Someone is always watching

Hey everyone! How have you all been? I love hearing from you. This last week was pretty crazy. Most of our lessons fell through but that's ok. We saw how things were better because of it.

We had a multi-stake conference yesterday which was pretty good! We got to hear from 3 people which.... idk who they were but also D Todd Christofferson. We didnt really know why we had the conference but it was good and we felt the spirit.

We also had Zone Conference on Thursday which was really Good! I even stayed awake the whole time. It was overall just really good, we were all commenting and participating so it went really well. I love Zone Conference and seeing President and Sister Wright. 

Elder Salsbury and I havent felt like were making progress with... really anyone. I mean... dont focus on numbers and that didnt stop us from going out and working hard but we felt like we hit a brick wall. As you know, we have been working with the Owens for awhile, but we weren't able to meet with them very much the last 2 weeks because both of them had surgery. Which wasnt good because that was right after we set a baptismal date with their daughter. We have been trying to visit them and saw them a few times in the hospital. What we didn't realize was every time we went over, every time we helped them, sister Owens' has been watching us. She sees how kind and loving the church has been to them and their family when her church doesn't check up or do anything to her or her mom. She loves how we make everyone feel like a family. This women had a previous experience with a Mormon family that bible bashed her, ON HER DOORSTEP! She had a bad taste of Mormons in the first place but has started to realize that we aren't all like that. She is now thinking about baptism and "becoming a Mormon." It is super cool to see diligent work pay off as well as member missionaries visiting them and that influence. Im so glad we could make a difference.

As far as me... I am honestly doing very well. I found this quote (down below) earlier this week and I loved it. My invitation is for you to look up just any general conference talk. Maybe search a subject that has been on your mind for awhile and see what you can get out of it. I know that hearing the voice of our apostles can bring the spirit, I listen to talks almost every morning. I promise that you will be able to get something specifically for you if you listen to a talk with a question in mind. You will also be able to feel the spirit. 

 

Awesome quote from our awesome prophet

I love my calling, I love these people. They all make me so happy and like I said before, they make you feel like family. They are awesome. I love serving the Lord and would rather not be doing anything else. I love you guys all so much. Have a great week :)

Love,

Elder Larson

Driving to dinner one day and I was bored so I took a pic outside

Dinner at the Bettencourt's/ also Ashley's b-day (a daughter) 

He is risen

Hey everyone! I had a pretty crazy week! Last P-Day we had a lot of fun going to the jelly belly factory and getting a tour of that. We went as a whole zone and it was our companionship that set it up hehe.

The jelly belly factory (we are missing 2 sisters and 2 elders)

I forgot to mention last Sunday during church one of our bikes got stolen and it was a very expensive bike... we had exchanges from Tuesday night to Wednesday night and during our exchange we saw the bike! Ha we asked the homeless guy how we would get OUR bike back and he said for 100$. So we tried to trade a different bike and do all these things while other missionaries (there were 6 of us) called the cops. Since we had a receipt the cop knew it was our bike and made the homeless guy give our bike back... let's hope we don't get jumped now haha.

Exchanges on Wednesday

So the Owens have had some major health issues. So we haven't been able to teach Willow very much. Brother Owens had to go to the ER because of his back, but they are staying super strong! Sister Owens has been reading her scriptures to him and asked us if we had any for him (we did). I know Satan can't stop their family with the amount of faith they have. We are gonna start seeing Willow more to stay on the path to baptism.

We have started teaching this nice sweet Filipino lady named Joy. She is hilarious and is actually starting to learn. We have seen her 3 times in the past month and a half, we just want her to come to church! Hopefully she will progress and have a desire to be baptized.

Some of you, maybe most of you know that my Grandpa pasted away this last Tuesday. Most of you know I'm a pretty emotional kid. When I got the news, I cried for about 10 minutes alone in a separate room from everyone else until I was overcome by the feeling of love; Love from my father in heaven, love from my Grandpa, love from everyone in my family back home. I'm so grateful I was able to go see him in the hospital before I left. Tuesday night I was reminded of words that I was taught as a child, "he is not here, for he is risen." I am so grateful to have the knowledge, that because of our savior we will all live again. "Because he died, because he lives, we may all live again." This is the message we teach. I love this gospel. I love you all so much! Thank you for all the love and support I have received. I hope everyone has an amazing week.

Love Elder Larson 

My grandparents and I in the hospital October 19th, 2017

A Flashbang week!

Wow!!! Ok so not too much happened this last week except we set a baptismal date with Willow! (The Owens daughter) that was super exciting! We had a really good day on Thursday.

We went over to an area we hadn't been too much and we walked into someone who had met with missionaries in the past and had gone to church but hasn't recently. She told us to come back later in the day which we did and she knew a lot about the book of Mormon and had a lot of questions about it. She said she would come to church but didn't so that was sad... we will see why later this week. I was so surprised that we walked into someone who knew so much about the book of Mormon. 

Later that day we went to the Owens and obviously that went well. But the other crazy thing about that night was they have this really really.... REALLY hot, hot sauce called the flashbang. Supposedly it's like the 2nd hottest in the world. So... I tried 2 drops of it and thought I was gonna die lol. Someone should give me info on it and tell me about it :) but that was a super fun and exciting night. 

Other than that... no updates on any other investigators. We did have a super long day yesterday. We had ward council at 7 am at the church and we didn't leave until 3 pm. So 8 hours at church... no naps! Lol that's ok, it was a good day. 

