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
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