$$$$$$$$

What's good guys???

We had a fantastic week here in Antietam aka Hagerstown aka Hub City!! First of all, Mary got baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!!!! So stoked!!! It is amazing to think about how much she has progressed since we first started teaching her! She smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day pretty much every day since she was 8 years old and stopped cold turkey after we gave her a priesthood blessing! Not to mention she drank coffee and tea every day and she gave up all of them! It is amazing what the gospel can do for people and the difference it can make! Her baptism was super spiritual! She was the first person to be baptized in this ward since October of 2014, and hopefully there will be many more to come in this area!

We picked up 2 new investigators this week as well! One of them is the brother of a guy in our ward. They were separated when they were younger and both went completely opposite directions in life. His name is David and you can just tell that this guy has been through it all! After we taught him about the first vision we asked him how he felt and with tears rolling down his face he told us how he felt so fortunate to have us there with him to teach him about this stuff. At the end of the lesson we invited him to pray and ask about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and no joke right as he said amen there was a huge explosion of thunder! It was quite a booming answer to a prayer!

The Lord is hastening His work out here in Maryland, and we are doing our best to keep up with Him! It is amazing how loving our Heavenly Father is! Anyways, I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

Mary and the Clowns (aka us)

My Street

Baptismal Font Mirror Selfie

HUB CITY

What's up guys!!

This week was awesome! The work is hastening for sure, especially here in Hagerstown! We picked up 3 new investigators this week, the Lord is making sure that we have people to teach and I'm not complaining! We couldn't do anything if it weren't for Him! 2 of our new investigators are the friends of some members in our ward who invited them to meet with us, so we went over and had dinner with the members and then afterwards taught their friends! It went really well and they are really interested in the church! So for all of you that have friends in mind that you think need the gospel, don't be afraid to invite them! There is no such thing as a failed invite!

Mary was interviewed by our district leader for her baptism and she passed and is ready to be baptized this Saturday! We got everything set up for her baptism and we are super excited! So is she! Unfortunately we are going to have to move Alvin's baptism back because of some health issues, but he will get there! And this week we put another one of our investigators on date to be baptized on March 26. His name is Larry and we found out that he is autistic (slightly) and is on the special olympic basketball team! So we get to go watch him play on March 5 which is gonna be awesome!

On the more spiritual side of things, we have been working with a less-active member named Brother Bunch since Thanksgiving. He is a Vietnam veteran and recently lost his leg due to exposure to Agent Orange in the war. But we visited this guy like twice a week for the longest time in the hospital. He has been bouncing back and forth from the VA to a bunch of different hospitals because he has a ton of medical issues and he refuses help from the nurses and doctors because of his severe PTSD. While we were visiting him last week with Elder Jaccard, he felt impressed that we should give Brother Bunch a blessing to help him slip easily into the spirit world if it is his time to go. So we gave him a blessing and we left with an assurance that the blessing we gave was needed. I have given many blessings to this very individual because of health issues in the past but the feeling I felt after that one was much different from the rest. It turns out that this brother passed away yesterday morning and I knew that was the best thing for him. It is amazing how the Spirit can work through us!

Also our investigator Lawrence is really struggling right now, he is going through radiation treatments for cancer every day and it doesn't look like he is going to be around much longer:( Please keep him in your prayers!

Anyways, I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

Elder Peery and Elder Larson with Larry

We made a cake for Elder Jaccard's birthday

Valentines Day???

February 16, 2016

How's it going fam!!

I hope y'all aren't as soggy as we are out here in Maryland! It snowed a bunch yesterday and then it rained all night so there is 4 inches of slush everywhere. But it is supposed to warm up later this week to 60 degrees:)

The work is going great though! Mary is still on date to be baptized on February 27 and Alvin is still on for March 5! Mary is so awesome! She has been smoking cigarettes for a long time and she gave them up last week so that she can be baptized! When I say a long time I mean since she was 8 years old! (She is in her 60s) And she gave up coffee! Alvin is coming along too, this area should be seeing some baptisms in the next couple of weeks for the first time in almost a year and a half! The Lord is blessing us with people to teach too!

For those of you who haven't heard about the death of Sister Sadie Wells (Pittsburgh, PA Mission) she passed away in a car accident last week just 30 minutes north of Hagerstown. Keep her family in your prayers!

Anyways, I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

Potomac River Dam

Antietam????

February 8, 2016

What's up guys!!!

