Dear Family, (This letter has been edited for posting by Kade's mother)

Wow, sounds like a lot of things happened this week. I won't lie, a lot of those things didn't bring me much of a smile, lol. For example Kyle (his cousin getting in a bad dirt bike accident and) breaking his foot (accidents happen) and also Brady (his cousin having a seizure and) getting sent home. About Brady getting sent home, it actually makes me pretty mad. Poor kid.

 

Sounds like your new job (at the prison) is treating you well even though it is a bit different. Sometimes different is good right?  A lot different than working at an elementary school? ha.

 

I miss going to Rodeos. It's actually one of those things that are in my top 5 or 10 things that I miss. They were always pretty cool to go to with the family or on a date. Can you believe I almost have 10 months. That means 10 months without going on a date. haha Anyways, transfers didn't really change much for us. I am still here with my companion, Elder P____. Elder G_____ is still here as well and will be starting a new kid on Wednesday so he will be with us two until Wednesday. Should be pretty fun actually. 

 

All right normal stuff. This week has gone well for us. We have had some really good lessons with those two families. We still don't have a baptismal date for them but we hope on Thursday to get it for the family. They weren't able to attend on Sunday which stunk but hopefully this coming Sunday they will come to see what its like. The wife wants to go to see what its like. She brought it up before we ever did. We had a good lesson with them about the restoration. They received it pretty well I believe. 

 

About the other family that only can on Sundays, they are also progressing. We had a good lesson yesterday. They had read a little bit during the week but we felt that we should read the first chapter to really get it going and they accepted to read one chapter a day together and when possible with the brother that lives there who is also listening to us. He is progressing very very well and now has gone to church two times. He is awesome.

 

I am happy to hear that you sent the package. The peanut butter you dont need to worry about because I found JIF peanut butter here in Bucaramanga. Its more expensive here but we are all good on PB. 

 

Hey did I ever tell you that here in Colombia they eat ants? They are called hormigas. They only come out on Holy Week (which is like spring break) they are really big. People catch them, cook them and eat them. I first tried them with another elder and have had them a few times since. That's something that I have forgotten to tell you guys. Search that name for them. Search like "eat hormigas" or something like that. They are good, not the greatest snack but good. People eat them as a snack. They are actually really expensive here. haha (He can't believe people would pay to eat an ant.) Alright, I know that my letter is a bit small this time so sorry. I am trying to write a few short emails to some people from Tunja today.

 

R_____, the RM from Tunja that helped us with a lot of appointments came to Bucaramanga this week and we talked for a bit. It was great to see him ha. Anyways I love you and hope you all have an awesome week. Love ya.

Con mucho Amor,

Elder Larsen

 

 

Elder Larsen took this picture to send for his dad's birthday. 

The picture is taken at the internet station.

Dear Family and Friends,  (This letter has been edited for the blog by Kade's mom)
Wow. Sounds like you guys are having some good times back home. I wont lie, I was thinking about you guys a bit Wednesday-Saturday. (for the Webb Reunion) Getting a little trunky, ha ha, no just kidding. But I do miss going up in the mountains with everyone. The pictures that you sent are great and wow its amazing how many little kids are running around now. Is the little boy in the arms of Cory the same little boy as when I left? He is huge now.. just saying. Did people actually write the missionaries in the writing station? I hope so ha, I have been in a drought of letters for quite awhile now ;).  Sorry that Tim and Dad were sickish for the weekend. That always makes the weekends a bit rough for sure.

 

I am stoked Alex got his mission call. France, that is super sick that he got what he studied. Most the time it changes, ha ha. But I bet he will learn really, really fast that French class in high school is nothing compared to real French living there. It will be super awesome though. Leaving December 11th. That will be kind of hard but hey that means he will come back right at Christmas which is pretty awesome. He will only have one Christmas in the "Field" (one is in the MTC). 

This week for us was actually a really good week. Yesterday was an awesome day, better than we have had for a long time. But everything in reality was building up to yesterday. We started two new families yesterday. One of the families are relatives to some recent converts so they already know a little bit about the church. We had a good lesson with them on Sunday. It was a good lesson and they were very receptive. They can only listen on Sundays but we are still excited to get them going with everything. We had an appointment before this one as well that was huge. We had contacted a guy in the street. He was a cool guy and the reason he accepted for us to come to his house is because we said no when they offered us beer, ha. We had the appointment around 3pm or so.  They are a cute little family. They honestly don't know anything about the church but they were very receptive. We are going to invite them to be baptized this Thursday night. I am excited to have these two families  to work for sure. They are awesome people. We also have other investigators that have been progressing really well.  There is also another lady that we have started teaching. She is a neat lady too.  She is also progressing well and has started attending with us.  We are getting really excited for what we have here. One lady we were teaching moved and so they live in another zone. So frustrating because she had just started to progress a lot.
 

