Nov 24, 2010 - Texas Week 2 - Mission Week 11

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Wed, Nov 24, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Subject: Texas Week 2


Howdy Y'all!

So I've really come to like Midland Texas now, it is so great to
finally be in the field! Missionary work is such a fun job! Did you
get my last email that I sent you? Today we have P-day on Wednesday
instead of Thursday because of Thanksgiving

So it has been pretty awesome, we teach a lot of Mexican people here
in Texas and it is nice because I can understand mostly what is being
said in the lessons that we teach people but I still can't talk to
them easily yet but eventually I'll be able to. Most of the Branch
members speak English as well as Spanish too so its all good, but I
like listening in on Spanish lessons.

Texas is quite the place! It has been around 77 degrees this whole
past week, I've heard that it is supposed to get cold though so it was
fun while it lasted. We play football on P-Days and tomorrow we have
Thanksgiving off because proselyting isn't fruitful on holidays so
we'll just be visiting members houses who have invited us over.
Yesterday I was on exchanges with a Zone Leader in the Odessa Ward. I
went to Odessa and he came here to Midland. I like Midland more
though, my companions are cool I am used to how they teach and we get
along pretty well.

So at this one investigator's house we ate rattlesnake. It was very
weird! He had killed it in his backyard, he lives in a trailer. He
gave the skin to Elder Simmons and he put it on the binding for his
Spanish scriptures. The missionaries here have this cool thing where
they rebind their scriptures with a leather case. I am going to
combine my Portuguese Book of Mormon and Bible together and give them
a leather case because it looks cool and it would be nice to have.

This morning before we came to email, Elder Simmons was saying how my
hands smelled and all and that I should wash my hands, then I took a
drink from a cup and he said to wash it, turns out that he wanted me
to turn on the sink because he taped the gun attachment closed so then
I got soaked, it was pretty funny though.

When I was on exchanges with the ZL's, (Elder Yorgason is with them in
Odessa) we were tracting and then we came to this one house and they
said it was my turn so I knocked on the door and then 2 children
opened it and said "Come on in" and then I looked at my companions and
they were like "Okay, sweet" just really cool about it but you don't
do that normally so I was confused. I then asked if their parents were
home and they said "My grandma is, hold on" and so we were waiting and
then they told us to go into their grandma's room. Turns out it was a
members house. Missionary work is fun. It reminded me of God's Army
with the pranks they pulled on them.

We had a baptism last Saturday, Andrez, a 9 year old kid of a recent
convert/activated family. This weekend we have Obed scheduled for his
baptism, and the week after we have a mexican man named Jesus
scheduled. We're booked with baptisms and its exciting! I love
teaching people and seeing the changes that come into their lives when
they begin to receive the blessings from accepting the gospel.

On Monday we went and did service for a member of the ward, we helped
him empty a big trailer from brush from this yard he was cleaning and
so we were at that for 6 hours, and then because of the help we gave
him he bought us lunch at a place just like grand buffet called Taste
of China. It was very good food and they had a cool pond inside with
lots of koi fish.

I hope you all have a good thanksgiving, Christmas Lights are already
getting put up around here, I wonder if there will be anything like
that in Brasil for Christmas. Who is setting up lights at the house
this year or are you not going to have any set up? There are some
pretty decked out houses here, but no snow to finish the scenery.

Do you remember the Ramos family? They lived in Nashua, NH about 20
years ago, well that is what they said. They hadn't remembered when
they lived in Nashua for a while but they are members. Brother Ramos
was the High Priest group leader for a bit, and he is a doctor and
worked in Boston. I dunno, it was pretty cool though, very small
world.

Love you all and miss you, hope everything is going well, and that
you're enjoying the holiday season!

Love,
Elder Phillip Larsen

Elder Larsen with President and Sister Robinson


Elder Larsen and Elder Yorgason with President and Sister Robinson

Nov 18, 2010 - Texas Week 1 - Mission Week 10

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Subject: Texas!


Yeehaw Family! I'm in Midland Texas!