I hope y'all had a fantastic week, because we did!!! The snow is pretty much completely gone now and it is 60 degrees and sunny, so happy spring!! This week we put 2 more of our investigators (Alvin and Lawrence) on date to be baptized, both of them for March 5! We are seeing some awesome miracles here in Antietam! We can definitely see the Lord's hand in the work, we wouldn't be able to do anything if it weren't for Him! I'm gonna tell you about our lesson with Alvin because it was one of the most spiritual I have been in on my mission! When we first got there his Book of Mormon was out and it looked like it had been read 100 times and he showed us where he was in Alma 5 and every verse on that page was marked and there were notes all throughout the margins and he told us that he loves reading it, but he still hasn't received his answer about whether it is true or not. So we got down on our knees and Alvin said the most sincere prayer that I had ever heard anyone say my whole life. The entire time the Spirit was unbelievably strong. After he finished the prayer we sat in silence for no joke 5 minutes and let the Holy Ghost testify to him. After that we put him on date to be baptized for March 5. It was such a money lesson! Also we taught Mary again and she is still super excited for February 27, Antietam is gonna see some baptisms for the first time in a while!! And we got to go to the DC temple was awesome!

Also we had another miracle this week, this guy was walking past our church on Sunday and decided that he would just stop in and check it out randomly. So he shows up to sacrament meeting and the ward fellowshipped him super hard! We are gonna start teaching him on Tuesday and he is gonna come back to church next week because he loved it! So stoked!!

Also I'm super pumped that the Broncos won the Super Bowl:):) Anyways, I hope y'all have a great week!

-Elder Larson

Brother Jaccard and Elder Larson at the DC Temple Trip

6 MONTHS???

February 1, 2016

What's up guys!!

I hope y'all had a dry week, because we didn't! We continued shoveling throughout the week, my back is done for! Although it has been warm enough lately that all of the snow is melting and it is melting super fast too! A lot of people are worried about floods because of all the melting plus all the rainfall this upcoming week. So we might be shoveling water instead of snow this week! Also we had transfers last week and Elder Peery came into the area and we got straight to work! Elder Peery is from Reno, Nevada.

Yesterday we put our investigator, Mary, on date to be baptized on February 27!!!! She is super excited and really wants to be sealed to her husband in the temple. So we are pretty stoked about that! That was a nice 6 month present!! Be sure to keep Mary in your prayers as we help her progress towards baptism! Other than that our teaching pool has been continuing to grow so I'm pretty happy about the work right now!

The Lord is definitely hastening the work in this area and placing those that have been prepared in our paths. I hope y'all have a great week! Go Broncos!

-Elder Larson

Elder Larson and new companion Elder Peery

BLIZZARD OF 2K16!!!

January 25, 2016

Howdy!!

This last week has been pretty crazy!! We weren't able to meet with most of our investigators and church was cancelled because everyone was preparing for this world ending storm that hit a couple of days ago. All of the grocery stores have been completely depleted of all food, water and toilet paper because everyone had to prepare for being stranded for 2 months! All of the businesses and schools were shut down before the storm even started because everyone was so scared of this storm lol. Hagerstown was completely crippled because of this storm. Haha you all probably think that this was some crazy hurricane/tornado/blizzard but it was only 2-3 feet of snow which is not unusual for Utah. But it has been a great opportunity for my companion and I the past couple of days to go out and serve the people around here! We have been shoveling non-stop for the past 3 days! Church was even cancelled yesterday! My back is super sore right now!

In the midst of all of this we got call outs last night and found out that Elder Brackett is leaving and I am staying here in Antietam. At the end of this next transfer I will have spent 7.5 months in the city of Hagerstown! I'm trapped here! My companion will be Elder Peery, and I don't know who he is so I'm excited to meet him on Wednesday!

And for those of you who are curious about why the guy featured in my last email went to jail, he forgot to pay a $250 fee lol.

Anyways I hope you guys have a good week, love y'all!

-Elder Larson

Diane's Kids

Shoveling 3 Feet of Snow

Storm Jonas

Brother and Sister Jaccard

OOPS

January 18, 2016

What's up guys!!

We had a pretty wild week! I'll give you the good news first.. We had 3 investigators at church yesterday!! Alvin, Diane, and Mary all came and they all loved it! We were super excited about that!! It turns out that Alvin is super solid! We went over to teach him about the Book of Mormon and he got onto Mormon.org and read a ton of stuff about the church and he ended up showing us some scriptures that he loves out of the Book of Mormon and he wants to get baptized! That was one of the most powerful/spiritual lessons that I have ever been in! The entire lesson the Spirit was testifying that the Book of Mormon is true and Alvin picked up on it too! I know for a fact that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is one of the greatest sources for happiness and guidance that we have here on earth! The church is so true!! If any of you haven't yet read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it I beg you to do so! It is so amazing!!

