Alma 26:27

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been the hardest week of my mission thus far and I've been able to learn so much from it. We talked to quite a few people but none of them became investigators because they wouldn't even experiment upon the word. We had almost all of our appointments cancelled and/or rescheduled. The Lord is teaching me patience :)

Last P-day we spent the afternoon at the apartment since we didn't have enough miles to drive to the stake center. We might actually stay within the allotted number of miles for this month which is a miracle. Now that I know how to preserve miles and plan better next month we shouldn't have such a problem with miles. We had a short visit with Helen that night and she's still doing well. She had to cancelled her appointment this week but we should be meeting with her this next week.

Tuesday was a hard day. We biked around for 4 hours in the afternoon trying to visit and talk to people but no one was home (except for a member) and no one was interested. We had a lesson with the foster kids. They didn't do a very good job of asking their mom to be baptized and so she said no. Hopefully this next week we'll be able to go with Bishop and visit their Mom so that she'll understand why her children want to be baptized. There's another 2 kids in the area that have been in a similar situation. They're ready for baptism but their mom has been denying permission. Last night Bishop was able to talk to their mom and she said that she'll let her kids be baptized if she feels that they aren't being forced into it. So this next week we're going to go have a lesson with the mom and the kids to show her that the kids aren't being pressured into it. If everything goes well they should get permission this week! Tuesday night we had an appointment set up with Taryn but she had to cancel because she wasn't feeling well. So instead we went to visit some less-actives who totally ignored us. Then the member who was driving us around started telling us about his Mission in Russia. Basically he has the coolest mission stories I've ever heard in my life. It made my mission in Oklahoma sound extremely boring and depressing. Tuesday night I was asking myself, "What am I even doing here?"

Wednesday was temple day. We had an awesome devotional as a zone about remembering the miracles and experiences the Lord has blessed us with. The temple was amazing (as always) and I was able to receive the spiritual guidance and strength I desperately needed. That night we had a lesson with a recent convert and then we visited the less-active and his girlfriend again. They're progressing slowly but surely and they've been to church 3 times in a row now!

Thursday we had a really good weekly planning session and were able to find lots of ways for us to improve our companionship unity. Elder Holbrook was feeling sick so he had to get some rest in the afternoon. Once he was feeling a little better we went and had a lesson with the foster kids about what it means to follow the example of Jesus Christ. Then we went and taught the Judd family (still no news on the 116 pages unfortunately ;)) a recent convert lesson. After that we visited Jimmy (the super nice guy me and Elder Yamane ran into last Friday) and we started talking to the guy who lives across the street (who is also named Jimmy) and gave him a Book of Mormon. So now we are following up with 2 Jimmys that both live basically right next to each other :) We got back at the apartment a little before 8 to eat dinner (Thursday was the only night we didn't have a dinner appointment this week) and we started talking to this Preacher guy who lives just down the stairs from us. Apparently this guy was a national champion wrestler and was making millions of dollar a year but then one day God spoke to him so he devoted his life to preaching about Jesus. He's an awesome guy and he talked to us for more than an hour. We tried to tell him about the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon but he was more interested in telling us stuff than listening to what we had to say. Hopefully his heart will be softened and we'll be able to give him a Book of Mormon.

Friday we had district meeting at the church. When we got done with district meeting, a Wedding luncheon was being held for someone in our ward and multiple people invited us to come and eat food so we crashed the luncheon ;) It was fun and we got some free lunch out of it even if it was slightly awkward. After that I got to go on exchanges with Elder Beus, one of our zone leaders. It was an awesome experience and I learned so much from him. We rode bikes around in the afternoon and Elder Beus did a great job of showing me how to talk with literally everyone we saw. We met with a less-active before dinner and by some miracle we were able to give her a Book of Mormon. The beginning of the conversation she insisted that we only share scriptures from the bible but the Lord softened her heart and after she let us read from the Book of Mormon she finally accepted one. For our dinner message that night we were going to show a Mormon message but we couldn't get the TV to cooperate. So instead I chose to read a scripture from the Book of Mormon about missionary work (Alma 36:24-25) and I had the opportunity to bear my testimony about eternal families and how I'm out here to give other people that same knowledge. It was a really spiritual experience :)

