Patterson is an old Vietnam vet and he's got really bad PTSD, he also knows his bible really well, so I'm getting to know my bible and bofm really well to combat him haha He's actually the subject of the excitement this week. We had a lesson w/ him, we do everyday and he was having a really tough time w/ baptisms for the dead and the spirit paradise and spirit prison things. So we went to his house Sunday to pick him up for church and there was a letter that was pinned to his door and he was gone. The letter said that if we were going around preaching something other then the doctrine of Christ then he wants nothing to do with it, and that he'll pray for us that God will have mercy on our souls. Also to never come back until we have learned the true doctrine of Christ. SOOO I was pretty upset.. We went back latter that day (in our now Tripanionship w/ Tammy and Hauge) and Tammy was pissed, he was knockin on the door and yelled "John all we want is our books back, open up!!" John came to the door and I started talkin to him and for some reason he let us in. Luckily he let me try to edify him on where it talks about it in the bible so I went to 1 Corrinthians 15 and talked about Baptisms for the dead, then I went to 1 Peter 3:19-20 + 4:6 and the spirit did the rest, it was so strong I could taste it almost. The spirit worked on him and it worked on me and I now have a much stronger testimony of those subjects. He committed to baptism on the 14th.. It really was a miracle. We've had a whole lot of other things go on this week but it's to much to type haha We've been hearin a lot about the new mission stuff and our mission is going to go from 215 max to 280 max.. gonna be nuts. Also LA's is a huge thing for us here! only 40% of the stake is active, so a lot of what we do is try to bring people back.. its actually a whole lot harder then new people to the church. We're also teaching a new family!! The Dad Mike is just like me, and I really get along with him, the wife is a little harder.. The only reason he let us into his house was because he knew that Taumoelau and I had been sent from God and that we had the spirit w/ us.. It's just crazy what goes on out here.. It's changing me quickly, but don't worry i'll still be immature when I get back!! Bro. Herlan had us over for dinner again, he was tellin us a story and his wife corrected him, so he looked over at her and said "Don't you have dishes to do or dessert to get us!" then continued to pound the table chanting "dessert!" she just laughed.. He's like 60 and his wife is 40.. he's so awesome haha I hear that James Harden is balling it up from a RC. two 40 point games w/ Lin now, I'd probably watch Huston now if I didn't hate them so much.. Total bummer on Jesse, tell him I say hi btw.. What's he doing now?? Thank you so much for all the stuff Padre, Benjamin Sperry who I gave the board was going crazy!! I told  him he has to be good enough to break it doing a cool trick before I get off my mission, so I've got to write that family now haha. The dried fruit was delicious so thank you :D Thank you for all the support that you've been to me.. I love you and i miss all of you! I hope that the Transition is going well over at the place, from the sound of Ashley it's going well. It was great to hear from her and from Steph/Slade and Lisa/Dusty. Another HUGE thing that happened this week was I got mail from Shon Cross and Levi! Shon was tellin me about the crazy stuff he's still doing, which includes: Becoming active in the church, planning on getting married in the temple before I get back and so forth! It completely blew my mind.. I really am so glad that he's getting active, I never even knew he was a member. Going on this mission really changed a lot of my friends, or at least had a little influence I hope.. It just completely threw me off that he's doing this.. Makes me so happy. I love you padre, I miss all of you and you are all in my prayers! The Church is true and this is the greatest work that I've ever been apart of.