Elder Larsen....

Heyyall!!!!! WEll, back to email! Skype was so fun! My comp skyped for 5 hours...and cried like it was going out of style. I thought skyping would make him trunkier than ever but it actually gave him a new breath of life! We got a lot done this week! We found a less active family that hasnt been to church in 3 years and are working with them. they want us to teach them all of the discussions again! I spoke and taught more than ever today as well. My portugues is literally getting better by the day! I forgot to tell you guys a few things during skype. Theres no such thing as taxis here....only Mototaxis! Its the funniest thing just seeing people hopping on a little motorcycle and holding on to some stranger! One other thing about the area, Reggae is HUGE here! 2 things keep this town alive: Alcohol and Reggae. hahaha! Also, my branch president is a gym teacher for his job! hahah i was off!

dec 27- Its so funny whenever we teach a lesson, everyone calls me "Loirinho" or little Blondie. I guess i appear blonde here because everyone else has black hair. Whenever you go to anybody's house as well, they ALWAYS offer you Bolo. You never know it will taste until you bite into it. Its either really sweet like a muffin or salty and bitter like sea water. We have been doing great here the past few days. We're leading our district every week in numbers. and....We have a baptism set!! The one little girl in the less active family we are teaching is 9 years old and hasnt been baptized. Her name is Ana Vitoria and is so smart for her age! She understands everything we teach her! Its been great practice teaching her because we speak very simply and not use a lot of complicated words. The family offers us dinner every night as well that we pass by! You NEVER get dinner here! only lunch. Its so cool to be that missionary that kids like. It reminds me of when i was little and the big hawaiian missionaries we had. We'll have the first baptism in our zone in a while! This area's been dead for a while. I gave my first blessing in Portugues as well! The holy ghost sempre puts the words in your mouth that you need to say.

dec 28 - Well, we went to lunch today literally 10 miles away from our house...one way. The sun here is so dang strong!! So when we started eating, i noticed the meat tasted pretty funky so i asked what it was and the old lady said, "Coracao de cabra e Testino de porco" ....Goat heart and pig intestine!! I looked back down at my plate, smiled, and subtly continued eating. hahahah!

dec 29- Found a flippin full grown, human-eating tarantula in our house today!! You never know what you will find! This area is really, really tough, but things are looking up! We got 2 more less active families to come to church today! we passed 70 in attendance today as well! We were 50 at one point! This branch really needs activities though. Nobody will grab the reins and organize something though. We dont really have time as missionaries to do it though! I wish we could! Its so easy to invite people to an activity to get their feet wet before inviting to church. Every house here is like the basement of our old house....or worse! Theres a ton of mud houses here! So many of these people here literally have nothing. I´m grateful for the opportunities that i have that some of these people will never get to experience. Theres a ton of things that i realize i am grateful for, being here.

I dont think i need any more peanut butter. Just granola or protein bars and oatmeal packets mainly! Deodorant, soap as well. And i made my mormon.org profile almost 2 years ago! i just edited the intro in the MTC. Thats it for this week!
Grande abraço por todos!!
- Elder Larsen

 

 

Where Elder Larsen is at...

When we talked to Cliff at Christmas he told us that they dont really have an address but he said that they live right by this little gas station "Posto Mirante" So we went on a search for it.... and after 2 days we finally found it!!! Its so cool to be able to see right where Cliff is living!!



I am Cliff Larsen, I am Mormon

My dad was on google earth tonight and was looking up Teresina Mission... after talking to cliff yesterday he was just wanted to look more into where cliff was serving at and the area that he is in. So he started looking and at the bottom of the page was some of the elders blogs that their families were doing for them and then he saw "I am Cliff Larsen, I am Mormon... Serving in the Brazil Teresina Mission..." So he clicked on it and it is a Mormon.org "I am Mormon" letter that Cliff had wrote!! We are not sure if he worte it before he left on his mission or if they had the elders write them when they were in the MTC.... but it was just the icing on the cake! or the perfect thing for my parents to find to reassure them that there "little cliffy boy" is okay and that he is really truly loving every min of being on a mission and the love that he has for this gospel! We could not be more proud of him and what a strong man he has turned into! Here is the link so that you can go an read what he had wrote! http://mormon.org/me/6x3p

We Love Our Elder Larsen!!

SKYPE

WE HAD SOO MUCH FUN BEING ABLE TO SKYPE OUR ELDER ALL THE WAY IN BRAZIL!! HE IS DOING SO GOOD AND LOOKS SO GROWN UP ALREADY!! WE ALL HATED TO SAY GOOD BYE TO HIM.... WE ARE SO PROUD OF CLIFF AND THE WORK THAT HE IS DOING AND THE STRENGTH TO CARRY ON EVEN THRU ALL THE TRIALS HE IS PUT THRU!

WE LOVE OUR ELDER LARSEN

Christmas Time....

