November 22, 2010

Hello Family!

That is really cool how you are doing so many names Dad. I really hope that you can break those records. That is a great work, and it is cool how you are so consistent in doing it. It sounds like Mountain Pointe just squeezed by, but it is great how Jack is doing well. It is interesting to hear about all the ward news. It is strange how there are so many deaths over there were you are. The Gospel really enriches life, and it is great how we have the knowledge of where we will go after this life. Snow has fallen here, and I believe it will now stay. It is pretty cold here, and it is exciting, but the main problem is that there are consecutively less people on the street. Good job for talking to Hung, mom. I hope he finds some strength.

We had zone conference this week. It was really great. Main points were that we need to talk to people to get to know them and help meet their needs. Even on bus or the transport, our president told us that we really need to get to know people. He said that people are on a range from 1 to 7. Sometimes we just need to bumb those ones (those who almost hate us and reject us and say names) to a 2 (just a little better). Or maybe they are ready for a bigger boost. Or maybe they are 6 or 7's ready to be baptized. Regardless of who we talk to, we need to always represent Christ, love the people, and have them think more of us when we leave than when we first met them. Just as Shane said, there is a large focus on teaching by the Spirit and teaching for the people's needs. We should also have specific prayers when we seek for guidance, really aligning ourself with God's will. We need both great attitude and effort to become great missionaries, and we must never feel like failures. Satan wants us to feel like failures, but God wants us to find and correct our weaknesses through Christ.

Shane- Remember to be very strong and faithful through the tough times. It may be difficult because you have already been through the area book, there are no contacts, or maybe it is hard to get men on the meeting, but remember to maintain a positive attitude. People always have the choice to accept you, but just keep a positive attitude and don't get discouraged. You are probably doing fine, so keep up.

It is good that you found the town on the map. There is not thanksgiving here, but the members sometimes celebrate it, as they see the American missionaries talk about it. Will will just go to district meeting to eat probably at the senior couple's home. I do not know how far from the railroad I live, but I live about 8 minutes from that hand statue. You noticed there is an intersection maybe at the statue, well I live on one of those streets. If you follow the straight street towards Ufa, it will be cut off by another street. Well if you just keep going imaginary like the street still goes, I should be 2 or three houses in, but I am leaving, so I guess it doesn't matter. I am going to Perm to be a zone leader. There are no district leaders in my mission. I am excited, but nervous. I will be serving with Elder Sare. I hear that he is a very great missionary, and he was a former assistant to the president, so maybe he can really help me and teach me. I have met him a few times, and he also seems like a humourous, great missionary. I hear that they have a great ward in Perm, that it is a beautiful city, and that it will be a little colder than here. There is also a senior couple there. I leave on a train tomorrow night to Ekaterinburg, and then there to Perm. I love you.

November 15, 2010

Hello family!
Thank you all for the letters and the thoughts. It was great to hear
from you all. It was great to hear from grandma and granddad, and it
was good to hear that his health is doing well. This week, the senior
couple came with us on some meetings. President and Sister John. He is
your age dad. Although they don't have a whole lot of Russian language
experience, they really bring the spirit. During district meetings,
they share great experiences and express a lot of hope and desire in
us. On one of those meetings, we met with a less active member, and
she came to church. She had not been to church for a long time, at
least since I had been here, which was August 10 so it was really cool
to see her there. We had exchanges this week, so I was just up in Ufa.
On the map, Ufa, looks elongated north to south, I believe. That is
the main city I am talking about. There is a river going around it
called the white river (белая река). I live south of Ufa (slightly to
the west), probably 5 to 10 miles away, but it is actually fairly
small. Dyoma. so look down, then a little bit left of Ufa on a map.
Sorry, it is kind of difficult to describe, but there is a train that
goes through Dyoma, so maybe you want to follow the tracks south out
of Ufa and see if they will go to Dyoma if the train tracks are
visible. We have zone conference tomorrow, so I am very excited, and
this will be the last week of the transfer. Missionaries have been
staying in places longer. President wants us to get closer to the
members and build relationships with the leadership, so much might
stay the same. I think there might be some switch up though. you will
know next week. We may be moving homes this week though, staying
within our area.
It has been raining a lot here, but it sounds like it will be getting
colder here. It is cool how Erik is getting into soccer. Thanks for sending the package,
but I will tell you when I receive it. I was reading in the Book of
Mormon today, and I noticed in Alma, I think chapter 8. I don't
remember, but all of the people were rejecting him in a city, and he
was discouraged. He went out of the city, but an angel told him not to
be discouraged. The angel told him to lift his head, and be glad that
he was keeping the commandments of God. remember to keep your head up
and remember those great experiences in life and look at the blessings
you do have. I love you all. -Elder Larson

November 8, 2010

Hello family!

