Monkey see Monkey do!

    OPA! how´s everyone doing? I´m great! I saw my first monkey in the mission! This person´s house has wild monkeys running around everywhere! They´re about as big a your hand. I didnt have my stinkin camera though! We marked a baptism date for a young girl we´re teaching, Tatiana. She accepted the first visit! Rodrigo baptism fell through saturday. His mom called us from his phone and was like i dont want you talking to him anymore, so.... We met a less active this week, Tiago, that stopped us in the road and was like, Hey missionaries (in english). He´s about clyde´s age, and is opening an english school here. He was baptized 15 yrs ago and is wanting to come back. He speaks english almost fluent. We were able to meet up with Rodrigo later on in the week to give him  a chapter in the b.o.m. to read. we gave him 1 nephi 17 to show the opposition that nephi had to endure. The Lord has a promise that Everything will go right in the end, if we do his will. This week was kinda hectic with appointments because of the confederations cup. only women will talk to you during the games! hahah! its just a little taste of what the world cup will be. Brasil´s looking pretty dang good. I dont know if Clyde´s old brits will be able to keep up with these young gun brasil´s got! I saw the 2nd game this week when they played italy. They laid a whoopín! Everyone´s nuts for Neymar here! He´s the Lebron of Brasil! speaking of Lebron...ugh. At least i´m not there to see it. We taught a cool lesson with the friend of henrique. Her name is Deusanira, yeah... She loved learning everything about what we do in the mission. We saw one nasty motorcycle accident 30 ft in front of us on friday. Nobody was wearing a helmet either. Dang, it was ugly and bloody. Don´t want to see that scene again. Motorcycle´s are so dangerous, especially in brasil. Nobody obeys the road rules. But other than this, not a ton of news. We have a conference with president this saturday. I just want a paragraph from everyone in the family though, when you get a chance that says, why and how you joined the church! Thanks!

AmO VoCeS!

Elder Larsen



Lots of Inactives!!

Good 37834653th week in Parnaíba! We had some funny contacts this weeks. One was a group of ladies with their daughters (or should i say snakes). They asked us 10 billion questions about the church and asked to see our pictures. They went NUTS over my album. Everybody that passed by in the street they were like (OHH, ELE È DOS ESTADOS UNIDOS!) hahah they loved the pictures of the nieces and nephews. The new elder got here as well. His name is Elder Almeida, a short little white boy from Goiania, Goiais. Him and elder puggina are the shortest companionship in the mission! Haha its official, i will never live in the same house as americans! Its so funny, he gave his first spiritual thought at lunch. He FLEW threw it in 30 seconds, nervous to death! Rodrigo our golden investigator has a baptismal date set for this saturday, but his mom wants nothing to do with us or the church. Its a difficult situation, but he´s 18 yrs old and can choose himself. His dad´s all for him being baptized. When brasil was playing in the confederations cup this week, EVERYTHING STOPPED! not one appointment happened!  We met up with a guy that owns a frutaria, alex this week. We gave him a book of mormon a week ago and he´s been reading daily! When we started teaching him, he already knew what we were gonna say before we said it! The guy´s brilliant! He even asked what he has to do to be baptized! Sunday we had the best attendance ever since i got here! 87! We had a ton of inactives that i never saw in church, came! Nothing´s better than a full chapel! Its hot and sweaty, but good! Thanks for the love and support, i need it!

If you know anything that helps an earache, let me know as well! Its either an infection or a ruptured eardrum the doctor told me.

LOVE YALL.

Elder Larsen

Never Leaving Paranaiba!!

