Lots of rain

Hello family-

I hope all is well and that your trip to Utah was fun. Well I'm enjoying life here in San Juan. We have been living basically in one room this whole time and i love it. We should be getting the other room but one guy is still using it for storage. When i got here i wanted to find something small and i got what i wanted you could say.

But its been fun with elder Whittaker. He just reminds me of myself when i started. For example it rained pretty hard yesterday and it was the first day we decided to go to the farthest area that we cover. And he was all soaked and didn't seem to enjoy it. And then when we got home found out that the water went through all is backpack and into his stuff. I could tell that he didn't have a good day so i backed off and just remembered the first few times i got soaked and that the water entered my scriptures. I was a little mad as well but now its kind of fun. Today we bought umbrellas so i hope they last a long while.

But we cover a small branch here and more than half of them can also speak an other dialect, called mum. Idk how to spell it but just listening to it is crazy. We are in the process of learning it so that should be fun.

With all the rain, mum, small house, and the little food we've eaten Ive really enjoyed it here and I'm looking forward to the time i will spend here.

We have a lot of people that we have visited that are friends of some of the members but the thing is that they all live in different little towns that are far away from everything. So were just stuck in the situation of timing our time well so we can get all the things we need to get done.

Thanks for the package and everything that you've done for me.

The elder quorums pres has been quite a blessing here. It seems like he has always put the things of the Lord first in his life. He has always been willing to drive us where we need to go or show us where everyone live. If it wasn't for him we would still be lost here. The people here are great and i just hope i can learn a little from them and make them a part of my life.

I hope all goes well with Aaron and his family. Send my love to them.

Have fun this next week.

Love,
Elder Larson

Transfer to San Juan, training new missionary Elder Whittaker

Hey family

Here are the answers to your questions that you asked.

1- i will like to visit huehue and xela and 3 days should be good enough.
2-Huehue is about 2 hrs away and my new area here in xela is about 20 min away.
3- Guatemala City we could spend one day there.
4- Xela we can spend 2-3 days there.

And here is a rough draft of what we could do
Feb 1-2 Xela
Feb 3 Huhue
Feb 4-10 Touring the best places in Guatemala

Feb 11 Guatemala Temple
Feb 12 Head back home

But i had changes this past week. I'm not in Huehue anymore. I'm in a place called San Juan here in Xela. Its out of Xela and our area here has a lot of little towns outside of it. A lot of people but its been fun these past few days. We came in and we didn't even have a house or anything. Missionaries haven't been there for a think 2 yrs now. It´s a branch and here was the shocker....church is only for 2 hrs. Sacrament meeting and priesthood. But its a pretty small church building but the members come from all over to come to church.

Oh and i am also training. Elder Whittaker from Utah. Its been fun so far and i hope we can lift the branch here. It was sad leaving Huehue because i love the members there but I'm glad to be here in Xela.

I sent a letter to the Brandons about a week ago and i hope it gets there to you guys before they leave. And in it has another one for me which i will read when i get home and the other one is for the Grundys.

Well i hope all is well and that you guys have a great week.

Love
Elder Larson

Photos of Erik and Elder Whittaker

Photos of their living conditions :)

Photos of baptism - Aracely and Amilcar

These are the pictures of the baptism we had yesterday,

And with Aracely she is really afraid of water and we tried to heat up the water for her but it just didn't work, The water was cold to tell you the truth, But my companion baptized her and she did it but at the same time was not a happy person. That must have been really tough for her,

But had for Amilcar. He is pretty tall and to tell you the truth there wasn't a lot of water. But it all turned out great,

But ya, here are the photos for you

Elder Larson

Companion wants to practice English

Just 2 things mom.

