Onion Ring Blizzard

Chapter 18: The wild blue yonder

2010 March 08

So all of you that have been counting can guess really easy what I've been up to this morning. It's been a little weird. I'm not sure if everything fits in one bag yet, but it turns out I can do 2 bags if I need to, so not a huge deal. I found it really ironic this morning when Elder Mismash told me that I'm too trunky as I'm packing my bags... really? Anyways, we had an ok week, although mainly because we were busy Sunday. Pretty much everybody was sick or had other issues the whole week. Not ...

Last week

2010 March 01

Ok, not a really exciting week. We didn't have a whole lot going on, and we had a bit of a cold going around the apartment. That always seems to put a damper on things. We did, however, manage to find a couple of new investigators this week, although mainly by accident, in that they started talking to the spanish missionaries when they were walking to their car. I guess on that front it was pretty exciting. This week looks to be pretty good. We've got a temple trip for all the going home people, and then I've got my ...

Zone Conference! 2 weeks?

2010 February 22

Ok, so this has been an exciting week in some ways, and not very interesting in other ways. The interesting part was that we had zone conference. It was at the Twain building, which is kind of funny, since my first, third and fourth ones were there, too. We had all 5 zones here in Vegas there, since we actually had that general authority tour that they'd been telling us we were going to have since November. We had Elder Spencer V. Jones of the Seventy (2nd quorum) visiting. It was a pretty fun meeting, and it was nice to ...

Good week. 3 left.

2010 February 15

Ok, so they went and changed my email address for the next 3 weeks. The new one is michaell@myldsmail.net (Kind of silly, I know). We're now using gmail internally, which is a whole lot more responsive than the old system (written by Novell). Anyways, this week was pretty awesome in that we had a baptism... It's really fun to see when people are excited and growing in the gospel. I think that's probably one of the most rewarding things about being here, just being able to see that firsthand. It really made my week. Besides that, we also had another ...

Good week. 3 left.

2010 February 15

Ok, so they went and changed my email address for the next 3 weeks. The new one is michaell@myldsmail.net (Kind of silly, I know). We're now using gmail internally, which is a whole lot more responsive than the old system (written by Novell).

Time flies...

2010 February 08

This week was actually really good. We had a whole 9 lessons (Yay!! this area is coming back to life!), and we're getting pretty excited about the baptism we have this week. So, I thought we might be updgrading to the new myldsmail, and we are, but first it has to decide to actually migrate me. Oy vey. Anyways, stay tuned for a possibly new email address. Anyways, this weekend was pretty awesome because one of our less-active families had their son baptized, and we got one of our investigators there, and she's getting baptized this week, and she went ...

Temple Trip, other fun stuff

2010 February 03

So it's been a pretty good week. We've gotten pretty much all settled now, which is nice. The work is going pretty well, and we're looking forward to a baptism at the end of next week. Things are looking pretty good from that front. We had a missionary farewell this week--there's a guy from our ward going to the Washington Spokane mission. That made our sacrament meeting extra packed... all the way into the second overflow. We've had pretty high attendance for the past couple of weeks, although I'm not really sure why that is... This morning we had our ...

Chapter 17: One more go around

2010 January 25

So, transfers is up again, and I'm staying here for the last little bit, but Elder Ostler is leaving me. He's going to Lakes Ward (the west half of my second area). My new companion is Elder Paul. He's been out about 9 months, and is coming from my old Highland Hills area (Aliante & Waterfall wards). Beyond that, we had two pretty interesting events this week. The first was zone conference, which was supposed to be a general authority tour, but ended up just being a really big zone conference because the tour got canceled. It was still pretty ...

Running out of titles...

2010 January 18

So, It's been another interesting week. Actually, things are looking pretty good right now. We've got a bunch of people that we either just started teaching, or a just about to start teaching, which makes things pretty exciting. We've also got zone conference (with a visiting Seventy) this week, and transfer calls at the end of the week. Other than the work, not much else has been going on. After all the holiday stuff, things are really quiet. Well, maybe just more routine. The weather's been ok. It's "cold" and rainy today. We're usually in sweaters these days, although mainly ...

Quiet half-week.

2010 January 11

So, since Wednesday there really hasn't been that much going on. I think we're pretty much back to normal, but not much has happened. We've got a bit of a shortage of investigators right now. We didn't have any at church this week either, which is a little depressing. Hopefully we can get that to change for this next week. Other than that, things have been going ok. We have some new people that we're set to start teaching today, and a bunch of people to follow-up on, so we should be able to keep busy. I don't know, there's ...

New Year

2010 January 06

So this week was pretty quiet at first. We got a little bit of work done to start, but we were a bit under the weather Thursday. Friday was quiet. Probably about the quietest New Years Day I've had. We pretty much stayed put because neither Elder Ostler nor Elder Ethington were feeling too good. Actually Friday night turned a little interesting, mainly because we ended up having to take Elder Ostler in to the hospital at about 2 in the morning. That killed the rest of the week, and is also why this update is a little late. In ...

Title 31415962: Quiet time

2009 December 28

Well, this week was all nice and exciting on some things (phone call! yay!), and really boring on other things (nothing to do... boo!). We had a little bit of luck tracting this week... we had some good conversations. We've also got a couple of people to check back on in a little while, and hopefully that will lead to something. We also got asked to speak in church, which went pretty well (especially considering that I got a bit under the weather and was pretty sure I was going to fall asleep right beforehand). We've had a bit of ...

Christmas time in Las Vegas

2009 December 21

So this has been a pretty fun week. It warmed up a bit, and we've had some pretty fun days... between a little bit more mobility, and getting a hold of some people that we hadn't seen in a while or that I hadn't really met yet, we've been doing good. We've also had a few christmas related activities, like the ward christmas party and the christmas musical sacrament meeting and caroling... it's just a lot of fun. It's kind of wierd in some ways, but I feel like, at least to a degree, I'm at home with where I ...

