Pucker Up!

Hey yall!! I´m staying in Parnaíba another transfer! With elder nakazoni still! hahah i guess president likes us here! It will be another short transfer here though of 5 weeks. Next transfer is april 25! We´re primed for a baptismal transfer right now! We have 2 dates set already and 5 more that are dang close! This week was a blur! Tuesday we taught Fabio. He´s 22 and dates a member in the branch. He´s such a chill, genuine guy and loves everything about the church. He´s very intelligent as well and had a lot of questions about the restoration, so we taught everything to him very clear and detailed. we set a baptismal date for him april 13th! Wednesday i went on a division with elder vepo in his area. Its funny he´s quite a bit younger than me, but has been out as long as elder nakazoni. It was a cool experience teaching with him though. He´s still pretty immature, which gave me an opportunity to teach more. It was the first time i felt like a trainer in the lessons. I was pretty suprised at what i actually know! It was cool proselyting with a guy that has the same energy as me. We didnt stop the whole day. It was funny at the end of the day, he was like,"you know, i really like americans" hahaha! We taught a lot of less actives this week as well. Friday, we got a call at 4 AM from the zone leaders saying that we had to go to Piripiri to do a baptismal interview because they were in sao bernardo! We had to get ready in like 5 minutes as well because the bus was leaving for there soon! Piripiri is in our zone, but 3 hours away! We got there and elder nakzoni went and did the interview with one of the elders there and i went with the other 3! We walked in the noonday sun seriously 10 km! And later on i found that i forgot to put on sunscreen....last time i will forget. Piripiri is the same thing as teresina...oven. We´re lucky in parnaiba with wind! The buses the mission uses are called Guanabara...theyre SWEET! Luxury! Or maybe i´ve just been in the mission for 6 months.. but hey, i´m 1/4 through the mission! I´m gonna burn a tie tonight! Saturday we just went teaching around new people! One girl we met, Jucelia, is 17 and let us in to teach her. It was kinda weird in the living room, the whole family was watching tv, while she was getting taught hhaha! She works as a model in the center! hahah little did i know i would be KISSED the first time in the mission! When we left, elder nakazoni shook her hand first and she gave him a kiss kiss on the cheek out of nowhere! I already saw that i was gonna get the same thing, so just braced myself and stuck my hand out to shake her hand. ....She went right for the lips! I turned right in time so she just got me on the corner! hahaha...FREAK! I´m already an awkward missionary! but at least i can say i was kissed by a model! haha! Sunday it POURED here! Suprisingly though, people got to church by foot, bike, and motorcycle! Our shoes were FILLED with water when we got to church...theres no drains in any of the streets here! Well, thats about it for this week! Love yall a ton!

ABRAÇO

Elder Larsen

Lucia

Good week here yall! Went on a division with Elder Antonio on tuesday in the center of Parnaiba. It was really good practice for me because he teaches way different! Instead of teaching points back and forth, he had me teach the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ by myself! He said i did really great though. We took a shot at the biggest neighborhood in Parnaiba this week and had 0 success!! These houses are out of your mind, HUGE! never knew Parnaiba even had these houses, theyre tucked in deep. Its funny, we didnt even get a door slammed in our face... we just got rejected by speaker phone! One guy was like...um..i´m taking a shower right now. Worst excuses ever! We spent the week mainly preparing Lucia for baptism. The ZL´s interviewed her on Friday and everything went smooth as can be! The Zl´s told us that there´s a big group of missionaries coming in this next transfer. This group will be the first group of young missionaries, plus the americans only pass 6 weeks in the Mtc now! Should be interesting....Saturday had Lucia´s baptism! Everything went really well. There were a lot of members there to show support as well too! Afterward we passed by Ana Vitoria´s house. She pulled out papers of music in English from school and had me sing in front of everybody! Hahah! It was packed sunday in sacrament meeting! There were about 85 in sacrament meeting, plus about 45ish in Sao Bernardo to add to our total! The chapel will start construction here pretty soon! I gave all of my thrifty pens out to the young men in church! They went crazy for them! Be careful, mom and dad, you might be having some brazilians calling! hahah! Not a ton of news this week! Will have more next week. Transfers! Carlos A. Godoy of the 70 is coming to our mission on the 17th of april as well!
Se Cuida Yáll!
Elder Larsen

 

A t-shirt that the youth asked cliff to draw!

Our Missionary...

We got a cute little email from Elder Larsen Mission President's Wife...

She wrote:

elder Larsen is doing a very good job.

Sister Siedschlag

Faithful Missionaries!

