WELL a big hello from fortaleza, brasil! how is everyone doing!? i want to start off by wishing a happy, late birthday to dad! happy birthday dad! i hope that your day was very special that that you are happy and everything is going good in your life!!!
just replying to some questions from last week. it hasn’t been raining too much lately! it was raining a bunch, but has stopped for the last 2 weeks! which is a good thing. because here in sumaré they don´t have too many roads that have assfault. so there is a lot of mud!! my address to my house is Guaíra 133 altos, the little city is sumaré and the city, fortaleza! hope that that helps!
i really enjoy seeing mom, that you are liking your calling and are magnifying! it is great to see your experiences too! sounds like you are working really hard. and it sounds like jake is now the ward mission leader! how awesome!
well you already know my companions name. but he is from são paulo. and his accent is really strong. a lot different from the accents here in the north. but it is really cool to see the difference in accents. Landon’s probably worried that i am giong to come home with the accent from the north! haha! so we will see. my comp is pretty tall and thick! he is a really good guy! really patient, and i am learning a lot! it seems like he loves everyone!
well this week we were supposed to have a baptism, but it didn’t work out. we were going to baptize lorena, but as she was being interviewed she said that she had drank coffee yesterday. so we will have to wait at least one more week. but she is very excited. she is 13 years old and loves the church. she has been going to every activity and is doing really good. it was a shock to find out that she drank coffee. but we will work with her.
last week i believe that i mentioned about patrick and lidiane. that they came to church by themselves. they are a perfect family. they are married!! and they have three little kids, pretty much exactly like lindsey and jake. all under the age of baptism! well, patrick is perfect. he works hard and provides for his family, and is very well educated. the bad part about this is, that we can only teach him and his wife on saturday and sunday! so we had to wait almost a whole week to teach them. so this last saturday came and we went. they let us in very well. better than i have ever been treated and as we started to chat he told us that he wanted us to come over because he heard that we could put our hands on his head and cure. he said that recently his father had passed away and he said that he just couldn’t get over it. he said he doesn’t eat right and he just can’t feel happy again. so he said that if we could, he would like to receive a blessing. then his wife as well said that she was in a moment of confusion on what she should do with her life, and how she should raise her kids and that she would really like one too. she also said that one of her daughters isabela, is constantly sick and always has a sore throat and many other things. so i explained in that moment about a blessing and why we can give blessings. after we gave them all blessings, the Spirit was so strong in that house! as we blessed lidiane, she began to cry because of the peace that she felt. after the blessings we then taught about the plan of salvation and told them how our families can be together forever through our Savior and His gospel. i then talked about baptism and invited them to be baptized on the 19th of february. patrick said i really do want to follow, but he said that he is scared that if he gets baptized he will fall away. so he didn’t completely accept baptism at that moment. but the night was just perfect. they mentioned many times the peace and comfort that they felt. so we left, and they promised that they would go to church. so yesterday church started and they weren’t there. i went to call them, but they didn’t answer. so i began to pray, but they still didn’t come. after sacrament i went up to my companion and told him that they didn’t come and he said; “yeah, they did! they are in the back!” at that moment my heart filled with gratitude. they were really there! we then went to the classes and they were really good. priesthood was about giving blessings and the importance of the priesthood! so patrick was able to learn more about what we did in his home on saturday night. everything just seemed to be so inspired. then as they were leaving to go home, patrick told me. " i have been thinking about that baptismal date that you said and i want to prepare myself to be baptized on that day!" it was really neat to hear him say that!
so yesterday was a REALLY good day! and we need to pray for them so that they can be baptized on the 19th.
this last week has been cazy though. we have had to go to the mission office three times and that means three days on the road. that trip, which is by bus is 1 and a 1/2 hours long. so it was a bit tiring. but one of our trips was a special meeting with president batt and all the zone leaders. he is now putting into place some more rules for us so that our mission can get better. he talked about how we can better get referrals from members and many other things. he truly is an inspired man. i will miss him when he goes home. we also had our personal interviews with him and that went really good.
i am so grateful for all that i am learning! i am so grateful for my mission! this is the work of God! i love this gospel. the scriptures are so simple, we just need to apply them to our lives! i know that the plan of salvation is real! our Savior suffered and died for us and left the perfect example for us to follow! i know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and that the book of Mormon is the word of God!
I love you all dearly! thank you for all the prayers and the support! i hope that you are all happy and strong!
Love your son, brother, grandson, and friend,
Elder T. Larsen
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