This was an interesting week. Snow came yesterday morning, but then melted and turned into rain as the day went on. It is looking a lot more gray here as the plants are losing their leaves, and it stays dark for a majority of the day. It is still not extremely cold outside. Dad's news about the forecast feels as if it has been accurate. Here in Ufa, snow has not stayed, but sometimes the puddles turn into ice through the night. Our address is Levitana (левитана) 7, 2. It is in Dyoma (дема), which is about 20 minutes away from Ufa. I also know the church address. Bulevard Tyulkina (булварь тюлькина) 4/1 in the city Ufa. Maybe you can find that on the map. Mom, you said many of the houses look old. Many of them are old, and many look old. You do not often actually find a good looking home from the outside (those apartment buildings), but the inside in the rooms are completely different. Many people remodel, and it can look very nice. Our place is quite nice on the inside, and it looks very old on the outside. I guess you can't always judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes you can. The cover of the Book of Mormon for instance has a very powerful cover, and it is a very powerful book. Houses are often different here though.

I had a strange week. My companion had some problems on his visa trip, so I was in a different area for three days. I was with Elder Ray and Elder Kupaev. I really enjoyed the time there, and we had some good experiences. Elder Kupaev is Russian, and it was very cool to be around him and learn a lot from him. They are very good missionaries and motivated to do the work, so it was great to see little differences they do that I can work on. One thing that I really enjoyed is how much he loved and really shared a concern for the people. Of course he can communicate with the people easier, but he also seemed to love them and really care for them more. It was an example to me, and it is something that I would like to work on. If we become more Christlike, people will be able to feel our love for them. Our area book is something that you use to keep record of investigators, members, less actives, and potential investigators. Some of the papers are very old (10 years even since the last entry). The address on one was nowhere in the city, so I thought it was wrong. I realized that the address was misspelled, and that is why we couldn't find it. A few letter were switched, and we found the actual place. Although the lady was not interested, we found the place after no missionaries had been there in 10 years. Record keeping is very important, and it is great how you are doing that kind of work dad so that people can be found, whether or not they are ready for the gospel at this point in time.

Shane, I really enjoyed the pictures. Thank you. Great job, and congratulations on the baptism. That is weird that Forrest is back home. It feels like he just left, but I guess we can say the same things about ourselves.

Now for an interesting story that happened about 3 weeks ago. No one worry or be afraid, but it was just interesting. It had nothing to relate to my personal well being. Remember that one time a lady was in the bulk trash, I came into the house to tell everyone, and we went out to see that there was a woman. Well, my companion and I were walking, and in the alley, he thought he saw a body. We had to walk by the alley a few times, and we still were not sure because there were other people just standing, and girls had just walked by it. We walked by, and there was a dead body there. The people across the body were the police. We did not know what happened, and it was shocking, but it does make you think about life. Life is really a precious thing, and living the gospel really does enrich our lives and keep us from situations that might get us killed. We are taught to stand in holy places, and if we do so, we are promised blessings. Even the blessing of eternal life if we live the gospel and endure to the end. 

Sorry to end on that note, but I just want you all to make the most out of life. Love big, and enjoy the time of life in righteousness. Despite what happens, having a good attitude in any situation only makes the situation better. I love you all. Thank you for your letters and support. Again, I love you. Bye. -Elder Larson.

November 1, 2010

Hello family!

