Froolisha Vienachten (merry christmas)

Elder Ure and Elder Larson

Tuesday and Wednesday we had meetings this week with the new missionaries. One is called New missionary training and the other is new missionary certification. At certification we pretty much have all of the missionaries that are finishing training come and teach the lessons to their trainers to make sure that they are all trained up and ready to train someone else. 

On Thursday we did some preparation for MLC which is this week and we got to go out to our area for a little bit. 

On Friday we went to District Council down in Broadway and then we went over to Baytown to have companionship study with one of the companionships down there. We were supposed to go to the temple that nigth with some Recent Converts but there was a lot of flash flood stuff and so President Hewlett decided to cancel it to keep everyone safe.

Saturday we got done with our daily planning and we found out that we had an extra car at the mission office and so we took a road trip up to Livingston to drop off the car. After we had a lot of things to put together for MLC but we really felt like we needed to go out to our area for some reason so we followed that. We ended up sitting down with a man named Oz who has had a lot of hard things go on in his life. We were able to testify that the Savior could help him and his family. We are going back this Thursday to teach him and his family. As we taught him I really felt how much love our Savior has for each one of us and wanted to help out Oz. 

Sunday we had Stake Conference in the Summerwood Stake. We got to hear from President Rascone, President Hewlett, and Elder Torres of the 70 so it was a spiritually uplifiting meeting. Then Elder Mills and I took an Elder to the Airport who was waiting on his Visa. I got to meet President Peterson of the Houston Texas mission when he dropped off the other Elder that was flying out that day. 

We were finally able to watch the Christmas Devotional (Elder Mills)

We have transfers again this next week so we are getting all planned for that. We also have Christmas conferences the first week of the transfer so we will be getting everything all preped for that. I love this season and Love the Savior and I'm grateful for His life. I love you all!

Elder Cameron Larson 

Hey Everyone

Hey everyone here is the run down of the week.  

This week we had interviews on Tuesday and Friday with 2 of the zones in our mission. On Wednesday and Thursday we had zone conference with the missionaries. We talked about what it means to have Faith in Jesus Christ. It has been my favorite thing to study on my mission is what it means to have Faith in Jesus Christ because it is the first principle of the gospel. We talked about what it means that he is the Firstborn of the Father, The Only Begotten of the Father, The Redeemer and all of these other merits that Jesus Christ possessed as a spirit child of Heavenly Father. I know that He is the only way that we can return and live with our Heavenly Father again. 

On Sunday it was the only day that we were able to go out and do a little bit of proselyting and we also had fasted that day. We got super blessed and we found a part member family that we are hopefully going to be working with. The Wife is a member and the Husband is not. They also have a sweet 9 year old that is not a member. We also found this family of 3 that knows some members in the ward and we had an amazing Restoration lesson with them. The spirit was very strong as we talked about the First Vision and we are going back on Thursday. 

I love this Gospel so much and I know that Jesus Christ lives and leads this Church. I promise as you learn more about Him you will find greater joy in your life. Love you all!

Elder Cameron Larson 

Mom’s Questions

Will you be watching the first presidency devotional tonight?  Where will you watch it and who will join you?

We didn't get to watch the First Presidency Message because we didn't have anyone to watch it with. We did catch a tiny bit of the last talk before our meeting with President Hewlett. 

What goals have you and Elder Mills set?

 Elder Mills and I just finished helping make everyone better teachers. We might focus on building leaders and people who can support the mission in the Future so we will go out and do companionship study with a lot of the missionaries.

Tell us about Elder Mills family.

 Elder Mills is the oldest of 4 kids. He has 2 siblings that are adopted in his family. One of them is from Louisiana and the other is from California. 

What will you be doing with Light the World?

 We will have to figure out what we want to do for light the World. We have New missionary training and Certification for new missionaries this week. We also will be going to the temple to help out with the recent converts that are going to be coming that week.

What percentage of time do you spend doing administrative work vs proselyting?

Recently we have spent a ton of time doing administrative stuff because  

we have been super behind this whole transfer. We had some stake realignment things happen out here and so for right now we live like 35 minutes away from our area. So until we can get things situated Proselyting has been pretty hard.

