July 25, 2011

Elder Wagstaff,  Sister Juanillo, Joesph, and me

          Dear Family,

Well things are just going great. I am really starting to understand a lot more about the mission and this amazing church.  We are working hard and I am just loving it!  Elder Wagstaff keeps pushing me and I love it! I am a little nervous  when he leaves because I know I rely on him on a lot. He has taught me a lot and  we will continue to work hard like this.  We always are  walking and contacting people in the street.  Our goal as a mission is to get 140 contacts every week and 30 lessons. Usually that's been tough for me for some reason, but now we are completing the goal every week and it's just awesome. The President's taught us that we should be "running" to our appoinments and if we don't have time to contact people then we should always say "hi" and "buenas tardes" with a smile.  He promised us that soon people will start asking themselves" who are these guys" and "why dont they talk to me?"  Soon people will start contacting US. It's sooooo cool!  The President's promise is so right!  Now people stop us and ask us what we are doing! haha. That is the greatest feeling when you have someone stop you and want to talk to you. It's so cool. 

It's funny, because in Mexico, if you knock one door on the street... that door turns into like 10 doors and each door is a house and a family. it's crazy, but it's a gold mine for missionaries.  There are a lot of poor families here and they are so humble and ready for the gospel.  Basically... there's just a lot of people here!!

Oh and I forgot to tell you that we have sister missionaries in this zone. There were 6 pairs before but now there are only 2 and they are just amazing. Seriously, they are the best missionaries.  They work so hard and just love the mission. They are from Mexico and Peru. (I am pretty sure they don't want to send American sisters here.) But they are soo cool and work so hard and they teach me so much!

For my first time, we have a Jewish investigator. It's sooooooo cooooool. I don't know much about the jewish faith, but he sure does know a lot of the bible. (and I don't.) This guy is cool. He doesn't practice  Judism anymore.  He is also part Catholic (because his dad is Catholic) He just the nicest guy and he knows English haha!  He will randomly talk to us with a British accent because he lived there for a time. It's crazy! Being Jewish, he knows Hebrew too. So he has a bible in Hebrew, English and Spanish. It's awesome!  But his Hebrew bible is more exact and sometimes he will check that to get an exact translation of what we are reading because at times he is surprised at some of the scriptures we read. He is really cool and is just loving it. He hasn't gone to church yet, but hopefully he will soon! I hope he will want to get baptized and really find what a blessing this can be in this life.

Just a funny story. There is a member that comes to church every sunday with her dog. haha. He's a good dog and always obeys her!  He just sits there with her.  She is older and the dog loves being with her. But it's funny having a dog in church. At first I was really confused when I saw a dog in sacrament meeting and no one said anything.  He's an awesome dog!

O MAN. I almost forgot...yes we had a baptism. His name is J and he is really cool. He is 16, and a lot of 16 year olds here don't make the best decisions in life, but he did! He went to church with us and loved it so he wanted to get baptized!  I think we will be able to  baptize his grandma this week too. He is a cool kid and I am so happy he is finding the right path..the path of Christ. 

Well.... I love you guys so much. You all are sooo amazing!  I forgot!  Please tell everyone "Hola" for me. I am so glad there are some people that still remember me hahaha!  That's cool!  I love you guys sooo much but I love my mission more..... ! I love the church, the mission and my family soooooo much! I love the New Testament and I am learning so much now.  (I am almost done with Matthew) I hope everyone is well and I will see you all soon!

Elder $ean Larson 

P.s..........Nick...........Happy Birthday.......

P.S.S. DAD!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS COMING WEEK! Man it is going to be so cool. and I will write you your bday letter....but its going to get there late. sorry.

p.s.s.s. ok Nick I wrote you one too, but I am sending it tomorrow so you will have to wait. ok? Thanks!

This is our church in Tacuba

Pazole...it's really good!

July 17, 2011

Dear fam,

Well, this has been a different week. I mean I am really happy for how much we have worked.  Can I just tell you guys that my comp is probably the hardest and most humble worker! It is seriously so cool to be working with him.  I am learning so much from him.  Really Elder Wagstaff is an amazing missionary and is teaching me soooo much and will continue to do so.  He just has a great sense of humor about everthing and just loves the mission. He never is down which is super nice and  he really pushes me.  Its great!  Plus we got talking and we found out that he also has a Honda trail 110 hahaha and he knew exactly what the Honda 90 was. It was sweet so we decided that we are going to go riding after the mission haha. It will awesome.  He is such a great guy.  I look at him and realize that he really is trying to be a exact representative of Christ. It's soo cool and I am super excited for this change! :D

I am in the zone Camarones, which means shrimp in Spanish.  My area is Tacuba and WOW can I tell you how many people live here! IT'S NUTS!  Seriously, we always find new apartment buildings to knock and there is sooo much food and so many vendors  in the street.  It's really crazy. I love it though. We are also inside the heart of the city and we use the subway a lot more....man does it get stuffed! It's just a fun place, but because there are more people, it  can be more dangerous. Don't worry mom! Nothing has happened but it is a scarier place than others... but PERFECT for missionary work!!  We  just found 20 new people last week and I have never found that many people in one week. Seriously, it is  so cool and Wagstaff is just pushing me all over, which is a great thing!!  I realize that I need to be more humble and work a lot more. I think  I have gotten lazier over the last couple of months and luckly... thanks to Wagstaff, I am getting back on track.  I  love it!  The church here is small and different... but its good. Hopefully they can build a bigger church because,if all the members were active there would be 800 people going to church every sunday!!  haha!  But  instead there are like 120 people that are active (or  maybe less)... so we've got a lot of work to do!!! :)  Me and Wags try to speak Spanish to each other but you know... it's just so hard when you talk about  Honda 90s and stuff so we just speak English. Of course when we work and plan we speak spanish!!

