Arts Baptism!

Art's Baptism

Wow this week was a crazy one!!

To start it off on Wednesday we got a call from President Hewlett that one of our investigators that is all good to get baptized! She had to get first presidency approval but she will be getting baptized this Sunday! She was soooo excited when we told her. 

On Friday, we went to Elder Petersons district meeting and brought donuts because it was his birthday. After his meeting we went on exchanges and I went with Elder Blaker and brought him back to our area for the day. It was a ton of fun because he was my ZL a couple transfers ago so we knew each other pretty well! On exchanges we were out street contacting on our bikes and we had the craziest miracle. We ran into this guy who let us in and we were able to teach them the restoration. After we finished teaching him his whole family walked in and he taught it to them! It was super cool and we are going to be teaching that family with a member sometime this next week! They had 3 kids and all of them have their own book of mormon now!

Bowlinnnn (last Pday)

The best part of the week was getting Art ready for his baptism. It is such a miracle that we found this kid! On Saturday his mom finally sat in on a lesson and she asked for a book of mormon. She was planning on coming to the baptism the next day and we told her she would feel that spirit and know it is true. 

Sunday was super crazy because one of our investigators that was supposed to get baptized this Sunday got a call that her aunt had passed away and so she is probably going to be in Dallas for the weekend. We were able to give her a blessing so that was really cool. After that Arts mom and dad showed up for his baptism. They are divorced and neither of them are members of the church but they both still came! The program was amazing and the ward was involved so much. We had all the preists give talks, baptize him, and witness the baptism. Art bore his testiomny and said, "my testimony is that I felt a feeling like I was home when I was baptized. I know what the missionaries have taught me is true". So that was super cool and his mom felt the spirit. Our stake president, President Rascone, walked into the baptism and Arts mom was freaking out because he is the news anchor for the Houston news down here. President Rascone told Art that one day he would be able to baptize his parents and the spirit was super strong. 

This week I think there is a Mormon helping hands game for the Astros. The Astros are giving 70 free tickets to all of the Stakes in the Houston area. There was a member in the Bishopric that offered his season tickets to us so I asked President and he said no. I asked what about a Rockets game to which he also said no. But it was worth a shot. 

Elder Toledo on the slack line

Elder Larson on the slack line

We have been reading the Book of Mormon as a mission and it has been so amazing! I am on page 300. One thing I have been thinking about is how important understanding the resurrection is. Because when we understand that we will all stand before God to be judged of our works and desires that leads us to want to repent and change. I think I could do a better job teaching that to people. 

Comp unity problems

I love what the Book of Mormon teaches about Christ. Things are going well and I hope you have an amazing week! Love you all! 

Elder Cameron Larson 

Did you get your birthday package?

I got the birthday package!! Thank you so much! I love it. The tie is super cool and I wore it one of the days that I didn't take a picture....I will have to remember to take 1 this week. 

How many baptisms do you have scheduled?  When are they scheduled?

So, we have 2 that should be scheduled for this week.  Irene and SJ.  SJ might get moved back because of her Aunt. Next week we have one scheduled on the 7th for a girl named Sam we have been teaching

What have you learned in your leadership role as a zone leader?

I’ve learned a lot being a zone leader. I feel like I have learned a lot about how the savior ministered to people vs administered. 

How often do you eat with members each week and how often to you cook your own dinners?

This week was kind of bad for meals with school ending. I think we only got fed 2 times but normally we get fed like 5 times a week

Do you get to play the piano very often?

Yes, I do get to play the piano a lot. At least every Friday and Sunday and lots on Mondays for FHE and Thursdays for institute. I will probably be playing the organ in Sacrament meeting for the YSA now. Except I don’t know how to play the organ so I just play it like a piano haha 

One of my accounting students this semester went to high school with you.  She recognized your picture in my office…..do you remember Aubrey Brown?

ohhh Aubrey emailed me about it haha that is super funny! I totally know her! She is super awesome and she knew a lot of my really close friends! Take good care of her! 

