October 18, 2015

well last week our P-day ended pretty spectacularly weird... we didn't have any time to shop for food because we played basketball. we also didn't have time to do our laundry, so we did that throughout the week. also we had just gotten home from proselyting so we were exhausted, we also hadn't put away our luggage. Elder Hall was standing and he put his hands on the electric fan -don't jump ahead- and he had just turned it up to the fastest that it will go. well one thing he didn't see is that there was a part of the metal cage that was bent just so perfectly that a finger could fit into it. well he did and hit his index finger with the blades of the fan.. well lucky for him the blades aren't super sharp.. it hit him, and gave him a blood blister and cut his nail, also it sprayed blood across the room. that was super fun to clean up.

well i told you before about our investigator that is from Missouri. well we went to teach him on Saturday and well, Elder Hall taught while i sat there... every time that i tried to teach i just ended up speaking in Cebuano... i literally could not teach him... i was trying to share about why being baptized by proper authority is important and it came out very broken. i then tried to use the scriptures and i couldn't speak at all, my tongue was tied... i was over thinking it.

it has been a challenge with teaching again. going from a companion that was fluent in Cebuano, and Tagalog to one who speaks English and knows a little Cebuano. it is a difficult challange but it is one that is possible. we have just been basically translating the entire Restoration, and hopefully other lessons into Cebuano that way it will be a good language tool. he is learning a ton of words, and hopefully more importantly he is learning the meaning, and also the way to use them.

i wish you could all experience the same things that we do daily... you would all love it!

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016 

October 11, 2015

well, i spent the last week listening to all the talks, and was able to listen to all of them before General Conference on Saturday and Sunday, but i waited until we actually watched them to take notes. it was so good! i really enjoyed how most of Saturday was talking about the Plan of Salvation. as a missionary i looked for the similarities to the message that we share daily. it was interesting to listen to the way they teach/give their talks, my goal is to become as effective as Elder Bednar. his talk was amazing, or Elder Holland. (it is going to take A LONG TIME).

oh yeah, so on Thursday there was an Emergency Transfer... we recieved a call from President Tanner on Wednesday morning, he asked first, "How is your knee Elder Larson?" well, every time i see him or talk to him that is his first question. i was super nervous, i didn't know why he was calling, he then said that there was a companionship that wasn't working out and that he needed to ask a favor. well to make the long story short, I SUSTAIN MY LEADERS. Elder Caindoy transfered to Carmen, Bohol. and i am now compaions with Elder Hall. my 16th companion and my 13th foreigner companion... it is so weird always being with Foreigners... he is also 2 months in the mission, so i am still training.

at General Conference there were a ton of members that came over from Panglao, and i got to see them all. it was funny because they all said that i am getting thin, or that i am thinner than i was when i saw them last. well, that is part of my goal. 4 months to thin, and in shape (other than round).

on Wednesday night we were headed home at 9 and we were just about to turn down a street, and there was a tricycle driving all over the road, and then ended up flipping it on its side, well he had his hand on full throttle we biked super fast to go and help him back up. when we got fairly close, probably with-in 10 feet i could smell something that you don't want to smell coming from a driver of a vehicle. the man was drunk as a skunk... he probably had a blood alcohol level of 1.6% or higher... he was beyond intoxicated...

last night on our way home we were at that same corner and my bike decided to have a major malfunction, and the chain fell off. because that happened i hit my knees on the handle bars and fell off the seat... well i was going fast enough that it kept going forward but i ended u sitting on the frame of the bike... lets just say that was SUPER painful!!!! i don't want to experience that again.

i
received a revelation/prompting from the spirit on Monday last week. i was looking at the bikes outside, and i felt a prompting to lock them up or bring them inside. i followed that prompting and locked them up. well in the morning they were still there, but someone had come by and stolen the lights, and also my seat from the bikes... i am glad that i followed that prompting!