I have 20 minutes left on the computer so if you want to email me and
have me reply quickly do it! I have time :D

I got here on Monday around 4ish, we got into the airport, Elder
Yorgason and me and we met the Assistants to the President: Elder
Garling, and Elder Maughan. We got to spend time with President
Robison and we ate out at Blue Sky burgers. It was very good. Hmm, I
think I should probably talk about the days before and the flight to
Texas. We had a 2 hour layover in Dallas and we ate McDonalds there.
The fries were consistantly good, unlike the ones in the MTC. We then
took a little flight to Lubbock and the plane had propellers. It was
pretty fun, but we didn't get to talk to anyone on that flight. I was
sitting next to Elder Yorgason and I was very tired so I just slept
the entire 1 hour flight, or however long it was, but it was good. The
first flight I sat next to a Sister from Uruguay and I was able to
speak a little Portuguese to her, she spoke Spanish but could
understand me alright most of the time. It was nice to be able to talk
to people though, a big culture shock though. People do exist, not
just missionaries! :P

But back to arriving here: We took pictures in front of cotton fields
and that was pretty fun. The mission car we were in was a truck which
was kind of unexpected but it was nice, and their apartment was pretty
huge too. Texas is so different from Utah, no mountains whatsoever. It
is so flat here but it is very nice, pretty warm sometimes windy. We
went with them to the Mission home which is pretty sweet. Elder
Garling showed us the mission map and it is the biggest mission in the
USA. They have 130 missionaries here. So we met with President and
Sister Robison, took pictures, ate dinner, and then we went to the
Mission Office with the APs and then we were there till about
10:30ish. They are so busy! They do a lot of work and we got to the
apartment at about 11:00ish. They were preparing for a leadership
training meeting in Midland which is where Elder Yorgason and I were
for the past 2 days. We were with the Zone Leaders and District
leaders of the area and just being trained on different things for the
mission. It was nice but my favorite parts of the past 2 days have to
be when we started proselyting. I really feel like a missionary now.
In the MTC I was still set apart and a missionary, but we were all
missionaries so it didn't feel like it all the time.

My companions are Elder White and Elder Simmons. Elder White is the
district leader for our district. We are in a Spanish Branch! Their
apartment is really nice and they're very relaxed missionaries meaning
they don't really care what I eat and we hit it off pretty well. They
say I'm their son, and they are pretty young to be training me but its
pretty cool. Being in a trio is nice. On Tuesday, after the leadership
training meeting we went and started teaching. we had a dinner
appointment with a ward member who was recently reactivated and then
we went and picked up 2 members who are recent converts, Junior, and
Kevin and went on splits and taught Obed, a young man who is
investigating the Church. We were teaching him and a cool thing was
that his sister who wasn't taking the lessons was there and we invited
her to listen and she did! We were teaching the lesson The Gospel of
Jesus Christ, well the principles of that anyways and she participated
a lot. Elder Simmons asked me if I could share an experience that was
faith promoting to me and I thought for a bit and shared about
Stanford and that whole event. The spirit was really strong and then
Obed's sister got interested even more and so we're teaching her
tonight as well as Obed. She said the prayer at the end of the lesson
as well! It was very cool.

After we taught them we left and went to another investigator's house.
His name is David, and he is very cool too. All the people here that
we are teaching speak Spanish and English. I really like it a lot, it
is just so fun to be teaching finally! We got to David's house a
little late so we didn't get to teach him a full lesson but Elder
Simmon's did that trick with the lined paper, you know like with the
Cross and the word Life at the end. I remember some missionaries doing
that at our house before but I don't remember who. But he did that and
David really liked that. Part of the story Elder Simmons said during
the object lesson was about Temples and then we started talking about
temples and the great blessings that come from it. It was a nice
little chat. David and his Daughter were playing Wii sports when we
got there. He has a pet turtle, a few fish, and a shark.

We left after that and it was about 9:10 and then we went to the
Mission Leader's house where Elder White was. He went with the mission
leader and went teaching, and then we dropped off Kevin and Junior and
went to the apartment to plan and finish off the day.

Wednesday was similar to Tuesday, we went to the leadership training
meeting. For lunch there we ate at Chick-Fil-A I've never been there
before it was good though. we were going to get Icecream and President
asked who wanted ice cream and had a cone, he handed it to me and then
the machine broke. I felt a little bad, 3rd day in the mission field,
but they went and bought icecream at a nearby grocery store and gave
it to the rest of the Elders.

Going to the meetings was a very educational experience, I think it
may have been one of the reasons why the Lord wanted me to come here
to Texas.

Wednesday was great too!

So we finished with the leadership meeting and then we went to the
apartment for a second to go to get ready to proselyte and then we
went to a few houses to follow up on some investigators but they
weren't home so we went to this referral we got from the mission
president about a Brasilian lady who was friends with Dr.Ramos. Do you
remember the Ramos's? They lived in Nashua about 20 years ago near DW
College. Small world! and how cool is it that they hear about a
Brasilian lady who was interested in the church and then 2 Brasilian
elders come to Texas?!?! It was so awesome! We stayed at the Ramos's
house for a bit. The Brasilian lady wasn't there at the time, she is
in the national volleyball tournament and was playing a game away from
Texas. Brother Ramos taught us instead of us teaching him. It was just
over all an awesome experience. He said that Keyworth was his bishop
or something? I can't remember. He said he hadn't thought about Nashua
forever. He was the high priest group leader though.