Transfers are this coming Sunday. I hope I don't go anywhere. Now that we have got things rolling a bit here in Diamante I really don't want to leave. Who knows what will happen. I will probably have one more transfer here to finish training my son.
 

(I warned him about getting on the roof because there had just been a missionary in South America get killed trying to help someone up on their roof)  Mom, I won't get on the roof of these houses. You can tell when houses are supported but in this area, and some others, the roofs are just like sheet metal placed there so rain doesn't fall in.
 

Glad to hear Uncle Robert is doing well back home. I also hope that your first day of work was pretty awesome. You will have to let me know what you think of it. Those first days are always weird in my opinion. You always feel a little out of place. Well I hope all of you are doing awesome back home. I love you and miss you loads. Thanks for writing letters in the buckets at camp.
 

Well love you guys and hope your doing awesome back home. Thanks for all of the emails today. 

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Larsen

 

Elder Larsen said that he wrote later in the day because they had been doing a service project putting in a support system for a future house that they will help put together later this week. He said it's sad the circumstances that some of the people live in. He will have to try and take a picture or something later if they have a break. He said it felt good to actually have a service project where it was "hard labor" again. He says, "One of the guys there handed my companion a shovel and my companion looked at it like it was a sword from the times of the Book of Mormon or something. He had never used or done anything like this in his life, so I think it was good."

Kade is excited for his cousin, Alex, to possibly get his call this week. "That just blows my mind to tell you the truth. Makes me feel old and it also makes me feel like I left SO late compared to the people my age, lol. In two days I will have 9 Months in the mission." Alex will only be a year or so behind Kade even though he is two years younger. Kade will probably feel that way a lot with the mission age changing to 18 years old.

 

"This week has been an OK week. We actually ended up having a few different meetings that we had to go to. On Wednesday it was a normal Zone Meeting that we have once a month. On Thursday we also had one all morning for the trainers and their kids. That one was with President and his wife and some of the zone leaders. It went well and I learned quite a bit. We even learned a few things that might be changes in the future. Like using smart phones and using tablets with Skype and what not. It is actually a very good chance that we will be the first mission in South America that receives these new updates. President Andelin was talking with President Donaldson (Yes Tanners old mission president) about all these things and he said they were going to try and put it in our mission first. But that won't be until the beginning of the new year. To tell you the truth I don't know how we will do it with Tablets and all that because even with a cell phone it's dangerous and you have a good chance of getting robbed. If God told the Apostles to do it there must be a good reason. It will be really interesting."

"Contacting by knocking doors, in reality, is horrible and the ultimate goal of this new plan of missionary work is to get rid of knocking doors. Which is kind of cool but to tell you the truth we do it just to teach my companion how to do it. If they don't learn how they won't know how if they all of the sudden need to.  My companion and I contact more in the street than anywhere else. We have found a few good people that I am praying that we can get a baptismal date this week."

 

"Our ward is getting more active in the missionary work which is great. We definitely need the help. We are doing our ward council and more and more leaders are coming. Hopefully we can get them all here within this week or the next. Just think 2 or 3 weeks ago it was nonexistent lol."

We asked Kade what they usually eat in Colombia.  He said, "I have given you a lot of details about food and what not. A normal meal here in Colombia is the rice, beans, patacones (The smashed banana thing, really good), platano maduro, salad, soup. The soups here are way good. The best are the creams. There is one of pumpkin (calabasa) which is SO good. But I have only had it 3 or 4 times in the mission. My favorite by far though. Its also way way good to put the rice in the soup. That is a Boyaca (Tunja) thing but its good so I still do it." 

He wants me to tell James Holmes and Taylor Shepherd hello for him.  He said it seems like they've been on their missions forever. haha  

"Thanks for the emails and all this week it was great.  I Miss you and love you guys. Have an awesome week."

