September 26, 2011

Sunset from our apartment

                    Family

Another quick week again.  Wow.  This week we really have been working a lot and i think it's really paid off!  It was sooo sweet!  Honestly, we didn't have great success in our area, but we did as a zone and  as a mission!  In this zone we haven't been able to teach like we should be and it 's been kinda tough.  So the President's Assistents came over to one of our meetings to get us excited and to help us work harder.  It's tough because a lot of our zone is really rich and it's harder to find people to teach.  But we decided to focus on doing baptismal interviews this week.  Usually we do about 10 a week. But this time we focused on doing interviews for all the people that we have brought to church and we ended up with 41! It was crazy! It's harder because, as leaders, we have to go to other areas and have  interviews with them.  Each interview last at least 30 mins and somtimes more! (I had one that lasted about almost 2 hours ) As you can see it takes a while, plus all the traveling we do.  So we weren't able to work as much in our own area. But the interviews helped us out a LOT!  We were able to baptize 17 people in our zone...thanks to all those interviews.  So that was good. Plus it was the last week of the month and as a mission we were able to baptize 303 people!!!! Whoooooo! it was really cool! (I sent the letter the president sent us to congratulate us.)  That is really amazing because we have baptized more than 300 before but that was when we had 5 weeks in the month, but September was a month of 4 weeks. So it was really cool!  We were able to bring 3 people to church in our area, which is a lot better than before! 

Sadly, this week I got another in grown toe nail! Ewww. haha But i am so grateful for some of the sisters that are here.  Sister Santos helped me out.  I told her that I would tell my family that she took out the in grown toenail haha!!   i owe her big time.... So there you go. I am now walking a lot better! haha

I loved seeing mom, Tammy, Shawn and Sue at Ellen!  Man I can't imagine how much fun that would be.  That is soo cool!  Maybe we will get a chance to win a car on price is right or something haha.  

Well i gotta go! Thanks for all the letters and pictures! I loved them all! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOO MUCH AND PRAY FOR YOU ALL!

Love, 

Elder $ean Larson

Planes fling in formation above the city

My new scripture cases

The 'Tree of Life'

September 19, 2011

Cooking at our  mission activity

Family!

Well, this might be a shorter one sorry. We are kinda short and time and besides...I did just write you on Thursday... so there isn’t a lot of new things to share. 

I am sooo happy for Brad and his recovery and CANCER FREE! It really  shows that God has some big plans for him in this life.   He is such a strong, positive and funny guy.  He will continue to be blessed and now he will be able to bless many others.  

Well, the activity was pretty fun.  We did make a pretty weird combination of food.  We had pancakes with ice cream and then some hot dogs and some meat for tacos hahaha!  Go missionary life! But we still had a huge bag of "krustez" pancake mix left over, so we made some more pancakes and played basketball today.  The sad thing is is that we didn't have a whole lot of time because people  arrived late!  But we still watched “Remember the Titans”.  That was cool!  It really gets you excited to work and  you can apply a lot of teachings from that movie to the mission.  So it was fun. We did that and then we went home haha. It was cool.  We also had a little testimony meeting after the movie to share our feelings about our companion and the attributes he has.  My comp has a lot! He is a great guy.

Sadly, we didn’t bring anyone to church this week.  We had soooo many good people lined up to go but Alejandro was nervous to go and the others just didn’t show up.  We will have a chance to see Carlos this week because he has been gone all week so we haven't seen him.  We will be able to see him tomorrow.  Hopefully he will want to be baptized. Maybe this week... he is a good guy!  We are also working better with the ward.  We invited all the members tof the ward to share "The Proclamation to the World" and invite people to listen to us or go to church with them. Hopefully we will see some success with that.  We've  also been gaining more confidence in and working better with our bishop too.  That is always a good thing!!  I  think we will be working with ward members more this week and see if we can get some referrals.  

Mom I loved to hear about the Ellen experience. You have to tell me if you won something! haha!  I am really glad you got to go on the show...Finally! haha. I totally forgot about her show! You all sound so good and I hope you all continue having a lot of fun and success.  I know that this is the true church and I know that my mission was the best decision I made in my life.  I cant believe all the things I have learned in this mission.  Spiritual things as well as characteristics.  it's so cool! I love you all! Adios mis queridos hermanos!

