Pics of Madera

Here are some pictures we took of a beautiful place called Madera it is where they filmed "The Passion of the Christ"

Fun Busy Week

Madera



 Hey this week was good! We had a fun busy week. The trip to Palermo was great! It was really nice seeing Anziano Miller and Anziano Longhurst again and also to meet their new missionaries.They are all really good missionaries. They seem to get along pretty well. I was sure to eat some cannoli and a sicilian pizza which was great! haha Our english course student Laura took off work to come see me! It was really good to see her, she is great! So overall it was a good trip to Palermo. After that we had an exchange with the assistants from Sunday night until Monday night. That was fun. I went with Anziano Luke. He is a great missionary, we get along really well. He is from Virginia and he really taught me a lot. My companion went with Anziano Botalla, so it was nice having some help in our area. We taught some great lessons and found some great potential investigators. We found a new investigator who we are really excited about. She speaks english perfectly and was born in Swizerland. It is very interesting how you find so many different people in the mission that are sooo different than you are but all of them are looking for the purpose of life. This girl asked us why the mormons are always so happy. haha she said she always sees us missionaries and we are always smiling and she asked us why like 20 times. Hopefully all goes well with that! I'm really excited to see how things go. Then yesterday we had a great zone conference. It was a really spiritual experience and is always nice to know what we can do better on. The night before we had our interviews with President Kelly. He is an inspired man. He really listens to you and always has incredible advice for me that is just the advice that I was looking for. We talked about a lot of things and how I only have 3 more transfers! That's scary! He said it is likely that I'll stay for one more transfer here in Bari and then I might get transfered, for my last two transfers. But you never know what is going to happen with transfers. You asked me last email what I am going to do when I get home school or work or both and my answer is I have noooo Idea! That is a scary question. Any suggestions. I don't even know where I could work. I would have to go job hunting. I really don't know what to do. But I would love some suggestions.Well I better run! Love you all tons!!! Buona giornata!

We set a Baptismal Date

Training has been great! I have really enjoyed it. Anziano Hurlburt has already seemed to get into the swing of things. We seem to get along well and he is a hard worker, so that has been nice. This new training program is incredible. It has helped me a lot with training and it has helped him a lot with learning how to be a missionary. The ward loves him and loves hearing his conversion story and about how he found the church. He already speaks Italian pretty well so we just need to continue to practice speaking all the time. We set a baptismal date with a lady we met by the beach. She told us that she saw us walking down the other side of the street and wanted to talk to us but she was to shy to yell out and so she sat down and was hoping that we would come back down the other side of the street and sure enough we did! She ended up coming to general conference and now she has a baptismal date! So that was a cool mini miracle that we saw this week. Other than that we have just been trying to stay on top of the investigators that we have right now. Oh yeah and I get to go back to the amazing city again! Palermo! I am going to pick up my permesso, this document thing that you need to live here. So I will be flying there tomorrow and leaving on friday night. I am really excited about that. I will have to eat a cannolo. Other than that we have just been having fun experiences and stories that I cant wait to share with you all after the mission! Today for preparation day we went to a city called Matera that is beautiful. It is where they filmed passion of the Christ. I will have to send pictures. It is incredible.Well better run! Love you!!

Letter from the Mission President

To the Family of Anziano Larsen,

Your missionary has recently been assigned to be a “New Missionary Trainer”. In this assignment he will be the companion of a newly arrived missionary. This is a very important responsibility. Trainers have a profound and lasting influence on the development of a new missionary’s attitude and habits.

I am confident that Anziano Larsen, will do an excellent job in this new assignment.

Sister Kelly and I thank you for your faith and prayers on behalf of our mission and for all you have done to prepare such an outstanding missionary.

Sincerely,

Thomas E. Kelly

President

Weeks Fly By as if they were Days

Hey! This week was great! My new companion is named Anziano Hurlburt. He is a new convert of 2 years and he is from Charleston, South Carolina. He is a really good missionary. We get along well! So it has been fun trying to teach him everything. It has been fun seeing where I was at the beginning of the mission and seeing how much things change with time. He is already pretty good at the language already, but we are trying to speak the language a lot so that he can learn more. He always teases me because I word things weird in english and forget words in english. That's what happens after serving with an Italian who doesn't speak english. It is fun showing him all our investigators, the culture, the food and just missionary ropes in general. He knows the bible pretty well being from the bible belt. No one else in his family is a member but he all said they support him and his decision to serve a mission. So we have just been getting into the swing of things. We are supposed to do two hours of companionship study with new missionaries who are in their first 2 transfers plus one hour of language study each day. So it's been a little different for the both of us. General Conference was amazing! Yes, we got to watch the whole thing in english! I loved so many talks but my favorites were by Elder Holland and Elder Oaks laying down the law. It was sweet! I also enjoyed Elder Cooks talk and that one talk about the temple and how everything has to be perfect. I can't wait to print them off and read them again! I have started a collection of all the best talks that I have gotten my hand on throughout the mission. It's pretty big. It has started to rain here lately the last summer and last general confrence of my mission has sadly come to an end. WIERD! Time out here does not seem to slow down. Weeks fly by as if they were days. Our investigators are doing good. We hope that conference was a good push for them. 3 of them came. Which isn't too bad! Hopefully they had questions answered to their prayers. I'm sure they did. How is everyone at home? Anything new happening or has it been pretty normal. Well I think my companion is anxious to see Italy so I have got to run! Ciao!! Love you all!

I Am Training!

I'm going to be a Dad!!! Haha I am training! I am way excited! I have wanted to train forever and I am so glad that I get to this transfer! I will miss Anziano Alessandro a lot but I am really really excited to train. Haha Anziano Alessandro is leaving today. So I will be with Anziano Bradshaw for the rest of the day and then tomorrow morning my son is arriving from Rome at the train station at about noon. So that will be fun. I don't even know his name or anything about him until tomorrow morning. So I'll let you know all the details next week. I'm sure he is going to be great. Other than that Anziano Alessandro has just been getting ready to leave by visting members and investigators. It has been kind of hard for him saying goodbye, it always is that way with your first city. He will be serving in Pescara. Sorella Clark in our district will be going to Rome 1 and Sorella Comollo will be training as well. So our district will be pretty young with 2 missionaries in their first transfer and 1 in his 2nd. Other than that I don't have much news for you. I'm just super excited. Sounds like you all had a great time at Grandpas. Yes I did write the letter I am just waiting for the pictures to devolop as well so I can send some. Well I better run! Love you all tons! have a great week!

DaD