Feb 24, 2011 - Hobbs New Mexico Week 8 - Mission Week 24

Querdio Familia,

This week has been pretty great too. Missionary service has been going well, although we have still been having slow days with a lot of finding that appears to be unfruitful. But we are trying to find more people to teach.

Yesterday we went on exchanges with the Spanish Elders, Elder Olvera, Elder Miller, and I went in Spanish's area, and Elder Kenyon and Elder Walker went to English's area. It was a good experience, however, we knocked on a door with a lady from the Church of Christ who really only wanted to bash with us. We would listen to her when she would speak, but then when we tried to speak she would interrupt us and start getting angry... It was rather funny after the whole thing ended, but it got me rather mad at how closed she was and how deaf she was to what we were saying. Needless to say, she is not ready to hear the gospel yet in her life but it is sad to know that she rejected it when we were giving it to her. I have often read about Alma, or Ammon, and other missionaries in the Book of Mormon that were rejected by a city and how they were distraught and angered but were comforted by the Lord that they had been doing their job and the agency of those they teach was the reason they didn't listen.

We cleaned our apartment! Well the living room. At Zone Conference, President Robison was talking about how we need to get rid of our couches and comfy chairs because they are a distraction in the apartment. So we did! Now our apartment is Hobbs HQ and it looks awesome! We have a glass table with a map of Hobbs in the glass so during planning and stuf we can see it.

This week has had several similar days where we have gone looking for hours so there haven't been too many new things happening. We got chased by 4 gigantic dogs while we were on our bikes. It was awesome! We were riding down the street, Elder Miller and Elder Walker, were on one side, and I was on the other side because I had just turned or something, well I see 4 dogs and Elders Miller and Walker rode past them and then the dogs started barking and chasing them. I sped up and past them and we were riding towards the Rodriguez's. It was really funny because it was like the stuff you hear about or see in the movies about missionary work. None of us got bit and we are all okay.

I have been getting better at journal writing since being on my mission. I need to work on working out in the morning, I have gained a tad bit of weight and it is really bothering me! O_o I'm such a baby, but I don't want my metabolism to slow down... haha... but I have been working on exersizing more regularly in the morning.

Well I'm doing great here in Hobbs. Transfers are coming up in a few weeks. I hope my visa comes before then though. I'm getting a little anxious, I know I'm still serving the Lord, but I really want to go where I was called to serve. Elder Olvera has a sweet version of Praise to the Man which has become one of my favorite songs, it is a very majestic rendition by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Sorry, this email is shorter than the other ones.

I love you all and love hearing from you every week. The weeks fly by, its pretty crazy! The work is amazing, and bringing other people closer to Christ is a blessing and a privilege.

Love,

Elder Phillip Larsen

Pictures:

First one, Katamari Tree! The Prince is in Hobbs!

Second one, cleaned Living Room!

Third One, Aliens in Roswell! Oh noes!

Feb 17, 2011 - Hobbs New Mexico Week 7 - Mission Week 23

Wow! I have been in an area for an entire Transfer Finally!!! Yahoo!

Woah, the time flies! I'm already 5 months through...

Querido Familia,

Thanks for all the emails and thank you so much for the package! I read the article about visas and that was nice to be able to know what more was going on, and the candy was very much enjoyed and the tie is awesome! I have quite the collection of ties now.. I left with how many? Like 10ish? I have about 18, maybe more. I'll have to count sometime. And the Thermal clothes did bring the warm weather. Yesterday it was 86 degrees out, and today it is supposed to be hot too. The whole week is supposed to be over 70 degrees so we don't have to wear our coats while working which is nice.

We're still riding our bikes. On Tuesday my bike chain just fell apart when we first started to work. Luckily the Zone Leaders were here on splits with us and I was able to use Elder White's bike while he was with the Spanish Elders here in Hobbs in Lovington. Elder White (My mission father), and Elder Densley, come on splits with us in Hobbs. It is quite the drive from Roswell too, 2 hours!

We had zone conference on Friday, and that was really good. I got to meet the zone, and finally saw Elder White for the first time since serving with him in Midland, and we got good instruction. I enjoy learning how to become a better missionary, and how to better apply the things I learn in my teaching.

On the way back from Roswell, our car had a phantom flat. It was kind of weird. We were going down a highway and then all of a sudden it sounded like we had a flat. Not only sounded, but felt like it too. We were pulled over for about 15 minutes trying to figure out what had happened. There wasn't a flat. There wasn't anything visibly wrong that we could see. There wasn't any outer damage to the car and we didn't know what happened, but whatever it was, it stopped us from being in a place at a certain time. We'll probably never know. It was quite the adventure though going to Roswell (Alien Town!)

