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.

Elder Larsen's letter on April 22, 2013

The people in Colombia are spoiling Elder Larsen.  Apparently he had birthday parties all week long.  He writes, "Wow this week has been pretty dang stacked up with stuff for sure. This week we have had 6 different cakes to eat.. Wow right? Never ate so much cake in my life. Its ok though because it was really, really good. Three of them were the same kind. Vanilla with strawberries inside. Oh tan rico! lol I will try and send some of the pictures with this as well. There were plenty of parties so I have a lot of photos."

For P-day they went to Barbosa. Barbosa is the other area in their district and takes about an hour and a half to get there. They went and played futbol (soccer) with an investigator and a Hermano (around 55 years old). "It was pretty fun, it was also the first time I have played soccer in like 4 years."  It wasn't like normal soccer. It was called micro and is played with a smaller ball and on a lot smaller field.  "I was with Elder A_____ and an investigator. Elder A_____, before the mission, was given a contract to sign with a professional team in Honduras (needless to say he is pretty good). They were surprised that I, as a gringo, could play a little bit." He said it is a lot hotter in Barbosa than Tunja, "which kind of stinks".  Maybe he meant that literally because he said he was sweating like a criminal on the run. haha 

 

They had a couple lessons with a special family this week. He is so nervous right now about this family. He doesn't want to leave Tunja with them not being members of the church because they have spent so much time working with them. Transfers are in two weeks. They are inviting them, again, to get baptized on the 4th.  The dad needs to make some progression with the word of wisdom. He asked us to please pray specifically for this family and this date.

The people really liked the four missionaries that were there before the last transfer.  Members had gotten close to them.  Kade is nervous to leave and said the members are nervous about him leaving too.  They say he is the last of "the 4". When it was "the 4" they had a lot of success working with the members.  He said, "Every house we go to they are like "Your the only one left! When you leave we are going to cry!"  Kade says he is doing his best to keep the people happy and trying to have his companion make connections with the people. It is hard because his companion doesn't talk very much.

Kade said the people love the photos of our family.  I'm thinking, "Why is he flashing those around!"  haha  But then with three weddings last year we have plenty of recent family photos.  He said that most people think that Tanner is Kade in 80% of the photos. They always say "Is this your girlfriend! Very pretty!" about Tanner's wife.  He said it's always fun to talk about the family with them. "They think our family is awesome."  It is amazing how much more our kids appreciate our home AFTER they have left, especially when they leave Utah and get out in the world.  It would be interesting to hear what he is telling them about us, wouldn't it?

Kade is doing great!  If you would like to write him his email address is kade.larsen@myldsmail.net.

 

Elder Larsen with a birthday gift from some members.  It is a painting by a street artist that paints with cans of spray paint.  It was made especially for him and even says happy birthday in Spanish.



Elder Larsen holding a birthday cake that he thought was so delicious.  He said they put something like fireworks on them.

Elder Larsen had a great birthday and wanted to thank all of you that sent special birthday wishes.  He had birthday wishes from around 100 of you that respond to my plea.  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!   He felt special and remembered, which is exactly what we were trying to accomplish.

 

On his birthday he was up at 3 AM and was traveling by 3:45 heading to Bogota.  He couldn't get any sleep in the bus because the driver had his music too loud.  They had a great day in Bogota.  They played basketball and also some good old American football.  He said it was nice to play with the other American elders that knew how to play and they played hard.  They had a lunch and then changed in to their suits for a conference with the President.  About the time the conference started, so did his migrain.  Blasted migrains!!!  That is an inherited thing that our kids get.  They are miserable!  He was able to locate a couple of ibuprofen and take them.  He felt sick the whole conference but made it through. 

 

The people in Tunja spoiled him for his birthday. He had a celebration with the Hermana Suezca family the night before his birthday and was taken to a pizza place.  They had a dinner, birthday cake, and a family home evening in the restaurant.  They also gave him the gift of the picure above. The picture is made from a street painter that paints with spray cans. It looks so well done.  He loves it.  They also had a popcorn party with one of the members he shares a close birthday with.  The members are so good to him in Tunja and from his family here in America, THANK YOU!  

 

They've taught some powerful lessons this week. One of his investigators is recovering from a surgery and then found out that her daughter has stomach cancer and it is really serious.   Nobody in the house is working because she just had a surgery and the daughter now has cancer.  The daughter has six little kids living with her. He has asked us to keep her in our prayers because they definitely need it. 

 

The rules for email have changed recently for the missionaries.  You can write him at kade.larsen@myldsmail.net  He may not have time to answer everyone immediately but he would love to hear from you.  He said he does think the "Dear Elder" does deliver to Bogota North because he sees elders with letters all the time from Dear Elder.  They are supposed to receive that in a week as opposed to a month going through the mail system.  I will have to try that and report if it works well or not.

 

Kade has had an experience this week that reinforces the reason I pray for his safety every single time that I pray. I am sure that he was directed by the Holy Ghost.

