"I´M COMING HOME, I´M COMING HOME"

"I´M COMING HOME, I´M COMING HOME, TELL THE WORLD THAT I´M COMING HOME!".......QUE LOUCURA!!! I´m a week away from being called a returned missionary!!! Dang i´m getting old... hahahah! I don´t even know where to start to explain this grand, 2 year experience. All i know is that it was definately 2 years that i needed. I never felt so happy and joyful and at the same time i had moments that were so depressing and lonely. I just know that Heavenly Father exists and that He loves me personally and chose me to represent His son, Jesus Christ. What an honor it was to have His name on my chest for 2 years! I am so happy for the change that i have made in my life. I will never forget the love that i felt teaching these people here and the wonderful conversions that i have seen along the way. I know that the mission was a time for me to understand more the atonement of jesus christ. It was not easy at all, but i learned to embrace it! I have such a deep love and conviction for Brasil and its people. I felt really grateful and blessing as a bore my testimony in my last zone meeting yesterday! I can´t believe how i even survived these 2 years being that i threw up for any little thing before the mission! (i went 2 years without throwing up one time!) hahaha! Heavenly father has really blessed me with good health and ability to overcome sickness and injuries quickly in this time! The zone meeting yesterday was really good! All of the elders that bore their testimonies with me were very sincere as well, it was so spiritual. I know the Lord has put me with every companion that i´ve had up until now for specific reasons. I´m glad for all of the wonderful friendships that i´ve made as well. I´m really grateful for my last companion. Elder Alves. What a humble, selfless guy he is. He always offers me things of his and is always looking to serve his companion. I really have learned a lot with him. It´s one of the principal reasons why we have had a lot of success. Love the guy!

So this week was awesome!! On saturday we had a baptism, of Tita! She was so excited....it was really a great meeting! i had the honor of baptizing her! Josy was supposed to be baptized on saturday too....but she was feeling a lot of pressure from her family and friends. We invited her to just come watch tita´s baptism. So she came and watched and really liked it. Later, right before we were going to sleep, we got a call.....Josy! She asked if she could be baptized the next day!!! What a miracle!! she was baptized after sacrament meeting!! what great people and leaders that we are baptizing here!! I love Caxias and these people! I´m happy with the way that i´m going out!! 

Well, i´ll be hugging you all here in a week!! We´ll see if you recognize a skinny, burnt up, elder! hahaha THE CHURCH IS TRUE! EU AMO BRASIL, DEUS VÓS GUARDE! PESERVEREI ATÉ O FIM!!

LOVE YOU ALL, SEE YOU SOON!!

Elder Larsen

 Tita

 Josy

 Last Zone Meeting

 The Guys going home!  oliveira, me, beraldi, and antonio

 "boi" museum!!

 I found a Taco Bell! haha

The Book of Mormon is True, Jesus Lives!

Hey Fam!! What a week! We had great success this week as a district. we brought 13 investigators to church on sunday!! we broke a record! ahha! There´s been a continual growth here in the branch....from when i got here with 28 to 45 now! We will have 2 baptisms on saturday, Tita and Josy. Tita is a lady who´s been taught for a while now. Her husband is a member (ward secretary as well) in Cuiabá...he comes home in december! He will help a lot here. She finally came to a conclusion to be baptized! Josy had been taught before as well, liked the church, but didnt really grasp it before. We kept on persisting with her and she has come around! She will be an awesome member! Super intelligent. Elder Rodgers actually was the one who started teaching her! 

We had a funny lesson this week with a man named Claudio. I asked him, "what do you know about jesus christ?" he was like," well i can tell you her cured like crazy! he did it very quietly though. When he cured the diseased he said, "be cured, and shut up!"" hahahahahah! i died! so much funnier in portuguese. Honestly, i think this last transfer of mine is being one of the best of my mission. We´ve been working our tails off, but having fun along the way as well! I love this country! i´m gonna miss it a lot! Its so wild that i´ve been here for 2 years!! Who would´ve guessed that i would survive?! Skinny little twirp that was scared of his own shadow before! The church is true, the book of mormon is true, jesus lives!

hahaha love you all!

Elder Larsen

 Vogue

Hard Work Pays Off....