Love, Elder Larsen

Elder Larsen with his companion, Elder Paliz

 

 

Elder Larsen is doing great and getting along well with his new companion.  It is always an adjustment for a new missionary but Elder Paliz is doing fine.  Kade says,  "We have been growing closer and don't really have any problems so we are doing really well."  I told him that we had the local missionaries over for dinner on Sunday.  The first words out of one of their mouths was to ask us if we read the scriptures every day.  I told Kade that I hoped he would talk with the people first and get to know them a little bit.  There is a right time to ask that question but it probably isn't the second you walk in the door.   Kade said,  "I hardly ask the question if members read every day because I know that 95% don't. We just encourage them to read more often and when reading, search for the answers that they need in that moment."   

I updated him on all of his cousins that are serving missions right now.  He also has a cousin awaiting his call.  That will make five first cousins serving.  Wow!  He said, "Thanks for sending those clips from the cousins. It was good to hear a little bit from them. That was the first time I had heard anything from Jade so that was good. Don't worry about the story from Emily. When we tell stories we don't really tell every detail possible.  Those little gaps that we forget, try not to make conclusions like walking through the streets with beer, haha."  His cousin took a man's case of beer after he said he wouldn't drink any more.  I laughed and said, "I can picture it now, two Mormon missionaries walking down the street with a case of beer." I've been corrected for making conclusions.  ;)
 

They were able to start teaching some new people and received a referral from the other missionaries.  It's a man who lives in their area but works in the other zone. He told the missionaries that he wants to be baptized but he wants to hear the lessons from the missionaries who work where he lives. "US! For the first time, here in Diamante. It seems like every person we ever find or ever contact that is actually genuinely interested in the gospel is ALWAYS from the other area by a block or two. Man it is such a killer at times. We found a family, around 8 or 9 people in all. They are all excited to learn more BUT  live in the other area. Story of our lives it feels like. Hopefully this new reference we got will be a good one."

 

They are excited for the future in Diamante because the ward will have a lot more participation with the new missionary program. "They will be giving us 15-25 references EVERY week with this new program. Hopefully it works like a beauty, ha." 

 

When I am on his Facebook page I have people contact me from Colombia thinking I am Elder Larsen. I have been able to message back and forth with people from Colombia.  When that happens I always tell him about it.  He said, "Cool to hear you talked with Z____ a little bit. She is a pretty cool investigator. She doesn't know any English so she uses Google to talk to you but Google doesn't always translate correctly."  She is the lady that owns the monkey.  I enjoyed "chatting" with her.

 

This week he wrote on Monday but we didn't receive the email until about 24 hours later.  Everyone that I know with Elders in South America had this delay.  He said that he was teaching a family home evening on Monday night about the Armor of God.  He was really excited about it.  He has a medallion that hung on the mirror of his car that he took with him that he will use for the lesson.  I would love to hear the lesson that he prepared.

 

Because they always have problems with finding investigators and having to give them to the other elders, they are looking for a new apartment deeper in their own area.

 

He said that the changes made to missionary work in the World Wide Conference will change the mission a lot!  There will always be a companionship in the church for the entire day in case someone decided to enter.  They are hoping that it will boost the missionary work. They are getting new computers in August or September to also further the missionary work.  He is excited about being a part of these changes. 

 

He sends his love to everyone.

 

Bucaramanga Sunset

Elder Larsen received a brand new companion on Wednesday morning. The new missionaries arrived at 4:30 in the morning in the terminal. They call themselves the Dad of  a new elder.  Once the new missionaries arrived the Zone Leaders decided that they would wait around in the terminal until about 7:30 a.m. and then they could go to the immigration office that day. So they waited the three hours there in a corner with all the luggage of 5 new missionaries. At 7:30 Kade and two other elders, that had all been in the same MTC group, (woohoo!) were assigned to stay at the terminal with the luggage while the zone leaders took all the new guys to the immigration office. He said they took FOREVER. They didn't come back until 1 P.M. So the Elders had stayed almost ten hours in the terminal. They were pretty frustrated. Kade's new companion is from Ecuador. His trainer was also from Equador.

Kade had been in conferences for two days straight.  They had a conference with the Misson President on Saturday from 8 to 4.  It was also their stake conference and so they had their Priesthood Session Sunday morning from 8-10, regular session from 11-1 and the Worldwide Broadcast from 5-7. He said it just felt like they were in conference after conference after conference.  He wants us to clarify exactly what the deal was with the missionaries being able to use Facebook and technology to do missionary work. He said,  "You will have to let me know some of the details that you liked. I really did like the conference. How would that have been to be an Elder and have the chance to see Elder Holland (my fav), Scott, Packer, etc. all in one night. Wow. Jealous..."

