Downpours....

hello yall! all is well here in the attractive city of Altos. We started off our week well holding an FHE at an investigator´s house. So, Joanara recent convert, was supposed to invite investigators to her house for us to have the FHE there, but she did better inviting them to have it in their house. So the investigator is a city councilman!! he covers the health department. lets just say that he´s loaded and that we never wouldve gotten into their house just knocking the door. After the FHE, joanara sent us a text saying that they wanted us to come back and that they loved our presence. We went back another day and taught about the restoration. They believed in the first vision and everything. Honestly, its a family that could change the whole ward here. They couldnt go sunday because they were in teresina, but this sunday they´ll go. We didnt have a TON of investigators come to church this week. Everything went wrong with their plans. BUT, friday we will baptize Diná and Adriely! finally! Seriously, this week we had a few downpours! we went to buy groceries in the morning but when we were returning the sky let loose on us!! ive never been so soaked in my life! we´ve been discovering a lot of inactives and teaching them, but a lot want nothing to do with nothing. So we made a plan for this week just attack street by street. My superbowl score guess is....

Seattle 34, Denver 31

LOVE YOU ALL!

seu querido,

Elder Larsen

 

It's Crazy Hot!!!

hello hello!! We had a swell week here this week. It has been CRAZY hot though! We´ve been visiting inactives like crazy being that there are about 500 in our ward! Zone conference was really interesting. We talked about being testifying and challenging missionaries. President is really wanting us to be bolder than ever and to go after it. Our companionship had some of the best numbers of december. President told us that 30% of the missionaries are baptizing 70%! there were a few companionships that pitiful numbers. Their numbers for the month were weekly numbers for many! We are teaching an awesome couple right now, Antonia and Railma! Antonio is a member that was inactive for more than 5 years and Railma is not a member. We asked a member at lunch 2 weeks ago if there was anyone close by that we could visit and she referred them! We´ve been teaching them ever since. They went to church these last 2 sundays and are hitting it off quite well with the members. I grabbed all of their info yesterday so that we can marry them civilly! As soon as they are married, she will be baptized! 3rd couple that i´ll marry in the mission! Antonio is so excited about coming back to church and being an active member. Our FHEs at members´ houses are giving us a lot of success! We are also teaching a man, Cristino, who is a dad of a missionary of the ward. Hopefully we can baptize him before his son gets home! My companion is doing a lot better recently. He was way nervous the first week, but is starting to settle in. He never questions what i do though which is good. I´ve been teaching him a little of what i learned with every companion that i´ve had. I´m glad that i had a good trainer though and that he was patient with me. Hopefully we can get a few baptisms here in a bit! Thats about it for this week though, love yall!!

Elder Larsen

It's a BOY!!

heyyo! what a great week to end the transfer! we baptized beatriz and robson on friday! was a very spiritual meeting thanks to bishop. He´s such a great organizer and teaches a different doctrine every time that i go on divisions with him. I´ve never seen anyone who knows the scriptures so well. We had a cool new years here. We were given permission to stay with the members and play games with them in the chapel. We have an addiction to a game that we play all the time called, Who Am I. You have group in a circle where everyone writes a name of a person or being on a sticky note and folds it and passes it. Everyone gets someone else´s sticky note and sticks it on their forehead. You go around the circle one by one asking who you are through "yes or no" questions. its better the more nerdier people are because they put tough names like cleopatra or david guetta! 

In other news, being that today is transfer day, there were some changes... Elder Massa is off to São Luiz and i will stay in the area! I´m gonna be a dad! and its a boy! I´ll be training a newby, but i dont know who it is yet! I go to teresina tonight and i´ll have a few meetings tomorrow where i´ll pick him up. Should be a cool experience. I hope i know the area here well enough after just one transfer here!

Well, thats about the only news i have for this week!

Love you guys!

Elder Larsen

Christmas & Lots of Pictures!!

hey guys! awesome week, what can i say its christmas!! it was so weird and fun talking with you all! its crazy that i only have one more call! Well, we had a productive week still being the week of christmas! We baptized Isac and Raíza on friday! It was a great service! We had to get Raíza´s mom´s signature in the morning though. They all call her the dragon because she´s hard headed and tough to compromise with. So we said a prayer and asked for all of them to pray as well the night before. So we went there in the morning and talked with her. She said "no" right from the get go, but i was like "calm yourself lady" let me explain! So i showed the whole young womens program to her and everything and talked a little more and BAM! signed it! its crazy, i have to be the tough companion nowadays! i usually was the one who listened and watched! hahaha! we will baptize 4 people this week as well, if everything goes right! today we went to Campo Maior to hike with the sisters! A family there took us by car to a mountain to climb! it was a really rewarding experience, you´ll like the pictures! good thing we went in the morning when it was a cold, 80 degrees! haha! 

love you guys!

