Mar 28, 2011 - Teresina Brasil Week 3 - Mission Week 29

Querido Familia,

This week has been quite the eventful one. I have my trainer, Elder Magalhães, a Brasilian missionary who is a transfer younger than me. I always thought that would be funny if my "Mission father" was younger than me, and turns out he is! He is an awesome missionary though and I am glad I have the opportunity to serve with him. We are serving in an area, Uruguaí, in Teresina. Last week the ward split so now there are 2 wards meeting in the chapel here. The members are awesome, however I don't really know the ward yet because of some events that happened this week.

I am going to try to put this in the best way possible, and to reassure you right now I am doing fine, and a lot better.

Last Thursday, I had an allergic reaction, probably to a bug that made my legs get terrible rashes. Throughout the day it got more and more difficult to walk and we called Sister Dias. On Friday I went to the Hospital to get the condition I had checked out by a doctor, and he said it was an allergic reaction and gave me several prescriptions for medicine to help me get better. After that check up, I had an experience that was highly undesired and unusual. A shot in my backside that was not at all pleasant. I stayed at the Secretaries house for a night which was really hard to sleep, and then President Dias came by the following morning, got me another medicine, and then Sister Dias came and cleaned my left foot. The past few days I have been spending at the Dias's home, and it has been an incredible blessing to be able to get to know their family more. I have had great opportunities to speak Português and I can tell some improvement in my language skills with that. This has just been a rare experience though I feel, and I am incredibly grateful that I have been able to have it. Some questions that I have had during these past few days is "What has got wanted me to learn from this experience, and why has he given me this opportunity." One thing that President Dias said on Sunday when we were on the way to Church was that it is amazing how the spirit works. Elder Yorgason, and Elder Thiessen, (another missionary who was waiting for his visa) both got transfered to a place 14 hours away, yet I remained here in Teresina. The Lord knew that this was going to happen to me, and President Dias felt inspired to keep me here in the city. I am incredibly grateful for inspiration and this experience has strengthed my testimony.

I am doing well, a lot better than Thursday. I still have healing to do but I have enjoyed the time that I have been given to learn and I, being in this mindset have noticed many things that I have learned.

I don't want you to worry too much, I am doing much better than before, and I have been taken care of. I am so grateful for President Dias, and Sister Dias, and their hospitality and love that they have had for me. I have learned so many things that I would not have been able to learn had I not had this experience. Thank you so much Mom and Dad for raising us in the Gospel. Thank you for having us pray every meal, eat together, read the scriptures together, and raise us with good spiritual habits. The Dias family prays together and reads the scriptures together, and I have been able to participate with their family in all of these activities.

I am excited for General Conference this weekend and to hear from the general authorities of the church. The Prophet and the Apostles, special witnesses of Jesus Christ. I have been able to watch several documentaries while here at the Dias's house about the presidents of the church and I have learned an incredible amount.

Brasil is amazing, I love it here and I am glad to be able to serve the Lord. This church is God's Church. It was restored by a Prophet of God. Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. Prayer is important, and so is daily scripture study. This is a great and marvelous work, and I know that it is led by God.

I love you all very much and love hearing from you. You're in my prayers, and I thank you for your prayers for me.

Love,

Elder Phillip Edward Larsen

P.S. Remember when sending packages to have pictures of Jesus on it. Also, mail here is ridiculous. Elder Wheat sent a package that cost R$120.00 Each letter also costs R$2.00 So I'll figure out how to budget that better and everything. No pictures again this week but I'll try as best as I can. Love you!

Mar 21, 2011 - Teresina Brasil Week 2 - Mission Week 28

Querido Familia,

Boy has this past week been interesting in many ways...

So some interesting things I´ve seen lately: On motorcycles, I saw 3 people with a flat screen HD Television in the box driving down the road. People manage to transport stuff like that all the time. Almost every day I´ll see something weird on a motorcycle. Also I´ve seen some people with 3 and a baby on a motorcycle which is a little scary to think about.