An awesome thing happened this weekend at Church. The Rodriguez family, the ones who are inactive and we haven't been able to get come to church, came! We were greeting people in the hallway and then I saw Sam, their 10 year old son waving at us from the other end of the hallway. Then I saw their two daughters Abby and Emily, and Priscilla. Israel was working so he couldn't go, but we'll be working with him. Turns out he has not been baptized and we had some misunderstanding going on when they said their kids were baptized December of 2009. We thought they said Israel was also baptized, but... well... you know what thought did. :D

They came to church though, all 3 hours, and it was great! I really enjoyed being able to see them there! We had dinner at their house that night too and it was a much more different environment since they came to church.

The work has been going slowly this week. We haven't been able to teach too many people and have spent a lot of time looking for people to teach, knocking doors and talking to people that are outside. It is rather annoying because we aren't having too much luck. We have some potential people we'll be teaching, but it is never a convenient time to teach them right when we meet them.

I got an email from President Dias, of the Brasil Teresina Mission. I could mostly read it too without assistance! I hope my visa comes soon though because I will greatly increase in my language skills then and it will be nice to serve where I got called to serve!

To answer your question Mom about visas coming to missionaries in the TLM, only a sister going to Spain has received hers. We have four of us waiting for Brasilian visas. Hopefully they'll come soon!

Also, I am in a tripanionship with Elder Miller and Elder Walker. I am the youngest in "mission age" in Hobbs, 3 months in the field, and 5 months overall. Elder Olvera is the youngest when it comes to total mission age, but he went straight to the mission.

Well this past week overall hasn't been too eventful. I'll talk to you next week. Sorry about the shorter email!

Hopefully I'll get my visa this week.

I love you all very much and I appreciate the support you give me while serving the Lord! I know that the gospel is true and that this church is Christ's church restored on the Earth again. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and Thomas S. Monson is the prophet on the Earth today.

Love,

Elder Phillip Larsen

Feb 10, 2011 - Hobbs New Mexico Week 6 - Mission Week 22

Querido Familia,

I can never remember the number of weeks I've been here off hand.

This week has been pretty good, better than last weeks weather for sure. Took some getting used to doing missionary work again, well having a busy schedule. Those days off were unusual.

Zone Conference is this week in Roswell. It was going to be yesterday but because of potential bad weather, it got postponed to tomorrow (Friday the 11th)

The weather has been pretty cold here though. I was with Elder Kenyon and Elder Olvera in Lovington on Tuesday. (Lovington is like a suburb of Hobbs) When we were there, the wind really picked up and it got very very cold. The wind chill was awful. It has been quite the adventure though. Wednesday, yesterday, was pretty cold too and we didn't get to complete too much work which stunk, but we got to watch the Testaments with the Rodriquez's. That was cool. Still trying to figure out how to reactivate them. It's hard to talk about the gospel when we're there. The mom isn't too open to talking we think, even though she's been a member for her whole life. The rest of the family was baptized only a year ago, but God let us find them so we will figure it out. We just need to rely on him.

Sara's baptism was postponed to this Saturday (12th) and we're hoping that everything will all work out. She got pneumonia this week though and we haven't been able to teach her since Monday. She really has a desire to be baptized and have her son Jacob be baptized as well.

President Robison has been wanting the Hobbs house to have one of the companionships to move out so that we can be more focused. Right now 5 of us live there, and it is understandable why President wants us to move out, but it stinks. I don't know what is going to happen about all this because they found an apartment in the area, but I don't know who is moving out. We'll find out eventually. I might end up switching areas to Spanish/English for the time being... I don't know.

We had Stake Conference this last Sunday and it was really cool. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake City, and we heard from Thomas S. Monson, Elder Jensen of the Seventy, Elder Ballard, and Thomas S. Monson's daughter (Ann Dibb). After the broadcast I had the opportunity to be in the circle for Joe Ponder's ordination to the Melchezideck priesthood. I didn't know that that was happening, but it was really exciting. Also what added even more to my excitement that Sunday was that the entire Prieto family, except their oldest son who isn't a member, was at church on Sunday! Keith finally was able to get off of work and it was so cool to see them.

We also had some really awesome lessons on Sunday with those that we were teaching as well. It was a very cool day.

We had some house trouble this past week. Heh funny story actually: We went to do email and our pipes at home were frozen and so we had it on so that it would thaw out. Well, we didn't know that our drains were frozen as well. When we got back from emailing, the kitchen and nearby bathroom were covered in water and we had a waterfall coming out of our sink! Then the next day outside we had a pipe burst and had to get water shut off. Then a member came out and did the plumbing job. It was an easy fix which was convenient and we haven't had trouble since. We had to borrow Milla's shopvac to clean up the water though.