 

Kade had a really good spiritual experience and so I am just going to share that in his words.

"Before our kids got here Elder G____ and I were together, two Gringos haha. We had a really good lesson together though on Tuesday with a 20 year old young woman who has been feeling like she is living a lost life. She had lost hope of ever going to heaven and ever having the chance to repent for the things she has done. We had a powerful lesson with her. She hadn't prayed for 6-7 months but had recently started once she started with the missionaries but had a big fear of telling God her sins. We promised that once she starts to confess these sins to God, He will manifest unto her that she can be clean. I even said something like ¨There is nothing that we can do that God won´t forgive, through the atonement of Christ. Use the atonement. Use this gift that He has given to you. He loves you and has His hand out to help you. Take it and let go of all the things that you have done.¨ We promised that if she prayed and asked she would instantly feel better. She prayed right after we left and called us that night. She was excited for the first time in weeks. She had felt it. She had felt cleansed from the things she had done. She now has a baptismal date for this Saturday." He commented about how strongly he and his companion had felt the spirit during that lesson.

If any of you know Kade very well, you also know that he was a very picky eater.  He mentioned that he ate chicken hearts and that they are very small and so you have to eat a lot of them.  He said "weird stuff for sure." I can't even believe that this is the same Kade. haha  We are proud of him for getting over his pickiness and eating what the people feed him.

Elder Hooker came and spoke at their stake conference on Sunday.  Kade said that he is an excellent speaker.  They also had conferences with the Mission President on Saturday and Kade said that they announced a six week fast from pop.  Some elders drink pop a lot and in the mission there have been quite a few missionaries that have been sick.  Sister Andelin thinks it is from drinking too much pop and not enough water.  Boy, I say once you're off pop NEVER go back! 

 

 

 

 

Elder Botera, Elder Larsen and Alvero Martinez with their matching ties.

Elder Larsen with the monkey named Baby

Finally a picture of the Monkey!  A few of you have mentioned that you were waiting to see a picture of the monkey so I am glad that he sent one this week. Kind of a cute little feller.  He was going to that house again tonight for a family home evening.

 

The other picture is of his companion, Elder Botero, Elder Larsen, and Alvero Martinez with their matching ties.  They went to the Centro and bought them as a kind of good joke.  They all wore them to church on Sunday and everyone thought it was funny.  It's pretty noticeable for sure!

 

Transfers are this week.  Kade's companion was transferred and he will be receiving a new elder straight from the MTC on Wednesday. Elder Botero was transferred fairly close and would still be in his district if he is still the district leader. 

 

Elder Larsen says, "This week we had kind of a rough week, to tell ya the truth. It felt like everyone we were working with, less actives, investigators, etc., were just not progressing and not wanting to progress. And then Sunday came and we had more than we've had this whole transfer in our Gospel Principles class.  We had 13 people that we have been working with come. It was pretty awesome, a good way to finish off the transfer, haha. I have grown pretty close with three or four families here. Its been really good."

I tell Kade when I talk to people and they ask about him or comment on his Facebook page that I keep updated.  He appreciates you thinking of him and wants to thank you for your support.

Elder Larsen and companion eating chicken tacos.

 

 

Elder Larsen said that things are going pretty well. This week they had to focus on talking to some new people. They were able to start teaching a new family. They had their first lesson with them on Sunday and it went really well. They met them in a mechanic shop. Kade said, "Who knows where you can find people that want to listen to the message of the gospel? Tonight we will have two family home evenings so that will be really cool. We are definitely gaining a lot more trust in the ward."

"Last night we also went to the house with the monkey. The Monkey is called Baby and is kind of a crazy monkey. It make sounds more like a gorilla than a monkey, lol The weird thing is that he REALLY likes me. I walk in the room and he runs over to me and jumps on to me. I had only met him once before. They say that he always likes to go to missionaries. I would give him to one of the other missionaries but 3 or 4 minutes later he would leave and run back to me. It was cool but a bit different haha. Not a big fan of holding him for a long time because they live down in a valley where its really humid and then he just clings on to you making it 100x hotter."  I need to tell Elder Larsen that we all want to see a picture of him with the monkey.

