Hey---

Elder Stegner is a liiiiiiiittle bit excited, his Seahawks just won their NFC game and being from Seattle... well you get the gist. Another slowish week, but  we had a little bit of exciting news this past week! We had a referral from our Bishop, and we were able to go contact her this week. Her name is Nou, and last week she asked the Bishop if she could do anything in the way of service for our church. We met with her on wednesday and set up service every Sunday morning where she will come and help us set up chairs. This last week she even stayed for the entire sacrament meeting! She made friends pretty easily, and we hope to continue meeting with her. Wish I could write longer, but duty calls, an early appointment today... 

HELLO AGAIN!!!

The weeks get shorter and shorter, I swear! There is no way that I'm winding down my mission this quickly. Somebody let slip that I only have 10 weeks left. Again, its not like I'm beginning the countdown this early or anything, I just keep realizing that its all coming to an end. We went through a pretty brutal cold this past week, and being in a car share... Let's just say that it wasn't very practical for us to go tract for three hours. President tried to limit our outside activity to under 30 minutes, and in that same letter he said "Missionaries in Canada and Siberia learn to dress warm as part of their normal proselyting so you may need to invest in some warm winter gear if you don't have it already in order to get through the winter" Wait.... Canada and Siberia? You're telling me that I get to take examples from the place where they exiled criminals from Russia? Great. Alright, I'll stop complaining about it, but our proselyting efforts did take quite a hit. We had interviews with our President this week. We studied the talk "free forever to act for themselves" by Elder Cristofferson this past General Conference. I would definitely recommend a review for those of you who haven't re-read this talk. We talked about it for a good while, especially his story about the man who wouldn't do anything for himself. He also mentioned an interesting fact: in the coming year, 75% of the missionaries currently serving will be going home. What?! We think that 10 of the 13 Hmong missionaries will be going home by September. Sorry that there isn't much to talk about this week, it has been a little bit dry... But I still love you all!!

--Elder Larsen

Sheboygan: Week 1

A LOT has happened in the last couple days. Obviously, changing my living situation, companion, and workload is always a little difficult, but beyond that we went from 40 degrees to 0 in about 3 days. That is never ever ever fun. I love Sheboygan. I couldn't really believe it, but it is actually smaller than wausau by about 20,000 people. There aren't even any towns too close by to call sub-urbs, everything else is about 20 minutes out. AND on that note, we have a car here... or rather, we SHARE a car with the Spanish Elders. Not the most ideal of situations, but it sure beats taking the Sheboygan bus system (which I hear is a mess by the way.) The apartment is gorgeous, I can honestly say that it is probably the only apartment that I've been to on my mission that feels like a home. It even smells good! About a year ago, there was a fire in the complex, so they recently remodeled everything. We live right on the lakefront, and even though it is winter, the view can get pretty nice. As for teaching? We are officially in finding mode, and we are just looking to get a few more consistent investigators. We have a few already, but you never can have enough. anywho... I'm sure there will be more to update you all on next week and the weeks following, so on that note, I'll love you and leave you!

Elder Larsen

TRANSFERS!!!

Before mentioning anything else, I have to say that transfers are a pretty big surprise to everyone! So just a little recap of what is going on, so that you'll understand why it is such a surprise... So I have only been here two transfers, I only have two left, I've only been with Elder Lor for one transfer, AND we have so much good work going on here... BUT! I found out this morning that I'm being transferred to SHEBOYGAN!!! That puts me back in a companionship with one of my favorite companions, Elder Stegner! I'm definitely not disappointed to be serving in Sheboygan, and to be with a companion that I already know and love? A very tender mercy. Another interesting thing is that the Hmong area here in Milwaukee is combining with the English area, so Elder Lor will be with Elder Goodale, our district leader........ Strange things are afoot at the MKE (10 points for those of you who can name THAT movie!)
Besides that, more good news with Van and Blia, they were both at church on Sunday again where we had another lesson. They want to be married some time soon in the new year! Also, we met a friend of Eh say and Say Paw, our investigators. His name is Nin, and he seems to have a good amount of interest in learning more. It has been a crazy morning, so I'm going to go do some sport... things to help me relax... LOVE!!!