My companion wants to write you in English. And all you have to do is write him back in English. He just wants to practice his English and i said he could write you. And the other thing is that you said you will send the photos in a package but if you could send them to me through email as well that would be great

Thanks mom

Hola from HueHue

Hey all -

I hope all is well over there. But as i said last week that we might have a baptism, well yesterday after church we had 2 baptisms. They were ready to get baptized but we just had to ask them if they wanted to and they said yes. One is a sister of a convert that is serving a mission in El Salvador. We were working with her mom for a long time but she just didn't want to get married. So we stopped going over there for a week or so. But then we thought....we can go back but we can focus on her daughter. So we went back and we had some good lessons and watched a few good DVD´s of the church. It was really cool to see the change that went on while we were with them. The scriptures say that people are searching for the truth but don't know where to find
it. With her, Aracely is her name, and with other people i believe it seems like they're not looking for the church but they're looking for a true remission of their sins. And they can find that in the church. That´s why missionary work is so important. To help those that are
looking for the truth find it. And its really amazing when it finally clicks and they accept to get baptized and follow the Lord. And with Amilcar...he has 18 yrs and when i was with elder Williamson we tried to get a hold of him but we just couldn't put a hour to visit him. But
we finally got to talk to him and he was ready. He wants to go on a mission in a year so that's pretty cool.

But i´ll send the photos when i can but as for me right now I'm doing well. We find out if we have changes tomorrow and i think i have changes but we´ll see what happens...

Elder Larson

Young Men's President killed

Hello mom and all the early birds that will be waking up very early for seminary-

I won't mention that seminary here is at 5 in the morning and that we have helped more than a plenty of times helping the jovens get to seminary. Oh the days when i had seminary and that you were my teacher. You probably remember but it came to mind again when you were taking your siesta on one Sunday afternoon when at 6ish i came in and told you that you were late for seminary. You looked all confused and believed me for a few seconds because it was a little believable because it was dark out side like it is around 6ish in the morning. Oh how i got a laugh out of that.

But on to right now this week was a little tough. On Wednesday, the young men's president, Hno. Fidel died. It came as a shock to everyone and it still kind of is. He was coming back from an errand in his car and got out and about 8-10 feet away there were 2 guys on a bike that were trying to rob from a drunk guy that was lying down, when he asked ´´whats going on?´´ They shot him in the chest and then they took off in their bike and he followed them in his car. He didn't get that far when he lost control of the car and crashed into another car because he couldn't handle the pain. They took him to the hospital and he died in the hospital. So the whole ward as been really shocked these past few days. We have just tried to be there for them to help. Its been tough for everyone and it just isn't the same. Hno. Fidel reminded me of Uncle Terry. Anything that Terry does, Fidel did has well, but he seemed to be a lot quicker on the funny comments. Just a great guy to be around and there is no way you wouldn't smile if you were with him.

We also had Stake Conference yesterday. It was interesting but overall he called out all the jovens that haven't served missions to serve a mission and for all of the RM´s to get married. 2 topics that they have tried to help with but at the same time have really forced it with him them.

But overall its been a good week. We had interviews with President on Tuesday and i may train in a week an 1-2 but we´ll see how it goes. I'm pretty excited. And we may have a baptism this Saturday. We´re hoping for the best.

Have a great week. Love ya all

Elder Larson

And you asked me if i wanted anything else. Everyone says that Doctrine of Salvation (the best parts or sections taken from the 3 volumes) is very good as well. So idk if there's anyway of getting that as well. But if not. Its ok. But yes the cookie cutters as well. Thanks mom

Learning to work with sisters in the Zone

I hope all is well and that dad retires soon.....(from racquetball i mean).

Today was a week full of helping the new hermanas and getting to know a few more people. It was fun to see the people we are visiting come to church on Sunday but we´ll see how they feel in this week. It´s going to be tough this next Sunday because it is stake conference and the stake center is kind of far for the people here but we´ll see how it goes.

You said what a blessing mom (I said it was a blessing to have sister missionaries in the zone! ) blessing to learn more patience. Right now they sharing an area with 2 areas. They have half and the elders have the other half but just a few days ago they were going back and forth with scriptures. like a scripture fight. and lets just say that the 1 cor 13:11 or was it 11:13 was
included. hahahaha not good but i think all is solved. 2 Latinas to answer your question. But other than that we are doing well.

I saw Enrique today and he is excited to see you guys. His email is farrout51@yahoo.com if you want to try to get a hold of him in these next few days to plan a day where we can be with him. But I'm thinking you guys can come when i finish and see my areas for a couple days and tour Guatemala for a few days. You plan it mom. You've got the technology. But I'm doing well and have learned to accept my companion how he is. It has taken a while but i know i can change what he does but what I can do is change what i think and do. Its a work in progress.

But hey...i got to go. But Happy August to all

Elder Larson