Elder Jaron Larson: 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