07/31/2012 - I love you guys!

 I am glad you guys are on your way to Kansas. I hope you don't feel too stressed Dad, but if you do feel stressed, go ahead and knock Soren around. That always helped me when I was stressed, and he probably did something to deserve it.

So every Sunday we eat lunch with a member. It is really delicious, but every Sunday night I have [major stomach issues] and can't sleep at all... it has happened every weekend since I got here without fail. But you know what? I went down a belt loop so I can't complain...

This week started off tough. We weren't having much success and a lot of our family investigators went out of town. Nobody wanted to listen to us. So we decided to try to visit some menos activos (less-active church members). This is when I stopped being selfish Sheldon and started thinking about others. We found a lady named Inocenta. She is a wonderful old lady. She is now in a wheelchair, and has severely misshapen feet and hands. She hasn't been to church because she is the only member and her family wasn't taking her to church. She was so happy to see us. She had been praying that somebody from the ward would remember her because she felt forgotten. She asked us to sing for her because that is what she missed most about church was the hymns. So me and my companion sang three hymns. She tried to sing along. I have never heard a more humble voice. She then asked for a blessing of salud (health) and asked me to give it.  I hadn't ever given a blessing in Spanish before. I was so nervous, but it went well and she was so grateful. She is an amazing lady.... please family be grateful for all you have.... she then introduced us to her family. They invited us to eat lunch and we talked great. We are going to have family home evening with them tomorrow. I am grateful i dont have to do missionary work alone. The Lord is always there.

Aside from that I finally ate guinea pig (head and all).  It was actually pretty good!!!

We also had missionary work night. There were four teams and each missionary was a captain and had a team... it was so much fun. We got some new investigators from it.

I also went on splits with an elder named Morales. It was fun and we went to a place that had lots of farms and people who only lived off the land...

I hope you guys are excited about your new house and home... I miss you all very much. You guys remember I love you, k

Elder Larson

Elder Larson and some chicken/bird

Splits with Elder Morales

That would be a guinea pig head (with the teeth???)

7/23/2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry again for last weeks letter. I was so mad I couldn't write all I wanted to, but I will try to write it all now.

Congrats to Dad and your pinning on. Em sent me pictures and you looked awesome. Mom, thanks for your prayers as always. Em and John thanks for fasting and Emilee for the pictures. Whit I hope your baby shower went awesome. Alli thanks for keeping up the blog, I owe you big time. Soren, hope magic mountain was bomb. Hannah stay beautiful. Lukie you need to watch rugby because I have been playing it a lot down here and it is soooo fun.

First off, I just got a bunch of letters that were from way back on July 4th. Apparently you can send envelopes of stuff  to the mission office. They inspect it and then once a month they send a big package of all your stuff to you. So I will only be getting your letters once a month. But dear elders do get here every month, so yeah that's cool.

This week we had a baptism of an 18 year old girl named Deysi. Her family is all Catholic except her mom, and she had to wait until she was 18 to be baptized. She has a wonderful testimony.  She was a great person to teach. We have a lot of investigators who want to get baptized, but the problem here in Peru is that nobody is married. It is a lot of money to get married here, and most of them really can't afford it. But a lot of them have promised to start saving up and we are going to talk to the obispo to see if we can help that way. 

Last P-day we went to ambo and hiked up these waterfall trails. It was so awesome, but my legs are full of bug bites. I will send pictures in the other email.

This week for service we helped build a wall around a members house using only dirt, clay and our feet. I don't have pics but it was soooo awesome. So Soren-- waboosh-- we are doing the same thing just with different materials.

One thing that is funny here is that when we walk down the street at least three times a day, there are people that cross themselves because we are Mormons. It gives me a good laugh.

I have had rice for every lunch and dinner since I got to Peru, and I don't think it will change. But I crave it now. Like, I have to have rice or I am not full.... haha

Hope every one is well. Please know I love you and think of you often and can feel your prayers. Do a good deed daily and hug those cats....

ELDER LARSON

P-day

El Libro De Mormon!

