Happy happy happy

HI!!! this week was honestly one of the best I've had on my mission so far. First of all, it was super good because of Christmas eve and Christmas. I love the music and everything, it was wonderful. Highlight would have to be seeing my family obviously, they're the best. Let me tell you.... 7 months is so long. 

Christmas skyping

Other than that.... we met with Mike for the first time, he's progressing... slowly, he's been praying for an answer about the book of Mormon for 9 months. We fear he is getting an answer but just can't feel it because he's always smoking. We did find 2 new people that have pretty solid potential, 1 is Christian and the other is Jose. So we plan to meet with them again this week. Then Angelina is still progressing too! We set a baptismal date with a man named Brian for March so we are excited for that. 

My good friend Eddie got baptized on Saturday as well and I was able to Skype into that. It was such a special moment and I was so happy for him. I taught him while I was up in Eureka. It was amazing. 

Eddie's baptism

My heart is so full!!! Life is so good. I find it funny that most often when we are sad in life... it is 100% because of the way react to different situations. I hope everyone has a good week! Be Happy! Pray for happiness.

Love Elder Larson 

I got bored while 6 missionaries were talking to 1 member

When your voice is just done...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! almost.... lol. I can't wait, it's such a unique experience out here. The music is.... different.... the decorations are.... much different... and even though it shouldn't be different, the focus of my life is different too. Focusing on Christ ESPECIALLY WHEN CELEBRATING HIS BIRTH! Its such a wonderful time of the year. I hope you've been following along with light the world. This week is light your faith. So basically just doing things to build your faith in Christ. 

We had a fun/busy/different week! We had zone conference on Friday which was awesome, since I'm a zone leader... I had to teach part of it with Elder Jones and we just focused on making Christ more of a real person. I kinda related it to how we talk about our great grandparents or great great grandparents and their stories because we know they are true, but sometimes when talking about Jesus, we don't think of him as a real person. But that went pretty well.

Zone conference 

We sang A LOT! Like A LOT!! We sang a musical number at zone conference which was a disaster lol... the sisters forgot to come in on their part.... and then we had no idea where we were! We were singing "O Holy Night" and so it was embarrassing/funny when all of us random come in on the "FALL, ON YOUR KNEE'S!!!" After not singing like 3 or 4 lines haha, oh well. We also are in the ward choir so we sang 3 pieces yesterday in church, AND as a zone we went caroling the past 3 nights. So it's been way too much singing. 

Caroling... sorry I'm turned around lol 

We went tabling a couple times in the week too which was good too. It was a good week. OH! And we cleaned the assistants apartment since it was a disaster and they never have time to clean it haha. We almost made them cry :)).... whoops. 

Something that hit me really hard at zone conference was when President said "It is important that we are also another light and not just another shadow." It got me thinking about how we need to be that light and that angel in someone else's life. That's where true selflessness really shows. I'm so happy to spend a missionary Christmas out here, I only get 2 of these.... wow. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

Love Elder Larson 

(Technically a multi-zone conference) inside joke with the mission.... but thumbs up!  

#lightyourfamily

Hey! I hope you all had a fantastic week! Ours was spectacular. It was super busy, full of lessons. It's been so fun to share the videos of light the world with people. There was so much that happened this week and it feels like it lasted forever! But at the same time it went by super fast. It's crazy. 

The main people we are teaching is a guy named Manuel, a lady named Angelina, and a lady named Urleane. They are progressing kinda slowly but hey, progressing is progressing. 

We had the ward Christmas party on Saturday and to be completely honest it was kinda terrible lol. They had amazing food (tri-tip) but the program.... lol. Kinda funny stoey though, the bishop decided to read a children's Christmas book to the primary but said we could listen if we want, so almost all the parents were chatting and such and we were talking really quietly about zone stuff and at the end.... this lady got SO mad at us for not paying attention, whoops. Thing was, the story was for the kids, everyone else was talking (a lot louder)... and we didn't even know who she was!? Like okay.

Things are going really well though! I'm loving this area so far. We went on exchanges with the assistants to President most of Saturday and that went really well. For some reason something clicked as I was working with Elder Nelson, like I am so excited for finding now and my outlook on it completely changed. It's great! 

A scripture Elder Nelson shared with me was alma 10: 4-5, over just the past couple of days this scripture has become so important to me. I feel the same way. I've been able to learn so much about the gospel and "the mysteries of the Lord." It's amazing at how much can change when you turn yourself just a little bit more to the Lord. 