Saturday morning we attended a child of record baptism. The family lost one of their sons in a really sad and tragic accident some years ago. It was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've been to. We were going to go do some service in the afternoon but it got cancelled last second. So instead we spent the afternoon catching up on 12-week and making a part-member list. Before dinner we taught the atheist friend of one of our recent converts about the plan of salvation. That was an interesting experience because I hadn't met any atheists in Oklahoma up till that point. Our dinner appointment that night lasted more than 2.5 hours. It was just crazy. During dinner I felt like I constantly had 2 different people trying to talk to me at the same time. After dinner when we were all sitting together the family basically talked our ears off. I felt like the only way I would be heard was if I stood up and yelled, "Ok we need to leave soon, can we share a message with you before we go?!" We had almost no control over the situation and we didn't have any set appointments later that night and so we were basically trapped listening to members talk about one random thing after the other. It was insanity. That night I realized just how difficult the Oklahoma City Mission is going to be for me. I didn't think I would have the problem of wanting to work hard and get stuff done but having no way to do it. I already know how to work hard and get stuff done. I'm learning lots of patience with the people of Oklahoma though because they're so laid back and slow paced. They can definitely talk your ears off. This spread out area is starting to drive me crazy because things are moving so slow and I feel unproductive quite often. So right now I'm getting to learn lots and lots of patience and lots and lots of optimism :) The scriptures are so good for fighting discouragement and I don't know what I would do without them. "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Okies, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." (Alma 26:27) The Okies may be talking our ears off and/or ignoring our message but with lots of patience we will have success!

Sunday during sacrament meeting one of the youth in our ward gave his farewell talk. It was weird to think that I was doing that same thing a month and a half ago. I feel like a totally different person already. But I was able to rekindle the excitement and enthusiasm I had before I came out into the mission field which was awesome. I'm so pumped for this next week!! We had a really good training in priesthood about home teaching and I definitely need to do a better job at making quality home teaching visits when I get home. Seeing how a ward functions without home teaching has greatly strengthened my testimony of it. I now have a much stronger testimony of Home Teaching and I'm excited to go and do it when I get home :) Yesterday we could've easily ended up with 2 Member present lessons, 2 Book of Mormons handed out, and 2 new investigators. We ended up with 1 Member present lesson and 1 Book of Mormon handed out. Everything is awesome ;)

We have an appointment with Freedom Sinclair tonight and hopefully she'll show up this time. She's been working 2 jobs and so she's been ridiculously busy. We haven't met with her in 2 weeks. Hopefully we can get things worked out and back on track tonight.

The miracle this week was me getting a large dose of reality that will hopefully help me to continue to become a better missionary :) I'm so happy to be serving where I am and I love the people of Oklahoma!

Love, Elder Larsen

The two AP's Elder Hoffman and Elder Duffin. 

"He really cares about me, doesn't he?"

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has flown by! The week before last went by pretty slow but lots of things are happening now so time is flying by. It seems like yesterday I got dropped off at the MTC but at the same time this past month has felt like at least 3 months.

Last P-day we went to the Stake Center in the afternoon and hung out with the other missionaries in the area. I got to play basketball which was a blast! P-days are so refreshing. That night we had our first appointment with Taryn. She is 18 and took all the lessons a couple years ago with the sister missionaries but then the sister missionaries somehow forgot about her or something crazy like that. Anyway, we've been trying to contact her for a while but I asked her dad for her phone number and we were finally able to set up a solid appointment and meet her for the first time. We had a great lesson about the Restoration and committed her to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. It was a great way to start off the week! We have another appointment with her tomorrow so hopefully she'll have kept her commitments and become a progressing investigator.

Tuesday was when we experienced a miracle. Last Saturday the 15th we walked down this street to try and visit some less-actives. One of them was busy and the other one didn't answer. As we were walking back towards our car, this older guy pulled up to his house and started walking inside. We talked to him for a little bit but he wasn't really interested at all in the gospel. So on Tuesday, we went to visit the same less-actives and again one of them was busy and the other wasn't home. So we decided to knock on the door of the guy we talked to on Saturday. His wife, Helen, answered the door and she is super interested in the gospel. She invited us back the next day and told us that her daughter lives in Utah and is a member. As we left she said, "He really cares about me, doesn't he?" Yes, he does! Such a cool and spiritual experience! The Lord really will lead us to people and place us in the path of people who are prepared to receive the restored gospel. The rest of the day went basically straight down hill though. Our appointment with the Foster kids fell through because of miscommunication and Freedom Sinclair cancelled her appointment for that night and almost dropped us completely. So after dinner that night we were stuck at the apartment bored and out of miles. But it was still an amazing day :)

