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. 

Elder Pearson spittin some fire 🔥

Wow what a week!  This week was so awesome I'll share some experiences.

This week me and Elder Toledo have seen so many miracles from following the Spirit. We had to change our oil this week in our car. We went to Firestone and for some reason they wouldn't let us change it there. So we figured out there was one closer to our apartment but for some reason we felt like we should go to the one 9 miles away. So we got that fixed up and then we visited a less active right by there. The night before she had found her patriarchal blessing and was reading over it. The next day we knocked on her door and she started crying and told us that she needed to be back at church. 

Later that day we were out biking trying formers and street contacting. We took a wrong turn when going to visit someone and this truck pulled up to us and asked us where the nearest stake center was because he wanted to pay fast offerings. He was drinking beer and had a cigar but he said he is the best mormon investigator ever haha! Must be because he already pays fast offerings! Then on that same street we saw a kid biking around and we went and talked to him and got a return appointment. We went back and taught him and he came to church on Sunday. His name is Art and we are hoping to meet with him tomorrow with a YM leader and a YM. 

We had an interesting experience where we tried a less active and they weren't home when we were driving away we both felt like we needed to go back and so we knocked on the same door and told the girl that we felt impressed to come back and left her with a Book of Mormon. She is off to college so we don't know where that will go but I know we did what God needed us to do. 

We had so many other experiences like this where the Spirit led us exactly where we needed to be and I don't have enough time to tell all of them. This week we had a member of the 70 come, Elder Pearson. He basically roasted the people that weren't taking notes in the meeting but luckily I was haha! But he was amazing and I learned a ton of things to help me become a better missionary. I got to play the piano there so that was really cool!

The Zone

I also gave a talk pretty much on the spot because I forgot but it all worked out! I love you all and hope you are on that 65 day book of mormon grind! I'm on page 67 right now. One verse I loved was 1 Nephi chapter 15 vs 14. At the end of it it says that we know how to come unto him and be saved and that is the doctrine of Christ which the book of mormon teaches so simply. 

Well that's about all for this week. Love you all and keep on keeping on! Read your book of mormon!

Pic from last week bc I forgot to take them this week 

Questions from Mom:

Will you get an opportunity to go to the temple now that it is open?

We are going to the temple on May 8th!!! I'm so excited!!

 When can we expect to hear from you on Mother’s Day (what time)?  Where will you be?

 Oh wow, haha!  Mother’s Day is pretty soon! I will get that figured out and let you know 

What do you like best about your new area?

I love the members here! They all have kids which is really fun. None of my other wards really had young families but this one has like 7 million kids. 

What do you miss the most about Port Arthur?

 I really miss working out with the member at 5 a.m.  haha! Good times! I really miss Dallas family too. They were super awesome.

How does your current apartment compare to your previous apartments?

 Our apartment is really nice! Probably because we are in the city but it's awesome!

What do you and your companion do for exercise in the mornings?

For morning exercise, we go to the gym but if there is someone there we can't go in. And there's almost always someone there so we usually go for a run or something 

The Temple is Back!

This week was really awesome!! 

It started out with Zone Conference and the 2 zones that were there got their phones all set up and ready. They are still having some problems with them but we have some ballin tech missionaries that get all that stuff figured out. We got to teach at Zone Conference as well which was a lot of fun

This week we went on Exchanges with the Elders down in the Broadway District. I went with Elder Bowers and Elder Dowdle (who is my mom and my brother.....mission language is weird). They are both excellent missionaries and we saw some pretty cool miracles. We felt like we should stop by this less actives house and he said he had been thinking of us and we taught them and they are going back to church now!

I told them to not look like tourists

We got our car towed while we were on exchanges hahahaha Woe is me. I'm going to be broke by the end of the mission or figure out where I can park my car.

We did a ton of tracting and biking around to try to find new investigators this week. Biking around is literally my favorite thing in the mission because you talk to some crazy people. This week we had this guy telling us that there were 2 creations before Adam and Eve and their names were "Male and Female". He had a verse to back it up too! (Genisis 1:27) But hey now we know he is one of those people that reads the first chapter of the Bible and gives up.

Biking Around

The coolest experience this week was on Sunday. We were super busy with meetings and we were at the church from 9 in the morning until 8 at night. The reason for that was because our Stake put on a temple rededication celebration. It was one of the coolest things I have got to be a part of! The missionaries sang a musical number in Spanish so you would be proud mom haha! The Spirit was super strong and everyone was so happy to have a temple again! I know it is the Lord's house in a very real sense.

