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!!!!

Jers in Redmond

So this has been a wild wild transfer. I can't believe I've already been down in Redmond for 6 weeks.... Things just don't slow down in life do they? So Elder Lightfoot is leaving this transfer. He's going to go to Salem to help out a struggling district. Most of the zone is leaving and I'm sad to see them go. Elder Moon is going to be a ZL I'm so pumped about that!!!!!!!! The entire MLC got rocked this transfer. Lightfoot wont be there, neither will 4 others. its a totally different group now. Its wild.... So I'm going to get you up to date on some health stuff. I'm doing good health wise, but I've been doing a special diet thing. I still have had struggles with regular food so I've been doing smoothies and some stuff called Herbalife with protein shakes and other stuff to get my food in that I can that is small amounts but packed with nutrition. Its been costing more and I'm sorry about that. I'm a lot healthier but I don't know whats going on with the stomach thing still. I'm not worrying about it but I've just been careful and doing everything I can to get a balanced meal in. The gal that works for Herbalife is a member and has done some nutrition stuff for me. Its been helping me with energy, even though I don't struggle to bad with that. The Lord has blessed me a good bit in that. I've been getting my comp and everyone else up at 545 in the morning to play ball with me and exercise. Its been awesome! I've done that for over a year now, early mornings rock btw! So I'm sitting with Moon here and he says: How's it going poppa Larsen! Hope everything is going well, love Elder Moon! Honestly he's the coolest kid in the world. He may be my ZL comp!!!!!!!!! It would seriously be the greatest way to end the mish. So other then everyone leaving the zone not much has happened this week. I just hope you know how much I love ya and I'm excited for this last leg. We are going to get 3 baptism's before the end of the transfer! Things are going out with a bang! So if you have any question about the health stuff just let me know. I'm doing well, its on the up and up with it. So this is kinda a lame email but hey its just one of those weeks! I'm a bit scatter brained and their are like 30 people in this room they all say hello and that they love ya! Elder Larsen Sr.

Jers Nutso Week

Padre!! Okay, so this has been a nutso week. I don't have much time to write but I can shoot you some fun photos of all that we've been doing. Being out in Bend and Redmond rocks. We've been having way to much fun and we've been talking with some of the coolest people out here. I've been blessed to meet some awesome people out here. The pictures that I'm going to give you are at Tumalo Falls in Bend, its awesome. The work has really been progressing, we are teaching over 20 lessons a week again which is right where I prefer to be, but we'll be seeing quite a bit more soon. Honestly the work is hastening here in Oregon, life is good and I'm glad things are going well for ya'll! It sounds like a really exciting summer ya'll are having! My thought of the day comes from 2 Nep. 5:27, go look it up, it rocks. But the people of Nephi chose to live after the manner of happiness! It truly is all about finding happiness. If we live under the gospel of Jesus Christ then we will always find the happiness we are looking for! I love all ya'll!!! Here come pictures!

Zacks district and Baptisms!

well that sounds like a lot of fun!!! im glad all is well! im glad that life is going well for the the family! as for leaving right after the ceremony that should probably work im trying to figure out how everything will work in just 2 days. we can work it out though. sounds like everyone had fun at the reunion! well thanks for the recepie i like it lots! i have a gnarly tan line now that last 4 or 5 days it hasnt gotten below 104 degrees and its pretty killer. life is good out here we had 2 baptisms this week and i got to perform one of them in water only up to me knee and he was twice my size so that was tough but we got it in one try. i am doing well here but im in close work with the zone leaders! my last assignment is probably the hardest one i have had. im building up a district of 10 missionaries and over half of them are discouraged and when they are successful they don't really give god the credit they just kinda don't care that they had a good day or week and move on with their lives. i have 2 companionship's that are so great the zone leaders are in my district and they are awesome! my comp is doing better now that he has a comp that is going to work no matter how hot its been. My comp though gets really upset and past feeling quick and then he just shuts me out and doesn't care about anything and gets very prideful and he recognizes it and doesn't wanna change. that's difficult but he loves me and we get along he just gets mad at the hand god deals him often. he is great though! we baptized a homeless man and a man that was in my last area! Life is good though im happy! we have 3 more baptisms lined up 1 this week and 2 on the 16th so thats awesome! there is a guy that lives in sandy out here visiting so thats cool! However he is moving out here and i told him bad move but he said it was for work so i cant blame him people get paid big bucks out here but thats because the government takes big bucks from you haha! uuhh..... i went on exchanges and that was cool, a missionary opened up to me big time and is testifying of how important it is we become REAL missionaries but he doesnt know how. the missionaries right now in general have a hard time baptizing because they are too caught up in mission drama and other similar things to focus on how to be a effective missionary and thats what my next training is going to be on so i can help them understand how and why this is important. very stressful i feel very inadequate. but i know that god will bless me. my comp sometimes tells me to not worry because i only have 4 weeks but thats why i care so much haha its my final mark on the mission thats actually spiritual rather than that missionary that got no bonesed off his bike into a ditch, people still talk about that so thats cool haha! well i love you all so much! i love the work im excited to chill with yall soon. did you get a letter from the mission saying when to be at the mission office? if so just lemme know real quick like right now if possible love you all so much! bye!

Jeremy says..."remember, Remember"

Padre! Wait wait wait... We talking about Jesse Riddle? Did he move out? That's crazy! Okay so how long are we planning on being in Oregon on the ride back? If I know then I can let ya know what we can do. So this will be a bit of a short one. Things have been awesome this last week. I feel more and more that I am doing exactly what The Lord would have me do. It's been a bit difficult for some of the missionaries to grasp the change of pace that is being brought but they are trying to change as well. It's been a bit hard for some of them but it's never easy to change and become more like the savior, it always requires some sacrifice. Okay just so you know also I'm in a beauty school right now getting a haircut from a LA... Definitely an interesting situation but for some reason this is what The Lord was needing us to do, somebody here to talk to for sure haha This last week I was with Elder Moon again which was awesome! I love that kid. He has grown so much, his area has been pretty tough and the last ZL here really killed his faith in so,e leadership in the mission so his faith has just been rocked a bit. Keep him in your prayers. We saw a ton of miracles. Seriously, the way The Lord works is nuts. We prayed about what to do with some surprise free moments, so we decided we needed to go to the park. Right as we got there we see this guy sitting in the middle of he park, he's got a big ol beard and we decide that's who we need to talk to. We go up to him and start talking and he says "hey I was just reading about you guys!" At this point we are totally confused but pumped outta our minds. We leave him with a BofM and invite him to really look into it. He travels all around Oregon and it just happens that he is there right when The Lord tells us to go there and he was just reading about us.... That's a sign hahaha and he admitted it, totally cool. Moon rocks though, nuff said, I love that guy. I give him the hardest time though. We have some LA we are working with howling at him, same with the youth (howl at the moon, get it haha) well that is some of the happenings of this last week. It's been wild, I'm exhausted... The bags under the eyes are getting wild, but I'll just keep on going forward. It's all about the experience and I'm runnin low on time so I've gotta make these last moments the best... And they will be. I love all of you so much! Spiritual thought of the week: REMEMBER! For the kings that were successful and righteous in the time of the Jaredites they had one common connection, they remembered how generous and loving The Lord had been in bringing their fathers across the deep and not cursing them. The most common phrase repeated save verily verily is remember, remember. We must always remember, we have even covenanted to do so. So remember, easy way to do it is write down one blessing you get during the day and then write one down from a month or a year ago. You will see the love our savior has for each of you as you do it! love ya! Elder Larsen Sr.

