Week 24

Dear my Beloved Family, Friend, and Enemies

This past week was great, Elder Heppler, Felix, Farr, and I ate at Five Guys, which was so good and then we played B-ball for 3 hours.  When I get back, I'm gonna dunk on all you fools. Sadly, Elder Heppler was emergency transferred so we have to get a ride from Zone Leaders now and they already give other Elders a ride, so lets just say a group of Elders in a car is dangerous. Thank goodness we have Tiwi's in the car, they will prevent us from getting too crazy.  On Tuesday, we had a District Meeting and it was great but afterwards the zone leaders were inspecting the cars so we ended up staying together for an hour and I, for fun, drew Lehi's dream on the white board and everybody thought it was hilarious.  I was just killing time. After the meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Meyer, Elder Meyer is companions with Elder Van Wagner right now, but one transfer ago he finished training with Elder Hales my trainer, so Elder Meyer and I are like brothers. Anyway Elder Meyer is amazing he could talk to anyone, he doesn't even care. We knocked on some Jewish doors and he was surprised that Jewish people don't believe in Christ so I taught him Jew 101. We played B-ball with Will and Elder Meyer is a fantastic shot he won every game we played. We had dinner with the Atehortua's and as always they make amazing Colombian food and dessert. Elder Meyer is 20 and his 21st birthday is Feb. 2nd and we are going to do something fun for his birthday. Wednesday there was a world wide broadcast to all the missionaries in the world, can you believe it, I watched the same thing as Jacob, Adam, Jackson, and Michael. It got me pumped up for missionary work. Afterwards we went to Bro. Jacobson's house to walk his dog Henry, YEAH missionary work. We went to the Thrift shop afterwards and to be honest, I'm starting to get board with it. It's slowing down on donations so Elder Farr and I stand around doing nothing or we do random jobs around the shop, but service is service and we are loved in the community because of it. Thursday was a tracting day, nice!  At 5pm, Staten called us and invited us over to meet his non-member friends. When we arrived, it was a party. There was pizza and soda and Staten and his friends were playing music.  We talked to his friends and they didn't even know what missionaries are. They said that they just shut the door, but don't really know what missionaries are. So we had a nice chat about missionary work.  Friday SKIP! nothing to interesting happened. Saturday we met up with Carissa at McDonalds and taught her about our church, she is really busy, but wants to learn. Sunday I gave a talk on Relying on the Spirit, it was three minutes long because the sacrament was also a missionary homecoming and I was asked by several people to keep my talk short, which I gladly Obliged.  Connor Bernal just got off his mission in Mexico speaking Spanish and talked for forty minutes on how great a mission it is. He was such a good speaker, I almost wanted to go on a mission myself! I was kind of sad that my talk was inferior to Connor's, but many people came up to me and said I did a good job. In priesthood meeting our lesson was on the Holy Ghost and people were referencing my talk, and I almost cried when Sister Atehortua came up to us and said that during sacrament she felt the spirit telling her that we are the right missionaries for this ward. We ate dinner With Connor that night and heard all his great mission stories. This past week was great! I learned so much. I received music from Elder Heppler and it had the Ministry of Jesus Christ, but in musical form, I've been addicted to it, it keeps playing over and over in my head. If you get, but one thing out of this email, please let it be that as we serve the Lord we truly see how our lives are blessed.

With Infinite Love, Elder Larson

Week 23

What can I say, was this week good or should I say bad or should I tell the truth? ALWAYS go with HONESTY, it will save your life! Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Aloha everybody and a happy January, at least for me. This past week Elder Farr and I tried something different. Instead of choosing a place to tract, we decided to just ride until the spirit told us where to go. We found some really beautiful neighborhoods, I don't remember seeing, so we followed the spirit and tracked away. Turns out all the places we tracked were full of prideful people. The difference though at least for me, is that their mean, rude, unnecessary comments went right over my head and Elder Farr and I stood our ground and we were not confounded before men. I know that the spirit took us to those neighborhoods to experience how when we rely on the Lord he will help us in the very second we need it. On Frida for whatever reason I didn't eat lunch, while Elder Farr did. After that we went contacting in downtown Mercer before our volunteer shift at the thrift shop. A Security Guard pulled up right next to us and asked us if we are the missionaries. Elder Farr and I were skeptical of saying yes in fear that he would make us go home, but we said yes anyway, because we fear God more than men. It turns out the Security Guard is a member from a ward in the Spokane Mission and he is working at a construction site on Mercer Island. His name was Burt and Burt offered us lunch at a Mexican restaurant and my dying stomach cried out yes!!! We went to Qdoba and had massive burritos, Elder Farr got a Quesadilla since he already ate. Burt used to live in New Mexico and complained how Mexican restaurants get worse and worse as they get farther away from Mexico and I agree. The Mexican food here is okay but so is Taco Bell and Taco Bell is the lowest on the Mexican chain in Arizona. It was great to meet Burt, he was happy to know there is a ward on the Island, because sometimes he can't make it to his ward due to work, so he was happy to of seen us. I started making Jello, because it is delicious and easy to do. I even made Jello for Gary and his family. It was funny when I brought it over cause I was like " I brought you some Jello" and Gary was like " whats Jello, you mean jelly. Gary's english is so good I forget he is Chinese sometimes. He is so close to being baptized, he just needs to admit he feels the spirit. We are definitely close friends by now, we are even becoming close friends with their 7 year old son Harry, who doesn't speak English, but I think he can tell that we are good people especially since we brought Jello and he really liked it. Gary has challenged me in a game of BackGammon so I'm a bit shaky on the rules, but it seems like an interesting game. We are visiting Gary and Emily again this Friday, which I think is Harry's Birthday, but I need to confirm, cause if it is, we are bringing more Jello for sure. Sunday was Great we had the Stake Primary Presidency speak and all their talks were fantastic. Their was a solo music number by sister Rice, singing "How Great Thou Art", on the last verse she started crying and couldn't sing, so the congregation started singing it and the very last phrase sister Rice got back into it and sang with Triumph in her voice "HOW GREAT THOU ART", the spirit was absolutely so strong. Our investigators were touched by it. Elder Farr and I taught Elders Quorum, Ch 2 of the teachings of Howard W. Hunter. It was on Peace and it was something I was born to talk about. Elder Farr and I started off Shaky, but immediately the spirit worked through us and our lesson was powerful. 