Elder Larson and Deysi

07/16/2012 - A spiritual experience & THE BROKEN KEYBOARD

TRANSLATED:

Dear Family,

Sorry guys, this has to be a short letter because this keyboard is missing all the letters.  So I am just guessing at the letters.  Hope you can understand.  I had a really good spiritual experience this week.  Had a great experience with following the promptings of the spirit. After weekly daily planning and my personal prayer, I felt a strong prompting to look for a lady to serve the following day. I like saw what she would look like and everything. I wrote it down as a reminder and went to bed. The next day while my companion and I were walking to "yanag" I saw the old woman walking with a big bucket of rice. I walked up to her and asked if I could carry it. She said yes, and while we walked Elder Bareiro talked with her about the church. We will be visiting her tomorrow for another visit. I am so thankful for the spirit and that when you listen to it you will be directed to people who are ready to hear the gospel.  I have two new progressing investigators.  They are named Deysi and Javier. They are both great. Man this keyboard sucks.... love you guys u will write more next week.

Love you,

Elder Larson

ORIGINAL TEXT:

fear famoly
sorry guys this has to be a short letter because thus keyboard is missing all the letters. so i am just guessubg at the letters. hope you can understand. had a really good spueitual experience thos week.  had a great experience with following the promptings os the spirit. after weekly daily planing and my personal prayer i felt a strong prompting to look for a lady to serve. the following day i like saw what she would look like and everything. i wrote it down as a reminder and went to bed. the next day while my companion and i were walking to yanag i saw the old women walking with a big bucket of rice. i walked up to her and asked if i could carry it. she said yes and while we walked elder bareiro talked with her about the church. we will be visiting her tomorrow for another visit. i am so thankful for the spirit and that when you listen to it you will be dirrected to people who are ready to hear the gospel.
i have two nw progressing investigatords they are called deysi and javier. they are both great. man this keyboared suxks.... love you guys u wull write more next week. love you

elder larson

07/09/2012

Dear Family,

Welp "the hour of my mission has come" D&C 31:3. There is so much that has happened I don't even know where to begin. First, my new native comp is named Elder Bareiro. He is from Argentina and is awesome. Our area is in San Luis which is in the city Huanaco. The mountains here are so beautiful and we are surrounded on all sides by the tallest mountains. This area is growing, but I have never seen a poorer people.

Oh, haha, I am second counselor in one of the branches in my area, so you can tell we have a problem with menos activos here. But the good news is we had two people get baptized this week!!!! Ketin y Victoria Revera Mata. They are brothers and sisters. Right now we are working on baptizing the Dad, but he has a problem with the law of tithing, and that is the only thing keeping him. That I think is the hardest thing here. When you have to ask a family whose has so little to give what little they do to the church. I mean, you have to have a testimony of it to be able to ask them to do that. 

We have another baptism scheduled for Saturday. His name is havier. I love everyone here. They ask me what sport I like to play and when I say futbol american they exclaim CLARO which means like "of course!"

We live in the house of a member of the church that is directly above a bar, so we get alot of run-ins with borrachos or drunks.  But they are the nicest drunks in the world. They always want to thank us for serving god, but they never sit still long enough to listen to us or for us to get their direction.

The hermana that we live with is a combination of Grandma Judy and Mother Teresa.  She makes all this food and because I am bigger always loads the plate full.  I pray every meal in my head that i can finish it because it is a lot.  I finally asked her for lesser portions. She also has a qui (guinea pig) farm. There are thirty-two, yes thirty-two, guinea pigs where I live.  She says once they get bigger we will have them for lots of meals, haha. But she is the sweetest lady in the world and I love her.  I just found out that I don't have to do my own laundry either...SCORE!!!!!!

The work is tiring but it is impossible not to serve when you see the faces of these Peruvian people.

So grateful to be here....

I love you all and hope that your doing great.... try huggin more cats...

Elder Larson

P.S. - I'm still getting letters from Dear Elder so keep writing them!

Elder Larson -- baptizing Ketin and Victoria

 

 

The guinea pig farm where Elder Larson lives

Sheldon's pillowcase all the way in Peru

Elder Larson with his companion Elder Elder Bareiro from Argentina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some weird fruit that looks nasty but actually tastes really good!