Week 19

Dec. 21^st, 2015

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This past week has been very cool. Elder Farr and I went to a Christmas Concert with Gary and his family and even though they couldn't understand the words they felt peace and joy in their hearts. We had a lesson with them the day after the concert and I was with Elder Van Wagner, due to exchanges.  We asked Gary if he feels the spirit during the lesson and he said he didn't. At the end of our lesson we asked him to kneel down with us and pray in his native language, Chinese and we felt the spirit just emanating from him as he closed that prayer. He had a very peaceful look in his eyes and at that moment, I knew that Gary is feeling the spirit, but won't admit it. I know that once he admits it, he will be baptized. They are sadly gone for Vacation so we won't see Gary till next year :( Vicky is also on Vacation and we won't be seeing her anytime soon. Seems like most of our investigators are on Vacation. 

The Thrift Shop, we volunteer at, invited us to a Christmas party and we received permission to go for an hour counting it as our lunch.  It was different, 90% of the people there, were old ladies but the food was exquisite to the taste and they had Apple Cider there as well. One of the new volunteers was asked if he would have some cider and he said he doesn't drink Alcohol, which I thought was hilarious since Elder Farr and I were both drinking it. 

When the exchanges occurred, Elder Farr was completely unprepared.  He had no change of clothes, no razor, no bedding, no toothbrush, no nothing. He was not too happy about that, since our District leader and our area, don't have cars.  It's really hard to do exchanges, so that's why Elder Farr was unprepared, cause it was a now or never sort of deal. Elder Van Wagner drank this strange juice given to us from a member and while he was drinking it, I pointed out that the bottle says "contains less than .5% alcohol". Elder Van Wagner freaked out and was super nervous thinking he broke the word of Wisdom. We logically decided that since the bottle doesn't say alcoholic beverage on the front and considering it was given to us by a member, we decided that he didn't break the Word of Wisdom. 

We had a mission Christmas Party and I sat with Elder Henry, he was the Elder that got into a bike crash my first day in the field and I passed the sacrament to him at the mission home before he went home. It was interesting to see him again, he definitely looks better than when I first met him. :) I was able to see my friends Elder Hales, Elder Sill, Elder Reese, and many more. It was fantastic!  Elder Farr is super Hilarious, everyday he finds new ways to crack me up. The spirit is really strong with him and he explains the doctrine in a very simplified manner. We put a gift together for President and Sister Schofield, it was a bottle of limited edition apple spice cider, Fancy chocolates, and a Gavel in a nice gift bag. Since President Schofield used to be a Judge, Elder Farr thought it was funny.  On Sunday President Schofield came to our Sacrament meeting and invited us over to his house, to pick pass along cards up. We went by and we shared a fabulous lesson with them. I think they will start calling us to do stuff, but it was worth it. I am happy to see my family this Friday and I ask that they set up a Skype account for me and I will have the family we are eating with contact you on Facebook so we can set a good time to Skype. Preferably afternoon! Love you all BYE!

With loads of Love, Elder Larson