#senditfortheboiz

Well well well..... here I am again. The exciting news this week is that we got a car but we only get 200 miles a month haha! So really we only take it to district meeting and church! Also the weather this week was awesome! It was so perfect! It actually felt like Fall here! On Sunday, I couldn't help but just smile it was too good!!!

Pday last week was pretty legendary, I had my first Canes! There isn't one in Vidor but on our way back from picking up our car we stopped in Beaumont and had some and it was ballin! Excpet I ate way too much and then I wanted to die while we were playing spikeball. But go drive yourselves to Vegas if you want some Canes friends and fam!

We did a lot of biking this week. On Tueday we were on our bikes from 1-8:30! Basically, we biked the areas that got hit really hard and would just stop and offer help. We were able to move some sheet rock for someone and gave our number to everyone and offered to come help them finish their house. After dinner, we were biking to go give these people we are teaching a purpose drop lesson since they hadn't been keeping any of our commitments and we ran into one of them on the way there. Turns out he had just bought a ton of weed and was telling us that "the herb" can cure anything including cancer! Interesting people, they told us later in the week they don't want us coming by anymore. 

We also ran into a lot of different people from different relgions this week. Everyone here attends a church its pretty cool! I ran into my first Jehovah’s Witness and she was an interesting lady but really kind! We also tried to teach this guy that was an atheist and he was also very interesting.... Anyway, it really was fun just biking around and talking to people. We just bike and offer service and then if they ask us about our church or what we do then we start to teach.   A lot of people around here are part of a religion so they are pretty knowledgeable about what is in the Bible and what they believe and all that. The best thing we can do is teach in an environment where the spirit can bear witness to them that it is true. I love being able to say that I don't know all the answers to their questions and am not the perfect teacher but I know that I am called of God to teach his word. We always challenge them to read the Book of Mormon and then we can promise that they will feel the spirit bear witness to them that this is true! The hardest part is they already have good faith and are good people that follow Christ the best they can. It is kind of like that thing that Dad sent me that good is the enemy to great. They are so content with their bible and their way of life that a lot of times they don't see that the Book of Mormon or the fullness of the gospel can make their lives GREAT. 

We had the opportunity of teaching a guy on Sunday because we did some service for him! We were biking around and stopped to see if this guy needed help. He told us we could help him clean up his lawn and then not even 5 minutes after we started he was really impressed that we were just offering help to people and started to ask us some questions. We were able to teach him the restoration and then he started asking questions about what we do after this life and we were also able to answer those! We left him with a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets and we got a return appointment for November 9th! It reminded me of the story in Alma where King Lamoni was so impressed with Ammon because when he asked where this mighty man was they said that Ammon was down preparing his horses and serving him. I have a total testimony that service really opens peoples hearts!

Another example of that was people we helped out last week. We went by just to check up and see how they were doing. This time we were in our proselyting clothes so they didn't recognize us at first and slammed the door on us but then a couple of seconds later she opened it back up when she realized who we were and she was so glad to see us!

This week I also got my first experience of hanging drywall at a member in our ward that really was struggling and needed help so now I can kind of do that too! Its pretty fun learning how to do all of this stuff and being able to help people even though im not a professional!

Now for the story of the week! We were biking around and then these kids came up to us and asked if we wanted to hit their jump so of course I #sentitfortheboiz. It was this tiny little table top they built and they were so impressed I could actually jump it haha! Looks like all of these bike skillz are paying off! I also love to ride around in a wheelie and so I get a lot of thumbs up and people honking at me for that!

Anyway, I hope you guys all had an awesome week! I love the updates about Houston!  Sounds like you guys are all in for Houston! So am I! I actually don't hear much about it but I would love for them to win!  I think they are going to pull it out!  Hopefully they just win it in 6 because a game 7 would be crazy! Plus, this town deserves a win more than LA does!   It is so weird hearing about TV shows! I am so out of the loop! We were actually at a member’s home for dinner this week (they fed us Pozole and it was super good) and their kid was talking about how they wanted to see Stranger Things and I was like that came out forever ago but then I realized the new one is out!  And now that you saw our uniforms you can see how serious we were about this basketball tournament! 

I love hearing from all of you and I know that this is the Lords work and he guides us to the people we need to teach! Find little ways to serve people and it will bless your lives and the people around you as well! 

Elder Larson

Mom’s Questions

Did you get your piano book yet?

