loving life here in São Luís!!

HEYYYY!!! what a good week we had! The Lord really blessed us this week in our work. WE had quite a few moments where we were really guided by the spirit. Brasil is crazy right now....nobody is studying because the world cup will start! also, the city buses are on strike...since they are on strike...everyone is!! we were going to mark the marriage of a couple we´re teaching, but the marriage office was closed!!! :( hopefully these strikes pass soon. Sunday we finally got some investigators AND various less actives to come to church. I feel like my teaching ability is at it´s best that its ever been in the mission. We´re really seeing difference in the people we are teaching. The members are helping us a lot in the form of meals....We finally found an apartment to rent....we just have to talk to president to confirm it. We have zone conf on saturday as well with him. On sunday, we were walking and i started looking at our contacts on our cell and i saw a name, edson. i told my comp that i felt like we should visit him. We called him and visited him. He went less active just because he traveled, hurt his foot, and never came back to church! We ended up teaching his whole family as well! They also gave us a referral of their neighbor as well who accepted us very well. We´ve been finding a lot more less actives being that we are getting to know the area better. A member passed by us the other day and was like, "elders, i really like you 2...do you see that pizza shop? if you ever are hungry, just stop by there, grab a pizza, and tell them that i´ll pay for it." I was like, well.....ok! perfect with me! no problem....! We´re teaching a girl named Vanderleia that is way cool as well. She went to a devotional in the chapel out of nowhere last sunday night and invited us to teach her! She was loaded with questions! Finally things are coming together in our area. loving life here in São Luís!!

ABRAÇÃO,

Elder Larsen

2 Baptisms!!

Hey yall!!! We had a good week here. A lot of running around. We had 2 baptisms this week: Rayssa who´s 20 and a boy named Matheus. We´ve been preparing them these last 2 weeks. It was such a rush to get their baptism ready because bishop didnt give us a key to the baptismal font here. He called everyone but nobody answered!! Finally we got ahold of the 1st counselor Hamon and he helped us out! Him and his family have helped us out a lot since i´ve gotten here. The baptism went very well...Matheus´ parents were there to watch it. His dad is an inactive and his mom is starting to investigate the church. We got to teach them after and it went great! his mom wants to be baptized. We will mark their marriage this thursday so that she can be baptized! We´ve been teaching another young man that i made a contact with, joao guilherme. he´s 14 and very intelligent! he understood so well everything that we taught. We had a talent show in the chapel on friday and he came with us! It was a lot of fun! They invited me and my comp to dance so we had our minute to shine ! hahahah!

I´m eating SO much here in this area, but i burn every calorie walking...its so big here! I´ve yet to see the ocean, but we will go there i think next p day. the members here are liking us a lot, which is good, because the last missionaries that were here really werent that wonderful. I love our district here. We take care of the 2 companionships of sisters in Maiobão. They crack me up! So...we went 2 days straight this week without water in our apartment...we called president to see if we could move and he gave us permission. We went looking for houses for rent yesterday but couldnt find ANY!!! the only ones we found are SO expensive!

I like the ward a lot here, just one thing...bishop is not a big fan of the missionaries...and never was. i will be sending some really cool pictures when i go to old town sao luis. 

LOVE YALL!

Elder Larsen

My Last Call Home...

HEY FAM!! Crazy that i had my last call with you guys on sunday!! Everyone (especially the kids) is so different!! First time we had good internet to call, so that was a miracle! I´m learning to love the area here. Every area in the mission has its ups and downs. I feel like this area has a lot of potential to bring a lot of members back. I looked at the list of members with my comp and there are about 600!! Our biggest downfall is HOW to find them! For every neighborhood here, there are 3 roads with the SAME name! We went walking in circles like crazy looking for an address but just ended up getting lost. We´re relying a lot on making contacts in the street right now and working close to the chapel. I´m really being tested right now, but it´ll go fine. We had district meeting on monday...it went swell. The sisters are awesome in our district AND they dont whine...which is good! There are 3 brasilians and i peruvian. Once again, i´m the only american! Today we´re gonna go to the mall and chill in the air conditioning for a bit :) This friday, the ward will be having a talent show at the church.....and they asked me to sing! hahahah! but what song?! first ones that came to mind were: 1. the national anthem 2. i will always love you - whitney houston 3. oh holy night - josh groban hahahaha! Well, wish me luck! I love yins! Have a great week!

love,

Elder Larsen

Lots of Pictures!!!

My Birthday!

 Transfer day

 Going crazy being in a bus for 8hrs with these girls

 My New Companion

 Playing a bit of Basketball

 Vera! She makes awesome food!! 

Birthday Week!