"Today we made the Chicken tacos with the seasoning that you sent. Oooooh they were good. We had three tacos each and were feeling pretty great after. I also found the same seasoning packet here in Exito (like Walmart). How crazy right? We had to take a picture. In the picture we only have two each but we still had more left so we decided to have one more after we finished. They were awesome though, reminded me a bit of home, haha."

 

This last week was a little rough in the category of health. The last half of the week Kade was really sick on Saturday and Sunday. Today he is feeling a lot better. He feels like he's been sick his entire time in Bucaramanga and he's getting pretty annoyed.

 

Kade thinks it's funny his dad didn't draw out for the deer hunt. But said that it's ok, he will draw out next year when it really matters. Kade gets back next year right before the deer hunt. =) 

 

Kade said that he got three letters this week. One from Jill, one from Brady, and one from Elder Mike Hales. The ones from Brady and Mike were sent on March 12th and he got them on May 30th. He said, "WHAT! horrible right?"  I have asked him and he said that even if you send a letter through Dear Elder.com that it still takes quite awhile to get to him.  However, he loves getting letters so don't quit writing.  His address is on the left side of this blog.  Send them to the mission home address or you can email him at kade.larsen@myldsmail.net

 

Elder Larsen wrote and said he had been thinking of Kaesen, Christin, and Heather all day last Wednesday as they entered the MTC.  He can't believe they only get two weeks in the MTC.  He said that he learned so much in there that really helped him.

 

He says that things are picking up for them in Bucaramanga.  The ward members are helping a lot more.  There are some returned missionaries and two future missionaries that are helping them a lot. He has connected with some pretty neat families in the ward.

The family he's been teaching is doing well and still progressing but still haven't been able to come to church. The parents are reading the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. They are still working with them and trying to fellowship the son more and more.

 

This week they received a reference from other missionaries about a guy who said he had read the Book of Mormon and loved it all. They have tried to meet with him a few times but he has never been home. But they have started teaching the Older lady that he lives with (he is renting a floor in her house) and she is really cool.  He said she was very cold to them at first and wanted nothing to do with them.  They said a few jokes to warm her up and now she really likes talking with them. They have had a few good lessons with her so far as well.

 

For P-day they were going to go play Ultimate Frisbee at a park. BUT they couldn't find a park so they just played futbol (soccer) again at the church. It was fun, better than the last time because it was more competitive. He hates playing if its not competitive at all. He was able to throw with another Elder.  He says, "Man it felt good to hold a baseball in my hand again. I can definitly tell that my shoulders are out of shape. Need to be more persistent in that shoulder workout program I got before the mission. There wasn't much space so we weren't able to throw all that long. I got pretty burnt today. It was overcast skies I think is why and we didn't think much of it. Gotta love bein' white. lol"

 

"Hey remember the parable thing that you had sent me last week? I remember where that was from. Its from a talk that Elder Holland had given called ¨Laborers in the Vineyard¨ I have it on my i-pod. Its a great talk. I have some others as well from him. He is my favorite to listen to."

 

He sent a couple of new photos but I can not post them unless he tells me that he has permission from the people. I'll have to ask him about them and will possibly post them later.

 

He has been sick but the bishops wife is a doctor. He ended up having to go to the doctor (her) twice in the week. He says the week before he could barely hear out of his left ear but now he has had medication and is doing fine.

 

One of the members from Tunja sent him some pictures of Tunja at night.  I thought they were pretty and can post them.  Thank you.

On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 12:00 AM, Cindy Larsen <cindyngary6@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Elder Larsen, We have had a great little vacation. I am at Tanner and Lindsay's apartment using their laptop to write this. I am not so good at laptops so I hope that I can figure this out.

Tuesday night I left the Family Research Center and to leave I either have to back out of the West side of the driveway or just drive around the back of the Stake Center. I drove around back and there stood Kaesen and his family. He had just been set apart as a missionary. Heather and Christin had both been set apart earlier that night. I don't leave there until 9 p.m. They all entered the MTC on Wednesday. I've seen Ellise and Lisa since then and cried with them as they explained their final sendoffs. It's such a hard time for mothers. :)

My last day of work was on Thursday. It was field day. Remember that? It went pretty smoothly. They have the same old games every year. I guess the big news is that Lisa Crane applied for a job at the District Office to be over all of the Special Education Departments in the district. Kade Douglas has been moved to superintendent. The person that was over SPED moved in to Cades job and Lisa will take that job. So she was only our principal for six months. Can you believe we have to get ANOTHER new principal?!!! I am a little worried about who it could be. I sure wish that Nolan Anderson would come to our school. I don't really want Paul Torgerson because I hear he has been going ballistic over at the high school. He doesn't seem to handle the kids anymore. So I"m worried about getting someone in there that is high stress. I guess they will let me know when they pick who it is.