Yes, I got my piano book it was at the office!

What are your plans for Halloween?  Do you have a ward Halloween party?

For Halloween I think we might carve pumpkins just for fun but there isn't really anything we can do since our ward only had a party on Saturday for the primary kids

Did Vidor have their homecoming game yet?  Were you able to go?

Homecoming is this weekend!! I am so excited that we get to go!  Our ward mission leader bought us some tickets and that will be on Friday! Everyone gets out of school early and they have a parade and then we will go to the game that night. The town basically shuts down and so it wouldn't make sense for us not to go. I am so excited! football here is a huge deal and it sounds like the halftime performance is awesome. They do a lights out band performance with fireworks. We will probably bring A lot of pass along card and see what we can do! 

What are your plans for P-Day? 

Today we woke up, did the bat cave, did laundry, came back and emailed now we are getting Elder Bott’s haircut and then go shopping and then to the church for some spikeball! Then we will have dinner and a lesson with this lady named Cathy that we met!

Do you spend Pday with your district (I guess just you and the sister companionship?)

Yeah we spend it with our zone leaders who are technically in our district. The sisters will probably come play spikeball too 

Have you experienced any homesickness?  If so, what has helped you?

 Yeah, I think about home and things I did there but the mission really shows you what your priorities should be so while doing some stuff at home sounds nice there isn't anything I would rather be doing than being here in Texas!

FLUSHED!?!?!?

My goodness what a week! Some crazy changes! Keep reading to find out more 😉😉😉😉😉😉  

Fall break! I forgot that is a thing! There are only 2 types of days in the mission field, pday and not pday well I guess 3, there's also Peve (pday eve)

Looks Like the biking is looking all good at home!    To see that photo of Connor was so weird!

**Pictures of Connor we sent Cameron**

I literally thought it was me! Hahaha except I would never wear that helmet with my xc stuff now so it makes sense.  The leaves don't fall off here so it still seems like summer sometimes haha! But The weather is heavenly right now. 

Monday started off the baller week. We had a huge bball tourney down in Port Arthur with 2 other districts and we went all out! I mean seriously, we went all out! We spent most of our day scouting out the other potential players on their teams and then made some game plans. After a lot of blood sweat and even tears we came out victorious and we crowned champions of the mission! #vidornation 

We finally were able to get in with our investigstors Becky and Billy for dinner on Wednesday but that was the day I went on exchanges with Elder Baker so I missed our only set appointment haha! Who knows when I'll get to go and teach them! But me and Elder Baker had a really good time. We did service almost all day on our exchange so it didn't seem much different. We were helping someone with their house of course but the home owner was wearing a weekly bike race series shirt which I saved at home! I was like what the heck?? Turns out he worked at Sundance. He was a super awesome guy. Me and Elder Baker then went and knocked some doors since the lady we planned to meet wasn't home. It was lots of fun since me and Elder Baker both just got out this last transfer so we just talked to people and tried to share a little message with them but just got rejected the whole time. Lots of fun though! 

Exchange with Elder Baker

Thursday we did some service alllllll day at this non members house which was awesome! They live on this street where all of our active members live and they have been pretty hard hearted towards them and the church. But we mucked out their house and took a ton of sheet rock and cabinets and all that and aired everything out! They were super grateful and the members said the have been at least talking to them…..so, progress! 

Friday, we went to go teach this guy named Dylan and he had a whole squad there! There were 4 of them all together! When we pulled up they were all smoking weed and asked if we wanted to join them. We declined and then tried to teach them but they were kind of out of it haha! This one guy stuck a cat down his shirt at one point.... it was pretty funny. And this was the night our friends got their flush calls........drum roll.......Everyone in our district is outta Vidor except us!!! We survived the transfer!! I am excited to be here with Elder Bott another transfer and see what we can do!  Elder Bott will become the new district leader and there will only be 2 sisters in our district since the other area got closed down and the Zone leaders will pick up their area!  Because he is a District leader we get a car which is SUPER nice because we won't have the Vidor 2 Elders to take us to district meeting, laundry, shopping, church, ect. anymore.  So, we are grateful for that.  Basically our work will probably be just biking around and trying to help people and pray that they will be touched to bring up the gospel so we can and have someone to teach. But really, it's interesting because we don't want to just be biking around and having people think we are just taking advantage of the hurricane to convert people.  We will be all good….it’s just an interesting situation and me and Elder Bott are trying to work with members and go to home teacher appointments with less active families.