Wednesday morning I woke up several times because the thunder outside was so loud. The rain was nice though. We spent the morning at Veteran's meeting at Mission Headquarters. Got a lot of good instruction from President and the APs and got fed lunch. It was pretty awesome :) One piece of instruction that stood out to me was when President Walkenhorst talked about pleading with the Lord. This is the Lord's work and we obviously can't control it but it's ok to plead with the Lord for miracles. He has the final say and we shouldn't counsel the Lord, but pleading shows more desire and faith on our part and there are plenty of example of it in the scriptures. I thought that was really cool. Our lesson with Helen went well and we got to help a member move. That night we went and visited a less-active and actually ended up teaching his girlfriend about the restoration and giving her a Book of Mormon. They've been to church the past 2 weeks so hopefully they keep on progressing. 

Thursday we visited Brother Judd (I attached a picture of his house) and helped him give his first Priesthood blessing to his daughter that has West-nile virus. It was a really cool experience. A lot of people we tried to contact weren't home but finally some members were and they invited us in. They gave us a referral and then fed us dinner later that night which was really nice of them (Worked out well because it was the only night besides Friday that we didn't have a dinner appointment.)

Friday we had a really good district meeting and then went on exchanges. I stayed in the OKC 7th with Elder Yamane (who was my district leader in the MTC) and so we had about 4 weeks combined experience in the mission field. It made everything a lot more intimidating and difficult but we did good and managed to hand out a Book of Mormon.  Toward the end of the day we biked up to this less-active member's home and they didn't answer. We started walking back towards our bike when a little dog came running out and starting barking at us. The owner came out, sent the dog inside, and then proceeded to praise us for preaching  and spreading the good word about Jesus Christ. He was super nice and was very open to our message. He accepted the Book of Mormon and gave us something to drink. I love the people of Oklahoma. Most of them are so nice and we've had countless people give us water bottles while we're out walking in the heat. When we got back to our bikes, this guy came out of his house and yelled,  "Hey are you guys Jehovah's Witnesses?!" We told him we weren't. He then proceeded to explain to us about the Holy Trinity and how he believes in the Father, the son, and the Holy spirit. We tried to tell him that we believe in Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, and the Holy Ghost. He called us a not very nice name and went into his house. Interesting experience. I almost want to send the JW's a referral now ;)

Saturday we had another lesson with Helen. We probably went into too much detail and she asked a lot of questions as a result. We were teaching her for almost 3 hours which was really ridiculous. We've since repented and focused more on teaching simply and answering questions simply. Helen wants to be baptized but her husband is strong Church of Christ so she doesn't want to make him mad. We'll see how that turns out. 

Sunday my companion and I fasted for the Welch kids and went to teach them after church. We role-played with them on how to ask their mom for baptismal permission so hopefully today they'll finally get permission to be baptized. If so, we'll be working hard to get a baptism planned for this Saturday! We also visited some less-actives yesterday. I've noticed that there are basically two types of less-actives. Those who have a testimony of the gospel and know they should be at church, and those who were never truly converted and fell away soon after baptism and now want nothing to do with the church. We had more less-actives show up to church this week and hopefully even more will come next week. Our ward also finally has home-teaching assignments which will help us a ton. Up till now, the missionaries have had the primary responsibility for the less-actives and recent converts. Hopefully the ward will continue to fulfill their responsibilities and take a better lead in helping less-actives and recent converts. Preach my Gospel makes it clear that we should be helping the members do missionary work. Right now it's more like the members helping the missionaries do missionary work which is good but it's not ideal. Member missionary work is where it's at!

We had an appointment with Freedom Sinclair last night but she didn't show up. We really don't know what's going on with her but we're praying that we can find a way to help her. It's so sad to see people lose sight of the gospel because you know how much it can bless their life and you want them to have it so bad. But this is the Lord's work and singing hymns really helps fight the discouragement that can come sometimes.

I've learned so much in the past month. A mission really is a model you can use for the rest of your life. Already I feel so much more prepared for the challenging future ahead. I couldn't be happier and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!