Chapter 16:

2009 December 14

Ok, so this has been a wierd week, especially with zone conference and seeing all the people going home... it's just odd. Last night and this morning, Elder Pruitt was packing, and that felt really wierd. It just feels wierd all around. Transfers decided to skip me this time, so me and Elder Ostler are staying for another 6 weeks. I'm pretty happy about that--we're getting along pretty well and I really like this ward, and I just don't need any extra changes this transfer. A whole bunch of other people in the zone are moving... it's pretty extensive. We ...

Title 92: the cold 21 month time

2009 December 07

So, 2 days ago marked 21 months. That's a pretty strange thought. In a week, the transfer will be over, and a whole bunch of people go home. It almost feels like the world is about to change a lot, but in some ways it doesn't feel like it. The mission is a funny place, and I've only got 3 months before I have to go back to the real world. That's a pretty scary thought. Ok, no more thinking about that... In other news, it's still "cold" here. We've even had a couple of nights where it's been below ...

Thanksgiving #2...

2009 November 30

Well, it's been a pretty quiet week. As thanksgiving usually is, although there are a couple of fun things... Turkey Bowl #2! We got 2nd place (Tule Springs pretty much walked away with 1st, and we tied for 2nd). Pretty fun--down here you get to see pretty much everybody. It makes for a pretty huge group of missionaries. That was pretty much all the excitement for the week, though. We had a couple of lessons, and we're hoping we'll be able to manage a few this week. It's still not horribly cold (actually it's gotten slightly warmer), and this week ...

Crazy world.

2009 November 23

Well, this has been an interesting week in many ways. To start off, Tuesday, we had a small shuffle of missionaries, and now we have Elder Mismash in our apartment instead of Elder Modawell. I'm not really sure what happened there, but here we are. That has led to a bit of adjustment (add that we're still trying to get the apartment fixed up), although I think we're doing ok. Not a whole lot of work right now, although there are a few things that should start happening really soon. This is the boring phase of things, usually before things ...

Stake Conference, biking up hills, etc...

2009 November 16

As it often is after a wednesday emailing session, not a whole lot has happened in the past 5 days (compared with the preceding 9). Especially since my companion was under the weather for a couple of days, so we weren't able to get a whole lot done. We did have stake conference, though. We had a few people there, mainly recent converts. It's a pretty big stake right now. There were a couple of really good talks, including one that answered a couple of things I'd been pondering a lot lately. So it was pretty sweet. That hill is ...

Falling into Summerlin...

2009 November 11

So I'm finally starting to get settled here. My new area is nice--it's on the west side of Vegas, although it doesn't go all the way to the edge. We have Cimarron ward, which covers Desert Shores, part of Sun City Summerlin, and part of The Trails (a Summerlin Village), and some other miscellaneous territory (between Buffalo and the 95 and Lake Mead and Cheyenne). This ward is pretty hilly, especially if we go all the way up to the Trails area (up near Lake Mead and Anasazi). By hilly, I mean that the farther west yo go, the farther ...

Chapter 15: Resettling

2009 November 02

And, once again, transfers is upon us. Things have been tweaked a little bit, and my replacement in this area will be here this afternoon--they've decided to have the people who have to come down from the north come on monday instead of wednesday. I won't be moving 'til tomorrow morning though... which leads to the transfer call line: Elder Larsen to Redrock as Sr. Comp with Elder Ostler on a bike. Covering: Cimmarron Yep. Area #7. Given that I've only got 3 more transfers left, this might be the last one. It feels kind-of wierd. Anyways, my new area ...

Temperature spike...

2009 October 26

Yep, it got a bit warmer than we'd like this past week. It's always interesting to be here, as the weather seems to have a mind of its own. It will probably drop again pretty soon, though, since apparently it gets quite a bit colder after Halloween. Work wise, not a whole lot that was interesting, although we do finally have somebody with a baptismal date (after 11 weeks in the area... coming from dead zero is a long process), and we had 3 people at church this week. Not a whole lot on the teaching side, though, due to ...

Zone Conference, other stuff...

2009 October 19

So this week has been pretty quiet, although things continue to get busier. I'm not really sure if I can describe it really well--I'm short on words right now. We had Zone Conference this week, and it told me a couple of things that I ought to do to make me a little bit more effective in my work. I guess that's the main idea with most of them, but this one didn't have much in the way of distractions. They also decided to shorten them a bit, which actually turned out to be a pretty good idea--it removed a ...

Cool October breezes...

2009 October 12

This week has been pretty busy -- between service projects and a couple of lessosn, it's been normal-ish. The work is going pretty well -- we're busier than we were, and we're hopefully going to stay that way. We're looking at probably another couple of new investigators this week. Yay! We had some fun this week with our ward talent show. Elder Sorenson went and wrote some alternate lyrics to "I can go the distance" from Hercules, and sung that -- I added some random commentary (and helped a little with the lyrics). It was pretty fun. I've come to ...

19 months, Conference #4, relocating...

2009 October 05

So this has been a busier week than we've had in a while. 3 lessosns, and we're picking up a bunch more things to do. It's a lot easier when things are rolling a little bit -- there's more of a reason to push. We picked up a new investigator (the sisters had been teaching her, but she actually lives in our ward), and will probably get another 2 tomorrow (we're pretty excited about that). In terms of landmarks, today is 19 months since I went into the MTC. Crazy. Also, this was my last General Conference out here. That ...

Pushing things...

2009 September 28

So, the temperature decided to spike a bunch this weekend, but it looks like we'll be falling into the 70s this week. That's pretty abrupt... Before the weekend, the weather was ok, though. We get to move again this week... we haven't heard much as to where we're going yet, but hopefully they'll figure that out soon. I figure they've got at least one possible (although slightly unpleasant) backup in case everything else fails, but it sounds like there are a couple of other possiblities, too, so we should be ok. The work has been going a little better. We ...

Chapter 14: Rebooting again

2009 September 21

NOTE: The other update that just showed up is last weeks... it perished in a log file explosion. I just resent it without putting a note on it or anything. So, once again, transfers is upon us. And this time, I'm staying. Elder Crump is done, so he's going back to Kentucky. Pretty crazy... My new companion has been out for a transfer... so he got to Vegas 6 weeks ago. I'll be his 2nd trainer. Not entirely expected, but should be fine. I've been working on getting some work going so that it isn't too depressing for the first ...