#RIP District

The best story of the week: we went to go visit Randy and he has just tons of old cars he's restored and modernized so he can drive around. I brought my camera and I was taking pictures and he said do you wanna go take it on a drive? So he drove us around in his Ford model T! It was awesome! It had this old horn and everything! So baller!

Saturday we helped our ward mission leader with some stuff in the morning and helped the other Elders clear out their apartment since there was so much stuff! 14 years of stuff is gone now! That pretty much took our whole day and then we went out for a while but we didn't have much time. 

Sunday is always a good day! I can always feel the spirit at church and love being able to partake of the sacrament and renew my covenants each week!  We had lunch at the Nation's house and it was awesome! They were so nice and they talked a lot about their son that is serving in Korea! He left the for the MTC the same time as me and he is still there hahaha thank goodness for speaking English! We talked to a lot of people after church but nobody was really interested with our message. I love talking to the people here though, they are all so kind and love God! We got to go over to Randy house and read the scriptures with him. Me and Elder Bott both had the same passage in mind to share with him and it went really well. His wife gets back next week and then we can try to work with her and see where she is at and what she is struggling with. 

I'm grateful for the chance I have to be here in Vidor again! Like 90% of our area is not available to proselyte in but I know the Lord is keeping us here for a reason and we will just keep working hard and having fun along the way! Love you all and love hearing from you! I started saying y'all mostly as a joke but now it feels weird to say you guys... also I love just listening to some of the things people say haha the people here are really funny and super nice. Anyway, hope y'all are doing good! 

Elder Larson

Picture with me!

Mom’s Questions

Did you get your piano music and your Halloween cards from the Paul family party?

I didn't get the music yet. I'm not sure what's up with that but I hope it comes at some point. Was it supposed to be here already? I did get the package from the family and I loved it! It was so fun to hear from most of the cousins! And I love having pictures to look at! 

How did your district change with transfers?

So, like I said earlier we were the only ones that survived! The zone leaders are technically part of our district but they have to go to all of the district meetings in the zone so they don't come very often to our meeting 

How long has Elder Baker been in the mission field?

Elder baker came out with me 

How is the weather in Texas?  Have you adjusted?

The weather in Texas is so nice! The last 2 weeks it had been super super cool and dry which has been awesome! It actually feels a little like fall now!  It's crazy to think I've already been out for 2 months! It had gone by so fast and so slow at the same time... it's weird Halloween is next week and I'm still wearing short sleeves and all that and everything. 

Sounds like the members are taking really good care of you.  Have you gained any weight?

Also about weight that's a super sensitive question to ask... just kidding! I am like 151 pounds so yes, I have gained like 10 pounds or something since I left for the MTC. It's probably pure muscle so I'm really not that worried about it!

                                                                            

How was the zone basketball game last pday?

 Pday was a baller day last week! Our district won the tourney thanks to me and elder Anderson (our zone leader that is from Panguitch) he played high school ball in like a 3a school!  We looked baller too....

How did the work go this week?  How was your first appointment?

The work is still so much service. We only went out and did normal stuff all day on Sunday.  I had to miss the Wednesday night dinner! Exchanges were set on that night so that was a bummer! But we sat down and talked with Randy about his wife and read the scriptures with him and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to him so that was lots of fun 

Members text me and ask me about what your favorite meal is, what should I tell them?

Tell them to feed me something to make me not fat... just kidding I really don't care they all cook so good so it's always super yummy!

What has surprised you most about mission life?

I thought mission life everyone would be like crazy different but you forget that missionaries are normal people too haha! So, I'm glad we still joke and have a lot of fun!

Elder Bott and Elder Larson

Mehoy Minoy

Insert by Melissa:  **Last Monday Sister Emily Simpson (a "good" friend of Cameron's) left the MTC for the Texas Houston South Mission.  Emily and Cameron have dated the last few years in high school and we were ALL surprised when Cameron received his mission call to Texas Houston East and a month or so later Emily received her call to Texas Houston South.  Last week was Sister Simpson's first week in the mission field.  On Friday, I received the following forwarded text from Emily's mom:

Text from Sister Newell to Haley Fugal.  Fun to connect with Sister Simpson!

