Salzburg is beautiful, I hate smoking.
Hey Mom!
I can't believe Federer won ANOTHER grand slam! And I can't believe Nadal was there too!! He's been out for so long. Sounds awesome! I'll be sure to give him a high five when I'm over in Switzerland, when I knock on his mansion door.
Anyway, I'm doing great!! Everything is progressing nicely, and we have some big plans for this next transfer. We got transfer calls and it looks like I'll be able to stay here to finish training Elder Ormsby. :) im also the new district leader, so that'll be fun! Our investigators are doing ok. Right now is a big time of transition for us. It's basically: go time. I've received a lot of very important necessary personal revelation this week that was super hard but also super encouraging and I am excited to see the changes in my growth and in my passion for the work as i continue working through it.
Elder Ormsby is also doing really well and he's been becoming a very solid good missionary. It's still really easy for him to get homesick, but he's managing it better and better every day, and we've been reaching some very good goals we've set together to focus. He also needs to take on a lot more responsibility this next transfer because it'll be my last transfer with him. He needs to do lots of things and push himself more. It'll be great. We've become the best of friends through our trials and through helping each other through them.
You asked if I have any favorite scriptures. I have a few. :)
Matthew 5:1-12
Ether 12:27
D&C 4
Moroni 9:6
Matthew 10:32
Those are my favorites right now :)
Well now I can tell you about my week!
Tuesday: we didn't have any district meeting on Tuesday, because that week we had a zone conference on Saturday. So instead we went to go visit Samir. He's been having a rough time lately because of his relapse, and he's been a little sick. We're trying to help him out and encourage him, but we need lots of prayers. We're trying to come up with some good ideas for him. We shared our favorite scriptures with him, and he with us! Guess what? He was baptized in October last year... and he's already read the Book of Mormon 5 times. He's read the entire book 5 times in 4 months! He really is a champ.
After that we tried to go surprise visit Hans, but we missed our stop (the train doors wouldn't open...) and ended up in a little town called Baden, where we decided to go knock on some doors because we figured we were there for a reason. While we were there we met an old lady who wanted our message but was sick and asked that we come back a different time. Success! After that we headed back to Wienerneustadt to an appointment with our "long time no see" investigator Markowic!! We had been trying to get in contact with him for a long time and we just find out he had to get a couple operations on his heart! He's back though, so we're visiting him once more :) we had a good visit. I want to quickly communicate to you how much I HATE cigarettes. Literally 9/10 people that could be so ready, have a huge smoking problem. It is a tool of satan that he uses to destroy the bodies of the Children of God. It is the number 1 problem in Europe. It is normal here to start smoking at the age of 11. We have 4 main people we meet with with bad smoking problems.
Wednesday: This day was pretty amazing. It started off with our usual missionary council meeting with Brother Pikal, and then we ran off to an appointment with one of our most frequent investigators. Klaus. I gotta tell you a story. So remember how I told you how Klaus was always super super tired? He's on lots of meds and stuff all the time. Well after a while we started suspecting that he does illegal drugs and is addicted to a lot. Because he is never not high. And in this lesson I planned to ask him directly what it was all about. What I learned taught me a huge lesson, and it changed my perspective on people forever. When I asked him what happened he told me this story. He has a severe case of social anxiety. He said that without his meds he cant make it down the block without his body starting to shut down. Because of his anxiety, his body literally cannot take it, and starts to shut down. I asked him if it's always been that way and he said no. Klaus used to be very normal. He used to be very active and play lots of sports. He used to have lots of friends and love to be socially active. Always outside. He said he used to be very popular, and one time he got in with the wrong crowd. They urged him to try something, and he did. And it damaged his brain, and ruined his life. What was it that cause so much destruction, you may ask? You'll never guess. It was Marijuana. He used Marijuana one time. He never recovered. Doctors told him it caused a chemical change in his brain that only happens to about 1% of Marijuana users. Only one time. He laughed and said: "The most harmless drug in the world ruined my life. Don't let anyone tell you it's harmless." Now he has to take powerful meds and he never has the opportunity to be off of them. Because if he is, he can't handle the anxiety. And if you haven't guessed already, he's very heavily addicted to them. He smokes, he's an alcoholic, and he's addicted to his anxiety meds. And he's 23 years old. And he believes he's lost any opportunity he had to receive the blessings God planned for him in life. It is our job as missionaries to help him find out that that's not true. When I heard his story I was almost in tears. But I know that his blessings are still available. We're meeting with him again tonight, and I'm ready to fight for his soul.