We went to mutual afterwards to teach this one boy who is getting
baptized this Saturday. It was very neat to teach him and his
siblings. He has 3 brothers and a sister and while his mom and dad
were in Temple Prep class we taught them also the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Elder White was getting a little stressed out because they
were so rowdy but their rowdyness didn't even phase me and I didn't
even notice Elder White being a little stressed out but I just turned
to him and said "This is so cool!" He thought it was funny.
Elder Simmons relates with everybody and anybody. He played Wall ball
with the children as I was meeting different members of the Ward. We
set up tables in the Gym to get ready for a Thanksgiving party that is
on Friday and I cut my hand on a part of the table that was broken but
no biggy. They have pretty much all the same stuff they have at our
stake center. I showed the kids my rubix cube and solved it and let
them play with it. I think all that babysitting that I ended up doing
before my mission helped me a lot. The baby sitting at the church
during mutual and what not.

All the branch members that I've met are so cool and awesome. I really
love them all, they are so friendly and nice. It was very good to be
in a church building again, weird feeling at first but good.

Today we went to a funeral for a lady that Elder Simmon's gave a
blessing to a few days ago. Both Elder White and Elder Simmons knew
she was going to die after they gave it. The funeral service was short
and the attendance was small but the lady who died, her neighbors are
in the Branch and so they asked if we could come. I don't know what
religion the man that was conducting the service was but when he saw
us come in I guess he had a weird face when he saw us or something.
That is what my companions said. The scriptures he used were a little
weird, not from King James version and he didn't remember them all the
way but the service was good. One person sang the song that goes "I
pray you'll be our eyes" I don't remember the name... "Our Prayer" I
dunno. She is a member, and the song was really good. The service was
a lot different from Stanford's.

Before we went to the funeral I had Language study with Elder Yorgason
so we could work on our Portuguese. That went good. we weren't able to
do that for 3 days.

I have loved these past 3 days. It is so good to be in the field, I
just love it so much! I was a little homesick at first when I got to
Texas but once I got to meet my companions and get to know them I was
able to focus on the work and the reason why I am here.

If you didn't notice, our P-Days are on Thursday. We also get 1 hour
of email instead of 30 minutes so that is pretty flipping awesome!
I love it here a lot, it is so fun and cool and awesome to be serving
finally! This is the work of the Lord and we are blessed to be able to
participate in it. Hope to hear from you soon, Love you all very much,
and I am so happy to be serving finally.

Love,
Elder Phillip Larsen

Nov 12, 2010 - MTC Week 9 - Mission Week 9

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 7:59 PM
Subject: Last Pday in the MTC


Happy P-Day!

Sorry for emailing so late today, the schedule was different and today
has felt very rushed!

So it is the last week I have here in the MTC and today has really
flown by and I already forgot stuff to bring to say to you. Okay so
I'll try to remember as much as I can:

So I am going to Lubbok Texas, we leave at 5:00 am Monday Morning, and
then we leave for our flight to Dallas at 8ish? I think it might be
8:30. I meant to bring my travel plans when I emailed so I could let
you know all the information but alas I forgot... Sorry. We have a 2
hour layover in Dallas Texas so I can call you then mom and you can
talk to me then! I'll use my phone card, I don't really know how to
use it though. The layover is from 12:00ish to 2:30ish maybe? I don't
remember, it was something like 2 hours though and then I fly to
Lubbok Texas with Elder Yorgason. It is very weird thinking that in
less than a week we will be in the field teaching and proselyting with
real investigators! Wow!

I really liked the package I got from you! It was awesome, I really
enjoyed the pictures you sent and my district did as well. I also
liked the shirt, I wore that several times this past week. I got the
package on Monday.

We ate at the temple's cafeteria today and the food there was so good!
Quite a bit better in many regards to the food here but the food here
isn't bad, just that it is relatively the same stuff over and over
again, it was nice to have something different today for lunch. We had
5 different languages in the session we did today too. The Brasilian
Elders that we know from our building and from them teaching us were
there, and there was an Italian Elder, a German Elder, Spanish Sister,
and then there was also an Elder who spoke Arabic, although I do not
know what country he is from, but it was really neat to see them at
the temple.