I could not believe that this member had met Cameron and Emily.  I wrote Cameron and told him about the text.  This was his response in his letter to me:  "Yeah that story about Emily was pretty crazy haha the member, Sister Newell texted us and said I'm here in Pearland visiting and there is a Sister here that knows Elder Larson and I asked our members we were with right then where that was and they said South of Houston so I knew it was her haha! That's pretty funny! 

We also had our family Halloween party this week and we had a competition where we tried to stack golf balls.  We thought Tad was incredible because he stacked 3.  After everyone left the party, Connor stacked 4!!!  We sent Cameron the pictures and of course his response was...."Halloween sounded super fun and if I ever find golf balls I will balance 5."  ....Of course he will.***

Connor, "Fear on Inside Out" mastered the golf ball stack with 4 golf balls

Cameron's Letter:

Hello friends and family! It's so good to talk to you all again today! This week was baller and I am getting pretty good at riding a wheelie on my bike!

Tuesday I went on exchanges with zone leader Elder Story. I had to lead out the area which was fun! We were basically just biking around parts of our area we hadn't biked yet to see how much damage or water they have received.  We came across this legendary display thing that someone made.

Elder Story

We also stopped at the tracks and took some dope pictures. Just wait for our album to drop......its gonna be fire!  We came to the conclusion that our whole area except like 3 streets we can't proselyte on because they don't want us trying to knock on people's doors right now so we just bike around asking if people need help for now. 

Elder Story and Elder Larson

Wednesday: Amanda (the lady we did her floor last week) called us and needed some help painting so we did her whole house! She has been working crazy hard to get her house back in order so she is always super grateful when we can come over and help her out. She is a way good cook and always feeds us too--so it is a good deal! Then we went and helped out at the other wards youth activity since they needed help. It was a murder mystery with the story in Helaman 8.   It is where Nephi prophesies that the chief judge would be dead. We had to act it out and it was the funniest thing!! I have way too much fun on my mission its just such a good time preaching the gospel and having fun with the other Elders! Great times! 

Thursday: We had Zone Conference in Kingwood with Elder Hallstrom that just spoke in this last conference! He was pretty good and it was like a 5 hour meeting which was crazy! We talked a lot about teaching repentance and baptizing converts! Then we had to make our usual stop at our Baytown Bucees of course and I actually have a picture this time!

Over 100 gas pumps!!!

Friday: We went and did some service and unloaded this HUGE trailer that was donated from Utah! So go Utah! It was full of sheet rock, insulation, wood, sinks, and all sorts of other good stuff. We moved like $1,300 of sheet rock that day to people's houses so if you donated any money to some fund,  thanks from all the members here! It makes a huge difference. The lady we gave them to had insurance and she was telling us most people would think they are pretty well off but insurance companies are sneakily little SNAKES!  While they should cover her electrical they said her house is old and needs to be rewired so they actually won't cover it. Lots of things like that which is lame.  Even the people that have insurance out here are still struggling which is sad. We went and visited Becky and Billy and they were home and let us come in! We talked about the Book of Mormon lots and then they invited us back to feed us on Wednesday so we are super excited about that! 

Elder Bott, Archibald, Baker, Larson

Saturday: We went to our stake presidents house for studies. He does that once in a while at his house which is pretty dang nice! We talked about a lot of cool things in the church and he is a genius! He's a convert but he spends hours and hours studying the gospel so he knows everything! All our appointments weren't home when we went by so that was hard but we got to go to the Harvey after party! It was a fireside and they made this awesome video that they showed! They called it stories of Harvey and just talked about it for like 14 minutes! I wish I had that video but maybe it will end up somewhere eventually. 

Sunday: Me and Elder Bott were assigned to give like 12 min talks so we did that! I gave mine on becoming more Christlike in our service and Elder Bott was assigned on Becoming a Disciple of Christ. They were both pretty baller, but too bad there were only like 40 in church haha! We also had to help give the Sunday school lesson so the ward loves to use us which is lots of fun! We got a new investigator this week named Dylan!! A new investigator is when we go back to a second lesson and teach with an opening and closing prayer. He had been trying to read the Book of Mormon and seemed excited for us to come back! It was the first new investigator in our district since Harvey hahaha! We did it! And again a person stopped us on our bikes and asked if we were Jehovah Witness. We explained we were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and then we taught them the whole restoration on this side of the road while they were still in their car! They loved it and we gave them a Book of Mormon but they live in Bridge City so we just had to refer them over again! Both times people stopped us and seemed super solid we have had to turn them over!

