Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas! This last week was awesome. I can't give you any real updates on our investigators because we are still just trying to meet with them. Besides that, we did some really cool stuff and even helped set up for a funeral memorial thing for a girl who committed suicide. They were friends of Bishop Purvis's family and Sister Purvis was the one setting the whole thing up. The mother of the girl was so impressed with Elder Salsbury and I that she asked Sister Purvis about us and even said she wants to come to our church next week! So that was really cool. It was good to recognize the importance of hope and love. There is always hope, and I promise if you don't feel loved, you are by so many people and especially our Father in Heaven.

We also had a really cool experience with someone named Raul on Saturday. We went because the week before we set a return appt. to come back. We were able to share the whole restoration of the gospel with him and the spirit was super strong. We had him read Moroni 10:3-5. After he read that he said it was super powerful and that he could feel it (The Spirit). We were both a little shocked but we gave him the book of Mormon and he was super excited to start reading it. Hopefully he starts reading it and gains a greater testimony of it. 

Another cool thing was as a zone (I know it wasnt all me but I was kinda the one who set it up...) We went caroling last night! So many peopled loved it and us! We had 3 people try to give us money or "tip us" but we kindly declined. Another gave us tomales and a drink! One person said they have lived there for 25 years and never had carolers and they were super grateful. I'm so happy we could spread the Christmas spirit and cheer. 

Yesterday during the 1st ward, they had the missionaries from their ward, email a testimony or short talk and their mothers shared it. One started to talk about families and it made me so happy. I am so blessed to be in the family I am in. I love them SO much. Little emotional Elder Larson started tearing up when he thought about them. They are such a blessing to me. Go tell someone in your family why you love them this Christmas.

I'm so grateful for the joy around Christmas and the happiness we can all get from giving. I'm so grateful for my Savior, Redeemer, and even my brother Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for the perfect example he has set for us. I've realized I find so much more joy in giving and serving others. So for this Christmas, after the presents are done, go serve someone. Go find some way to make someone else's Christmas even better. I can testify that it has made this Christmas so much brighter for me and I promise it will for you.

I hope you all have fantastic Christmass and everyone has a great week. Don't  for get to have "mas (more in spanish) Christ" this christmas! I think about you all so much. Serve others and get blessings! Love you all! 

Love Elder Larson 

Headphones that this guy made while he was in prison! (Don't worry he's really nice)

Hmong Christmas party

One of my favorite families in the ward had a lego tie that I thought was legit

Christmas eve

Zone conference!

Hey everyone! Christmas is a week away! How exciting! It's awesome to participate in #lighttheworld and feel of the Christmas spirit. I love serving others and bringing that joy into other's lives. We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday which had really good food! It wasn't planned out all that well haha but I liked the food, we even got some of our investigators to go!

Ward Christmas party

Pretty cool thing happened on Saturday after a "greenie meeting" (a meeting with all the trainee's in the areas around us and President Wright) we were about to go out to contact people when we saw people moving out of our apartment complex. I told Elder Salsbury we should go offer to help them but he kinda just brushed it off.... so I biked over and asked if they needed any help. They hesitated but accepted our help. They were on the 3rd floor and it was only him, his wife, and us two helping them move. We saved them a lot of time and they really wanted to repay us. They offered dinner and money and all these things but we told them the only thing we wanted to share with them was a 2 minute video (light the world) and we did. We also shared the restoration of the gospel with him. Even though they were moving to Fresno.... he sincerely promised he would read the Book of Mormon we gave him. It was super cool because if he reads the book and or sees other missionaries, I know for a fact he will talk to them. 

We did have zone conference on Thursday (sorry its out of order) which went so good. A few sisters and Elder Salsbury and I sang at the beginning of it and it was really cool. Our district got to teach and we talked about faith and diligence. I guess the main thing I got out of it was you have to have faith in Christ, but then you have to act on it and work hard. If you are working hard and being obedient, miracles will happen because the spirit will be with you. That's what we talked about and like everyone else, just being able to act on your faith. I will have to admit the second half of it was slightly exhausting and I almost fell asleep 10 times... oh well. But it was awesome. It's the best being able to see President and Sister Wright. You can just feel their love and spirit as soon as you see them!

I guess update on investigators since I haven't said much about them haha. But we haven't met with Evelyn (the 102 yr old) and Tina (her caretaker) in awhile but we plan on stopping by this week. We started visiting a family with a grandma, her daughter who has 5 children and 3 of them are 8 or older. They want to start coming to church and have had missionaries in the past so we'll see how that goes. Then there are 2 part member families that we need to go to church because the investigators in both families have been taught all the lessons, just haven't come to church in awhile. Then there is this one woman who we have gotten to open up to us, but she just had a bad experience with members who basically bible bashed on their doorstep but we have been nice to her and such. It's important you are always standing as a witness of Christ because people are always watching you. It puts a reputation on Christ's church as a whole, not just you or your family. 

I'm sure my parents/family would be proud to know that when we were driving in the car the last week... we were going over how much money each of us had. The Spanish elders both had around 3$ and Elder Salsbury had like 2$, then we found out I had 44$ hahaha. What has this mission done to me.

Something that came across my mind was how prideful people are. I feel like we all have forgotten Lehi's vision of the tree of life. The great and spacious building represented the pride of the world. Don't be prideful. I would like to invite you to listen or read the talk titled "beware of pride." You can find it by just searching "beware of pride" on lds.org or also gospel library. Try and watch yourself this week and humble yourself towards others. You will find joy in not being prideful.