Well, i´m being transferred too.....NOWHERE! I´m never leaving Parnaíba! hahaha! I´m the only missionary that hasnt changed these last 7 months! Only Elder Lucas in our house is leaving , for Sobral. Elder Puggina will train a newby. I wont lie, i was really hoping to be transferred, but i guess there´s some purpose for me here still. We played ball with some ym on pday and demanded references after and it worked :) hahah on tuesday we taught a friend of walder and mateus named madeson. He was way interested in the church. We taught about the plan of salvation for him because his dad was killed in an accident a few years ago. He believed everything and loved the little cards i made for the plan of salv. Wednesday i went on a division with elder puggina in my area. We taught madeson again, but this time with his brother Mycal, and cousin CJ. They participated really well and understood everything. Thursday was awesome, we have been making a lot of contacts lately and its paying off. We met a guy named John Lennon, yeah i know, he´s 22 and is studying business. We have so many investigators who want to be baptised but, the parents wont let them. We have some work to do! One of the reasons was that, "The mormon church isnt very common". So, was it common what Jesus taught when he was here? There were very few that accepted him and many that rejected him. just because something isn´t common to the world, doesnt mean its something that God accepts. I went on a division with Elder Lucas on sunday. What an intelligent guy! He´s older and studies law, so i had a great opportunity in the lesson to listen to him and learn a lot of new vocab! He teaches really well by the spirit. We found some good families and made a million contacts! Today we were invited by an investigator of E Puggina to have lunch. He picked us up and brought us to his house! The guy lives in a mansion! He has maids in his house and everything! Holy dang he gave us a feast! He has a lot of cool trees of fruit that i´ve never seen that i was able to try as well. Literally one of the nicest guys you´ll ever meet. He offered everything for us! But until July 22, looks like i got a lot of Parnaíba ahead of me! hahah!

LOVE YINS

Elder Larsen

 

Speaking English?!

Oi Oi!! COmo é que tá todo mundo?! Its always a holiday when Pday comes around! haha! We had a good week here in Pnubs! We played football last Pday in a little sand field close to our house. Its so funny that elder beraldi looks just like a football player but cant play worth a dang! ahaha! Later we had an FHE at Ana Vitoria´s. I gave the spiritual thought about a talk from Elder Cristofferson about Lost Sheep. Tuesday i went to an english school downtown called, Wizard. Its a franchise owned by a member of the Church. Its really, really fancy and the students are really there to learn! They asked me to introduce myself in English (dang it was weird, i actually felt more comfortable introducing myself in portuguese) and after they asked me questions! It was fun joking around with them, but i didnt just go there to kill time! We brought surveys that we made about the church in english to get references! We organized an activity at Alessia´s house this week as well with a bunch of ysa to bring investigators! We brought Rodrigo and Thais and showed the joseph smith film of 1 hour and after had everyone bear testimony! We had a lady this week that we were teaching, it was really funny, she was like," i have always wanted to visit your church and learn more about it. I WILL go this sunday! And then she asked, is it ok if i bring friends? like 4 of them?" umm...YES! hahaha! We had a really good attendance on sunday. One of the highest since ive been here. Awkward lesson moment this week as well..We were teaching a lady that had a 7 month old baby that started crying in the lesson so she goes and grabs the baby in the middle of the lesson and comes back, sits down. So as i continue in the lesson, she whips out everything right in front of us and starts nursing! First time in a lesson..i knew this day would come hahaha! But its so stinking hot here, if you use a blanket to nurse, the baby will sweat to death! Oh...parnaíba. But i got  the package on saturday! THANK YOU! Some of the dvds we already have in our house, but alls good!

