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.