Larsen Lollapalooza

hi fam ...

2009-07-29T15:21:00.000-06:00

we are about to leave the library so i dont have much time to write ya right now but i should be able to come back later this evening after we teach our bible study class for our investigators. you have a ton of questions that i dont even know where to begin but ill talk to ya later. love elder larsen

BANKHEEZY is where it's at! ...

2009-07-22T15:20:00.000-06:00

hey yall. i hope you got my letter in the mail. my comp doesnt like to e-mail very long so its easier sometimes just to write ya but i just wanted to say hello and let ya know im doing good. things here in the dirty south are awesome. i have been here a week now and i am yet to talk to a white person, its awesome. there are so many people here in atlanta that i know longer have to tract. we just walk around town and talk to people on the street. its alot easier and much more fun. prolly just cause they cant slam the door in our faces or tell us there getting ready to go out. they are sooo... many weirdos out here it blows my mind. it reminds me alot of san francisco. the ward here is pretty cool tho. out of 750 members in our ward only 120 are active! i cant believe there are that many just in our ward. obviously if they were active we would have a few more wards but its crazy that many people have quit coming. the last 20 baptisms this ward has had all of them have got in active after the first few weeks. its way sad but i guess i can see why they fall away. there is so much temptation out here that its hard for most people to stay away from that stuff. so im not sure what to do. right now we are teaching a few peole that seem kinda interested but i think there just afraid to tell us there not interested but we are teaching a couple of them tonight so were going to see if we need to drop em or not. but other then that i love it here ALOT more then cartersville. the people are a lot different but it keeps things interesting. because of the gangs and stuff we have to be in at 8 instead of 9 like most missionaries so im sorta happy bout that. i now get an extra hour to sleep which helps out alot. cause i actually walk alot more here then i did in my last area. we take the bus and stuff but our area is huge so it wares ya out quite a bit more. im stayin in good shape so thats a bonus. well sorta i am getting a bit of a gut but its kinda nice being able to rest my plate on it haha jk im not quite there yet but im working on it. well i just wanna let yall now i love and miss ya and ill talk to ya next week. -elder larsen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMIE ...

2009-07-15T15:20:00.000-06:00

im sorry i havent sent your letter out yet. i was in the middle of packing up my bags and i some how misplaced it but ill send it out first chance i get. like i said, i was in the middle of packing so you prolly already guessed it but i finally left cartersville. YAY!!! but you will never guess where im serving now. ill give ya a hint... its the ghettoest place in georgia. bankhead! i have been saying how badly i wanted to see the ghetto and i definately got it. we drove to atlanta after our transfer meeting and hopped on a train and since then i am yet to see another white person. sick huh? even my comp is black. but i gotta keep things short but ill write ya a longer e-mail next week. i love ya and ill talk to ya next week. love elder larsen

howdy ...

2009-07-09T15:18:00.000-06:00

hey jack attack (and the rest of the fam) i got about 8 letters in the mail yesterday that i havent had a chance to read yet so ill get to those later today and write ya a nice long letter. but once again thanks for my envelope with my p-blessing and ashtons pic. you would not believe the amount of missionaries that come over to the apartment and see her pic and start drooling. i tell everyone that she is waiting for me so im pretty much envied over here haha but your considering moving to roosevelt huh? i didnt see that coming but that might not be too bad a idea. it will give yall a chance to kinda get away from everything and start over fresh. my zone leader is actually from there. you should do it, and ill just go to snow college or CEU. to answer dads question i am not a senior comp yet. typically most missionaries dont go senior til they have been out for 10 months or so. i figured you prolly went senior a bit quicker then that so ill let ya know when my time comes. so i met the new mission pres yesterday and he is way cool. his wife is like a huge fluffy ball of excitement and enthusiasm. she is going to need it let me tell ya. the missionaries around here love to call and bug pres about little stupid stuff so im sure there both in for some stress. his wifes role is just to take care of all the missionaries medical needs so she will be staying super busy. within the last month or two 3 missionaries have been sent home for broken legs and one guy had kidney stones. good thing they dont send missionaries home for dog bites. this past week has been a bit better as far as finding goes. we ran into this black guy on the street and got a return appointment for later that night so we went and taught him and his mom the first lesson and they loved it. it was one of the best first lessons i taught. the spirit was super strong. so she commited to read the book of mormon. we came back two days later for an appointment and when we got there she "forgot" about our appointment and was having a party. we walked inside and she was just plastered. she had been drinking and i figured smokink since there was a bunch of weed on the table. so we didnt even bother setting up a return appointment since she wouldnt remember anyways. a bunch of thugs showed up and things started to get a little outta hand so we took off. so were still looking for that elect family but we will keep looking. transfers are on the 15 so i think ill be getting transfered outta here finally. my comp has one transfer left so im pretty sure he will die here. (meaning your last area) i kinda wanna go serve in auburn just so i could be on campus there but i guess we will see. they have been switching alot of missionaries from english to spanish lately so for some reason i keep thinking i might be called i love ya bye elder larsen

HELOOOOoooooo ...