On the wild side of things, a member from our ward was taking us out to dinner to some Japanese restaurant and on the way there he got pulled over. The cop said he was going 8 over the speed limit so we thought that it was pretty dumb at first but it was whatever. We gave the member a pass along card to give to the cop when he came back with his license but the cop was taking forever!! Pretty soon 2 more cop cars showed up and the member started getting really nervous, you could tell! Finally the cop came to the care and asked him to step out of the car. We were peeking back behind the car to watch what was going on and they put him in hand cuffs and threw him in the car! What the heck!!!! Then the cop came to our car and asked us if either one of us could drive the car back to the guys house and we told him that we couldn't because we were missionaries and we have church policies that we have to follow, one of them being that we can't drive member's cars. So they hauled him off to jail and we were stuck on the side of the road without a ride back home and without dinner. We finally got back home but unfortunately I lost my planner in the midst of all the chaos!:/ Friday night was pretty wild!!

Also I got to go on exchanges with ELDER LARSEN from Hagerstown and we picked up a new investigator then. It was super funny when we introduced ourselves to people as Elder Larson and Elder Larsen haha! But it was a lot of fun! Also we picked up another new investigator on Saturday who will probably be going to jail in February because he almost shot somebody with his rifle while he was intoxicated a few weeks ago! Oops! So he's pretty crazy but hey, it's Hagerstown! Also it finally snowed!! Less than 1 inch lol!

Have a good week guys!!

-Elder Larson

Elder Larson and Elder Larsen

First Snow of the Year

Uh oh...

HALLELUJAH!!!!

January 11, 2016

What's up guys??

It has been another crazy week here in Hagerstown! The work has definitely been picking up for us lately! We picked up 2 new investigators, and one of them we found out the other day is the aunt of a member in our ward! Crazy "coincidence" haha! Her name is Shirley and she is 81 years old and she is the sweetest lady! 

I went on exchanges with Elder Carmichael and he's sick! He is from Maine and he was a convert to the church at 18 then he moved out to Utah to go to college. He's a cool dude! 

We made a deal with Diane that if we would go to her church on Sunday that she would come to ours this week. So of course we did lol!!! It was so wild!! It's called New Life World Ministries and it is a non-denominational church in downtown. We were the only white people there and everyone was super surprised to see us there but they were all really nice and welcoming. The service started off with this gospel hip hop/soul/r&b/rock concert where everyone was yelling HALLELUJAH and PRAISE THE LORD and all sorts of stuff and everyone was dancing and crying haha it was definitely not what I'm used to in church! My ears were ringing afterwards! Then they had a meet and greet period where everyone went around and hugged everyone so we got a bunch of hugs from ghetto black ladies haha! They were really nice people though! So we had a wild Sunday!

Anyways I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

Elder Carmichael and Elder Larson

HAPPY NEW YEAR

January 4, 2016

This week was crazy!!! On New Years Eve I had the opportunity to go down to the DC temple and play the guitar at the visitors center in the auditorium there it was a lot of fun! Initially I was supposed to just play prelude music while everyone was coming in to the auditorium but they told me right before it started that they were just going to play a video as everyone was coming in and that I would just be the opening act after they said the opening prayer and played a couple more videos. So I was super nervous about that haha but it ended up going well! We performed twice so we didn't get home until 11:30. But that was a lot of fun!

On New Years day we weren't supposed to go out and proselyte so we hung out with some members and we watched the Saratov Approach, I love that movie!

We had some pretty sweet miracles too! We felt inspired to go around and visit a bunch of the former investigators in our area book. We stopped by this guy named Dennis and he immediately let us in. He was telling us that the past month has been depressing for him and that he has been waiting for the missionaries to come back to teach him! We put him on date to be baptized on January 23 and he is really excited about that! He is already talking about who he wants to baptize him haha we're pumped for that! Hopefully we can get him to come to church so he can actually be baptized lol! Then, while we were at church we were informed of another miracle! There is a guy in our ward who recently started coming back to church when I first came in to this area and his wife is a non member. We have been told not to try and teach her because she wasn't interested so all we could really do with her was pray and hope for the best, but on Sunday she went in to the bishop and told her that she wants to be baptized and she wants to know what she needs to do in order to get baptized, so we are going to begin teaching her and we are super excited about that! Our teaching pool is getting really big which is unheard of for this area! Miracles!

Anyways I hope y'all have a fantastic week! 

-Elder Larson

This is the auditorium we performed in

Performing at the DC Temple

CHRISTMAS:)

December 28, 2015

What's up guys!!! Merry Christmas!! I hope y'all had a fantastic Christmas! This week was a lot of fun! We had our mission-wide Christmas conference and I had to play the guitar at it! I was super nervous about that! This week I have to play the guitar at the DC temple on New Years eve so I'm pretty nervous about that too.. But I'm excited to be able to go see the temple again, the DC temple is so pretty! 