It is nice to hear from you. I enjoyed the pictures from Shane. They look fun. It is sad that Brother Curry's brother died so young and unexpectedly. That is the one that I had probably seen occasionally? I don't remember if he has other siblings or where they live. Mom, that CD is particularly a Christmas theme, but it can be listened to all year round to center the thoughts on Christ. Thank you for getting that. It was fairly cold yesterday. It was around zero celsius last night on the street. It was more difficult to contact because there were just not a whole lot of people on the street. It snowed a little bit the night before last, but the snow melted through the day. Last night, we did visit though with an older woman. She was very kind and enjoyed us to be there, but she is leaving to England to live with her daughter for 3 months.This week we had the opportunity to go to a Bashirian dance concert for a cultural activity. It was very enjoyable, and it was Folk Dance, very similar to what I had seen at the BYU folk dance concert. There is a dance they performed where there involved sword fighting with sparks, so that was kind of cool. They also performed a famous Ukrainian dance. I cannot remember the name, but the men wear baggy red pants. It might be the Hopak or Hochak. On Saturday, there was a baptism from the sisters. Artur was baptised, and we had the opportunity to take an investigator there to see the baptism, so hopefully that will help her. Artur is a cool kid that is about our age, he knows a fair bit of english, and he used to be completely atheist. He decided to be baptized, and he is a very nice boy. After that, we had a small halloween party for the ward and friends. Our mission president was there and then at church. Wednesday, my companion will go on his visa trip, so I will spend a day in a different part of town, about an hour and a half away by bus. I don't know how far it is, but buses usually are fairly slow. In our town, we just walk because it is so small, but to go to the city and around the city, we take buses. To get to the church, it is about an hour trip altogether.

I liked what Shane had to say about trials and testing your faith. In this area, things have been a little slower in finding people and being able to meet, but It is essential to keep moving forward, and ask in prayer for what to do. Sometimes it is hard, but we can always receive guidance on what to do. I know that prayer works, and when I ask specifically, faithfully, and intently to act upon what I receive the Lord gives me exactly what I need. I like what dad said though, that it does not come all at once. We also need to be patient, and continually receive more and more. We will be 20 years old up here soon. Time really is going quickly. I hope everything is going well down there. Too bad halloween wasn't so big. Here in Russia, it is not really celebrated at all amongst the public. I love you all. Help others, be an example, and always remember to express kindness. Bye.-Elder Larson

October 25, 2010

Hello Family! 

Thank you for the letters. Thank you Kirsten, it was nice to hear from you. I hope all goes well with the kids, grandma in Arkansas. Hi Molly and Trey! What is your address? Things are going well here. Thanks for the weather report, dad. It has not felt too cold yet. It has only snowed once, shortly melting after it fell, but sometimes, if I am lucky, there are puddles of water that have turned into ice through the night. I do not know what to do in the winter in terms of contacting. Ideally, we would be working with the members more and take less time on the streets. There were times in the summer where it rained cats and dogs, and no one was on the street, and we got soaked. Men have work or school often, and we cannot meet with women alone, so it is sometimes hard to meet with members and talk to them abot  In this area, we do contact a lot. It is still fine on the street to talk to people, and there are still many on the street, when it gets very cold, we will have to work differently I think. 

I would say I am still very far from speaking fluently, although it is not really difficult to get my points across. I just have a clear accent when I speak. Sometimes I translate for the Russian and Ukrainian during district conference. Understandinding is coming a lot easier, but it is still sometimes hard to pick out everything people say. Much of the food here is produced in Russia, but a lot of the fruits come from different places (surrounding countries, and also China often). There are many small fruit stands everywhere, and there are also small stores everywhere. We go to a fairly large store, and it ends up being around the size of Walgreens. In some of the mall type of complexes, which are in the city, there are larger grocery stores. in those places, there is pretty much everything you could buy in the states. There is a special place called metro, which is like a costco here. Other than that store, there are usually no Wal-Mart type stores, but there are many stores that seem to specialize in certain items. Electric store, sanitation store, phone store, flower store, food store, hair cut salon, etc.We went with the senior couple, because you need a card, but that place was just like costco. There was everything, and in bulk. There are sometimes fruits here in Russia that you do not commonly see in the states. We recently got something called Persimmon in english. I am not sure because it has a different name in Russian. In terms of American produced goods, there are not many. Outside of food, I do not know, but a lot of specialty sauces come from America (i.e. tabasco sauce and peanut butter). The young people do need to qualify for the university. If they do well in school, they might not have to go to college (which could be compared to community college), and they can go straight to the university (college or university).Most can have the opportunity to go to the University. There are a lot of students that go to technical schools as well. I do not think that there is a tuition for school, but if you want to go to a better school, or some special programs, then I think it costs money. The thing with Russia that is similar to Europe, is the children start to specialize often at a young age. Going through the normal programs do not cost money, but if you are older and have already passed the natural course of school action, it costs to go back to school. (I am not necessarily sure about all of this, but it is what I have seemed to gather)

