Level 900 Vortex

New Name Tag (Sister Hewlett)

Hey friends and family! We are in the middle of a big vortex so I dont have much time to write because of transfers. 

We moved our area so we are in the Kingwood 2nd ward. 

Here are some pictures to enjoy :) 

Back to Heaven

Accidentally took a picture while I was laughing and trying to get a picture of something else

This week we had certification and new missionary training where we get to see all of the new missionaries and I just love them so much! It's so fun to see them progress and become better. 

Then we had an awesome lesson with Brian this week. We were able to teach him about the commandments and he is totally ready for baptism. Now we are just waiting for the timing with his mom. On Sunday Brian's whole family came to church so we had 4 people there! They loved it so much and are going to come back next week (except for the daughter that tried to kiss us is going back to France). It was so powerful to see the impact it had on their family and they were so happy. We talked with the daughter about visiting with missionaries and gave her the info she needs. It is powerful because in our church we are all about exaltation and families and I see it coming together for this family and I love them so much. 

PDay Fun

I also got to go back to Vidor aka "heaven". I spent the day with my old companion Elder Robison who is the best ever. 

Trip to Louisiana

This week I really loved this quote, "I promise you that as you strive to be on the Lord’s agenda, nothing will become more important than finding those people you can help and bless."

Elder Ferrell and I love the missionaries here so much and we talk about them all the time. I'm so grateful for them and I know this work is all about people and covenants. And I love the missionaries and the people here so much. Have a great week. 

Slim on the pictures this week

Rollerskating

So this week was nuts. For those that have seen me rollerskating it was a lot like that. It was a struggle but I still enjoyed it a crazy ton. We had 3 exchanges this week and they are just super draining especially when you forget to bring a bed and you sleep on the floor 3 nights of the week.

My first exchange was with Elder Mills in Beaumont YSA. It was super fun because I got to be with my past companion in my past area. We blitzed their area and we were talking to a lot of people on campus. 

Then we drove down to Port Arthur, also my past area, and I went with the English Elders while Elder Ferrell went with Spanish. We went and saw some of the people that I was trying to reactivate when I was there and they were still in the exact same place haha it was like I never left. 

My last exchange was with Elder Wooden who took my mom's class in college. We had a sweet miracle where we got a prompting to go see a member so we went and they needed a blessing right then. When you follow those fleeing thoughts then you will find you are right like 9/10 times. 

Thursday we got to go to the temple which was super cool! Then later that day we were able to teach Brian who is from Ecuador. He is the cutest little kid I have ever met. We were teaching him the plan of salvation and when we taught him about it and the resurrection he said, "wow, that is like the best gift ever" and "God really just wants us to be happy, I like to call it the plan of happiness"
He is the best and we are going to talk with his mom about him getting baptized. yesterday when he left he said he loves when we come over and was excited for us to come back. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary and I love this work and my companion and this mission! I too am glad that Jesus Christ was resurrected because that means that we all will be one day.  

Love you all!

Visit from Elder Kopishcke

Elder Ferrell and Elder Larson

Well this week was something.....I don't think I have ever been more tired in my entire life haha. We had Elder Kopishcke of the 70 with us from Sunday-Wednesday. We had a Zone conference on 2 of the days and then an MLC. It was super powerful and he taught us a ton of things. Elder Kopishcke's wife was the funniest person ever haha. We were sitting waiting for MLC to start and she came up and shook our hands and told Elder Ferrell and I, "You AP's have the funniest faces". Elder Ferrell and I look at each other and were super confused haha but then she just said, "I mean in like a positive way". Not really sure what she was trying to get at but it was super funny. MLC was so good because all of the missionaries that are leaders in our mission right now are really good friends and so there is a lot of honesty and trust in that group so we are able to talk really openly with each other. After he left Elder Ferrell and I went to the office to do some things and we hit a wall haha then we just thought everything was funny.

Right before Elder Kopishcke left he told me and Elder Ferrell, "you know what to do now right? You need to meet with President and decide what you are going to do because of this". The next day we got to meet with President and Sister Hewlett and talk about the things we learned and what we can impliment in our mission. It was also President Hewlett's birthday that day so we had some missionaries come over and we had a surprise party for him. President and SIster Hewlett are the best people ever! I love them so much.

This weekend we had ward conference so there were a ton of people from the Fall Creek ward! It was so awesome to see them and I love those members so much! We also got to see President Rascone speak so that was awesome. This next week we have the opportunity to go the the temple and we have 3 exchanges so it is going to be a busy one! 

One of the things I loved that Elder Kopishcke talked to us was about the power of the Book of Mormon. The authors were Nephi and Jacob who wrote about Isaiah. Then you have Mormon and Moroni who talked about the Brother of Jared. And in the middle of those 6 people you had the Savior's personal ministry to the Nephites. The thing that all of those people had in common was they were eye-witnesses of the Savior. When we read about the Book of Mormon we learn about the Savior so read it. I know it will help you learn more about the Savior. 

Love you all and have a great week!!!

(also before you think I'm breaking the rules mom President told us to take our Pday until 6 because President wanted to interview us today so we didn't get done with meetings until like noon)

Grip It and Rip It Fat Bike Edition

Man this week was super cold. On Saturday it was like 30 degrees. I'm super sensitive to the cold now so I put on like 5 layers and then just went out and sent it.

This week we went on 2 exchanges with some Zone Leaders and we will be going on another one tonight. Honestly at this point every week is a blur so it is hard to remember everything that happened. 

