Elder Kade Larsen

Kade's letter  10/22/2012

Dear Mom & Fam,
Man I couldn't wait for this day to come!  I have only been here for 5 days but in all honesty those 5 days feel like 5 months lol.  The language is taught insanely fast and it is very hard to keep up.  I am doing my best and actually learning a lot of Spanish.  Like people say, I learned more in my first 2 days here than I did that whole quarter up at college.  Why?  Because your mind has no choice but to learn it and to learn it well haha.  I hope that I can keep learning as much as I can and as fast as I can because we are learning quickly.  I can pray and bare my testimony in Spanish, which is pretty dang cool.  When I write letters or type this email I keep thinking of the words in Spanish before I think of them in English and sometimes it is hard haha.  That's perfectly ok with me, that means I'm learning!  The other companionship we share our room with is Elder Arnold and Elder Westwood.  I think they are from the Salt Lake Area.  We all get along great and love to be around each other.  We started a tradition on Saturday and we call it Fiesta Saturday!  We buy chips and salsa or just good food from the bookstore and have a mini party while we plan out the next day.  Man was I happy to have chips and salsa again.  It was so good except it makes me miss El Mexicano like crazy!  We plan to do this everyweek and then the night before Elder Bentley and I leave to Colombia we plan on having a BIG FIESTA because it will obviously be our lst night together.  The other elders in our room are going to Tampico, Mexico and will be in the Provo MTC for all 9 weeks.  I see Elder Gale from home.  He is in my district so that is cool. 

Jade is in my zone and so I see him a lot as well, which is awesome.  Today Elder Bentley and I did a session for a couple family names Jade had.  Not our relative but the Burt side of the family.  We have not been able to get a picture yet with the map.  We will try this week sometime and try to get it out to all of you sisters  :)  I finally found Elder Abbott last night after the devotional!  Man it was good to see him.  He is doing well and I have missed him.  We don't have similar schedules at all.

My companion is from Lindon, Utah and is a great companion.  We will be companions until we leave to Colombia.  President Ricks (Our Branch President) said that they have had some troubles with Colombia's MTC and sending missionaries there.  They have a very small MTC so they don't always take ALL the missionaries from here when they are supposed to go.  Meaning, the ones who get left behind end up having to be in the Provo MTC for 9 weeks instead of 3.  I hope I don't get stuck behind because I want to be in Colombia so bad right now.  I want to go really bad but I know I have so much to learn and am not ready for that yet.  We teach fake investigators and ours is from Argentina.  We had to teach him Friday, two days after arriving, and Saturday.  IN SPANISH.  Yea, I know right??  It actually went ok but it was pretty nerve wracking.  We teach him again tonight and we are going to teach him on the Plan of Salvation.  Last week we did the atonement (Expiacion).

Thank you so much for the box that you sent me.  I was totally stoked to see it and so was everyone else in my district haha.  The swedish fish are being saved because of how precious they are.  I loved the letter and loved the candy in it even though I haven't eaten all of it yet.  I am trying to ration it out just in case you forget to send more later.   :) 

Last night we listened to a talk from Elder Holland titled "Forever a Missionary."  Wow, talk about getting pumped up about missionary work.  I love that man and his talks are always powerful to me.  He gave it a few years ago.  He had some great quotes in it. 

Not all of the computers will read SD cards so I can't send pictures this week.  I will try next week.  Tell everyone to write.  I got a letter from Whitney using Dearelder.com.  That works really well.  I miss you and love you all.  Love,  Elder Kade Larsen