Success in Zacks new district...and Mama Darlenes Delicious cookies!

hey papa! im stoked for ya too! we need to go to the temple on saturday there is a wedding i got invited to that day. so saturday at 9:30 i believe. im figuring out logistics with what we will be doing im thinking we will have an elk grove and Carmichael day and then a lodi possibly a south sac day im not a fan of the ghetto! Did president really speak highly of me? that means a lot. its been kinda tough out here one its hard to stay focused i dont let anyone know so i just keep trying to work hard nobody in the ward knows im going home i just tell em all i came out in august. Anyway things are good here just ghetto! we cover a road that is one of the highest murder roads in sacramento if that makes any sense. I ran over a serynge and got a flat tire and now it has aids haha! i miss biking i dont miss flat tires! My companion is pretty great he is from delaware and that is cooL! i have not really had to man Utah companions! The work is great here, we have set up two baptisms which is sick they haven't baptized in a year. We are baptizing a homeless man named Pride and he is very humble ironic huh? he is cool, looking at him you wouldnt know he was homeless he owns a business and is trying to build himself back up he is just a victim of the economy and lives in the bushes behind star bucks haha! I have a list of people for you to pray for. they all have baptismal dates and i really wanna see them go through with it! There is Erika Contrera, Ben Nelson, Fabian, Pride evans, Mike blackwell, victoria, and anya. Life is good and i love the work! im happy to be here in this district, it needs as lot of help and work and i cant do it alone and i dont dream to. the lord is truly guiding us to people. we are contacting and tracting pretty much all day because we only have pride and mike as investigators. i got a flat tire and this non member picked us up fixed my bike and took us home and said stop by anytime and we are praying that we will find more people through our efforts. the ward hated the last missionary (the one i replaced) so they are semi standoffish but they are warming up and we are visiting them :) life is goo i love the work i love you all so much and i love being a district leader again because i can work more in my area and i have a good relationship with my missionaries! thanks for the cookies! can i get the recipe for those cookies a member wants to make them for us :) they loved em and so does everyone in my district we call em crack cookies because they are so good and addicting we just keep eating them even when we say no more! well i lvoe you so much!! please tell gma adams i love her i haven't heard from her or written o her so please tell her im thinking of her! LOVE YOU!!! see you in 5 weeks!

Inspiration from Jeremy

Best advice I'd give to you is to not listen to everything you hear! I'm definitely not the best missionary haha I've just been super blessed with awesome areas, companions and just general circumstances. However I've become a lot like you in the fact that I've become a bit of a workaholic... I eat live and breath the work, but I've also learned the importance of celebration and playing hard in general. This has been a really interesting few weeks. I've gone from a zone and with people that generally are competing to see who can be the best in the work and best at things to a zone that are generally really relaxed and laid back. Its been an interesting change. When it come to the work its been a problem for some areas but for ours and for a very few others we are picking up some serious speed. We have found 15 new over the last few weeks and are just having a blast talking to a lot of people. There is a lot of abuse around here though. Something I've noticed is that each companion I've had has had a specific type of people that come to them. Its been an interesting thing to see how the Lord really does have specific people and types of people for us to work with. Elder Lightfoot is going to be an amazing counselor one day and so he seems to get a lot of people that struggle with some very deep seated emotional pain and scars. Its been a sad thing to see so many people battered into complete denial and kids and grandparents stuck in the middle. We've been talking a lot with bishop on how to work with these situations. I've learned a lot about the importance of keys as an assistant as well, thats been something that has become so real when it comes to revelation. I've loved being with Elder Moon again and Elder Munoz, Elder Lightfoot rocks also, so life is so good. I'm going on a 5 day exchange with a bunch of people this week to see how things are going throughout the Redmond zone and Bend zone! Its going to be a ton of fun! Exchanges always bring miracles. This last week we had a fun time doing our ZTM, we focused on Charity, Faith and Revelation. Its really interesting how they all work with one another. Elder McGlothlin and and Elder Montierth came down for ZTM and to help build some faith in the zone which was awesome. So we had gotten into some banana fights at Elder McGlothin's place, literally we were throwing bananas at eachother at the end of the day before we had a zone conference. We destroyed that place haha I did that (different variates of destroying their place) a lot. So they came to my place now.... and needless to say we had chips emptied out in my bed, everything was destroyed by the time they left. The funny thing was we just had inspections............... It was sad. We have seen some serious miracles though this week. I'll tell ya, of all the things I've come to know is that this really is Gods work. He wants this work done and he'll get it done if anyone just goes out and believes its his. I've done nothing special my whole mission, I just have comps and myself that believe that this really is Gods work. Since it is his work we don't need to try to hard, just need to take a step back and let him do it. So some revelation for the week. I have been pondering the fact that loving our God and neighbor are the 2 greatest commandments. So encompassing that "on these two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets"Matt 22:36-40. In Romans 13 Paul explains why pretty well by saying "if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." I have come to speculate the reason behind this is the fact that God has perfect charity for us. Our purpose is to become like our Heavenly Father, he doesn't need faith, or hope. He doesn't need prophecy or anything like that. He does need charity though. Christ was perfectly motivated out of charity- "And again, I remember that thou hast said that thou hast loved the world, even unto the laying down of thy life for the world, that thou mightest take it again to prepare a place for the children of men. And now I know that this love which thou hast had for the children of men is charity; wherefore, except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou hast prepared in the mansions of thy Father." Ether 12:33-34. So unless we have this Charity we are not like our Father, therefore we cannot return to live with him, we cannot see him as he sees us because we aren't motivated by the pure love of him and his son. More important then being obedient is being obedient because we love our Father and each other. Just my thought of the week. I love you all so much, I'm glad ya'll had fun at Trek it looks awesome! I'm loving life, things are just going to fast for me. Also what about the room thingy??? Where are we sharing a room? I look forward to hearing from you next week and I hope everyone knows how much I love them. Tell the Grandparents how much I love them and how much I think of them. How is GMA Brailsford? and Adams? Let me know. Love ya! Elder Larsen Sr.