We also did a lot of cleaning in our old apartment because the walls there were really dirty and we have to clean it the best that we can to save the church some money! Missionaries have lived in that apartment for 2 years so it was pretty bad!

On Christmas we had breakfast with the Marvils, they have had the missionaries over for Christmas breakfast for 20 years now, so it was an honor to be their 20th year! Then we got to skype home which was awesome! Then we hung out with the Hertz family and we got to talk to their son Zach who is in the MTC right now which was pretty dope!

This week has been pretty crazy when it comes to missionary work, we were worried for a while because we couldn't get a hold of Fatima or Selina but we finally got a hold of Selina at their apartment and it turns out Fatima has been in Boston all week so that makes sense why we couldn't get a hold of them! But Selina is doing good! After we email we are going over to Diane's hair salon and she is gonna give me a hair cut. Keep them all in your prayers!

Anyways I hope y'all have a fantastic week and a happy new year!! Watch out for drunk drivers!!!

-Elder Larson

Skyping with the Fam

Elder Larson Junior

EVICTION

December 21, 2015

What's up guys?!?

This week has been crazy and awesome and even more crazy! We had an appointment with our investigator Fatima and she invited her sister Selina to take the lessons too so we got to teach both of them and their families! Fatima said that she had been praying about being baptized and the Holy Ghost took her to the scripture in Mark where Jesus was baptized and she told us that she wants to get baptized!!! So we put Fatima and Selina on date to be baptized on January 9th!!! Which we are super stoked about!!! It was such a miracle!! Also Fatima told us about how the day that we met her she was waiting for her kids to get ready before they would leave but she had a prompting from the Holy Ghost to go down to her car and wait for them there, and so she did and "coincidentally" we walked down the street at that time and we met her! She and her sister are super prepared!!!!

Later this week we were out doing our normal thing when we got a call from the zone leaders saying that we had to be out of our apartment by the next day haha! It's not as extreme as it sounds, but basically our old apartments lease runs out at the end of this month and for whatever reason the church bought another apartment in the same complex so we had to move into that in 1 day for whatever reason. But I'm pumped because it is a lot nicer than our other apartment! Now we have to work on cleaning the other apartment that has been used by missionaries for 2 years now, the walls and carpet are super nasty lol!

I hope you all have a fantastic week and a Merry Christmas!!!

-Elder Larson

Me, Elder Meyer and Elder Petersen. Elder Petersen is from Farmington and I was good buds with before the mission and they are both leaving our district:/

The District

Elder Peterson and Elder Meyer leaving the District:(

Christmas???

December 14, 2015

What's up guys!!!

Fantastic weather out here in Maryland!! I think I'm gonna go swimming right after we email!! Just kidding we can't do that (in case you didn't know) but it is definitely warm enough for that!!! As we speak it is 70 degrees outside and I am chillin in a short sleeved shirt hahaha and Christmas is next Friday!! Tis the season!! Jk I shouldn't complain I don't want to spend all day shoveling snow haha.

Anyways things are going really well out here, we found out that both me and Elder Brackett are going to stay here in Antietam for this next transfer. I'm pretty excited because there are a lot of awesome members out here!

We are still teaching Diane and she is coming along, she actually came to the ward Christmas party on Saturday and the ward did a fantastic job at fellow shipping with her! She couldn't come to church yesterday but she said she is coming for sure next week! And we have an appointment with Fatima tonight and she said she wants her sister and her family to come to it because she things that they will like it too! Which we are super excited about too!! Also yesterday in church I gave a talk on the power of the Atonement which was a great opportunity! 2 people came up to me afterward and told me that my talk was an answer to their prayers, and one of them was a non-member! I was really grateful that I was able to help them out!

Also we had a special zone conference with Elder Teh from the quorum of the 70 and it was really cool! He was a really humble guy and hung out with us during lunch and came and sat down next to us during the instruction by the assistants lol it was pretty sick!

Anyways I hope y'all have a good week!!!

-Elder Larson

Me and Elder Meyer and Hagerstown City Park with lights:)

Elder Meyer and Elder Larson

Hagerstown City Park

DC TEMPLE!!

December 7, 2015

What's up guys???

It has been a wonderful week!! We are still teaching Diane and she is progressing but we still can't get her to come to church:/ We brought the senior missionary couple with us to teach her and it was such a spiritual lesson! I'm not gonna lie I was tearing up a little and that doesn't normally happen lol! The senior couple came in clutch and they helped her out a ton with her concerns! Also we picked up a new investigator, her name is Fatima, and she is really solid! We taught her the Restoration and it went really well! It answered every single question that she had and the Spirit was so strong, we invited her to be baptized and she said yes so we're pretty pumped about that! She is from Africa and has actually been to our church before! It was pretty funny because she was telling us about how her favorite church that she has ever been to was the Mormon church and she didn't even know that we were Mormons hahaha! So she was super pumped when she found out that we were the missionaries from that church! It was a miracle!!!