Elder $.Larson

Elder Bylund making pancakes

September 12, 2011

Me and some of the Elders in my district

Family,

WHOOOOOOOO! sorry I just got a message from mom hearing that brad is good and CANCER FREE !!!! Whoo! I am super happy for him and for everyone in their family. I have been praying every night for him! YES! That's great. Tell him felicidades!

This week is going by quick. We are just about to go to our "Noche Mexicana" to do our activity with the zone. We are going to watch "Remember the Titans" then we are going to have a testimony meeting thing. After we will eat some meat and tacos and beans! Whoo go Mexican food! haha Then we are going to make pancakes and have ICE CREAM! Whoo hooo! So we will have some fun today.

Well, I have some great news! We brought someone to church! You should have seen me. I was sooo excited when he came. He is around 30 and single and he studied graphic design in New Jersey. Now he is working with his own business. Everything is going well for him but and he feels like he needs God in his life! He told us "I feel a thirst for God or the word of God in my life". it was so cool! He liked the church all but we cant see him till next week because he is out of town. Hopefully he will want to learn more and eventually get baptized. He's great so we will see.

We are also teaching a Buddhist. He reminded me of Mark Earl from Top Hat. The Buddhist's focus on love and the earth. He says that he feels he doesn't have love like he should have for other people. He feels that he judges people. So one day he was walking by our church and just felt that he really wanted to go in. (The spirit!) So he went in! Luckily we were having a weekly meeting. We talked to him and now he is meeting with us. Hopefully, he will want to go to church this week with us to really learn how Christ can help him. It's funny because he said one time, "Everytime you say Joseph Smith, my heart opens up". I told him that that is God answering your prayers... saying that this is the path to follow. Hopefully he'll continue to pray and study and will chose to follow.

The work is getting better. We are starting to find people that will actually listen to us and that are progressing. I just love it. We continue to work really hard. I am praying every night on my knees that God will bless us and show us what we should do differently. He is helping and blessing us a lot. I am learning so much from my comp. He is a great guy with great love.

Well.. I gotta go. I am soo grateful for this mission! I am scared that it is coming to an end. I love you all and hope everyone is doing great! You all are helping me soooo much! Love you and talk to you on monday. ADIOS!

Love

Elder Sean Larson

Part of my area

Where else can you see an Audi, a Beamer and horses?

Another part of our district

September 5, 2011

Family,

Well another fast week has gone by. I already feel like i have been here forever with my comp.  We are doing well. Sadly though we didnt baptize this last week and we weren't even able to bring people to church. :( It was Stake Conference so it was harder because I wasn't even sure where it was and all) but.... this just means that we need to work harder. It means that there is something that we aren't doing right or something we need to do better.  I really love this area beause it really  makes me think outside of the box and figure out what we can do differently.  Hopefully, we can find someone to teach this week. Usually when we teach we have to talk to  people in the doorway( because they can't let us in) So sometimes that makes it harder to teach with the spirit. But when we are able to go in and sit down, it is SOOOOO much better and we can really feel the spirit.  So we are going to continue to look for more people this week! ya!

Training again  is awesome. I am just learning soooo much and love working with my comp.  He is such a great guy and he is the perfect example of "Christ like love" He is soo nice to everyone and is always thinking about things we can do to help them.  (something i need to do more).  So he is teaching me that. The hardest part about teaching is trying to explain to him how to just work effectively and how to teach with the spirit. He is really a great comp, but its just hard to teach someone how to do that, especially when I am still  learning how to do that myself.  It's crazy, but its cool because we learn together and try to help each other. We are getting along together well and that is good!  He is very teachable so it's just a lot easier.  We are having fun too! haha

This coming Monday I am not going to write because we don't have a p day that day because,  but 15th of Sept is coming up. (4th of July here in Mexico) so our president  doesn't want us to work that day.  So we are going to do an activity on the 15th and the 16th is our p day. So just don't freak out when I don't write on monday.  But ya, I will let you know how all that goes.  We are planning to eat, cook pancakes and play basketball,volleyball. dodge ball and the president is going to let us watch "Remember the Titans!" Cool huh!  It will be fun. 

Let all the family there in Cali know that I love them and praying for all of them. Especially Brad.  The Lord gives us strength in all things. He KNOWS personally how tough some situations can be because he also has gone through that... and more.  I love everyone there! i wish you all a happy 15TH DE SEPTIEMBRE haha. but thanks for writting! LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Larson

Yummy fruit and cream!

