My tummy is expanding...

Hey everyone! We were so blessed this Wednesday to have the rain push the smoke out. So now the air is fresh and the sky is blue :)) We also had interviews on Wednesday which were so so good. President was busy doing some very important things... So we were at the church for about 3 hours just waiting most of the time. Plus our interview went about 20 minutes which is more than usual. It was so nice to talk to him for awhile. We also made a whole ton of posters for a car wash all the missionaries are doing this Saturday so that was fun! 

Thanksgiving was CRAZY! We were supposed to do a turkey bowl... But almost no one showed up so they just cancelled it. We were out finding most of the day which most people were cleaning and getting ready for the day and didn't want to talk. Thats kinda how the whole week went, every lesson fell through, rayen was out of town. Like it was all no bueno. But we are hoping we find more success this week. The thanksgiving dinners were great! The first one tasted really good and was with a member and all their extended family. The other one was with a Tongan family. I don't know if I've ever had better food than there. I ate to the point where my stomach literally was aching in pain. It wasn't even like a "sick pain" it was like a "MY STOMACH IS EXPANDING PAIN." Definitely interesting. I loved it though. 

Like I said we had a lot of lessons fall through, one of of them was terrible! We confirmed the lesson the day before cause he told us to. So on Friday we walk for about an hour in the rain to his house, once we get there we knock, then ring the doorbell, then CALL HIM!!! He finally answers the phone and tells us he's sick. So we walk an hour and a half back to our apartment in the rain again. It wasn't fun. But I guess that's kinda a summary of how our week went.

Love you guys! Have a great week! There is so much to be grateful for. Hopefully you saw my facebook post. 

Love Elder Larson 

 I love the Bettencourts 

Pretty sunset Saturday night

Smoked in

Hey everyone! So with all the questions of why we biked to zone conference, well it was funny because I was looking at how long the drive was on Google maps and it said 30 minutes and I jokingly said "let's just bike there " because it was only 3 hours and 15 minutes, and he said Okay! So for the next like 2 or 3 days we just kept saying "okay are we actually doing it?" Until we did lol. But its all good regarding the smoke because that all didn't come in until friday morning. 

But YES! We have been affected by the fires, a lot. The smoke came in so the air quality has been horrible. The schools even got canceled this Thursday and Friday because it was bad. So President Meservy instructed us to stay in the apartment as much as possible (you don't hear that too often....). But that being said we were able to call through areabook completely and figure out some people got new phone numbers, find out some people still weren't interested, and we even set up some new appointments! But I say it was a great week because we at least got in contact with people! 

We even had a great lesson with Rayen (the 9 yr old we're teaching), she wants to be baptized so we left her with the invitation to pray for a date. So hopefully this week will end with a new baptismal date! That all went well though. It was more getting to know her and letting her know some of the things we are gonna talk about.

Can I just take a second and testify of the power of patriarchal blessings? I was feeling a little lonely on Friday since I had been at my study desk A LOT (way too much) over the week, and I wanted to read my blessing. I started with a prayer asking god to show me that he's still there (since he has shown me so many times). Just for him to remind me that he's still aware of me and my circumstances. There have only been a few other times when I have felt as much comfort as I did then. God showed me something from my blessing that I had never noticed before, something that (although it doesn't apply to me now) has really been bugging my mind for quite awhile. I'm so grateful for the Lord and the knowledge I have. There are SO MANY scriptures that talk about him being with us, him helping us, him being there for us, him uplifting us. I can testify that he does, and he is there. If you haven't read your patriarchal blessing in awhile, I'd encourage you to. Because you will see something in there that you haven't noticed, or you something will stick out to you more than normal.

Also, we got some news this morning "In our mission president’s seminar, our Area President Elder Pearson asked that from here on out missionaries not eat in the homes of members Mondays – Fridays.  He explained that this is prime finding time and yet we spend it sitting inside a member’s house.  Fridays and Saturdays, you may eat with the members, although it is preferable you eat with non-members or less active-members, but Mondays – Fridays you are to eat on your own between 4:00-5:00 at your own apartment or eating out.  Elder Watkins, our Area Seventy, was also at the seminar and yesterday in a meeting with all the stake presidents in our mission, he announced this new policy to them. Many missions in California are already doing this and have seen an increase in the number of people they are finding and teaching.  This will begin December 1st --in about two weeks. I will ask for an increase in the amount of money you receive each month, it won’t be a lot, but you will get a slight increase.  Sister Meservy and I will also be looking for a good deal on crock pots, so you can have one in your apartment." 