Zack moves to south Sac ... and gives a missionary a blessing

a cool experience! i got to give a blessing to a missionary which was super cool! i just felt like non of the words were my words and it was really great! a very spiritual experience for me because i feel like its been a lil dry for a bit as far as really spiritual experiences go so thats cool! it makes me happy! i enjoy them and the missionary felt it too! well love you! On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 10:14 AM, Zachary Larsen wrote: im on my last 6 weeks bro! its crazy and im stepping out of being a zone leader! they want me to build up a struggling district that has just thrown in the towel and given up on missionary work. they gave me a comp who hasn't smiled since the jazz took a national championship (get it its a joke in how he has never smiled ;) ) and two of the companionship's are training so thats going to be a lil intense and im nervous. this is going to be a stressful but fulfilling last 6 weeks! In my district is one of my boys though who is solid because he is just coming in as well its elder wong!!! and brandon is in my zone so thats cool too!! talk about president refocusing me haha! new mish president is switching a lot of things up man! im back on bike for the first time in 20 months and i gave my bike away to a struggling missionary to help him so thats good haha! they are moving me to the ghetto in south sac so that will also be fun!!! i get to see more shootings haha! ill miss the country but i know that god puts me where i need to be and where ill have the biggest improvement for others and myself so here we go!!! The trek sounds like it was awesome! i liked it a lot when i went! life is pretty great aint it? Thanks for the cookies we did not give them to the zone we have kept them to ourselves and we eat them and drink orange juice every night while playing Monopoly and im winning big time :) I OWN BOARDWALK!!!!! Thanks for the housing switch! i like it lots! im always about going cheap! did shio talk to you? has parker talked to you at all? you should just call him directly :) yea i can talk to the priests just fill me in on a lil more of what you want me to cover and i will cover the material and such and you know me i am a story teller so i can tell stories thats for sure! kayla looks like a model in training i like it i think i can show her a couple good facial poses! yea we heard Germany won in sacrament meeting its pretty much been a part of church for a while i guess haha! its like the unofficial 4th hour haha! well we just had a baptism and we have 3 more in teh next two weeks so we are really excited things have really picked up here and its just amazing i love this work and it will be sad to leave it but at the same time it will be exciting to move on to new things ya know? its prolly good im leaving one of our investigators has developed a small crush on me haha but i feel i could have done my last 6 weeks here so im just nervous for my new assignment! thanks so much for the birthday cookies and stuff its amazing i love it so much! i appreciate it lots!!!

New contacts through Insane Clown Posse?

Let it begin! My streak of actually writing you will now continue again! So its hard to really tell you all of the things that have been going on in life... First off being in the last phase of the mission is really really weird. Something else that is weird is that every area I have gone to since Forest Grove at least 3 people have all thought that they had known me from somewhere. I have felt the same about them. The reality of a life before this has become more and more apparent over the last year. Since Salem I have felt like the places I have been at I have been foreordained to be at. The people I have met I was supposed to meet them. Its been an awesome feeling because that means that I've been where the Lord has wanted me to be. I feel like I'm truly walking the path that the Lord ordained me to, and it doesn't feel much better then knowing that. I've loved it out here, it is just like Utah, at least the weather. We've been working our tails off... I definitely feel like the pressure is on cause of the lack of time I have in to do what I love. I've never felt such a sense of urgency in anything before but I know I've got a job out here and the Lord needs it done. He put me here when I've got the most experience as a missionary so I know this is going to be an area full of miracles! We are already seeing them come in. We have been able to find 6 new this week and 2 of them are with some solid families. We went canyoneering (dont know how to spell), which is walking the canyon looking for investigators and we met 3 guys who looked like they were pretty shifty, but those are my favorite people to talk to. So they let us into their cave and we started to talk to them. They were wearing ICP (Insane Clown Posse) So I listened to Tech Nine before the mish, and they are also Juggalos so I had a way into the convo! Plus we had similar backgrounds, same with my Comp Lightfoot (I seem to get the wild comps who are all doing better, gotta love that Atonement). So we talked they were pretty interested, had some questions and we are meeting them next week at McDonalds haha. So then as we were walking back I was feeling unsatisfied, like we had totally missed something. We then saw this couple playing with their dogs in a field and we yelled out HAPPY 4TH! and they started to walk towards us. Turns out that the guy, Bro. Graves, was a LA and he was in the Navy as a rescue swimmer up from San Diego. His girlfriend was unaware of that fact. The spirit told me we were there to help her come to know that he was Mormon and then we just chatted and left. You could see in her face the interest she had and also that Bro. Graves was looking for activity again. The next day turns out that we had dinner with some friends of the girlfriend and Bro. Graves and they were going to talk to them about the gospel again soon! It was crazy to see the Lord working things out. He's all in the details! I felt assured after we left those two that the reason we went there was for talking with them. Totally going to be an eternal family in 2 years! The place I'm at is beautiful also. We've got the 3 Sisters (Faith, Hope, and Charity) on the horizon as well as the rest of the Cascades. We have Smith Rock, Black Butte, and so many others so P-Day is going to be hikes from now on! Its going to be a great great few months! Also some other crazy news, a few weeks back I saw Elder Raulston! He was at the mission home when Norton and I were figuring out Transfers with President and I heard is voice and jumped down the stairs as fast as I could! He was there with his Mom. He is getting MARRIED! Norton and I are going to be Groomsmen, that'll be nuts! its going to be October 16th, day after the Semester starts. I've had 3 of my good friends get married since they went home now, its nuts. For you guys it sounds like life has been nuts! Katie in Europe spreading the gospel like a champ! Tell her she's awesome and I love her. Also could you send GMA Adams this email! I havent been in contact with her forever and I just want her to know how much I love her and have been thinking of her. Jason is a boss, that's all I gotta say. How are they doing? Sounds like I'm going to have to get up to date on all of the games these crazy kids are playing these days haha Honestly, I bet Alex is going to own me at Pokemon, I'm washed up... Kinda like Obi Wan when he was fighting Darth Vader for the last time (I know it looks like he gave up, but what really happened was he knew he was going to be defeated when he started. He just stalled so that Luke could get out of there...). How weird is it that P Young is home!! Our first reunion is in October.... You all sound super busy and like the Summer is in full swing. It sure is here in Redmond. I love you all so much and hope the days only get better. As I have been reflecting on the mission, which I have been a lot (some missionaries get trunky, so far I'm trunky for past areas like Roseburg, Takena (Albany), Springfield 2nd, etc.), I've come to see that all this life is about is getting a little better everyday. Not wasting a second because I don't have to many left to waste. I'm so happy to say I've progressed every day... But I can't believe how fast this is happening. I'd love to go back to the beginning but I know that this is just the beginning in all reality. My scripture of the day has been just a snippet of one but its this: "and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." I know that my mission is just beginning in life and that we each have a responsibility to carry the light of the Lord to those that he has trusted us with. Our neighbors, our friends, work peers, etc. We can instigate the change in their lives necessary to bring them home! INSTIGATE CHANGE! that's what I'm all about and its what we have the ability to do. I love you all so much and I pray for you and your missionary work in the family and among others daily. I love you all so much! Elder Larsen Sr.

Zacks new mission president!