2009-07-01T15:17:00.000-06:00

hey guys what it is? i got the memory cards the other day and i really appreciate it. i havent gotten the other package with all the letters in it yet so ill keep this email short and mail ya next week. im doin good tho except pres. mathusek and his wife left today and we have pres. satterfield from pocatello idaho comin in this afternoon. the mathuseks were great but im excited to meet his replacement. some other bad news, the atlanta temple closed today for renevations and will not re open for another 18 months. i have gotten to go a few times now so im kinda bummed but oh well. i got some pics of us there so ill send ya my card some time. other then that times are good except sharman wont be getting baptized. she is not willing to give up her cigarettes and coffee so for now i guess we will just keep encouraging her. i love yall and ill talk to ya next week. elder larsen

3 letters edited together ...

2009-06-24T15:15:00.000-06:00

hey guys its your favorite georia peach, whats goin on? sounds like things are goin good there in ole stg. wish i was there. the work here is goin great! we got 2 more baptismal dates on the 23rd of this month. they are two sisters, nichole (13) and tiffany (19). their mom was baptized in february by the other missionaries in our ward. the girls were tellin me about how they just didnt feel right about the other missionaries teachin em and they just feel more of a trust and love for me and elder bame so i thought that was pretty cool. their mom is way cool too. tiffany asked me to be the one to baptize her so I'm pretty stoked. the girls are awesome and are super excited for their baptisms so things couldn't be goin any better. ive got some great news for ya. do you remember that lady sharmen Jensen I was telling you about? she is a part member & her husband was baptized a long time ago and hasn't been active in 20+ years? well I have been teaching her ever since I have been in Georgia and she has finally commited to being baptized. it only took 5 months of visiting her twice a week to finally hearing those beautiful words come out of her mouth. she also asked me to be the one to baptize her, so I'm pumped. the only bad part is her date has been set for June 20th so since transfers are on the 3rd I wonder if I'm going to be around for her. the rule out here is that if you are serving within 1 hour of the church, I can come. so I guess it just depends on how fast I drive, ha ha. jk mom. if I'm around for another transfer I will have spent 6 months in my greenie area. apparently that doesn't happen very often, so I'm anxious to see how things go. believe it or not I no longer want to leave cartersville. I had an interview with president the other day and he showed me the statistics for the entire mission and cartersville is currently the highest baptizing area in the mission. the work out here is INCREDIBLE. I just hope I get to stick around for a little bit longer. some bad news tho... president mathusek is being released on July 1st and president satterfield from Boise Idaho will be taking over. president mathusek and his wife are the coolest people ever so its going to be hard to see them go. but the word on the street is that the new president is a pretty cool guy so I'm sure things will be great. you will probably freak when i tell you this but guess how much i weigh? 200!!! i kid you not, crazy huh? its all that deep fried food they feed us out here. jk i actually think its from the new work out program we have created, plus all the protein i drink. I went to the chiropractor the other day and checked my body fat percentage and im only 10 % so i have gained a lot of muscle. its weird how much more enjoyable lifting is out here. i hated it at home so that might be the difference. I have been workin on being patient as of late and boy is it difficult. my new comp., elder smith, is testing me like no one has before. I have learned to not fight him and just go with it. I now see how big a pain I was for yall at home. I have gained a huge tesimony of how important it is to be patient. so for that I apologize. this is the best thing about elder smith tho - every morning he will get up and clog for 30 minutes! as in wooden shoes and all that jazz. I couldn't believe what I was watching but man it was hilarious. I finally told him he had to stop since we live on the second floor in our apartment. we decided to start runnin in the mornings instead. we get plenty of cardio already with our bikes and all but I'm just tryin to do all I can to remain unified with him. its so hard to go out and teach if there is contention goin on between you. so I have been doin all I can to avoid that and it has been goin pretty well. so ill keep ya posted on that phase of my missionary work. Chad wrote me and he got his call to Honduras. he wrote me a huge letter about how he has been in Italy for the past month and how excited he is for his call. I love that crazy kid I'm sure he is goin to do aweome out there. make sure and congratulate him for me. I sure miss him and mark. give em both a big hug for me, but make it manly. I got bit by a dog the other day. it was pretty cool. I decided it was satans dog cause we walked up to this door and the dog was "sleepin" so we figured he was friendly. we knocked on the front door for a little bit and no one answered so we left. and the second we left the front porch this dog magically woke up and started chasing us. as soon as I heard the dog get up I turned around to see what was going on and the second I saw him he was already on me so I turn around to run away and as I took my first step I noticed my comp was already outside the fence and was running down the street. (elder smith is fast) and for some reason he closed the gate behind him. long story short the dog bit into my back pack and pulled me down. then he bit the back of my leg then eventually made his way down to my shoe. so I flipped over on my back and I punched this dog as hard as I possibly could. I soon realized this was a terrible decision which I regretted immediately I just made him more mad. but when I hit him he let go of my leg so it gave me a chance to stand up. so I get up and start running again and this time I'm praying he doesn't catch up. he chased me all the way down the walk way until I did a super man dive over the fence into the street. I layed there for seriously 10 minutes until my comp came back to look for my remains. he got an ear full later but at least it was a cool story. I never knew how much I liked little dogs. well, I will close for this week. I love you all & hope you have a great week. love, elder Larsen

hey mama ...

