Colombia Bogota North Mission, Bogota zones meeting for Christmas.
 263 missionaries in mission and this is only about half.  Elder Larsen said he is one of the two tall gringos in the third row back, just left of the center.

This is called a Ruana or a poncho.  There is a ward member that has a business making ponchos and hammocks.

We have sure appreciate the hard working companion that Elder Larsen has right now.  He is from Peru and has been a great Elder.  They were thanked by the ward mission leader and the ward council for all of their hard work in the area.

Dear Family, 

This week was pretty good I guess except many people travel because of the holidays and stuff. We still were able to have a decent amount of lessons though so I guess it wasn't as bad as we thought. But many of our investigators left so we will be anxiously awaiting for when they come back to continue the process with them. This Sunday we had 5 investigators come to church. We should have had more but who knows what happened with some of them. 

On Tuesday night, the 24th, we went to visit the S_______ Family, which was pretty cool. (He sent us a picture telling us the names of each person but I can't post it without permission).   

For the 25th, after the call home, we went to the L______ Family. (Another photo I can't post) They are a really cool family. On Christmas we honestly had like 1 or 2 lessons so most the day we just walked around to every ones house asking if they could meet and most people were sleeping or busy.. Turned out to be an okay Christmas though.

Last night we had another little Christmas party with our 2nd counselor in the bishopric. I didn't take the picture so I will have to try and get it from the other Elder who took it. They gave us a mini Christmas stocking with a little chocolate bar or two. The little sock has our names on them too. I forgot to take a pic of it before leaving the house. 

We still have our 2 baptismal dates for the 11th of January.. Some of our investigators aren't here and won't be back for a little bit so we will be searching for some new people this week as well. Hopefully January will be full of baptisms.  We will have to see.  We will also have to see if I am still around.

Sounds like everyone is doing well back home. I miss you guys and hope you are all doing well there. Hope you enjoyed the pictures that I sent today, I sent quite a few. I enjoyed seeing your pictures as well. Minute to win it and all of that stuff. I remember that show ha. Its funny because most of our programs in the states they have copies of here in Colombia. Minute to Win it I haven't seen it yet so I don't know if there is a show like that or not. But there is The Voice, Colombian Idle, Price is Right, etc. In Spanish obviously, ha.

 

Anyways, we are going to rest up a little bit. P-day ends at 5 today because President told us we have to be in the house at 7:30 for safety reasons tonight so we will try and get some visits in before that time. Love ya all and miss ya. 

Love,

           Elder Kade Larsen

Colombia Bogota North Mission 

This is Elder Larsen's letter from December 9, 2013.  He just received a new companion and they are working hard together and seeing success.  The letter has been edited.

Dear Fam,

 This week has a been a really busy week for us I guess you could say. It turns out that we aren't going to the temple tomorrow. We had been planning on it and everything but they called and told us that this week we won't be able to because they changed our zone meeting to Tuesday and we have our Christmas Conference with President on Wednesday. Dang it right? We had planned appointments and everthing for today so that we could go. 

 

Sounds like its getting pretty cold there in the states. I am kind of glad I am not sitting there in the snow. Here its getting hotter every day because the raining season is finishing up. Hopefully it doesn't get too hot here.

 

A good friend from my ward here is going to the same mission as Kyron, in January. He is 26 years old and will be Elder Perez. How long has Kyron been out on the mission? He plans on searching for him once he gets out there. 

 

I know how Jade feels (about being turned down by their zone leaders when asking if they could go to the Centro). Happened to me before too. It was because our ZLs were both new in the area and they didn't know if we could or not so they would just say to no to everything. Pretty dang frustrating to tell ya the truth.

 

My comp and I are doing really well. This last week were able to have 10 new investigators which is good. One of them has a baptismal date for the 21st of December. He is a old investigator who had a few problems and didn't finish the process but really wants to get baptized, so thats the plan. We also have some other investigators that are two older women but who are also progressing well. They have some relatives who are members from another ward. The family members are from a ward in Northern Bogota. But they come for every appointment we have with them which is great. We have some others who are progressing as well and we hope to get dates for them right now as well.

 

My companion doesn't know any English, but thats ok with me. We are actually searching for a new house right now so that we can live on our own instead of living with 4. President likes it with 2 in a house as well. It's just a lot easier of a life I guess. 

 

One experience... On Friday night we were in an appointment when the Assistants called us. They called us and told us we needed to head over to a certain house. We had to go and see what was happening as soon as possible. We got there and when we got there we immediatly had to leave to go to the Clinic because one of the Elders there was sick and had to go there. We went with them to help with everything. Ended up having an infection in his stomach or something and will be fine in a few days. We left the clinic around 11 at night.. So late. I was so tired. The clinic is about 45 minutes away from the house I was with the Elder in the ER and everything because his gringo companion is still learning Spanish and doesn't understand much of what the doctors say. Turned out to be a long night but turned out ok. ha

 

We have to leave to go and have a lesson right now. Its because today we were pretty dang busy with everything. I did recieve the letters from seminary last year. I also recieved a package from Bishop, which I assume is from the ward in general but who knows, ha. I love ya and hope your doing great at home. I miss ya and love ya a lot.  Have an awesome week this week. Love ya

Love

Elder Larsen