09/03/2012

Dear Family,

Welp, tonight I will once again be traveling to Lima. This time to finish my capacitation of a new Elder. I also have some good news.  I am going to send a packet home with a CD of all my pictures. Hast ahora I had my pictures saved by a member with a computer.  Don't know how she had them. And also I am going to send a whole bunch of letters to you guys in a packet and if you could mail them to the respective persons I would be really grateful.

I had a great spiritual experience that really testified that every missionary is called to that place for a reason. My ¨pesionista,¨the lady who feeds us and who we live with, isn't a member. She has had a grand number of missionaries in her house and every one of them has tried to teach her.  But something always kept her from getting baptized, even though she went to church read the Book of Mormon and everything.  Well Elder Bareiro y yo had a lesson with her. She finally, after 1 1/2 years, told us what her problems with the church were. We were able to resolve it and she was baptized 3 days later along with her sister.  In all truth, the two are a latin version of Grandma Judy and her sister. It is so funny. And I got to baptize her. To celebrate, of course like Grandma, she wanted a big meal and invited the bishop and four sets of missionaries. We had...you guessed it...guinea pig, and the way it was prepared it was honestly the best meat I have ever tasted.  I mean like I crave it now... delicious.

HOWEVER, this week I also had what is called tokosh, a potato that smells like a turd and tasted about the same too. Look up a description online.  It will say the smell is terrible. The reason I had it was because we were tracting and the family who lives in a hut made of whatever they could find in the street invited us in. We walked in and the smell was horrendous. I asked my companion "what is that smell?" and he just said ¨oh no."  I ate it all and made the mistake of lying and telling the sister that it was good.  So of course she brought out another plate.  Needles to say the night was a long one. I felt horrible, but I am now better. haha

Hope you guys are awesome... and to all the returned missionaries who read this... any ideas on how to have appointments not fall through? Something I can say or do that will help them for sure stay in their house for our appointment.

*** Mail update: While the mail in Peru is still somewhat on strike, Sheldon is now able to receive letters from dearelder.com again and will be sending letters to the states soon.  Thank you to all who continue to write him!***

"The Baptism"

"Killing and skinning my guinea pig"

"Guinea Pig Head (delicios)"

The infamous"tokosh- took this picture when they weren't around"

08/27/2012

Hey everyone,

Wow, had a busy week this week. I had to take a nine hour trip to Lima for my visa and to print my Peru ID. Then, nine hours back and while coming back, a movie was playing and it was set in California.  I  couldn't help but think about all the fun times we had at the beach and how much I miss you guys....

The good news is we had a baptism this week and I was so excited for the 11 year old to be baptized.  Her mom was the only thing keeping her from being baptized and we finally got permission for her baptism.  She is awesome and has been wanting to be baptized for a long time.  I will attach a picture in another email.

For last weeks p-day we went to a museum and saw some mummies. It was pretty cool.  I will attach those pics too.

Hope everyone is alright. Miss you all. Sorry, short time to write... love ya

Elder Larson

08/20/2012

Dear Family,

I am not going to lie. This week has been a trying one. It is hard living in the mission where the motto that we say at every reunion de districto is "in the Peru Lima east mission we baptize and confirm  converts weekly" and everyone is doing just that except your area. It is trying, but I know I can learn something from these hard times. We are going to try every form of contacting we can and be way more direct in our teachings. We will see how it goes.
   
Saturday was the prophets birthday and there was a special broadcast. If you guys saw it, it was pretty cool. However, me and my companion thought that the prophet was going to talk and some apostles like general conference. We brought two investigating families to the transmission and explained that the prophet and maybe some apostles were going to give talks about the gospel. You can imagine the look on their faces when the boy scouts came running out all with American flags, and later they had to listen to 7 trombones all in English. It was something that made me and my comp laugh. However I was grateful I got to watch it because there were songs from Phantom and Les Mes and I thought all about my family.  And when Josh Groban came on I couldn't help but think about Grandma Larson. So I was grateful I got to watch. My investigators, not so much they left thirty minutes into it. haha....

I am glad you warned me about the "pocket talk" Dad because I literally have given a talk at at least one of my branches every Sunday.  It helps me practice my Spanish and now the members know my name, so yeah it's all good.

I hope you guys know I love and miss you.

Elder Larson!!!!

p.s.  Sorry i cant talk or spell in english or spanish now....
p.s.s I tried to say my prayer in english and I couldn't do it haha..... can't wait till 7 months from now haha...

08/13/2012

Dear Family,

So Presidente Ardila just cut our email time down from an hour to 45 minutes, so I will type as fast as i can.

Primero, this week had it's ups and downs. We have had lots of lessons and investigators but nobody will commit to baptism. It is frustrating. However, I am now taking part in the lessons more and the investigator can really understand me now... so that is good.

I have found the secret for success. The harder you work, the faster you walk, and the more people you talk to, the faster the day goes by... AND it is way more fun.

Also, to make my missionary change complete I did the unexpected.  I now have a comb-over haircut. I will try to take a pic for next week.

I also found out that the Peru mail is on strike so lots of letters have been delayed for weeks now, including dear elders.  Sending stuff out of the country is impossible now. Two letters I tried to send have come back, so I will try later in the year.

I need a favor from the family though.  Could you send pictures of our cars through email to show my companions because they don't believe I have a mustang back at home.

This past p-day we bought a whole bunch of meat and cooked it over a camp fire.....so friggen delicios. This p-day is p-day multizona and I will get to see Elder Burgi from the MTC. I am excited. Well, times up. Sorry I couldn't write more... chau chau

Elder Larson

Cooking meat on p-day

08/06/2012

 Dear Family

First off-- Congrats to Dad!! Emilee sent me the link of your change of command. I couldn't watch the video, but I read the article and I tried to picture everything as if I were there. Dad, you are so friggin cool. I must say that I really do have the best family in the world!!!! Thanks for all you do...
I am happy to hear the move is going well. Soren, I was missing you this week. I was thinking of spongebob episodes and tried to explaion the scenes to my companion in Spanish.  They aren't as funny in Spanish. I knew if you were here you would get it.  Hope all is well with the second and first generation. In all honestly, I can't wait to see you guys again and just talk.

I have begun to notice a theme here in Peru that is really different than America. My comp and I have tried really hard to contact, and we find people that sound really excited and interested, so we make a meeting with them. BUT when we return there isn't anyone, or they send out their kids to tell us nobody is home.  It's really frustrating because it's hard to see if a person is actually going to listen or if we are just wasting our time. I know we are going to be blessed with people who want to listen because we are diligently searching.

Like Mikol, he is somebody I never thought would want to see us again, but honestly out of all of our contacts he is the only one who received a lesson and is keeping his commitments. I know it is worth it.

I would love to have the family's new address. I am going to try to mail a letter home but I need the new address.

I really do miss you guys. It has been hard without my parents, sisters and brothers around. But you know what? I have developed from this a grand respect and testimony of the plan of salvation. I know now heaven is not gonna be heaven without my family.  That is for sure!!!!

Oh, I finally found all of you the perfect diet. I call it "rice and diarrhea diet." All you have to do is eat rice for every meal.... (yes, breakfast too) and have diarrhea every time you are teaching a lesson... Haha, sorry I shouldn't talk like that, but it is true because I have gone down two belt loops...

I hope you know I love and miss you guys...

 ***

Elder Larson