Welcome Back, Person!

Colby's Homecoming at the Houston International Airport

• Cascia and Grandma Welcoming Colby
• Homecoming Dinner at Los Cucos
• Pres. Allen and Colby
• Colby's only pair of Dress Shoes
• Dinner at Bartholomew's after speaking in church

SEE YA or TALK TO YA IN 5 DAYS

Here is my final email for everyone! SEE YA or TALK TO YA IN 5 DAYS!!!! Love all of you! Can't believe the day is almost here!

Elder Larsen
for the last time!

The Last Letter

Well this will be my last real letter...that's just too unreal. I guess I will start off with saying that this week was much better than the past. We were able to have a lot more teaching chances and we were able to find seven people to teach. The awesome thing that happened this week is that Sarah Adams was baptized!!!  She was able to quit smoking three weeks ago. Her baptism was awesome and she had a lot of support. The Spirit was so strong and it was a great service.

I had my last zone meeting on Friday and I will have my last zone conference tomorrow. We will be fasting all day and then we will have a Thanksgiving "Break the Fast" at the end of it. So weird that all these things are winding down. Since this is my last official email, I will just close by bearing my testimony in my mission language  ;)

These past two years have maybe not been the best two years in terms of happy all the time or anything like that. There were ups and downs and it was like a roller coaster a lot of the time. I will say that is was the best two years for my life and hopefully for the lives of those I was around. My testimony has truly grown more than I would have ever wished. I remember driving in the car before I came out on my mission, Dad told me to let the mission mold me. I obviously wasn't able to accomplish that in the short few weeks I was out the first time. In the next ten months, I had so many different positive influences that allowed me to see the importance of serving the Lord and relying on faith. It was interesting that the scripture that I chose for my mission was Moroni 7:33:

"And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me, ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

I didn't know at that time how much I would be using that in my own personal life. Coming back on my mission has allowed the Lord to mold me into who he needed in the Idaho Boise Mission. It has been the best experience that I have had in all my life. I never knew that serving others and seeing the joy and happiness and change that occurs in their lives could help my life in so many different ways. I'm thankful everyday for the love and support that I have been shown from friends and family everyday through prayers and letters. 

I love the Book of Mormon so much. The knowledge, guidance, and direction it has given me has testified to me of the truth of this church and the love that our Savior has for all of his children. Through the Book of Mormon, anyone can know of the truthfulness of this gospel. The people that I had a chance to teach and interact with didn't join the church because of what I said, but more of what they felt and read and the role the Spirit was able to play in their lives.

I hope that I was able to touch all the hearts that I was sent here to influence. I'm grateful for the prophet Joseph Smith and the faith that he had not only to ask Heavenly Father which church was true, but that he had the faith to act upon the answer that he received. Faith is nothing without action. We are so blessed to have a current prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us in the crazy world that we live in today.

Finally, the love of my Savior and what He did and has done for me is more than I can explain. I've felt the love and forgiveness of the Lord in my own life. Through the act of repentance, my relationship and foundation has been able to grow. I have had several trials in the past two years and I will have more throughout my life, but I have seen that trials aren't supposed to be stumbling blocks in our lives, but stepping stones to make us stronger.

There are so many more things that I love and am grateful for!  I love all of you so much and will always be so grateful for the plan that our Heavenly Father has for all of His children and the happiness that it brings!  I say these things in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Elder Larsen!   

Baptism, Trunkies in the Mail, and More

Well, this week was very depressing until the weekend.  Every single one of our investigators cancelled on us this week and we had almost no luck teaching.  It was super depressing.  Christina was able to get baptized on Saturday and it was a great service.  They are such a cool family.  I'm excited for them to get sealed in a year.  She asked me if I would confirm her in church and so I was able to do that yesterday.  After the baptism ,I wasn't feeling very good and ended up falling asleep at 7 p.m. Saturday night and not waking up until 8 a.m. the next morning.  I don't remember almost anything, but I feel way better now.  It's been a long time since I've slept like that. Weird to think that I had my last Fast Sunday yesterday, and I also had my last district meeting on Friday as well. After sacrament, Sis. Shirts came up to me and said she wants to get baptized before I leave.  I don't know if that will be able to happen, but I'm going to try and talk with my mission president today and see what I can do.  It would be awesome to see her get baptized.  They are a sweet couple.  I got my trunky's in the mail this week.  I leave here at 8:45 in the morning and fly to San Fran...don't know why, and then I head to Houston.  When I got those, I did get pretty trunky for the rest of the day, but I'm back to normal now. Well we have some good things set up this week and hoping that all goes well. Love you all! Elder Larsen

• Christina's baptism

Time is Winding Down

I would just like to start off by thanking Aunt Arlene and Mom for the packages they sent this week. That was a big surprise!