Elder Larsen

Merry Christmas from Brazil!

hey fam!! last email before christmas!! WHAT?! lots of good results this week. We have a completely new teaching group, but almost everyone is progressing. This friday we will baptize a family of a single mom, Diná. She has a son, Isac and daughter, Adriele. Her niece, Raiza, who is living with them as well will be baptized. What an awesome family. I love teaching them and being at their house. Isac is 14 and absolutely loves the missionaries. He gives us a big ol hug every time. His mom told us that he was passing a bit of a rough time and giving her a bit of trouble, but ever since we´ve been teaching him that he´s become a good boy. We´re teaching another girl, Euria, from São Paulo. She´s here visiting for christmas break and his staying at a member´s house. she wanted to receive the lessons and came to church. we marked a baptismal date for her as well. We´re also teaching a cool family, Jesus and Maria. Jesus lived in Portugal for a while and loves to talk! They show a lot of promise. They are a reference of João de Deus or "John of God". I love peoples´ names here! we had our ward christmas apresentation this week as well. it went well, it didnt have a great turnout but they had a good choir and all. I love the city of altos. its one of the best areas that i´ve had in the mission. lots of great péople to teach, good members, and lots to do. We stopped at a recent convert´s house last night, joanara. she works as secretary for the city. She had a lot of people over for her mom´s birthday. I had to opportunity to speak with a lot of upper class people there! I spoke with a few judges and lawyers from Teresina. They have visited a lot of places in the U.S. and other countries. The daughter of one lived in england for a while and spoke a little english with me. One judge will be visiting Cleveland next july! i told him to rent a car at Thrifty! hahaha.

i fooled an investigator this week saying that i was brasilian and that elder massa was american. He was like, "yeah, you can clearly tell by their accents. elder massa speaks with such an american accent." hahaha blew his mind when we told the truth! but i´m excited to talk to yins! see ya in a bit!

Abraço, 

Elder Larsen

 

Merry Christmas to You!

~Awesome Week~

hey hey!! next week will be my last email before christmas!! WHAT?! flip, i´m gonna have to practice my english... well we had another meeting this week of district leaders. it went well, just the only problem is that we had to grab 3 buses to get to the meeting! i have to take the bus quite a bit in this area. there´s no buses in the city itself, but only ones that go to teresina and campo maior. i go to campo maior every tuesday for district meetings and to do interviews for the sisters. last district meeting went really well. i think i learn more than anybody in these meetings! its crazy how my ability to teach by the spirit has grown in the mission. i think that is one of the biggest growths that i´ve had. Elder Massa and i worked to no end this week, but lots of appointments fell through and we had to change our whole teaching group because nobody was progressing. we fasted on saturday to find more people to teach. we went through our Area book and picked out 20 names to visit. the first 4 we visited didnt live at the address anymore or didnt want to hear us. a little frustrating, even more when its 110 degrees. 5th one was a charm. We met sister Mazé who´s an inactive and her daughter Diná, who has 2 kids Isac and Adriele. A niece and nephew live with them too. They had all been taught by the missionaries a few years ago, but somebody got offended or something. We hit it off with them well though and taught them a lesson. They accepted to be baptized on the 27th! By the way, did i say that bishop silva is superman? he saw that we were struggling and went with us on friday, taking us to members´ houses to mark family home evenings with them. he gives a message with us and pretty much commands them to invite investigators for when we come to the FHE. He´s one of the best, spontaneous speakers you´ll ever see. He´s bishop of the ward since he was 19 years old!! WHAT?! i hope he´s present when i call on christmas. you have to hear his laugh, you´ll die! we´re probably gonna call from the chapel, it has the best connection. OH, sunday, when we were heading to lunch, someone stopped us on the highway, Valcélio and his family from Parnaíba! he was the priest quorums president in my first area! it was crazy to see them after such a long time! he gave me a lot of good news, but the biggest was: the contruction for the chapel was announced last district conference there....they start in february!! my 8 months there wasnt in vain! ahahah! made my week! cant wait to talk to you guys soon!

LOVE,

Elder Larsen

Our Bomb District of Sister Missionaries! 

 Chapel in Campo Major

 The girls apartment... of course its pink!