hello hello hello...

Hello, hello, hello!

Greetings from the Library in Milwaukee! I have wanted to come to Milwaukee ever since the beginning of my mission, and so far it has exceeded my expectations. For one thing, the buses here are a million times better than the ones in Madison, for another, we live right on beautiful, scenic Marquette campus! Our apartment is a little bit small, but what do we need a big apartment for anyway? My companion is Elder Cutshaw, and we are pretty dang similar. Among other things, we are both Alexander and we have a younger brother named Zach. We don't have a ward here in Milwaukee, but rather we have a branch. I was pretty shocked coming to church this sunday where I found out that we normally have around 50 people show up... 50! I'll have to take you all on a video tour of the building because it is one of the most unique that I've seen. We have some promising investigators, but we're kind of waiting to see them a little bit more frequently before we know that they are ready. In other news... well, there isn't a lot of other news. I do have an address though, for all of those who are just dying to write me... (thanks mom ;))

525 N 20th St apt #105
Milwaukee Wi
53233

LOVE!!

General Conference, baptism and TRANSFERS!

Wow! What a great week we had this week! For starters, we had a lesson with 9 year old hudson, our baptismal date, after the 1st session of conference yesterday. Hudson is the smartest, brightest young man I've met on my mission, and I have met a lot of them. We invited him and his brother, 18, to read the book of mormon together for 10 minutes a day, praying before and after. They both accepted readily, and agreed to be followed up on often.

Then, conference itself... I mean WOW!! I couldn't take notes fast enough!! I have to say, that if I had a favorite talk, it would be from Jorg Klebingat. I've said that I need to print out that talk, shrink it, laminate it, and take it everywhere I go, because he basically gave the keys of peace and happiness to me! My biggest takeaway is that God answers the questions that I didn't even know that I had. We had been teaching members for about 2 weeks to prepare for conference by praying and writing down questions that had for conference. I unfortunately procrastinated that day until friday night. I didn't give myself enough time to think of these questions, but God came through, and showed me how much he cares by answering those questions, and some that I didn't even know that I had. I was very blessed, and even though I didn't do my end or my share of the work in asking these questions, God still made up that difference.

And now.... TRANSFERS!!! It has been revealed to us this morning that I.... Elder Alexander Steven Larsen... Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.... Will be transferred to.... MILWAUKEE!! This is exactly what I wanted, though not exactly what I suspected. I'm veryveryvery excited, and I'm already almost done packing!!

Love you all, you'll have my address as soon as I do!

MIRACLE!!!

MIRACLE!!!! We had a member take us to Janesville yesterday where we had a Hmong gathering in the home of the less active Yangs that live there. They have progressed very very well, and they are on the edge of becoming active again and are striving to come to church. But that isn't the miracle part! They have a 9 year old son that they want to be baptized, and we set a date with him! Hudson will be baptized on November 16th! We have a couple of lessons set up already, and everybody in his family, including him, seem to be really excited! Not a lot of time today, I apologize... But God loves you!!

GOOOOOD MORNING---

​I'm just gonna go right for the good stuff... We taught an amazing lesson this week. Brother and sister goue have a friend (song Thao) who they took us to meet this last week. We were going into the lesson thinking there would be maybe 4 people there... NOPE! They had their family there, about 10 or 11 people total! They listened intently, participated, and asked great questions. Coming from a completely unchristian background, that is saying a lot. Not only was the lesson great, but afterward we had pho, cake, fruit, nava (a coconut, tapioca pearl drink) and talked for about another hour or so. We SO look forward to meeting with them, and I would ask that you all keep them in your prayers. On a sadder note-- I sent my SD card home last week in a package and in transit the package was damaged, and the SD card fell out. Frustrating!! There will be a little wait before more pictures are going to be put up.... But the gospel is still true :)​

MADISON!

​Goooooood Morning!!!!​

We had one of our best weeks this past week as far as getting out and talking to people. We had 17 other lessons which just BLEW our goal out of the water. We met with a lot of people and are going back to talk to a couple of them who showed great interest. Our biggest miracle this week was Song Thao. She contacted a member of our ward and said that she wanted the missionaries to come over and teach her entire family. Not only that, but her father is a clan leader, which would give us a great amount of influence with the Hmong people if we are to be received well. And to cap it all off: last night we had a madison Hmong family home evening. All of the Hmong members gathered, cooked, ate, talked, sang, and yes, played a little bit of football. We had an amazing time, and it was the perfect end to a nearly perfect week. LOVE

Doing Well....

Well, on this short week, again, not very much to report on. It does seem like I was just writing you all, 6 days is not a long time to a missionary. Elder Lee and I didn't have very much time to be out, about and teaching people, but we did have a GREAT Saturday where we taught 6 lessons in about an hour and a half. It has gotten to the point now though where we were weekly planning and we kind of just stopped, looked at each other and kind of came to the realization that we really didn't have anybody that we were teaching. We have had a couple lose interest, and a couple that have moved away. This week will be largely focused on finding those new people to teach. I just have to make a little mention of how excited I am for this weeks weather.

Local Weather
Madison, Wisconsin

Current Temp: 70°F 21°C 

Mon Sep 08	Tue Sep 09	Wed Sep 10	Thu Sep 11	Fri Sep 12
High	High	High	High	High
75°F	83°F	72°F	58°F	60°F
24°C	28°C	22°C	14°C	15°C
Low	Low	Low	Low	Low
55°F	66°F	42°F	32°F	35°F
13°C	19°C	6°C	0°C	1°C

How about that?

LOVE

RANDOM THOUGHTS...

So with a holiday weekend, this last week we saw fewer people than usual, but it was compensated for by service opportunities and a great conference yesterday!! The conference was for every single HMONG member in Wisconsin. We were able to make it (the conference was in Sheboygan, 2 hours away) and we had a blast! There were more there than was expected, between 100 and 150 people I would say, and we had 4 hours to socialize, learn, teach, and, my personal favorite, EAT! All I can say is that it was a major major success, and this is the sort of thing that will accelerate the work here in Wisconsin. 

Due to a lack of super super exciting stories, I will share some brief (and very random) thoughts that I have recorded in a little book I carry with me. Bear with me...

God is a family man.

There are such things as bad questions: The bad questions justify; "How little can I do?" Good questions bring knowledge and understanding; "How can I more fully..."

How could I trade what I know for what I don't know?

The only gift we can give God is our will. It is the only thing that he does not have.

Why settle for blessings when you can have miracles?

The Spirit is a most eager missionary.

"Don't kill, don't steal, no adultery, respect your mom and dad, and be nice to everyone so God lets you live a long time. I'm 6 years old, so I must have been good!!"--random lady at the bus stop

To know and not to do is to not really know.

The heart to the brain is the longest 12 inches in the world.

Choices are the little hinges of this life. Everything revolves around these little moments in time.

"Women have been at the blunt end of a man's stupidity" --Sister Martin

We can cause earthquakes directly where people stand.

"8 years ago I came to this church with a plethora of problems. 8 years later I still have a lot of problems but I'm a happy man" --President schubert

If you want to touch the past, touch a rock. If you want to touch the present, touch a flower. If you want to touch the future, touch a life.

The chief reason for unhappiness and failure in this life is trading what we want most for what we want at the moment.

If being a Christian was against the law, is there enough evidence to convict you?

"We might not be sleeping through the restoration, but some of us are dozing off" --Sister Braun

As a missionary, savor every chance you have to look at a calendar, because before you know it, it will change.

--LOVE YOU ALL!!