Hello Everyone!

First off, a quick apology.  I have missed writing the past couple of weeks and hopefully I can get back on track.  Not that I expect you all to hang on my every word or anything!  So I'll do my best to give a large juicy wrap up on all in Mad Town.  So as for the unimportant stuff, yes, Elder Cook and I went to the zoo.  In Madison there is an awesome free zoo, and I'm never one to miss free stuff.  We had a great time and got some really good pictures and videos.  On Monday we got to go fishing with a very kind member of our ward, Brother Bauers.  We had tried and failed once to get fishing licenses, so he stepped up to bat for us and took care of everything.  We spent about 2 hours out on the shore having a grand old time.  Most of what we saw wasn't big enough to bother with, but I'd go again in a heartbeat.  I have a very nice tan if you excuse the watch tan line and the point where all of my short sleeve shirts stop.  As for the city of Madison itself, I love it!  This area is so much different than my others.  We bus EVERYWHERE!  I feel like I can at least get around semi-functionally on buses now, but when Elder Cook leaves, I will have to be the guy getting us around!  But enough of that...
The work here is also different.  In my other areas I had a car.  If I so chose, I could go tract out Hmong houses and get 3 or 4 other lessons a day.  Here, we get maybe 1 opportunity a day to speak with a Hmong person.  Because of that, I have had to do a lot of growing up, having to redefine my definition of a "successful" missionary.  Coming out, it was baptisms.  Then it evolved into lessons. and by now, here is my personal definition of a successful missionary.  A successful missionary never thinks he is successful.  He always wants to be doing more and can't be satisfied doing what he does because he desires to do more.  I've got to say, being in this area made me feel unsuccessful at first.  But my desires to do missionary work have increased 10x!  I love you all so much.  I'm fine, Elder Cook is still goofy (we think we are the most hilarious Elders in the mission!) and we LOVE this work!
~Elder Larsen