2009-06-18T15:11:00.000-06:00

i wish the people that i have baptised were black but you can tell gran that i havent had such luck yet. maybe when i get sent to bankhead or college park ill finally find some. sorry if i freaked you out about elder bame and i getting sent home. president has pulled me into his office a few times now to interogate me bout bame but i keep tellin him all i know. he never hooked up with this girl as far as im aware of. unless he has been sneakin out at night which im sure he hasnt. the only reason i would get sent home would be if i didnt rat him out but since theres nothing to tell him im good. so dont worry, you wont be seeing me for a long time still haha im trying to remember the other questions you had but im drawin a blank. i wrote carli a letter the other day bout my infestation in my apartment. ill let her tell ya all bout it. the lady we are goin to baptise next week has had some issues lately bout being baptised and said she wanted someone to talk to so i gave her your email. i hope thats cool. she is just havin some word of wisdom issues and im havin trouble getting through to her. so please give her any advice you think she might need to her coming from another convert. my comp and i have been having NOOO... success lately. we have been together 2 weeks now and we have only taught 3 lessons. we tract 6 hours a day and it hasnt gotten us any new investigators and we havnt even gotten into any doors. even with my last comp who was way lazy, we were constantly finding people to teach. sure most of the people wernt interested but at least we were doin something productive. i like to think god is sifting out our good investigators for us so we only teach the elect but i guess we will see. i got bit by a dog the other day. it was pretty cool. i decided it was satans dog. cause we walked up to this door and the dog was "sleepin" so we figured he was friendly. we knocked on the front door for a little bit and no one answered so we left. and the second we left the front porch this dog magically woke up and started chasing us. as soon as i heard the dog get up i turned around to see what was going on and the second i saw him he was already on my butt so i turn around to run away and as i took my first step i noticed my comp was already outside the fence and was running down the street. (elder smith is fast) and for some reason he closed the gate behind him. i have never been more pissed at someone in my life. long story short the dog bit into my back pack and pulled me down. then he bit the back of my leg then eventually made his way down to my shoe. so i flipped over on my back and i punched this dog as hard as i possibly could.(i soon realized this was a terrible decision which i regretted immediately) i just pissed him off more. but when i hit him he let go of my leg so it gave me a chance to stand up. so i get up and start running again and this time im praying he doesnt catch up. he chased me all the way down the walk way until i did a super man dive over the fence into the street. i layed there for seriously for 10 minutes until my comp came back to look for my remains. he got an ear full later but at least it was a cool story. i never knew how much i liked little dogs. well how are things goin for yall. hit me back and let me know whats up. elder larsen

What it is Jaci-Fizzle ...

2009-06-11T15:08:00.001-06:00

i was wondering why i havent heard from yall in awhile but i figured you were either out of town or the computer got shut off. its all good tho nothing to exciting is goin on. we had transfers last week and im going to be spending another 6 weeks in good ol cartersville. i thought for sure i would be out but i guess pres was smart not to leave elder bame here with his girlfriend. this ward has a bad history with missionaries and girls. a couple missionaries actually got sent home from here for sneaking out with the ladies. are ward has some hunnies in it but luckily i can only attract the fat ones haha my new comp is....interesting! his name is elder smith and he is from new hampshire. im not going to lie when pres told me we were together i was in shock. he paired me up with the biggest geek in the mission. we are complete opposites. from the beginning i could tell that this was going to be a long transfer and so far im right. but its good tho. he is the most obedient missionary i have ever met. maybe too obedient if thats possible. every morning when the alarm clock goes off he pops right out of bed like a pop tart. its so funny to watch but he is a great example to me. my last comp would sleep in til 8 every mornin so this is a nice change. in the mornings i kinda have to take things slow or ill have my twitches. but i still get out of bed on time so i guess thats all that matters. i have been workin on being patient as of late and boy is it difficult. elder smith is testing me like no one has before. i have learned to not fight him and just go with it. i now see how big a pain i was for yall at home but have gained a huge tesimony of how important it is to be patient. so for that i apologize. this is the best thing about elder smith tho. every morning he will get up and clog for 30 minutes! as in wooden shoes and all that jazz. i couldnt believe what i was watching but man it was hilarious. i finally told him he had to stop since we live on the second floor in our apartment. we decided to start runnin in the mornings instead. we get plenty of cardio already with our bikes and all but im just tryin to do all i can to remain unified with him. its so hard to go out and teach if there is contention goin on between you. so i have been doin all i can to avoid that and it has been goin pretty well. so ill keep ya posted on that phase of my missionary work. chad wrote me and he got his call to honduras. he wrote me a huge letter about how he has been in italy for the past month and how excited he is for his call. i love that crazy kid im sure he is goin to do aweome out there. make sure and congratulat him for me. and let me know how mark is doin. i havent heard from him in a while. anyways i love you and hope you have a great week. love elder larsen

Chowda ...