Week 3 with Elder Mills (kind of)

Happy thanksgiving everyone! I forgot it was thanksgiving this week until Wednesday and someone asked us if we were eating anywhere. 

This week Elder Mills and I were not really companions. We had 3 exchanges so we were with other Zone Leaders all week. It was super fun though because we have the best missionaries in the world in our mission. 

This week I was with Elder Brown from American Fork who is the Orange Zone Leader, Elder Stevens from South Jordan UT who is the Kingwood Zone Leader, and my old companion Elder Robison from Beaumont! They are all such amazing missionaries and I learned so much from them. 

For thanksgiving we got to eat with a family and then we played catch up in the office and got everything done we needed to. 

Friday we drove with President down to Beaumont to do interviews with all of the missionaries. 

Sunday we went to the Mission President's Fireside and got to listen to all of the recent converts speak and that was an awesome experience. 

I'm so grateful so the opportunity I have to be a missionary and to learn more about the Savior. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that we have a Heavenly Father that loves us. Here is a good scripture for you to ponder for the week. 2 Nephi 2:6-8

The video is a sweet send we found next to our apartment. 

Mom’s Questions

Were you in the MTC with Elder Mills?  Did you fly out together?  Were you in different districts?  I don’t remember seeing any pictures of him in the MTC.

So Elder Mills came out the same time as me but he was in a different District in the MTC. We still were on the same flight and everything. 

Any family conversions on Thursday at 5:00 as prophesied by Elder Mills? 

We actually got super behind on stuff so Thanksgiving was our catch up day so we didn't get to go to our area on Thursday at 5:00. 

Where did you spend Thanksgiving?

We spent thanksgiving at a family called the Febbos. 

This week we didn't get to do the "turkey trot" Elder Mills has been a little bit sick so running isn't the greatest for him. I'm not sure if I could get under 21 minutes that is pretty fast. 

Voice Memo This Week

Found this bike in a tree....

Great Picture of Elder Mills

I am excited to hear from you tomorrow and hear about your new responsibilities as AP.  What does your day/week look like?

It really depends on the week. I'm super excited because at the end of November we have Elder Ochoa coming and we will tour the mission with him. We will probably eat dinner and everything with him so that will be a really cool experience. Other than that we conduct a ton of meetings so we drive around with President Hewlett a lot which is awesome since he is the best ever! I'm going to send a little voice thing since that is a lot faster too. It's been pretty crazy but Elder Mills and I get along super well and things are going great!

Busy Times

Elder Larson and Elder Mills

Sorry today is going to be super crazy.  

We had a couple of amazing miracles this week that I want to tell you about. 

1) we have been contacting on campus a ton and we found this girl who's mom is a recent convert. She offered to feed us and so we brought a member from the branch wirh us and had a powerful lesson on the restoration. 

2) Alex, the kid we have been teaching, sent us a text this week saying, "Hey can I ask you a question?" We told him to go for it and he said, "can I get baptized already?" Originally he was going to wait all of the way until December for his girlfriend to come back but he had been praying about it and just couldn't wait. It was a complete miracle!

After our awesome day president Hewlett called and asked to talk with me and he called me to be the next assistant. I'm super excited for the opportunity to serve and to learn from him. My new companion is Elder Mills and he is from Heber Utah. He came out with me and we are going to have a super good time together. 

I also figured out that Elder Valerga, who was a senior missionary here served in the same mission as Grandpa Dennis. 

They called me on Saturday night and said they were going to come get me the next day at 3. As soon as we got back to Kingwood on Sunday we hit the grind and transfer planned and met with President Hewlett. We picked up 15 new missionaries yesterday so it was super weird to welcome them. They were like deer in the headlights they seemed so lost. Then we took them to the mission home and had dinner with them and we are training them today. Then we are going to the temple with the departing missionaries. We will take them to the airport tomorrow. 

I'm super excited to get to work with my new companion and President Hewlett and learn from them both,  it will be a good experience. 

I will talk to you later love you!

Elder Cameron Larson 

Hills!

Missionary Correlation

Elder Olsen

Elder Ure

First Day of School

Hey everybody!  

So we tried to be festitive and all on Pday and carved pumpkins in preparation for Halloween. The only problem is I forgot that the humidity in Texas is like 8000% so they only made it like 2 days RIP. 