My companion comes from a military family, and his dad and brothers are pilots in the air force. He has travelled many places and live in places like Guam, Kuwait, Louisiana, Nebraska. He worked before his mission and actually worked at superstition mall in Gilbert. He is fairly large and strong. He wrestled when he was younger, and worked out before. He is goofy at times, but he seems to get really serious when the situation calls for it. He can sometimes get easily frustrated at things, but he is working hard to love and be patient with everyone. He is a deep thinking, and he really wants to do what is right according to the scriptures and the words of the prophets. He is 6 months longer than me on the mission, he is talkative, and he is good with dealing with the people. Once I go home, I can tell you all about all my different companions. I write their names in my Preach My gospel, so I will remember them.

If I write to much, just tell me, but I wanted to answer your questions. This week I was in Finland, and I had the opportunity to go to the temple. Finland is beautiful right now, and I really had a good time in the temple. It is very peaceful, and I know it truly is a house of God. There are often people from different countries there, so it is also cool to see that we are all children of God, and we can meet in the temples everywhere to do the work for our spiritual brothers and sisters. This week we have an opportunity to watch Bashkirian dancing for a cultural night, and there is a ward halloween activity we will be having Saturday. I love you all. Thank you for the support and your letters. Bye.- Elder Larson

Happy Birthday Erik. How old are you? 23. oooh. 

October 11, 2010

Hello Family!

Well it sounds like there has been some interesting news about football (Max Hall and Marcus Wheaton). I hope the MRI scan goes well, mom. It sounds like dad had a fun job with service. We g to help on older woman put up some styrofoam ceiling. It was the same lady that we did the wallpaper for. Thanks for the weather report too, Dad. It sounds like it will be cold. It has been foggy, but it has not already snowed. I am kind of excited. Shane, I do not think that I am a capo. It just seems to me that I do all the talk and you do all the action. Just kidding. I know that you and I are both doing a good work. It sounds like your missionaries are doing a lot of switching around. Something interesting here is that for this next transfer, there (from what I heard) will only be 1 change between 2 people in the mission. Everyone else is staying where they in with the same person. There is even an elder in my area who left on the mission 2 transfers before I did and he has been in the same place since. I believe this is his 7th transfer in the same place, and a transfer is 6 weeks. Thank you all for the letters. I did receive them from mom, grandma, and I did get Alisha's letter. We found a place closer to do internet, so I may be able to write home some letters (it is okay to write handwritten letters to friends). Thank you for that next year calender. It will be very convenient, and thank you for the pictures from home.

We got to see General Conference in English, so that was very cool. There were some pretty amazing talks spoken. President Uchtdorf really had some good talks about pride and keeping life simple to focus on the important things. I did enjoy that talk also about the 14 points of what a prophet is and does. There was also many talks about raising kids and protecting them against the evils of the increasingly evil world. There were a lot of good points, and as Gabe said, it really did feel like 10 minutes instead of 10 hours of conference for me too. This month as a cultural activity, we will be going to a bashkurian dance, and next week we will go on the visa trip. I will try to take some pictures.

There were a few key activities that happened this week that helped me realize how much I love the listeners out there. i.e. family. My companion and I decided to drop by a man with a son on a mission. He was not a member, but he showed us pictures of his son. His son was serving in Moscow West. (interestingly enough, I saw some of the people who serve with him are some of the people that were in my MTC group, and we are all of the sudden linked together, even though coming and living in obscure or different places.) The missionary's father had a few beers to drink, and lives with a different family. The son prays for his father every day, I saw in a letter, and I can't imagine how badly he wants his father to change for the better. The father was hardly familiar with why his son was on a mission, and he did not want to here anything about the Gospel. He is working hard on a mission, although he comes from a hard situation. I also learned in conference that the youth really needs a strong support group in order to help them. Thank you mom and dad for being that strong, loving, support that helped me grow into who I am today. I still have a ways to go, and I see how I may have been a hassle in some ways, but I know there is great room for improvement. I love you all. Thanks grandma for the letters and support as well. She is included of course.