Serving with the APs this past week has had its ups and downs... This whole week has had its ups and downs really. So the reason why we have been with the APs this past week is because transfers never happened because the mission was toured by Elder Godoy of the Seventy. He spoke at conference last. I needed someone to translate for me because the conference we had in Teresina was in Português and I am nowhere near fluent. After the conference he interviewed Elder Yorgason because we are the newest missionaries not native to Brasil that have entered the field. I also saw Elder Iverson, one of the Elders in my MTC district on Thursday. He has been here since January.

Serving with the APs though, I never really get to know what we´re doing until it happens. I just hate this feeling of not being able to know anything and also not knowing where I´m going to be going. Still haven´t found out where I am going for my first area. Something tells me that I´ll be staying with the APs for another week too, they won´t let us know about transfers.

I have learned many many times that I need to rely on the Lord to help me. This past week has been very difficult, specifically with the language. I haven´t been able to participate in lessons nearly as much as I would in Texas and that is really annoying to me about myself. I felt like I was improving but then lately I´ve felt like I can´t even understand people that easily. I was told to talk slower because someone couldn´t understand me, but I was thinking the same thing about them. The language here is quite different from how my MTC teachers spoke, and also how Curtis Brown spoke. I´m hoping that I´ll see improvement soon though. Its disconcerting not being able to communicate when what I am supposed to do is talk to people.

This is very hard though, although while typing this email, I have had some Português grammar with English which is a little comforting. I just don´t see how I´ll get improvement anytime soon but I guess that is how everyone felt.

To answer your questions mom, I have not done the actual baptizing. But I participated in the teaching and in the program in other ways. Missionaries here seem to be a little more laidback, as in they don´t number crunch as much and they still work hard. Also we have 6 missionaries living in our apartment with the APs and we don´t really get distracted as much as the missionaries in Texas would, which I find is strange. Thanks for the brief genealogy too! That was cool! I do laundry at the house here, we have a washing machine thing, not exactly a normal washing machine, then we hang up our clothes to dry. The iron gets a lot of use here on white shirts and pants. I eat a lot of beans and rice, and fruit. I have drunk a lot of juice here, and I have eaten a lot of meat as well. We eat a lot of bread here too. There are bakeries everywhere. Padaria´s are what they are called I think. We do our email at Lan Houses. There are a lot of Lan houses here in the city.

I have been trying to get a lot of pictures of Brasil, but I have no way of sending them as of right now but I´ll figure it out though. Its pretty incredible here though.

Animals I´ve seen in Brasil so far, Vultures, Lizards, Horses, Roosters and Chickens, and last night I saw an Owl which was really cool. There are a lot of bugs in Brasil too. Fun fun! Giant spiders at the church in a bush, Elder Wheat showed me those, and he fed one of them an ant.

We ride a lot of buses here which is fun. To get the bus to stop at a place you have to do something similar to Harry Potter which is funny I think.

Everyone here has walls around their houses, or a lot of the houses in the more populated areas of the city anyways. The tops of the walls are lined with spikes, or broken glass, and every street has at least one house with an electric fence. Home Security is your own responsibility here.

This past week I have been asked why I have blue eyes, and then some people in a bakery asked me where I was from because I have blue eyes. The first question was funny. ´´why do you have blue eyes?´´

This week has been a bit hard but I hope next week will feel easier. Mail stuff to the mission home, I don´t even know my address here. I´ll get the mail that you send when I see the Office Elders. Also, if you could mail some things: More pen refills for zebra f-301 pen, or just more of those pens. Can´t get anything like that here in Brasil. Some more American Candy, and pictures of friends. Thanks!

The people here in Brasil are ready to hear the Gospel. This is a special place for missionary work. I was told that the goal for baptisms per month is 120, and the standard of excellence for each missionary is 4 per month. I guess this is fulfilling prophecies in the Book of Mormon. Its amazing to see that happening now.