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016 

October 4, 2015

well, i say general conference, because all of you have already had the opportunity to watch it... i still have to wait until the 10th and 11th of October, but the great thing is that i am able to download the MP3 version, put it on my USB, and then listen to all the talks before Saturday... i guess in a way "cheat".

well, it has been raining a ton recently... actually this morning we were getting ready to come and email. we headed out the door, and we could hear something in the distance. i looked at Elder Caindoy, and said we need to run or we are going to get really wet... well it was super cool to see a wall of water moving across the sky. the rain drops were about as big as a gum ball, and they felt almost like it was hailing... but it was just rain, (when i tell Filipinos about hail they don't believe me. i tell them it is just balls of ice like rain drops.) well, i haven't ran for a very long time, so it wasn't the most graceful run but we managed to out run it for about 30 seconds until we turned the corner headed to a dry place, then we were hit hard with it. it felt like someone just picked up a bucket of water and splashed us with it. that was so awesome, not everyone gets to experience that, especially on their mission.

so we have a very interesting investigator, i am not sure what religion, or faith he belongs to. the reason is that he doesn't have normal beliefs... we were teaching and we asked just a basic, super simple question... "kinsa ang Dios?" or "who is God?" well his answer was, God is Jehovah... well before i could answer yes, and provide more enlightenment, he continued and said that Jesus is the son, Jehovah is the Father, and Allah is the Grandfather of Christ... well, i honestly have no clue how he came to that answer, or that conclusion... neither do i have any idea how to teach, and help him to understand, who God really is, even though i have told him, testified to him, opened the scriptures to Alma 18, and Alma 22... no success yet.

so on Tuesday last week we went over to Cebu to have a Trainers/trainees meeting at the Mission Home. it was unexpected and very uplifting, it was super awesome to get together with all those missionaries that i have seen come into the mission... (weird as well... mainly because i watched all of these missionaries come into the mission.)

so there has been many things that i have been thinking about, and my dad put it very well "Work hard. Harder you work the more blessings and better you will enjoy the last few months of your mission. You are now there longer than all the others that you went out with. Show them why you are there - to be a great and true leader - not a slacker. Rise up and be true and faithful and great my son." i just keep thinking about the D&C 121:34-36... many called but few chosen. i have also been thinking about how it is a Covenant that we are all under, and not a calling. yes, we may receive callings, but it is you that chooses if you have been called or chosen to serve in that specific role to help progress the kingdom of the Father here on earth.

sorry, no pictures this week.....

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016 

September 28, 2015

well, we are all moved into our new house. it was kinda a difficult move, we got all packed up on P-day, but we were still trying to figure out if we actually needed to move or if we could still stay there. but on thursday morning we were out of there. it was a painful process because we have no car, or vehicle, so we had to wait for the senior couple. we waited for public transportation for about 35 minutes and then we finally just called the Halladay couple to see if they could pick up our luggage.

well our new house is super far away from our area, i dont know how it is going to work yet.

on saturday we woke up at 4:30 to go to a FAMILY FUN WALK here in Tagbilaran City. it was pretty fun, it was about 1 kilometer (.5 miles) that we walked.

ummm.... i guess that i will have to wait until next week to tell you all that i really wanted to because i forgot my planner with my list of stuff to email... darn!

oh yeah, i am on D&C 119, i read D&C 124 last P-day. it was so HUGE!!! 145 verses.... 

we found a dead snake, and decided to take a couple of pictures of it.

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016 

September 22, 2015

ok, so this week is transfer week, which everyone was thinking ahead of time that i was going to become a ZL because i am the oldest missionary now in the entire mission... all my batch has now left, and should be home either today or tomorrow. so yeah, well, we are both moving, but we are staying together and in the same area, and i am the DL again, so what is happening is that we are moving houses, we are staying in the same area but moving. so we are NOT TRANSFERING. i am staying in Tagbilaran 1 Green with Elder Caindoy.

So here in the Philippines they have a ton of spiders, (i know, shocker right). but here they have spiders that the kids catch and then they fight spider against spider, until the death, well i have a couple of these fighter spiders. they are super fun to fight. it is also super crazy to watch them fight. they put them into match boxes for keeping so they don't run away.

so i was thinking about when i was home or hearing from Elder Larson how they were always helping move people out of houses, or apartments. while i was home all of my parents kind of joked about he would help move people to a different house, and i help people move their house... well up until this last week that was just a joke. we helped a guy we just barely met move his house about 200 yards away from where it was. the house is small. it is about 5 ft, by 5 ft, and is about 4 feet tall... made out of bamboo.

so this week was super rainy, which is good because it cools it down a little bit, but terrible because of the mud, and water. i have had to do laundry every night... it is no fun! especially by hand.

our RC, Jake, is very acrobatic, i took some pics of him doing a backflip. i am super jealous, i wish i could do that.