The Elders that are next to us, with a car, we found out they are moving out, they are probably getting flushed out of Vidor. Our area is so destroyed that we might get moved out as well but we have no idea! So that's pretty crazy!  We find out this Saturday if we are outta here or not so you'll find out next week! I have mixed feelings about it. I like Vidor and want to be here for Homecoming since the Elders get to go to the game. But also there's not a lot to do so we will just see! But we still have lots of fun I just wish we could find more people to teach! Today we are going to Port Arthur for a huge basketball tournament with all the Elders. President gave us permission and we are playing each other as zones so it's hard to email haha but I'm trying my best!

Basically what our entire area looks like

You can tell Brother Maldonado that I am getting huge!!  I do the bat cave every morning!  This morning I did 140 pushups and 180 squats!  I'm getting stronger for sure!

We keep it lots of fun since the teaching is really hard right now.   We didn't teach any lessons this week but we have two lined up for next week.  We teach the restoration a lot in first contacts when we are in non affected areas.  Other than that we aren't allowed to bring up the gospel unless they ask.  We don't want to make it seem like we only mucked their house or helped them because we want to baptize them.  We love doing service together and just have lots of fun! I love how the Lord still is able to bless us with the opportunity to teach even though we end up biking the same street every time we proselyte! He sure does run this work and I have a testimony of that! There is no way I would be able to do all of this crazy stuff with out him and I'm grateful He leads us where we need to be! I hope y'all have an amazing week its so good to hear from all of you!

Elder Larson

Mom's Questions

What do you know about the time frame of the opening of the Houston Temple?  Will it be rededicated with an open house?

We have no idea about the temple and neither do the members. Nothing is certain yet but sounds like it will be a long time 

Any idea on the time frame of when individuals will be able to move back into their homes in your area? 

We also have no idea when people will start moving back in but it could be a good 4-6 months before but we aren't sure where a lot of them are. We spent a lot of time making a big ward list of the circumstances of the homes in our area.

Where are the individuals in your area staying while their houses are being repaired?  How far is that from where you are?

Lots will just stay in neighboring towns in hotels or someone else they know so it really depends 

How much time do you spend riding your bike, walking or getting a ride with other Elders or members?

When We do service we always get a ride with the elders next to us and other than that we are riding our bikes 

How many in your district?

Our district includes us and the Elders down the street and 2 sisters. 

Any Spanish speaking Elders or Sisters in your district?

We are all English speaking 

What do you and your companion have in common?   

Me and Elder Bott both just like to have fun so we don't get bummed with the work being super slow and we just like to find ways to have fun and keep having a good time! So, we both work really hard but aren't disappointed when we don't see results quite yet. 

GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!!!!

Heyo Fam and Friends! Good to talk to all of y’all again! Let me explain my subject real quick, we were driving and this song that Elder Archibald has on his flash drive played like 4 times in a row.....and we listened to it. It’s just a Christian rock song that this investigator gave to him to listen to and it says God is Good all the time so we sing that song all the time! Elder Bott hates it now and so we made him back us up in the car and when he got back in we were blasting it! Oh the things you do to entertain yourself on the mission! 

Last Monday I got to give my first blessing on my mission! We had a Lady feed us and when we got there the home teacher was there and was waiting for us. Her niece had passed away and he wanted us to give her a blessing, right before that happened Elder Bott was feeling super dizzy since we may have biked a little fast on the way over (oops). But I gave her the blessing of comfort and then I gave Elder Bott a blessing so he would recieve his strength again since he was not feeling good. We have a fun tradition on P day where one of the 4 elders that lives by us cooks for all the other ones and it is actually pretty good! Today was my turn and I made some french toast for everyone!

Tuesday was a typical service day but that night we had our member pick us up and it was in his supercharged camero with like 680 horsepower! The thing was so fast and we actually raced another Mustang! I have never been in a car that nice holy moly!!

Most of the problems we have our here as far as missionary work goes is nobody lives out here..... everyone moved or is not living in their house since they can't. It makes things really hard to do and we just hope we can find service to do everyday since people don't have the time to hear the lessons since they are trying to get their lives back in order. We are considerate to this but at the same time its frustrating since the gospel could give them so much Peace and comfort in their lives and it is exactly what these people need! But we just are friendly and try to help out any way we can! We talked to a Penetcostal guy on Wednesday and gave him a Book of Mormon and he wanted to listen to President Monson so he could end up being a solid investigator!