After that we got ready to head out and knocked on doors in Neunkirchen before our appointment with Gabriele. Which was cool, because 3 people in the same apartment building wanted us to come back, and someone accepted the Book of Mormon and said they would love to read in it. Then we met with Gabriele! She was awesome as always, but it's been really hard to ask her to do anything lately... she seems to accept what we discuss, but she hasn't made it her mission to find out if it's true or not, and therefore has no motivation to do the things we ask of her. But I have faith she'll pull through, I just don't know how long that will take.
Thursday: We went and helped Miguel out in the morning, and he made us lunch! We helped him chop wood and stack it, because they only really have a fireplace in their house for heating. It was good! I've learned so much about hard work here, and it's actually very therapeutic. After that we went back to finish up some studies. After that we had our German and English classes! That was very good. I actually love teaching German. It's so much fun to help people understand the language and the culture and to see it click in people's minds.
Friday: Friday was super busy! We had our lunch appointment with the Piñol family and right after we had another appointment with the McLennan family, and right after that we had our Spiel Abend!! We had a smaller turnout that time, but it was still lots of fun. Daniel Enenkel showed up this time! He's become one of my best friends in the ward. He's a 28 year old and he's getting married in march! (He's the guy I took a picture with with the guns) he and his fiancée are good friends of mine, and we're helping them out with a service project on Wednesday.
Saturday: It was amazing and crazy! We got to the train station at 7:35 am to go to none other than the beautiful city of Salzburg! It's about a 3 hour train ride. It's so pretty there!! So much snow! We had a huge conference, where we learned a lot. We learned about how sometimes missionaries can get into the routine of teaching the lessons, but we shouldn't. We should also try to concentrate on the
underlying principle of repentance. Repentance in German is : Umkehren. The literal translation means: to turn about. I like this better than the simple misconception many people have about repentance. That it is something you do when you do something bad, and it makes your sin go away. Repentance is a life long process that includes a continual improvement and turning to God. We literally "turn" from the things in life that offend God and turn instead to him. And it is a very constant thing. We need to repent every single day. We are trying to help these people do just that. To turn from the things that do not bring happiness, unto the things that bring true peace and joy in life. When we repent, we allow God to bless us with and everyone repents differently. We talked about: if we center our message on the concept of repentance, people will understand our message better and be more willing to try things out. I give you my testimony of repentance. I need it every day. After that we were surprised with some huge changes!! They announced changes to the missionary schedule, and changes to the numbers we collect (# of people we taught throughout the week, etc.) surprise surprise! There is no more set missionary schedule!! o.o they decided to trust us all to do the right thing. The only thing is that we have to be up by 6:30, and we can now go to bed at 9:30. But as for the rest it is up to us how we best use our time throughout the day. When we study, and proselyte, and eat. It's going to take a while to get used to. But when I think about it, i feel that it is the correct way to go forward. It requires a lot more preparation now, which is nice, and it's a lot more flexible. As for the numbers, we now have only 4 numbers we record! (we used to collect 13) Number of people baptized, number of new investigators, number of investigators at church, and
number of investigators with set baptismal dates. These numbers are usually the lower of all the numbers we previously kept track of, which surprised lots of people. But they are also the activities most associated with an individuals conversion, so it's meant to dial in our focus a little more, and I'm very excited to see where it goes! And that's worldwide, not just us. Exciting things are coming!!
Sunday: oh man... this day was so tiring. Church is great. But everyone (even missionaries) has those days in church where everything just seems to go nuts! The entire sacrament meeting was louder than
normal because the kids were extra loud for some reason... I was super tired so it was hard to understand what was being said... and if that wasn't enough, our former bishop had a seizure during the closing hymn!! And guess who was sitting next to him... me! It was a small one, but it scared everyone. Me and a member named Marcelo were sitting next to him when I noticed his face turned super deep red and he leaned over like he couldn't breathe. We both noticed, and as soon as Marcelo touched him he started spazzing out! But it only lasted a few seconds, and then he became normal again and didn't remember what happened. He said he just had a cough, but it definitely didn't look like that... but everything was ok after that.
So it was an exciting week! Kinda crazy sometimes, but it's been another great week. :) I also found out this week that I'll actually be home about a whole month earlier than I left. My day should be
March 28 2018. Thought that was interesting.
Well that was my wonderful week :) I'm glad I can share it with you guys. I just want you to know that I know this church is true. I know Jesus Christ is real. He is a real person, who really performed
miracles, and who really loves us. He and our Heavenly Father love us more than we can ever ever understand. They are resurrected perfect beings who have a plan for us. I testify to you that we can come to know them through sincere repentance and exercising of our faith. Not know about them. Know them. Like you know me. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Until next time!