Love, Elder Larsen

(P.S. I almost stepped on that spider when I was getting a drink at night. Fun experience ;))

Week 2 in OKC 7th ward

Dear Family and Friends,

This past week has been awesome! I'm still doing good and everything is going well.

Last week's P-day was a Zone P-day so we went to the park and played football and ultimate Frisbee with everyone in the zone. It was so much fun and I got to see my MTC comp. Elder Dayley :) That same night we had an STM (Standard Training Meeting). We watched a video about driving safely. My favorite part was when Elder Scott said, "If someone pulls out in front of you, smile." That's definitely something I need to work on ;)

Tuesday my comp had a LTM (Leadership Training Meeting) because he is our District Leader. So I was on exchanges for most of the day with Elder Barton in the OKC 1st ward. I got to ride my bike for the first time and I had a blast! We handed out 3 Book of Mormons and got to talk to lots of people. I kind of wish I was in that area so I could feel more productive each day. Sometimes we are just stuck at the apartment doing basically nothing because we don't have enough miles to drive somewhere. And we can't just walk outside and do stuff because our apartment isn't even in the area and it would take us forever to bike to the nearest neighborhood. It's so frustrating sometimes. Street contacting and tracting is also really hard to do in our area. Most people are at work during the day so knocking doors doesn't really work. And if anyone is home and is crazy enough to be outside they usually run inside their houses as soon as they see us. One guy was sitting on his porch and his Rottweiler was barking at us. "How are you doing today?" No response. "What's your dog's name?" "Killer" "Well have a wonderful day." So we basically rely off of referrals and spend a lot of time with less actives.

Thursday was fantastic because we had 3 lessons in one day and got 3 different members to come to all of them. We had a solid lesson with the Foster children (who still don't have permission to be baptized). We set up an appointment with a referral we got from some lady who lives in Orem and talked to this couple about the gospel on a plane ride. We taught them the Restoration and gave them a Book of Mormon so we'll have to follow up with them this week. They go to the Church of Christ so we'll see what they think about the restored gospel. Our third lesson was with Freedom Sinclair and it was awesome! We talked a little about the restoration and gave her a tour of the chapel. And the since the temple is literally across the parking lot we got to walk over and talk about it as well.  She's had some struggles in her life and I'm so excited for her to be baptized and receive the joy and peace that come from the gospel :)

Friday night we went and taught the Judd's (a recent convert family) about the Priesthood and Temple marriage. Brother Judd is a character. He thinks the Church is going to re-publish the Book of Mormon because apparently the 116 lost manuscript pages of the Book of Lehi were being passed down in his family for the past 175 years or whatever and last week he went to Salt Lake City and met with Elder Anderson's son (The head of the Church History Dept. or something) and gave him the key to the deposit box that has the pages. So if the Church announces that the lost pages have been found, I know the guy who found and turned them in ;)

Saturday my companion insisted that we go help some members who are moving to Orem. It was at 3:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday and they live pretty far away so I was against it. They had plenty of help loading stuff into the moving truck, it cost us a LOT of miles, and I feel like there was better stuff for us to be doing. I love serving others but I've got the rest of my life to help people move. My time as a full-time missionary is relatively short.

Sunday we had some less-actives at Church which was cool :) We had a lesson with Freedom that night so we finished talking about the Restoration and re-committed her to reading the Book of Mormon and finding out for herself that it is true. Her baptismal date is Sept. 5 and we're so excited!

To answer some of your questions, Mom, I can't drive until I get my driving card this Wednesday so my companion has been doing all the driving. All the mission vehicles have this little box that keeps track of your driving habits so if you drive too aggressively or speed too much then your driving privilege gets revoked. I think it's awesome because now I don't really have to worry about companions driving too fast or doing other stupid stuff. We have dinner appointments about every other night but hopefully soon we'll have one almost every night. I'm getting plenty to eat so don't worry :) I bought a pillow last Monday so it's easier to fall and stay asleep now. I might need to buy a blanket when it gets colder but for right now I'm fine. I get $135 for groceries and other expenses each month. I've been able to exercise each morning now which is really nice. My comp. has a pull up bar so I might get one of those if my next apartment doesn't have one.  I wake up at 6:30 every morning. My district has 2 other companionships, one of which are the Zone Leaders.  We go to the temple 2 twice a year. The next Temple day happens to be next week though so that will be fun :) The building our ward meets in is right next to the temple which is cool. Transfers are every six weeks and I write to President every week.