So feel free to send my good crockpot recipes  or food. 

I love you guys! Have a great thanksgiving week! 

Love Elder Larson 

Book of Mormon reading (also we know in the facebook video the book of Mormon is backwards, we realized 5 minutes after it ended lol)

Workout in the morning with Elder McGladrie sleeping in the corner 

Becoming a legend

Heyo! We had zone conference this week and it was SO GOOD! We had a training on family history so now I actually know how to do stuff! But it was so good because he kinda rebuked us all, a lot. But just the way he shared everything with us... there was so much love from him. President Meservy is so great. A cool thing about it... it was a multi-Zone conference. So it was woodland, Vacafield (Vacaville and fairfield combined), and Napa. It was so great to see so many friends... AGAIN!!! Wow I love these people.

The BEST part about zone conference was that we biked to it!!!! In Vacaville! Yeah it was 33 miles haha. It was supposed to only be 3 hours and 15 minutes but it ended up taking a little more than 4 because we had a LOT of wind at the end. Yeah we left at 4 am haha it was a good, fun little ride. Never again will I do it though. (Sorry we were focused on living instead of taking pictures lol) 

We've actually been working quite a bit so it's been GREAT! We were knocking doors and we came across this lady that wasn't interested. Then Elder McGladrie briallianty asked if she knew anyone in the area that was going through a hard time or had any major family events happen. She said she knew someone that just had a death in the family. So she joyfully accepted a plan of salvation pamphlet to give to her friend. It was way cool. Hopefully something comes from it :))

Things aren't too bad here in Benicia. There is a lot of smoke from the paradise fire. So the air quality isn't that great. Pray for the people in paradise! It sounds like the entire city is gone. It's so sad. 

Something that I've started doing (I just started the book of Mormon over again), is create a list of all the names of Christ that are used, I'm only at Nephi 13 and I've found like over 10! It's crazy. I never knew how much the book of Mormon actually testifies of Christ until I actually read through and mark it. It's amazing. I love the book of Mormon! Missions are great, definitely a growing period full of trials, but I love it. I love you guys! Do something amazing this week! 

Love Elder Larson 

When the hill is just too much to ride up

Exhausted at the top of a hill

Momma is thinking (where's the hot pocket) 

Just send it!

Hey! Hope everyone had a great week! Ours wasn't too bad at all! The hills are.... well yeah they're still hills... But hey it's getting a lot easier! Besides the weather being like 80°! We had a good week though. Lots of biking! Elder McGladrie was sick one of the days so I studied and cleaned a lot (Yay for a clean organized apartment!). We aren't teaching too many people yet because not only did we whitewash in but we completely opened the area. But we are working at it! We technically do have someone that missionaries have done service for, for a really long time. And also a new move in with a 9 yr old daughter that wants to be baptized. We are meeting with them this next week so that should be good. 

We had a pretty neat experience on Friday before dinner. We were in a area looking in areabook for some potentials, less actives, or formers or people like that. While Elder McGladrie was looking at his tablet looking for people to visit, I notice this guy standing like 15 feet away looking at his phone. There was a little bit of fear in me because I didn't really want to bother the guy. But I just kept having this whisper at the back of my head saying "JUST SEND IT!!" (Go talk to him.) So I finally did. The conversation started off slow but after a bit of talking we were finally able to share the plan of salvation with him and explain more of what missionaries do. It went really well. Turns out he lived in Vallejo but it still felt really good because we gave him a book of Mormon and stuff. So always #justsendit

Recently I've been reading in a book called "The infinite atonement"by tad R Callister. There is a part where it specifically talks about the suffering Jesus paid for all of us. It makes me think all the time about what sins or mistakes did I cause him to feel. It makes me feel bad, but at the same time it makes me want to be so much better. I hope that thought makes you want to as well.

Have an amazing week! I'll give you an update on the hills of Benicia next week! Love you all!!

Love Elder Larson 

We got tired so we took a break lol

More of our break

A different break