The rest of the week was really good. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Topham who is a new missionary and is from Mona UT. The only reason I know where that is is because of the rope swing down there. We had a great day and we contacted a ton of people on campus. Our typical day is we go down to the insistute building at 9 and we teach people if they haven't gone to class yet. If there is nobody there then we go out and talk to as many people on campus as we can. It is a ton of fun and you get to meet a lot of really cool people. 

On Friday Elder Robison and I went to up Woodville for their District Council and then we split up and I went with Woodville and Elder Robison went with Jasper. It was soooooo pretty up there and there are actually HILLS!! I got super hyped about it since it has been forever since I've seen anything besides a dump or a bridge haha. Woodville is a super small town of like 1,000 people so everyone has met the missionaries before so that was super different. Everyone that is a member there is just part of 1 big family called the Odoms. 

On Sunday we drove all the way out to Kingwood with Hans who is a returning member and he brought Alex who we are teaching to the mission presidents fireside. I got to see a lot of the YSA's from my last area so that was super fun. And a lot of the people that spoke I knew because they had been recent converts in the Lake Houston zone. So it was really just a great day. 

Things are still going out here and I know this is the work of the Lord. It really is His work and I'm so grateful he lets me be a part of it. Something I have really come to learn and love on my mission is that it is ok if we know we can't do things because it helps us be humble and rely on the Lord. When we are truely humble and rely on Him then we can be confident! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Cameron Larson 

Mom’s Questions

Is Lamar the only campus you visit?

 We only go to Lamar since it is close. There is another college campus out in Lake Charles Louisiana but that is pretty far away so we don't try to get people who are out there to come. 

The kids and I went and got our flu shots this week, do you get a flu shot on the mission?

 We got our flu shots last Pday!

In what way are you and your companion similar and in what way are you different?

 We both really like to talk to people which is good for a YSA and being on campus a lot. We are both pretty good at being able to connect with people. 

When is the next transfer date?

 Transfers will be next week on Tuesday

Do most of your members of the YSA ward live at home or on campus away from home?

Most live in Vidor and just drive from out there. We have a few that stay on campus that their families don't live very close. 

Another Good One

Lamar Football Field

Well this week was pretty crazy with all of the stuff that we had going on so I will just give you the highlights. 

1) We went 3 exchanges this week. It didn't even feel like I had a companion this week. We went to Silsbee, Port Arthur, and Eagle Springs with the assistants. I loved going to Port Arthur because it was my old area! I got to go see my convert Dallas and his family and they are going to work to get him prepared for the temple. 

2) Silsbee is a super cool country area and I was with a new missionary Elder Baumann and he is doing a great job. 

3) Crazy story: We have been trying to track down this less active in the YSA that actually went to my highschool. We decided to go to Canes in Port Arthur after our exchange and some members walked in and said hi to us. After that we went to go say hi to them and it turns out that they were from Pleasant Grove AND they were the parents of this girl we have been trying to track down. There really are no coincidences in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Well that is really all that happened this week. It was such a remarkable experience to get to meet Elder Holland and all of the other general authorities. I think I am having withdrawls from hearing general authories speak to us on the weekend now. 

Love you all and keep the faith!

Canes!

Just carrying around the kids in the van

Tri-Mission Conference

A tri-mission conference was held for the Houston, Houston South and Houston East Mission.  Cameron was able to connect with Sister Emily Simpson (Houston South) and Elder Cole Karren (Houston).

We had to drive 2 hours to go back to the Summerwood chapel Friday Morning so we left at like 7:30 in the morning. We had a zone conference before the tri mission conference since all of our mission was going to be together. After that got over we went to lunch really quick and then we headed back for the conference. We sat in the very back of the chapel since that is just how things worked out. I saw Sister Simpson come in and so I waved to her and she came over and talked to me for like 5 minutes but then the meeting was going to get started. Pretty much everyone in my mission knew she was in the other mission and so they were all just waiting for me to say hi to her so that was probably a little weird. After that the conference was really good. It was to all 3 Houston Missions and we had Elder Teixera who is in the Presidency of the 70 and Elder Lynn G. Robbins spoke as well. They talked about a lot of really good things and I took a ton of notes from the conference. The really cool part was that they all wanted to meet us and shake our hands and so they let like all 500 people there go and shake all of their hands. Elder Holland said he wanted to do that so that he could look into our soul real quick and see if we are doing alright haha. But he said he was surprised and said that our missions are doing really well. After that we had to hustle because we had a lesson to get to that night. So we hurry and got a picture because I knew that you would want one.  :) I also got to see a lot of people from my past area that were there to help with the technical stuff of the conference. There were 2 people from the Fall Creek ward and I got to talk to Stake President Rascon for like 10 minutes so it was really was an awesome day! 

