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

BIKES!!!! on hills

Hey guys! So uh first things first.... I moved and they switched our apartment at the last second, so the CORRECT address is 801 Southampton Rd. Apt 171 Benicia, CA 94510. But no worries, if you sent any packages within the last week. It just went to the sisters and we see them a few times throughout the week. 

So yeah.... Benicia! So far so good. The people here are really nice, it smells nice down here, the only edge I have on this place is trying to bike up and down all these hills. If any of you find a reason to visit here... you'll see what I'm talking about. My new companion Elder McGladrie is from Cincinnati Ohio and has been out about 15 months. He's cool. Im excited to be working in this area though. 

Elder McGladrie

Vallejo bridge in the back

There wasn't too much that has happened besides transfers. But I mean... transfers were AMAZING! It was so good to see all the other missionaries. I didn't realize that I knew like everyone and everyone knew me. And the zone conference for this zone is combined with Vacaville, Fairfield, and Woodland, so I'll get to see all them again! That was pretty cool.

Most of our week consisted of settling in and CLEANING! Because this apartment was a disaster when we came in, like we didn't have a working toilet bad. We also didn't have areabook to work off of so we didn't have any phone numbers or addresses. Now everything is good. Clean apartment, we now have areabook to use. We also did have a ward Halloween party on Friday and it was combined with the lake Herman ward... So we tried to meet a lot of people but they were mixed. The peak of the week was biking 45 minutes to district council in Vallejo! It wasn't too bad, a little tiring, but hey, being on bikes... you can pretty much eat whatever you want and not gain weight.

Yesterday we bore our testimony of the book of Mormon to someone at dinner. The book of Mormon is SO TRUE. It's amazing. Understand that that it's the keystones of our religion. Without it, we are nothing. I'm so grateful that the Lord loves ME enough to send me his word, his gospel. It's my job to use that to it's full capacity and learn how I can be blessed because of it. 

Thanks for all of your emails and love! I'm grateful for it everyday! Love you guys! Have a great week.

Love Elder Larson 

We didn't have a dinner and he ate 2 full boxes of Mac and cheese with hot dogs!! 

We got the Halloween candy mom haha

Bikes again?...am I getting too big President...?

Hola everyone! So first things first.... I'm getting transferred all the way down to Benicia! I'm gonna whitewash.... on bikes.... again! So this should go well lol. At least I'm not District leader and training though like Elder Salsbury did. My new address is 150 Rankin Way Apt #114 Benicia, CA 94510! My new companion is Elder McGladrie, I'm excited to work with him. The thing about this transfers... since we are so far away we have to go down a day early. So I had to pack everything twice as fast along with goodbyes. At least I'm getting better at packing!

On a different note. Our lesson with Eddie was great on Wednesday. We talked about the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, and the law of tithing. He was so accepting and willing on all of them. It was pretty amazing. Like.... a lot better than I explained it. He was agreeing with them and was completely willing to give up a beer a month and his green tea twice a week (that's all he has). But, on a super down note... he has to go to Jamaica to fix some family issues before he wants to get baptized. So we will hopefully see that happen in January.

We weren't able to see Jim or Sergio all week. But that's basically it. Saying goodbye to everyone was super sad. Sorry this one is short! Busy busy day . Have a great week! Read your scriptures!! 

Love Elder Larson 

Crazy district picture

Bye Lunas!

Bye Sergio

Hoopa round 2

What up what up what up!?!?! So many good things! Well honestly just a few, it's been good though! We were finally able to set a baptismal date with Eddie which was so good. The lesson was so cool because we started out asking if he had thought about it and he said he still wanted to wait, then throughout the lesson we talked about it and through the spirit we were able to set a date with him. It was so good. 

Our lesson/lessons went good with Jim too. We had one on Tuesday and almost set a date with him and then on Friday we finished painting the back of his house. Our lessons are so good with Jim every time, there are just a few things he doesn't want to commit to yet. Hopefully his faith will grow enough to overcome his concerns 🤷🏾‍♂️. 

Thursday was the BEST! Hoopa is great, mostly because of some members we eat with every time we go up there but they are the best. I just wanna serve in Arcata for that family  it was a blessing though because we didn't get shot while we were there. We had a great lesson with this guy named Bruce. Like his lessons go so well but he thinks it's too late for him to get baptized. But his faith is growing SO much from the last time we saw him... so I guess anything can happen with god. I think the funniest part of that whole trip was talking to this less-active family up there. There is a son who thinks every white person is a white supremacist... so he doesn't like white people and he's like... 30. But he liked me #halfasian. But the family we had dinner with is HILARIOUS!!! It was Brother Johnston's birthday so we had some yummy steak with a lot of other yummy food. 

If you look closely... there are 3 heroin (drug) needles #hoopa! (We didn't touch them mama) 

Missions are great! So is general conference. Okay everyone pick your favorite talk, and mark where there are invitations, blessings and warnings. I promise you will find stuff you didn't hear the first time. Love you guys :)) have a great week.

Love Elder Larson 

Haha! Elder Chipman got his coat sent to him, so we put the coats and sweats on to match.

When he wants to have glass bottled water 

2 Hour Church?

Conference is the best! There were so many amazing talks and so many incredible things that were said this past weekend. For one, I can't even believe they are changing the time for church... I used to hate how long it was but now it's just natural. I love how the church is making our conversion a lot more personal with god. It's going to be a lot harder to be a "fence sitter." Either you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, or you are not. I also think it's so great to have that spirituality move to the home. "Stand he in holy places" right? It is now becoming more important to make our homes holy places where the spirit can dwell.

On a different note. We almost set a date with Eddie! He said he would think about it and we made sure that he would also pray about it and include god in his decision. We meet with him again on Wednesday so fingers crossed. Other than that, finding and finding and more finding. Sergio is there too! That's always fun! 

I guess there wasn't anything too special that happened besides General Conference... oh and my bday! I'm finally not a teenager. So yay for that! I got taken out to lunch by a senior couple to this really good Italian place, other than that, just a good birthday dinner. It was good. Weird being away from my family though. And all my friends. But thank you all for the birthday wishes! 

Elder Chipman cooked so much food for my bday <3

My thought is from General Conference. I loved something Elder Gerard said, or quoted. He says "If there is anything in your life you need to consider, now is the time." I've thought about that multiple times. I look back at all the priorities I had while I was growing up and realize that they have no eternal importance. I will admit, sometimes it frustrates me and makes me wish that I had gotten my priorities straight and maybe my life would be different. Although we shouldn't dwell on the past, it's important to learn from it. All I can do is move forward with my priorities in the right order. 

Thanks for your sweet spirits! I'd encourage you to study the talks that were given this past weekend. They are for us and our time. Have a great week!!!! 

Love Elder Larson 

A little outside Eureka #rainyseason

Exchanges so these crazies took a selfie