Well thanks for the birthday wishes! This week has been crazy! we got our new mission president who i imitated his voice and now has that first impression of me and also the impression of me doing an old new York mafia voice impersonation so that's good. i also didn't shave for 2 days in hopes that he would kick me out of leadership but darn it he is inspired and saw right through my plans. I have been a zone leader for almost a year and that's just straight up draining. everyday someone comments at LEAST 1 on how tired or exhausted i look, i agree with them haha! Lets see i got to do baptism for the dead with my black convert, i got to baptize him that's so cool! i have never done the baptizing and ITS AMAZING! really a great spirit i felt there. uuuhhhh lets see.... that's a sick story about Jason! Guess what my license is expired too have you done anything with the state to fix that? As for kate way to go! she is a great missionary already! i have not met any jews out here, they are like the only religion im missing out here! Ya'll are doin some landscaping huh? well i would be more than happy to help out when i get home :) i like landscaping honestly! If darlene likes country she will like where she is staying thats for sure! the thompsons home is in Deep Wilton haha! well like mid deep wilton its the center of the ward boundary i think. So we had some financial mishaps, one of our missionaries cars exploded with battery acid and we needed to fix it so we were asked to pay for the new battery, it was 140 dollars, needless to say thats more money than we get on our card for the month so i had to sue some home card funds and we dont have much money to get food this month ahah! i think we are getting reimbursed but not sure how much so if i can get some help that would be great!The 4th was great we played zombies in the church building and capture the flag which was cool! No real fireworks but California doesnt really have any fireworks that are cool due to a corrupt political system and crazy liberals in charge of laws haha! They all go to Utah to get fireworks or to Oregon so i think thats funny. so man people go to Utah to register cars which i think is funny too! Well i love you all lots! we have so much happening! I am really excited for our baptism this week and we have one set up for the next two weeks along with one in august. its great! the lord is blessing us with work, sometimes to much work i would rather preach then do zone leader work because zone leader work and missionaries make me tired haha! i think thats why president jardine is keeping me in the position of zone leader because im the only one in council that has been there so long as a zone leader. nobody is close to me haha! the only other one in the leadership council is AP haha! its funny! well i love yall lots im having a great birthday, im creating a gangster shirt for me on my birthday. "its my birthday present to me! im so happy" loves bunch!

Jers is a ZL AND an AP..and a prophetic demon from last year

Popaa! Sorry for not writing in the last few weeks... Its been crazy, not crazy enough to not let you and the family know how much I really do appreciate all that you do and have done for me though. I have been incredibly busy, but I've chosen to be so at times as well. So I have been moved out to Redmond to be the Assistant over the Bend and Redmond zones. I'm serving as a ZL as well out here so its been good to be back into a more proactive position with many of the missionaries. I stayed in Newberg until the Thursday to help Elder Montierth and McGlothlin with Transfers, picking up the new missionaries and taking them to the rock and so forth. It was fun to be with those two, they have become two of my best friends. I was with both of them down in Salem a few months back. I was there when Elder McGlothin was born and Elder Montierth was the Zone Leader over the Spanish zone in Salem. He was pretty much my companion as a Leader there when I was training Moon and Parkinson. Its weird to see this but all of my good friends in Salem are Leaders in the Mission now. We all grew so much together in Salem its really cool to see them now all grown up mission wise at least. Elder Parkinson is a ZL now and Moon is my DL out here. So many of my good friends in the mission have gone home, Shipley, Norton, Ande's (who is married), Raulston (who is going to be married in October, I'm going to be a groomsman woot), Worsencroft, and so many others.... Its crazy to be the old guy now. Honestly though its been more motivating then anything else; I've been winding down but speeding up. I'm with an Elder named Elder Lightfoot now. He is such a good Elder. He is from Utah, he is a wrestler and is just a fun guy over all! He is a ton of fun and we've been really enjoying the work together. The high desert is where I belong haha We have our work cut out for us here though, the zones have been struggling but Elder Shipley and a few others who just went home have been working hard to build trust and we are seeing the benefits now. We put two new on date this last week, A gal by the name of Kennedy Laford and then Cindy Parcel. Please pray for them! They are both with sweet sweet families who are needing the spiritual nourishment as well. I'll write more on Monday, know I love ya padre and hope all is well. I'll definitely hit you up on Monday! Elder Larsen Sr.

Zacks zone renamed "Elk Grove Family"

well the zone has been crazy this has been one of my most debilitating and tiring weeks but also one of my best weeks. i found out that one of my recent converts is going less active due to many injuries and illnesses she is turning completely away from god nothing against the church or anything she just doesnt like god and wants nothing to do with him which was very disheartening i havnt really had converts go LA on me.... she still likes me coming over but not willing to pray or anything. we also had quite a bit of apostasy in the zone, spanish and english missionaries are not getting along and not working and all kinds of stuff. Now the great part is, we were able to talk out a lot of the inter missionary disputes that caused much problems and unify the zone. We started calling it Elk Grove Family instead of zone so thats good. we have the missionaries on the same page adn the spirit played a huge roll in the sit downs and personal chats because we prayed a ton and god is just the best!!!! i love him! he helped a lot the spirit was SSSOOOO strong in every chat we had with missionaries. we had 4 inv's to church and two of them are for sure getting baptized and we have lots of people to teach and we have just been super busy non-stop with working either with inv's or missionaries and its been amazing to be busy all the time and most days we give up breakfast and lunch because we are to busy so thats why im so tired haha! This week the member we live with gave us an in depth discussion on aliens and why they are here and what they are going to do so thats kewl, he says he is convinced his wife is an alien so thats interesting but hey whatever works right? He also talked politics with us and conspiracy, he is super crazy! but that makes for good stories. if your curious at all, elder fluckiger is killing me in monopoly sadly haha! I keep getting more and more tired im worn out but still working i know if is top that everything bad will happen and if i keep working that things will only get better. We went to a HUGE party the other day and found 2 new investigators one who wants to be baptized,he thought he was already a member just by coming to church so thats cool! i saw christain our NFL friend he went to the activity. we had YSA from the bay area to Roseville and Rocklin so that was crazy! and i kinda got un focused but you would too if you were my age on a mission for 22 months and surrounded by that much YSA and fun activities however we stayed on purpose and taught lessons there to non-members :) uuhh Lets see........ president adn sister lewis are now gone and we have the new mission president so thats cool i guess we are having a conference call with him tomorrow and then a meeting with him on wednesday. well, IM TIRED! i wanna sleep haha! im having lunch with brandon mcbride today which is tight! i have learned lots of new ghetto talk, wanna hear some? "Hey bro! you fina catch fade homie? datz be hecka ratchet dawg! kick rocks M.C. B4 i out you!" or my personal favorite " i dont be here man" thats a good one haha! there is more but that should suffice for now right? so great news, we dont have to go to Del Paso heights if you dont want to because my convert moved out of there. (for safety im sure) Also there is a member that has offered to house us for free while we are staying, we would have our own rooms and person space from the family as well. they wanna make it for FREE to be easier on you, its closer to the places i have served and the temple is not too far away from it. Rancho Cordova is kinda ghetto anyway, although we will prolly visit there because its got the capitol and the cool park there and such. well thats my week im happy and the mission is great! i can honestly say that i have made some necessary changes. im happier with my life and i have a much better understanding of it thats FO SHO HOMIE! well love you all muchly! its sad that jesse is selling his house so he better be at my home coming! As for trek be prepared its some good hiking! i LOVE HIKING! Give my best to the family on the missions little rock would be lots o fun! well love you all lots! Tell kate that its un patriotic to go to Europe on the 4th of July seeing as we fought very very hard to be OUT of Europe on the 4th of July. :)

Baptisms in the YSA!