 

-Elder Larson theYOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016 

September 13, 2015

http://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/html/update_SOEPD/EQLatest.html

WunderMap® | Interactive Weather Map and Radar | Weather Underground

so those 2 resources on the top were emailed to me by one of our investigators. the first one shows the up-to-date earthquakes here in the Philippines. i dont know if i told you about the one at about 5:20 in the morning, either way that is pretty cool, especially after the 7.2 earthquake. the second one is a current view of weather, i haven't really used that one, i am pretty sure that you already have one like that, but our investigator showed us it. it was pretty cool to see especially because he was able to show us those typhoons that just went over us here in bohol.

That investigator of ours that showed that all to us is an american from Missouri. it has proved to be quite a challenge to teach him. i have almost forgotten all my english. the only real time that i use it is when talking to President Tanner, or emailing. in the philippines the people that dont understand the other language they say "NOSE BLEED AKO." and they put their finger up or cover their nose so that you know that they don't understand. well, that is what i have had to do with our investigator. i try speaking and teaching and i end up throwing in Cebuano, and then our investigator had to just stop us while we were teaching, and ask what i was saying.

we have a family that we have been teaching the Velasco family, and we were on our way home from one of our farther appointments and as we were biking my bike randomly blew a tire. so we pulled off to the side of the road. well here in the philippines you go to a vulacanizing shop to get your tire fixed, they just melt rubber on to the tire to cover the hole. so our investigator shows up and says to me, get on the motor i will take you and your bike to go get fixed. it was around 8:30so pretty much everyone of them is shut down. i then told him that we would go get it fixed the next day. well he wasn't satisfied with that answer... and persisted to tell me to get on and he would take me to get it fixed right then. i then told him that it was not ok for us to ride on motor cycles any more. he was angry with me for that, i told him that it is "bawal" against the rules. well to make the matter worse, he was a little bit buzzed with alcohol, so he didn't take that answer any better. Now it looks like we are going to have to drop them because he won't let us in to their property... sometimes obedience hurts. but to look at it the most positive way, i know that the savior can rely on me a little bit more if i am willing to obey.

this week i had a random thought, "trying to explain the gospel to someone who doesn't want to learn is like trying to explain the color blue or red to someone who is blind, or explain the sound of a bird to someone who is deaf" it just wont happen.

on Sunday i was one of the speakers.... well lets just say, i was super nervous, 1 reason there was 112 people in attendance, and the other i don't know how to do it in English, the speaker before me spoke  in English, so i got up and said that i didn't prepare a talk in English, so hopefully everyone could still understand me. i don't even want to think about giving a talk to almost 300 people, that is my idea of torture. the funny thing is i now know how to give longer talks as in 15-20 minutes. i remember my farewell talk was 10 minutes and 5 seconds (i timed it).

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016 

September 6, 2015

So this week we had some fun, we had a way fun CSP. we basically got to take down an entire forest with machetes, and shovels. it was super sweet because i finally got to use my machete for real! we got there at about 8:00, and then worked for about 2 hours, some worked hard, and others hardly worked... i guess that is what could be expected of a bunch of 20 year old young men and women. i am just super glad that i have been raised better by several good leaders, and my amazing parents. i was one of those working hard... i worked for 2 hours straight cutting down trees, and clearing bushes. by the time i was done i was literally dripping from everywhere. my shirt was soaking wet, and it looked like i had just got out of the shower. I had Sister Halladay take some pictures (she is the grandma of Elder Tolman, senior couple). it was super good, the only wounds are superficial... 

i was chopping some wood that was pretty dry, about the last 10 minutes of the CSP, and a piece of it flew up and hit me in the right eye. well it cut my eye just a little bit. but it is ok i can still see. also the other injuries were just from the plants we were cutting, and ant bites.

So my other news is that there was a baptism in Duero. they baptized a family that we started teaching, the Floralde Family. i am super happy because Elder Jennings, and Elder Borego were able to baptize them.

this week has been even more exhausting than usual. i am not exactly sure why but for the last week i have just felt... well down in the dumps. i haven't been my usually self, happy and excited to do the work. i just was teaching lessons, which is not good!!! we are supposed to teach people the lessons, and not just teach lessons to people.

 

-Elder Larson the YOUNGER

PHILIPPINES CEBU EAST MISSION!!!! OCT 2013-JAN 2016