Hellooooo From Brasil!

Wow….. well the first week of this transfer is done! and it was a great week! we worked really hard to get new people to teach and to strengthen our old investigators. on Wednesday, we had district meeting and it was really good. this transfer i am going to try to be more alert and organized at district meeting. it was pretty good. after the district leaders gave their training, who are elder francis from provo and elder eyre from cedar city, my companion and i gave training as well. i talked a lot about how we need to set good goals. there is a part in preach my gospel that says that we need to lean how to dominate our goals in life so that when we are older we can look at our lives and see that we reached our full potential. that is another big reason why we as young men go on missions, so that we can master these techniques, so that after the mission we will know how to master our dreams! it went pretty good, so i hope that the elders put it into practice.

then though out the week we have been teaching a bunch of really good people. including pactick and lidiane. they are awesome! but as well another couple, venancia and israel. We have scheduled their marriage as well and they will be married and baptized on the same day as Patrick and lidiane. venancia and Israel threw away their coffee this week, so that was a big step. Oh… and the dates of the marriages of the two couples will be on the 18th of March and the baptisms will be on the 19th. i am very anxious for these dates to come! i have faith that everything will go well!!

this sunday a young man named lucas went to church with us and he really liked it. so this coming sunday he can be baptized along with a little girl named amanda. pray for them.!! amanda is kind of scared but she knows she needs to be baptized.

as we were showing up at church yesterday, a really nice Toyota hi-lux car pulled up. i know that nobody in our area had that car so i thought that must be President Batt. and sure enough it was! he and his wife! they participated in our sacrament meeting. it was super special!!!! i think that the Spirit was even stronger than usual. the last person to bare testimony was sister Batt. she is so awesome! she doesn’t speak very well but she has a great love for the people and everybody in that room could feel it. it was a surprise for me that they showed up. but i guess that after the meeting President Batt did a few interviews with other missionaries that are ending their missions. it was really neat because patrick and lidiane were able to meet them. patrick looks american and speaks a little english, so it was an honor of him to speak with them in english!

oh one more thing…. on thursday, we did a service project. it was good. we "mowed a back yard". but let me tell you here in brasil they don’t use lawn mowers or weed eaters. they use hoes. i think that is the right name for it. it was pretty insane. within 5 minutes i was dying and my hands got torn up! ha-ha! i have very soft hands now i have realized. dad would probably be ashamed if he saw how soft my hands are! all i can say is that it’s been about a year and 3 months since i have done that kind of work. when we were doing the service i was definitely dreaming about using a weed eater! i sure have been blessed growing up!

i love you all so much! thank you for everything! i know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ! i am so grateful for the simplicity of this gospel. it is so wonderful! i know that if we keep the commandments we will have eternal life. i love the book of Mormon! it is true. Joseph smith was a true prophet!

i love you! stay strong!

Love elder t. larsen

p.s. my companion elder pereira and i are getting along very well. he is a good man!!!