2009-05-27T15:07:00.000-06:00

i just got your letter today from stake conference. im glad to hear mark and chad have finally cleaned up and are about to get there calls. i guess chad is in europe at the moment so i prolly wont be hearing from him for a while. i was able to call mark on mothers day tho so that was bueno. thats so sweet about vin and his gf. thats crazy there going to be takin off together. i was going to say that they will most likely see each other in the mtc but i think vin might be going to the mtc in brazil instead of provo. at least thats what my friends did. im super jealous of his call, he is going to love it out there. there is a missionary in my mission who is from there and says its awesome. where is his girlfriend serving? nothing new is goin on here in good ole Georgia. the work has slowed down a bunch since our baptisms but im excited to find some new investigators. transfers are on the 3rd and i just found out i might be stayin here for another 6 weeks. i have recently discovered that my comp elder bame has been flirting with a girl here in the ward and has been e-mailing her every week. i had an interview a week ago with president mathusek and he asked me if i new anything about what was going on, and i told him that i noticed he was being a bit to friendly with this girl and that was all i knew. i guess 4 people in the ward called pres and told him that they have noticed the same thing and some how somebody found out about the e-mails he was sending so you can imagine all the trouble this has caused. anyways pres talked with him and i guess this isnt the first time he has had a problem with girls so i would be shocked if he is around for another transfer. if im around for another transfer i will have spent 6 months in my greenie area. apparently that doesnt happen very often, so im anxious to see how things are going to go down. there is a missionary out here who has spent 11 months in one area, which is crazy. i just hope its not me haha unless we keep seeing baptisms like we have then i hope i stick around. i sent carli my memory card the other day so i hope yall get it and make some copies of all my pics and send them to me. that would be awesome if you could do that for me i would really appreciate it. and my glove and my p-blessing. i love yall and ill talk to ya next week! dak

Hey, hey Larsen's ...

2009-05-20T15:05:00.000-06:00

hey guys it your favorite georia peach, whats goin on? hope yall had a good mothers day and all. i got cierras anouncement today. it looks pretty sweet. i like how its kinda fuzzy and all. its hard to see my syd so be sure and send me some pics of her. ive got some great news for ya. tomorrow we are having a baptism for those two girls i was telling ya about. (nichole and tiffany) and tiffany asked me to baptize her so im pretty stoked. the girls are awesome and are super excited for there baptism so things couldnt be goin any better. except do you remember that lady sharmen jensen i was telling you about? she is a part member. her husband was baptized along time ago and hasn't been active in 20+ years? well anyways i have been teaching her ever since i have been in georgia and she has finally commited to being baptized. it only took 4 months of visiting her twice a week to finally hearing those beautiful words come out of her mouth. she also asked me to baptize her. so im pumped. the only bad part is her date has been set for june 20th so since transfers are on the 3rd i doubt im going to be around for her. i guess there is still a chance. the rule out here is that if you are serving within 1 hour of the church i can come. so i guess it just depends on how fast i drive. believe it or not i no longer want to leave cartersville. i had an interview with president the other day and he showed me the statistics for the entire mission and cartersville is currently the highest baptizing area in the mission. the work out here is incredible i just hope i get to stick around for a little bit longer. so ill keep ya posted on that matter. some bad news tho. president mathusek is being released on july 1st and president satterfield from boise idaho will be taking over. president mathusek and his wife are the coolest people ever so its going to be hard to see them go. but the word on the street is that the new president is a pretty cool guy so im sure things will be great. other then that i dont have any other news. things are goin great here. i forgot to ask you the other day. but did forest ever get back out to japan? i was thinking about that the other day for some reason so let me know. and let me know if you have heard anything about chad and mark and there calls. love elder larsen

Hey ya'll ...