Oh. Mom, I don't know if you have already sent the package, but if it is possible, maybe you could buy a CD and send it in the package. It is Handel's Messiah performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. That is the only CD I would want as it is focused on Christ and Christmas, and maybe dad can help you know what it is if you don't know.

Until next week...пока. старейшина ларсон.

October 4, 2010

Hello Family!
It sounds like everything is going well all over. Shane is exactly right when he says that you cannot teach without the Spirit. We had special training with the Mission President, and he went over planning and goal setting with us, but it had some interesting and helpful information. He said that you will not always accomplish your goal, even if the Holy Ghost confirmed that the goal was a good goal, and that you did all you could to achieve the goal. You should set reachable goals that you want to achieve, but sometimes we just do not reach them. Oftentimes the Holy Ghost has you reach for the goal so that you can learn something else which he knew was necessary for you to accomplish, or so that you can have various learning experiences. After the period of your goal is over, you reevaluate and establish goals once again according to the Spirit. Other people should not impose goals upon you, and sometimes you have to work up to greater goals. If you want to receive recognition in goals, you are not properly setting goals. Goals should be the means and not the ends. The devil wants to discourage people by telling them that since they are not achieving goals, or getting good numbers that they are failures as either missionaries or people. We must find the good in everything we do, and we know that we are doing good in everything if we are living obediently and trying our best. Do not let the devil discredit your divine nature, or the true place on which you stand. If you let him do that, the Spirit will also leave.

What is interesting, is after we had received that counsel, on our way home, a man asked us what church we were from and then he made a bad comment. Right after the meeting, and always, the devil tempts us by using others and trying to take away the Spirit. We must constantly fight to maintain the Spirit in all that we do. Once that happens, we are unstoppable. We must remember our divine nature, and just keep going. Christ suffered for us because we are imperfect. If we do all we can and follow the commandments, and repent, he will cover us. How joyful. How positive.

Well, mom, I forgot to tell you that we do use some good filters here because unfiltered water is not completely clean. If you send me a package, maybe you could include family pictures in a photo album so that I can show everyone how cool my family is. Well actually, people ask to see pictures a lot, it would be cool to see you too and show them to people. I already tell people how cool my family is. Sorry that is slightly hypocritical because I have not sent any pictures home or taken many. I will try to do better. Thanks for those emailed pictures from everyone. If it comes down to it, I can probably just print those pictures from the computer. I showed my companion, and he really liked them. In terms of candy? Maybe trail mix or nutty chocolates. twixes or reeses fast break. I like most nuts, except cashews. I don't really need anything. If you all would like something, I can buy it some P-day.

The weather here is starting to be fairly cold. It was freezing yesterday (-1 and 0 degrees celcius), and this morning it was 2 degrees celsius. I have all my snow clothing, but it is fairly cold, and a lot sooner than I thought. Most of the leaves have fallen of the trees, and it is getting darker earlier. Our heating is on in the apartment. There is no air conditioning here, and we get heat from hot water that runs through open pipes and radiator next to the walls. We have not already watched conference, but we will watch it next weekend. This weekend, there was a big change here though. There were 2 branches in Ufa, but it has now changed into 1 big branch. The branch's callings disintegrated and a new presidency was established. The new president is my old branch president, and he is a really cool guy and strong church member. He is really funny, has no young kids, and excited and ready to do things. The change will really help people get into the attitude of helping each other, and it will strengthen a lot of the members. President Alcott was here for that, and he gave us that special training as well.

During the fall, there are many fairs where they sell harvest items- meats, crops, honey, knittings, pastries, fruit, and many other things. We bought some honey, and there was meat everywhere. It was like a large market just on the street. Dad, you should take up bee keeping again as a hobby. There are some Russian words that seem to coincide with star wars characters. My companion and I have been thinking about it and trying to figure it out. I love you all. Thanks for the support. Have good times. Bye.-Elder Larson.