I really enjoyed your letters this past week. There is a lot of news and interesting information. It sounded like you had a fairly simple Thanksgiving. That is nice. It was probably strange that it was so quiet because I have never had a quiet Thanksgiving. I always love it though. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite Holidays. We went to President Rusts and ate there. There was turkey, stuffing, sweet mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls, and some pie. It was really tasty, and we did it as a zone, we talked about what we were grateful for, and we watched a mormon message about gratitude. It was really pleasant. The next day, President Schwitzer, the area President, did a devotional for the missionaries, and then for the members. He talked with us about teaching people and including repentance. He emphasized that teaching people how to repent will get people closer to baptism that simply teaching the things they need to know. He talked about having members befriend and support them and he talked a lot about love. It made us question how much we really love the people. It was very inspiring and something that stuck out to me is that we should help everyone we come into contact with come unto Christ. It does not mean that they all need baptismal dates, but should be happy if we simply made someone's day a little better.
We have been spending some time on the streets, and we have been trying to incorporate questions of the soul more often in our approach, and it has been quite helpful. We have met some fairly strange people, but recently someone who was very happy to have come into contact with us. I have been having a great time with Elder Parson, and I think I am having one of the best times on my mission. We have many different experiences, but we are also having a lot of cool experiences with people. A recent convert that we have is really trying to do missionary work, and her daughter is really interested to meet. We might have the sisters meet with her though because our schedules might not fall in line very often because we are sometimes out of the city, and we sometimes pass of members of the opposite sex so that they can relate better with the sisters, and they can take women with them on a meeting for a member.
I am having a very enjoyable time on the mission, and I have been learning a lot. I especially recently have been learning a lot of new things that I am surprised that I didn't know earlier, and dissappointed that I didn't know earlier, but all is well. Preach my Gospel is great, and no matter how many times I have read it, I still read things from there that, on a regular basis, I had never noticed, but have a large significance. It is nice to hear that Matt is engaged. I hope all of you are doing just jolly. Have a great day. I love you.-Elder Larson