Hey yall! Crazy how every week i have such little time left here! Congrats to Clyde and Jess! Archer´s a cute little guy. Takes after his uncle well. This week went very well. We are following up on a lot of people! We invited a lot of people to see the baptism on saturday....almost nobody came...but out of nowhere, one of our families, Sandra and Marcio came with their 2 kids! They loved it and participated very well! They werent one of our priorities to teach before, but now they sure are! The only problem that we have with our families that we´re teaching is that they all travel a lot. its tough to find them at home and hard for them to be at home on weekends! The group of youth we are teaching are doing good. There are 4 especifically that are progressing more than the others. We are teaching a college student as well that is really coming around well. She left an offer to go to some program at the college to come to church on sunday! So, when we were walking in the road the other day, we were glued to the wall as always to be in the shade, i smacked my head on a steel bar that stuck out of a house! I thought i just pulled a dad and that i would just shake it off....then i touched my head and it was gushing blood all over the place! My companion got really freaked out and ran me over to the hospital to get it treated. First time i went to the hospital in the mission! The lady that took care of me kept on calling me sugar and beloved! kkkk made me laugh! Sure hurt like none other! Good thing i got my tetanus shot as well! That thing was rusty! Our recent converts are doing extremely well! Natália is already gonna give a talk this sunday about gratefulness! She showed us what she prepared....its legit! Looked a lot better than what old members do! We gave her some tips on how to give a good talk. This is something that i learned in the mission! Before the mission, my talks were just a story in the Ensign and then i´d bear my testimony! hahahah! Everything´s going swell here though. The leaders are really happy with our work here. The attendance has a constant growth every week!

Love you all!
Elder Larsen

People do anything to stay cool

My District

Lots of things happening!!

hey family! what a wonderful week we had. lots of miracles happening here in caxias. last pday, we were invited by one of our investigators to visit the insect exibit at her college laboratory. it was really neat, some crazy bugs they have here in brasil! I took a ton of pictures. Me and my companion elder alves are working really well together. our personalities blend well together. So, one miracle was me playing soccer with a few little boys at a less active´s house. Out of nowhere, a man stops in his car and asks me if i was german. I said no that i am american and he responded," well, you sure play good for an american" His name is Nilson, a professor, who spoke with the missionaries a few times when he studied in Paraguay. He invited us over to his house to be taught with his family. We taught them and marked baptismal dates for them! He is incredibly intelligent...i feel future stake president potential in him. He stopped us in the beginning of the lesson and grabbed a notebook and pen to note down stuff from the discussion! i NEVER saw this in the mission!! It was so funny/awesome!! he always offers us a ride in his car as well! I feel a great spirit teaching their family! another MIRACLE was a reference from a member in brasilia gave us. We visited her, Ana Teresa, a 17 year old girl. She has a lot of family that are members. So, the next visit, she invited 5 boys from her dad´s soccer team to hear us as well! Then the next visit, 2 more came! Then the 3rd visit, 3 more came!! incredible!! We have already marked baptismal dates with almost all of them! Almost all of them went to church on sunday as well! They absolutely loved it! They all range from 15-20 years old! What a great addition they would be to the branch that really doesnt have any youth!! They all are respectable and good youth. We had the Zl´s here yesterday. They interviewed a family and a man for us! We just have to prepare them a little more. I went out with Elder Christie for the day. He said he learned a lot with me and that i´m the first of many missionaries that he´s seen on the last transfer thats not dead! hahaha. Our district is doing really good. The other companionship will have a baptism this saturday. We are currently with 20 people with baptismal dates that we are following up! lots of work! i really love a scripture in doctrine and covenants that i want to share with you:

D&C 84:106 And if any man among you be strong in the Spirit, let him take with him him that is weak, that he may be edified in all meekness, that he may become strong also.

This is so true, i´m a witness of it. A great example of this is Ammon in Alma 17 where he encourages the other servants of the king to not give up, and because of his strength, he made the others strong as well.