On Saturday we got to go to the DC temple to see Brother and Sister Hertz get sealed it was amazing!! The DC temple is super pretty! They had the Christmas lights on and everything it was awesome!! (although the Christmas lights aren't as cool as the ones at temple square) But it was such a cool experience!! Afterwards they took us to some sushi/hibachi place that was super good:)

Also everyone make sure you keep my momma in your prayers cuz she is having surgery this week!! Anyways, I love y'all, have a good week!!

Elder Larson

DC Temple

The Hertz' Temple Sealing

Turkey!!!

November 30, 2015

What's up guys!!

Happy Thanksgiving last week!! Things have been going well but the work is a little slow right now! It seems like people don't really want to talk to us around holidays lol.. But Thanksgiving was super good! We played football in the morning and sports with the zone at night and I was unbelievably sore after that!! I'm out of shape!! But we had Thanksgiving dinner at a members house in Sharpsburg which is right by the Antietam battlefield. Their house was literally in the Civil War! There is a cannon ball in a tree in their backyard from the Civil War and one of their walls was destroyed during the war too. There is so much history out here it's crazy!!

Our investigator, Diane, is doing pretty well, we are still meeting with her and she wants to learn more about the gospel which is good! She has some concerns though, one of them being the Book of Mormon and we are trying to help her resolve those so she can continue to progress! So keep Diane in your prayers!!

This Saturday we get to go to the temple with a family in our ward that invited us to go with them for their sealing so we are pretty pumped about that!! I'm excited to see all the lights they have put up around the temple too!

Anyways, I hope y'all have a good week!!!

-Elder Larson

4 Months

November 23, 2015

What's up guys??

It has been an amazing week!! With all of the new changes in our mission, we are focusing a lot more on finding investigators and getting them to the waters of baptism, and eventually to the temple. We have a mission wide goal to find 2 new investigators a week and if we do so we will double the amount of people that we baptize! So we have been praying a ton to find new investigators!!

Last Thursday was a REALLY slow day. We had no investigators and it seemed like no matter what we tried to do we couldn't find anyone that was interested at all in hearing about the gospel. We couldn't even get into any of the less active members houses that we usually could and we found ourselves sitting in our car trying to find something to do. This whole day I had been praying in my heart that we would find ANYBODY that we could teach. As we were sitting there I had a prompting to go out and talk to a man that had just walked past our car. We got out of the car and started running down the street to catch up to this guy (my companion probably thought I was crazy haha) and we finally caught up to him a couple blocks later and we started talking to him. And he wasn't interested at all lol. But he was talking to a lady that owns a barber shop in the ghetto that is called Divine Blessings and it turns out that she was very interested and we got a return appointment with her! So we went back the next day and taught her the Restoration and she is really interested and we picked her up as an investigator we were so pumped!!! Her name is Diane, make sure you keep her in your prayers!! The Lord really is looking out for us and answers our prayers in crazy but awesome ways!!

Also we got permission from our mission president to go to the temple with a returning less active family that invited us to go with them when they get sealed in the temple! We are super excited about that too, we get to go to that on December 5th!!

Anyways, have a good week guys I love y'all!!!

Also in that picture is Elder Dyer who is from Draper and I used to live super close to him! #twinningiswinning lol 

#3 Ugliest City in America!!!!!

November 16, 2015

What's up guys?!?!

It has been a sick week here in Antietam!! Some less active members informed us that Hagerstown is the 3rd ugliest city in the United States which surprises me because I thought it would have been #1 for sure lol!!! Lol on the serious side of things, that less active member that I told y'all about last week actually hadn't been to church in over 18 years and now she has been coming every week! It is truly amazing how powerful the spirit can be in one's conversion, even if they are already members!

This week we have been trying our hardest to pick up some new investigators and it has been pretty tough! The thing about Hagerstown is it's hard to find those that are going to be able to actually keep commitments and actually try to come closer to the Savior. There are plenty of people that want to receive the blessings that come along with the gospel but not have to do anything to get them. When we ask a lot of people why they go to their churches they straight up tell us all of the time that the reason they go there is because they don't have to do anything lol! But lately people have been trying to bible bash us a ton!! Sometimes it is hard not to bash them back haha because we're not supposed to do that lol.

We found out that this big long boarding company called Bustin has its headquarters in downtown Hagerstown so we did a little searching/street contacting and we found it haha! It is this sketchy big warehouse on top of this old church and the only way to access it is by going down this sketchy alley. But we knocked on the door and the guys that work there let us in and they were way chill! A bunch of them were pro skate boarders and long boarders and they gave us a tour of the warehouse and showed us where they make all of the boards and stuff and they let us try out a bunch of their skateboards and long boards it was pretty sick!!

