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! 

Another Week

Elder Douglass and Elder Larson

Sorry I didn't email much last week it was super crazy.  

To fill you in I will talk about some of the highlights!

We have 3 really cool people that we are working with this week. Jonothan Smith from the Fall Creek Ward and Carl and Samantha are both in the YSA. Jonothan just got baptized this week and it was so good. I love the kid and I am proud of the changes that he has made in his life to live the gospel. 

Jonothan's Baptism

Carl is a members boyfriend that has been coming for a while and he was supposed to get baptized last week. We had the font filled and everything and he pulled us out during institute and he said that his dad didn't want him to get baptized and since he is 17 he kinda has to listen. So that was heartbreaking having to drain out the font. We had some super spiritual lessons with him and he is going to get baptized soon here! 

Samantha we have been teaching since May and she has been on and off. Our members have been really awesome with working with her and telling her. She has had to make a lot of changes to make it to where she is but she got interviewed and passed! Her baptism is planned for this Thursday so we are hoping it all works out! 

Elder Larson and Geoffrey Pears (mom's student)

We found this part member family to teach and there is a 9 year old girl named Mya we started teaching. Our first lesson on the restoration was super powerful and everyone was feeling spirit! We had another good lesson with her and she should be getting baptized in September! She doesn't live with her mom all the time so teaching her is pretty slow! 

YSA Boating activity

I gave a talk this Sunday and we were super busy so I didn't prepare until an hour before 😂 but it went pretty good at this point we talk about the gospel so much that 15 minutes wasn't too bad. 

Other than that, we are still having a ton of fun and are having a lot of success talk to you all next week love you!

Mom's Questions:

You mentioned in your email last week that when you contact people one way to connect with them is ask them if they have read a verse in the Book of Mormon and then you share a verse with them.  What verse do you usually share?

I really don't have a specific verse. I usually keep a scripture that I liked in my personal study with me to share with others. 

Elder Bott said that there is a tri-mission conference scheduled for later this year…..is that true??

There could be a conference. I think it is up in the air so I'm not really too sure yet. 

Robyn Stevens text me a picture of you and your companion last week.  How do you know her?

The Robyn Stevens lady is just some lady we street contacted. She knows a lot of members so she knows we don't see our mom's and she likes to send a picture of us to you. 

What goals have you and your companion set for this transfer?  And your Zone goals?

This transfer our goal is to baptize 3 people and have our zone baptize 10. 

What counsel did your Mission President give you when met during transfers?

I haven't talked much to president this transfer yet. We made a zone vision to help our missionaries be successful and he told us to keep it the same as last transfer since it worked really well. 

Pictures for the week

Hey sorry this is going to be a short one this week. We had a pretty crazy day and we finally got to sit down and email. We had to help some Spanish missionaries transfer so we drove all over the mission. We still have to shop and things so it is going to be a quick one. 

Basically, we had a really good week and we should be having 2 baptisms in our area this week so that is awesome! I am super happy I get to be in the area another transfer!! 

Tell everyone in the family hi for me! I'm sorry for the really short email this week but we have to get our stuff done so we can go out and proselyte. Love you and have a great week! 

Pictures:

Here are some missionaries in our zone that finished their mission this week :(  

We had district training so we got to see everyone before they went home!

Temple Times

Temple Trip with Art

I never know how to start these things but usually it is something like "wow can't believe another week has gone by! Or this was an awesome week" but regardless here are some of the highlights of the week.

1) I played the organ for the YSA but they thought my last name was Lawrence

Elder Setoki in Summerwood fell asleep on the way back from the temple

2) We put another person on date this week! His name is Carl and he has been coming to church forever! He has been praying for the confidence to make a decision and he is going to get baptized on August 16th. For that week we should also have a baptism on August 19th for Jonothan Smith. 

Elder Latu, one of the AP’s

3) This week was our Recent Convert Richards birthday! He is coming to ball up with us today on Pday so I will be sure to take a picture with him. For his birthday the YSA had a bowling activity and we got to attend so that was super fun! 

The 7 up we just found and threw it as high as we can and it exploded so we took a picture for the memory

4) I went on exchanges with Elder Davies from Murray UT. I brought him up to our area and we had a really cool expereience with a member. We were in their home teaching them and asking them about their neighbors. I got a prompting to tell the memeber to go walk over with us and introduce us to their neighbor so he got on his shoes and walked us over. Right when we walked over he was just leaving to go back to work and we had a few minutes to talk with him and he invited us back! The member bore his testimony in sacrament meetin on the power that sharing the gospel had in his life and the joy in brought! He was having a really hard day with work before we showed up and those few  minutes helped him his whole week! So moral of the story is share the gospel with others because it will make your life better and give purpose to it!

5) For institute we have been learning about things in the old testement. We got to do a little passover and it was an awesome experience. He made us eat this super bitter stuff and I was dying but he gave us the unleavened bread and the grape juice which took it all away. It was such a powerful experience for me because everything that is wrong and bitter in life can be made right through the Savior and we have the chance to go and partake of the sacrament every week so take advantage of it and get the bitter out of your life!

6) We got to go the temple 2 times this week woooo! We also reactiviated and got a member the preisthood and he is going to get endowed this week and we might be able to attend that! The temple is the best! 

Love you all and have an awesome week! 

Mom’s Questions

How much time each week do you spend “contacting” people on the streets?  How do you decide where to go?  How do you start those conversations???  (it all sounds very intimidating to me)

It depends on the week. If we don't have any appointments or meetings or anything we are out and about just trying to talk to people. An easy way is to talk to people about their families and talk about how the gospel can bless it. It is also easy to ask if they have heard about the Book of Mormon or had the opportunity to read a verse from it and we can share a verse with them. 

Who did you go to the temple with this week?  (you mentioned last week you were going to go 2 times)?

 This week we went with the Summerwood Elders to go to our quarterly visit and we got to take our Recent Convert Art to the temple. 

When you go to the temple are you allowed to drive there or do you have to have a member take you?

 A member has to take us or we can't attend. 

How have you served your companion this week? 

 He was really tired one night and it was his turn to call but I just did all of the reporting and collecting numbers and things for him so he could get ready for bed and relax.