The next day the same people did a broadcast for all of the YSA's in the area so we got to attend that as well. It was a really good conference and I took a ton of notes about it. Something that stuck out to me while Elder Holland spoke was he talked about how much God really loves us. He is not a vengeful person that judges all of the mistakes that we make but he loves us and he really wants us to be happy. He asked all of the YSA's to know that because he felt that they were being to hard on themselves and worrying too much. 

We also got the opportunity to go to the temple this week with our YSA group. We took a recent convert named Patrick so that was our ticket to go haha. After the temple we got to eat at this really good place called Gringos. 

Ashley Brown who we taught in the Beaumont 6th ward got baptised this week so that was awesome. We missed it since we were at the temple. Our investigators Alex and Daniel are both progressing towards a baptism date and we had a less active/recent convert reach back out to us and asked us to help her come back to church. 

This week is going to be crazy because we have 3 exchanges planned and we need to get 2 baptismal interviews done and a bunch of lessons with our people that are progressing. We aren't really sure on how we are going to get it all done so far but it is going to be a super fast week. 

Anyways Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Robison

Cameron was assigned as a zone leader in Beaumont YSA ward with Elder Robison (they were trained in the MTC together)

Back in Beaumont!!!

Elder Larson and Elder Douglass

Hey family!

Sorry I don't have a ton of time to write this week. I got transferred from the YSA.....to another YSA!!! There are only 2 in the mission so I don't know what I have done to deserve this haha! My companion is Elder Robison from Payson UT. He came out with me and we were in the same MTC district so this is going to be such a good transfer. 

Elder Douglass and Elder Larson

This past week was a blur. It was super hard to leave the area because I have grown to love the members and the people there so much. Elder Douglass was an awesome companion and we will continue to be good buds. I got to say bye to all of the people we baptized and so you can't ask for much more. We have one of the people we were teaching in the YSA getting baptized this Thursday but I won't be able to go since we will be super busy over here :( 

Elder Briggs Family

Sorry for the short email but I will send some pictures to make up for it. Love you all and have a good week!

Elder Douglass adjusting to missionary life

Elder Jensen adjusting to missionary life

Dem Boyz go to the temple

Elder Larson, Ammon (YSA Ward) and Elder Douglass after the temple

This week we saw a ton of ways that the Lords hand was in the work. I will give a few examples.

-We had exchanges with the Baytown Elder planned for Tuesday night this week and so we drove down there and we had a dinner with Brother and Sister Davis. While we were there the Baytown Elders told us they were sick and they were not going to be able to do an exchange. We could have thought that it was a mistake to go down there but we both really felt like the Lord needed us to go down there. Brother and Sister Davis have a son who is about to come home from a mission and they have been praying about what they should invite their son to do. Elder Douglass felt prompted to share his experience with how BYUI really helped him gain a testimony and got him out on a mission. They really felt like that was an answer to thier prayers. It was cool because we would have never gone down to Baytwon unless we thought we were going to exchange.

New mission bike (JK)

-We taught this guy named Yi who came from China and has recently been introduced to Christianity. He was actually planning on going to Utah that weekend so he is going to check out temple square. Also perfect timing!

Here are some other highlights of the week:

-We got to go the temple! The recent convert we were planning on taking for the first time had a really bad situation with her friend like an hour before we were supposed to leave so she cancled. We called her up and we both felt strongly that she still needed to go. At the temple she said she felt peace and didn't worry so much about her friend

-Exchanges with Elder Price! He is such a good kid and is a really good football player. We figured out that we actually played basketball against each other growing up. 

