Crawfish!!!

Hey friends and family!  This week was a good one!  It felt like we went to meetings all week, probably because we did.  We figured we went to 21 hours of meeting this week haha!  It was a lot but I really enjoyed it!

Tuesday was Zone conference up in Beaumont. We focused a lot on the Holy Ghost and how important it is in conversion. It was a lot of fun to see some of my old mission friends as well! After Zone Conference we got to go teach some kids in our ward and a couple of them haven't been baptized. They are a ton of fun and we are going back to see them tonight. 

We also had new missionary training which was in Kingwood so thats a pretty far drive for us. We stayed the night in Summerwood with my buddy Elder Storey so that was a ton of fun! And then the meeting was really good of course. I love to hear from President and he has a lot of cool insights to things. 

Friday was probably the best day of my mission because we got to have crawfish! I was super sketched out when I saw what they looked like but they are super good. Probably the best food I have had on my mission! It was a ton of work to get the tail and stuff off them for just a little bit of food but It was so worth it! We will probably go buy some live ones and cook them up since I'm converted. I literally felt like I was in another univerese it was a crazy dinner! 

This week we had our investigator that was supposed to have her baptism in 2 weeks drop us. They were not married and we were trying to explain to them the law of chastity and stuff and they got super mad and kicked us out of their home. They actually fed us that night but we made sure to have dinner first haha! But it was super sad because they brought all of their books and pamphlets we gave them back to us and said they were done. So looks like we will be doing some good finding this next week!

Sunday we had meetings all day again but I really enjoyed it. The spirit was super strong all day and I learned a lot from our stake presidency and the other people in our ward. 

Well that's all for this week! I'm so grateful for the things I have learned about the Savior here on my mission and I love serving and being served by the people in Texas. Love you all! 

Elder Cameron Larson 

Tell us about the family that took you to dinner (eating crawfish).

It was the first time I had ever eaten with them. They invited us because they figured out we hadn't ever had any crawfish after their child’s baptism. (it was right after Dallas baptism)

Did you get your Easter package?

Yes, I did get it thank you so much! 

Any new investigators this week?

Yeah, we got a couple. Nobody super solid but we will go back and see if they progress! 

How will you be spending your P-Day?

 We will prolly be going up to Beaumont to play ball with the Elders up there

What is the greatest “lesson” have you learned so far on your mission?

Well I've seen how important it is to trust in the Savior and his plan for us! He knows exactly what he is doing and when we follow his plan and put our trust in him we are the happiest!

What has been your favorite food you have had so far in Texas?

Crawfish!!

Where will you watch conference this weekend?

I think we will just be at the Church since we will try to get all our investigators to go there 

Car Towed, Potentials arrested, and First Baptism

Dallas' Baptism

Hey Y’all! Hows Yall’s doing y’all? I hope Y’all had a good week y’all! Y’all! 

Well to start off the week we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Fowers from Roy UT.  We got to witness a lit bible bash in the Catholic soup kitchen so things were getting lit! We had a really good day and Elder Fowers taught me a lot about teaching!

The next morning when we got up our car was just gone..... at first I thought it was Port Arthurs fault but really it was ours. Guess we can't park under the covers and so someone called us in and towed our car away. That was a major L and we had to drop some fat cash to get our car back. So in other words looks like we will be eating all the left over MRE's from the hurricane! #sodiumgainz

Oh then we were laboring in Port Arthur. There were these homies just chilling outside so we decided to go and talk to them. They were higher than a kite so I let Elder Slade practice teaching them. Well not 2 minutes later the Sherrifs SUV pulls up behind us and had a warrent for their arrest so we left and figured it would be hard to have some faith unto repentance in that moment.

Lit "Truck" in Port Arthur

So missing March Madness has been a trial but I just decided I can try to pick who the next apostles are going to be and that will be kind of the same! So you know I'll be doing my research these next couple weeks! 

Saturday we had Dallas' baptism! Our building is the worst and the pipes were leaking so we were sucking water that leaked into the carpet like 5 minutes before lol. But other than that things went really well! The Spirit was super strong and he had a lot of people to support him. His grandparents from Utah were down here and they got him a new suit so he was lookin fly! Then the family took us to Cheddars after to feed us. The only problem was it got over at 5:30 and we had a dinner at 6 with our investigators. So it was a miracle I got anything down at the next dinner. 

Well this week I thought a lot about the gift of the Holy Ghost. I love the talk by Elder Stevenson where he asked the question "How Does The Holy Ghost Help You?" The Holy Ghost helps me in like a million ways and I'm grateful we have the companionship of him as we live worthily! Love you all and have a good week! 

Elder Cameron Larson

How are your allergies?  Are you feeling better?

Yes, my allergies are all good. I just was under it for a bit but I feel all good now!

What happens if you get sick (like you need an antibiotic or inhaler) how does that work?  Do you contact the mission office and they tell you which Doctor to go to or what do you do?

If you get sick you call Sister Hewlett and tell her you can't go work for that day and if it gets worse or you need something you tell the mission nurse and I’m sure they would tell you where to go and what to do.

Did the baptism take place yesterday and do you still have another one on date for next week?

 Yes, we had the baptism! Next week won't happen. She’s struggling with smoking and we just figured out she isn't married to her husband so we are working that out with them

In what way has your testimony grown the most on your mission?

Probably the Restoration and that the Lord leads His church. I know that this is His church and he leads and loves all of us!

How often do you eat with members?

 We usually eat with members like 2-3 times a week

Are there any YSA wards in your area?

