Elder Phillip Larsen: Dec 8, 2010 - Texas Week 4

From: Phillip Larsen
phillip.larsen@myldsmail.net
Date: Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Subject: Texas Week 4

Howdy Y'all!

It was great to have a lot to read when I got on the computer today!

So I forgot to write up a thing for what I wanted to say this week but
I'll write what I can remember, and I'll try to answer your questions.

Elder Simmons cut my hair, well more buzzed it... hahaha it has grown
out more though and I think it looks allright. We go to the Midland
City Library to do emails, and both districts in Midland come so
that's pretty fun, and then after that we go play football which I
have come to like to play. Its fun playing with a bunch of
missionaries!

Tomorrow is the Christmas Zone conference and it is more of a "let's
not have the missionaries be homesick" kind of conference so we're
doing a lot of Christmas stuff I guess. (Music etc.) I don't really
know what to expect.

That's great to hear that you got the lights up this year dad! We've
seen a lot of lights lately and there are a bunch of cool spots with
lights here. There was a house with lights going to music. I filmed it
for a couple of songs while we were on the way back to the apartment.
(This was when I was on splits yesterday biking) It is nice to see the
different houses though. Christmas time is so nice, and we also have
some Christmas music that we listen to while driving around.

Yesterday I went on splits with another Elder and he is in a bike
mission so we were riding bikes the whole day. Boy was my rear sore
after that and not riding for several months. Also riding in a suit is
terrible and with a big backpack but it was awesome because you get to
talk to so many people while doing that. The bike I was on also was
breaking down as I rode it. If I peddled too fast when trying to get
out of the busy roads that we had to cross to get to our area, the
gears would skip and also the back rear tire was getting flat all the
time because it has a leak but we just kept pumping it back up after
lessons and tracting in an area, it was quite fun. We also went "Trick
or Treating" where you go tracting at night. Kind of ironic how it is
now Christmas time, but some houses here still have Halloween
decorations up so I guess it is Decemberween! We taught a lot of
people and found hopefully a couple of potential investigators. We
also witnessed a car jacking, but when we were biking by that house
again we saw the car back in their yard so all is well.

While tracting yesterday we went to this one house and a lady opened
up the door and her children were there. We were talking a little with
her about the Gospel and then she mentioned that her Husband recently
passed away and that her sister did as well. She already goes to
another Church but allowed us to talk to her about our message that we
have and I felt love for their family and I mentioned about Stanford.
I have talked to a few investigators about that while teaching the
plan of salvation. The gospel is true and when people find that out we
can see the change that it brings in their lives.

I wasn't too sure if DearElder worked outside of the MTC, I got
Rachel's DearElder. Also Elder Simmons made the comment that he forgot
why he didn't like being with greenies because this past week I've
been getting mail quite often. He also has the habit of when I walk
out of the bathroom sometimes he'll tackle me, did it about 6 times so
far but I've got him back 3 times. We do some pranks but not too much.

Last week we went to Ross's. Is there a Ross's in NH? It is like a
salvation army but with brand new stuff. We got some nice cleats for
football for $15, so we use those when playing. I don't know what I'll
do with them when I go to Brasil though... Already past the weight
limit as it is.

The Nativity exhibit happened this past week and unfortunately the
members of the stake that were putting it on would boss us around like
we had nothing to do. Kind of felt really lazy with that and Elder
Simmons being sick this past weekend but everything worked out and we
still were pretty effective. I did take a lot of pictures though so
I'll email that to you guys. There were a lot of really cool
Nativities!

Cool thing that I read last night was the King Fallot Discourse. I
don't know if you have read it or not but it was something that Joseph
Smith talked about at a funeral of this one guy. It is some pretty
deep doctrine but it is amazing and really cool!

For Thanksgiving we ate Turkey, and yams. These cookies that the
member made were with Ritz crackers covered in chocolate with frosting
in the middle I think. They were really good! We also had rice, and
bean casserole. No corn or mashed potatoes though :( It was still
delicious. The members are really nice too. We'll be teaching them
tonight, well their kids while the parents take temple prep classes.
We also play games with them which is really fun.

Transfers are coming up soon, it's a bit weird. I don't really know
what is going to happen with them but we'll find out in a week. Also
is there any way you can check on progress for visas online? I don't
want to do that but one elder in my district at the MTC said that his
parents did that for him. I had to fill out an online form, but yeah
was just wondering if there was any way to check up on that. Elder
Yorgason is still here in Texas as well but I don't know anything
about the other Elders or what the situation is.

Spanish is not really coming along for the speaking part, but I am
able to understand a lot of what people say as long as I concentrate
on the topic of conversation. The Mexican investigators and members
though are so friendly and very cool to be around. We even got invited
to Kevin's ( a recent convert) sister's husband's surprise birthday
party. It was funny, like 20 members of their extended family and then
3 white missionaries, but we're pretty close to that family so I guess
that is why we were invited haha

This past week has been pretty hot. Last thursday was about 80 degrees
outside and it was really hot while playing football (american) to
answer your question Heather. I have only played Football (soccer)
with the Flores' children a couple weeks ago in the gym but I know
I'll be playing a lot of it in Brasil. Today it is about 60 degrees
outside.

I've been hearing a lot of different Texan speak here, "Y'all", and
"I've been fixin to ...(Leave, make a phone call, etc)" I don't think
I'll be picking up any of the accent though.

We met this one family, and the one person who is actually interested
is their son Daniel. After we taught him he ran up to us while we were
walking to our car outside and handed Elder Simmons $15 dollars and
said we should go eat out or something. We declined the offer a couple
of times and then finally Daniel said that "in our religion we believe
that when you don't accept a gift you deny the blessing" and so we
reluctantly took his offer. We're going to go teach him tomorrow, and
we also have a dinner appointment with a family whose son just got his
mission call to Mexico.

Well that's all for now I think. I hope I answered the questions that
you had, and if not I'll answer more next week.

Love you,
Love Elder Phillip Larsen

The first picture is a nativity that Brother Alcocer carved, I liked
it a lot.