Splat.

2009 September 21

There's not a whole lot that I feel I can write right now. Not the best of weeks by far, although at least we had a lesson... that's about all of the positive news. The weather sounds like it's going to keep getting better, which should make things a little easier. We hear it might stay in the double digits all week! Yay! We continue to be reminded of the importance of proper record-keeping. It makes things a whole lot easier, especially when you're trying to figure out who to ask for information. Oh, we also discovered a "short cut", ...

Cooling off?

2009 September 08

I have to say that this comes on a Tuesday mainly because it couldn't come on a Monday. Labor Day is always a little wierd for us. There really hasn't been much excitement this week. We had splits with our DL this week (Elder Ortiz -- he's from Maryland), and Zone Conference (on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively). Splits was fun... I got a really funny picture of what the north part of our area looks like. It's actually just northwest of Durango and Moccasin (in case you'd like to know where all that is... Beyond that, we didn't teach much ...

Aaagh... Burning...

2009 August 31

This has been what can only described as a very hot week. It's been exceedingly hot. I'm actually pretty happy that it finally decided to cool off a little this week, and that at the end of the week, we can look forward to highs in the double digits, instead of the triple digits. It's actually kind of exciting. Work wise, things are starting to pick up. I can't recall the last time that I was really happy to get 4 lessons in a week, but this time around it's true. We're in contact with a lot more people now, ...

You know it's been hot when...

2009 August 24

... it drops to the 90s with a big jump in humidity and you're thankful for it. Yes, it has been very hot. It doesn't feel like there's been much going on since my last email, probably because it's only been 5 days. It's not really exciting right now. We've made a lot of visits, but aren't getting a whole lot of traction right now, mainly due to the fact that we don't really have anything set up, and that school starts today here in Vegas. It's been an excercise in frustration trying to get anything going so that we're ...

Wow, I forgot how hot it was

2009 August 19

Ok, so this is a couple of days late because it's that once-every-12-weeks-temple-trip day. Which was nice, as usual. Another transfer begun. So Tuesday evening was the beginning of a week-long adventure. We went up to Reno to pick up Elder Lyle's greenie (Elder Spencer), and to drop me off to head down south. As the bus was ridiculously late, we waited a bit (we went to Deseret Book while we were there because I hadn't been since before the Elder Bednar meeting back in May). To my surprise, Elder Crump (my new companion) showed up there. It was a ...

Chapter 13: Another long road

2009 August 10

Elder Larsen to Elkhorn Springs with Elder Crump on a bike. Covering: Silverstone. Yep, here we go again. I'm going back to Tule Springs Zone (that's where my last area was, too) on bike. This time it's a little different, as I'm with somebody who's been out a long time (he goes home in 6 weeks... so I'll be going on to companion #11 pretty soon afterwards). It's still North Vegas, and it's August, so it'll be warm (forecast for the early part of this week is 103-105 for the high, with lows in the 80s. Yay. The other odd ...

Zone Conference, Moving,

2009 August 03

So this has been another busy week... First off, we finally got moved. We're not quite finished closing out the other apartment, but we're out of there now, so that puts us in pretty good shape. Anyways, new address is: 4827 Killdeer Carson City, NV 89701 Yep, that's the really exciting stuff. It's amazing how much stuff there ends up being in a missionary apartment. It's unreal. It took a while to get all cleaned out, and that ate a lot of our time. Before the whole moving thing, we had Zone Conference, which was good, as usual, although a ...

No, it really is regression.

2009 July 27

All right, so now that I've had myldsmail eat my email once, I'll retype it. So we're kind-of moved right now. By kind-of, I mean that we would have moved, except that our new place isn't ready yet. We're starting to cut that a little close than I'd like. For now, just send stuff to the mission office (4455 Allen Ln, Ste 140, North Las Vegas, NV 89031). We haven't had much going on this week workwise, partially due to the whole moving thing (we've been working on getting everything ready at our new place, and I think we're almost ...

Why do I need to make a title?

2009 July 20

So this has been a very quiet week... well ok, maybe not that quiet... So, we're moving. We're actually in that process right now. My current address will still work until the end of the month, so I'll send my new address next week. The mission office is having us move in with some of the members of our ward--they've been doing this a lot lately, especially in this mission. We've spent a good amount of time over the past week getting all that taken care of. Fun times. I don't think I've mentioned how much I don't like moving, ...

Retrogression... or maybe not?

2009 July 13

So this week was pretty quiet. We had a lot of appointments fall through. That makes things pretty difficult. I think we stretched our miles pretty bad, so we'll probably be stuck tracting a bunch this week (just to keep low on mileage), which I'm not really looking forward to much. On the upside we did get a few people to church this week, which could be progress, although we'll really have to see until next week to know if this is a habit, or just that they showed up finally. The weather's been getting warmer, but is still decent. ...

2/3??? Wow, that doesn't seem like it's been that long.

2009 July 06

So this has been a pretty normal week. Well, except for having a holiday this week. That does tend to put a damper on things... people all busy with taking a little bit of vacation and such. We're thinking that this week will be pretty good, since we still managed to have 10 lessons with all of the interruptions. We're still having trouble getting people to church, but we had one show up this week, so things are starting to roll there. 4th of July was a bit better this year than it was last year. Partially because we didn't ...

Chapter 12: Changes, but not the normal kind.

2009 June 29

So this has been kind-of a crazy week. We haven't moved yet. The good news is that the mission office was just confusing everyone really bad, and we're not being kicked out, it's just that the words "evacuation notice" when put through a couple of telephones and talking about an apartment, especially with phrases like "in 10-12 days" can get garbled into something that sounds like "the missionaries have gotten an eviction notice, and they have 10-12 days left". Oy vey. It wasn't until later on last Monday that we finally got this all pieced together (that the office would ...