2009-05-06T15:01:00.001-06:00

hey yalls what up? its good to hear from ya. sounds like things are goin good there in the ole stg. wish i was there. you excited for mothers day? i sure am. as far as for how long im allowed to talk on the phone for, the other missionaries say they usually talk for a couple hours so i think we will have plenty of time to catch up. im not sure what time ill be callin that day so just be ready for whenever i guess. it will prolly be after church around 4 o clock my time so 2 your time. my lds mail wont allow me to open up pics so i havent seen any that you have sent me. you will just have to mail me a few pics here and there. you dont have to shrink my p-blessing down i would rather have it big so i can read it so PLEASE just get a regular copy and dont bother makin a small one. i dont plan on packin it around in my scrips anyways. and cause i could really use my glove. wink wink! as for my stalker i think i have figured things out. i gave her, her ctr ring back and the super embarrasing letter she gave me. i actually gave it to her dad and i imagine he got pretty upset with her. she hates me now so it sounds like that did the trick. remember the mcbrides who i spent easter with? it was there daughter who gave me the letter. they got pissed at me for accepting the letter which i dont understand why. i had no clue what it was. but were cool now. its crazy how fast the rumors spread around the ward. i had people asking me about it ALL the time. too bad she isnt cute or i might have kept the ring haha ill send my pics home as soon as i can get a new memory card. i have a couple good pics im sure your goin to love. well....maybe! the work here is goin great. we got 2 more baptismal dates who we will be baptizing on the 23 of this month. they are two girls named nichole and tiffany. one is 13 years old and the other is 19. they are sisters and they are both super cool. there mom was baptized in february by the other missionaries in our ward. the girls were tellin me about how they just didnt feel right about the other missionaries teachin em and they just feel more of a trust and love for me and elder bame so i thought that was pretty cool. there mom is way cool too. there actually hispanic but they speak better english then spanish so luckily the spanish elders dont get to teach em haha i got chases letter the other day which i was super excited to get. its so good to hear from him. sounds like he hasnt changed one bit. except for how he plays the guitar and piano. sounds like he is gettin more girls then i ever did. i better start learning to play i guess. you will prolly freak when i tell you this but guess how much i weigh? 196!!! i kid you not, crazy huh? its all that deep fried crap they feed us out here. jk i actually think its from the new work out program we have created. plus all the protein i drink. i went to the chiropractor the other day and checked my body fat percentage and im only 10 % so i have gained alot of muscle. its weid how much more enjoyable lifting is out here. i hated it at home so that might be the difference. i think im out of things to say so ill end this letter but take it easy my neezys. oh also please call pat and find out why he wont answer my e-mails. i would really appreciate it. love, dak attack

hola! ...

2009-04-23T15:00:00.001-06:00

i am now haha elder bame and i are waiting for a team up here at the library so i just hopped on the computer. today we went and did some service for a lady in our ward. we had to plant a bunch of bushes and stuff so that was loads of fun. then we went and talked to one of our investigators and he and his wife are takin us fishin on saturday. im way excited ill be sure to take some pics of the trophy catfish im goin to snag. ill send this real quick and see if ya have time to respond. elder dak

hey hey!!! ...

2009-04-22T14:56:00.000-06:00

i guess i did get your e-mail in time. but today we had transfers and unfortunately i didnt get transfered out. im still with elder bame and still stuck in my greenie area. i was pretty positive i was getting out of here after 3 months but i guess pres. mathusek had something else in mind for me. which is alright cause we have recently come in contact with some awesome investigators who are progressing extremely well but ill let you know how that goes. ok check this out, i have recently discovered that i have a stalker! i kid you not. this girl is in my ward and she is crazy. i have received several love letters from her within the past few days and im thinking its starting to get out of hand. she even gave me her ctr ring... super pathetic, but i gave it back and told her to leave me alone. the girl cant take a hint and she has recently discovered where we live so im not sure what im going to do. i think im goin to talk to her dad and if things dont change ill prolly get ET out of here. (emergency transfer) so PLEASE pray for me haha also she is planning to move to salt lake after she graduates so she can wait for me. i took some pics to send home for the wedding so you can get me blown up so hopefully they turn out alright. i wasnt sure what kind of light exposure to use so hopefully you can work your magic on the computer and figure things out. i try to take alot of pics while i can but president doesnt advise us to take our cameras around town in case they get stolen so i take alot of random ones from inside the apartment. you will get a kick out of the next ones i send home. as far as anything new goin on here nothin much. i have just been doin the whole missionary thing and trying to get some sleep. i have gotten pretty sick this week and havent slept in 4 days. its weird cause im always super tired but i just lay in my bed and stare at the ceiling while i listen to elder bame snore all night. he might be part of the problem haha the money i received from the sledges i put to great use. i bought whats called the perfect push up and the perfect pull up and the perfect ab straps. they sell em at wal mart and it has definately been the best investment i have made out here. i am in better shape now then when i was at home. i guess its not hard to work out while your stuck in your apartment all day waiting for the storms to pass. it has rained a couple days out of every week ever since i got here its nuts. and since im on bike still it really sux.i complain alot but im lovin every minute of it. i dont know if you remembered to send it or not but i wish you would send me my patriartical blessing. you may have already sent it but i just wanted to make sure. i could also use another 6 month supply of contact lenses. i only have one pair left so i could use em. i love my glasses by the way they are awesome. thats awesome vinn got his call. im not quite sure where it is he is going but for some reason i knew he was going foreign. thats awesome that chad stops by to see yall from time to time. i miss that guy like crazy but we stay in touch pretty well. im glad you met his his girlfriend and her sister, pretty cute huh? me and chad already decided we were going to marry em so im pretty stoked haha. sounds like cierra is still gettin married. i hope all works out well. im not sure why she wants an expensive wedding but i guess if thats what she wants. im sure pat will be there to help her out. speaking of pat i sent him an e-mail a few weeks ago and havent heard back from him so let me know whats up. we had some extra time yesterday to e-mail so i already wrote all my friends which is why this letter is so ridiculously long. its taken me the entire hour to write it. but its fun. sounds like chase is goofy as ever. tell him he better not use my poster for target practice or ill kick his butt haha ya right tell him to do it so i can see the after math of my face. im sure it will only get better. i forgot to answer your question about what was my favorite talk in conference. but my favorite was definately dallin h. oaks talk about serving our fellow man and how important missionary work is. one thing i have come to realize out here is that tracting is a waste... i guess i prolly shouldnt say waste cause its good but so far most of the missions baptisms have come from member refferals. its ridiculous how much easier it is when members help out. i challenge yall to find a family or two for the missionaries in our ward to teach. i can truely testify of the blessings that will come because of it. i gotta hit the road jack so say hi everyone for me. love, elder larsen

Hola!