Yah Way

It was so good to talk to my mom this week!  Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there.

We got to go to the temple this week! It was so amazing! The spirit there is so strong and I know it is the house of the Lord. We are so blessed to have one so if you have one close to you go! 

My boy Elder Barlow is going to hook me up with a sweet haircut this week so stay posted for pics ;)

We got a girl named SJ on date for the 27th this week! 

Our area is doing really well now and I'm excited for these upcoming weeks! 

Also shout out to my brother Connor and Kylee for having their birthdays on Friday!! Everyone wish them happy birthday! 

We had a miracle find this week on Saturday. We were biking around a really nice part of our area and we saw this guy cutting down a tree so we went and helped him for like 20 minutes. After that he invited us in and we were able to teach him! Service really opened the door there because he loves us now and told us to call him if he ever needs anything. He was super nice but he also believes that giants wrote the bible and that humans have been on the earth for 400,000 years so we will see how teaching him goes. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Brown and Elder Kersavage in Baytown. They are from AF and Washington. It was a really good exchange and they have an awesome area and ward to work with. Their ward has had like 11 baptisms this year! 

Anyways it was a great week and I'm excited for another week! Love you all and hope you have an amazing week! 

RIP Cambikes

Pretty much the funniest thing to do is wear your helmet backwards and contact people haha!

**Cameron’s companion in the MTC went to the Houston Temple and ran into Sister Emily Simpson.  What?!!?** 

This week was super good! It was a lot of meetings and stuff but we had some awesome miracles! 

It started off with MLC (missionary leadership council). It is always fun to see other missionaries I haven't seen in a while and my old companion Elder Jones came so it was fun to see him there. Him and Elder Remund have been working super hard on making spreadsheets to help with followup and stuff in the missions and they did a super good job! A ton of work has gone into it because we started it back in Vidor haha! We learned a lot about accountability and we talked about teaching simply so it was a good meeting. 

Our investigator that was supposed to get baptized this weekend didn't end up happening because she had to wait for 1st presidency approval. But she still came to church on Sunday so we were happy about that, she is awesome! 

Friday this week we had District Training so for us it means that we drive around our whole zone and teach all of the districts about what we learned at MLC  and what president wants us to teach the missionaries. So that pretty much takes all day because we have 4 districts and the meeting is and hour and a half. After that we are at a super good restaurant in Baytown called Rickys! It was so good because we didn't have time to eat all day haha. 

After district training we had the coolest miracle! A mom of one of our recent converts asked for a blessing. Anyways the daughter that isn't a member and the granddaughter both wanted one as well even though they aren't members. After we gave the blessing the mom said that she was ready to be baptized and she wanted her daughter to be as well! So we referred them over to the sisters and we are excited for them. 

Saturday, we went on exchanges with the AP's I went to Eagle Springs with Eelder Peterson. We talked to sooooo many people that day and we got them 3 new investigators for their area! We also found a lady that didn't know where the church was and is going to be coming back now! 

We are going to the temple on Tuesday so I will remember to take pictures haha ! I'm so bad at that since I feel like we just do the same thing every day. But We are busy and working really hard so no need to worry!

Elder Padbury and Sister Simpson

Well I hope you all have a great mothers day this week! It will be great to be able to talk to my mom for mothers day! Have a great week!

Elder Cameron Larson 

Mom’s Questions
Do you have anyone on date for Baptism?

We just got 2 on date this week. We have Art on May 26th and Sam on Jun 9th. Art is our fall creek ward and Sam is in the YSA 

How many investigators are you currently teaching?

 We are teaching 4 pretty consistently and others are just here and there 

What blessings have you seen from the mission FaceBook fast and reading the BOM?

Our mission is just doing a lot better! You don't have missionaries wasting time on Facebook anymore!

How much biking vs driving do you do in your new area?

 We bike pretty much whenever we can since we can go talk to more people but we have to drive lots for exchanges and to go out to teach YSA investigators.