I got to see Mike this week, and I got some pictures with him. Saw him
every once in a while and he also sang in Choir with us and guess who
came to the devotional this past Tuesday... Elder Bednar!!! It was
really good, and very uplifting and helped me understand stuff about
teaching Doctrine to people's objections and questions because the
Doctrine answers the "Why" Also this past fireside, the speaker was
Sheri Dew, so we had quite the spiritual feast this past week. The
song was nice too that we sang but I liked the one the week before
more.

Apparently, word on the street is there is a new Brasilian President
and I have heard 2 rumors about her. One, she hates Americans, and two
she loves Americans so depending on which one is true will determine
our visa situation. Hopefully the first. I did hear from our District
President that we should get our visas in the next month or by the end
of the month so we'll see what happens.

We all got our reassignments except for Elder Bitner. He had more
surgery this past week and he is really sad that he isn't going to be
able to leave with us. He was told he was going to get his
reassignment today but then they said he can't get it until he is
better and ready to serve. It has been really hard on him and us.
Elder Smith, Elder Harris, and Elder Sharp all got called to
Pocatella, Idaho, and Elder Sharp lives an hour away from that mission
too. Its quite funny, but they're excited to go there. Elder Woolsey
and Elder Billin are going to Spokane, Washington, and their mission
has parts of Canada in it. Elder Vanwagoner and Elder Jorgenson are
going to Balitmore, Maryland. That was very unexpected since all the
other elders in another district and us were all going Western
stateside. Elder Iverson is going to Mac Ellen, Texas, and Elder
Yorgason and I are going to Lubbock, Texas. Its very exciting and we
all leave at 5:00 am. 5 of us are also going to Dallas together on the
same flight which will be fun. I am not looking forward to having to
say goodbye to them all though, we're really close and I really have
enjoyed these past 9 weeks.

It'll be weird not getting Dearelders that often either, but I'll have
to get used to it, especially since I'll be in Brasil eventually.
Still doesn't feel like we'll be leaving this Monday. Time has really
flown by. The days are like weeks and the weeks are like days.
Yesterday we did a teaching exersize with Irmao Call and he said it
would be in English, it was pretty funny though because it took me a
second to realize they were teaching in English because it sounded
weird doing that. We have been teaching in Portuguese for so long that
it threw us off. I don't know if I'll be in a trio with Elder Yorgason
but we will have an hour of language study time. I hope I am ready and
prepared enough to be able to study on my own.

One minute left now, so I gotta get going. I love you all very much
and miss you. Pretty crazy, already been 2 months off of my mission
already just here in the MTC. It is really flying by... I am grateful
for this opportunity to serve the Lord and I know that Texas is where
he needs me now. "Don't you dare take the name of Texas in vain!"

Love,

Elder Phillip Larsen the 1st


One night we all got ninja hoods and took pictures. It came out a little blurry, but I like it.


We went trick or treating in our residence hall on October 30th. I was a ninja. Elder Smith has the mask. Elder Yorgason was Elder Woolsey. Elder Woolsey was a batman fan. Elder Sharp was a hobbit. Elder Billin had hobo teeth. Elder Bitner was an old man (after his surgery) We got donuts from a room we went to.


This is the Samuel H. Smith statue that is comemorating 1,000,000 total missionaries in the church. (And Elder Smith and me)


There is a map here with all the mission zones. That one is Teresina. Lubbock Texas is the big red on in the southern tip of America, err... the USA. Both big missions though!


Saw this on a missionary field sign. Had to get a picture.

Nov 5, 2010 - MTC Week 8 - Mission Week 8

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 2:32 PM
Subject: Week 8


Happy P-day Family!

This week has been quite awesome! (and I wrote up a list of things to
talk about too! huzzah!)

So on Sunday we got to sing in Sacrament Meeting and we sung Nearer My
God to Thee in Portuguese, so Mais Perto Quero Estar. It was very fun
and our Branch really enjoyed it and one of the counselors in the
Branch Presidency complimented one of the elders in our district a lot
on the musical number. The MTC president was also in our sacrament
meeting that week and we also got to go on a Temple walk again
finally! It was very fun. I really liked it and I got some pictures of
it. Unfortunately the picture people here have been having trouble
lately and were backed up so I am hoping to get the pictures later
today but we'll see what happens!

This past Tuesday I got sent down to the Travel Office with about 6
other elders from Brazilian Districts and we ended up applying online
through a website for our visas so I think it'll be a few weeks before
we hear anything more about visas to Brasil. We will be getting
reassignments next week or we'll be applying for them anyways. It is
actually pretty exciting! Those go through the 12 apostles and it'll
be cool to be able to serve somewhere stateside for a bit, I wonder
where I'd get sent.