Yeah there is a YSA branch up in Beaumont 

I done got casted out

Hello friends, family and people of the internet.  I guess I spoke to soon last week about the power of allergy medicine or just staying healthy because I died this week. I woke up on Wednesday and all I could get down that day was a piece of toast so good times!  Poor Elder Slade just had to sit in the apartment which was no fun but I got a blessing and was mostly better the rest of the week.

When we went out on Tuesday I went up to talk to this lady that was just chillin outside and she freaked at me hahaha! We tried to calm her down and then she casted us out in the name of Jesus like 10 times. Elder Slade said we should have stayed and talked to her but I joked and told him that I physically couldn't. 

We had a funeral again in our ward. It was a Lady in our ward and most of her family is not LDS but it was still at the LDS chapel. None of our Bishopbric could attend so things got pretty lit. I don't even know what was going on but at one point I think I was carrying her ashes for them. But they fed us some gumbo which was pretty sweet!

This week we had to take in our car so we had no wheels for this week. So that was hard since I was feeling like death but we got a lot of help with the ward and still made it to most of our lessons. We are hoping to get our car back today so pray for us! 

Our investigator Dallas is up in Utah this week with his grandparents and then when we gets back he will be getting baptized so that is super exciting! We are also working with this Lady named Sis. Rockford who is on date and she is doing really well! 

But I'm really enjoying my time down here! We are working hard and we are seeing tons of good things happen! One thing I was thinking about this week is how because of the gospel we can always have joy! No matter what our circumstances, if we place Jesus Christ at the center of our lives, we will be able to overcome any trial and have the assurance of Eternal life with our families. I love you all and I hope that you have a good week!

Elder Larson

Soooooo I forgot to take pictures this week mostly because we were in the apartment a ton but here are some pics of the district from a while ago. 

Your subject line last week, who is Lisa?!?

So the whole Lisa story. We were down in Port Arthur and we were talking to this Lady. She asked where I was from so I told her that I was from Utah. Then she decided to ask me if I knew her friend Lisa. So I thought to myself, "ummmmm there’s like 50 million Lisa's in Utah". I think she could tell that I was confused and so she decided she would narrow it down for me and so she said, "she white!" I was dying laughing about it hahaha!

Tell us a little bit about your new companion. 

So Elder Slade is from Payson Utah and is the oldest of 10 children. He played basketball when he was living in California but then moved to Utah Sophomore year and stopped. He entered the MTC in October and was in the MTC almost the whole time before he hurt his knee and then it took him 4 months to recover.

Are your investigators still progressing and still on date?

Ahhh Yeahhhhh!

What are your responsibilities as a trainer? 

I will send you a video of my responsibilities as a trainer hahaha. But I just make sure he is doing alright and get him to the point where he could train after 12 weeks!

Y'all Know Lisa??!?!?

What’s up family and friends! Its been a hot minute but I’m back and better than ever! Sorry I didn't send a mass email last week but things got pretty crazy with transfers. My old companion Elder Baker got transfered to a place called Pasadena so he will have a ton of fun there. But President called me and told me that I would be training a new missionary so Tuesday I went and picked him up and it took a lot of time with driving and such so I didn't have time to email.  

Elder Baker and Elder Larson

But the last two weeks went really solid. We got to go to the beach which was one of the most fun Pdays I have had on my mission. We brought a frisbee and just hung out and played spike ball, soccer, and frisbee with my district and the spanish elders.

So my new companion is named Elder Slade and he is from Payson UT. He comes from a family of 10 and he is the oldest.  He actually came straight from home since he tore his ACL and all that good stuff in the MTC getting buckets. So he went from zero to hero and is now here in Port Arthur. We have a lot in common and he is a good missionary so it is going to be a super fun couple of transfers!

Elder Swoldier (Slade)

This week we saw some progress with our investigators. We put a Lady named Sister Rockford on date for the 24th and then we have a kid named Dallas that we have been working with on date for the 17th so that would be super sweet if that works out. 

I've been spending a lot of time helping the ward figure out where errybody is at since we have like 600 households of members on our ward list but only have like 130 coming to church. So I've been letting them know if we visit someone and they have moved or something.

Friday's district meeting was a ton of fun. The ZL's came down and we had a really fun activity with the Spanish district about having the faith to find.   It was Sister Christensen’s birthday (shes in our district) so we threw her a party as well! 

But things are still rolling along here! Shout out to Zyrtec for keeping me alive with all of the pollen! But really though there's so much pollen and I’m just happy to still be alive! One thing I was thinking about this week was how important every single calling in the church is. It takes a lot more than just a good bishop or ward council to run a ward. 

Anyways I love you all and I hope you enjoy not having mesquitos up where you are at. 

Elder Cameron Larson

How are your investigators progressing?

Dallas is on date for the 17th. Sis Rockford is on date for the 24th and Juan has been smoking and we haven't been able to meet with him so we don't really know about him

Any new investigators this week?

Yeah, we went back and taught one of them but then nothing has really progressed past that

What do you think is the biggest challenge your investigators are facing?  What is stopping their progression in the gospel?

Well usually if people aren't progressing it is because they haven't been reading the Book of Mormon so we try to read with our investigators quite a bit

Do you interact with the youth in the ward very much? 

Yeah we did some activities with the YM last month because they had a missionary month so we went and they asked us some questions about missions

Have you read any of the books you took out on your mission (ie Jesus the Christ)?

Um maybe I have read some here and there but mostly just the Book of Mormon and other talks and stuff

Did your car get fixed?

 Not yet