1) We had new missionary training which was super cool. I feel like all of the new missioanries are my little children because we pick them up when they first get her, train them, and then send them off with their trainers. I love seeing the progress they make and how they are growing. It is probably how our Heavenly Father feels towards us a lot. I had this thought that was super powerful to me. I thought about what our Heavenly Father might have said right before we left to come into mortality and I imagine he would have wanted us to remember who we are, what our purpose was, and that he was there to help us along the way.  

Elder Mills

2) The other cool experience I had was on the way back from one of our exchanges I had a clear thought of a member and then I had the thought to go a street above there. So we acted on it the next day and we were out tracting and some drove by and called us to come over. He was a recent convert from Mississippi who had moved and didn't know where the church was. He had fell back into some past sin and he wanted help from us. It was one of those circumstances where when you pray for help in the Lords work he will give us the inspiration to achieve it. 

Elder Ferrell, Elder Mills, Elder Larson

Here is a quote from Henry B. Eyring's talk: "Brothers and sisters, the Lord has opportunities near you to feel and to share His love. You can pray with confidence for the Lord to lead you to love someone for Him. He answers the prayers of meek volunteers like you. You will feel the love of God for you and for the person you serve for Him. As you help children of God in their troubles, your own troubles will seem lighter. Your faith and your hope will be strengthened"

I know that I have come to know Him better by serving Him and my love for Him has increased. I hope you all take the opportunity to pray and seek for people to lift so you can feel of the love God has for you. Have a great week!

The Shanty

This week we had zone conference which took up most of our week. We had 3 of them so we were traveling around the mission. We talked about having hope and gratitude. Something that really stood out to me this week was hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fufill his promises (from PMG). I love that the Book of Mormon's purpose is to 1) convince that Jesus is the Christ and 2) tell of the covenants that God has made with his people that are possible because of Jesus Christ. When we learn of the promises of God it brings us hope!

On Wednesday we stayed in Vidor in the "Shanty". It is this super small building on President Ross's compound that the Zone Leaders live on. At night it got like 32 degrees since the heater wasn't on so we woke up freezing. So the next couple of days I was sick. Then I went on an exchange with Elder Ferrell who is the Lake Houston ZL. He is one of my best friends on the mission. I love him so much. We were out in our area without a car (since Elder Mills and his companion took it) and we were told we were going to get picked up at 6:00 PM. We were both kind of counting down the time since we were walking around and we both were sick. Well 8:00 came around and we still hadn't heard from them so it was like an episode of survivor haha. Eventually they made it back and they had talked with this man who had investigated with the church for a couple of years but still hasn't joined. It is kind of a long story. 

This week will be a good one. We have 2 exchanges planned and we are going to start some transfer planning for the next couple of transfers. We have a general authority that is going to tour our mission after transfers so the next couple of weeks are going to be a blur. I love serving the Savior because that is how we come to know him! Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Cameron Larson

Grip it and Rip it

Hey friends and family! Merry Christmas and Happy New year! Sorry I didn’t write last week.  It was so good to be able to talk with my family and I love them so much! Thank you to everyone who sent me something or wished me a Merry Christmas! I really appreciate it!

These weeks have been pretty crazy because Sister Hewlett’s father passed away so she went home. It also happened to be the same week that we had Christmas Zone Conference so we were just trying to survive without her. It was like when your mom goes out of town for the weekend so you get takeout every day and you are just trying to keep things from setting on fire. But she is doing really well and had a great time with her family. 

For Christmas we were able to spend time with President Hewlett and his family that came into town. We had dinner and played a ton of ping pong. I even bought a new paddle from Academy so I'm in it to win it. 

Here are some cool experiences from the past week:

1) I was on exchanges with Elder Slade who I trained last year. That was sweet in itself. When we were planning for they day Elder Mills told us that he had a dream about where we could find someone to teach. He told us to go to this members home and to start knocking to the right. So, for our morning time we did exactly that. On the 3rd house there was a man that opened the door and everything seemed really normal but he actually let us inside his home! We taught him about the restoration and the spirit was really strong. He had just gone through a divorce and was wondering what his purpose was. We gave him a Book of Mormon but we haven't been able to seen him since. 

2) We were teaching a recent convert named Victoria about the temple and her less active son named Benji was able to join us. He had gotten baptized about 8 years ago and he didn't know what the temple was. We were able to teach him about covenants and the work that happens in the temple. The spirit was super strong and he really felt it and has a desire to come back to church and renew his covenants he made at baptism. 

The reason for my title is because in our mission we are now all weekend warriors. We decided as a mission to make the missionaries park their car on Saturdays so they can spend more time out and about with the people. I started to call it, "grip it and rip it Saturday" so now that is what almost our whole mission calls it haha! 

Other than that things are still going really well here. Elder Mills & I are busy and we see miracles every single day. I have been writing all of the miracles in my journal and I just don't have time to tell all of them. I was reading a talk this week by President Eyring called, "Remembrance & Gratitude" (and pretty much all of his talks, he is the best). When we take time at the end of our day to reflect on how God has blessed us that day the Holy Ghost will remind us of times that we saw the hand of the Lord. I know that as I have seen these miracles on my mission it has shown me that God lives and he is watching over us. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve him and come to know our Savior :) 

Scripture for the week:

Mosiah 5:13

Elder Cameron Larson 

The big dictionary we have

The Christmas Eve packages we spent 9 hours delivering

New paddle, who dis

Christmas Conference

Photo Cred: President Hewlett

Addie Hewlett's Birthday

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!