Dad and I took off on our little trip on Friday morning. We stopped in Spanish Fork and visited with mom for a little bit and then headed out. I had a few errands in Orem and then we headed to Idaho Falls, Idaho. Do you remember going there. We stopped on our way to Yellowstone. We went to the temple there on Friday night. I was really impressed with the Garden room. They had a three dimensional set of trees on the front wall. The paint was really beautiful and made it stand out pretty. Then in the Telestial room the walls were painted and it looked just like Utah when the pioneers came through. They had pioneers with their wagons and growing crops. They also had pictures of the seagulls eating crickets. The Celestial room was really beautiful with gorgeous chandeliers. The temple has the movie and we watched a section of it in each room and then moved to the next.

We didn't get out of the temple until 9:30 P.M. I had asked someone in the temple where the locals liked to eat. They said a restaurant called the Sandpiper and another place. When we got to the Motel parking lot we realized the Sandpiper was right across the street. We walked over there and ended up eating there. We got our food at about ten at night. We chose to sit out on the patio even though it was cool. There was a long gas fireplace that ran the length of the patio. We sat right by it. Wow, talk about ambiance. We looked right out on to the river. There was a whole bunch of ducks and stuff. We could see the temple from that view also since it was right across the river. It was one of the coolest things of the trip. The food was pretty good but not sure it was worth $26 a plate.

I had also asked someone in the temple how far it was to Rexburg. We had only planned to go to The Idaho Falls Temple because dad didn't want to sit in the temple the entire trip. But when we found out it was only 20 minutes away we figured we better go there while we were up because we may not make it up again. So on Saturday morning we drove to Rexburg. We had gone by there while it was being built. We had only pulled over and taken a picture then. That temple was also so beautiful. In the Telestial room they had the most beautiful walls. It was painted just like you were up in the forest. There were elk and deer, oak trees, etc. It looked just like Yellowstone to me. The paint was such deep beautiful colors. The Celestial room had beautiful chandeliers also. It is a very beautiful temple.

In Rexburg we went to Pizza Pie Cafe to eat. We've never eaten there. It was pretty good. They have quite the buffet of pizza and dessert pizzas. Then we headed to Lava Hot Springs. We stayed in the same place that we did when we went before but I made sure that I got a newly remodeled room. It was MUCH nicer. We sure enjoyed lounging in the Hot pools. We stayed there for two and a half hours. I was so relaxed by the time we got out that I could barely stay awake long enough to have prayers and kiss dad good night. We even ran in to Brent and Syd there yesterday. Syd's dad built a family cabin up there and they were up for the weekend. Dad had happened to talk with Brent the week before so we knew they were going to be there. We followed them up to their cabin and visited a bit. We ran in to them at the grocery store when we went to buy breakfast foods for Sunday morning.

This morning we enjoyed eating breakfast by the river. It would be really fun for our family to have a little trip up there. The married couples could stay in tents in one of the many camp grounds or get a motel room. But they have river rafting that goes right through town. It would be fun in the summer but it was a bit chilly to do that this weekend. They have made some huge improvements and new slides in the water park that you jumped off the really high diving platform. It would be fun to go up there and play around for a few days.

We are spending the night with Tanner and LIndsay. They fixed us Cafe Rio style burritos and they were really good. We went to the Burt's house and had ice cream and played games with them. Do you remember that name game where they try to guess who wrote a certain name? Shiloh is actually pretty good at that game. I actually won once. The funny thing is that I had written down Emily Judkins. They had tried to guess forever who wrote her name down then just figured that she had been guessed and forgot about her. So I was going to write her a letter saying that everyone had forgotten about her. jk

Tomorrow we are heading back home. We are not really in a hurry and we have no plans. I think Tanner and Lindsay are going fishing and not sure if we are going with them or just heading back. We may stop in Salt Lake and see Caci but I haven't talked with her. We keep missing each other's calls. She was up here in Logan until last night. They came by to see Tanner's apartment and then headed back to Salt Lake. I'll wonder what to do with myself on Tuesday when I don't have to get up and go to work. However, I have made me a list a mile long of things that need to be done this summer.