  

Elder Larsen says General Conference was pretty awesome he wasn't able to watch all of the sessions. If someone else could watch in English with him then he could go in tot he bishops office and have it streamed in on the internet.  Some sessions he had to watch in Spanish but said he had to concentrate so hard on what they were saying that he couldn't take too good of notes. The second Sunday session had just started when they had a "bit of a disturbance."   I will use Elder Larsen's words to describe it.  "Basically, a crazy guy came trying to stop his old fiance from coming to conference. They were fighting when they came in. She was trying to get away and one of our bishopric members stepped in and the guy punched him two or three times. When I entered the hall is when she got away from the guy and the counselor was just stepping in. I passed the Sister in the hall because she ran to the office. He saw me and didn't enter into the hallway any further. I separated them and the guy yelled at me for a bit and then left, slamming the door and throwin a fit. I wanted to do something more but I had the pretty strong thought to just wait for him to leave and listen. I stood between them both so that he didn't came after the counselor again. The people in the conference in the chapel didn't hear it because the volume was way loud because there are a few members who can't hear well. The police came and left quickly to go and find him. They found him and he got arrested. The counselor in the bishopric has to have surgery this week. After the guy left I was helping the counselor until more help came and we gave him a blessing there on the spot. The EMTs came to help as well and told him he needed to go to the hospital for an xray. I was there because I was watching it in English in the bishops office, so it was mainly just us. Thats a LONG story made really short."

He is bound and determined to go and watch the Sunday afternoon session sometime this week. Maybe for their companionship/language study. The disturbance happened during his favorite speaker. He liked the quote from  Elaine S. Dalton's talk "What e`er thy art; act well they part."

He thought it was amazing to hear the number of missionaries out in the mission field right now. These numbers were the numbers at December 2012 so there are definitly more out there now. The work is moving forward and he is glad to be a part of it. He is also glad that I was just before the huge boom. 

 

This last week they had around 10 different investigators attending one or more of the conference meetings.  They also had some great lessons with a family last week where the father asked all the questions he could think of and after he felt a lot better about the church. 

Elder Larsen was "really stoked" to hear about Cedar City getting a temple and is wanting to know where they are going to put it. He said he gets asked often how many temples are in the United States and in Utah.  So I was able to get a list and send it to him.  Now he can answer those types of questions too.

I sent his birthday package on March 1st to make sure that it got there by his birthday next week on April 16th.  He said, "Hey, I recieved the birthday package and ended up opening it this week because I didn't want to wait too much longer. I am actually wearing the Utah State Aggies shirt right now (Thanks Tan and Linds) haha Its a pretty sweet shirt and it honestly feels like a muscle shirt so thats always a good feeling right? lol"

Next week is his birthday and I would really like to make it special for him.  I would like all of you to leave a comment for him.  I will collect them on Sunday and get a special birthday email ready for him.  He's turning 20.  Please help me make his birthday special.  Thanks.

Elder Larsen just wrote and wanted to settle our worries.  He is so much better this week.  He says the week before was horrible but that by last Tuesday most of the ill effects went away and he felt totally better two or three days later.  "Man was it great to feel good again.  I felt like I was sick for a year or so.  Obviously not, but that's what it felt like." 

In Tunja, Holy Week is a big deal. In other areas of Colombia they have reenactments of the crucifixion but not in Tunja, thank goodness.  Kade's cousin, Jade, is a missionary in Mexico and they had to be in early every day and weren't able to leave the house on Friday. They do have a lot of traditions that they do in Tunja.  He said that the Klu Klux Klan  is there in Tunja.  They wear the same stuff that they did in the states.  He hardly dared take a picture but I think they were in a parade there.  He was going to send pictures of something and must have forgotten.  He said in the parades each group has a part of the crucifixion so they have things like a cross or a casket. 

In Colombia, the unspiritual part of Easter is nonexistent.  They do not have anything to do with Easter eggs or the Easter bunny.  He said the speakers in church did speak about Easter and the events having to do with Christ.

He said, "Satan's presence is everywhere and sometimes he really makes me mad!"  They are still working with some really good investigators.

The first week with his new companion went really well.  Elder Larsen said when he met with the Mission President a few weeks ago the President was really impressed with his Spanish.  He said the president even said, "Wow, gift of tongues Elder!"  He said the President must have had a lot of faith in his Spanish because after that he sent him a Costinian as a companion.  He said the only Spanish he can't understand is his companions. haha  With time it is getting better. He said that he uses other words that he has never heard in his life.  That is just how Spanish is, different area of the country they use different words.  Because it was Holy Week it was very hard to meet with people.  Many people left town to visit family.  They visited with a lot of members, which was good so that the new elder to the area could meet them.  They were able to teach investigators a little bit but not as much as they wanted.

Kade is jealous of his cousin serving in Mexico because he gets to eat chips and salsa almost every day.  He said they found out there was a store that had peanut butter.  They went there and he was "so excited to have peanut butter once again in my life." But, the store had ran out and won't have any for at least a week.  

Kade also found out this week that his favorite teacher, Laura Stoker, from Colombia Basin College passed away.  He said, "She is one of my favorite people from Washington and was willing to help me with anything I would need to get started in this career."  He appreciates friends keeping in touch with him to let him know things like that.