Well too bad mike is already housed... call him again and tell him it would be cooler if he lives with me :) seriously though. anyway i love ya! sounds like things were pretty crazy! weddings galore eh? who lives in that place of Nevada? thats the middle of nowhere. anyway glad the wedding went smoothly! we had a baptism which was amazing i actually had 2 one in Lodi and one in Elk Grove. the one that i performed i actually performed it the first time with my left hand so i baptized him to hell haha j.k. j.k. j.k. but i did have to redo it sadly. The zone is doing great although we are struggling with some apostasy which is sad because i want to end my mission on a good note :( but we are working away! im so freaking tired!!! im tired like all the time is terrible it makes missionary work hard haha but it also means i have been working hard. As for my classes sounds fun? how many credits? so the firefighting is the 6 to 10? that will be cool! your the best! i just got on shiotani for not emailing you he is a punk! and as for Indy i would love to have him with us! that would be great! im losing at monopoly my companion is pretty great at it, im mortgaging lots of things out but i think i can have a come back! We have had a couple great weeks! We are teaching tons of lessons a week 25 to 30 which is awesome! i have never done that before! Teaching at eh college campus is pretty amazing although in a California summer sometimes distracting! We got abducted at the campus which was crazy! i can tell the story later just remind me. just know a guy pulled up in a golf cart and abducted us. thats the 3rd time on my mission :) All the YSA talk about is their countdown for when i leave its pretty jacked up but we get work done anyway! life is great! love you all so much! toodles! sorry for the short email i didnt really know what to write. take care of chinchy ok?

Zack and gold mining

no need for reserves in endowments and as far as long as we stay out i would like to attend sacrament meeting in the YSA if i could before we leave. is that possible? as for school great! did you get a hold of shiotani or rather did he contact you? that sounds crazy for dean what a cool experience! as for rock climbing way to go mama Darlene! Climbing is the best! Glad Kate really loved New York thats cool! i went gold panning today in Caloma! i loved it! i found some small flakes of gold but nothing much, mostly i got no bones ed in the river and went a floating down it :) it was fun! HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! i love you dad and thanks for keeping me here on earth instead of killing me! Your the best! While we are here i wanna see maybe moaning caverns and big trees ill be looking for some other things to go see :) i dont have long to talk so im sorry because of my gold mining! i love you though sorry for not writting :) it was a great week we found 10 new investigators thanks to the lord we taught almost 40 lessons this week and then we had a baptism!!!!! im so happy! BLACKTISMS!!!!!!! and we have 2 more ready to be baptized im so happy the lord is really blessings us a lot and we are spending time and finding success on the college campuses! i love it here so much! i love this work!

Jeremy and AP duties!

Hey Padre! I totally apologize for the last few weeks,also! HAPPY FATHERS DAY.... Honestly life has been absolute bonkers. So......... Where do I start... first I owe you some pictures. 2nd.... So this last week we had a 6 hour hash out on how to fix some of the issues in the mission with President. It was nuts. For the most part the mission is consecrated and wanting to do right, now we are lacking as teachers of simple truths of the gospel. Also Elder Shipley is going home with Elder Norton this transfer so this is been a tough few weeks preparing for this. Elder Shipley is the AP out east of the Cascades in the Redmond and Bend Stakes and they are both in a spiritual darkness right now. The conferences out there were just flat because the preparedness of the missionaries. SO.... I'll be going out there to be the AP out there. I'm pretty nervous about it, but luckily President is giving me a navy seal team to go and take care of business! Elder Montierth from Salem is down here with us now. He is the new Assistant. We are training him in 2 weeks to take over the office and the core of the mission so I can go out to the Cascades and help revive the work. Its going to be crazy. I'm excited and a bit nervous, but it will work out thanks to the Lord. I'm so very proud of Katie, tell her how much I love her! I'm glad that she had a good time in New York! is that where Grandma went with them?? So just the other week I introduced our President to the Jykle and Hydes so its a thing out in the mission now! I had no idea that the Heward left... that is pretty sad... Also Dean in jail?? That's crazy? Did they STUFF him? or was he ROASTED? hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha LET THE LAME TURKEY PUNS BEGIN! We'll have to get some good fishing soon it sounds like. The mission has taught me to focus on the important things in life, and fishing is definitely on that list, as long as its with family and friends and not on the Sabbath haha I was going to be giving you the news that I was going to extend my mission today also but last night I talked with President and we discussed all the preparations that you've done and I've done out here and we came to the conclusion that I just need to move on with my life when all is said and done. Its got to end at some point. Its tough to say that though.. We had a baptism this last week again of a gal that Elder Norton and I found. Her and her son RJ got baptized. We found them, the other Sisters and Elders taught while we mentored in the background their efforts. It was a lot of fun. As an assistant we do missionary work like Rondo, we dish it out as we find the openings haha. The sisters and Elder Norton and I spoke and sang Be Still My Soul at the baptism. It was a great experience. Her life was saved the day we found her, she then progressed and saved her family with joining the gospel. I've seen so much of this on my mission, its just not easy to see this winding down.. I love these people... I've been pondering the phrase "and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" This has been a tough assignment, at times I feel like I don't love these people enough (the missionaries) and I still struggle. I have answered this question in a way, but if you have any advice as I go to this new assignment on how to love these missionaries in a deeper way that would be awesome. Revelation for the day: Pride is Satan's disguise for Faith Faith: i CAN do this Pride: I can do this I love ya padre. I hope you have a great week. Let the Family know how much I love em and miss them. I'll talk to you again soon! Elder Larseny P.S. Is it possible for us to stay out until Sunday and go to church out here or no?? I'm up for any way, but If possible I would love to see a bunch of people in Salem or go to church there!

Zack, Aliens and Taxidermy!

thanks for the pics! boy has this week been so busy for us! im training a new zone leader and its crazy! Elder Fluckiger is so great i really like him and he is SSOOO TIRED! he asked is being a zone leader always this busy? we combined some ward boundaries on a stake level and we are splitting a spanish area. we attended 7 hours of church meeting yesterday and we have had over 20 hours of meetings these last 3 days! we have taught many lessons and we are seeing so much success!!! We are having a blacktism this week and we have two more on date and we are so happy! We moved into this crazy members house! he is a huge aliens believer and has no place for our food so we are just kinda starving haha! he ahs over 400 books on aliens and is always watching ancient aliens and believes they are going to take over our temples and do family history work and says its scripturally backed. its interesting we have a little cubical we are living in but we make the most of it and have fun, who knows i could be a believer once im out of here we read the books for our morning glory work outs they are a mental work out because of how funny they are! i hope kate enjoys her trip that will be fun! tahts awesome she saw clint i LOVE HIM!!! My comp does to he is a cowboy from wyoming that does taxidermy. well i have to go sorry for such a short email i got shaver thanks! also how much would i be making at the multi level marketing thing and what would i be doing? im told by president lewis i have a week to start making future plans haha then its back to missionary work its part of the departing stuff he has us do. well love you all so much! FILL ME IN ON DEAN GETTING ARRESTED! i wanna know about that i might send another email in a bit we will see. love youa ll! also whats kevin up to? well bye!