I love being out here. I love the people, the ward, the area, the other missionaries. I am so grateful to have Christ's name on my heart all the time. I love this gospel and the happiness it has broughten into my life. It's the best feeling to share that with others. I love and miss you all. I think about you all the time. Have a fantastic week not being prideful ;)

Love Elder Larson 

Picnic last P-day

Member in our ward is a really big warriors fan...

so I only agreed to wear a warriors jersey if I got to represent my Utah Jazz

Member took us out for a joyride in his '65 mustang

Trust in the Spirit

Yay! I hope everyone is participating in #lighttheworld. It's so awesome to see smiles on people's faces and bring the Christmas spirit in. We've tried to participate as much as we can as missionaries but there are some things we can't do, so go do them! Haha

It's was a really great week. Something I guess you could say I'm "struggling" with is determining whether it's the spirit or just my thoughts. On Wednesday I had a pretty cool experience with this. Elder Salsbury and I were about to bike to dinner when we had been out tracting all day. I saw this small apartment complex with 4 different apartments. I told Elder Salsbury we should knock them and he asked me if it was the spirit or just me. It took me by surprise because I had to make a decision. I told him it was the spirit and we knocked the doors. When we went up I had a good feeling. All 4 of them opened up! 2 of them watched the light the world launch video and invited us back for this week, 1 just watched the video and 1 just wasn't interested (but that's better than some of the things we've gotten). It was an awesome experience. 

I've realized that if you are obedient and have the spirit with you, it will often be spiritual promptings. In a missionary sense, if you have a prompting to knock on a few doors and none of them open up... maybe that slowed you down long enough to cross paths with someone you wouldn't have normally crossed paths with. Just be obedient and have the spirit with you. 

I'm not sure if any of you remember... in the mtc I finished the book of Mormon for the first time. I took Moroni's challenge and prayed to know if it was true. I didn't have anything special happen for multiple weeks. I gain more and more of a testimony of it as we share the truth of it with others. I have read the book of Mormon cover to cover. I know it contains the fullness of the gospel. I know that if you read it and abide by it's precepts, you will know Christ better and become more like him. I can promise you that you will be a happier person no matter the circumstances. I would invite you to start reading it if you are not and read it again if you already have. You will get something new out of it every time. If it helps, start in 2 Nephi or something because I know you've all read that a lot of times. 

I hope everyone has a great week! Go light someone's world! I miss you all! Also huge shoutout/Thanks to my family, the berndt's, and the o'bryants for sending packages, huge thanks, they make me so happy and make my day! You guys are the best!

Love Elder Larson 

Our huge apartment 

Lighting the world (we went caroling at a retirement home)

I gave a blessing!

Hey family and friends! I loved the messages I get from you guys! It brightens my day everytime I hear from some of you. I've had some questions on the Facebook account. So they changed the rule so you don't have to wait 12 weeks now. You just need to do the training, so I finished that and now have Facebook. 100% approved, if it wasn't, my mission president wouldnt have let me add him on it.

While we were contacting I decided to stop and get a profile pic

This last Thursday was awesome! We had interviews with President Wright and I love talking to President and Sister Wright. They are both so awesome and you can feel the spirit as soon as they walk in. I love them and how much joy they bring into all of our lives. They are amazing people!

As far as investigators go, we taught Evelyn again (the 102 yr old) and we are talking with a few part member family's but haven't picked up very many new investigators. So nothing too special. We do talk to a lot of people and how I see it.... everyone has their agency. And some people aren't ready for the gospel, we are planting seeds or just feeding them water. That's the important part.

We also participated in light the world if you saw on Facebook! They had a Christmas tree lighting downtown Fairfield and there was a lot of people there! We set up a little booth as a zone (Me, Elder Salsbury and the spanish elders set it up). But it was really cool! We handed out a lot of pass along cards and the calenders for light the world. So it was really successful and we put ourselves out there. It was cool because we put little acts of kindness such as "give a compliment to a stranger, give a stranger a high five, say hi to someone" little things like that on the back of the pass along cards. It was cool to see people participate and see lots of smiles as people passed by. #lighttheworld

Light the world stand Friday night

Light the world day 2

I mostly wanted to talk about what happened yesterday because it was super cool! I gave my first priesthood blessing! Yeah when he asked if I could give it I was a little terrified because I had never given one. But I trusted in the spirit and went in not knowing what to expect. When I gave the blessing, I could feel a lot of power and energy rush through me during the entire thing. I know it wasn't because I was nervous and it was the power of God. I know that the power of God is real and restored on this earth today. I am so grateful to be worthy to exercise that priesthood. It reminded me of something my trek pa said to me/us. He said never be in a situation where you are asked to exercise your priesthood and you are not worthy to do so. I will never forget that. I would like to invite you to participate in light the world if you are not already doing it. You'll find joy in serving others and lighting the world. I know you will be happier from doing it. Just like this church itself. Sometimes it's hard to follow some of the standards or live up to God's expectations. But you will find joy and happiness and receive blessings when you do your best to follow the standards. 

I hope you all have the best week! Follow Christ and be happy! I love you all! Also... I'll get a pic of my apartment inside and out next week since I've been asked!

Love Elder Larson