Thank you Mom and Dad for the box of goodies, I've probably got enough junk food to last me till the end of the year ;) Friday we finally got some rain in the morning which was so refreshing. This next week will hopefully be better than last week. Things are picking up and we're making great progress but I know we still have a LOT of room for improvement. I'm learning to be more patient and to not be discouraged. Hope you all are doing well and I have you have a fantastic week!

Love, Elder Larsen

(I forgot to bring my camera to the Library so I'll try and send pictures to you guys later today)

Good Luck Greenie

This is one of the reasons I was so glad Tyler was called Stateside. I love putting together stuff like this. So grateful for Pinterest and all the fun ideas that are there. His first package in Oklahoma. I'm sure there will be many more to come. This is the fun part of having a missionary. He requested a few more T-shirts and his flash drive so we then added all the green stuff we could find that we thought he might use or enjoy.  

First Week in OKC

His new companion Elder Holbrook

Dear Family and Friends,

Oklahoma is awesome and I'm doing fantastic! :) The first night here was kind of chaotic because there were 31 missionaries that President had to deal with. I slept at one of the Zone Leader's apartment and didn't get much sleep because I had no pillow and I was on an air mattress. The next morning all the new missionaries went to the church for transfer meeting. I got my new companion (Elder Holbrook) and my new area (Oklahoma 7th Ward).

My companion, Elder Holbrook, is a great guy. His last companion was really lazy and drove him insane so he's glad to be working hard again. He is from Payson and wants to join the Marines when he gets home. He has been out on his Mission for 20 months and this is his first time training someone. We get along just fine and are working hard every day. We've been spending time cleaning up the apartment, updating the area book, and starting to make a difference in the Ward.

My area is absolutely huge. I won't be riding my bike at all in this area. It's so spread out so we have to drive everywhere. My apartment isn't even in our area which is slightly obnoxious. The ward is one of the best in the mission though and I'm so excited to work with the amazing members! 

Our day usually consists of driving around and trying to contact potential investigators and less-active members. We do our planning sessions with a GPS (that the ward mission leader lent to us) because geography plays such a big part in who we can and can't visit everyday. We only have so many miles on our car (1200 to be exact) so we usually pick one area each day and spend all our time there.  We aren't doing very good at finding so hopefully we can both become a lot better at that so we can find more people to teach. It's been kind of frustrating not teaching hardly any lessons since I got here. It seems like no one is ever home (or they're ignoring us) or they don't care about our message. The other day we had 2 houses in a row where the person opened the door and then closed it before we could say much of anything. Every day we make all sorts of mistakes whether it's spending lots of time at a member's home and forgetting to share a spiritual message or teaching a lesson to recent convert instead of actually teaching the person. But we're learning from our mistakes and making lots of progress. For example, after butchering the recent convert lesson we went to the home of a less active family, spent time getting to know them, tied the conversation to the gospel, shared a scripture that the spirit prompted me to, and committed them to attend church the next day. They accepted the invitation and seemed open to coming back to the gospel. (They didn't actually show up yesterday though which was really disappointing. What made it worse was that part of the lesson in 3rd hour was about their number one concern which is keeping children reverent and under control during church. Hopefully we can visit them again this week and recommit them.) 

One of few people we've been able to contact was a lady who was outside watering her plants. She was a Jehovah's Witness (which was surprising because it seems like everyone here is Baptist, Methodist, or catholic) and she refused to read the book of Mormon. She thought it would corrupt her thinking and make her stop believing the things she was taught growing up or something ridiculous like that. It was an interesting experience. I didn't realize people could be so close-minded about reading a book.

There are SO many churches in Oklahoma. It's crazy. You can't go more than a couple of blocks without seeing a church of some sort. The most interesting one's I've seem so far are "The First Church of Jesus Christ, Scientist" and "The First Church of Christ Epiphany".  People keep on saying that if the Bible belt had a buckle, it would be Oklahoma. I'm starting to believe it.