I love you guys, and love hearing from you. Thank you for your uplifting words and prayers. I know that this church is true. This really is the church that Jesus Christ established while he was on the Earth, and through the Prophets he leads the church today. Joseph Smith truly saw God, our Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. I am so grateful to have knowledge of the Plan of Salvation.

I hope you have a good week. Happy Birthday Dad! Love you all,

Love

Elder Phillip Larsen

Mar 3, 2011 - Hobbs New Mexico Week 9 - Mission Week 25

Querido Familia,

So this week has been pretty interesting, and I am a little sad too... I'll expound on that later though... First off I need to say stuff that I have written down.

One of the bishopric members here dad served in the Toulouse, France mission, well it had the city in it. I guess the boundaries have changed since you served?

I have taught some people the missionary handshake that the missionaries at home taught us, so I am carrying on that tradition.

We are teaching a British Lady named Lesley. She is from Liverpool, and they are actually moving back there this May which is a shame. She doesn't want to go. Its been nice to be able to talk to someone with a thick British Accent. She's hilarious too.

What qualities did you see in missionaries that came to our ward? I want to be a missionary just as good as them, was just curious as to what really made missionaries like Elder De Oliveira, Elder Householder, Elder Onken, Elder Koerper, Elder Branch Elder Mataele, all of them. What made them really good missionaries?

I have also been thinking about Stanford lately, and January 23rd, and just was curious as to what other people remember from that whole experience. During personal study a couple of days ago I took the time to write down that experience and how it strengthed my testimony in the restored gospel. (A Preach my Gospel activity) It was quite the recollection of events and I am surprised at how much detail I remember from that experience, but at the same time I am not surprised.

Last Sunday was really windy with winds of 65+ mph. During Sacrament meeting, more than 104 tumble weed blew past the window... Yes I counted... O_o

Also Mom and Dad, I was curious as to what led you to move to New Hampshire.

So on to the rest of the email now.

Happy Birthday Brad!!! I hope you enjoy the card I sent you. :P I thought it was funny.

So we had a moving day this past week, and I think I have made a mistake in staying at the house. Before, every time I was transferred from an area, I didn't have a choice I had to move and then this one time that I do have a choice in the matter I still moved... It is different situation here in Hobbs since the Spanish Branch is dependent, but I feel like I need to remain in English for several people specifically. The Rodriguez family, the Ponders, the Prietos... I am going to see if I can still switch back so I can remain there but I am a little nervous as to what Elder Kenyon and Elder Olvera will think.... I really love the area.

I really hope my Visa comes soon. I have been praying for it, and I know that there have been mission wide fasts going on in Brasil for Visas. It could potentially come any day! Thank you Mom for including that in your fast this Sunday. Hopefully it'll come today or next week.

I'm so pumped for General Conference!!! I'm extremely excited for it! Its going to be awesome!

We're having a baptism tonight! Sara Powell will finally be baptized! It'll be awesome. I'm giving a talk on the Holy Ghost. She has such a strong testimony in the priesthood and in the restored church and the Book of Mormon. Seeing her faith and testimony has been a great experience, and I am glad that I have had the opportunity to be a part of her conversion.

Israel Perez, Sister Rodriguez's husband, is another person we are hoping to be able to baptise soon. Their family loves us. We are extremely great friends and they love having us over. I am so glad that they started coming to church as well, and I hope they continue to come even after we all leave Hobbs. I'm going to have to visit Hobbs after my mission, there are so many amazing people here.

Love you all very much and I am so glad to be able to serve the Lord as a missionary. This is a great and marvelous work, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Missionary work is a blessing to be a part of.

I hope everything is going well with y'all (heheh) back at home. Maybe my visa will come soon and I'll be able to call you then! Hopefully!

Love you,

Love Elder Phillip Larsen

P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures this time... I'll send some next week!