Wednesday, June 27, 2012

This week has been HOT!

Ciao! This week has been HOT! The Humidity is brutal! But it's great. It is a nice change. No one wants to talk to us in the sun so we kind of have to do finding in the shade, or house. This week in church was really great we had 3 less actives come back to church and a 4th told us that she is going to return to church this week! So we have been really happy about that! Yesterday we did an exchange with the Palermo 1 Anziani. I went with Anziano Miller and Anziano McMullen went with Anziano Marengo. It was a great exchange. Anziano Miller is a really good missionary and he is a very good teacher. He explains principles and doctrines very simply and clearly. I hope we can go do some mountain biking together after the mission. Tonight we are leaving to do an exchange in Agrigento, with Anziano Andersen and Anziano Migliori. So it will be fun to get to know them some more and work together with them. Thank you for the pictures! They turned out really great. Did you get any of the extended family? I loved the picture of Angie and the baby. I also liked the one of Tayler and Jared just standing there looking straight forward! It reminded me of that farmer painting  of the farmer and his wife standing there with the pitch fork. They looked almost exactly the same. That is awesome that Colton is going to Moab! He will have so much fun. Moab is great. That is great to hear about Jansen. I have to write him! I'm sure that he is a killer missionary. Could you email me the address of the mission office in Fiji. I probably wrote it down somewhere but haven't been able to find it. Well love you tons but I have to run and catch the bus to Agrigento Ciao!!!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Exchanges are Great

Hey! Anyway this week has been great! We helped reactivate a lady! That was really cool to see! We are hoping that she will stay active so keep her in your prayers. We have been staying busy with lessons and getting used to the Hot Hot sun! It's great. This week we had an exchange with the Anziani in Trapani! Anziano Shipton and Anziano Simonetta. It was really cool to see them and work with them. Trapani is really cool and they have great members. The pizza is really good there! Exchanges are great! You really learn a lot from each other. I think next week we'll be going to Agrigento for an exchange there. Now we are just getting back into the swing of things with our own work! It has been nice to see all of our investigators and getting back to the normal schedule. We found an incredible family this week! They are from Romania. So we taught them and gave them a Book of Mormon in Romanian and they are really interested. They said they are coming to church on Sunday and want to meet with us after for a lesson. It is great when you find a family that is truly interested in the gospel. You are so right our family is great. I really miss everyone a ton! It is funny how much I miss just a small conversation with a family member. Miguel is the man! Haha I did just get the letters from Nan at zone conference! It was great to hear from them! Are you still going to send those wedding pictures or does that company still have them or whatever. Well I've got to run! Love you tons!! Ci vediamo!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Zone Conference Week


Ciao! Wow a lot has happened this last week! So first off Thursday we flew up to Rome for zone leader conference which was great. It was really good to see the other zone leaders and talk about the work. We had a really good training from President and Sorella Kelly and also the assistants. Anyway, then we went home and planned out our week and planned out our training for zone conference and then Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference, so those days were busy and then we had to leave Monday after lunch to go to Catania for our interviews with President Kelly and Tuesday was zone conference and today is our preparation day. So it's been a little bit crazy but a good experience. Zone Conference was really good! President Kelly talked a lot about, being more effective with our time and making the best of things when in the face of difficulty. We decided to do our training on testimonies and how it is one of our strongest tools as missionaries. We asked a sister in the Catania zone, who is French, to bear her testimony in French and Anziano Kandler to bear his testimony in German to show that it isn't always about the words that we say but it's about the spirit and power that comes from a testimony. It was great seeing everyone. Today we are heading over to Trapani to do an exchange with Anziano Shipton and Anziano Simonetta who are two great missionaries! So we are excited for the exchange. Wow I can't believe all of the kids are out of Alta! Sounds like you all had a sweet party for the graduation of Colton. That's great you got to meet Anziano Weeks! He was the man. I really looked up to him. He has been missed. And definitely me and Anziano Miller will hang out after the mission. He is hillarious. Anziano Marengo is fitting in great! We are all learning the language a lot better from him. Well I better run! Love you tons!! Ciao Hey Dad! Thanks for writing! This week has been CRAZY!! But a lot of fun! I have learned a lot! Zone leader conference was great! Sorella Kelly cooked us American food! It was delicious! We talked a lot about the work and then when it's over we can ask President and Sorella Kelly anything, about marriage, politics, sports, you name it. So it was a lot of fun! Our zone conference training on Tuesday went well! I think everyone really enjoyed it and I'm starting to like to talk  in front of lots of people. Haha That is cool to hear about work. Haha It's funny that you said that about everyone being kind of scared when you come in the store! Ha It's kind of the same as a zone leader when you go to the other missionaries houses. Everyone is trying to be super obedient. President Kelly told me a really cool thing about leadership. He said Leadership is Relationships. And that is soo true. Because I think it is good when other missionaries have a little bit of fear of you to kind of push them but also just be a really nice person and look for those things that every missionary is good at so that you can compliment them to help them feel better about themselves and that they are really important to the work. And then don't be afraid to jump in and be charitable. Make someones bed and clean all their dishes. It  has been a great opportunity to serve others! I love it! Well I hope everything goes well with work. It sounds like you are really tearing things up! Love you tons Dad! Ciao!

Monday, June 11, 2012

Letter from Mission President

Dear Family of Anziano Larsen,  

We are pleased to inform you that your son has been called to serve as a Zone Leader in the Italy Rome Mission.  He will have the responsibility to preside over two or more districts in one of our zones here in the mission.  He will be responsible for his zone both spiritually and temporally.  He will teach them once a month in a combined district meeting and will help with the planning and training at Zone Conference.  He will go on exchanges with all of the missionaries in his zone to help them with teaching or language skills.  He will also serve as a member of the Zone Leader Council which helps direct and plan initiatives for the entire mission.

We love your son and are excited for the opportunity to work closely with him.  He is an outstanding missionary.

With best regards,
                                                                                                          
Thomas E. Kelly
President
Italy Rome Mission

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

He Found Work

Hey! This week has been great and really busy! We have been having some really good success I feel. In a lesson this week we taught a guy from Ghana who is awesome. He came here to find work and hasn't been able to find work. We were teaching him about the restoration and we promised him that the Lord will bless him if he reads The Book of Mormon and that if he reads it and prays about it all week he will find work. And guess what..... He found work!! Ha it was really cool that he recognized the blessings of the gospel in his life and he had so much faith. So we set a baptismal date with him. Anyway tomorrow me and Anziano McMullen are flying up to Rome for zone leader conference, so that should be fun! Then next Tuesday is the zone conference for the zone of Palermo and the zone of Catania combined so we have to prepare a training for that this week. And then this transfer we will be doing a lot of exchanges with the missionaries in our zone, so we have an exchange planned out for every week. It will be a lot of fun and I'm excited to learn from everyone. That is great Colton graduated! Wow time flies! He is going to go far in life. How is Tayler doing? Do you see her a lot still or is she gone most of the week?  Haha he laughed at the pizza in Rome?! Yeah Rome pizza isn't great. It's better in the south. I meant to say in the Rome Mission. You will have to say Hi to Anziano Weeks for me! That's crazy that he is home! He was a really good missionary. Anyway sorry I don't have a lot of time today but I love you all!!! Ciao!!