Zack trains a new ZL

ok i got shio your cell number! anyway that sucks big time that i cant do my welcome home talk with jeremy..... well i would be down to pick jeremy up but i guess it depends on whats goin on when im home. i cant have a welcome home talk on august 14th im not home yet. thats crazy. well that sounds like a lot going on my good friend. im suprized. i got the shaver it was much i needed i went 2 days without shaving and well lets say i became a man on my mission because i had a decent lil beard going on haha! im staying in Elk Grove transfers came yesterday and im training a new zone leader but im doin 9 transfers in Elk Grove its crazy! well life goes on. half our zone is training new missionaries! As far as things here its been good we have 2 INV's with a date for baptism its great! im excited to see what happens! so how big is the apartment that we are staying in if it has 6 rooms in it thats crazy huge! how much is it a month? also if im getting a job with where Jesse riddle works how much am i getting paid. Liam is a champ! thats how i played GO FISH if you wanna remind dusty of that. well i have mroe pics to send to ya rather than much to write we got lots going on so i cant say much but i love you!!! well im happy and time is running short so im just going tohave to buckle down and work hard :D well bye bye!!!!

Jeremy teaches with a member of the 70!

Padre!!! So this week has been nuts. We had our mission tour with Elder Martino! It was an awesome experience. We were able to teach 2 lesson's with him in members homes which rocked. He told us very pointedly where we needed to improve and built up some of the points we did well. We used our experiences from those lesson's to teach the rest of the mission how to use properly teach with members and plan with members and how to become better teachers. It was awesome. We toured the mission again with him and I'll tell ya by Saturday we were done... But Saturday we had an awesome awesome experience. We were able to take a LA gal and her non member friend to the Temple. After we got back from that we had a baptism for our friend Zack Common, he's like a little brother to us. His entire family came and it was awesome. Lexi his sister is awesome and she'll be baptized soon with her Mom Jenny. Turns out Jenny's boyfriend is a member also, so we are excited. The baptism itself was the best I've ever been apart of. Our President gave the talk on baptism, one of the priest's, Tate Masse, performed the baptism which rocked! If I had it my way, I would go back and have all of our investigator's baptized by a member.... Its just the way to do it. Tate is now going to serve a mission, and the next day at fast and testimony so many youth got up and talked about how excited they were to get the opportunity to change lives like they've seen Zack's change on their missions. It was awesome! That is about as short a summary of the week that I can give, but that really is it in a nut shell. I've never been running like I've been running around like this. Life is good though. I can't even tell you how much I've learned over the last few weeks. I've learned more about acting or being acted upon by circumstances and how as we act in accordance with the spirit the enabling power of Christ's atonement is brought into our lives. I've learned more about parenting then I could have ever imagined. The mission is amazing. I'm glad things are still chugging along with you all. It sounds like its going to be a few crazy weeks ahead for all of you.. I can't believe Katie is graduating.... Was kev still planning on moving in with us at UVU? if so he should hop on pop quick. Another side of this week has been really hard though. Doss McKinney from Turner died and so did my good friend Dave Phillips. Doss was the guy in the Wheelchair with Fran his wife. Dave was a guy we worked with every week, his family was semi active, but he had a lung disease that was taking him down, but it took him much faster then they thought. It was a form of pneumonia. I have such a stronger testimony of the power of the atonement in our day to day. Dave's wife has been working with this for the past 7 months and she is still going strong, Albert and Karli are having a harder time though (the kids) They're both young adults at home but its just been tough. Keep Fran and the Phillips in your prayers if you could. The mission is full of ups and downs, their is always opposition... I know that it is all part of our Fathers plan, so life is good. I love all of you so much. I look forward to hearing more from you. Tell the family I love em. Elder Larseny Sr.

Zack on AP exchange

could darlene make some cookies the pumpkin chocolate chip ones and send a bunch in we all want some in the apartment you know the ones you sent for thanksgiving :) On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Zachary Larsen wrote: well I would just have you take care of my license stuff I cant do anything out here those papers are for Utah only, cali is different style for renewing. Have you talked to shio yet? or parker? I don't wanna risk a new roomie because that would suck. I can trust missionaries I have a harder time trusting random strangers that could possibly have no moral values :) Ya Anti info kinda sucks bad but oh well. so after I jacked up my jaw we have ahd a financial mishap and I have been having to use my home card :( mostly because we had no food. I had no money left after buying the liquid diet thing and then after that they never reimbursed me so yea it sucks :( ssooo sad day family moving to Arizona Christian got traded from the 9ers to Arizona as well. I will set up what we are doing for the pick me up trip and I think it would be best if we go home on sunday so we can spend sacrament with the YSA ward :D if you want to find a hotel in Elk Grove or near it that would be most central to where we are visiting though. no worries about trunkieness im a stone wall when it comes to that I work just as hard as I did when I was in wilton so no worries things are all good here my comp and I are getting along much better! as for your hiking im still jealous because I don't get to do such things and as for teaching I use to stress over it but now im just a lot better at putting together a basic outline and going off that on what needs to be said by how I feel. treasure up in your heart and mind and at the moment I will receive the portion meted so its mostly study that I do. Now I can wing talks better than ever before haha! anyway glad you talked to Dan I need to get in contact with that kid I hope he is doing better im told he is still pretty anti religion. anyway life is pretty great im not too excited for a new mission pres especially for my last month and a half of the mission but oh well what can ya do? uuhh yea lots of preaching at the college campuses and now its done with so we have nowhere to go so hopefully the people we are teaching are going to be enough for the week until CRC opens up again haha! well love you all so much! no huge stories this week just lots of weird things, I was on an AP exchange with my main british man sheppard who is leaving next transfer sadly ill miss him. yup yup love ya!

Zack on AP exchange

could darlene make some cookies the pumpkin chocolate chip ones and send a bunch in we all want some in the apartment you know the ones you sent for thanksgiving :) On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 10:32 AM, Zachary Larsen wrote: well I would just have you take care of my license stuff I cant do anything out here those papers are for Utah only, cali is different style for renewing. Have you talked to shio yet? or parker? I don't wanna risk a new roomie because that would suck. I can trust missionaries I have a harder time trusting random strangers that could possibly have no moral values :) Ya Anti info kinda sucks bad but oh well. so after I jacked up my jaw we have ahd a financial mishap and I have been having to use my home card :( mostly because we had no food. I had no money left after buying the liquid diet thing and then after that they never reimbursed me so yea it sucks :( ssooo sad day family moving to Arizona Christian got traded from the 9ers to Arizona as well. I will set up what we are doing for the pick me up trip and I think it would be best if we go home on sunday so we can spend sacrament with the YSA ward :D if you want to find a hotel in Elk Grove or near it that would be most central to where we are visiting though. no worries about trunkieness im a stone wall when it comes to that I work just as hard as I did when I was in wilton so no worries things are all good here my comp and I are getting along much better! as for your hiking im still jealous because I don't get to do such things and as for teaching I use to stress over it but now im just a lot better at putting together a basic outline and going off that on what needs to be said by how I feel. treasure up in your heart and mind and at the moment I will receive the portion meted so its mostly study that I do. Now I can wing talks better than ever before haha! anyway glad you talked to Dan I need to get in contact with that kid I hope he is doing better im told he is still pretty anti religion. anyway life is pretty great im not too excited for a new mission pres especially for my last month and a half of the mission but oh well what can ya do? uuhh yea lots of preaching at the college campuses and now its done with so we have nowhere to go so hopefully the people we are teaching are going to be enough for the week until CRC opens up again haha! well love you all so much! no huge stories this week just lots of weird things, I was on an AP exchange with my main british man sheppard who is leaving next transfer sadly ill miss him. yup yup love ya!

