Welcome Home!!!

                          

I'll See You Later Mississippi!

Hello!

I am doing great!  The hardest part of my week was saying by to the Mays yesterday! Sister May and her 2 kids wrote me letters and in the letters I was told by Madelyn to make sure I write them something and she included their address. Then Sister May said how grateful she was for us and what we did for her and her family and she told me that she told the Bishop after church yesterday that she was now ready to go to the temple for the first time! So I’ll be coming back when that happens!  I was super excited to hear that though, it was like our visits over there were more than just trying to help her husband understand the gospel but it inspired her as well, it was really cool!

I really have grown and changed a lot while I have been serving here. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my parents and their support and example to me before I left. I thank them for living the gospel!!! I’m excited to come home and see them again, Seriously I can’t thank them enough for all they have done for me and won’t ever be able to repay them for the opportunity they provided me with, to move down the path I have and for raising me in a home where I would be led to serve a mission and be able to have all of the experiences I have had while I was here.  I will be forever changed because of it!  Thank you so much mom and dad!

I’m excited to be home and see everyone. Its gonna be great! 

Love you!
Elder Larsen

"Wonderful day in Slidell Ward today. Elder Harvey, Elder Henderson, Elder Suapaia, and Elder Larsen are so dedicated to The Lord and his children there. Elder Larsen's last Sunday before going home."  Bro. Silas

"Enjoying Our Last Dinner Together,Elder Larsen On The Right Is Heading Home, To Be With His Family In A Week Two Years Of Doing The Lord's Work Awesome Young Man Proud To Say I Shared The Gospel With Him."  Bro. Vannorman

"We are going to miss this so much!  Sunday just won't be the same! I hope he will come back and visit someday!  He is such a special young man.  I will miss him so.  I'm thankful for the time he spent with my family.  He brought a wonderful spirit with him each sunday and has such a strong testimony he shared with us."  Ashlea May

Last Full Week As A Full Time Missionary!

Hello everyone! 

This is the last full week I will get to serve as a full time missionary. I can’t believe how fast time has gone!!

This past week was good. I went on exchanges in Waveland and saw the dirt water of the Gulf:) I was able to eat some good freshly caught boiled shrimp too!

We had a good week of teaching. We were able to have a good discussion with one of our investigators and go to multiple places in the Bible where it talks about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. We also were able to teach another investigator that we have about how he can personally find out if the church is true. He loves the church and enjoys coming on the first Sundays when people get up and bear their testimonies. He especially enjoys the little kids. For him he said he didn’t know if he could get it personally within himself. So we talked about the Book of Mormon and Moroni's promise. I’m grateful that this promise works and helps people truly experience the converting power of the Book of Mormon and the cleansing power of the gospel. 

We are getting fed every night this week and a few lunch appointments haha. We get fed a ton in this ward, and there is some pretty good food down here!

I will email next Monday and then be in Jackson on Tuesday morning.  We will get to proselyte a little bit of the day so that will be fun to be back in Jackson. We will get dinner at the mission home and either stay there or with the AP’s, its weird cause I will be on the other end of it now! 

I’m excited to be with my family again and just chill. It’s more of just a bitter sweet feeling. Its gonna be fun to be home but definitely going to miss being a missionary. Life is simple right now!  I have never taught someone that progressed that wasn’t found by some sort of an answer to a prayer. Its crazy how the really prepared people just get put in your lap basically.  The Lord just provides a way. My prayers have been answered so often and he's placed people in my path so many times! I know I feel that I can be a lot more effective just as a member, and have good intentions to try and share the gospel when I get home. 

For now I’m just enjoying the time I have left here and will work hard until the end!

Hope you are all doing well.  

Love,

Elder Larsen

-Dinner with Trace

-The Tracy Family

-Peyton, Alex and Leti

- District Meeting

-Bowling with Douglas and Shamira

-Dirt Water of the Gulf

The Beginning of the Lasts

Hello everyone!!!

This week we had the beginning of a few lasts. We had my last zone conference. It was a good meeting. We talked about how we can work with the members. Elder Suapaia and I had to be the members during a practice. I also got to bear my final testimony with a few other Elders in my zone that are going home. I didn’t cry so that is good. I also had my final interview with President Olson. I have enjoyed being able to serve under him, I have learned so much from him and Sister Olson. It was also my final fast Sunday. A member of the bishopric was texting us during the meeting trying to get me to go up and bear my testimony. I wasn’t going to do it because I have done it so much lately and you all know how much I like to draw attention to myself but then Elder Suapaia went up to the pulpit and called me out because the member bribed him!  So I got to bare my testimony there too! After Sacrament meeting everyone was asking me all about home and when I am officially leaving so that was great. just great. Thank you Elder Suapaia....... 

Overall we had a good week and were able to visit a lot of people! We are trying our best to work hard and find new people to teach the next couple weeks!

Thanks for all your support!

Love you all!

Elder Larsen

-Sundays at the Mays!
-Last Zone Conference!
-Elder Suapaia and I
-Elder Pierre-Louis and I
-Brother and Sister Veneble

Big Tropical Storm that Never Came

This past week we were supposed to have a big tropical storm, they even named it. But when it got here nothing even happened. It was sunny and humid. It didn’t even rain during the time when the storm was supposed to be here. I was kind of upset haha.  The weather down here is so weird!  But regardless, we go out and work! It is way better being out in the rain than in the sun. It gets wayyyy too hot when its not raining.

We have Zone Conference and interviews this week.  My last ones.  I am feeling fine and I think I will be able to adjust alright to being home, but it is kind of a bitter sweet feeling. It almost doesn’t feel real, it just feels like I am going to get transferred somewhere else.  I am so grateful for my mission and the experiences I’ve had. I have learned so much!

Love, Elder Larsen

We Got it All Done!

Hello everyone! 

This week was good!

We were able to do some good service for a guy we rode past on our bikes. He was sitting on his car while he was pumping water out of his pool so he could clean it. He was trying to prepare for the Fathers Day party he was having. We asked him if we could help him with anything and 1 out of the 600 people we have talked to finally said yes haha!! He told us to come back the next day and we could help him. We ended up helping him paint and we also helped him clean out the bottom of his pool. It was something that would have taken him forever to do on his own. We were able to get it all done so he could start filling it up and ready for Sunday!  When his wife came home she came outside and started talking to him(we were gone at this point) she kept asking him how he got it all done and he said "You will never believe it, there were 2 guys who came by and offered to help. I told them to come back and I didn't think they would. But they did and we got it all done!”  Elder Suapaia and I were able to go back to the bbq on Sunday it was pretty funny. All the fathers were sitting around a table in the shade listening to music and everyone else was cooking and bringing all sorts of food and drinks out to the table, all the dads were just sitting there haha, his wife and him were bragging about us to all their friends telling them how much we had helped them. Another man told us thank you because of some other members of the church that had came and stripped his house after Katrina. It was a cool experience and some good food!!

I also had to teach the 4 year old primary class. Oh my I hope I never have to be in primary.... There was a lot of yelling and it was hard to get them to pay attention to anything. That was probably the hardest thing I have had to do haha!

Hope you are all doing well!:)

Love, Elder Larsen

-Ward Gumbo Cook-off!

-Happy Fathers Day Dad!