Later on Tuesday for the devotional guess what! We heard from ANOTHER
apostle! It was awesome. We heard from M. Russell Ballard, and he
talked about being master communicators and being completely confident
in our knowledge of the Gospel so we could teach well. Rumor has it
that we are hearing from another Apostle this upcoming week and
possibly another after that. Heard that we were hearing from 4 in a
row or 5 so we'll figure it out. We also sang in choir again for this
devotional and the song was awesome. Look it up when you get the
chance, it is "Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer"

On Wednesday I got to be a host missionary for the missionaries coming
in this week, unfortunately I didn't get to be the host for Mike, but
I did get to see him once. I don't know what building he is in, or
what schedule he has and I really want to talk to him some and get
pictures with him as well. I saw him before he went into a meeting
that new missionaries have but it was great to be able to see him
again. Kind of felt like Alma when I saw him and he was an elder as
well. I look forward to coming back and being able to see everyone
again and know that they are still strong in the gospel as well!

I have been working on a parody on "Make a Man out of You" because we
sing a lot of disney so we were making it more appropriate to
missionary stuff. Here is the stuff that is good so far:

Lets get down to business, to defeat, Satan!
Bring the world the Gospel, and baptize all men!
We prepare each day to serve our Lord,
So pack up, we're on our way!
We will go, serve our God, every day!

I don't know, just something fun I have been working on every once in
a while this past week.

Lately I started reading in the New Testament. It is awesome, I really
love reading it! I am in Mark now, read Matthew. I just love reading
about the savior's ministry here on Earth. I also like watching the
movies that the church has produced about Jesus Christ. Have you been
able to see the Joseph Smith movie I was talking about yet? It is a
really good one. Also, the Testaments is a good movie too. We go to
see the "Big" movies every week and it switches off between Joseph
Smith Prophet of the Restoration to Testaments, back to Joseph Smith,
then Legacy. I really like the church produced movies.

Go to LDS.org sometime and watch the mormon messages there. They are
very good! I think we've watched most of them. Also, did you hear
about the project the church is doing now? They are filming a movie on
the New Testament. There is also information there on LDS.org about
that. They also have a little video on the Good Samaritan which was
nice to watch and see a sort of preview on what it will be like.

This week we were doing an English fast to increase in our Portuguese
skills, but it is very hard to do that and we're kind of failing at
speaking it all the time but we are definitely getting better.

Thank you so much for the Halloween Care Package! I didn't expect it
and it was awesome to get it! More candy :D

Nanowrimo this month Mom, Heather, Julia, and Rachel! Are you doing
well with the word count? I sure as heck fire ain't :P I have had some
inspirational ideas though during gym time or what not. I wrote them
down. It is in a steam punk world, like purely steam punk. I got the
idea when I was playing volleyball and someone spiked the ball. Vernon
Cannonhand, a steam punk pirate! OoOoOo It'll be fun to write about it
when I get back. Just keeping notes on it now and what not. How are
your stories coming though? It is an exciting time and its pretty
amazing that it has already been a year from last time! I was working
for UPS last year O_o

Did you hear anything about the stake centers in Utah being burned? I
heard something about that from Ammon, the guy who directs our service
on Wednesday mornings. He said it was because of the talk on You can't
change laws of Nature and that made a lot of people angry, but it is
from an apostle of the Lord... Sad that the world has to be so
corrupted... But is that true about the stake centers? I don't think
they burned down but they were damaged to some degree.

I love seeing so many foreign elders and sisters here. At the fireside
last Sunday I had a chat with a German elder and it was cool. I've
talked with several Elders from Britain, and a Sister from Hungary. An
Elder from Mexico, and we have been talking a lot with some Elders
from Brasil. One elder, Elder Viera De Sousa is going to the Boston
mission with english speaking, so if you ever see him soon let me
know! It has been cool being able to talk to him in class.

They are still setting up Christmas lights here at the MTC, most of
the trees in this section are covered and it is quite impressive when
we get to see the few that are on but they won't be turning them all
on anytime soon which is a bit annoying! Oh well.

A bird got into the cafeteria here as well, just a random tangeant,
and people were trying to catch it. I still don't think that they have
got it out of the MTC, who knows. The birds here are quite stupid too,
they walk right up to you. I went, pretending to grab one of the birds
here and instead of it flying away, it just crouched down right
underneath my hand. It was unexpected.

Well I am now at 5 minutes left and the timer has started to blink.

I love you all lots and love hearing from you and how you are all
doing. I miss you back home but I am excited to be able to go to the
field soon and preach the gospel!

Love you, hope to hear from you soon!

Love,
Elder Phillip Edward Larsen the first :P