Summer in Carson City

2009 June 22

So this has been a slightly better week than the last one was. We've had a little more work going on, and we had zone conference, and interviews, and all that fun stuff. It's also been a little wierd, since we found out Wednesday night that we are going to be moving this week... at least, that's what we think is going to be happening. This has all been very confusing. It's also a week before transfers, and, given my love of moving (read: *not*), I'm just all warm and fuzzy inside about this. But the week was good, so ...

The calm after the storm

2009 June 15

So this week was a whole lot quieter than last week. Almost depressingly quieter. The nice thing was that the weekend was busier. So, things we did this week: - Dug a hole. - Moved somebody in someone else's area. - Ended up in Minden for an hour. - Ate lunch. Every day. - Oh, yeah... we had a couple of lessons (like 3--amazingly quiet right now). - Taught FHE (see above). Anyways, that's the really exciting stuff. A whole lot of people were busy or not home or other stuff like being in the hospital. It had better end ...

Rain!!

2009 June 08

Ok, so as myldsmail continues to make me an angered... This was actually a pretty interesting week in terms of weather. We had some weather of the rainy kind all week. It was pretty awesome. Well, except for the fact that it made it a little hard to want to be outside towards the end of the week (Saturday was cold). It was also a good week in that we had a baptism, which went well, no major incidents, except for us getting a new bishop right after the confirmation. For those of you who are counting, that's two new ...

Quiet Times in Carson City

2009 June 01

Ok, so now that myldsmail has eaten the first copy of this... I've really come to not like myldsmail lately. It just decides to log you out for no reason every little while (the time seems to be pretty random), and if you try to send the message you've been typing, it just eats it instead of giving you a chance to copy it or something. *Very* annoying. So this week was rather short (since my last email was on Wednesday). We had a lesson on Wednesday night, which was good, and then a mostly uneventful Thursday (other that the ...

<No Title>

2009 May 27

Alright. So this past week and a half has been pretty busy. Tuesday involved some goodbyes for Elder Jex, accompanied by some packing. This was followed by the trip up to Reno for transfers. It's pretty crazy how many of these have gone by already. I'm not exactly sure how it happened. We got in and started the unpacking and resettling process. Wednesday was more settling, and a lot of trying to find people. Thursday we did planning, and that day was pretty difficult -- we had our appointments drop, and didn't have much success in our finding efforts. Friday ...

Chapter 11: Leadership?

2009 May 18

So this was a rather busy weekend. The week preceding it was rather quiet. We did a lot of tracting because most of our appointments fell through. That doesn't make for a whole lot of excitement. The weather was pretty warm, too. Saturday, however was a long and busy day. We started off with a pretty normal morning, and then headed up to Reno around 1pm. We got there and had lunch, visited with some people, and then we went to the Golconda building for our meeting... except that somebody had put the wrong building on the agendas, and we ...

Quiet

2009 May 11

So this felt like a pretty long week, but there wasn't too much that happened beyond Zone Conference. That was pretty awesome, though. We also had some lessons. We're trying to get people moving along, but it's just way complicated sometimes. It never ends. Right now we just want people to show up for church... The weather's been pretty nice, although it's getting a little warmer than it was. I keep telling myself that it will just stay spring the whole time and that I won't have to deal with Summer, but somehow that just doesn't seem too likely. Oh, ...

More rain?

2009 May 04

So this week wasn't too exciting. We have people moving along, but they aren't really ready yet, so that's a little depressing. Not too depressing though. We spent a bunch of time this week trying to figure out what to do... There's this point at which you start to wonder what you can do, and we're starting to hit that (although maybe this week was more difficult than usual). Enclosed is a picture we took this morning, at the corner of Adams and Fall streets (if we had gone shopping first, I would have gotten an apple, but I digress...). ...

Weather psychosis

2009 April 27

Another pretty decent week. We taught 9 lessons this week, which is the highest I've done in a while. The area's starting to get rolling finally, which is nice, although we still end up struggling to find things to do. Such is life sometimes. I'm still pretty tired, although the upside here is that it's just mental, and not physical exhaustion. So many things happening. We almost had a baptism this week, but we didn't quite make it---sometimes word of wisdom issues can take a while. I think we're almost there, though. We have a couple more investigators that we're ...

Sunny days, cool nights

2009 April 20

So this week was pretty good. The weather has been a little odd, but it's been good otherwise. I'm still getting used to sharing a ward with other missionaries. It is pretty fun having Elder Pruitt around again, even if for some reason he isn't in our district (why do we have Dayton, but not the Span-ams in our ward? hmm). Although there are some white handbook rules that I'm beginning to understand much better now that there are other missionaries around during church. The work is going ok. We've added another investigator to our pool, and we also are ...

Back in the North

2009 April 13

So... I've got another new address. Whee! Elder Michael Larsen / 305 W 8th St / Carson City, NV 89703 The van ride up here was pretty crowded. It's a looong drive from Vegas to Sparks (stops in Beatty, Tonopah and Fallon, as usual). Had Ausmus and Pruitt and Brown and some other people and some greenies in the van. 11 in all, not counting Elder Monroe, who was driving. It was pretty squished. I also think I ate too many chocolate-covered gummy bears on the way up (got them at the candy shop in Beatty). Yep. It's pretty exciting. ...

Back in the North

2009 April 13

So... I've got another new address. Whee! Elder Michael Larsen / 305 W 8th St / Carson City, NV 89703 The van ride up here was pretty crowded. It's a looong drive from Vegas to Sparks (stops in Beatty, Tonopah and Fallon, as usual). Had Ausmus and Pruitt and Brown and some other people and some greenies in the van. 11 in all, not counting Elder Monroe, who was driving. It was pretty squished. I also think I ate too many chocolate-covered gummy bears on the way up (got them at the candy shop in Beatty). Yep. It's pretty exciting. ...