HEYYALL! Good week passed by here in Parnaiba! One BUSY BUSY week though now that we are covering 2 areas! Its the biggest area in the mission now! We went to work for real! Monday night the week started off terrible though! The first time i´ve felt scared in the mission! We were coming home from an appointment that went on forever at about 10 oclock. We have to go through kind of an alley to get home too. Some guy called us from the sidewalk and you cant ignore people as a missionary. So we go over to him and he starts talking really weird of how bad he´s wanted to meet us. He told us to come into his "house" as well. which is one room. One room with skulls and death signs all over the walls and dirty as heck! He continued saying that he saw sister missionaries in the area here 2 months ago but they ignored him and that he´s super angry about it. He went on speaking really strange with a twitch in his eye that creeped me out! Everything he was talking about was really strange and fishy. I was like, i´ve been here for 4 months and elder nakazoni for 6...and there were never sister missionaries here. The guy had 2 nazi tattoos on his arms as well.. Finally we got the heck out of there and marked an appointment with him that we wont be attending.. I´m glad we always have protection as missionaries when we live worthy. I felt scared a little bit, but still had confidence that nothing would happen to me. Wednesday was a so so day for us.. a ton of appointments fell through. The appointments that we did have, were interrupted by screaming kids!! haha! Ive noticed here that brazil loves 3 american bands: red hot chili peppers, adele, and linkin park! The only country ive heard here is lady antebellum. Its so funny the people here put a reggae remix on everything! Look up adele songs that are reggae! Its the funniest thing! I have a favorite food here so far as well! Its called fejuado! Look it up and make it for dinner one night! We got a new buffet in our house thursday becuase the other one broke! The new one is crazy nice (or maybe i just think that anything new is nice being in this area) hahah! Its crazy how my point of view of everything here has changed already! I thought everything was just crap when i got here and now i only see the good! Now that we have a bigger area, we have a rich area now called Reis Veloso! Its the richest neighborhood of Parnaiba and the missionaries before were always scared to even try there. We gave it a try and got rejected by speaker phone about 7 times! hahah these houses are CRAZY huge! Its a different city in this neighborhood! But finally, a lady of about 60 yrs old named Lucia let us in! She´s retired and has 2 kids that live in brasilia. She lives in a HUGE house all by herself! She loved everything we taught and called us her little angels hahah! We taught Vidal again on friday and dang the guy is golden! He found some church clothes for sunday and everything and asked if "brown pants were ok" hahahah! We found an inactive family of a grandma and 3 grandsons! They love the missionaries and enjoyed our visit! Later we knocked a door in the same neighorhood and 3 snakes appeared all flirtsy! After their little flirsty spill though, we were actually able to teach them and they asked sincere questions the entire lesson! Sunday we had 6 investigators in Church!! The work is going good here! This morning we taught Lucia again and invited her to be baptized and she ACCEPTED! This saturday! When she went to church yesterday everyone thought that she was already a member and just visiting from a different area! haha! On our way back to the house it was CRAZY HOT! Just to give you a little idea of how hot it is, out of nowhere when we were walking, a bird just drops dead in mid flight 5 feet in front of us on the sidewalk! Not lying at all! Never saw this in my life! but, i`m still alive thank goodness! 

Paz seja com voces! 

GRANDE ABRACO!

Elder Larsen

Letters are GOLD!!

BOM DIA GENTE!! Times flyin! Coming up on 6 months! I finally got the packages you sent today as well! Holy poop i wont be dying anytime soon! Had a good week here. Tuesday we taught Luani again but this time she had a twin that came out of nowhere, Laiani as well! We taught them the plan of salvation with little drawings that someone gave elder nakazoni and they loved it, but most importantly understood everything! I decided to draw my own as well and go get them laminated! We went to teach Pedro as well later, but he was leaving as we arrived, but he stopped grabbed a 2 liter pop and a huge bag of cookies and gave it to us! Its crazy how people that have nothing give you everything! We went to his house again the next day took took Brendo with us, recent convert 17 yrs old. It was awesome because we involved him a ton and they loved his testimony! The young men in our ward are always willing to go with the missionaries. Thursday we went with another boy, mateus who´s 16, the whole day and showed him what missionary work is! We stopped by Antonio Carlos and Jascinta and gave Antonio Carlos a Book of mormon and he accepted it and was like i will read this book word for word without hesitating! He is crazy religious and goes to church like 5 times a week! Later on we went to Pedro and Lucia and showed the restoration dvd! Afterward they offered us dinner! NOBODY offers dinner here! Heck yes, we accepted as well. Seriously, there really arent bad people here, theyre just pretty dang lazy. Its really hard to motivate them. It was cool to involve MAteus a lot and show him what we do every day. It was a great testimony builder for him i think. He saw so many aspects of missionary work in one day, blessings, less actives, investigators, etc! Friday was Zone conf, blah. Just about planning! the day was filled with cancelled appointments but we found a good family at night, Ricardo and Jascinta and his sister Marcia. The grandma left as soon as we approached them and told us that she´s catholic and that she hates us! hahaha but everyone else was cool with us! we had a meeting with president siedschlag sat morning and he says he loves the work we´re doing here. He said our area was the worst area of the mission and that it has a terrible name for missionaries because of the ones who passed here before. Its our job to change the name of missionaries and gain confidence of the members. We taught antonio carlos later and when we started he was like, guys the book of mormon´s not for me. Its written completely different than the bible. I asked him if he even read it for himself and he was like, well...no... I said how are you supposed to know if you havent read pondered and prayed? He went to a preacher and of course they told him this. He recommitted himself and we cleared a lot of questions when we taught the restoration. Its crazy how all of the answers about the restoration, plan of salvation, commandments are all found in the bible itself! With the book of mormon as well, theres no doubt! We had 0 investigators in sacrament meeting on sunday. its so confusing, when we do everything we should do and work our butts off in 100 degree weather and nobody does anything. The people here are so laid back...too laid back! i gotta find a way to excite them, but the church here doesnt have activities! What makes it even harder is that church starts at 8 am! Nobody wants to get up that early! Our area had some big changes! The other elders were transferred to the center of parnaiba and now just me and elder nakazoni are over all of this area of ours and theirs! Its pretty much like all of steubenville and wintersville! I hope presidente will give us bikes our something because we got some major walking to do! Thanks so much for the packages and letters! Everything i get in the mail is like gold! I always thought missionaries were crazy for saying letters are their lives, but its true! 

Stay safe yall!

ABRAÇO

Elder Larsen