The edifying power of Zone Conference!

Yo! Hey guys! It was such a crazy week! First of all, zone conference was so good! I mean good enough for me to take notes... which hasn't happened yet  So it was good. We mostly talked about devices and how we can use them better. It was pretty interesting though, I raised a concern to President Meservy about how sometimes I wish I wasn't in a technology mission so it wouldn't be a distraction. I would just be able to serve a good, faithful mission without having it be a temptation or distraction. Well.... President had ALL the missionaries watch some training videos of Elder Bednar talking about technology. He made a comment about how isolation from technology won't help you overcome anything. A missionary in zone conference said "you cant beat a team you never play." I was just a great learning conference. We also talked about some of the events that took place to put Joseph Smith in Palmyra and how if god could do all those things for him, surely he's done some stuff in our lives to put us here, in this mission, with these people. 

Oh and so what exactly happened with my thumb....  I was moving a couch for some missionaries since they were staying in my apartment and I guess I went to fast, so it got caught on a vent and ripped off half my nail. I'm not even sure exactly what happened... but it hurt! I got it checked out Monday night and the doctor guy said there wasn't much he could do... so I just had to basically bandage it all week. It's not too bad though. Just looks gross. I think the part that ripped off might have even re-attached! So I got my fingers crossed for that.

P-day was fun and long because we went up to moonshine beach again and played spike ball and flag football. It was so fun! The Assistants to President and tech elders were there too. Even though I basically played 1 hand... we still played good and had fun. 

 Throughout the week, we were challenged to clean out our areabooks. Like to find out if potentials are actually interested or not and basically make areabook look better than it is. So we did that for a lot of the time and also helped Jim paint again! That was lots of fun :)). The climax I'd have to say would be yesterday when I CONDUCTED A BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW!!!! Not sure if you remember Corben. The one we taught his first lesson in Arcata... Well awesome news... he's getting baptized today. Super excited for him. It was definitely interesting conducting a baptismal interview since we don't exactly get trained on that. Funny thing happened (cant remember if I mentioned it)... we got a referral named Daddy Deaton. When we called the number... instead of saying "Hey daddy" I made sure to say "Hey Mr Deaton." We arent sure if its real or not. The names these days are getting ridiculous! 

There was this super cool talk I read on Saturday called "Know thyself, control thyself, give thyself." The title is kinda explanatory of what it was about, but there was an awesome quote that stuck out to me. "It’s one thing to be born with ability to succeed; it’s another thing to harness it and to control it." A different comment comment said how we are literal offspring of diety. We are born to succeed. How incredible is that. I know that we are children of god and all have the potential to be just like him. We just have to know how to control that potential and face towards him. 

I'm so grateful for all the experiences I've had that have led me up to this point. The trials, the miracles and all the in between. I know that God has put YOU in YOUR circumstances for a reason. What will you do with it? Hope you have a great week! I love you all! Btw, my address is 4242 Walnut Dr Apt 3 Eureka CA 95503

Love Elder Larson 

Painting round 2!

Bathroom pic

Pain and Gain

Wowza! Sorry this is a day late for all of you that expect it! We had zone conference yesterday... which went really well, I might talk about that a little more next week! Past couple days have been great though! Transferred happened so I'm officially District leader. Been kinda wild keeping tabs on my district and making sure they are doing good. I was pretty happy during the first district council because the zone leaders and sister training leaders taught instead of me. We'll see how the next 4 go. 

We did go see Sergio, the less active, which was really good. He's such a great guy, he hasn't been able to go to church the past 4 weeks... so we've really tried to focus on getting him back. We had a good chat with Jim on friday. We also helped him paint the back of his house! So that was fun! It's kinda hard with him because he reads the scriptures and progresses... But he can't come to church because he has serious back issues. 

We also had a GREAT lesson with Eddie. Eddie was someone that simply just  wanted to come to church... so he's come the past like 3 weeks but we haven't been able to teach him. Thankfully we were able to! It went so good though. He was so receptive. I think my favorite part is that he said the difference between our church and other churches is that ours is like a family. I love that everytime someone talks about our church like that.

Alone with this whole ministering thing... it's simply just doing what Christ would do. Just loving everyone and serving them the best you can. When you get to know your ward family, as you serve them and you love them... you become so much closer. This church is supposed to have a family vibe. I mean... We all belong to family of god. Maybe that's just something to think about the next time you are walking down the road and see your neighbor. Just love them as Christ would.