MERRY MILWAUKEESE CHRISTMAS!

Another great step in the progression of Van and Blia happened this week: They came to church again this week where we had our first lesson with them! We taught the first half of the restoration, really focusing on the authority of Christ's church. Blia has gone to other churches in the past, and in fact, her mother is a pastor at one of those churches. They seemed to understand and take it very well. We had a few members in the lesson actually: Their mother, brother and sister xiong, and Maimoua yang. Unfortunately though, much of the rest of our week was spent finding because our appointments cancelled for the holidays. Speeeeeeeeaking of the holidays... MERRY MILWAUKEESE CHRISTMAS!!! We have quite a fun week planned out, of course Christmas is the highlight, but other than that, we have breakfast with the President, Christmas eve dinner, and a Hmong dinner where we get to eat squirrel (no joke!) I'm very much looking forward to having calls with my family, and I can't wait to tell them that I'll just talk to them in another 3 months! I can't believe that this is going to be my last call... Before I ramble on too much, I'll just wish you all a very merry Christmas, and a happy 2015!

Hmong New Year!!!

We had a super exciting weekend! So I'll give a brief overview of everything else and get right to it. So this week, we met with Joyce again. She is as funny as ever, and surely as talkative! We spent the lesson talking about the Plan of Salvation, which she has had the most questions about. She seemed to understand and like most of it, but we are still trying to break through that wall between knowledge and application. She cried at one point in the lesson and asked "Do you ever feel really sad for Jesus Christ and all he went through?" I had the opportunity to bear my witness of the reality and enabling power of the atonement. It wasn't for nothing, and it wasn't just so one Man would suffer, but so that all men wouldn't have to. Skipping to Saturday, we went to the Hmong new year event! We didn't think that we would be able to make it, there were no buses to the sports complex where they held it, but at the last second, we got a ride with 2 investigators! It was awesome! I was able to do a little souvenir hunting, and scored 3 English movies translated into Hmong: Cars (Tsheb) Monsters University (Tsev Kawm Ntawv Dab) and Despicable me (something like... Saib kuv khawb qhov muag) We had great food, and saw quite a few members and investigators there. Afterwards we had our branch Christmas party, with more food, more members, and more investigators! I may have even snuck a picture with the big jolly elf himself!

--Elder Larsen!

Thanksgiving...and a LOT of it!

I'm still working off all of that food that I ate this last Thursday. I'll just give a little recap of what went down. It all started on Sunday. We still had no invites to Thanksgiving, so we were debating whether or not we should mention it to anyone. Of course we didn't because, c'mon, that's just something that you don't do as a missionary. Church started, and our Branch president mentioned it over the pulpit, so we felt confident that something would happen, but by the end of church, still nobody had signed up. We weren't too terribly bugged by it, so we planned to eat out at one of our favorite restaurants. We got a text later that night though, inviting us to a 3 family Thanksgiving meal. So Thursday came and we had our turkey bowl at 8 (bus riding that early on a holiday STINKS!!) but we got there. It was only 15 degrees or so for most of the game, but we played hard and each shed layers by the end of the game. We're all still sore too. We then went home for a quick repose, and then traveled to the Leakes house where we had everything that you would imagine that a normal Thanksgiving would have-- turkey, rolls, potatoes, pies, ciders, stuffing... MMM!!! I even had sweet potato casserole for the first time in my life! I ate myself sick, and had to take a little break to let it all settle. Thanksgiving and a LOT of it! Unfortunately there is NOTHING else to report. A very slow week. All but 1 of our set appointments cancelled, so we tracted pretty heavily.... Anyway, 25 days til Christmas!! LOVE YOU!