Things are great here. I have to say, I really love personal study.  On Sunday, I just finished the book of mormon again.  That book is amazing! I always tell people that I love this book! It is a lot easier to understand and it has a great story.  I love it!  I know it is the word of God. There is no way it can't be!!!  And then hearing about all of the evidence about it that is here in Mexico makes it even more awesome!  But you just can't get a true testimony of it unless you read it and pray about it.  It's true!  I know it and I will continue studying it after my mission. Now I am  reading the New Testament. I am super excited. I have never read that from cover to cover so I am doing that now and I should finish it before the mission.  I am also reading  Jesus the Christ too. It's so cool!

I love you guys and will see you all soon!  Time is going by ridiculously fast! I love you! Bye

Elder Sean Larson

July 10, 2011

Mexico City Temple

Famster,

So yup. I got transferred to a new area!  I left good old Tenayo zone and Santa Cecilia area and I am now in Camarone (shrimp) zone and in the area Tacuba.  It was kinda expected but I am sure going to miss Santa Cecilia and everyone. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to all of the people. But it's awesome too because and I love working in new places. We said some last goodbyes to some of my converts like the Torres Mora family and the Olvera family and some members in the ward too.  It is such a great ward,  but I know that Tacuba will be just as cool. 

Torres Mora Family making faces!

Lorena and Fernanda Olvera

Having fun with a ward Family

Oh I am still zone leader and I am with an amazing elder. His name is Elder Wagstaff from Salt Lake. He is super cool and super humble, so he will teach me a lot.  He actually has the same time as I do in the mission so that's pretty cool.  It's another "gringo" or American comp so it's going to be harder to always talk in Spanish. But I need and want to practice it more. I still have a lot to learn but whenever I speak English my Spanish gets worse. So that is why my plan when I come home is to  find a job or something where I can continue to use my Spanish. ...So I am super excited for this change and I hope we will be able to bless a lot of people in this zone. 

Before we had the changes, me and Briones went to the visitors center at the temple again. I love going there!  We brought a entire family of 5 that we have been teaching for a while. It's the Lanzagorta family and we invited them to get baptized but they are  scared to do it.  So we thought maybe we could go to the temple to get them more excited. The dad loved it and we haven't even taught him yet, but he loved it!  He watched  all the videos and asked a lot of questions.  Hopefully they will get baptized soon. There is  another cool thing that is happening. A long time a go we baptized the Reyes Casas family in Morelos.  The other day I went to interview the uncle of that family and I found out that there are more members of their family getting baptized! It's soo cool! I am just starting to see the fruits of my work in the mission. I love it!  I can't wait to see how it will be in a few years. It's sooo cool.  That is why this mission is soo fun... just to see the fruits and know that you were able to help these families enter the kingdom of God.  What a great opportunity we have to help in this great work.  I know I will be super sad to leave the mission and come home. But I know that we will have many blessings too. All the missionaries are all feeling the same.  There are about 15 of us that came out at the same time and we said we will  be crying like babies on the last day of our mission. We know its going to be like that because this has been such an amazing experience.

My goal this change is to do a lot better. I am going to make sure that I am way way obedient and do everything our leaders ask us to do.  I know I will need to seek the Lord's counsel a lot so I can receive His help and blessings.  I love all of you guys sooooo much and hope that everything is well at home! Grandma Larson, I love hearing your stories about Steele and everthing.  I cant wait to see my nieces and nephews! I love my family and I know that you guys are the reason that I am here. THANK YOU!

Love

Elder $ean Larson

LES AMO MUCHISIMO! 

Dana and her mom

My Tenayo Zone (no that's not me...I'm in the middle!)

July 4, 2011

Haranza's baptism

Dagboertos baptism!

Family,

So sorry I didn't write you last week. It's because we decided to play soccer with another zone... and yes we won! haha. As you can see from the pics we bought uniforms!  After we played we went to eat with some investigators and we finished late so that is why I didn't write that much. Sorry. Now this week I had to send my part in the newsletter and read all the other letters soooo I really don't have a whole lot of time right now. I am super sorry but I want to let you know that the last week and this week we baptized 2 people.  Dagoberto, (he's the singer) and a little girl named Haranza, who is 9 years old. Her grandma is already a member.  We are trying to teach her parents but it's kinda hard because they don't really want anything from us.  Dagoberto is awesome and he loves the church. In fact he loves me haha!    So we are really happy that we finally had some baptisms and now we are trying to teach another family this week, but it's tough because they are very nervous. We will see.

Hey, so the rainy season has started again and I love it!  But my shoes are getting soaking wet every day! haha. It's fun.  Also, I broke my unbrella... :( but i can buy another one here so don't worry.)  Mom I am going to send a pic of my shoes so you can order some new ones ok? Thanks!  You can send them whenever. I can live with these shoes right now.

Who needs new shoes?!!

Maybe it's time for a new pair of shoes...

Well the work is really slow right now but we are working hard. The zone is too, but we need to work  A WHOLE LOT harder. We really need help from the Lord and I know he will help us. I know you guys pray for me and I pray for you too. I love you all and I will let you know what my changes are next week. I am pretty sure I am will be going away.  Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Elder $ean Larson

Another area in Santa Cecilia

Dirt field soccer game

Waiting to play...

P Day soccer game

Our zone in their new uniforms!

Elder Briones and I

The one place I forgot sunblock!!