Gareth Was Baptized

Dear Family,

Here are the answers to your questions.

Question #1: What is Yorkshire pudding like?

Yorkshire pudding is kind of a misleading name. I don't really know how to explain it. It is sort of like a roll. It sort of reminds me of scones. You are best off to look online.

Question #2: How did your Zone sports go at Hyde Park last P-day?

I love sports. We played some American football. Quite a funny game to play with Europeans and what have you. Everyone was saying, "Elder Larsen, you should play football at University." It was good to give me a little pride boost, and bad because my body was sore for days.

Question #3: How did Gareth's baptism go?

Gareth's baptism was great! It was quite the funny day though. First we started the day with Zone Leader Council in South Kensington, then we visited a member about a 30 minute bus ride from the church. We were on our way back from the member's to the baptism on track to be about 15 minutes early. The bus went on a diversion, then stopped. We got off because there were police blocking the traffic. There must have been around 100 policemen. We waited for quite a while (with a box of 40 copies of the Book of Mormon...), then they let us through and we got there about 15 minutes late. The baptismal service began at 6:30 and went great. Gareth is a great guy. Elder Fament baptized him and I confirmed him. I know you're wondering what the police were doing. To be honest, I'm not quite sure. Something to do with freedom of speech.

This past week was one of the craziest weeks of my mission, just about every day we had some sort of meeting to be at. One of those weeks where you wish you could just be a normal missionary.

With the emphasis on working with members now, we have had some good experiences. At a member visit (actually, the one before the baptism), we met with 2 brothers and asked them if they had recently had any missionary experiences. One of the brothers had gone to his old flat to pick up post and found that the new family in the flat was from Ghana, just like him. They talked and he found out that the sister had gone to this Church back in Ghana. He acutally called her when he was with us and invited her to church. She wasn't able to come this last Sunday but seems excited to come next time. It was so great to see members were sharing the Gospel.

We have quite a busy week ahead of us. We have loads of member visits and a few investigator visits already scheduled. We are trying to take care of all we have the best we can to qualify for more.

Elder Flamen is going to be shipped off to Ghana on Friday. It will be sad to see him go. He's been great. He is going to teach the MTC teachers there a thing or two.

The payment on my card was for the practical test for my driving license. Tomorrow I will  have 2 hours of practice driving and on Friday I will go to take the test.

I love to stop and think about the work. In the day to day sometimes it can be hard to remember the greatness of this work. I feel so blessed to work in this place where so many great missionaries have walked. I strive to put myself in line with Alma 29:9, "that I may bring some soul to repentance and this is my joy." How blessed I am to have many souls around me making changes in their lives to come closer to Jesus Christ. This is His work.

Elder Larsen

PS I hope Dave fails his interview in Virginia, but I suppose it will give me a good reason to visit the East Coast.