Thats about it for this week! I'm having a good time and learning lots of things! Love you all and talk to you next week! 

Elder Cameron Larson

1.  biking around

2.  it was 420 this week.......you already know

3. I told them to not look like tourists

Mom’s Questions:

Your companion was sick last week, is he feeling better?

My companion is feeling fine now. 

Was your companion already in your area when you were transferred in?
Elder Toledo was in the area for 6 weeks before I got here

Do you currently have any investigators?

We have 2 people on date for May that should work out. Other than that, we are still looking for people to work with

What goals have you set as a zone?

Well one thing I wanted to do as a Zone is help missionaries achieve their weekly goals so we have been following up with that. Our District Leaders do a really good job at following up so they are the bomb. 

Our mission is reading the Book of Mormon in 65 days while we take a break from Facebook to get focused on our purpose again. It is 8 pages a day and we started on Sunday. I would love to do it with you guys and hear what you guys are learning!

What goals have you personally set?

Personally, I have been memorizing scriptures so I carry one around a week on a 3x5 card to memorize.

How many members in the family ward and YSA ward you are over?  Do you attend both wards on Sundays?

There are like 210 that come to the Fall Creek Ward and then about 49 that came last week to the YSA. 

Bangarang

I like to see the looks I get when I wear my helmet like this 

Alright so the area I am serving in covers both the Lake Houston YSA as well as a family ward. So we are pretty busy with meetings and planning quite a bit. The area is closer to Houston so it is completely different from the past areas I served in but it is really fun. 

The Elders didn't do a very good job with miles in the first half of the month so we are on our bikes a ton but I'm not complaning. We spent a ton of time looking for new investigators in our family ward since we don't have any but no buckets so far. It is a really nice area so usually people aren't as likely to listen to us. 

Our Zone has 15 sets of missionaries that we are over and we have 4 of them training. So we have to go on exchanges with all of the missionaries training and all of the District Leaders so we go on an exchange every week which will be a ton of fun. This week we were down in Pasadena and I got to go on exchanges with Elder Baker and Elder Durtchi while Elder Toledo went with the District Leader down there. It was a lot of fun since Elder Baker was my past companion. 

There's this place in our area called Persona that a member owns so we get to go there for free. They make some really good pizza and I decided to send it with some blue ice cream that was apparently cookies and creme. Anyways it was a fatal error since my mouth was super blue and it looked like I was a 5 year old leaving a birthday party. So the rest of the day my mouth was super blue and I couldn't take myself serious and pretty much starting laughing super hard everytime I tried to talk to someone. And I looked ridiculous because I was biking around with our left over pizza. Guess ya just had to be there.

Elder Toledo got sick late in the week so it was a really slow week. I'm excited for this next week so we can get out and work our area a little more. But I love our zone and there are some really amazing missionaries that we have. 

Love you all and have a great week! 

Mom’s Questions

Tell us about your new area.  How is it similar to your other areas or how is it different?

Our area is pretty different since we are in the City now.  The family ward is full of a bunch of young families. I was shocked at how many kids were in Sacrament meeting and it was the first Sunday I wasn't asked to pass or bless the sacrament so that was weird

Tell us 3 things about your new companion.

 Elder Toledo likes soccer and he is a really hard-working missionary. He also loves Christmas so we literally listen to Christmas music all the time. Guess it’s Christmas all year!

What are your responsibilities as a zone leader? 

We have a lot of calls with District Leaders and with the AP's on how we can help the missionaries and follow up with stuff. We also collect all of the numbers to send to the office missionaries. We go on exchanges with all of the District Leaders and the people training and go to all of the District Meetings in the zone. We will also teach a couple segments at zone Conference and go to the missionary leadership meetings. 

A Broken Family, A Broken Home

Haha got them!

Well big new is I got transferred which was a surprise since I didn't finish training Elder Slade yet. Guess he will be brought up in a broken home bc of me whoops. The other area in our district got shut down and so the elders now cover our entire ward which is like 90 square miles. So if you want to know a little bit about how Elder Slade feels just read Mormon 8:3 lol. I'll be headed to the Lake Houston Zone to be the zone leader. I'm pretty excited because there are a lot of guys I really love in that zone. My companion is Elder Toledo from Tuscan Arizona.