Elder Douglass on a swing

Something I have really felt like recently is that the Lord is over everything and knows our circumstances. We had so many times this week where we could see his hand in the work. I know that as we trust him and follow him he will lead us to happiness. He helps us who are weak be able to meet the challenges we face. Love you all!

Mom's Questions:

What is the deal with the tie you are wearing in the picture with Cecilia?  It looks like Elder Douglass is wearing your tie or he has one like it….. Where did you get the tie you are wearing?

I got that tie in the picture from a member in Vidor and I just decided to wear it haha. Elder Douglass has the same tie that I have so maybe one of these days we will match. 

Have you started reading “Saints”?  I am on chapter 12…..

I did start reading it this week! I think I am on chapter 30 or something. It is a really good book!

 

Last week you said you did district training.  What was the topic of the training?

 The topic of the training was whatever we wanted to train our districts on. We decided to talk about staying dilligent and making sure our missionaries are out talking to people all day. 

Anything out of the ordinary happen this week or business as usual?

There's always pretty crazy stuff that happens but it is pretty usual now so I have a really hard time coming up with stuff during my emails. I have kept a journal every day of my mission so that has been good! 

Other than that things are going really well out here. I think I might get the boot for transfers since I have been here for 4 transfers but we will see! I would love to stay here another one haha I feel like I could spend the rest of my mission here

Another Week

I have no idea what happened this week it all happened so fast haha. We had a lot of planning and meetings. 

To start of the week we had MLT which went really well. We talked a lot about working with our wards and we put together a bunch of sheets and documents for the mission to help us coordinate better with our ward council and WML. 

I got to go on 2 exchanges this week. One was with Elder Ewell who is a brand new missionary and another was with Elder Peterson. They are both fantastic misssionaries and I learned a lot from both of them. 

Then Friday we got to teach district training which went really well. This week we taught Sister Turner who is one of our investigators. We had the Relief Society president and the Primary president over so the lesson went really good. She really really wants her family to all be together and come to church. Her husband isn't super on board and he is always gone so that is hard. Her main hold up with baptism is if she does it her parents will never talk to her or her kids again since they are catholic. So we are hoping all goes well for them. With Carl we are also just waiting on his family situation and then he will probably get baptized. 

This Sunday we had a YSA broadcast with Elder Cook about the new Saints book and it was really good. He promised us that if we would study the book then we would increase our testimony of the gospel. It was really fun to experience that with all of the people in the branch. 

Things are going really well. Our zone and area have slowed down a little bit but we have been seeking some revelation on what we can be doing to get things going again. I hope you all have an amazing week! Sorry for the lack of pictures. I tried to take some while I was balling and waiting for my turn to get my hair cut haha! Love you all! 

Mom’s Questions

That was a crazy story about the guy that got mad at you last week in Summerwood.  Maybe he thought your comment was being insensitive to families how were impacted by the rains from Harvey?!?!?  Did you have any additional contact with him?  Will the Elders go back to see him?  What did he say when he called?  Did you report this incident to the MP?

I didn't report the incident to President hahaha. We get yelled at our called on the cops quite a bit in this area. But the Elders just put him on the do not contact list so that was the end of that. 

How was your last interview with the President?  What counsel did he give you?

 It was a pretty short interview. He asked me what I have been learning more about the Savior and then I shared with him I have been thinking about the truths taught in The Living Christ. Then he asked me how my family was doing and I told him good and I said I was doing good as well. That was the interview haha it was only like 5 minutes :)

Are you allowed to email members while you are in their area or are you allowed to continue to maintain contact with members via email once you leave the area?  Once you leave the area, can you only contact them on PDay or any day?

Yeah you can keep contact with members after you leave. I have been able to call some of the Recent converts in past areas and try to get them to go to the temple. For the most part you have to get permission from the mission president and you really only talk to people outside of your area if it is for a missionary purpose. 

Taking One for the Team

Tuesday, we had one of the coolest lessons I have had on my mission. We have been teaching this guy named mack that is a musician for another church. He has honestly just not got it like the 5 times we taught him before but this Tuesday the spirit was really strong and we were able to know exactly what he was thinking about and he wanted to come in our church the next day so we set up a chapel tour which went really well. 