Jeremy grows a moustache in his sleep?

So this has been conference week! We've been doing ZC's throughout the mission, Monday we were in Bend, Wednesday Newberg, and Friday Salem. He lord had a different message to share with each area surprisingly. It's been cool to see how The Lord works through our President and his wife, but also my comp and I. I'm exhausted now though. I passed out on the couch last night trying to write in my journal for the first time in two weeks and I passed out... So Norton drew a fake mustache on me, woke me up, in my confusion I tried to go brush my teeth and I ended up using Ribieo's tooth brush, and Norton got a picture of it. It was hilarious, but sad at the same time. So I haven't yet taught with the 70, that's next week Tuesday! So pumped! It'll be a crazy week also, we are doing the same traveling amount only 3 days consecutive.... It'll be NUTS! Life is fast... So during all this craziness we have a family on date for baptism comig up on the 31st. Zack and Lexi Common please pray for them, they are awesome! We just found an awesome family also! Such a miracle :) Their names are Carolyn and Guillermo! We found them by dive bombing em in the Mamba! They were just the sweetest looking family in the world and we would be dammed if we didn't attempt to make the an eternal family for sure. No way was I going to look God in the eye and tell him why I passed them up. We committed them the next day to work towards eternal marriage, totally skipped baptism, going big! We are going to the temple with them soon and they will be at church this week! Going to be so awesome!,well I gotta go love ya bye! Elder Larseny Sr.

Amazing letter from Salem!

Brother & Sister Larsen, First, I need to tell both of you what an amazing young man your son is. I don’t use those words lightly. As you may know, he is serving as one of my Assistants. Prior to this, he served as a Zone Leader and trainer of a new missionary. Your son has made a significant impact on so many of our missionaries and has helped establish a new culture here in this new mission. It is starting to become….a culture of Christ. We have fun, we work hard, we love people and we are intense and passionate about the Gospel and our callings here. Your son is all of that, and so much more. Just yesterday, we were holding our first of a series of Zone Conferences, Elder Larsen was planning on speaking on a completely different subject, but upon arrival it was clear that the Lord had a different message for all of us to deliver. And deliver your son did! I know that this young man has caused you and your wife some sleepless nights, but let me tell you he has changed SO much just in the short time we have known him. He will be a leader in the church, he will amaze you. He will marry a wonderful young lady, and he will be a force for good within your family. It will be very difficult for my wife and I to give him back to you, but we will do so with the knowledge that it will be time for him to start a new phase of his life. Currently his release date is scheduled for Wednesday, September 17 (we moved the date from Tuesday Sept 16). I would say that you should plan to pick him up on Wednesday, Sept 17th in the morning, maybe at the Portland airport so he can experience much of the total going home experience. We would love to spend some time with you but due to the fact that we will have all our new missionaries flying in that same morning we will not be free until that weekend. Maybe we could get together for breakfast on Saturday, Sept 20? But I don’t know how much time you are planning on being here?? Hope this helps, you can coordinate this with our office and your son. Tell the office we have corresponded with me on this issue. Kind Regards, President Samuelian

Zack and firey carpet

yea my jaw is all jacked up still but at least im eating regular food it is just really tight. all is well though. this week has been pretty crazy i must say. i cant believe dallin is getting married and i cant believe sam is leaving me :( as for shio i just talked to him and told him to contact ya. what happens if i dont find a roommate? uuhh.... as for my liscense thing i got the papers i have no idea what im doing with it. also you will love trek i did. Kate will love college i am sure of it, she is a smart girl. is she still planning on a mission? so this week we got permission to hit up the campus of CRC to proselyte which is great! YSA galore! sad thing is we had a very promising INV who was ready for baptism but got onto a anti mormon website and threw it all in our faces. hardcore antied us and was trying to "save" us for a couple days so i had to be very bold and stern with him but it just sucked because i really liked him he is a great guy. i still wish him the best but he is in a bad place haha. however we have an investigator with a baptism date for june who is really going strong! the work is pretty hard the YSA is not helping a ton like they use to but we are getting them into shape. Sis Minnick should be sending that paper you need with date of release. keep calling her about it. she knows one of your partners at the hospital too she worked with him. so i just got done lighting a tennis ball on fire and throwing it with my roomate and we took vids of our hands lighting fire while throwing it around and we lit our carpet on fire on accident haha! i have vids for ya! lets see, i went into laotion work which was a lot of fun! TONS of WEED!! i went into a house and they had over 100 plants they were growing in the back yard. thats part of the laos business they are expert farmers and weed sells haha! i ate some interesting food but no stomach parasite yet ;) i got offered more drugs and alcohol this week than ever before i was also offered free beer at the bar we were contacting around which was fun haha! very nice people in Elk Grove, beer is expensive haha! we sent a funny but sassy text to someone we dont know. there was a mass text sent to all old INV's on the phone that was unknown to the missionaries and said ELDERS: hey we are missionaries sharing a message about god are you interested in learning more (something to that extent) INV: i am satan! i talk to that fag every day ELDERS: Great! so you know he exists, would you like to know more about his eternal plan of happiness? INV: NO! thats not part of my plan to take over the world. ELDERS: Well your doing a great job now, but spoiler alert.....god wins. INV: FALSE! so yea it was a great text convo haha! i thought it was hilarious! but you know me i think things are funny that are not always funny. so if i can get anything from ya it would be another shaver, mine died for lack of a better phrase. im stealing my comps razor which makes me feel manly because i use it without shaving cream i just go dry but i would like my electric one back :) thanks for the pics i love having them!! i havve some families set up to visit with on the 28th so hopefully people will be home. i was thinking of maybe attending a sacrament meeting and going home sunday afternoon is that possible? i could take you to some sites that way too like big trees or black chasm or somethin. if not its all good :) anyway thats about my week! thats my peace thats my cent im out :D love you all lots! things are great here! im happy and lovin my mission! our zone conference was great and i love training the missionaries its so much fun! and i love to see how it helps because it gives me confidence in my planning and i love seeing them progress alrighty dighty peace!