I had my last leadership training ever this week. Glad to have those long meetings done for awhile. It wasn't as good of a week as the one before.  We had 1-2 solid cancellations this week everyday. It was pretty frustrating, but we still managed to get a lot of work done and stay busy. Christina passed her interview and so tonight we are going over the program with her and she will be set for Saturday. Really excited about that. Jesse however is a different story. I don't know if I told you guys, but he has a couple of mental handicaps. He was driving Friday night with only a permit and no one else in the car and got pulled over, except he got scared. He was really close to his house, so instead of pulling over, he went home and ran inside.  Of course, the cops broke in and arrested him. He didn't really know what he was doing. This was the night before his baptismal interview, so of course, he can't be baptized because he is now facing felony charges from running and what not. It's not a good situation. We are trying to get him some help, but there this only so much that we can do. Pretty sad situation.

We continued down the service train this week. We helped a guy completely rip out and rototill his two garden areas. Then we helped Bro. Shirts move into his new wife's house. The man has so many big and heavy tools. It was a pretty tiring week service-wise again. I think I'm getting too old for this ;)

At one of our dinners, the lady we were eating with asked if I needed a job in Rexburg and so I told her yes. She said that her daughter is looking for RM's that could help her out with her autistic son.  She thought that I would be great for it with my personality, so she gave me her name and number and told me to call her when I get back. Kinda cool. I'll go check it out and see how I like it.

Well, that was pretty much my week. Crazy how fast time is going by. Getting pretty scary actually. Love you all. Peace and blessings!

Elder Larsen

So Much Service - I LOVED It

Well, I started off the day going to the chiropractor. For the past two weeks, I have had a very sharp pain in my back whenever I breathed in. The guy was able to readjust my back and he said that my rib was rubbing against my spine.  It feels a bit better and I have to go back again on Wednesday for a follow-up.

This week was sick!  An old couple that we were teaching, that the lady is ex'ed, got married randomly over the weekend. Just decided to tie the knot one day and did it that night. I was kind of a shock when I asked them what exciting things had happened over the weekend.

Christina finally has decided to go ahead and get baptized. We have set an official date for November 2nd. I'm so stoked about it. She is going to have her interview this week. Their daughter participated in the Primary Program yesterday, so they have been getting more and more involved. We finally made contact again with Jesse and he also has his interview this week and has his baptism as well on November 2nd.

So, there has been this lady, Ashleigh, that I've been trying to teach and to get to come to church since I got here. She randomly showed up to church last Sunday after 4 1/2 months. Then she held her appointment for the first time in 4 1/2 months. We had a really great lesson and committed her to baptism for November 22nd. She said that before she wasn't ready, but that now she is. She used to smoke two packs a day, but now she only smokes one or two cigarettes a day. Huge improvement. She came to church again yesterday and we had another lesson with her yesterday afternoon. Her son is eight, so we are going to have them get baptized together. Her kids love church and things are rolling great. She has to have quit smoking at least by November 8th, so pray that she can get over that.

Besides all of those appointments, we did so much service this week. We gathered sticks and leaves to burn for this one family in their burn pile because they have been trying to sell their house. We dug potatoes for a crippled guy two different days. We busted out tile for a guy in his entryway. And we helped someone move there giant quilting machine that didn't end up fitting through the door, so it took 3 1/2 hours to figure out a way to get it in there by taking it apart!  It was exhausting.

All in all, the week was so much better than the past two transfers. It was so nice working with someone that is willing to work and able to take charge. Life is chill.

Love you all. Peace and Blessings!

Elder Larsen

"Everything is Flying By So Fast!"

Everyone's prayers were successful. I am getting Elder Zuniga from Eagle Pass, TX.  He has been out eleven months and is a Hispanic missionary. I am really good friends with him.  It wasn't who I thought I was going to get, but I'm still excited about getting him. He loves basketball, so we will be playing every morning for exercise.  He has been in a bit of a slump, so I will still have to help someone along, but that will help keep me from getting in a slump myself with only 40 days left! One of my best friends, Elder Barnes, is leaving tomorrow so it will be weird not having him here my last transfer. 

So we found out that Jesse moved, but we just got his address and there is a chance that he is still in our area.  We will see tomorrow. We heard he still wants to be baptized though. We had another great lesson with Christina and she is doing awesome. We had a good discussion about baptism and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I challenged her to pray about when God wants her to be baptized and she said that she had prayed to Him about everything except that.  She said that she would and she felt the baptism would be sooner rather than later.  

The bad lesson of the week was when we were teaching Toni and talking about faith and we were stressing the importance of reading and praying.  We challenged him again to pray about baptism and then the member whose house we were at said,  "Toni you don't need to pray about baptism until you’re ready to be baptized. Just take baby steps".  Who says that? I was so mad, but it’s not like I can rebuke her in her home. So, then I tried to go on with the lesson and we asked him to come to church. Before he could answer, she jumped in and said,  "Toni probably won't come to church because his wife isn't interested and they should do that as a couple.”  She said this even though I told Toni that he could be the leader/example in his family in making important steps in life and that his family would see the change and have more of desire through his motivation. I was so mad. Needless to say, Toni isn't really progressing anymore and we need to find a different place to teach him. 

Well, that’s about all the adventures for me. Hopefully everything goes well this week and the rest of the transfer. Everything is flying by so fast!

Love you all!
Elder Larsen