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.