Elder Larson
I can't believe Federer won ANOTHER grand slam! And I can't believe Nadal was there too!! He's been out for so long. Sounds awesome! I'll be sure to give him a high five when I'm over in Switzerland, when I knock on his mansion door.
Anyway, I'm doing great!! Everything is progressing nicely, and we have some big plans for this next transfer. We got transfer calls and it looks like I'll be able to stay here to finish training Elder Ormsby. :) im also the new district leader, so that'll be fun! Our investigators are doing ok. Right now is a big time of transition for us. It's basically: go time. I've received a lot of very important necessary personal revelation this week that was super hard but also super encouraging and I am excited to see the changes in my growth and in my passion for the work as i continue working through it.
Elder Ormsby is also doing really well and he's been becoming a very solid good missionary. It's still really easy for him to get homesick, but he's managing it better and better every day, and we've been reaching some very good goals we've set together to focus. He also needs to take on a lot more responsibility this next transfer because it'll be my last transfer with him. He needs to do lots of things and push himself more. It'll be great. We've become the best of friends through our trials and through helping each other through them.
 |
| Me and Ormsby in beautiful Salzburg |
Matthew 5:1-12
Ether 12:27
D&C 4
Moroni 9:6
Matthew 10:32
Those are my favorites right now :)
Well now I can tell you about my week!
Tuesday: we didn't have any district meeting on Tuesday, because that week we had a zone conference on Saturday. So instead we went to go visit Samir. He's been having a rough time lately because of his relapse, and he's been a little sick. We're trying to help him out and encourage him, but we need lots of prayers. We're trying to come up with some good ideas for him. We shared our favorite scriptures with him, and he with us! Guess what? He was baptized in October last year... and he's already read the Book of Mormon 5 times. He's read the entire book 5 times in 4 months! He really is a champ.
After that we tried to go surprise visit Hans, but we missed our stop (the train doors wouldn't open...) and ended up in a little town called Baden, where we decided to go knock on some doors because we figured we were there for a reason. While we were there we met an old lady who wanted our message but was sick and asked that we come back a different time. Success! After that we headed back to Wienerneustadt to an appointment with our "long time no see" investigator Markowic!! We had been trying to get in contact with him for a long time and we just find out he had to get a couple operations on his heart! He's back though, so we're visiting him once more :) we had a good visit. I want to quickly communicate to you how much I HATE cigarettes. Literally 9/10 people that could be so ready, have a huge smoking problem. It is a tool of satan that he uses to destroy the bodies of the Children of God. It is the number 1 problem in Europe. It is normal here to start smoking at the age of 11. We have 4 main people we meet with with bad smoking problems.
 |
| Beautiful Salzburg |
Wednesday: This day was pretty amazing. It started off with our usual missionary council meeting with Brother Pikal, and then we ran off to an appointment with one of our most frequent investigators. Klaus. I gotta tell you a story. So remember how I told you how Klaus was always super super tired? He's on lots of meds and stuff all the time. Well after a while we started suspecting that he does illegal drugs and is addicted to a lot. Because he is never not high. And in this lesson I planned to ask him directly what it was all about. What I learned taught me a huge lesson, and it changed my perspective on people forever. When I asked him what happened he told me this story. He has a severe case of social anxiety. He said that without his meds he cant make it down the block without his body starting to shut down. Because of his anxiety, his body literally cannot take it, and starts to shut down. I asked him if it's always been that way and he said no. Klaus used to be very normal. He used to be very active and play lots of sports. He used to have lots of friends and love to be socially active. Always outside. He said he used to be very popular, and one time he got in with the wrong crowd. They urged him to try something, and he did. And it damaged his brain, and ruined his life. What was it that cause so much destruction, you may ask? You'll never guess. It was Marijuana. He used Marijuana one time. He never recovered. Doctors told him it caused a chemical change in his brain that only happens to about 1% of Marijuana users. Only one time. He laughed and said: "The most harmless drug in the world ruined my life. Don't let anyone tell you it's harmless." Now he has to take powerful meds and he never has the opportunity to be off of them. Because if he is, he can't handle the anxiety. And if you haven't guessed already, he's very heavily addicted to them. He smokes, he's an alcoholic, and he's addicted to his anxiety meds. And he's 23 years old. And he believes he's lost any opportunity he had to receive the blessings God planned for him in life. It is our job as missionaries to help him find out that that's not true. When I heard his story I was almost in tears. But I know that his blessings are still available. We're meeting with him again tonight, and I'm ready to fight for his soul.
