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!!

Happy Mother's Day

Hopefully none of you forgot, and for those of you who did, it's probably too late, but yesterday was MOTHER'S DAY!! And I mean, this week was great and all, Sunday's are always fun, and things in wausau keep chuggin' along, but what could compare to getting to talk to my wonderful family? We were able to talk for quite a while, and skype didn't have any technical issues this time around (thank goodness!) We talked about everything from the new taco bell down the street from my house-- which I will be frequenting all too often-- to my Hmong, to what I'll be doing when I come back home. All in all, I was just so happy that none of my family had changed. Dad is still bald, Megan and Annie aren't married yet, Tanner is drooly as ever, Zach is still a lanky goofball, Taylor still thinks that he can beat me in football (never gonna happen, punk!) and Mom is still concerned with my happiness, health and safety. All was well. We also talked a little bit about the time I have left. Geez, I'm not dying, I meant the 10 months that I have left on my mission. I've decided now not to waste a single second. I'm going to make sure that I leave this mission just as firey as when I came out, and just as focused on the Lord's work. I love you all, and until next week!!

--Elder Larsen

Stake Conference

This week we had the opportunity to listen to the stake presidency, and a few others in stake conference. While my jaw still aches from about 4 hours straight translation (usually we only need to translate for just an hour) I was able to take some scattered notes. I have to say that this was probably one of my favorite stake conferences that I have ever been to for many reasons. Overall, I would have to say that it was just so... simple. That's one thing that I love about the gospel. Sometimes I think that we make things in this church so darn difficult!! So much of the time we try to be great orators, trying to please, convince, or even trick the human mind into believing what we are saying. But this stake conference was different. We had prospective elders, return missionaries, recent converts, and long time members again and again and again tell us that it all comes down to one thing: The Book of Mormon. Either it's true or its not. If it isn't true, then we have no prophet, no revelation, no modern scripture, no priesthood-- in essence, no religion. But if it is true, than this church, and all of the claims espousing it, are true. I have read the Book of Mormon for myself, and I know that it is true. We have convincing evidence of all of these things: Prophets, revelation, modern scripture, priesthood etc. Evidence that we can hold in our hands and read. We just need to READ :) Anywho... I ramble. Stake conference was fantastic :) Love Elder Larsen

WISCONSIN RAPIDS!

Alright, alright... Our trip to Wisconsin Rapids wasn't as nearly as exciting as the name of the city. Over the past couple of weeks, we have had some referrals trickle in from other missionaries in Wisconsin Rapids. Rapids is a smallish town about an hour away from where we live. We just wanted to make sure that we had enough miles to make the 140 mile trip, so we waited until the end of this month to make the trek there... Unfortunately, of the 4 addresses we were given, 3 didn't even exist, and one had already moved out... Grr... Elder Stegner and I definitely took this as a learning experience. We both know that getting disappointed and snippy with each other will only make the situation worse, so we turned the 3 hour journey into a pretty fun road trip. Other than that, again, this week has been focused towards finding new investigators. Fun fact about Wausau, it has the highest population of Hmong people per capita... Other fun fact, they are AAAAALLLLL old culture. That means that we can teach and teach and teach, and they will listen and listen and listen, but in the end, it all comes down to their desire to change, and in many of them, it just isn't there. They are too rooted in what they know, and I completely understand that. Annie had a missionary opportunity this week and said that it is much easier to just talk about your testimony than it is to stand up and say "I'd like to bear my testimony..." I completely agree. All missionary work is is stating the things that make you happy. All you have to do is let people know "[the] reason of the hope that is in you." I'm truly blessed to be called to do this, and I'm happy to labor all my days in the vineyard if this is all it takes!

5th time is the charm!

I'll start off with this... Boy was I surprised that I'm staying in Wausau!! Not a bad surprised at all either; I had all but resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to pack everything up and start again somewhere else, but I guess that the Lord has more work for me here. And I say bring it on! I'm very excited for what the next 6 weeks will bring, especially if Heavenly Father thinks that I have more things to do in Wausau! I think that Spring will be a great time for us, especially in street contacting. With spring comes many opportunities to help the Hmong people with their gardens and yard work. Last year we had many many opportunities to help some of the older generations to do some of the more backbreaking labor of having a garden. You'd be surprised at how spry some of these older Hmong people can be in their element. Other than this boring ish news, I'm happy healthy and well! We expected at least 4 or 5 people transfering (hmong) but were surprised to find out that only 2 were. That means I'm not the only one doing a 5 transfer, 3 with one companion stint! Next transfer will be HUGE, I'm sure, because we are also getting a new Hmong speaker!! Love you all!! Don't let those darn Earthquakes bother you!