Zack and the Lady Preacher

hey dad! things are great here! that's a crazy story about what happened to Ashley and Jordan! Hope that gets all sorted out although I must say out here a break in is fairly normal haha :) but that's only in the Florin area which is a shoot off of south sac which is not exactly a great place to be. So with the living I though either shio or parker was going to live with me?.... what's going on with that? so what job does Kevin have that's go great? glad he is getting his degree!!! Keep up the great missionary efforts that's awesome!! anyway things are great here! my comp and I struggle at times but we get things done decently! we had a baptism get away from us sadly.. he disappeared for 3 days I guess he went for a walk and we found him walking for 3 days with no food or water and he was a little heat exhausted and confused so we brought him to the church and he met with our bishop and we helped him out and now he is moving back to DC to live with his brothers :) so we will make sure he gets baptized there he was supposed to yesterday but that's when we got a call from someone on the street saying he needed help. anyway life is good im just chugging along. im still studying the Atonement and stuff which is great, im always learning from that! well yea that was exciting! I prayed with a super black lady who said she was a bishop, priest, minister, preacher person she was normal to talk to but when she started praying she was freakin out! it was awesome! we had our zone training which went well and was spiritual! we havnt done a lot of crazy stuff this week other than lots puns and pick up lines that scared my comp out of the room and yea. im trying to get him to work himself into the ward and stuff but its not working well haha! the ward is very hesitant around him and he doesn't even like being here so that makes it tough but things will work out for sure! we are making it work and im just loving him anyway! well love you all so much!!!!!

Subway and the Spirit (Jers)

Hola! So.............. Another crazy week. Things just aren't slowing down here, and the next three weeks are going to be even crazier. Okay so we have MLC tomorrow so we are working that. Then we have transfer calls Saturday...... Then, next week, we have the gauntlet. Transfer week is already back, this time with a vengeance. The week after that we are going to have Zone conferences every other day the next week so I'll be touring the mission. The week after that we have a 70 coming into the mission and so we are touring the mission with him... We also get to proselyte with that 70. It's going to be nuts! We are working with this family right now the Common's that is going to get dunked for sure after a visit from this guy! So the next few weeks are honestly looking like a roller coaster of craziness. Sounds like on your end you've got some craziness going on as well. You've got weddings for days! That's a bummer deal that Kevin has to ditch that job, that really is a heartbreaker. Kev is planning on going to UVU? That is so cool! Bummer to hear about the scariness going on with Ash and Jordan. Hopefully all will work out with them... You know when it comes to missionary moments you need to go read Power of the Everyday Missionary, it will help you so much with those moments. I know as you pray for opportunities and act on the spirit you will have tons of opportunities to share by example and by word. Mainly I feel like The Lord will give you opportunities to love those around you in a much more profound way. Sososososososo... Sweet story time. So we are on this hitch of only eating when the spirit prompts us to go see some investigators or potentials at subway or Wendy's or wherever. So we were talking the I was like! We need to see Subway Girl! So we rushed off, got there, then we saw that another investigator was there. So we talked with her, it was awesome. Then we went out and saw a gal wrapping presents. So we went over and she needed help wrapping presents. She then followed us to see where the church building was and said she would come. Next day... We go to church, we cover the Newberg 1 and 2nd ward. So we are sitting, then bam! She comes in with 3kids. Next thing you know the ward just hops on her, they set up lessons in their houses and she just has the most spiritually insane experience of her life. She said that she felt like she was coming home! So sweet. Gotta love the spirit allowing us to go get 6 inch subs and talk to a 2 new investigator! Life is good. I don't know when I'm sky ping, when is Bullcut? Let me know, love ya! Elder Lary Sr. Sent from my iPad

Jeremys P Minute

Its so good to hear from all of you!! This last week has been insane. Longest and shortest week of the mission. Katie is trying to perform it for her Graduation? That's not this year right? There is no way she is graduating this year? You've gotta be joking me, or punking or something she is still a Junior right? You've gotta tell me the truth on this one! She is still my little sister, she can't go to college and all that jazz, I thought she was accepted in like two years. I don't know why this is hitting me so hard right now, but I can't believe that Katie is graduating High School, this is the gnarliest thing I've ever heard. SO i'm going to have to get another part of this email to you in just a bit, turns out this Pmoment is over..... I've been in full sprint mode for the last 4 weeks and its been dope, Norton keeps me busy for sure. I'll hit you up in just a moment. Love ya Elder LaRy Sr.

Zack and BYU sports figures!

well papa im not taking that stupid drug I got to my mission medical person and she sided with me that I do not need such medical things. no im not having emotional problems which is exactly why I didn't wanna take that med or any med for sleep haha! California docs are just dumb, I dunno how they got their degrees but they are terrible with my minimal medical knowledge I feel like im more capable of diagnosing myself than them. there is my unchrist like rant for the day :) well glad things worked out and that my story helped out with your lesson! trek medic would be tons of fuN!!! I saw some pics of alex playing soccer and liam hiding in a coat because its cold. I am glad they are doing well! I love them and miss them! I got my itinerary this week which is disheartening! however this week has been full of trials and miracles. where do I begin. lets start with trials so we can end on a spiritually good note :) first off our baptism fell through because he drank coffee day of the baptism but I guess we shouldn't expect quitting to be easy, he has been drinking it religiously every day from 12 years to 30 years old. he is ready for next week though! he is doing great but I swear coffee is harder for people to quit than smoking out here! sadly mission medical doesn't cover my BP meds so I have been paying for that on my home card :( its 15 bucks every time and im on my third bottle. my comp and I don't really see eye to eye on most things, he is super marriage trunky and has a lock your heart with one of his old converts so that proves to be an issue. that just kinda makes me sad because my last comp and I were getting along perfectly and man its just different! anyway now on to spiritual and great things! one im living with a BYU basketball player that is as tall as kevin durrant no joke! he is cool and I paly bball against him and he is hilarious! also before him I was living with a national champion rugby player for BYU he is cool too but he is now a zone leader!!!! also we have two baptisms set up and the zone is really doing well! I love this work so much! I have been making the atonement a topic of my study for the lst couple weeks and I cant even believe how much I understand now thanks to the spirit! I am learning so much! I read a talk called "the character of Christ" by Bednar its amazing!!! READ IT!!! the whole atonement is just so crazy!! I was wondering if I could get grandpas obituary sent to me? :) also keep on parker I wanna live with him :) this week we have been able to be a part of many great things in helping the community in service projects we had a multi religious helping hands day where we helped the whole community! the mission is going well but shortening! I kewep hearing from members "oh you almost done" which is only a true statement to be fair and im certainly not against going home since I know it has to happen but I would like conversation to head other directions from time to time :) I saw my boy elder black andhe is training a dude from Japan he is great! I have tons of FOBS in my line elder wong and elder fifita and elder dorrp yup pretty crazy! anyway life is great! I love it here! oh I need to renew mt liscense so if you can send me the info I need ill take care of that just so you know :) how is the thunder doing? how is dusty and others? kev is going to UVU? so am I!!!!!! wow im a trend setter :) well I love you all so much! KEVIN- sounds like youand chinchy are getting along quite nicely! are you taking her out and holding her and letting her run free in rooms like we use to? that could help with her not wanting to escape so bad :) she seems to be doing just fine when I left haha! I enjoy all the poop you taking on the floor haha! she does poop quite a bit! I remember when I let her run around the room all night while I slept I woke up and the room was filled with poo! I dunno why she doesn't eat much for her to poop so much! oh well! hey you better keep me updated my friend! I aint heard from ya in a while and ZL is fun but lets just mourn for poor Jeremy who is AP which is a task that I hope im never called to :) loves!!!