August 9, 2010

Hello Family!
Exciting news about Erik. I can hardly believe that he is getting married and moving out, but it is really a great thing. An older lady on the street said that we should wait to get married when we are 32 years old. It is good that you are not getting married at age 32 and I am excited to hear how the wedding, celebration, and later honeymoon goes. I cannot hardly believe that Forrest comes home from his mission in two months, it sounds like a lie, and Michael left on his mission about a year before us, but it is also weird how he is coming back already in December. I am really learning a lot on the mission, and I have had some very unique experiences. I have made some mistakes, but I have also been growing, developing, and learning to where I hope to be a refined, excelling, prepared for life missionary the time I finish the mission. We will have zone conference and a branch conference here in Kurgan this weekend coming up, which will also be Kurgan day. Maybe our President planned conference on that day because we would have probably had to stay inside anyway because there would be drunk people. This week was a normal week. One companion had to travel because there was only one missionary in Tyumen, because his companion was on a Visa trip in Finland. When I went to finland I went on bus to Tyumen, From Tyumen to Moscow by flight, flight to Finland, there about 3-4 hours (time for the temple) and then straightway back. Maybe I have said, there are only 7 missionaries in our zone, and each companionship is in their own city. We are 3-4 hours from Tyumen, and Surgut, is 16 hour train ride from tyumen, so we only see other missionaries 2 per transfer (exchanges too). This past week was actually very hot, but finally the weather has cooled down, and what I hear is that it should continue to make it's was down. fall starts in September, and at the end of October is when it starts to get really cold. As for our investigator Michael, he has been acting strange. He does not want to be baptized until he has a complete knowldedge of everything. We want to emphasize the importance of baptism and why we do it, and then see if he is ready to get baptized some other time. we did start teaching a little girl like Madison, and she too wants to be baptized, so we are looking forward to that. I am getting pretty good at understanding Russian, but I just have to learn to speak better. It will all come, and apparently I am learning at an alright pace. Well, I'll here from you all in two weeks. I love you all. Remember that through faith, everything comes. Maybe I told you about the talk I read called you know enough, and we really do. Share what you know through the Spirit, and be planted on the foundation of Christ.

с любовью- Elder Larson