Week 7

Dear Me Madre,

This week Elder Hales and I have really focused on member missionary work and basically just getting the members involved. It has worked out well, in previous weeks we have had no members come with us to lessons, but this week we have had five members join us in lessons. Our Investigator Vikki is the best, she is a retired pediatrician, but retired because she has MS, so she moves around on a wheelchair, she has four cats, and two sons already moved out. She is so ready to be baptized, she loves our church, she loves how loving and caring we are to others. She calls us her favorite missionaries and will be baptized sometime in November, put we are going push towards an earlier date. This week has been interesting with the Pope in the US and the Chinese President in town. On P-day we hung out with Elder Mun and Sill and played Football. We then ate Ribs and baked potatoes with the DeSemples, they had a rowdy 6 month old that reminded me of Aiden and I had to stop myself from grabbing their boy. On Tuesday we had our District meeting, which is always fun, we have two sisters that are from South Korea, like Elder Mun and have learned to speak English. Elder Mun then Inspected our apartment to see if it was clean and we passed. Elder Mun stole all my Dr. Peppers and said that we are even now since I owed him lunch. Elder Mun then challenged me to stop drinking soda and that he loves me so much and wants to watch me succeed, so I gave in and will not drink soda for the rest of my mission, if I can help of course. We ate Chicken Casserole at the Benkes, they then gave us leftovers, they are an older couple and are hilarious. Wednesday we volunteered at a thrift shop and will be volunteering there every Wednesday and Friday 1pm to 5pm. We gave out multiple Books of Mormon that day. Thursday Elder Mun and Elder Sill came by to accompany us during weekly planning and Elder Mun challenged me to memorize more hymns and Elder Sill challenged me to do 100 push ups in one set, so far im at 31, but i'm working on it. I challenged them to show their love to everybody, through service and complements. Friday we had Thrift shop, then we visited Vikki with the ward Geologist Sister Evans and Brother Jolly, we taught the plan of Salvation and she really liked the idea of baptisms for the dead. I was so happy Brother Jolly could make it, because we need a male over 18 to enter into a home with the opposite gender and we called everybody in the ward at least twice and an hour before the lesson we got Brother Jolly to go, it was a blessing. Saturday we taught Josh a thirteen year old boy, he wants to be baptized, but his mom won't let him. We read Alma 56 and he was really interested in the wars and stuff, so he might read more, but he was really sick, so we hope he feels better. Sunday we had our Fast and Testimony meeting and it was awesome hearing people bear their testimonies. We learned about Wilfred Woodruff's life in class. We ate Chili with the Curfews. They are an older couple, Brother Curfew was a bishop 20 years ago and helped buy the Mercer Island Ward Building. They both work at the Discovery Center. This week has been fantastic and I know that as you count your blessings you will also see that life is fantastic.

With Love, Elder Larson

PS I loved the bottle you sent me and that package was awesome, but just so you know the mission provides soap dispensers and dawn and all manner of cleaning supplies. They dont however provide personal maintenance stuff. Thanks very much for the pics.