Week 14

Dear my kind and caring mother,

Today was Transfers and I... was... am... STAYING! Wow what a surprise, I am staying on Mercer Island. Elder Hales will be missed, he was so humble and diligent, I will truly miss him. Now my new companion is Elder Farr. Elder Farr has been trained by zone leaders, has been around the mission and was recently released as a district leader.  I'm glad to have him and we are going to change Mercer Island for the better. 

On Monday Elder Hales and I got our haircut and the barber was talking to us about God, it was fantastic and our haircuts were in style, I think...  We then gave our Investigator Gary a home made cherry pie.

On Tuesday we raked leaves for this nice old lady and she gave us doughnuts. We taught a nice lady named Elizabeth, who was very open in hearing more about our faith. Then we had a lesson with a guy named Ben but all he wanted to do was bash on the church so we got out of there. After that, we ate pie with Gary.

On Wednesday we taught Griffin, who is on date for Dec 5th, with bro. Riener and the lesson went extremely well. Then we had thrift shop duty. After that we taught a kid named Drake in the church building and it was perfect. When the lesson would start getting awkward, our Bishop or counselor would walk in needing something and inadvertently help our lesson. We also taught Vicki, our on date for Nov 28th, we let her know that if she wants,  she can have her non-member sons carry her in the font, since she can't stand. She was really happy about that.

On Thursday, we went to the bike shop and had our bikes fixed up, rode all the way down south to tract and found a couple of solid investigators. It was raining really hard and on our way to a meeting Elder Hales crashed.  He is okay, only a couple of cuts and bruises and bro. Jacobson fixed him right up with his professional first aid kit.

On Friday we had Zone Training and we talked about the evils of pride.  Elder Mun bore his testimony at the end of it and it was beautiful. We then worked another thrift shop shift. Later that day, our lesson with Stella went fantastic, she really wants to come to church again, but has some stuff on Sunday. Then we chatted with Gary a bit, learning more about his life.

On Saturday we had to get our laundry done at bro. Jacobson's house because our washer wasn't working. We then moved a couch for Sister Black and helped Vicki with her yard.  We also had a very spiritual lesson with Griffin at bro. Rieners house.

On Sunday Elder Hales and I taught the primary class on service. We had our monthly member missionary fireside and it went fabulously.  The recent converts testimonies just fill the room with the spirit. We were lucky it was held at our stake center this time, because traffic was bad.

On Monday Elder Hale and I thought we would celebrate by eating lunch at McDonalds, since a member gave us gift cards. The Zone Leaders came over and dropped off Elder Tate, Since Elder Mun is leaving. We then ate at Baskin Robbins, cause why not, we had time. Then we worked at the thrift shop, weirdly enough because today was a big sales event and they asked us to help. I was lucky because they asked me to just be a door greeter and hand out refreshments. I ate so much! A member gave us Spicy Teryaki chicken for dinner.  Then we taught Jake McQueen the Restoration. We learned that night that Elder Hales was leaving and it was so sad. I know that as a companionship we worked hard.

With Love Elder Larson

P.S. My jackets are doing fine and yes I can buy more if needed and for very cheap. Please send me some IBC Rootbeer and some gift cards. That would be very helpful. Thank you!