Chapter 10: Expect the unexpected

2009 April 06

So you might think after having been in my previous area for 4 transfers, and having only been here for 6 weeks, that I wouldn't get moved for a little while longer. Maybe a new companion or something, right?... *Wrong* Transfer calls is: Elder Larsen to Carson City as Jr. Comp. with Elder Jex in a car. Covering: Hot Springs, Carson River. Yep. Expect the unexpected. Anyways, this week wasn't too bad otherwise. Conference was pretty awesome, especially Saturday Morning, since we watched that with our investigators (I feel so happy to have done that, and also that we have ...

The Winds of opposition

2009 March 30

So this week was a bit better. We've actually got some stuff going on now... It should all turn around in a couple of weeks... wait--I'm pretty sure I've been saying that for most of the transfer. March is winding to a close. About a year ago, there was a lot of stuff happening all at once. Now, not so much. We finally got some new investigators this week. They didn't come to church, but we figure that we can deal with that, especially since they still want to talk to us, and we're going to do some service for ...

Sick-age... bleh.

2009 March 23

This has felt like a really long week. I've been under the weather for a good portion of the week, so there wasn't a lot that happened (although it wasn't necessarily that I was sick that made nothing happen), at least in terms of progress in the area. We had interviews with President on Wednesday, and Zone Conference on Thursday. That's seriously the largest group of missionaries I've seen in about 6 months (we had Redrock, Lone Mountain, and Tule Springs zones all together... it was huge). A lot of really good stuff. We didn't really have all that much ...

2009 March 16

So this has been a pretty long week. We've been working pretty hard at trying to get some people to teach, but it's been a little difficult. We do have a couple of appointments this week, so I guess that it's starting to pick up--I just think it's going to take a while. We've done an awful lot of biking (100+ miles this past week... I forgot to write down the totals for yesterday (that's at an average of 10mph, too, so we're not moving too slow, either)). We had a pretty cool experience on Friday--we went up to the ...

Year Out, 1/2, Year Left, Stake Conference, Flat Tire

2009 March 09

So, the rest of last week was pretty quiet. We've been making alot of visits, but don't seem to be making much headway. We got a couple of referrals, but they turned out to be duds. We have had the occasional lesson, but they are far and pretty few between. Not to great for morale. We had stake conference yesterday, which was pretty cool for a number of reasons. Firstly, it meant that we only spent 2 hours in Church this week instead of 5 or 6. That's really nice. Sencondly, it was a broadcast from Salt Lake, so we ...

Bus Trips, Biking again, Temple Day! Also... 1/2?...

2009 March 04

Whew! It's been quite a week. Lots of crazy stuff. Let's see what's happened... Tuesday I got all packed, and then Wednesday morning we began the bus ride... we left around 7:45am from Sparks, and got to North Vegas at around 3:45pm. Only stopped in Fallon and Tonopah (for lunch--at the Burger King). It was a *long* trip. No major incidents, though. I'm serving just a few miles from the mission office now (I think there are only a couple of areas that are closer. It's a bit of a different experience. I'm also back on bike, which is a ...

Chapter 9: Back to the Heat

2009 February 23

Transfer calls: Elder Larsen to Highland Hills North as Sr. with Elder Farnsworth on a bike. Covering: Aliante, Waterfall So, yep, I'm moving. It took a little longer than I thought for it to happen, but the time is finally here. Anyways... I guess it had to happen at some point. So here's what I know about my new area: It's in North Vegas, in the Northwest corner of the Highland Hills Stake, generally a bit smaller than my area in Lakes Stake. I'll be on bike. I already know that both Elder Brown and Sister Mose are in that ...

(No Subject)

2009 February 16

So this week was a lot quieter, except for all the Zone Conference related stuff. It just gets really crazy like that. Not a bad week at all, though. Didn't end up with a lot of time to write this week, though. Kind of stinks... We didn't think that the office (or library) would be open today... but it was! Anyways--we didn't have much on the front of lessons, etc.--when you baptize your best investigators, you suddenly have a whole lot less teaching potential. We didn't have much success on finding new people this week either, although we were interrupted ...

11? How did that happen?

2009 February 09

This week was pretty awesome. To start off, things were mainly the same, but this weekend was great. We had 2 (yay! 2!) baptisms on Saturday, which was nice--we've been working with that family for about 4 months straight, so it's particularly gratifying that this finally happened... it took a while, too. On top of that, on of my & Elder Ingham's converts (from back in September), was ordained a deacon yesterday (on top of the confirmations--that family has had a busy weekend). Other good news from this week is that several of our investigators finally decided to come to ...

Why can I not think of a title?

2009 February 02

This week has been quite a bit less eventful than last week was, to say the least... no car issues, no flat tires... very quiet. We're still teaching, which is nice, and we even have a baptism coming up this week. We're pretty happy about that, although we still would like some more people to teach... oh, well, I guess you can't have everything... The weather has been pretty stable this week... not too cold, and actually pretty warm during the day. We're all doing great. Hope everybody has a good week!

Repairs

2009 January 26

This week has been pretty crazy in terms of transportation... It all started a couple of weeks back when we came out to discover that our car had a dent on the front--we figure somebody backed into us. After having the Mooneys (the North apartment/car coordinators) look at it, we called the office, filled out paperwork, and eventually had to get estimates. After some churning back at the office, we were told to take the car in Tuesday afternoon. Of course, being car-less didn't entirely shut us down... it just made things a bit more complicated. Luckily, our mission also ...

I don't want to make up a title

2009 January 19

So, it's been another slow week. Not a whole lot going on, beyond transfers. Nothing too exciting. We had a couple of lessons, still had a bunch of running around to do for our car... the dent, check engine light, oy. Way too much running around. We've also been trying to get a hold of a bunch of people, with limited success. We did slightly better at getting people to church this week, and we figure that we'll have at least one baptism in the next few weeks... not exactly sure when yet. It's been pretty warm during the day ...

Chapter 8: No change, well, except for the changes

2009 January 12

So transfers is this week... and I'm not packing. Neither is Elder Guerra. So we get another 6 weeks! Yay! I hadn't wanted to leave because I have a bit of unfinished business... hopefully I can get that all wrapped up before I leave. The latter half of this week has been pretty boring. We discovered Thursday morning that somebody had backed into our car. Not much damage--just a dent in the hood. We talked with Elder Mooney on Friday, and then with Elder Davis down at the mission office, and then... well we called a dent repair guy, and ...

