MIRACULOUS!

For anybody who hasn't heard, I love miracles. And for those who haven't heard THIS, missions are miraculous times. I have to say that some of the most blessed times of the mission are when you have a new companion and you just hunker down and do some good work. Elder Lee and I have hunkered down and done some work. At the beginning of every week, we have a lengthy weekly planning session. Part of that weekly planning is setting goals for what you want to accomplish that week. Elder Cook and I usually could get a total of 10 lessons a week, 5 of those being "other lessons" (no member present, and not a member themselves). Our goal this week was 5. In the 2 days before Elder Cook left (one being pday, and the other being taken up by district meeting) we had already managed to get 4 other lessons. Elder Lee and I got 10 bringing our total up to 14. We nearly TRIPLED our goal this week!! I totally know that it was because of the faith that we had that we could. We had people literally just coming up to us and talking to us. We aren't usually able to hand out copies of the BOM either (very few hmong people can read) but we handed out 3. Just been super blessed, and I am grateful for the success that heavenly father has seen fit to bless us with.

--Elder Larsen

Transfers yet again!

Good morning to all y'all! What a fine pday morning this is! So I'll just cut to the chase I guess... I will be staying in Madison (that one was pretty obvious) and I will be district leader again. My new companion will be a native Hmong elder, Elder Lee (Lis). I'm very excited!!! Elder Cook and I HATE to have to say goodbye, it isn't often that you have somebody you can goof off with every second of every day (while being awesome missionaries, BTW). We never fight, never argue, and always get along. Our biggest argument was on the ethics of Wall-e. I totally think that a society could be run like that, he doesn't.... Anyway.... Yes. Madison is Madison. Lots of buses, lots of heat, more rain. We DID have a miracle this week. We were out tracting and we ran into Danny (hmong) He believes in jesus, but as of right now his testimony is just beginning to sprout. I think we caught him at the perfect time, his heart is soft and he is willing to learn. We have a lesson with him tomorrow I believe, and as always, we are super super excited to see how it goes. I guess that's really it for now... Love you all and ttyl!!!

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

Hey Hey!!

I'll just start this week off with a bang... MIRACLES!! We had an absolutely amazing string of awesomeness this week. I'll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) On Tuesday this week, we were getting off of the bus at capital square, and we heard somebody call out to us from behind. Madison being a big place, we didn't think much of it, but they continued to call out and we turned around. A man in his early 50s came up to talk to us. We greeted him, but he motioned to us that he was deaf. He brought a pen and paper out of his bag and wrote "I have heard of the Book of Mormon" We, of course, were ecstatic. We wrote back and forth, and he asked if our church had ASL translation. We had no idea if anyone in the ward translated ASL or not, so we told him that we would find out. We exchanged information,his name is Ricky by the way, and texted the bishop to see if he knew of anyone. Pretty amazing right? BUT WAIT, there's more! We went to a member dinner that night, and being good missionaries, we shared that experience with them. We could not have anticipated this, but as soon as we finished, Sister Cope said, "well.... I have a masters degree in ASL." :O Elder Cook literally fell to the floor when he heard that. Amazing right? BUT WAIT, there's more. Saturday night, we got a random text from Ricky. He asked "is anyone picking me up for church tomorrow?" :O We scrambled and found him a ride and he had a great experience at church. He wrote to different people "I have found a new home" and "I'm definitely coming back"... Miracles. :) I love you all! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

MAD Town!!!