Thursday we had New missionary Training and it was so fun to see my friends from the MTC!!! I love all of those dudes so much and it seemed like forever since I had seen them! We also got to go to Buc-ee's which is the best thing in South East Texas. We counted and there were over 100 gas pumps and the store is the size of a Walmart!! We are going to zone conference next week so I will be sure to get a picture of it next week! But it was amazing and I got a T-shirt there because I was seriously so impressed! It is the Disneyland of South East Texas for sure! 

Friday was a baller day! We actually got to start rebuilding a Lady's house! she had her sheet rock up and we had to mud it! We also installed her dishwasher and other appliances and put in all of her hard wood floor! Building a house back together is one million times better than mucking out the nasty sewer water filled stuff. We worked with this older couple that just came down in their RV to help people out down here! They are from Mesa Arizona and I was super impressed they were willing to come down and help out. The Lady that owned the house we helped build thanked us by feeding us gumbo! She was so honored to be the first person that had fed me gumbo and it is super good!! Its basically like rice and then you put sasuage and chicken and this soup stuff on it! 

Saturday we got to attend our first baptism! Elder Bott worked with this guy in his old area and we got to go back! It was super cool and the spirit was super strong! You can tell that this is the true church just by the feeling! 

Quick funny story: we got these brownies from a member and one of the elders bunched them all together and put it in our zone leaders appartment and when they called us it was the funniest thing in my entire life (haha) because they didn't know it was a brownie! 

Sunday was our first time back in normal church! there were only like 60-70 there since nobody lives here but it was so good to be back to normal and here all the testimonies given! Fast sunday was a little rough after we got home from church at 11:30 (church is at 8:30 since there are 4 wards in our chapel) we had to bike around in the heat so it was hard for sure! But we were blessed for it! We got 3 new potential investigators but one isn't in our area which is a bummer since he stopped us and wanted a Book of Mormon!! That NEVER happens!! 

My favorite thing I read in my scriptures this week was Lehi’s dream in the Book of Nephi. The Tree is Gods love for us and because he loves us the fruit of that is his Son and whoever comes and partakes of the goodness of his Son will have eternal life! Stuff we proabably always hear but we should be so grateful for our Heavenly Fathers plan for all of us! I know he has a plan for the people in my area and for now that plan is just for us to serve the people here and not worry about the numbers we are getting! 

Love you guys and hope you remember GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!

Elder Larson

This is literally the only photos anyone has from this week! I'm the worst but I'll repent and take so many next week! 

Mom’s Questions

Are you assigned to one ward?

Yes, we are assigned to one ward 

Have you attended a full 3-hour block on Sunday yet?

We actually did this Sunday and it was awesome  

Do you work out 30 minutes in the morning?  What do you do?

Oh heck YES we do! Me And Elder Baker entered the bat cave...... It's just this ridiculous workout thing with pushups, sit ups and squats.   On day one you do pushups and squats and then every other day you do sit ups and keep building up.  We are trying to make it through all 30 days. I think day 30 is like 240 pushups and 400 squats hahaha so we might not make it but it is fun to say we are doing the bat cave!

Do you prepare your own meals?  What do you eat?

No, We have awesome members. We prepare lunch and breakfast. I usually have eggs and toast And then pb and j for lunch 

Have you eaten anything unusual?

We had this one southern dish I don't remember what it is called or more how to spell it I can say it but I can't spell it! But I've had jambalaya, gumbo and all sorts of other good stuff! I haven't had anything I haven't liked. 

Have you had any opportunities to play the piano?

I play the piano every district meeting and I love to play whenever I see one so I'm glad I learned, thanks mom! 

#VidorNation

So, the cool thing is that Vidors mascot is the Pirates so literally everything around here has to do with priates so looks like I really have become one! #vidornation This week still had a lot of service but we are transitioning back into a little more proselyting but a lot is changing in this mission. 

On Tuesday, we were proselyting all day which was a change anddddd it was the first time I got to ride my new bike! I was super excited and rode wheelies like the entire day! I don't think I have got my heart rate over like 150 since I left on my mission, we just are never doing anything that hard. And the biking here is flat as can be and sea level so going back to Utah will be rough.  I’m glad I was able to take the win at those high school races, those were a lot of fun and I miss doing that but the mission is way better for me!

