HOOD MENTALITY

What's good???

We had a crazy/amazing week here in the Dirty Burnie!! To start things off we had MLC in Columbia and Elder Carlson came to speak to us it was awesome! Super spiritual experience! We didn't get home until super late! By that I mean 11:30 lol.. Then we had district meeting and we all got super pumped! Which worked because right after Elder Burtenshaw and I went and picked up 4 new investigators!! The mom was a referral and her kids are all super cool! Her name is Pebbles and they are all super hood and super solid! They are all stoked about prophets and the Book of Mormon!! The best part is that there are 4 or 5 more people in their family that we could potentially pick up too! Super pumped!

On Thursday I went on exchanges into Brooklyn Park aka THE HOOD haha it was so sick! We tracted through Cherry Hill which is apparently the most dangerous place in America haha! When we were waiting for the light rail we saw some guy smoke crack and then he came over to us and told us that he just smoked crack and then we got a return appointment with him haha! And he lives in Glen Burnie so I was pumped about that! But pretty much everywhere we went people were telling us to be careful or to get out of the area before something happened to us. In that area it is less than 10% white people haha. Super fun!!

Saturday we found out that a lady got evicted so we went and helped her move so we had to ditch our plans for the night because we were in a completely different area and we were on bikes. So we prayed that we would be able to make an effective use of the rest of the night and that we would have some awesome opportunities to share the gospel. As we were walking through our apartment complex we came across a family that was moving into the 4th floor and they had a HUGE moving van packed to the top with stuff to move up to their new apartment and everyone there was super tired and ready to give up and then we came in and moved pretty much the entire truck up to their apartment and they were all amazed!! A bunch of them told us that we were answers to their prayers and that we were angels! So we are going back this week to teach them so we're pretty pumped about that!

Also last night we were walking around contacting and we taught a guy while he was smoking weed and he is super stoked about the gospel haha!! And we picked him up as an investigator! We might have gotten second hand high from it, I promise I don't have a problem with the Word of Wisdom hahaha!!!

Have a good week!!!

-Elder Larson

SPRING:)

BALTIMORE: The Worst City in America

Sleeping Man (hopefully he's not dead)

MARCH MADNESS

What's up fam??

I hope y'all had an outrageous week! Cuz we did! The work has been kinda slow so we have been out contacting and knocking doors constantly trying to find some people to teach! I don't know why but we have been bashed by more people this week than I ever have my whole mission haha! They tell us to avoid bible bashing with people as much as possible because nothing good ever comes from bashing. We have a few investigators, one of them (Linda) has actually been coming to ward activities and church and stuff so hopefully we will be able to put her on date to be baptized! 

We picked up a new investigator yesterday, his name is Earnest and he is an OG (original gangster) in this area haha. Everytime we see him he tells us that we are his favorite white dudes and that we are "flippin(except he doesn't use that word) classy". It was actually really cool how we picked him up! Yesterday Elder Burtenshaw and I were as determined as you can get to find a new investigator because we hadn't found one all week and we were gonna do everything we could to find one. We stopped by everyone that we had on the plans and nothing was coming through and we tried knocking a ton of houses and we just kept getting bashed, Satan was trying to get us to give up! We went to go stop by Earnest's house but his car wasn't there so we tried knocking anyways and nobody answered:/ In frustration we started knocking at

all of his neighbors doors and still nobody was answering and then right as we were about to leave Earnest pulled up in his car with his Gucci glasses on and we taught him and picked him up as an investigator! Super sick miracle!

Also Elder Burtenshaw and I found out that we are going to get a mini missionary to join us in a couple weeks we are pumped! Other than that we have just been enjoying the work and meeting some awesome people!

I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

7 Eleven Slurpee Day:)

Big Boiz

THE DIRTY BURNIE

What's up fam??

I hope you all had a good week! It was very sad to say goodbye to all the people in Hagerstown/Antietam.  I don't know why but it was super hard to leave that crazy place! But I'm pumped to be here in Glen Burnie! My new companion is Elder Burtenshaw and he is a stud! This is his 3rd transfer, he plays baseball and football, he is my boy! My district is pretty dope too it's gonna be a good transfer!

The work has been going pretty good, we picked up some new investigators and had some solid lessons with our investigators and one of them came to church! Hopefully we see a bunch of baptisms here! I am giving a baptismal interview to some guy the other Glen Burnie elders are teaching this week who is getting baptized the next week! Stoked about that!

Anyways I hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Larson

Elder Burtenshaw and Elder Larson

Goodbye Hagerstown:(:(

What's up fam!!

My last week in the Antietam ward was a good one!! I'm gonna miss this crazy place! I'm headed to Glen Burnie in Baltimore to be a district leader I'm pumped! It will probably be even crazier than Hagerstown! For real though I'm gonna miss the ward here and all of our investigators! It has been a good 7.5 months here in Hub City haha dang that's a long time!

We had a sweet lesson with our investigator Bob this week. To give you an idea about Bob, if he was a member of the church he would be a general authority! But he is really coming around and he loves the Book of Mormon! He's awesome! We had some sweet lessons with Vanessa, Alvin and with Larry as well! We got to go down to Edgewood Maryland (which is north of Baltimore) to watch Larry play in his special olympics basketball game! It was so much fun! Also we picked up another investigator, his name is Kevin and he was taught by missionaries before! The work is bumpin right now! I'm sad that I'll be leaving!

Anyways I hope y'all have a good week! 

-Elder Larson

Fishing with Brother Kane this morning

The Dream District

My Boy Johnmichael

$$$$$$$$

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