Erik's English & grammar are disappearing.......

Hello to all who read-

Everything is well down here. Its getting kind of crazy though with the World Cup and everything starting up. It happens every four years so its kind of a HUGE deal down here. I bet we won't be able to talk to a lot of people when Guatemala Honduran o the USA play though. It´ll be interesting to see. Please watch the mundial for me and tape the championship game for me.

But besides that everything is going great down here. Its been hard these two past weeks but we have more people who we are teaching, so I'm excited about that. Christian got confirmed yesterday. 2 weeks later haha. But he's awesome. I'm glad he feels good in the church. We bought him Morcaff because we promised we would get him some because all his family drinks cafe and he didn't want to give it up. (Don't worry you'll have some and love it in a few months). I can't believe how time just keeps on going. It's our goal to master it and use it the best to our ability. Especially right now. That's what I'm learning poco poco right now with my companion. (Idk what it is but i love talking english-spanish, spanglish). But with not having church in all of Guatemala last Sunday i think it was a lot better of the assistance for all the wards yesterday than normal for the things that past by this past week. And the third hour we talked about food-storage and what to do when this happens again and its a lot bigger.

We did divisions on Sunday. I stayed in centro and my comp went to another rama. It felt weird cause i kind of felt solo but it was alright i guess. About 8 came to church that i had no idea who they were but i didn't have the chance to talk to them before they left. Hopefully they come again next week. But who knows.

But with the things that are going on in Guatemala, i would like you guys to keep anything or record anything there is about Guatemala on the news so i can watch it one of these days. I kind of want to see the over all picture of this because here it didn't hit that big in Huehue. But i heard its not over and that it will come back but i have no idea. To be honest, i don't watch the news, (haha neither does dad at 11 pm on the couch)

But apart from the weather here and church I'm doing alright. The work is progressing and i hope we can be more of a blessing to the ones we come in contact with and know.

Have a great week and don't forget that Laurens birthday is coming around the corner. Next week i´ll tell her what my present is for her if she writes me before Monday and reminds me.

Con amor,
Elder Larson

Mission conference next Saturday

Hey dad-I knew you would remember Enrique. He´s a really cool guy. He said he's going to take us out to lunch when you guys come but his restaurant is better than any other restaurant in town. He's pretty funny. He's got the memory like you though. Remembers everything ha ha. But that's really cool about Brandon. I know a guy who is serving there right now named Mark but i cant remember his last name. There is also a elder from Guatemala serving in Billings right now but i think he's going home in August. Its a cool mission i heard. Now i cant wait to hear about the other Brandon and see where he will be going. But they´ll leave and a couple months later i´ll come back. Almost 4 years. That's pretty weird to think about. So Saturday i believe we will have a mission conference and we receive changes into the 2 different missions. And then in 2-3 weeks the new mission president will come and then it will be official. But this will all be crazy. But really cool at the same time. I honestly think I'm staying here in Xela because i put a lot of time in the office but whatever happens happens. But i´ll let you guys know what happens in these couple of weeks.
Elder Larson

Welcome to Huehue

Hello Family-

I hope all is well all en California. So this week was changes and four out of the eight are new to the zone. It was a tough week, I'm not going to lie. I felt bad because we didn't find a lot but i hope we can change that this next change. So on Tuesday and today we went to a restaurant called Zumbas. Well he is from the states and we talked and he asked me if i knew any Larson's that lived in Torrence. I said yes and he said he remembers dad and uncle terry. His name is Enrique and lived with the Farr´s. (Dan and Janell). He knew dad really well and was a really cool guy. I'm sending a photo of him in this email and of the ruins that we went to today. That was fun but that's not why I'm here you know. I'm glad i met Enrique and went to the ruins but i want to have more success here and i hope to be a blessing to these people here. The little storm thing passed by us on Friday and Saturday and we didn't leave the house for a good while. Kind of went crazy but I'm better now because I'm out of the house. There wasn't church in total Guatemala and its just been a weird few days i guess. All is well here and I'm in the same area as the members in your ward. Just that its probably a lot smaller than when he was here. Sorry i don't have much to write this week. Time flew by today. Love you all. The Book of
Mormon is true.
Elder Larson

Just for fun - then and now

I was really struck by this when I got the photos from Erik recently............check these out!

Sister Lawson and the Filipino children

Elder Larson and the Guatemalan children

Sister Lawson and Larry the dog

Elder Larson and Chatzi the dog

(somehow I don't think they ate Chatzi. Poor poor Larry the dog.........)

A Baptism in the Zone

This is the baptism of the son of the mother that Erik baptized last week.

Diane

Christian and all the jovenes (whatever that means)

Sorry, this was the size of the picture Erik sent me............

Baptism, companion change

Hey mom and family and anyone else who is reading this-

What a fun week it was. We had a baptism yesterday and it was really cool to see him make the decision to get baptized. When we got here we started to teach him from the beginning but he didn't seem to want anything. But once we started to teach him and visit him we knew it wasn't going to work, so we started go with a joven his same age. And then he changed completely. Opened up and listened to everything he said. It took a while but he went to a few activities to start out with and then he went to church with a shirt and tie we got him.....but the thing is his shirt wasn't not tucked in out all. But hey he came and it was fun to see him there. So he came his second week and he had nice pants, shirt tucked in, new sharp looking tie, and he did his hair. He looked completely different. It was amazing. I knew that we couldn't make the difference with him but the jovenes did it. With the activities and with being his friend. It was very cool to see. The bishop baptized him after church yesterday and he stood up humildemente and thanked everyone and said that he was grateful for the change that he has seen in his life.

Changes were today though. My companion is gone and 6 out of the 10 we have are gone. And this next change we will have 8 in the zonita. Big areas we have but 8 missionaries we will have. We´ll see how it goes but I'm excited. This last change was to get the zone out from the negative to zero. And President said we did what we were supposed to do and was grateful. Now we have a different perspective. Were taking it from zero into the positives. My next companion is from Honduras and everyone says he is really cool and chill. I want to focus on the temple this change with the members and get the assistance up in all of the stake.

Oh and thanks for the shoes. I have them on right now and they have been my source of luck you can say this week. I like them a lot. And thanks for everything. I feel spoiled but at the same time its nice getting stuff. And I'm also glad to hear that everyone is filling out their papers right now and getting ready to go. Given it will be 3-4 yrs until i see them again. But that's just how it is i guess. There's a big change in the mission one can see when they let it enter ones body. Elder Williamson is probably the missionary that has really let the mission enter his life most. He told me he´s seen a big change in me in these past 6 weeks. I haven't really but he's seen it. The one thing i want the most is to open up more. I was and still kind of am a quiet person. That's just how i am at times. But i want to have others come into my life more so i can be more outgoing, kind, humble, happy, and more a rounded person.

I love you all more than agua in a small plastic bag.

Have a great week

Elder Larson