I hope you all have the greatest of weeks! I'll tell you all about our amazing p day and zone conference next week! Also.... HOLY CRAP time is flying. I've been out about a year. 

Love Elder Larson 

Cute Elder Chipman

The dark part in the beach is where we played flag football 

3 missionaries + 2 areas = probable baptism :)

Wow! It has been such a great eventful week! FULL of laughter. Man I think I should just finish my mission with Elder Chipman. No but really. So we picked up Elder Staten for the entire week and covered both our areas. We had lots of lessons. 

We were able to visit Garrett again which went okay. We got a feedback more of like "I can't join your church because I'm confirmed catholic." So that kinda sucks... both for us and for him. His brother in law on studio C is James Perry for all you that were wondering. We are continuing to teach Sergio and strengthen his testimony but it was cool when the guy he lives with joined in for a discussion then after Sergio goes "wow I never would've thought Art would be interested." So we will now start teaching him which is cool! We were also able to see Jim on Wednesday and answer some of his questions, so that went well! That is basically it for the people we are teaching! 

We had a lot of fun in the Arcata area just north of us though! On Thursday we went up to Hoopa which is this Indian reservation that is kinda crazy. We contacted a lot of people and also visited a few people but there was one lesson that was just AWESOME! It was a friend of the YSA branch President and he's awesome. So prepared. He was so receptive of everything we had taught him. His name is Corbin and will probably be baptized this month or next month. It was such a good week though.

We were able to watch the face to face with Quinton L Cook last night and it was great! Something he said really stuck out to me, he says something along the lines of "it's really easy to take some small thing out of context and really damage your testimony." I think it's so easy to take something a prophet or apostle said or to look into scriptures and take something out of context. Its important that you see from a broader perspective. I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today who receives revelation. He is called of god. I think it's so cool that our apostles are chosen the same way Christ chose his apostles, by revelation. He did not choose the most wealth people in the land, but some fisherman, a carpenter... you get the point. This church is true. It's so good. 

Watching the face to face last night

I'm grateful for my mission and everything I've learned on it so far. I'm so grateful for my friends and family! Oh I almost forgot! I really wanted/needed a haircut, and I'm sick of paying for haircuts, so I decided I'm going to learn how to cut my hair! It didn't end up too bad either! Maybe you'll see it in some pictures later haha. Have a great week! 

Love Elder Larson 

Elder Chipman spent about 20 minutes trying to set our voicemail haha

Elder Staten paid for an Indian buffet!

Sick all week/ following the spirit

Hey guys! Pretty boring week lol... 

I started getting sick Tuesday night but the day of Tuesday was fantastic! We went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders so that was a lot of fun! Since I was sick basically all week... we weren't able to visit... well really anyone. We did visit Sergio which was actually pretty sad... he had 6 frogs and we were helping him clean out the cage and one of them ran (hopped) away  actually really sad though because it was a cool frog that changed colors. So we went to a pet store to see how much frogs cost and 25$ was a bit much. I guess if we somehow end up blessed with a little extra money we will know what to spend it on. 

The crazy part was how the spirit directed us. In the morning during planning, we had an area planned in but then I thought to change it to tracting by a new move-in. So that night while we were tracting, I just kept getting this feeling to go visit the new move in.... a family that is completely active and we've seen for a month anyway... really strange. Well we go over and see how they are doing... after Elder Hall and Sister Pratt talk for a bit, turns out that they were BASICALLY COUSINS! Like through marriage... they both had a similar uncle Haha! It was so cool. 100% the spirit. We were also give her a suggestion to just leave a book of Mormon in the middle compartment of her car so she can hand it out. It was awesome. 

Sorry there's not a whole lot that happened, we are gonna be working hard this week! Oh and Elder hall (the one I was on exchanges with) left today for school, so we picked up another companion for a week! I wonder how it's gonna go covering 2 areas... I guess I'll let you know next week! Remember god gives us promptings each and every day! Follow them! Have a great week! Love you all!!! 

Love Elder Larson 

 

Sorry I don't have more pics! I sure you don't want pics of me sick in bed

Hehe, goofy pic at the end of the night 

Whoops, idek how this happened tbh 

Uplifting quotes!