RIP Port Arthur District

I nailed that statue pose

Well this week was pretty crazy honestly, on Monday night at like 9:30 we had Sister Gordon call us who is the grandma of our recent convert Dallas. Well she told us that Dallas' dad had passed away unexpectedly and he wanted the missionaries to come over so we called president and he let us go over. Our bishop was there and he gave him a blessing. But we spent a lot of this week over at that home helping them out with stuff and just talking with Dallas. 

On Sunday Dallas got to pass the sacrament for the first time which was really cool. It was pretty hard for him because his dad who is inactive promised hi  he would come to church the first time he passed the sacrament. But Dallas ended up passing the sacrament to his family which was really special because he was able to administer that ordinance to his family. Because of the Savior I know they will be comforted and find understanding during this hard time. Then we went and said bye to them later that night, I'll really miss that family and I loved the time that I got to spend with them! 

I hope that you all have an amazing week and don't forget to be good and all that stuff, love you all! 

Elder Cameron Larson

Mom’s Questions

Any changes in your district with transfers?

So, everyone in the district left besides Elder Slade and they will, join the Beaumont district. 

How have you seen the Lord directing your work this week?

Well we found some potentially cool people that Elder Slade can work with in the future so I know we were led to them!

I know you are training your companion, but what have you learned from him?

Elder Slade was really good at bearing his testimony to lots of people that we met which I thought was really cool how willing he was. 

Is your mission moving to smart phones? 

Yup we are moving to smart phones this transfer so the Zone leaders already have them and the rest of the mission gets them at their zone conference 

Conference!!!

In front of my boy Batman's House

This week was shadowed by conference haha!  Conference was amazing! I can't get over how good it was! I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to hear from our leaders!

Well Monday to report on our self referral that we got......I think she referred herself when she was drunk because she was super bad when we got over there. She kept holding Elder Slade and it took forever for us to just get away! 

We had a couple of really cool service opportunities. One of them we went to the Bagley's and raked just about a million leaves.......in March? I still have no idea what goes on in Texas it's crazy. We also went and set up a Pentecostal church's gym for their crawfish boil on Easter Sunday. Then they showed us around their church and you know it gets lit in there on Sunday! They had like a drum set, 10 microphones, and a million other things to praise. 

Elder Slade and Elder Larson raking leaves in March

Elder Slade invited our investigator JJ to be baptized and he wasn't really too sure right now so he is praying about that and we are excited for him! 

Setting up the church

Friday we met Batman! It is this guy we saw in Port Arthur and that is his street name. He wanted us to come in and we went and checked it out. It was super crazy and he is part of a gang and stuff and was showing us his phone that if it rings he said, "you know stuff is going down". Elder Slade offered to buy me lunch if I could get him to the church for general conference which was unsuccessful. 

Elder Slade and I stopped to play some ball with these kids so we were just playing in our Proselyting clothes. Well for those of you who know me know I don't like to lose so I was going hard. I went to make a jump stop in my Air-Monson's and I ate it so hard hahaha! I ripped up my shirt and that was the end of my ball playing! 

The highlight of the week was conference for sure! It was so amazing!! I learned so much and I knew the Lord was speaking to us. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to sustain President Nelson and I know without a doubt that he is the Lords prophet through the feelings that I felt. I know that the Lord is moving his work forward through our inspired leaders. 

I'm also grateful for the opportunity we had to celebrate Easter! I know that the Savior lives and I am so grateful that he does! He really is the light and the life of the world and Im grateful I get to share that with people here in Texas! 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Mom’s Questions

Can you tell if you have grown any taller on your mission?  Connor is still growing.

I don't think I have grown any on my mission so Connor has for sure passed me. 

Where did you watch Conference?

 We just watched at the church since we were supposed to have some people show up. 

Who did you watch Conference with?

The Spanish Elders were at the church and we always had another Priesthood Holder so that anyone who couldn't watch at their home for any reason they could come to the church

What were some of your main takeaways from Conference?

It is so important to follow the Prophet! I also know that this is the Lord's work and he is going to accomplish it all! So, no need to stress, just work hard, love people and he takes care of the rest! 

What’s the update on the bedbug situation?

 So we think we are ok again... The sisters in my district also got them but theirs broke out super bad and so they are staying at a members home right now. Bed bugs are the worst!

How have you served your companion this week?

I know I made him eggs a couple of times this week since that's what I always eat for breakfast! 

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