Mom, I guess even if I ask this I'll find out soon enough but did you send something last week then? Or did you wait and send it today instead? Just wondering, here in Hobbs we've been having a mail famine :/ I also thought your comment that dad emailed me about the gym was funny. "It's like a playground for adults, just without the bullies!" I'm glad you're enjoying doing that. I am not the best with keeping up with morning exersizes. I ride a bike though so that counts right? I am eating better too. I have been working on my stirfry skills and I've been experimenting with various foods too and making dishes with what I had. I've been staying healthy though so don't you worry! Milla takes care of us too.

Love you all, and thanks for all the emails! I miss you but I'm glad to be able to serve God in this noble work of bringing salvation to his children. Have a good week and I'll hear from you soon!

Love,

Elder Phillip Larsen

Milla and her dog

Feb 3, 2011 - Hobbs New Mexico Week 5 - Mission Week 21

Well since Ricky (Phillip's cousin serving in a mission in Brazil) said he doesn't have time to read books, I'll write a short summary that people can read, then I'll write a longer section as well.

So this week has been pretty... uneventful, yet very eventful. We set a baptismal date with a lady named Sara Powell, she also had us start teaching her son which was really cool. It is so exciting to have people you are teaching, and people with a baptismal date. Unfortunately we'll have to reschedule her baptismal date because this past Monday we started getting... SNOW! So we have been parked Tuesday, Wednesday, and today (Thursday) is P-Day. We haven't been able to teach her all the lessons and she was going to be baptized on Saturday. The weather has been pretty crazy though. Last night was -5 and the night before -2. During the day with the windchill it was -15 outside so we have been staying at Milla, our land lady's house. She has been enjoying the company. I didn't think I'd be seeing snow in Hobbs New Mexico. It has been really awesome to see snow though.

-Elder Phillip Larsen

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Okay, so here is the long version. :P

This last Monday before the storm started, I went on splits with the Spanish elders. We biked a total of 18 miles, I was a little tired because I realized that we go a lot less miles in our area than they do in theirs, we also went to the middle of nowhere, which had a few streets with a house on each one. Haha. The countryside is kind of weird!

We met someone to teach though out there and had a first lesson with her. She spoke only spanish though, and me with my small vocabulary of Portuguese could understand the conversation but I couldn't contribute at all. It's a little intimidating to see little children speak a language that sounds like the language I am trying to speak. The person we were teaching had a little daughter who would say stuff in Spanish to us. Being with the Spanish Elders reminded me of my first area with Elder White and Elder Simmons. Funny thing too, Elder White is now my Zone Leader because I'm in the Roswell Zone.

So like the short summary has been, we have a lot of snow... Well not a lot of snow for New England, but we're getting a lot of snow for New Mexico. I wonder if the Wilsons (in Albuquerque) have been getting this too... Perhaps. We have got about 6 inches maybe? We don't have a reliable way to find out the weather. We use this number called Tellme and it says the "Weather" for the area or whatever city we want. When we would check the past few days it would say "Clear, and it's 54 degrees with no wind." we would then go outside and know what the weather really was. We're supposed to get another storm next week too.

We've been going to Milla's house the past few days and we listened to some German folk music. The wind and the temperature are what is dangerous for us since I'm in a biking area and the Spanish Elders have a car. It was cold even to be standing outside, let alone going 10-15 mph on a bike. Not a smart idea!

So overall it hasn't been too eventful. Just staying warm. Don't worry Mom, we're warm enough at night despite the dangerous temperatures. I got 2 fleece blankets since entering the TLM and have been using those, and a comforter as well, with a scarf wrapped around my feet, a sweat shirt, long sleeved shirt as well so we're good.

Sorry. This one is a shorter email too. Nothing really to write about. I got pictures though! So I hope you enjoy those.

Love you very much, hope you're staying warm, I'm trying. Miss you, love hearing from you. You're in my prayers.

-Elder Phillip Larsen

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Picture Information:

001, Hobbs New Mexico Sign. They have one at each of the four entrances to the city.

002, In the Jehovah's Witnesses New World Translation of the Bible, they talk about slimy juices of marshmallow! Hmmm, I didn't know that is what the scripture meant! :P

003, We exited a member's house we were staying at and that is what we found so we got a ride back and its been doing that ever since.

004, The Hobbs house.

005, Our street. Snow!

006, Decepticons in Hobbs! There are Aliens in New Mexico!!! O_o

007, Self explanatory. Thought it was funny. Excuse my crude humor.

008, Hobbs District, pre-Elder Walker