Wednesday I was on exchanges in Summerwood with Elder Setoki. We went to go contact one of their investigators and I introduced myself as Elder Larson and we talked to him for probably 5 minutes. Summerwood is a bike area and so when we were about to leave this guy said to us, "alright try to stay dry". The only thing that I said was, "We will be ok, the rain won't kill us". For some reason this guy did not really like how I said that and so he kicked me off his property and called the police on me. He also was trying to call church headquarters to get me finished with missionary work. I am still confused to this day on why the guy was so upset with me haha but sometimes you just get that as a missionary. He figured out what our number was later in the day and called from a private number so he could roast my existance a little more haha. 

This week we had Zone conference which went really good! We taught a segment on the imporatance of working with our wards. We also had interviews with President. 

Thats about it for this week! Have a great labor day everyone! 

Mom's Questions:

Did the Camel Milk Chocolate Bar survive in your package or did it melt in the Houston heat?  I was a little bit worried about it.  I bought that chocolate bar for you while I was in Dubai. So, good. 

Yeah the candy bar made it and it was super good! I can't believe that you thought that far ahead to get that hahaha that makes you more than a Pinterest mom. It was super good and I gave half to my companion. 

Do you and your companions plan your meals together or do you both just fix your own?

 We do meals together usually. 

You talked about a vision you put together for your zone that your MP said to keep doing.  Can you tell me more about that vision?

 It’s just a focus for the zone for the transfer. Our focus was on teaching in members’ homes and getting people to the temple. We have to make a new zone vision every month and give it to the AP's 

What has been the biggest challenge on your mission?

Usually the challenge with missionary work is not knowing what to do but if you follow the spirit and try your best you see that the Lord pretty much just provides everything for you!

Year Mark!

1 year down! Here are some stats of some things I have accomplished this year:

0 crashes on a bike 

1 pinch flat from trying to hop onto something

43820483920 bed bugs

1.0 watts/kilo (decrease in bike gainz) 

infinite amount of spiritual gains

1 dogs kicked that bit me

6-0 record for street ball games in my proselyting clothes 

20 houses mucked out

13 3 pointers made in a row

54 freethrows in a row

1 begotten son in the mission

2 bridges climbed on my bike

Thats just a short list of the many things that have happened this year. I have grown more this year than any other year of my life and I am so grateful for the opporunity to be out here. 

This week we had our investigators Jonathan Smith and Samantha Binder both get confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! We are working on getting them to the temple on September 14th with a family name so good things ahead!

Samantha's Baptism

We had an amazing lesson with this lady named Sister Turner. She isn't a memeber of the church but we had an awesome lesson and the spirit was super strong. After she said, "I am 5 steps away from converting" I thought well so is everyone: faith, repentance, baptism, recieiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end! But she is doing really awesome and loved church this Sunday! We just have to help get her husband on board and she and her family will get baptized!

We went on exchanges this week with the Assistants. I went with Elder Mills and he is just like me haha! He loves to mountain bike and he is from Heber UT. He will probably be one of my good friends for life. We had an awesome day and got to teach our investigator Carl. Carl has had 2 baptism dates and we filled up the font twice but he bailed because his family has been having a really hard time. We had an amazing lesson with him and he is praying about what he can do to help the situation. We brought him to the mission presidents fireside and had gotten his own quad with his name on it so I think he is doing pretty well. 

This week I finally just made time to memorize The Living Christ and it is such a profound document teaching about who the Savior is. Of all the things I have done this year the best thing is I have learned more about Him and His gospel which is the path to happiness in this life. I love you all and I'm looking forward to another great year! 

Elder Cameron Larson  

Mom’s Questions

In what way are you and your companion similar and in what way are you different?

We are actually pretty different in a lot of ways. He likes to plan things out a lot and I'd rather just get an outline and then just go with it. He is not a morning person either haha I like to get up early and work out :) We are both similar in that we want to work hard and get things done in this area so that is all that really matters. 

Did you get your package?

Yes, I got the package thank you so much! 

Did you do anything to celebrate your year mark?

We were supposed to have a double baptism so that is what I was planning on. We still had 1 of them go through though!