2009-04-15T14:52:00.001-06:00

i was wondering when i was goin to hear from yall again, im just messin its totally cool. but my p-days are every wednesday so just make sure to send the e-mails at least a day before. lets see what else... oh i got your packages and i appreciate it soooo... much. especially the one filled with food. my comps and i have already eaten the tuna stuff and its super good. im still waitin for my glove so please hurry and send it. also i cant wait for my blanket either. im not too big a fan of my blanket thats been used by who knows who. haha as long as i stay warm at night i guess it doesnt matter. the baptism went great. he was baptized by his best friend bro. neese and was confirmed by bro. games who are both in my ward. they try not to let the converts get to attached to the missionaries so they like to have other priesthood holders give the confirmation. but i have plenty of baptizin to come. that other girl named hala after her whole suicidle thing 6 weeks ago i havent been able to get a hold of. she obviously has alot goin on especially with the divorce but i try and keep in contact with her dad the best i can and that isnt goin to well. he actually just lost his job and decided to move to atlanta so maybe ill see him sometime down the road. next wednesday is transfers so im hoping to get transfered out of cartersville, im gettin kinda sick of this town. i feel like i have knocked on all the doors here twice so as you can imagine the entire town knows us by now. its funny how badly they try to avoid us. as for ashton, tell her to keep dreamin. the day i confess my un dying love for her is the day i come out of the closet. i got an awesome letter from Grandma & Grandpa Sledge the other day. i guess it was a card but it had 100 bones in it so im not too upset haha i wrote em a thank you card back so i hope to stay in touch with em. thats awesome dad has found some work. sounds like he is goin to be doin some curbing. i hope there is enough work for him there to do, if not he might have to follow me in my job idea for when i get home. there is a guy in my ward who works for the sheriffs department and he gets to do the sickest stuff. most of the day he just goes around arresting people who have warrants out. (he says kinda like a bounty hunter) he does alot of other crazy stuff but it sounds like something kinda interesting to look into. other than that im doin great. im workin hard and havin fun so i guess i cant ask for much else. i love yall and be sure to say hi to everyone for me. especially gran and grammy. love elder larsen

Elder Larsen & Elder Bame on Easter ...

2009-04-12T14:38:00.001-06:00

My name is Brother McBride and Elder Larsen and his companion Elder Bame are having Easter Dinner with us today. Elder Larsen Is a great missionary with a strong testimony and we are thankful to have him in our ward. I don’t know if he told you but he had his 1st Baptism on Friday. We are taking good care of him, and from my family to yours I know y’all are blessed for his willingness to serve. Love, The McBride Family, Tony, Teresa, Charlotte, and Olivia

: )

2009-04-02T14:35:00.001-06:00

hey guys whats up? tell cierra and chase id love it if theyd write me. I would love to hear how syd is doin and how lacrosse is goin for chase. I'd love to hear from anybody, I love mail more than you can imagine, so please hit me back and let me know whats up. I got a great letter from carli the other day and sounds like things are goin good over there at the factory. (people call Utah the factory out here cause that's where all the Mormons are produced) you wouldn't believe the crap I get from the people I run into on the streets. like I said in my last letter I'm havin a baptism on the 10th of this month for Tim hites. he is the most solid investigator I have ever met. he is doin great on followin up on his commitments. he has stopped smokin like it was nothin. we should be getting about 6 more baptismal commitments this week from the Presley family. we have been teachin em a little bit lately and they came to church last week and loved it. the husband is kinda against us but the wife loves us and I think she is kinda goin to do whatever she wants and not really goin to care about what her husband has to say. which is to bad cause I don't want there to be problems between em. this mornin we went to the chiropractor and got adjusted and while we were there we got to weigh ourselves. I way an official 192 lbs! that's an all time high for me so im pretty stoked. my comp has been out for 15 months and has gained 40lbs im hopin thats not me. I gotta get goin my p-day is wastin away but i luv yall and cant wait to hear from ya elder larsen

Larsen Fam ...