Other than that we did a little bit of painting for members and just typical missionary stuff it has been good! Anyways I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

Gucci

November 9, 2015

What's up guys!!

It has been a good week here in Maryland!! Unfortunately one of our investigators, Wayne, dropped us last week and we are very close to dropping our other investigator Daniel because he doesn't keep commitments and he is never there for our appointments with him. But we know that the Lord is going to provide us with those that he has prepared and that are ready for the gospel!!

On the good side of things, one of the investigators that I worked with in the Hagerstown ward finally got baptized last week!!! His name is Mike Guynes and he is the sickest!! He was in prison for 10 years and he got out 2 years ago and met the missionaries and wanted to get baptized way bad but because he had been in jail for 10 years he had to get permission from the 1st presidency. So last year he tried to get permission to get baptized but they said he would have to wait another year so he did and asked for permission to get baptized in September and he finally got permission to get baptized!! He is a perfect example of how the gospel can completely turn around peoples lives!!! Also at his baptism I got to see Keatin White (you guys know him as Elder White) who was my trainer that is home now! But he came back out here! And he was with his girlfriend and that was super weird to see my trainer and his girlfriend all over each other right in front of me haha!!! Missionary probs!!!

Another good thing, a lady in our ward that hasn't been to church in over 5 years and when we started working with her 8 weeks ago didn't even have a testimony of the church finally came back to church yesterday and she loved it!! She said she wants to come every week so we're super pumped about that! And a returning less active family that we have been working with a bunch is getting sealed in the temple in the next couple of weeks and they want is to go through the temple with them so hopefully we can get permission to do that!

Anyways, I hope you guys all have a good week! The church is true!!

-Elder Larson

Antietam District

Keatin White and Elder Larson

Round 2 in Antietam

November 2, 2015

What's up fam!!!

It has been a good week here in Hagerstown and surrounding areas!! I was on splits with a guy in the ward that is getting ready to go on his mission and we went over to one of our potential investigator's house and he let us in so we taught him the Restoration and he loved it!! We invited him to be baptized and he said yes and he is so stoked about the gospel!! Initially we had some appointments with him that ended up falling through but after the lesson with him he told us that he knew Satan was trying way hard to keep him away from us and from the gospel!! So we picked him up as an investigator so we're pumped about that and Daniel is still doing pretty good, keep both of them in your prayers!!

Last week a senior missionary couple moved into our ward and they live in the same apartments as us so that's sick because they are way cool and said that they will feed us anytime that we're hungry so we're pumped about that lol!!

Halloween was this week too and that was way fun!! As missionaries we're not supposed to be out doing the work after dinner because we would look like trick or treators making fun of missionaries hahaha!!! So instead our whole zone got together at the stake center and we played basketball, volleyball and dodgeball which was super fun!!

Transfers are this Wednesday and we found out that me and Elder Brackett are both staying here in Antietam so we're pretty excited about that! Hopefully it will be another good transfer!!

Today we went down to Harpers Ferry and went on a hike to Maryland Heights and it is way pretty!! It wasn't much of a hike compared to some of the stuff out West haha there are only hills out here. But it was still way pretty!! Anyways I hope y'all have a good week!!!

-Elder Larson

The Hood

October 26, 2015

Lol what's up guys!!!

It has been another good week here in Antietam!! Btw I hit my 3 month mark this week so that's pretty sick! 1/8 of the way there haha!! But this week was crazy!! That lady that we gave a blessing to last week passed away which is sad but she was super old! I'm pumped because we're gonna start teaching this guy from Ukraine soon and he's way sick!! It's crazy because when he was in Ukraine 10 years ago he was being taught by the missionaries and almost got baptized but his parents wouldn't let him because they are hardcore catholic lol! So we're pumped to pick him up!!

Also we were in downtown Hagerstown waiting for a member to meet up with us so we could go teach a potential investigator and then across the street some kid that is no older than 12 years old started beating the crap out of a little girl and we thought they were joking or something until she started crying and then ran away it was messed up!! I was in shock after watching it! And we also learned where the prostitute house is here (or at least where one of them is lol).

But on the pleasant side of things, we have been teaching Daniel a bunch lately and we put him on date to be baptized last week!! He is on date for January 2 which is pretty far away but that's what he is comfortable with so we're excited about that!! Last week we got to teach a ton of people it was awesome!! Hopefully this week is as good! Have a good week guys!!! And happy Halloween!!

-Elder Larson

PS fall is beautiful here!!

Ice!!

October 19, 2015

What's up guys!!

Time is flying by and it is getting super cold out here in Hagerstown lol! Out of nowhere yesterday it got really cold and it has been getting below freezing at night so that is a bummer for us haha!