Hey yall! ITS CHRISTMAS EVE!!! cant believe its already here!! Its been a pretty good week here, although most of it was in Teresina. We didnt get back here until friday morning at 4 in the morning. We were originally scheduled to get back thursday night at 8 but the bus station screwed everyhting up with our tickets, so we had to wait at the bus station for 6 hours.. We focused a lot on less actives when we got back and got 2 less active families with some members of the families that arent members to come to church! Its so hard to get people here to commit to anything, so it was a great thing! Still no baptisms, but we have a lot of people progressing. My companion has really been testing my patience lately. He wanted to sleep for an hour one of the days at like 3 oclock and i was like heck no, we´re going to work! I cant take control of the situation like i want to because i dont know the languarge well enough. Its really frustrating too when the brazilians all talk about stuff that isnt in my vocabulary yet and i´m just completely lost. Ive been praying really hard lately for more patience and understanding, but i know the answer wont come until after the trial of my faith. Missionary work is really tough, but so really rewarding when you can change someone´s life and show them the happiness they could have. My companion is kind of a lesson hog too. He hardly leaves a breath for me to speak and he loves to talk about himself for days. I´m trying to stay patient, but its definitely hard. We are going to the zone leader´s apartment tonight with our whole zone to spend christmas and we will get up in the morning and come to the chapel to skype at 3ish OUR TIME. Anyway, we had to stay in Teresina for my companion to take more tests for his kidney stones until thursday! I was mad at first, but it ended up being a good thing. Elder Cooper, the zone leader in Teresina, took me with him Wednesday to do a blitz with him and other missionaries in Caxias! We took a little rickety bus through straight up jungle! When we got there, he said he was gonna throw me in the fire. I didnt know what that meant until he paired me up with Elder C Silva. He has been out 5 months and cant communicate with people for the life of him. He took the first 2 doors and it was AWFUL. I decided to take the rest after that and we met 2 families and taught the Restoration to both of them! And by we taught, i mean I taught. I looked at him to say something during the lesson and he looked at me like he didnt speak portugues! Its crazy how the spirit let my tongue go loose and teach! I didnt even stutter on a word! It was just perfect! Oh, my favorite scripture is Helaman 5:12! Any congratulations to Marissa and Kevin!! So excited for both of ya! Study the language you are going to be speaking NOW! Kevin, you could brush up on your English a little hahaha! I gotta go! Talk to yins a manha!!!

- Elder Larsen

Nice & Hot in Brazil....

The New "Soldier of God"

Heyyo...From Teresina!! I got here sunday night because we had a conference today with a member of the 70, Elder Mazzagardi! We had Parnaiba, teresina, teresina horto, and sobral zones! It was fun seeing a bunch of guys. Me elder steed and elder winn got reunited! Me and Elder Winn thought we was dead, but he´s alive and kickin! Hes got 2 brazilians in his apartment that speak fluent english! I really liked Elder Mazzagardi´s talk today. He really emphasized on our potential and ways that we can better our teaching with the spirit. He stressed looking into their eyes because they are the windows to the soul! He held a question and answer thing too. it was good at first but then the annoying elders were trying to compete for who could ask the most complex question. Finally one elder asked some stupid question about how can i better follow the rules for a longer amount of time and not forget or something, and Elder Mazzagardi walks down to the end of the pugh where he was sitting and was like, "Elder, just have fun" having fun is a big deal in the work. You got to have a smile on your face and be loose if you want to make anything happen.

 

My companion has been sick with kidney stones this whole week. Its been tough, but i was able to go out a few days because we have other elders. I stayed in 2 days with him, so i took advantage of it and studied my butt off! I watched all 3 of the Work and the Glory videos...in portugues!! Theyre so good! Definitely recommend it! I wish i wouldve read the books now! It really puts you into the early saints' shoes and how they were persecuted so terribly. The Church was really in a financial crisis at the time too. Its just amazing how the Church survived during this time, its truly a testament that its true. I'm telling you, if you want to learn a language, watch movies in that language! I learned so much from those movies in portugues! its kinda funny how the words dont match the mouths hahah! The other days, i went with Elder Leite twice and Elder Antonio once. We went back and forth between their areas and ours. We had a lot of appointments fall through. Its so hard to get people to realize the importance of our message. They dont want to sacrifice and act for themselves on the things we've taught. Its much easier to go to a church and have some paid minister preach to you for an hour and tell you that you're forgiven if you pay him, but thats not our purpose here on Earth. we're here to learn and grow and gain our own testimonies of Jesus Christ through prayer and sacrifice. I learned quite a bit going with Elder Leite because he talks to me a lot and we can converse pretty well. We knocked a house that is pretty fancy and this guy answers the door in these really fancy clothes and rings and everything. we start talking to him and everything, but he stops us halfway through and were like, aw poop...next house, but he says guys, i'm actually interested, but i have to go real quick, can you guys come back tuesday and he just rambled off his address and everything! we were both in shock! we had some good and bad points this week. Elder antonio was a little different. He's a good missionary, he's just a little lazy. All he wanted to do is just visit members. its good to visit members and all, but thats not our main objective here, especially with our little branch! Its just not the same when you dont have your real companion. I hope he can be ready to go sometime this week. He's a really good teacher, but he gets a little distracted when he's around elder antonio. We're in Teresina until tomorrow night. He's going to the hospital tomorrow to get his kidneys checked out. I really like Teresina! Its a beautiful city and way more americanized than parnaiba! I had a great time at the conference today! I understood everything everyone was saying in portugues! A couple brazilians thought ive been out way longer than i have. We have some great missionaries here, but we have goof offs too. The mission is getting better as a whole though as for success.

 

We will go to a members house to Skype, but i have no idea about time or anything yet. probably sometime in the morning or noon. is my skype name clifford.the.big.red.dog. ? and will you skype from the ipad so you can pass it around to everyone? i cant wait to see all of the kids!! I got some mail today at the conference! mom and dad lost 20 already?! Did i make you guys fat?! hahaha parabens!! It sounds like dad is living it up while i'm gone telling me of all of the fun things and plays that you guys go to see while mom is crying in my room folding my clothes on my bed! ahhaha! Cant wait to talk to yall in 8 dias!! we still have pday on the 24th too! i think we are just going to visit a bunch of members in the ward and then have an activity at the chapel with the youth!

 

Love yall!

- Elder Larsen (Soldier of God)

 Tyler's not around to have that title anymore, so i'll occupy it! hahaha!