2009-03-25T14:22:00.001-06:00

that's too bad you missed my call I should have called a little sooner. its prolly a good thing you didn't answer cause pres. wouldn't be too happy if he found out. but thanks for hooking me up with some cash. I'm borrowing another elders bike right now cause he has a car so if I get transferred in 4 weeks and I need a bike ill go buy one then. things are going great here, I have another baptismal date for this guy named Tim hites. crazy story how we found this guy. he was ridin his skooter in a part of town over here in cartersville that he has never been to before. as he was ridin his skoot, it started to over heat so he pulled over at this park and let it cool down for a bit. as he was sitting at a bench his best friend that he hasnt seen in 8 years came up and started talking to him. his best friend is in our ward and was recently baptized in October. Tim told him that there was something different about him and wanted to know what it was. so the guy in our ward introduced him to us and we taught him the restoration and before I invited him to be baptized he told us he has been looking for something like this for a while now and told us he wants to be baptized. CRAZY HUH!! its incredible the people the lord puts in our path. I'm so glad pres. kept me in this area cause a lot of the elders in this area are starting to have a lot of success. missionary work is so freaking frustrating tho. we will be tracting and we will find a awesome family who seems so golden, but when you go back for your appointment they either blow us off or pretend not to be home even tho I look in their window and I see them hiding behind their couch. dead serious! I guess its not that big a deal it just sux cause we will ride 13 miles to get to one persons home and they will blow us off. at least im getting huge sexy legs out of it. im excited for my packages, i appreciate ya hooking me up. but how are things going there? how is dads temple security job working out? you chase anybody down and tazor them yet? speaking of tazors there is a cop in my ward who is suppose to tazor me this weekend so im way excited. i will have to take a video of it and send it to ya. let me know how chase, carli, cierra, syd, gran and grammy etc. are doin. and of course the dogs. love yall elder larsen

Hey Ya'll

2009-03-18T14:15:00.001-06:00

sounds like yall had fun up north. I wish I could have gone wit ya, but I got enough snow in the mtc to last me a lifetime. I almost forgot... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! I hope you had a good one. I forget how old you are so you will have to remind me. remember the girl we were suppose to baptize? her parents are in the middle of a divorce and she has been extremely depressed, and her teacher in school found some suicidal notes of hers so she is now in a mental hospital in Atlanta so were kinda waiting to see how she is doin before we go on with teaching her. I cant remember all the stuff you wrote me in your last letter cause I accidently erased it after I read it but I do remember something about a comforter... I could really use one. other then that I don't really need anything. I'm doin really good. we had transfers last week and I got a new comp. his name is elder bame and he is from Burley Idaho. he is 22 years old and is prolly the funniest guy I have ever met. we get along really well so you can imagine how much we goof off. not to much of course. were still in cartersville and still on bike so I havent seen the dirty south yet. I lied I do need a few things. please send me a copy of my patriartical blessing, I could really use that. also I would love it if you could send me my black and gray A2000 baseball glove. I left it on my head board when I left so hopefully you still got it laying around somewhere. ask chase he knows what I'm talking about. cierra and Justin pretty close to getting married yet? it sure sounds like it. let me know if I should send home a pic so you can make a cardboard cut out of me for all the wedding pics. all the guys out here do it, its so funny to see the pics that their fams send back. we are currently teaching a lot of people but not too many of them are progressing so I think we're going to drop about 5 families this week but we will have to see. its hard to teach people if they're not willing to keep they're commitments, but theres not much we can do about it I guess. I sent home a letter in amongst your letter for the bishop so it would be great if you could give that to him. but I love yall and let me know how everyone is doing. love, elder Larsen

Hey Fam!

2009-02-25T11:12:00.002-07:00

Hey yall! sorry it took me so long to get my email set up, im kinda handicapped when it comes to technology but i got the hang of it now. but things are going good, i was far away from the tornadoes but i was listening to the news and apparently there were ten in all of georgia. only a few touched down unfortunately. i wanna see one pretty bad so im hoping we get some in my area one of these days. You have quite a few questions so i will do my best to try and answer em. i only get an hour in the library so ill make it quick. i am living in a apartment in cartersville with a total of 4 misssionaries. the other two missionaries are spanish speaking so im sure they are talking crap on me behind my back ha ha our apartment is trashed!!! i took some pics so you will see what im talking about. my bike I actually got free from some missionarie who was leaving. the bikes a piece of junk but its free. i love my new companion and his name is elder packer... 3rd cousin to boyd k. packer. im doing very well with the discussions, i still struggle but its coming. As far as my investigators go im having my first baptism on the 21st of next month. we tracted into this guy named shawn, he has been a member his entire but hasnt been church in 20 years. we started visiting him and in 2 weeks time we got him going to church with us and is slowly giving up smoking and drinking so that in itself was a miracle. but we started teaching his 13 year old daughter and we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. we are teaching her the 3rd lesson tomorrow so im way excited. On sundays im at the church from 9am to 4 pm. were in meetings all day so that kinda sux but oh well its missionary work. its been really hard to find solid investigators but we keep trying. everyone here is mostly baptist so you can imagine how that is. we teach alot of 1st lessons but people wont let us come back most of the time. which is ok cause were only here to find those ready to hear this gospel. Mission life is great tho. i get up each morning at 630, eat and work out til 8, then have personal study for an hour then comp study for another hour. after that we are out the door by 1030 and dont come home til 9 that night. except for lunch of course. As far as the money situation goes the mission gives each of us a credit card which they put 130 bucks on it at the beginning of each month. so thats what we live on. i learned how to be an extremely good bargain shopper you would be do proud. the bad part is i found that all the really un healthy stuff is cheap so it would be great if you could send me a cook book with healthy stuff in it. im getting pretty sick corn dogs, pb and j, cereal, mac and cheese and the spanish elders left over beans and rice. Also please send me daren and sondras house address. i accidently lost their info and i need to thank them for the valentines package. also someone in the fam from south jordan sent me some stuff and all they put on the package was from the larsens so i have no clue who that was. Other then that im doing great, the ward here is awesome, there is this awesome chiropractor in the ward and we always ride over to his office to get adjusted so you can imagine he is my favorite person in the ward. One last thing, i have found that EVERYONE in the south has a dog. the other day we were riding our bikes and i was in front of my comp and he yelled heads up. so i looked over and there was this pit bull hauling butt over at me, i wasnt sure what to do so i tried to hop off my bike to use it as a shield and while doing that i fell over and nailed the dog in the head with bike and after we started yelling at it it ran off. i was so lucky cause i fell on my back and the dog would have been on top of me ripping me up. and i have another story about being attacked by a chihuahua, but ill save that story for another day. i gotta go but i love yall! LOVE DAK