This week has been crazy!! Yesterday we had stake conference and this lady from New Hampshire came up to me and my companion and asked us if we could come give her mother who isn't a member that lives in our area a blessing. She told us that her mom was 90 years old and had Alzheimer's way bad and she is gonna die any minute! So we went over and she looked really really sick and couldn't speak or anything so we gave her a blessing of comfort that the pain would soon be over and that she had people that couldn't wait to see her in heaven and pretty much to help her be ok with dying it was crazy! But the spirit was so unbelievably strong and after we gave her the blessing you could see that she was at peace and that she was feeling better. We haven't heard if she has passed away or not yet but they were saying that they weren't expecting her to live through the night last night.

Also we had a sick lesson with one of our investigators, Daniel, last week too! We showed up at his house and a bunch of the kids from the neighborhood were playing football in his backyard so we went and played with all of them and that was way fun! After that we sat down in the backyard and taught him the restoration and the spirit was way strong then too! He described to us that he had goosebumps and felt really warm when we taught him about the first vision so that was way sick!! Hopefully we can get him on date to be baptized this week! Keep Daniel in your prayers!!

Also Keatin (Elder White who trained me and is home now) is coming back to Maryland to visit us this week so I'm super pumped to see him! I hope y'all have a good week!!!

-Elder Larson

Gators!!!

October 13, 2015

What's up guys!!!!

It has been another sick week in the Antietam area!!! This week Elder Brackett and I picked up 2 new investigators, which are the first ones this area has had in a couple of months!! We have really been working hard and it is finally starting to pay off! Hopefully we will have a couple of baptisms coming up soon, they both seem pretty solid! We actually had a really cool experience with finding one of them, on our GPS there were a few people on their that were unknowns that we didn't know anything about so we were going around and trying to meet these people and one brought us to a house that is split up into two halves and different people live in either sides of it. We went up to the door on the left and the name on the mailbox didn't match the name that we had on the GPS so we knew that it wasn't the right house and that more than likely that person wouldn't have any sort of affiliation with the church anyways but we decided to knock anyways because we knew there was some reason that we needed to be there. So we knocked on the door and nobody answered. But right after we knocked this guy came out of the other door, the one on the left, like he had been expecting us yet we had never talked to him before haha. But we talked to him and told him about the restoration and he wanted to hear more so this week we went back there for two more lessons and he is really excited about the gospel and wants to learn as much as he can! We have another appointment with him on Wednesday and we're stoked about that! The Lord really does place people that need the gospel in our paths, and sometimes it's in the strangest ways!

We finally got to play ball this last Saturday at the church, we haven't been able to for the past couple of weeks. That is always way fun because it is us missionaries and then a bunch of the hood rats from the neighborhood next to the church come play with us haha. It is way fun to go play street ball with people in the ghetto who think we are crazy because we are all dressed up in white shirts and ties hahaha. Also we found out that we are gonna have a senior missionary couple move in to the apartment building right next to ours which could either be way sick for us or a pain because they could be sick and bring us food all the time (because most of the time we don't have any lol) or they could be super strict and rat us out for being 1 minute late back to our apartment at night lol. But we moved all of their stuff into their apartment, we haven't met them yet though! Also sorry for getting this email out on Tuesday, the libraries were closed yesterday. That's pretty much it from this week, I hope y'all have a good week!!

-Elder Larson

 

Elder Larson with Elder Peterson who is from Centerville

Elder Larson with Elder Meyer (Stephanie Meyer's son)

Companions: Elder Brackett and Larson

October 5, 2015

What's up guys??

It has been another sick week out here in Hub City aka Hagerstown aka mini Baltimore! It was pretty sketchy because there was supposed to be some crazy huge hurricane that would be destroying us right now but luckily it turned out to sea haha! But it has been raining all week long because of it lol. Today the sun finally came out which was nice! But I got to go on exchanges with Elder Meyer out to Martinsburg, WV and that was way fun! The zone leaders want everyone to make voicemails about miracles that happened and the sisters challenged a bunch of us to a voicemail rap battle so me, Elder Meyer, Elder Blakley and Elder Rollins (the Spanish elders) made a sick rap hahaha.

But the work in the Antietam area has been pretty slow, we're trying really hard to pick up some investigators... But we have a legit appointment with a potential tonight and she seems legitimately interested so hopefully that goes well! Also unfortunately, David's baptism got pushed back again because they found out that he has an e-cig with nicotine so he can't be baptized as long as he's doing that. It is pretty sad to see stuff like that happen. But not as sad as seeing a little girl no older than 11 or 12 smoking a cigarette on the streets of downtown Hagerstown, which we saw yesterday:/ But there is nothing better than seeing somebody who didn't have the gospel in their life and make changes to follow the Lord!! It is night and day for them!

