2/16/15

Unfortunately, things this week didn't quiiiiiiiite go as we had planned... We switched apartments with the Spanish Elders due to some concerns with their living arrangement. So most of our week has been taken up with moving everything from one side of town to the other. Elder Dobyns and I are glad that it is over with, and now we get to do some real teaching. With the move and transfers and a little bit of sickness, this week wasn't the brightest spot that I've had. It does allow me to tell you a little bit about how my studies have been going. I don't know why, really nobody's fault but my own, but I've had a VERY hard time on my mission studying Preach My Gospel. If I could, I would read the Book of Mormon for an hour every day. That just doesn't work for a Preach my Gospel mission. President committed me to read 10 minutes a day, and now I am very pleased to be able to tell you that I have had a change of heart! I absolutely RELISH the time that I get to spend studying it. I have also been keeping some pretty studious notes in the margins and the notes section. I think my biggest problem was simply making marking it too difficult. This time I've simplified it to marking anything that sticks out to me or anything that I have notes on... Of course this is VERY simple, but as I continue studying it after I get home, I can expand the range of my notes. The same really goes for the Book of Mormon as well: I always get these GRAND ideas of how I want to mark it up, but in reality, the simplest things are the best. My favorite copy that I've had was our Christmas copy that had all of the Atonement marked in red or green. Anyway... I'll be more coherent next week as I'll have more time...

--Elder Larsen