I love this Christmas season and the spirit of it. The theme of light the world is #lightyourfamily. Find small and simple things that you can do to brighten your family. I love you all so much! Merry merry Christmas! And family.... I can't wait to see you next week 

Love Elder Larson 

Elder Pickett KNOCKED out one night... We are working him hard.

Selfie at lunch 

I love these guys!

Meetings on meetings on meetings

Hey! How was everyone's week! I'm sure none of you had as many meetings as us! Haha so yes transfers happened and my new address is 3840 Martina Ave Unit 103 Santa Rosa, CA 95407. So you can send both packages and letters to that address. My new companions are 1 (the other zone leader) Elder Jones. He's from Price Utah, loves hunting and sports. It's funny because he still doesn't like any vegetables and he doesn't like any fruits but like... raspberries. Then the new missionary Elder Pickett is from South Weber Utah, and he loves theater. Things are going good though, we are both settled in now.

Elder Jones and Elder Pickett

As far as the work goes.... we didn't really do too much proselyting with all the meetings we had. We had a meeting Tuesday night with the sister training leaders, we had an all day training meeting Wednesday, and another meeting for that Thursday morning in addition to a ward correlation meeting with the ward mission leader, then an all day mission leadership council (meeting) all Friday and a meeting with the sister training leaders after that. Then we had a district council Saturday morning. Then sacrament meeting with a meeting with the sister training leaders again Sunday night. So it's been busy busy busy... but good. I love being busy.

1st picture of late lunch at Presidents house after MLC

2nd picture I like bc I look funny haha

We are actually teaching quite a few people though. We met with a guy named Manuel on Thursday and he seems to be progressing okay. He's reading the book of Mormon so we will see where that goes! Then a different guy named Dennis on Saturday who is in the middle of Alma! So things are good here. I'm excited to start working in this area with a whole bunch of missionaries I haven't served around. A short little funny story though... we were out working Saturday night and we passed a lady and said "Merry Christmas!" Then she says "Happy Holidays.... Christmas is Satanic!" Lol so that was something to laugh about... it makes for a good story.

Despite that.... I'm so excited for this Christmas season... It's literally the best. And instead of 1 light the world video... now there are 4. It makes me so happy. If you haven't checked them out.... you can find them on LDS.org or on gospel library. Definitely would recommend! #lighttheworld. I'm so grateful for the season when we have to celebrate the birth of our savior. It's such a wonderful time to spend giving and thinking of others and family. Never forget to keep the Christ in Christmas. Have a fantastic week. I love hearing from all of you. Merry Christmas!! (Which is not satanic)

Love Elder Larson 

What the...ZL/TRAIN!?!?

Hey guys! Not only this week but this transfer went by super duper fast! Its been good though! So last week P-day was a little boring hence we never do anything in this zone... so I took like a 2-3 hour nap... lol... oops :) but it's all good! Transfers are this week and I'll be spending Christmas up in Santa Rosa.... as a Zone Leader.... training.... that was unexpected... so if you plan on sending anything, wait another week! Haha. This will definitely be interesting. I haven't been in a trio for quite awhile. 

We had a good lesson with Rayen this week! We were out quite a bit even though it was raining. But with Rayen... she wants to be baptized on Christmas haha so the sisters will probably have to change that (they are going to cover Benicia ward). At least she wants to be baptized!! And soon! Even though I didn't enjoy the hills, I'm going to miss a lot of the ward members here in Benicia. 

Rain :))

We also did a few different service things this past week. On Friday we helped clean a VERY VERY dirty pigsty. Haha I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but I was known as the tidy/OCD person, so they used me for a lot. It was good because it was with a new convert. Hopefully it doesn't go back to the way it was in a week or 2. The other thing we did was this car wash at the church! It was a lot of fun, and on the bright side we were able to give about 4-5 chapel tours, so people were able to see what our church is all about :)) tis was a good thing! 

I wanted to mention something that has crossed my mind the past couple weeks, both because of a book of Mormon class we do and because of my personal study. I find it so interesting how many times Laman and Lemual receive their witnesses. They have so many opportunities to know of their savior, but that doesn't happen when you constantly are denying the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I think it's sad when they or we get to a point where we are "past feeling." Where god still will give us witnesses and experiences but we just don't accept it. So moral of the story. Recognize when it's God's divine influence in your life and stop trying to assign those experiences as coincidences. It's his hand in your life. 

Love Elder Larson 

Double rainbow

This awesome district