This week has been a really spiritual week for me and has helped me strenghthen my testimony. 

With the Love of the Spirit, Elder Larson

Week 22

Jan. 11, 2016

Dear my peeps around the world,

This week was pretty exciting. I have almost knocked on every door on Mercer Island. I am so close, just a couple more streets. We did lots of tracting this past week, we also had many slammed doors and angry people, but no Investigators to show for our hard work. I believe this past week was a trial for us to knock on all those prideful doors.  At times I wanted to stop and other times Elder Farr wanted to stop, but it was amazing how when one of us was down the other would lift the others spirits. I feel if there was one thing I learned, it is to not offend God. While knocking on these angry doors, I felt that the reason they were mad was that we were offending them. So I stopped saying our message was about Jesus Christ to the Jews and I was not trying to convey our message, because I didn't want to offend anybody. I felt an impression in my head that said "who would you rather offend, God or Men, cause if you are not trying your best at every door in sharing this message of happiness, you are wasting Gods time therefore offending God."  Once I felt this strong impression, I told Elder Farr about it; we both got excited and started doing our very best at each door. The people still got very mad, but Elder Farr and I no longer cared about that, because we were sharing our message boldly until that door was shut. It might of been a boring week, but in other respects I really learned to follow the Lord's will. 

Big thing that happened this past week. We were doing our shift at the thrift shop where we volunteer, when a nice black car drives up to drop off donations. A really old guy got out of the car, but he didn't put his car in park, so his car began rolling forward. Another volunteer yelled at him that his car was not is park, so the old man jumped back in his car, but instead of hitting his brakes, he stepped on the gas and the car roared forward with the intensity of lion attacking his prey. Poor Elder Farr was working on a basket of clothes, separating the good clothes from the bad.  The nice black car hit the basket and almost knocked Elder Farr over. If the old man had taken his foot off the gas even a little later, it would have knocked Elder Farr and injured him greatly or even killed him. Luckily the Lord was watching over Elder Farr and he is still alive right now. 

I love you all so much, this is all the energy I have to email right now, but I will email you all next week, I guarantee it!  

With Love, Elder Larson

  

Free throw trick shot from Matt's companion Elder Farr and another missionary, Elder Heppler

Week 21

Jan. 4^th, 2016

Dear my Precious loved ones, 

This week was pretty good, finally the holidays are over, that means all our investigators are back. We met up with Vicki and did some yard work for her and took down her Christmas tree. I really love serving Vicki, not because she always feeds us or gives us CHOCOLATE MILK, but it's because she is a down to earth lady who wants to give back to society even though she is limited to a wheel chair. She has not decided when she wants to be baptized but she is really pondering a date.  I know that if she is not baptized while Elder Farr and I are here, she will be baptized due to all the strong connections that she has in the ward and I know I will continue to love her whether she is baptized or not. 

New Years Day, we had to go in early, no exceptions.  We watched Ephraim's rescue as a mission and I really felt the spirit while watching it.  It's a good movie, if you haven't seen it, watch it. 

We got new phones as a mission and the whole process was confusing. While transferring our data to the new phone, it completely messed up everybody's names in our contact list, but now Elder Farr and I have fixed everything. After the movie we went on a mini exchange with our Zone leaders Elder Ivie and Piekarski. We all went down south of Mercer Island and locked the van.  Elder Piekarski and I went right and Elder Ivie and Farr went Left.  When it was 8:30pm we headed back to the van, so that Elder Piekarski and Ivie could be home on time. The problem was, the car keys were not working.  We were trying to open the car and it took 15 minutes till we finally figured out how to open the Van. We almost had a Sleep over on Mercer. All's well that ends well. 

Sunday was great, not many members were there for sacrament but Vicki and our on date investigator Carissa were there. By the way we have a new Investigator named Carissa and she wants to be baptized Jan. 23.  Due to a lack of testimonies during the meeting, Elder Farr and I went up to bear our testimonies.  I love bearing my testimony but I want the members to have a chance. President and Sister Schofield told us after the movie that they would not be able to attend church Sunday but they showed up anyways as a surprise to me.  Bro. Jolley, the Gospel Principles teacher was not there, so Elder Farr and I taught the lesson on the Final Judgement. Vicki loved our lesson even though Elder Farr and I were shaky at first. President and Sister Schofield stayed in our class and liked our lesson as well. It is honestly strange for me being in so much contact with the mission President, me just being an everyday missionary.  Anyway that was my week and may the Force(Spirit) be with you!

With lots of Love, Elder Larson