Also, conference was sick! Haha have a good week guys!!

-Elder Larson

ANTIETAM

September 28, 2015

What's up guys!!!

It has been a crazy but awesome week!! The transfer was successful and I am now in the Antietam area! Which is still in Hagerstown lol just on the other side of the highway so I didn't move far at all. I still go to the same church building and everything haha it is pretty funny. Elder White went home last week which was pretty sad I miss him a bunch!! But my new companion, Elder Brackett is awesome!! Things are going pretty slow in Antietam compared to the Hagerstown ward though. The Antietam ward is a lot smaller and pretty much everyone in it is super old haha. The missionary work is really slow too, there isn't really any member trust with the missionaries here which makes things hard but we are trying to get tight with all of the members!! We don't have any investigators in this area either but we have been trying super hard to find a few new ones!

I get to see my other old companion, Elder Singleton, all the time which is sick! We play sports in the mornings with him and his companion and a few other missionaries in the area it's way fun! And I'm going on exchanges there tomorrow because a member in the Hagerstown ward wanted me and Elder Singleton to teach one of that member's friends so I'm excited to go back there! Also I found out that 2 people that we street contacted and got to teach before I moved to Antietam are on date to be baptized!!! One of them the sisters are teaching but the other one we got to teach and he is super excited about getting baptized!! It is weird going from Hagerstown where there are a bunch of people on date and a bunch of progressing investigators to Antietam where we don't even have 1 investigator lol. But David's baptism got moved to this Friday and he wants me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost after he gets baptized so I'm super pumped about that!! David is awesome!!!

This week we talked to a bunch of crazy people haha we were street contacting downtown and we walked past this bar and one of the guys that worked there came out and stopped us as we walked by and was trying super hard to get us to come into the bar hahaha. He was trying to get us to come in and just get a water and listen to some Bob Dylan with him but we told him no and he started freaking out lol he was super drunk!! Then he said I look like "flippin Justin Bieber" but he didn't use that same word haha. But he was a nice guy and gave us both hugs lol it was weird. I hope you all have a good week!!!

-Elder Larson

Also this is my new address:)

1160 Kenly Ave. Apartment 5

Hagerstown, MD 21740

HUB CITY

September 21, 2015

What's up guys!

It has been real Hagerstown!! I got the news last night that I am going to be transferred somewhere else this week:/:/ I'm gonna miss Hub City (Hagerstown lol)!! The bad news is that I don't know where I am going yet or who my next companion is which is killing me. They haven't sent that information out yet which is dumb because it should have been sent out already. But I'm super excited to see where I'm going to serve next!

My companion, Elder White goes home on Wednesday which is super weird, I'm gonna miss him! He keeps asking me about what music he should listen to and movies he should watch when he gets home haha it is soo weird. I'm gonna miss Elder Singleton a bunch too! Our companionship is the best, we have so much fun while working super hard at the same time which is awesome!

On Saturday Antonio got baptized and on Sunday he was confirmed! It was such a cool experience to be a part of!! It was crazy though because we usually visit with him every day to read the Book of Mormon with him and stuff so he wouldn't slip up and drink but he was super busy on Friday so we couldn't visit with him. We tried calling him and texting him a bunch to at least come in contact with him but he wasn't answering us which we were super worried about! It got to the point where it was like 4 hours before his baptism and we hadn't talked to him in like 2 days so we went over to his house to see if he was there and he answered the door and had just woken up. We asked him what he did the day before and he said "I drank a 40 oz" and we were all freaking out, super bummed haha then he said he was kidding and busted up laughing hahah we were so ticked!! He is a funny guy! Also David is getting baptized this Friday which will be awesome!!

I just found out, as I was writing this lol, that I am going to be serving in the Antietam area which is crazy because that is literally the area right next to the one I'm in right now which is still in Hagerstown. So I am still gonna be in Hagerstown hahaha. But it will be nice because I'll be able to go to David's baptism and I have a bunch of friends in this zone already so that is nice! It just stinks that I have to pack everything up and drive 5 minutes to drop everything off lol! But I'm excited it is going to be good! The Antietam ward is really struggling right now so we'll see if we can build it up! Also, Elder Brackett is my companion and I already know him pretty well because we play sports with him and his companion now pretty much every morning. It is gonna be a good transfer!

Also I got to go on exchanges with my MTC companion Elder Allen which was dope!! And I forgot to put this in earlier but we helped Antonio clean out his house and he had this trashy couch in there that we couldn't fit through the door way so we just destroyed it with an ax in his kitchen and dragged the pieces out lol.

Antonio's Couch Removal

Splits with Elder Allen

Antonio's Baptism