Just me...

My new comp!

August 29, 2011

My new area, Santa Monica

Family,

You know I was just thinking. How weird is it that I have been gone for more than a year and half, just talking to you  by email.. what the heck! hahaha  It's just weird  thinking about it.  So ya! Here I am in Santa Monica alive and well... I got my kid last tuesday and he is awesome!  (Sadly this computer doesn't want to load my pics so I don't have pics today!  Sorry!) We are really excited and love how we this get this great oportunity to learn how to work and I am sure learning a lot! Yes, it is quite different but the good thing is that when you get a new missionary, he is ALWAYS excited to work even when everyone rejects us and we are contacting alll day!   Elder Pacheco is my new companion and he is a great kid.  He is from Merida, Yucatan. (where Cancun is basically) He really is a great guy and I am super happy to be with him. I was excited to get a Mexican comp again because I need to be improving my Spanish and he is really a funny kid and we get along great.  I realize how much I need to humble myself.   I thought I was doing better and becoming more humble (of course we can always be more humble!) but I thought I was doing good, but then I realized how much I need to listen and learn from my companion.  Really, I know I am teaching him how to work but I think he is teaching me more than anything.  I love it!

Man this area really is tougher!! But I love it still! I know we will have success. Sadly, we weren't able to bring anyone to church this week so we also are not going to be able to baptize.  I love it still!! We need to work better with the bishop and ward mission leader.  This area reminds me of California.  With tempatures that are not too hot and just seeing nice houses and cars, plus it has a huge mall here...it's just weird.  haha  We are working in more "humbled" areas so they will at least open their door to us.  I really am excited, dont get me wrong! I have COMPLETE confidence that the Lord will bless us and help us so we can have success.  I really love this work!  It's Great!

The zone here is really beautiful. It's called Lomas Verdes,  which means Grean Hills!  And it's really green after all of this rain! Everything is green and hilly! It's a really nice place.  I just love all of it!  there is even a mall on top of a hill that lets you see everything all around, so i think we will go there next Monday.

Mom mentioned that peaches are in season.....boy do I miss those haha. Mexico does have peaches but they are SOOOOO SMALL!  I don't even bother eating them sometimes because they're just not the same haha.  But mexico has a lot of fruit that isn't there in Utah! So that's cool!

That's basically it.  Hopefully we will be able find some people to teach, but  whatever....we will continue to work hard. Oh ya. Just so you know I will be here this change and the next  change with my new comp because I am training him.  That means if I train again, I will go to one more area and that will be it! WOW!  Wierd...I  cant believe it! I love you all and apreciate all the letters and prayers! THANKS!

Love,

Elder $ean Larson

Elder Pacheo (my kid), me, Elder Taylor and Elder Hawker

August 22, 2011

Street sign in Santa Cecilia..."Lake Poo"  What?!

FAM!

Well, like I said we had transfers, and yup I got changed! As I said last week, the President wanted to get us back to training so now I am in a new area, I will get a new "kid" to train and I am back to being a district leader again. I am super excited! I know I am not the best missionary l and I still don't speak Spanish perfectly, but I am going to love this experience. I am in a new zone called Lomas Verdes, in a new area called Santa Monica. Basically my area is a really rich place, which means it will be a lot harder work. ( They even have a really sweet mall in my area haha) I am getting my "kid" tomorrow so I don't know if he will be a Mexican or an American. 7 Americans are coming in and 1 Mexican so I will probably get a "gringo." I am super excited. I left Wagstaff in Tacuba and he is now the zone leader! WE ARE BOTH GOING TO WORK HARD! I will work my kid out!

We thought we were going to baptize last sunday but we didn't. We had 3 people lined up but they all fell through.... sad face. I am hoping that next week Wagstaff will get them in the water;o) Right now it looks like there are no possibilities in my new area...but I'll sure be working to find the chosen ones. Plus I need to learn this area because I am opening it up with a new comp so that will be interesting. I am really excited.

I am also excited for the new bishopric in the Heights ward. Man, all of those guys are super cool! They really do choose great and inspired men...just like dad! :D I know this new bishopric will help the ward so much.