The Last of 2008...

2008 December 29

This week has been pretty quiet, work-wise... we stuck to mainly doing paperwork and such for most of the proselyting time that we had... we did have a couple of lessons, and we're still making progress. I did want to say thank you for all the cards and packages. It's been a little difficult being away from family this time around, and it's nice to know that so many people are thinking about me (and... wow! that was a lot of cards!). Church this Sunday was pretty empty on our front--we had part of one of our families show up, ...

Crazy Snow

2008 December 22

That's been the weather here... snow, and threats of snow, all week. And it's been pretty cold. Also, apparently Henderson (Southeast Vegas) got 8 inches of snow, so they've gotten more than we have so far (that's pretty amazing, although I think we'll be ahead by the end of the week). I think it's kind of funny that I didn't think I'd end up having a snowy Christmas (Since I new I'd be in this mission about a year ago), and yet here it is. It turned out last Monday that we were parked for most of the day, which ...

The Arrival of Winter

2008 December 15

This weekend has finally brought us snow again. It's much more persistent this time, though... It started late Friday night, which made the roads pretty icy Saturday morning, although it cleared up ok. It started again last night, and we've got around an inch on the ground now. Which brings me to the attached picture--that's last night with all the snow. We had just had a lesson. This week was ok. We've been under the weather, so we didn't get as much done as we'd hoped. We also had Zone Conference, which was pretty early this time around. We got ...

Reboot

2008 December 08

So, after a few not-so-great weeks (sending a companion home isn't easy, and the past few haven't been the best either), I've finally gotten the chance to get back in gear. Anyways, so of you might be wondering what the pictures are. The first is of my new companion... 6 months ago. The second is a shunk version of the original photo. From left to right, Sister Mose, Myself, Elder Dahl, Elder Francis, Elder Wonnacott, Elder Riddle, Elder Bitton, Elder D. Smith (the one I don't live with), and Elder Guerra. That picture is at transfers back when Elder Dahl ...

Another chapter...

2008 December 01

So for those of you that've been keeping count, it's been 6 weeks since las t transfers, which can only mean 1 thing... transfers is tomorrow. On that front, I have some news... For our zone, we're having a grand total of 3 transfers. The first is that Elder Marchant, who's been up here forever, is being transfered to Silver Springs. To replace him, Elder Nielsen is being transfered in. The secon d is that Elder Kearl, who just got here 6 weeks ago, is going to Gardner ville. His replacement as PZL is Elder Dahl (yay!) who's ...

Well, maybe next week will make sense...

2008 November 24

This has been a long week. I'm still trying to figure out everything that's going on... Sometimes things can get waaay confusing. We had a couple of lessons, which went pretty well--we set one of the families we're working with for the 13th (of December)... which was awesome... until they didn't come to Church. So now we've got to figure out what's going on... hopefully we won't have to reschedule (well... it was also kind of tenative...). Beyond that we really haven't had much on the front of lessons, and we had a bunch of interruptions, ...

All quiet

2008 November 17

This week has been considerably quieter than last week. Mainly because it was shorter. Last Tuesday was rather quiet. We didn't have dinner, but we did have a lesson, which was nice--although we had some car issues that we ended up having to deal with before we got there. We did have a good lesson, though, so I guess it was all ok (note to self: make sure all the lights are off in the car before going in for the night...). Wednesday had district meeting, which was good, as usual, and some work, an ...

1/3. Also, 20. Also, Elder Kikuchi

2008 November 11

Well, it's been a fairly eventful week here, both workwise, and also in terms of various milestones. The first really major event this week was last Wednesday... which is 8 months to the day I went into the MTC. So I'm officially 1/3 of the way through. I'm not exactly how this got here so fast, but I'm just trying to convince myself now that it will all be ok, because it'll be another 4 months until I get to halfway... so I have lots of time. Workwise, things have been going well... we've had ...

Adventures in Halloween and rainy weather

2008 November 03

So we've opened some new territory here. It's getting COLDER. And it rained Saturday night. We were tracting Saturday afternoon, and we had some minor run-ins with dust clouds. We've had to start wearing coats a little bit. Not a lot of interesting missionary work this week. We're pretty much out of investigators (they're in the branch, or they're baptized), which makes for very boring weeks. Of course, now that I'm in charge, this is pretty much my fault. Well, not entirely, but I figure that if I keep thinking about it that way, I'll figure a ...

Running (well, trying to run) the show

2008 October 27

This has been a rather interesting week. A lot of new and interesting things to deal with. First off, I have a new companion, Elder Hachey. He's from Cardston, Alberta, Canada, although he grew up in Toronto. He's also pretty much fresh out of the MTC. Other new challenges also include having to do all the navigating at this point (I've had a little fun with that--the not-straight streets make it more interesting than I'd like sometimes, though), and dealing with a little confusion about which car we're supposed to have... somebody thought t ...

Chapter 6: The Circle of (mission) life

2008 October 20

This weeks' been pretty crazy. Well, more specifically this weekend. As I write this, Elder Ingham driving down to Las Vegas. Also as I write this, my new companion is somewhere in Las Vegas. The transfer calls line read: Elders Larsen (T) & Greenie Things are going to get a whole lot more interesting. I'm not moving (still covering the Wingfield Hills and Pyramid Lake Wards), but I am losing part of my area, as the Red Hill Branch will be covered by Elders Olivera and Simpkins on bike. That was expected, as the mission continues to ...

Lake, Snow, Zone Conference, Branch!

2008 October 16

This message is slightly delayed due to Temple day. I won't get to use that excuse again for another 12 weeks. And somehow I always forget until after the preceding Monday. Oops! So our narrative picks up last Monday after I finished writing emails. After some shopping, our apartment decided that we would go to Pyramid Lake. We drove up to Sutcliffe, NV, which is about 30 miles north of Sparks, and is ...