This week has been VERY hot and VERY humid. If I was in a biking area, I don't know what I would do. Just walking around a neighborhood for 15 minutes in the afternoon is enough to get you drenched in sweat. Although today there is a chance of rain so that 's exciting :)

We currently have 3 investigators with a baptismal date set for August 29th. The problem is that they are Foster children (Ages 11, 13, and 14) and need permission from their mom to get baptized. On Thursday we reviewed with them the Plan of Salvation and tried to give them the courage to ask their mom. We've been praying for them and hopefully when they see their mom today they'll get the papers signed. They're ready for baptism and it's so frustrating that they can't do it because of their mom. We have two other kids that are in basically the same boat but their Mom is much more against the church so it'll probably take longer for her to give in.

The Miracle this week was Freedom Sinclair. She shows up to sacrament meeting and the Bishop goes and starts talking to her. Turns out she's a former investigator who took all the lessons 2 years ago but never got baptized and just moved to Oklahoma from Arkansas. She says she wants to get baptized and we're meeting with her this week. Talk about a Golden Investigator. It's so exciting!!

The work here in the 7th ward is really picking up and my companion and I are so excited for direction we're heading. We're making so much progress and I'm so excited! This week has been very challenging but also very rewarding. I love my ward and area and I love my companion. I feel so blessed and I owe everything to the Lord. The gospel is true!

Love, Elder Larsen

On his way to Oklahoma. 

His apartment

When we talked to Tyler from the airport I requested pictures of every part of his apartment. He did as I asked. What a great kid!

View of the pool that he can't use. 

Their car 

Finally in Oklahoma!

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm finally in Oklahoma! President and Sister Walkenhorst are awesome. The plane rides were good and it's been a LONG day. We had sandwiches and got our bikes so it was basically Christmas Morning for me :)

Love, Elder Larsen

2nd week at the MTC

Dear Family and Friends,

My MTC experience has been absolutely amazing! My testimony has grown a lot and I've learned SO much. It's kind of overwhelming how much stuff I've been learning so hopefully I took good enough notes and will be able to remember everything I need. The spirit is so strong at the MTC and in some ways I wouldn't mind staying for a couple more weeks.

This week we worked pretty hard but towards the middle of the week we started running out of things to do and people to teach. They started teaching us the same lessons over and over again which was kind of boring for me but I managed to survive. 3 of our 4 "Investigators" were pretty easy and straight forward to teach except for Arnold. Teaching him was a very humbling experience and I'm so glad I got to teach him. When we taught him for the first time I was a little too confident but I was quickly humbled which was something I really needed.  We were able to commit almost all of our investigators to baptism so that was cool. I can't wait to get out into the field and start teaching real people! My two teachers (Sister Tueller and Sister Smith) are amazing and I feel so much more prepared to enter the field now. 

The miracle this week was the Tuesday night devotional. An emeritus general authority (Kendrick) spoke to us about personal revelation and it was an awesome talk. The cool part was the district devotional review we had after the devotional. One of the members of the Branch Presidency (Brother Briscoe) led the discussion and he taught us some really cool things. I'd been having a couple of doubts about the gospel and I was questioning my testimony. During the discussion, Brother Briscoe said that whenever he has doubts about the gospel he remembers the times when he couldn't deny the influence of the Holy Ghost. I felt like he was talking directly to me and hearing that helped me so much. I was glad that I wasn't the only one who has doubts from time to time and taking his advice helped me to dispel the doubts. I thought my testimony was pretty strong when I entered the MTC but it's been strengthened so much and I'll remember the amazing experiences I've had here for the rest of my life. It has been one of the most humbling experiences I've every had.

I feel so blessed for my companion and district. Our district really was a family and we had so much fun and so many cool experiences. I'm going to miss the missionaries that are going to Chicago West, they're awesome Elders. Saying goodbye to them last night was so bitter sweet.

One of my favorite things this week was Gym Time. It felt so good to go outside and run around. I was getting pretty tired of sitting in a classroom all day and I wish we would've had more gym time. Our gym time was almost always right after dinner though which was kind of annoying. I can't wait to get out into the field and be able to work out in the mornings as soon as I wake up instead of having to try to run right after I eat dinner.

I want to say thank you to everyone who has sent me packages and letters, it's so exciting to hear from friends and family. I love and miss you all :) 

I leave for Oklahoma at 3:35 AM tomorrow morning so the next time you hear from me I'll be in Oklahoma☺

Love, Elder Larsen

P.S. I've decided I like handwritten letters better than E-mail. Either works but if you want a longer response, feel free to write me a letter :)

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