After that we got ready to head out and knocked on doors in Neunkirchen before our appointment with Gabriele. Which was cool, because 3 people in the same apartment building wanted us to come back, and someone accepted the Book of Mormon and said they would love to read in it. Then we met with Gabriele! She was awesome as always, but it's been really hard to ask her to do anything lately... she seems to accept what we discuss, but she hasn't made it her mission to find out if it's true or not, and therefore has no motivation to do the things we ask of her. But I have faith she'll pull through, I just don't know how long that will take.
Thursday: We went and helped Miguel out in the morning, and he made us lunch! We helped him chop wood and stack it, because they only really have a fireplace in their house for heating. It was good! I've learned so much about hard work here, and it's actually very therapeutic. After that we went back to finish up some studies. After that we had our German and English classes! That was very good. I actually love teaching German. It's so much fun to help people understand the language and the culture and to see it click in people's minds.
Friday: Friday was super busy! We had our lunch appointment with the Piñol family and right after we had another appointment with the McLennan family, and right after that we had our Spiel Abend!! We had a smaller turnout that time, but it was still lots of fun. Daniel Enenkel showed up this time! He's become one of my best friends in the ward. He's a 28 year old and he's getting married in march! (He's the guy I took a picture with with the guns) he and his fiancée are good friends of mine, and we're helping them out with a service project on Wednesday.
Saturday: It was amazing and crazy! We got to the train station at 7:35 am to go to none other than the beautiful city of Salzburg! It's about a 3 hour train ride. It's so pretty there!! So much snow! We had a huge conference, where we learned a lot. We learned about how sometimes missionaries can get into the routine of teaching the lessons, but we shouldn't. We should also try to concentrate on the
underlying principle of repentance. Repentance in German is : Umkehren. The literal translation means: to turn about. I like this better than the simple misconception many people have about repentance. That it is something you do when you do something bad, and it makes your sin go away. Repentance is a life long process that includes a continual improvement and turning to God. We literally "turn" from the things in life that offend God and turn instead to him. And it is a very constant thing. We need to repent every single day. We are trying to help these people do just that. To turn from the things that do not bring happiness, unto the things that bring true peace and joy in life. When we repent, we allow God to bless us with and everyone repents differently. We talked about: if we center our message on the concept of repentance, people will understand our message better and be more willing to try things out. I give you my testimony of repentance. I need it every day. After that we were surprised with some huge changes!! They announced changes to the missionary schedule, and changes to the numbers we collect (# of people we taught throughout the week, etc.) surprise surprise! There is no more set missionary schedule!! o.o they decided to trust us all to do the right thing. The only thing is that we have to be up by 6:30, and we can now go to bed at 9:30. But as for the rest it is up to us how we best use our time throughout the day. When we study, and proselyte, and eat. It's going to take a while to get used to. But when I think about it, i feel that it is the correct way to go forward. It requires a lot more preparation now, which is nice, and it's a lot more flexible. As for the numbers, we now have only 4 numbers we record! (we used to collect 13) Number of people baptized, number of new investigators, number of investigators at church, and
number of investigators with set baptismal dates. These numbers are usually the lower of all the numbers we previously kept track of, which surprised lots of people. But they are also the activities most associated with an individuals conversion, so it's meant to dial in our focus a little more, and I'm very excited to see where it goes! And that's worldwide, not just us. Exciting things are coming!!
 |
| Salzburg. So picturesque. |
Sunday: oh man... this day was so tiring. Church is great. But everyone (even missionaries) has those days in church where everything just seems to go nuts! The entire sacrament meeting was louder than
normal because the kids were extra loud for some reason... I was super tired so it was hard to understand what was being said... and if that wasn't enough, our former bishop had a seizure during the closing hymn!! And guess who was sitting next to him... me! It was a small one, but it scared everyone. Me and a member named Marcelo were sitting next to him when I noticed his face turned super deep red and he leaned over like he couldn't breathe. We both noticed, and as soon as Marcelo touched him he started spazzing out! But it only lasted a few seconds, and then he became normal again and didn't remember what happened. He said he just had a cough, but it definitely didn't look like that... but everything was ok after that.
So it was an exciting week! Kinda crazy sometimes, but it's been another great week. :) I also found out this week that I'll actually be home about a whole month earlier than I left. My day should be
March 28 2018. Thought that was interesting.
Well that was my wonderful week :) I'm glad I can share it with you guys. I just want you to know that I know this church is true. I know Jesus Christ is real. He is a real person, who really performed
miracles, and who really loves us. He and our Heavenly Father love us more than we can ever ever understand. They are resurrected perfect beings who have a plan for us. I testify to you that we can come to know them through sincere repentance and exercising of our faith. Not know about them. Know them. Like you know me. I love you all and hope you have a great week.
Until next time!
Elder Larson
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