Yesterday I shared a Mormon message for the dinner message and the spirit testified something to me right then. I shared the one called "Blessed and happy are those that keep the commandments of god" You guys should all watch it! I promise that if you take a step back and look at why we have certain commandments, you'll be able to recognize the blessings that come from following them. God doesn't give us commandments and guidelines just to put them there. He puts them there for our benefit and for us to reach our full potential. I know this church is true and I am so grateful for the blessings that come from following his commandments. 

I love you all so much and miss you all like crazy. I hope you all have such an amazing week looking for blessings in commandments.

Love Elder Larson 

Sorry everyone... I didn't take too many pictures this week... So here are some from the temple on Wednesday.

Elder Salsbury and I being cute...

The House of the Lord!

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great new years and week! It has been a very exhausting last few days. 

Last Wednesday Elder Salsbury and I went to a member in the Hmong branch's house because his father had passed away (he was older.) But it is tradition to go and visit the family member's home sometime during the week. It was completely pouring outside... it turned out to be super fun, even though we were biking really hard in a lot of rain for a long distance. We were laughing the whole way home and singing songs. Definitely one for the books!

After we biked in the rain, I'm not sure if you can tell how wet we are....

Later during the weekend we had a lesson with someone that fell through... But that's besides the point, I was still super exhausted from Wednesday and didn't want to go out. But we decided to be good missionarys and go out anyways. We ended up talking to some people and even getting a new gator all because we went out.

As far as investigators go.... the Owens family (recent convert family that is now coming to church) came again this past Sunday. They also have a 9 yr old daughter we are going to start teaching so we are super excited for that. I can't think of many others, people just need to not flake and actually meet with us.

Today we were able to go to the Oakland temple which was awesome! I felt the spirit so strong. I could feel the love and prayers from friends and family back home. My love for the people here in Fairfield also grew a lot. I love the temple and the peace that it can bring into your life. I promise you can have that peace too. I'd like to invite you all to sometime this month go to the temple and feel of that sweet spirit. You will be able to eliminate the influence of the Satan so much more. I love this gospel and know how much it can bless lives. It has blessed mine so much. I know this church is true and I'm so happy I am able to spread it with others. I hope you all have an amazing rest of the week. Love you all!

Love Elder Larson 

Pictures one night 

The Oakland temple today  

Consider the blessings

Happy New Year everyone! Feels like the last time I talked to any of you was like... last year... lol... I'm not funny ok. Anyways update on Christmas... super cool and fun! I was so happy I was able to see my family and talk to them. We went to a member's house and had a gingerbread competition and hung out there for a really long time. The whole day was a lot of fun. I hope everyone else had a fantastic Christmas as well.

We've put in a LOT of work this last week. We've talked to so many people and saw so many potential investigators. We're bound to find someone with how much we have been out. The average amount and usual goal for "contacts" is 12. A contact is simply when you introduce yourself to someone. On Saturday we had 43, Thursday we had 37, and we also had a lot on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are bound to find someone looking for the gospel and happiness. 

The coolest thing happened Tuesday night! We went to this recent converts house that is kinda already less active. One had gotten a surgery and the other has back problems and they just haven't had the strength to get to church. We talked with them about there dogs and bearded dragons for a awhile and finally shared a message with them. We extended the invitation to come to church yesterday since they hadn't come for about 3 months. We didn't think too much about it but they ended up posting on the ward Facebook page asking for a few articles of clothing because they were planning on coming!!! That made us so happy to see that. Then sure enough the whole family showed up! They also brought along their sister who is one of our current investigators so that was super cool. I'm so happy we invited them to come because that was the first step.

Playing with the bearded dragons

Yesterday in Elders quorum we had a lesson on finding the positive in trials. I was reminded of what happened I believe 2 weeks ago. Our bikes broke again for a day and it was like... yeah it sucks but whatever. So we still went out and walked to all our lessons and walked all day. We ended up walking into these 3 women who we started talking to and they eventually became 3 investigators. It wasn't until after when we realized if the bike didn't break we would've rode our bikes right past them. Super cool to find the blessings in that small trial.

I was also reminded of a story told in the MTC. To shorten the story, this missionary was crying because he couldn't figure out how to "lose himself without losing his self." The other missionary talking to him (I think it was his zone leader or district leader) said are you afraid heavenly father is going to "mess you up." I guess relating that to not missionarys... are you afraid God isn't looking out for you? Are you afraid he's going to mess you up? Let him shape you to how he knows is best. I shared this Mormon message at a dinner message this week and I would like you to all watch it. It's called "the will of god." I would like to invite everyone to consider the blessings from trails this week. Everything happens for a reason. I can testify that as you humble yourself and seek the lords will, you will be able to see the growth from trials. Life will be better and you will gain a bigger perspective of things. I have experienced this myself. 

I love you all so much and miss you. I hope everyone had a great Christmas as well as new years eve. Set some new goals to better yourself. Have a great week... and year!

Love Elder Larson 

Also I've had some questions on my address because some of you lost it haha, so just as a reminder it's 2100 West Texas St. Unit 142 Fairfield CA 94533

A week and a half ago in a park

Dinner with one of my favorite families in the ward (The Judd's)

Five guys for lunch (sorry my tie is tucked in, this is how we keep them clean)