What up?

2009-02-18T23:12:00.000-07:00

February 18, 2009 Hey Larsen Fam! I finally set up an e-mail account so you don't have to keep sending letters. I got your package this morning and was so happy to see my hat in there so thank you very much. Things here have been great. The weather hasn't been too much fun tho; it's been raining alot lately so it sucks especially since I'm on bike. People splash us all the time in their cars so you can imagine how hard I have had to hold myself back from flashing a few gang signs of my own. But I love it here. The people are way friendly and even if they don't want to hear our message, they will still invite us in to hang out and get a drink or something. Hey, I gotta go tho, they just had a tornado warning and their making us abandon the library, so I'll see you guys later. love ya

Hey Larsen's

2009-01-29T18:57:00.005-07:00

Dakota's 2nd letter home from MTC How the heck are ya? Thanks for writing me. I guess I should just thank you, MOM. I would love to hear from all you guys, especially Sydni. Mail is like gold out here and it's depressing when I go check the mail everyday (we get mail at noon and before dinner) and I don't see your letters. It's all good. I know you all stay waaay busy, but if mom can do it with all she does maybe some others of you could drop a poor home sick Elder a line :0) How was Syd's birthday? I wish I could have been there, I bet she made quite the mess with her cake. I would love to see some pics so PLEASE send me some. I'm sick of staring at all the girls That I have pinned up on my board - Ha Ha Yeah Right! That sux for Cubby tho, I'm sure dad is nurturing him just like he does his pop-cup, Ha Ha. * Cubby almost completely tore off one of his dew claws. * But the MTC has been great for the most part. Other than sitting in class for 4 hours at a time, it's been wonderful. Mom, you asked about my responsibilities as a District Leader, well I have to attend these pointless meetings everyday so you can imagine how long the days are here. I have definitely learned some great leadership skills tho so I know it has been a blessing for me. Today was the most amazing day here by far. We had the privilege to hear from Jeffrey R, Holland at a fireside which had all 2,000 plus missionaries in attendance. The message he shared was incredible, I have never felt the spirit so strong before in my life. His talk was an hour and 15 min's. long so you can imagine how much I took away from there. The one doctrine that hit me the hardest would have been "LEAVE IT ON THE FIELD". The way he explained it was that just like in sports we need o leave our game on the field. Meaning when you're playing a sport you should give 100% of your ability and talents to the game at hand. When the game is over we can just shut off our focus and be whoever. But in the mission field, we need to give the Lord all we've got. This isn't about me anymore, I'm here to serve the Lord and the people I come in contact with. I need to focus my next 24 months strictly on that, everything else is unnecessary or a distraction. I wish I could go into more detail but my mission pres is on his way up here for room inspection, but I love you guys and can't wait to hear from ya. Elder: DAK

Hey Fam!

2009-01-24T01:21:00.004-07:00

Dakota's 1st letter home from the MTC ... It's been about 5 hours since you dumped me off at prison and I found some time to write ya so I thought I would take advantage of it. It's been such an overwhelming experience here so far, to say the least. I have been in a couple meetings so far today and I have already been called to be a District Leader over 20 other Elders. I am freaking out!!! You won't believe who my 1st comp is ... He is the Jewish kid you have been e-mailing whose mom you met on the Georgia Atlanta Mission web-site. He is an awesome guy who likes to work hard so I know we will work good together. He has the worst B.O. you could imagine but I'll try to work past that. So far the greatest experience I have encountered would have to be dinner! I would have come on a mission for that reason alone. They sure know how to keep a brother fed, ha ha. But I just want you guys to know how much I love you! Love: DAK