HEYYY!!! What an amazing week! I gained 4 lbs this week....and it was all in one day! RIDICULOUS! Last week we played basketball on Pday with the 2 giants Ramom and Hyago....6`3 and 6`9!! We won ;D hahahah! On tuesday we had a good district meeting....maybe my last one here! My comp showed me a funny thing that he did on his mission in new york....it´s called RM 800! You send a questionaire to a girl that is LOADED with hilarious questions about her whole life! for example: whats the size of your dad´s gun? Draw a diagram of your house including all of the fastest exits. Would you be willing to go scuba diving? hahahha! So on my birthday on wednesday, i woke up to breakfast in bed. My comp made pancakes! I have no idea to this day how he made them because we had no material in our house!!! haaha! Later we went to Ramom and Hyago´s for lunch...they made a huge CHURRASCO for my birthday! They even made a cake! I love those guys! Definately want to stay in contact with them. Hyago told me that jared hubbard eats like none other! I responded, well, he is a hubbard! hahahah! Later, we get invited to an "FHE" at Rhayrlla´s house! We get there and immediately everyone sings happy birthday! Crazy! I felt so loved! Then we get a call from bishop out of nowhere! I forgot that we marked to go on visits with him!! We went running to chapel and he hear someone call us from the square...it was bishop at the pizzaria! he was like, rapaz, did you think i forgot it was your birthday?! hahaha! He bought 2 huge pizzas! Love the guy! My birthday couldnt have been better. The members here are just too kind! I NEVER ate so much in one single day.. Thursday we taught this awesome couple! The woman had already read 18 pages of the book of mormon. The man we met for the first time! We invited the woman to church but she denied. when she said this, the man replied to her, "Woman? are you crazy! These boys have been tellin the truth! I went to their church one time....they know how to read the good book just right! Dont know about you, but i´m going on sunday!!" hahahah! crack up! THEN, he said the closing prayer, "Oh Senhor, me proteja daquala cabra ve!" (oh lord, protect me from that ol goat!) hahahah! dont know what that was supposed to be but i cracked up! We will have a baptism this friday of Iracema. A daughter of a member who we´ve been teaching! She passed her interview saturday. So pday will change after may 5th! It will be on wednesday now! Dont know what i feel about that....Well thats about it for this week! Thank you for the happy birthday wishes everyone!

LOVE YALL!!

Elder Larsen

The church is true!

HEYYALLL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! YOU´RE SOOOO......young! hahaha well this week was a dandy. We got news from the ZL´s this week that this transfer will be only 5 weeks....so it´ll end on May 6th...AND the next transfer will be only 5 weeks as well. What does this mean? I get home 2 weeks earlier! So my return date now is September 2nd!! whoa! thats like tomorrow! Crazy, huh?

We had some good lessons this week...we taught a reference named Debora who is really interested in the church, but she´s limited by her spouse. Its really hard to find good men to teach. The biggest problem here and the cause for many problems is that there´s a lack of good men. There´s a lot of families here torn apart because the man of the house is a bum or doesnt like the church. We had Neide´s baptism on thursday! It was so awesome...a lot of people showed up to support. A young man, Felipe, who was baptized this year had the privilege to baptize her. Beforehand, the Young women had a human rights activity. There were a few investigators there that also stayed to watch the baptism. Friday....EVERYTHING was closed because of a catholic holiday. Literally think that there was a total of 10 people in the city. We were invited to a CHURRASCO (barbeque) at night at Antonina´s! I never ate so much meat in my life! Saturday we ate lunch at Auricélia and Krespo´s house. We conversed like crazy! They´re a cool couple, i like them a lot. We had the opportunity to give a few blessings this week. It was quite amazing to see immediate results after the blessing of a lady that we blessed. She wasnt able to eat these last few days and was becoming quite week. After the blessing, we was already eating a feeling better! An RM, Hyago, got here this week from serving in Salvador, Bahia! HE´S HUGE! seriously, almost 7 ft! He knew Jared Hubbard in the mission! He also speaks fluent english. He was a foreign exchange student in new hampshire, washington dc, and tulsa oklahoma. Cool fella! We´re teaching quite well together right now. I really feel like i´m in my flow as a missionary now. The church is true!

LOVE,

Elder Larsen

"You´re a good man. Teach the hell out of them!"

Hello Hello!

This week was quite awesome! Lots of good things going on here! Me and Elder Patey are getting along very well. I gave a training on tuesday in the district meeting about covenants and baptism. We always have to reanalyze our teaching group to really see if we are teaching people that would make covenants with God in the temple. If not, we should look for those who would! We ate lunch with sisters at a less actives house where, the night before, the couple had fought....physically. The house was pretty torn. The sisters asked me and my comp to give the message. We gave a message about the jaredites and what happened with them because of the fault of charity they had. The entire civilzation was destroyed. It was quite spiritual. We gave the husband a blessing as well. So bishop called me this same day when we were on the bus (that broke down on the middle of the highway when it was 110 degrees....) and said that Neide who was set to be baptized on the 25th wanted to be baptized a week earlier! I was like....."uhh....NO PROBLEM!" She will be baptized this thursday! We found some good inactives to work with this wekk as well. Lots that havent been visited for years! President Lima, elders quorum pres, gave us 2 sweet references this week that we visited with him. 2 ladies came up to him at work and asked him what they had to do to be members of the church! hahahah! he was like, "well, i have 2 friends for you to meet." One is a hair stylist that reminds me a lot of lacey. Well, hair stylists are about all the same when it comes to personality... They were really open and understanding. We even marked a baptismal date for the 2 of them! My companion and i were going home when it was downpouring and i found out that he likes redneck jokes... we comment the whole day on this! hahahah! He was like yeah, my grandpa told me before the mission, "You´re a good man. Teach the hell out of them!" hahahah i died! We taught joao filho´s family last night with the president of every organization from church! it was really really great! Later i went with Krespo, argentinian RM who married a girl from here, and taught a reference and my comp went with bishop to teach another family. everythings just going swell here! Loving my time here.

ABRAÇÂO,

Elder Larsen

 Sleeping or Praying......

 There are pigs everywhere in this town! 

 kinda blurry. baptismal font in campo maior