Love you all,

Elder Larsen

ONE MONTH.... Countdown!!

hey family! What an awesome week this was. I´m getting along so well with my companion, elder alves. He´s a good worker and doesnt complain. We only got to work 2 days together last week, but we found 3 huge new families! Our goal is to baptize 2 families this last transfer. I left pday at night to teresina. When i got to the staff house, there were over 50 missionaries there! Our mission has grown a lot from 110 when i got here to 180 now! Lots of new areas have opened up! The training was really inspiring, it was cool to have a conference with just experienced elders. I got to see everyone from my group as well. All my sisters missed me ever so much! ahaha! it was weird because i traveled alone, my companion wasnt called to come with me! Sunday we had a good fast and testimony meeting. I´m teaching the young men on sundays now instead of the quorum. I like it better! So, our 2 recent converts, Diná and Natália both bore their testimonies on sunday! it was so cool! We took diná with us to teach her neighbor this week, she really enjoyed the experience and said she felt the spirit a lot. She bore her testimony about it even! Natália said that she really was grateful that we persisted so much with her. I felt really good leaving the church that day. We´re finding a lot of great people here! In the afternoon we had to head to teresina for zone meeting monday morning. It was my second to last!! It was a good meeting, but we had to leave a little early to go to interviews with president. I had a great interview with him. He really complimented me a lot and said i was doing a great job. He told me to help out the elders in my district and help them to be leaders for next transfers. I feel like i have a really good relationship with him. We resolved my byu stuff their as well! So crazy i only have 1 more interview and one more zone meeting!! GAHHH!!!

Love you all!
Elder Larsen

 The group I will come home with!

 The President

 Mission Office

Staying here till the End!!

HEY FAMILY!! Well what a good last week of the transfer we had! We baptized Natália, who we´ve been teaching for a bit. She´s the one that has a pet rabbit at home! hahaha She´s a lawyer....super intelligent! It was awesome...on tuesday we visited her and asked about baptism and she said she wasnt ready, so we fasted from tuesday to wednesday before her interview thursday! When she left the interview, she said she felt totally ready! AWESOME! The baptism turned out really well. Elder Gauthier  and Elder Nessen were transfered to Piripiri and Horto to be companions of elder rodgers and elder steed from my group! hahaah! So the Zone leaders gave us wrong informations about transfers saying that elder shepard´s comp would get here monday at midnight.....it was supposed to be tuesday at midnight. so we waited at the bus station til 3 in the morning....flip! so my companion is Elder Alves from Fortaleza, Ceará....right next door! He´s chill....super quiet! He´s also only 18 years old and has been out for 6 months. Elder Shepard´s companion is from Cabo Verde....an island off the coast of Africa! He´s a crack up! So 2 americans, 1 brasilian, and 1 african! funny combination! I´m excited for this last transfer! Lots of work....its gonna fly! Tomorrow there is a leadership conference of the WHOLE mission! Should be cool....i´ll see everyone! Well, i love you guys!

CHEIRO NO VAVÁCO!

Elder Larsen

A GREAT WEEK!

hey yall!! this was a GREAT week! We had a cool open house activity on Saturday where the stake came to help. We put up paintings and tables up all over the square in front of the church. I made literally like 200 contacts that morning! It really drew a lot of attention from everyone. We also had a cool family home evening activity this week at the church. We did a "tour" of the temple! We went around explaining all of the parts of the temple by room. There were more people that came to the family home evening than sacrament meeting! Well when sunday arrived, we had 51 people at church!! normal for here is 30ish. We had a ton of less actives and investigators come out! I felt so good. The stake president was visiting as well and was quite impressed. I feel that everyone felt the spirit...it was so good to see all of the benches full and everyone singing together!! We are gonna start teaching english in the chapel friday nights now. The youth are really excited for it. We taught a less active, Laércio, who led us to find a really awesome family! He let his aunt borrow his book of mormon. I got her number and called her and marked an appointment. Last night we went and taught them. What an awesome family!! She had already read til 2 nephi 27....before the first visit!! She works for the healthcare of caxias and her husband is a police officer. They both paid a lot of attention. They have 3 kids as well.....and a car! in fact, they gave us a ride home after!! Things are going quite well here, other than health! I´ve had this rough cough for about a week now! I couldnt even sleep the first couple nights! Well, LOVE YOU GUYS!

Elder Larsen

So excited for lunch!! 

 the warriors of caxias