Driving, conference, countdowns

2008 October 06

This week was a bit more productive than last week. Elder Ingham decided to put me in charge (to a degree, anyway). We had some good, solid, productive days. This also brought back a stress that I'm still not quite used to... driving. Luckily Sparks has nowhere near the crazy traffic that Las Vegas has (the roads are a little smaller, so it's harder to get stuck on the wrong side of the road when you need to turn). The smaller roads do have their downside... we have a tiny little road called Highland Ranch P ...

Hills, lots of Hills

2008 September 29

Alright, so this week was pretty quiet... until Sunday. First off, we've got some major shake-ups. Pieces of 4 wards (Sparks 8th, 9th, Highland Ranch, and Eagle Canyon) have been split off to form the Red Hill Branch, which meets in and covers the entirety of Sun Valley. They've also renamed Sparks 8th Ward to be the Wingfield Hills Ward, and Sparks 9th Ward to be the Satellite Hills Ward. All of this takes effect on October 12th. Second off, we had a baptism-he's going to be the last person to be baptized and confirmed ...

Really learning how to navigate

2008 September 22

Sparks/Reno is way harder to navigate in. At least Las Vegas has a grid system... Actually I'm starting to get the hang of things. There do look to be a few changes coming though. They're creating a new branch in Sun Valley (they're announcing it next week, will start meeting October 12th), which is going to take part of our area, along with parts of 2 other areas, and there'll also be some renamings and boundary realignments. It's going to be pretty hectic figuring out all of that. Whoever ends up covering the branch is ...

Sent to the Northern Hinterlands...

2008 September 15

Hey All! So... I got transfered. Elder Hoffman stayed put... he's training a greenie (I think his name is Elder Farnsworth). I'm executing a hit on Elder Ingham. In SPARKS. Waay north of Vegas. So I'm in the Reno North Zone now, Sparks North District. We (me & Elder Ingham) cover the Pyramid Lake and Sparks 8th Wards. Elder Ingham is the district leader here. This makes the 3rd district leader that I've served as companion to. The thing that's funny about coming here is that this is the second area I've come to where Elder ...

Chapter 5... with some uncertainty

2008 September 08

So they decided to push back transfer calls to Tuesday. That's a little annoying... I figured that since President McCracken had to go to a meeting on Tuesday they would just do transfer calls on Saturday as per normal...nope. It's probably a good idea to send stuff to the mission office for the time being. Things have gone mostly the same this week. No great improvements. Not really the greatest past couple of days either: I'm a little under the weather, and I've got more bike repair to do (I just need an allen ...

More of the same... transfers next week

2008 September 03

Well, not much happened in the past two days. We've got some new possibilities on the horizon (a few referrals, one of which just might be good, and a former that is letting us meet with them again), but they're just possibilities at the moment. We're working on cleaning out our new ward list (fun! seeing if LA people have moved out), which might turn up somebody to teach (you can only do so much tracting in a week). We're going to get a new set of lists for the other ward this coming Sunday. ...

Short note

2008 September 01

Don't have much time this week. There hasn't been much change, except that yesterday I finally got my bike fixed, thanks to a member who welded the broken piece. Pretty sweet. Our talks went well. This week we get transfer calls. So next week, you can find out where I'm going.

Broken Sunglasses, Girls camp, and Bible Study classes

2008 August 25

Yeah, still not a great week. People are difficult--sometimes they just decide they don't want to meet with you for no good reason (that we know). Sometimes they decide that Sacrament Meeting is "too testimonial", that Sunday School is too basic and doesn't teach the way they want, and decide to go join a Bible Study class at their old church. And they tell you this when you try to catch up with them as they're leaving church to go to said Bible Study class, and you're trying to get an appointment for the ...

Slippage...

2008 August 18

Ok, so this week is probably not the most productive ever. Dropped appointments, we only just barely made the proselyting standard (well, except for lessons, but we haven't hit that ever. A lot of people are stalled, didn't come to church, cancel appointments, our most consistent investigator is going back to Korea until December... so we're working on building our pool (aka the same thing I've been doing since the beginning of June). Some fun stuff... Went on splits with Elder Jorgensen this week. We ended up having dinner in my old complex, and then visited ...

Still warm.

2008 August 11

This has not been too different of a week. Good news first--we had a lot of people at church this week. One of our investigators is going to girls camp. No baptismal dates yet, but we're planning on having a few set this coming week (we've got 2 families that are both really close--so we'll see how things turn out this week). Interesting news: transfers is going to be on Thursday this time around (President McCracken has to go to some meetings), so the actual transfer is 2 days longer than most. We're also going ...

Flat tires, broken bikes, and almost ready people

2008 August 04

Yeah, it's been a weird week. Saying goodbye to an area is difficult. Also, moving to a 2-man apartment is difficult... you really only have one person to talk to all the time (especially when you're junior and don't have to worry about stats calls). Anyways, Elder Hoffman is from Redmond, Washington (yep, there...). He's actually pretty easy to get along with, which is good, since there's quite a bit that's different here. This area is a bit more mid-to-upper class... One of our wards has a bit of Summerlin (if you look at a map ...

Elder Larsen to Lakes North with Elder Hoffman on a bike

2008 July 28

Yep, I'm getting transfered. Not too far--the Lakes Stake (where I'm going) and the Spring Mountain Stake (where I am) border each other, although I'm going to the north end of the stake. My new zone is a lot smaller--only one stake, everything is in Vegas, and around 10 missionaries (I didn't do a very thorough count at Transfer Calls--more about that later). My new companion is a District Leader (yep, I'm going from being a District Leader's companion on bike to being a District Leader's companion on bike), so not much change there. I ...

Rainy days!

2008 July 16

Most people would leave the exclamation off, but we've had rain for the past few days. It's pretty awesome, since it's only really rained once since I got here (that's around 16 weeks now...). Sunday had a pretty big downpour when I was going from Hacienda to Twain (we've been doing splits for meetings on Sunday), although it ended pretty quickly. It's been raining for around an hour now, which is nice--it should have a more lasting effect on the temperature (95 is considered cool right now). Not the best of weeks last week. Zone Conference was ...