ABRAÇO DE URSO!
Elder Larsen

8 Months Out!!

OI! 8 months yesterday! I´m getting old! I forgot my camera at home! I had some good pics from this last week! The work´s going good here. We´ve got a lot of people so close to baptism! We started off the week with a good district meeting about talking with everybody. We did a lot of practices and literally applied the training the rest of the week! My favorite thing to do is ask for directions to start a conversation (even though i know the entire city of Parnaíba practically) haha! We helped Fabio prepare his first talk as well (which he killed on sunday!) 2 of our baptisms have already given talks! I´m glad they´ve got testimonies that are real! Fabio gave me a late birthday gift on sunday too, a sick italian tie! We visited a lot of less actives this week as well. I visited one recent convert Brendo that missed the last 2 sundays. He´s 17 and thinking about a mission. It was cool to have some mission talk with him, he was telling us about his worries and one of them was different food! hahaha so i was like, well my friend, you didnt know me before the mission! We had 2 rough days where our lunches fell through, BUT we have a mom here that helps us out! The 2nd time lunch fell through, i called a chubby lady in our branch that was willing to share lunch with us :) We had an FHE thursday in Presidente Moura´s house. It was really good, the message was about how we choose our own happiness. We compared it with the story of Nephi. There´s a small scripture that says, "and it came to pass that we lived happily". Its ´pretty crazy to imagine how you can live happily and wandering in the desert 8 years, leaving your riches, getting beaten by a rod, and being rejected by family members, but it really is up to us to choose if we want to be happy or sorrowful. After appointments fall through, i think sometimes, ah screw it, lets just go home, but you can look at it another way as an opportunity to talk to someone else that you have taught before. We did a lot street lessons this week, that actually went well! Transfers are getting close, so we´re pushing hard in our work right now! Do you guys think you can send me a new set of portuguese scriptures? My set i have right now are pretty beat because i didnt have a case, but my bible is still good. I think i´m do for new shirts and pants as well. They pretty worn out and my shirts are all orange from the sunblock! hahah!

AMO VOCÊS!

-Elder Larsen

Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover....

OI!!! TUDO BOM AQUI! Congrats to Jake and Chelsea, you crazy kids! This week was very productive. I have a really good comp that has a fire lit under his butt and can keep up with me! haha! We taught a guy this week that had a huge motorcycle  accident a year ago. he showed us photos and HOLY FETCH....his head was split open to his brain...everything messed up! And today, he is completely fine! He walks normal and everything. He says he owes God one now and that he´s looking for the right religion to follow...and then we arrived..Tada! hahah but he loved everything we taught! We had a family home evening at irma lucia´s house on thursday! We gave the message and focused it on the atonement and missionary work (of course). I represented Jesus (big shoes to fill, i know) and we gave everyone a candy bar. I had to do 5 pushups for every candy bar that someone grabbed to burn their calories for them. We said that some people choose to sin sometimes and others dont, and others sin alot (people that grabbed a ton of candy bars), but regardless, the Savior paid the price for all of our mistakes. I did more than 100 pushups...After one of the leaders, Irmao Euds did an activity where we had a closed shoebox and went around to every person and said, take your anger out on this box over someone you dont like, any way you want. Everyone punched it or put a pen through it, but when it came to me i sat on it and everyone cracked up! He afterward, opened the box and there was apicture of Jesus. He said we have to be careful the way we treat others, because when we are in the service of our fellow men, we are only in the service of our God. We found some sweet families this week as well! We couldnt find a lot of families the last few weeks but now we did! We´ve had trouble bringing investigators to church as well so we fasted and were able to bring 3 young men, all 18 yrs old, to church! We ran around to every house way early in the morning to grab them because church starts at 8! They all liked it though! Everything´s going smooth here though, i really like the guys in our house. We all tease each other and have Grandma Susie jokes out the yin yang! Its so crazy, i never thought a year ago that i would be living in a house with 3 brasilians, joking around with them! But anyways, Love you guys! The Church is True!

ABRAÇÂO!

Elder Larsen

Mother's Day

Hey yall! dont have a ton of time but it was awesome talking with everyone! It was good to get a word of english out! thanks for the love and advice that all of you gave me! Today we taught a young man, rodrigo who´s 18 and is a friend of a member. He´s golden! He accepted everything! We´re going back wed. A sister in the branch took me and elder beraldi to a place called Pedra Do Sal today as well! Its rocky cove thing next to the ocean front! Really cool! We took pictures there real quick today! But other than that, i already told you everything from the last week yesterday! LOVE YA!

Elder Larsen

 

 

I will post pics later!! my computer is acting up! xoxo lacey