It was hard to leave Tacuba because it is such a great area and we had so much success there, but I know I will love this area too. A lot of elders here say that this area is hard because it's a richer area so it might be harder to teach, but that doesn't matter. I know the Lord blesses us when we are obedient working diligently and hard! I will do that with my kid! It will be fun. it wasn't quite as hard to say goodbye to Tacuba because I wasn't there very long and so didn't get quite as attached, but I loved it there, it was super cool. I also love changes and learning from every comp. I loved working with Wagstaff and I will miss him. He taught me SOOO MUCH! I just love to work and have fun while doing it. Plus I am now in the same zone as Bylund and he is the zone leader! (You know...my comp from the MTC and from Santa Cecilia) Cool huh?!

Thanks for everything! I love you guys soooooooooo much! Thanks for the Brad updates too. Of course, I continue to pray for him! He is such a great example to me (and everyone)! I LOVE YOU ALL! I will get you all updated next week! thanks!

Love

Elder $ean Larson

My new Hymn book cover...I got them for my scriptures too!

Maria Luisa's baptism

Alejandra and her new Book of  Mormon

Fancy bank in Mexico City

August 15, 2011

Top of the Latino Americano Tower

Larson Family,

Wow. I can't believe a week just went by like that in a week. So this week was cool! We had another baptism. We baptized the grandma of Joseph (who was baptized about 3 weeks ago). Sadly, he is not as excited to go to church anymore, so hopefully his grandma can help him and get him going again. We will pass by his house this week too. We are super happy for this family and for all their faith. We still have a chance to baptize other members in the family, so we will continue to work with them, but I am soooo grateful for all the success the Lord brings us. He is always there to help us. We just have to give it our all!!

The Mission President here is really happy for us. Mainly for our generation of missionaries or in other words, the missionaries who have been out the same time as me. He loves us and almost all of us are zone leaders now that have around 6 months left. I think he will start putting people back to training because his goal is to have a "baby Elder Larson" and "baby Elder Wagstaff" ! haha He wants us to leave a great legacy and train some good missionaries. So I am thinking soon we will be seeing some other changes coming up, but who knows. All I know is that I will finish the mission training which is really exciting.!! (When he interviewed me he said "I want you to leave your legacy here and a year after your mission... when you are MARRIED and have a KID...and this could be prophecy, I want you to hear about your legacy here in your mission." hahah I loved how he said it could be prophecy. It was just funny and I wanted to tell you all that.) Don't panic mom! haha!

So we went to the Mexico City center again (Zocalo) It was super cool and this time we got to go up the tall Latino Americano Tower and see alll of Mexico City from above. It was really cool to see our mission and really see how big this mission and city is. SO MANY PEOPLE! It's really awesome. We got to see some cool things! Also, I went to a mass at the Catholic church because we were visiting the Cathedral there and the mass started. So we watched for a while, but we left because we felt a little uncomfortable. But that was cool, fun experience. If we go as a family there, we will have to visit there.

Ok, funny story. Jesus, Dolores and Karla are such amazing people! They went to church again on their own and have accepted a baptismal date. The thing is, Jesus is sooooo set on getting baptized on September 21st because it's the change of seasons. I don't know why and we tried explaining to him that he could do it sooner but.... he is really set on that date. So he and his family will get baptized that day. It's good though! We just wish we could do it sooner so we could be here. We are really happy for them because they love the gospel and love the church....oh ya! The funny part.... So we got to know Karlas daughter, Pricila. She came home one night when we were teaching them and well...she was a little underdressed. Anyway...she is really nice!! And after the lesson they invited us to eat with them and my comp asked Pricila where she works... and she said....(with a Mexican accent..) "Hooters!" haha! I tried so hard not to laugh and I didn't! It was just funny cuz we're missionaries!  Later, when we left to go home, they gave us food to take and she gave us our food in a Hooters bag! haha Man! It was so funny! We were just laughing at 2 missionaries coming home with a Hooters bag! (Not a good look for a missionary!) But it was funny... and yes we discarded the bag and repented! haha.

Leftover food sent with the missionaries...inappropriate bag! ha ha!

I am sooo happy for you guys! I really hadn't heard much about Bre complications with Charles. But I am sooo glad everything is alright! I know how strong the power of prayer and fasting are!! I am sooooo excieted for Bre, Bry and everyone! Please keep me up to date! Thanks for everything! I love you all sooooo much! Talk to you soon!

Love,

                    Elder $. Larson

Bellas Artes in Mexico City

Latino Americano Tower

Sean with the Mexican police