Wheelie boyyyyy

We went to go visit one of the investigators since we don't know any because Elder Bott and I are both new to the area and we have really just been doing service. We went to this guy named Travis Trailer and when the person answered it was not him. Her name was Christiana and we taught her and set up a return appointment. Then we went and met another investigator named Randy who is the coolest guy ever! He builds up vintage cars and he is basically a mormon. In our first visit with him he told us straight up he knows the book of mormon is true but he doesn't want to ruin his marriage with his wife since she isn’t baptized. He then pulled out Alma 32 and talked about everytime we come over we continue to nurture his wife’s seed and he knows she will be baptized one day. SUPER COOL guy! 

Wednesday, we did service all morning at a christain church and this Lady's house. But the highlight of the day was being able to talk to our mission president! We had interviews with him and he is an awesome man! He gave me some good advice on what I can be studying and how I could achieve the things I need to do. We did a role play at night where me and Elder Baker tried to teach Elder Bott and Elder Archibald about the restoration and they were acting like two crazy black guys. It was the funniest thing and we got some good stuff done so win win!

Thursday, we did service for a member all morning and then he took us out to the famous whataburger which is a burger place that is in Texas, he hyped it up so much but JC dubsssss is so much better! Then we went to our return appointment with Christiana and she had her trailer door open when we went by. She said she wasn't ready and to give her 30 minutes so we just biked around this trailer park and ran into Travis our other investigator!!! Christiana wouldn't answer her door even though we knew she was in there but I know the Lord put us in that area so we could meet Travis, he is a super cool guy and works a lot but we are going to see him tomorrow

Friday was the huge day, we had district training and a lot is changing out in our mission and Im PUMPED about it! The work has been pretty hard since nobody really lives around here since their houses are destroyed. It is hard to find people to teach and even if you do they usually aren't living in this area but we made plans to work more with the members here and it is super cool!! We also went and met with Becky, who has been going through a lot of death and hard times in her family. We told her if she watched, we promised that she would find messages of hope and love and she committed to watch conference and seemed really sure she would!

Conference this weekend was so good. I love being able to hear from the apostles of God. I know they have been called to declare his word and so have I! How cool is that? we missed part of Saturday because we were doing service but that’s not a bad reason to miss it at all! They provide such messages of hope and peace even with the crazy world around us! Becky ended up not being able to watch it which was hard since I knew this would help her but we will keep working with her! We have such amazing members here that are so faithful. It was different being in a presithood session with only like 20 members there but the church is the same here and I love the members here and their willingness to live the gospel and support us as missionaries. When Elder Rasband got up to speak during conference all of the missionaries were hoping he would show a picture of us for some reason, it was mostly a joke but we talked about it the whole week leading up to his talk! But seriously I am so grateful to have been a part of something like Mormon helping hands and see how organized the church is in helping others. The Yellow angels for the win!  We have a family of members that all live on the same street and they all went to their pavillion and allowed us to come over for lunch between conference with them which was the best!

Harvey cleanup shrine

Clean up Crew

I love this gospel and my savior and I hope that you all had an awesome conference weekend and are able to apply what you learned to follow the Savior more and live a happier life!   I am reading the D&C as well as the Book of Mormon.  I’m on section 19 so I’m moving along pretty quick! I want to read all the standard works on my mission. We have done a lot of memorizing so far, I memorized our purpose, D&C 4, how to begin teaching points in PMG and the entire first vision story starting in verse 10 which was a lot.

Love you all!

Mom’s Questions

Did you get your package?  (you can thank Emily for all the music)

Yes, I got the package! It was nice to get some treats and they get eaten pretty fast, when the zone leaders and our district leader were over at our apartment those Kit Kats were gone in minutes but they were some dang good minutes!

What has been the biggest adjustment on your mission so far?
The biggest adjustment for me is just Texas in general. It is a lot different than Utah but so is everywhere I guess haha! But it's hard to get my sense of direction since you feel so closed in by trees all of the time! And of course, there is humidity to worry about. 

What have you done to serve your companion this week?

I'm the dishes guy! I just always do the dishes and try to clean up anytime our apartment is messy. 

What is one thing you have learned from your companion that you are trying to replicate?

He's a really good teacher, he is able to make the gospel sound so simple through different stories and analogies which I really want to be able to do better.

Elder Larson