Alex and Dakota's graduation announcements came in the mail last week. I guess I mostly looked at the pictures and didn't read the details because I knew I wouldn't be going. Tanner read Dakota's invitation and happened to stay and Grandma and Grandpa Webb's house the other night. He said her graduation date was May 13th on the card but my mom was planning to go up on the 30th for graduation. My mom talked with Vicki and hers says the 13th also. So mom wrote Linda an email and pointed that out. Linda didn't even notice that it was wrong. It's funny what we miss when proof reading stuff. So when we went there today I said, "I am sure sorry that I missed your graduation on the 13th." It's kind of a funny joke now. Dakota is just hoping that nobody reads the invitation and just looks at the pictures.

We are excited to hear how your new investigator family is doing. Let us know. That is cool that you were waiting to teach someone else and she called you over. I hope things work out with them. We love hearing mission stories like that. Did the baptism go through on Saturday? Now I understand why you had to turn her over to the other elders, she lived in their area. Bummer.

I will have to send pictures next week of our trip. We love you and sure hope that you are well, working hard, and being blessed in your labors. Everyone says hello. Love, Mom

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Kade Larsen	I forgot a few things.. Maria Fernanda´s baptism went through and was really ...	May 27 (1 day ago)
I forgot a few things.. Maria Fernanda´s baptism went through and was really ...

Kade Larsen	May 27 (1 day ago)
to me

I forgot a few things..

Maria Fernanda´s baptism went through and was really great. The dad of the family that she lives with did the baptism. THey have a really good relationship. Sunday morning she asked me to confirm her a member of the church! WOW! I wont even lie I was scared to death but I confirmed her in Sacrament meeting. It was really cool and I feel really good that she chose me out of everyone she knows ha. We will be having a Family Home Evening with the family tonight. ALSO, I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting. I only knew about it two or three days before because the bishop called and asked me to. So I had to do two NEW things in Sacrament Meeting that I havent done in the mission lol.

THe bishop added me on facebook. You will have to go to his page and look at some of those videos and photos from our ward party. I am only in one photo and I am in the corner but yeah it was way fun. It was a week and a half ago or so.

Other questions that I need..

WHat is the email/address for Elder Brady Judkins??

Can you send me all of those mission photos that we took for the mission? I need them because I need to print one for someone here. I will have to tell you why later. All the ones you can find on your computer.

Do you remember the ring that we bought? The CTR ring? Can you look and see if there are cool HLJ (Spanish) rings in those stores as well, I think you can look online as well. THere is a future missionary here that really wants one and is willing to pay whatever cost basically for you to buy one and then send it. Let me know what you find and with pictures please as well.

Elder Larsen wrote this week.  He shared some missionary experiences that I thought I'd share on his blog.  I think he really enjoys being on a mission and doing the Lord's work.  He says:

This week has been a bit better than the last week. We have been really trying to focus on having lessons with members. Why, because lessons with members is basically a different level of success than a normal lesson. They understand more and they have more trust in us as representatives of Jesus Christ.  We were able to find a new family through contacting. They are an older family that has a son around 31 and a daughter around 24 or so. The parents are around 60 or so I think. We had actually been contacting for about an hour or so without success, we had a lesson planned at 5 with an investigator so we went to his house and he was on the phone a little ways down the street and told us to wait a second. It was raining pretty hard so we stood under his porch. 

 

While we were waiting for a minute or two a neighbor, standing in her front door, waved for us to come over. So we went because we were just waiting. She wanted to know what religion we were from and what not. We talked for a moment and told her we would be back within in an hour because we had the appointment with the other investigator at that time. We came back after an hour and talked with her, her husband, and her son. We had a good talk for about an hour about a few basic things. We learned they have had people from a bunch of different Churches come and talk to them about their church. Jehovah's Witnesses, Evangelicals, etc., but a lot. They seemed to really like us and kept saying that we are great young men that are humble and know the doctrine. My companion knows the scriptures like no other. He knows the Bible better than the Book of Mormon. He is a stud. We met with them 2 days later and they had all read the pamphlet and we gave them Books of Mormon to start reading. We talked and explained The Restoration of the Gospel and the spirit was very strong. We will have a lesson with them on Wednesday about that. Today we played basketball with the son, he has a few medical problems but is good at basketball. We have grown a lot of trust with this family so fast and they are very interested to learn more.

