1/17/2010

Hey Everyone,
Well, Its been another six weeks in the mission... And it is that time of the transfer again. Time to get a new companion. I will be transfering to a new area also. Elder Potts, My trainee, will be taking over here and i will go get somebody new... i'm a little nervouse. I will still be a district leader and i will also get a cell phone, so that will be nice. It will be alot easier to contact people. we just found out earlier that we were moving, but i will let you know my area and companion next week. i will try to send a picture. In this email i have included a couple picture from the last couple of weeks. The one of me in the water up to my shins happened just this last week. It had been raining for about an hour. And we had an appointment at one of our investigators. We didn't want to miss the appointment so we just headed over to there house... As we drew nearer it didn't start to look any better.... so we finally got to the point where it was a muddy trail. We began down the trail and it got muddier and muddier. At one point i almost slipped and fell and barely caught myself.... so i was very lucky. Finally we got to the point where the water came up over the trail..... we had come this far, and we weren't turning back... so we took off our shoes, and continued down the road. what a trip. It was alot of fun. When we got to there house, the water was inside about a foot deep. and the whole family was up on the second floor. (two story bamboo house. way cool!) so when we got there they all came down the stairs and we began to share. It was a way good lesson. I think we gained alot of respect with them this week. We went to visit them again last night, but this time the grandfather was there. His motto is "diyos man gihapon" All the churches are true as long as you have faith (Very common here....) we had been dealing with this for weeks and i was getting very sick of it. so i let elder potts do his part of the sharing at the begining and then i took over. I started asking questions and then i went into doctorine, I pointed out alot of ways what he was saying was wrong, i only used the bible cause that was all he was familier with. He kept trying to argue but i wouldn't let him start. i just made him answer my questions. The spirit was way strong in that lesson. I was surprised. At the end i asked him if he had prayed to know if the church was true... he said... "Ya i have prayed" i said "No. Have you praid to know of THIS church is true..." He said no. I said "okay. that is where you need to start. When you have done that and given this a chance, then i will let you try and argue with me. But until then you have nothing you can say." He looked at me and said.... "Okay, i will do it" The change in him was amazing. I didn't see that coming. I was scared he would yell... but it worked!!! i was so amazed!!! were going back tonight to see if he has done it. Wish us luck. I also have to say good-bye.... not looking forward to that. Well that is my spiritual story this week. I hope you guys are all doing well. I look forward to hearing from ALL of you next week. ;)
Love always
Elder Larsen