Sept 24, 2010 - MTC Week 2 - Mission Week 2

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 6:54 PM
Subject: September 24, 2010

Boa Tarde minha Familia!

So today I decided to write out a plan on what I am going to write about.

How are you all? I'm doing great. Today we got to go to the Provo Temple on our P-day.

The provo temple is great, but I like Boston more. It was fun going as a district. My experiences of Utah temples is that they are much different from other ones.

We started contacting in portuguese this past week, we're still getting a hang of the language but I can feel the spirit helping us learn the language every time we study. Each class, however, lately we've been very drowsy, maybe its because we eat so much at lunch and dinner.

Each day here at the MTC seems to go by so slowly! Yet the weird thing is that its already almost been 2 weeks, its already almost been 2% of our missions which is an alarming thing.

We had our room rated today and we got an acceptable, I had a little trash on my table, (empty soda bottles) that didn't allow us to get a commendable but I want to let you know mom that we are keeping our room clean! :)

Having a full P-Day is awesome! How did you like the joke I had said in the first email I sent?

Having a plan while emailing is so much better and more organized... (I hope)

So the visas are going very slowly, not many are coming now and a lot of Brasil Missionaries are getting reassigned state side. Life in the MTC is pretty fun here though. Today Elder.Smith in our district got a letter from his girlfriend and his reaction was so funny, she had kissed the back of the envelope and I was in my room writing some letters after we had gone to the temple and he was cheering in the hallway quite loudly. I will snailmail you a picture that Elder Woolsey drew of our district, he made little comics of each of us and its quite funny looking.

My companion Elder Smith arrived on the same day as me. We will be companions the entire time we are at the MTC and right now I am the senior companion, and we'll switch off halfway in the MTC, that is if our visas don't come before then. I think that is the only way we wouldn't be companions the whole time.

We had a TRC, (Teaching Resource Center) which is when we go as a companionship and teach an "investigator" who is either a real investigator volunteer or a member volunteer. We had an RM from Brasil and we were kind of bad on getting to know him in portuguese.

So a funny story about Portuguese class, we were talking with each other outside for an excersize and I decided to say a brief testimony with Elder Billin, another Elder in our District. I was trying to say "I know Jesus Christ lives..." which is Eu sei que Jesus Cristo vive" in Portuguese but instead of saying that I accidently said "Eu sou Jesus Cristo..." which means "I am Jesus Christ." Whoops. O_o The elders in our district got a good laugh about that.

So a game that was started from me accidently taking the salt shaker from our table to another table is where the elders in our district try to sneak a pepper shaker or a salt shaker onto another Elder's tray. It is actually really funny to watch but usually they find out before they put the tray to get washed.

Another funny thing is this:

So Elder Smith was climbing into his bed and when grabbing onto the post of his bunk he pulled the top off and almost fell. He looked at the top of the post and it had several missionary's names written on it and there was a little letter inside from 1996 and it hadn't been found since 1998 so 12 years and then we found it! Other missionareis at the MTC call these Narnia Holes. We're going to leave some secret messages before we leave for Brasil.

Well I got a minute left now so I gotta go,

I miss you guys a bunch and hope to hear from you soon1

Love Your Elder,

Phillip Larsen

Sept 18, 2010 - MTC Week 1 - Mission Week 1

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Sat, Sep 18, 2010 at 5:38 PM
Subject: Email!!!

Bom dia minha Familia!

I only have 30 minutes on the computer but I have been waiting to wrte/email for so long!

Where to start. The MTC is great, although it is a bit of an adjustment. My companion is Elder Smith, and our district is great. The food here is good, I don't know if I'm gaining any weight. This is quite the place! We are the biggest Zone/branch at the MTC. I forget which, but they are usually 25 elders/sisters big but ours this upcoming wednesday will be over 100! Otimo!

We have already started learning the language and it is going well, I can tell that the Espirito Santo is helping us learn Portuguese. I don't know how to do the accent marks so you'll have to excuse my misspelling.

The first day here I felt a little distanced from people, didn't know anyone. 9 out of 11 of the elders we have here are from Utah so they are seeing all their friends here but I don't know anyone here from our stake. I did see Jordan Hopkins though, who visited us from Georgia. He is going to Oregon. Lots of Brazilian Elders are waiting for their Visas, 6 came a few days ago to Elders in our zone so there is hope.

The classes are great and I like my teachers Irmau Taylor e Irmau Call. (Brother Taylor and Brother Call) I also met a teacher here that went to Teresina on his mission. I also met 2 other Elders Larsen, although one was spelled Larson.

This is an unusual week, my normal P-day will be Friday but since I was not here a whole week we had a half p-day today. Oh a joke I heard from one of the elders in my district:

"Why do Elders always have their legs crossed?

Because they only have one P-Day! :D"

So there is so much to say and so little time to say it. We've soaked up a lot of information in these past 3 and 1/2 days. I'm a little overwhelmed by the amount of work we are doing. I know it is only a few days in but I don't feel quite like the Elders seemed to be from our ward.

We got portuguese scriptures and a lot of portuguese materials when we first arrived here too. Argh I am still getting used to this schedule! Have the trees started to change yet in NH? Being at the Provo MTC has been a blessing and it has also been sad to some degree because I see all these other missionaries from Asia. I am excited to go to Brazil though! I might get reassigned though like Ricky if my visa doesn't come but it looks like they might come soon.

One thing that I noticed was that a few weeks after we sent in my papers I remember dreaming about learning a language and I thought it was Italian. Portuguese sounds a lot like Italian and I think I might have been dreaming about that. It is great here, still adjusting but I am excited.

I'm sorry if I didn't talk enough and if this sounded very rushed, we only get 30 minutes to use our emails and there has been a lot that happened in the past week.

I miss you all very much and hope to hear from you soon and a lot :)

Love your Elder,

Phillip Larsen

Phillip at the Machester, New Hampshire, airport just before leaving for Utah.


Phillip with his Papa and Oma Acomb in Murray, Utah, the day before entering the MTC.


Phillip dropped off at the curb at the MTC waving goodbye!