So first of all. Hi :D How is everyone doing this fine monday morning? I'm doing pretty dang good. So I guess that I'll start from the beginning then? So. Tuesday. I pretty much did most of my packing within the last 2 hours of the day. I don't want to say that I delayed packing so much as the thought of having to pack delayed me. I don't think that I forgot anything, but a few of the things I did take with me took damage, for instance, my pillow took a dip in a pile of sludge (missionaries don't know how to handle my things!) and my $12 watch from walmart, no great loss there. Ultimately, Tuesday flew by. Wednesday. We woke up at the normal time, I threw a few last minute things into my full to bursting bags, and we set off for Stevens point an hour away. When I got there we had about 15 minutes to throw everything into a huge Hoggan sized bus, get pictures, and get gone. We drove from there to Oshkosh where people just sort of milled around waiting for all of the other buses to get there. I was able to be reunited with some of my past companions and others I've served with: Elders Kimzey, Croft, Thompson among others. Long story short I got to Madison at around 2 and from there we've just gotten to work. This is a busing area, so a lot of what we have to do takes some extreme planning to prepare. Our Baptismal dates live 2 hours out and 2 hours back making it extremely difficult to do anything else during the day. Along with that, if they end up cancelling.... We're in the middle of nowhere. I haven't been able to meet very many people yet (a ton of our lessons have actually cancelled this week) but I'm pretty excited about what's going on here. A member that I served with in Appleton, Seethong Yang, moved here to Madison not to soon before I left. We actually go out with him every Friday to do some work. What else to say? I have another moldy apartment, but at least it is bigger, has a dartboard, and possibly the most comfortable chair I have ever had the great pleasure of sitting in. Again, as far as how the work is going here, I have yet to see very much, the buses here aren't all that fantastic, but I hope that I will have a lot more to report on next week. Love you all and CTR!!

-- Elder Larsen

P.S Thank you to all of you who sent me birthday wishes! I was surprised to open my inbox expecting the usual 4 or 5 and seeing so many awesome birthday e-mails! I even got one wish in Hmong (Thank you Degn family!) One year older, one year wiser, and my life statistically 1/4 over... Sigh... I think I'm old enough now that I'm justified in wishing that I was younger. My joints ache, my hair is graying, taxes are too high, and I'm not as spry as I once was... :)

Transfers, yet again!

Its that time yet again, transfer time! I'm not going to lie, a lot of this past week has been ongoing debate about if and where I'd be going, and who would be my replacement. We had narrowed it down to 3 areas for me: Green Bay, Madison, or Milwaukee. We talked pros and cons, we talked companions, we talked places to shop, we talked active members, and ultimately, I thought it was most likely that I would go to Milwaukee, and least likely that I would go to Madison... WRONG!! On June 4th, I will be going to the wonderful city of MADISON WISCONSIN!! We got the text on saturday morning telling me that I was leaving, and then later in the day President called and told my companion that he would  be the district leader of the Wausau area. Then he told me that I would be going to Madison for another surprise... I'll be re-uniting with Elder Cook!! He has been in the area going on 6 transfers now, so he knows it very well, and I was told that he will be leaving after this next transfer. I get to spend one whole transfer with Elder Cook! Just like old times. We have had radically different missions, yet eerily similar. We haven't even served near each other, he was for a time switched to english speaking, I was district leader, etc.... BUT we've both served in wausau, we've both served with Elder Burgoyne AND Elder Thompson, and we were MTC companions! Strange world we live in... Anyway, we met very briefly with Chou and Mai this week. It seems that she is very willing to come to church, but he will be the only one holding them back. I have faith that he will come around, and that he will see all of the great things that are already happening in their lives. Mai told us that when we re-contacted her she had prayed for a job interview. After that, the phone rang and she was offered a job, and not 30 seconds later, we showed up at her door. Again, strange world we live in, but it is all guided by a loving Heavenly Father... LOVE YOU ALL!!!

MIRACLE!!!

We had a very pleasant surprise for us this week! I'm sure that I've said it more than once, but one of the hardest parts of Hmong work is getting a more than one lesson with promising families. Such was the case for Chou and Mai, a referral from a member in Rapids. We taught 2 fantastic lessons to them, they asked us to come back, and in between lessons Chou even called us to pray for him over the phone. However, we were disappointed when they dropped our next appointment and for the last 4 months haven't met with us. We had plans on Tuesday to see some potential investigators, but we were prompted to try by Chou and Mai's once more. They were home!! We had a fantastic lesson, and we will be going back on Wednesday to set a baptismal date with them! MIRACLE :)

Sorry about the semishort letter this week, we really did have a good week, just that sometimes there isn't much to write about. I love you all! Less than 300 days to go!!