Manual Labor Is Relaxing

Dear Family,

Here are the answers to your questions.

Question #1: Have you noticed any cultural differences with your companion?

There aren't too many noticeable cultural differences with Elder Klobcic. He has been on his mission for quite some time, so I'm not too sure.

Question #2: What was an amazing experience you had last week?

This week we did service for a part member family in the ward. It was amazing. We lifted up big cement slabs from the ground just behind the house and put a drainage system into the ground. The water from the rain would get water into the house. We did it with a couple of brothers from church. It is very relaxing to go out and do that kind of work every once in a while. (Mom's note: I can't wait til he gets home so I can help him relax.)

Question #3: Is there anything in particular that you want for Christmas?

In a previous meeting with the Mission President, we brought up that we would like to have more music options to listen to. I have good reason to believe that we will be able to listen to a bit more. I'll find out for sure on Saturday. I would like a CD or two. BYU Vocal Point will be approved. I hear that is really good.

This year I had 2 Thanksgiving Dinners. That made up for last year's 0. It was really good.

I can't believe John is having a baby.

Twinkies!!! (Mom's note: This desperate outburst is his response after learning from us that Hostess has gone out of business.)

This has been another great week. We have gone back into the Town Center a bit more. It has been really fun. We get to go around talking to everyone we see. One thing I have grown to love on my mission is the ability to be nice to those who don't really deserve it. I remember at the beginning of my mission people would say something rude or ignore us and I would get so frustrated. Now I just put a big smile on, say something nice, and walk away. It's amazing to experience the blessings of serving a mission. If you would have put me in a busy town center and told me to talk to as many people as possible before my mission, it would have been embarrassing.

Reading through the Book of Mormon (in 59 days) has been going really well. On my mission I have gained a thirst for the scriptures. Today I read through most of Jacob, including Jacob 5. It used to take me days to get through Jacob 5, haha. I heard recently that if you read 7 pages a day you can finish the entire standard works in 1 year. I may make a push to finish the Book of Mormon before the new year and start on that next.

This week we, as a Zone, need to make a slide show or short video about a Book of Mormon story for our upcoming Zone Conference. I'm not sure which story to do. I have one idea to do it like a news channel:

"Welcome to the Book of Mormon Network. My name is the Brother of Jared. Let's start off our episode with Judge Noah."
"Abinadi is pleading his case."
"Now let's go to Enos."
"He's praying!"
"..."
"Enos is still praying!"

It would go from different stories and keep returning to Enos praying as the day goes on. We'll see what we do, but it should be fun.

Hope everything goes well in the U.S.A.

Elder Larsen