Remember the woman that we had to give to other missionaries to teach because she lives about a block and a half into another zone? She will be getting baptized this Saturday. The member of the church she lives with will be doing the baptism, which will be awesome. We have grown close with that family as well.

 

This is one cool thing about the mission. There are people you just instantly have relationships with. Strong relationships with trust with everything. Its all natural and its great. Sometimes it doesn't happen that way but with some it does.

Love

Elder Larsen

Elder Kade Larsen wrote saying, "I'm a Dad."  Don't worry.  It means that he has a newer missionary and is completing that Elder's training.  He had his first transfer this week.  Here is what he said with some paraphrasing.

Whoo.. Things have changed quite a bit lately for me to tell you the truth. Its been a little bit crazy for sure. Anyways, yeah I got the email from Whitney as well. That is super awesome that she is going to Missouri. That will be an interesting mission where she will learn a lot. She said she doesn't have many church history sites in her mission but she will still learn a lot about them.  

 

"Yes I got transferred. I got transferred out of my birthplace/hometown. I seriously grew so close to the people there it was so hard to leave. BUT, I got transferred to a place where all the missionaries want to go! Bucaramanga! Whoot! I am in an area called Diamante (Diamonds). Its a pretty wealthy area of Bucaramanga they say so that will be interesting. I left Tunja yesterday around 5, we went to Bogota and waited in the terminal to leave for Bucaramanga for another 2 hours. The crappy thing is to go Bucaramanga you have to pass by Tunja.  When you get transferred it is mission policy that you go to Bogota first. Its about 3 or 3 1/2 from Tunja to Bogota. And then from Bogota to Bucaramanga direct is 10 hours. So, I was in a bus for 13 hours almost straight. Wow. Seriously sucked. It was better than what some missionaries had to do but man it was miserable. The whole night in the bus. I probably slept around 2 hours of it all because its not a very soft ride.

 

 I got to my apartment/new companion around 8:30 A.M. My new companion is from Cali, Colombia. He is a lot more like I am in the way of sports and all that kind of stuff. I think we will get a long really well. He is new. I will be his "dad" for the second half of his training. So, he is my first son. I guess I am a step dad but dad is easier, lol. Today we played futbol (soccer) around 10 (I had no energy) and I probably lost 4 pounds in sweat. ITS HOT HERE!! UGH. People always say its hot but not too hot in Bucaramanga. Well, in my opinion, its pretty hot, lol. After we went to the house showered and went to centro comercial.

 

Oh, we don't have hot water here in Bucaramanga. I thought it would be refreshing. I WAS WRONG. Its like having an ice bath when I used to play football in high school but its a shower.

 

I had north American food today! I had McDonalds Chicken McNuggets. We also found a Subway so next Monday we are going to go buy Subway (oooo yeah!). Meatball sub here I come..

 

Leaving Tunja, wow, I honestly felt a lot like I did when I was leaving home for the mission. There are so many people there that I am close to. One of my first investigators had been training in Bogota for his cycling stuff. He came back to Tunja to say goodbye. We were talking for a minute and we both started crying after a few minutes of talking. Man, he is literally like another brother. So many families were very hard to leave as well.  We had to cancel our lunches because we had to be in the house before church got out to receive the call about the transfers. After we found out, I started calling a few people to say I was leaving. One family came and picked us up and we went there for lunch before I had to leave.

 

In Jade´s letter he said he doesn't like the Panita. Panita is Mondongo here. Its the same thing I said I hated awhile ago. Its horrible, seriously horrible. My first time eating it I didn't know what it was till after. I wanted to throw it all back up. I just thought it was chicken or something but with loads of fat on it. (I had told Kade that his cousin ate something called Panita.  It is cow stomach.  It has little hairs and is like eating pure fat.  They serve it in a soup.)

 

We need to get going. Thanks for the letters and all this week. I heard from quite a few people.  I will send a pic of my new companion next week. He really is a pretty cool guy. He says the only problem here in this area is that the members don't care about missionary work and the young men don't want to go serve missions. Well great, I guess we will have to get some of them excited about missions.  

 

Hopefully we get to talk with Elder Larsen on Mother's Day.  He did not mention a time that he would be calling. We'll have the whole family here to talk with him so hopefully we can connect. 

 

Gary looked up Bucaramanga and it is a huge city.  There are two stakes there for the church.  He also said it was  pretty close to the Venezuelan border.