Transfers and Training!!

Hey guys!

This week was alright!  It wasn’t quite as good as last week but its ok!

Monday we went and played basketball at the park it was pretty fun! We were the only white kids there! It was super crazy... So we had 2 lessons planned one at 5, and the other at 5:30.  We went to the one at 5:00 and when we were leaving and on our way to the other one, we drove passed a park that had a ton of people playing basketball.  Every time before then when we drove by, there had been no one there!  But this time there was like 15 or so high school kids there playing. I told Elder Davidson that we had to go play because I had never seen anyone there before and he was alright with it and so we went and played basketball.  It turns out that where our appointment at 5:30 was, there was a shooting at 6:00 and it went until midnight, they had to have the swat team there and everything! It was literally like 50 feet away from the apartment we were going to. A cop got shot and one guy died sadly but I would say that is pretty crazy!! The Lord is watching over us!

Tuesday wasn’t the best day ever, we had a lot of lessons planned that day but then no one was home! It was pretty frustrating so we went to Foxes to get ice cream and got free food as well haha so that made it a little bit better!

Wednesday we went and taught a less active lady named Dianne and her daughter Laney and answered a lot of their questions and they came to church on Sunday!! Then we went to Tamoras house and taught her a lesson, it went alright!

Thursday was rough we had to tract a lot because no one was home!!

Friday we went to lunch with a Presbyterian preacher and talked with him a lot. He was asking us a lot about what we believed about the Atonement. Our views on it are completely opposite haha.... His idea of grace and how we are saved is very weird... But that’s alright. He was really nice and respectful and so were we!

Saturday Elder Davidson got permission to go down to Ocean Springs to go to a baptism down there and so we drove 2.5 hours down there to that! It was a good little break especially with the rough week we had! There are actually people down there!! I didn’t feel like I was in a tiny town so it was kind of nice!  It’s definitely bigger than Brookhaven!

Elder Davidson and I in Ocean City, MS for a baptism!

A view of the ocean!

Sunday we went to the ward and the branch and had to say bye to everyone! Brother Cox was sad.  He wanted to feed us dinner and so we went back to his house that night and he kept saying how much he was going to miss me! But I think me moving to another area will be good and a great learning experience for me!

We went and had my last dinner with the Webbs last night.  They said that they would get me anything I need up in Canton!  They work up that way and said they’d come see me. They are awesome!:)

Last dinner with the amazing Webb family!

We come to the stake center in Clinton for transfers and since I won’t be going very far I will just hang out here all day, eating and playing basketball!:)  My new companion is from Nigeria haha! He is super nice and a pretty funny kid!  He speaks english fairly good and his name is Elder Clement!:)

My new companion, Elder Clement!

I am excited to train! I will have someone that wants to work hard and follow all the rules so it will be easy for me to do it too! I am going to a new area called Canton, it’s about 30 minutes north east of Jackson I think... something like that!  Kinda crazy, it sounds like Canton is fairly big and a pretty rough area haha so it will be fun!:)  The town itself is pretty small though. It is a brand new area.  I don’t know what to do when opening an area, I'm assuming just tract a lot??  If you have any advice on opening up an area it will be greatly appreciated!  I will be in both a ward and a branch there! And I am full car again! Elder Davidson is staying here in Brookhaven and getting another missionary who has been out for 6 weeks!  I feel good! I feel like I have done all I can here and am excited for the change!

Love ya all!   Have a great week!!!

Love, Elder Larsen