Well, there's always next week

2008 July 07

Not actually a terrible week. Kinda long though. Thursday morning was a little difficult--our one solid investigator moved a little ways, and is in a different zone now. The baptism is still on for this Saturday, and she's read the Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants all the way through. We made sure she got picked up ok by the Elders there (Elder Wonnacott & Elder Francis (brand new missionary)). A little annoying, but still good. That, of course, brought us to 0 with dates set. And since the only people ready to be set ...

Sisters on buses, investigators doing loop-the-loops

2008 June 30

Ok, so this week has been quite the roller coaster. Lots of interesting stuff. I'm not exactly sure what to start with... I guess I'll start with Monday. Last Monday we played volleyball & basketball for P-Day (mainly volleyball, which we mixed up a little by covering the net). Pretty quiet day. Well, Tuesday was a pretty good day. We had Zone Meeting, which was pretty fun. We're focusing on using the Book of Mormon more, and we're expecting some pickup in the next month or so--South Zone usually does well during the summer, and we can see some of ...

Back in the saddle

2008 June 23

So, the one thing that I didn't completely catch about transfer calls is that the car was leaving. In case you're wondering, Koeven and Evans are two very different names. So, we're back to bike. Joy. Actually, things haven't been too bad. Evans was in Hacienda from early June until late September (or something like that) last year. On bike. So this isn't too new to him (he was a greenie back then, and he didn't have Laurelwood, but that's about it). The work is going ok. We're making sure that we're doing all of ...

On to chapter three

2008 June 16

First off, transfer calls. - I'm staying put. - Elder Dahl is being transfered to Tule Springs zone as JZL with Elder Wood - My new companion is Elder Evans, who is coming from Tule Springs zone as JZL with Elder Wood - Elder Pruitt is going up north (Reno North zone) with Elder Henke - Elder Leitheads' new companion is Elder Nyland - Elder Wonnacott is getting transfered out, training, new PZL is Elder Wilcox - Sister Mose is going to Fallon. Sister Ellis will be going back to Temple Square in ~4 weeks. Sister Ellis ...

Barreling along like a freight train...

2008 June 09

All right! One week left in the transfer! I'm only half green now. This week wasn't the greatest, though. We have to move back the baptisms for this Saturday, since we had some issues with people not coming to church. So only 2 this transfer (better than the last one, though). I was senior for a day, which was interesting... I'm not really good at being senior--just not ready to deal with that yet. Transfers is looking to be even crazier than we thought last week. President is in the process of replacing the APs ...

2 Weeks to Upheaval...

2008 June 02

Alright, since my last update, we've had some exciting stuff happen. First off, we had our first baptisms since I got here (2, to be exact). That was pretty exciting, although I've learned a little bit more about checking water temperature before the font gets really full (a touch too cold for the first one...). We've also got another family set for the 14th. This is another case where things just worked out perfectly--we've gotten them to give up coffee (it took about 2.5 seconds to get them to give us the coffee can), which ...

Where did the time go?

2008 May 29

Funny thing about libraries and federal holidays... I'm writing this late due to scheduling issues... we've been really busy this week. Some of the excitement: - *Interviews (last Tuesday)* -- Got to talk with President all by myself for a few minutes. We're doing well, so there wasn't too much to discuss. - *Zone Conference #2* -- This transfer we've been talking a lot about how we need to have the spirit with us. It was fun and inspirational all at the same time - *Baptism Interviews* -- We had interviews for two of our investigators. ...

Bringing on the heat

2008 May 19

So, the past couple of days have seen the arrival of the one thing I was dreading... the heat. It's been pretty warm. We hit 104 yesterday, and it's supposed to hit 107 today. It also really doesn't cool off when the sun goes down--all the asphalt absorbs heat. It's pretty brutal. Apparently we get this (or worse) until late September/early October. Really exciting . We've got our 2 (technically 3, but one's not convert, just less-active) baptisms that are coming up, which we'll have on the 31st. We're working pretty hard to get some ...

Chariot of Silver

2008 May 12

Alright, it's been a pretty good week. We're pretty much settled now. Elder Leithead's a little crazy sometimes, but we can deal with that. I'm also no longer in the group of missionaries with the most time left. We did get a car, on Tuesday. Probably the newest car I've been in (2008 Mazda 3). We very much enjoy being able to have MoTab with us more--it makes it easier to ignore stuff here (just imagine the strip, and you can figure out what...). Also, we're not completely dead when we get back home at ...

So begins the next chapter.

2008 May 05

Just for clarification, last week's Wednesday update was not a permanent switch--we switch to Wednesday only when it's temple day. Anyway, today marks 2 months. Wow. I'm still a little confused as to how much time has passed. It's also the first day of my second transfer. I'm no t being moved, nor is Elder Dahl, although there are some shakeups in the district and the zone. Elder Ferrulli goes home tomorrow, Elders Kearl & Nemeth are being sent away (Kearl is JZL in Redrock, and Nemeth gets to be in Reno for the summer). Elders Barton ...

Patience is something that takes a while

2008 April 30

Another Wednesday post, since the mission has decided that Temple Day is our P-Day for the week. Temple Day was awesome. We got to leave the mission, since the temple is in the other mission. In terms of questions I've gotten (fairly) recently about what areas are actually in the mission, yes, Tule Springs and Highland Hills are in the West Mission. We're in the last week of the Transfer, so next Monday (yes, it will be Monday this time) I'll be able to tell you all about how I'm not being transfered, and that ...

All quiet on the Western Front...

2008 April 21

Alright, this week we're not experiencing technical difficulties. Sweet. So, after the library insanity last week, Thursday went ok, Friday I was in another area on splits, and Saturday was good. We've been refocusing on meeting the members in our wards, since we don't know them real well. We did have some success this week--the inactive family we've been working with came to a baptism on Saturday (not ours-Barton & Bachelder) and then came to Church on Sunday. We think we've got a pretty solid baptismal date for their 9-year-old (May 3rd). Other than that

Insert catchy title here...

2008 April 16

Alright! 3 weeks! Where to begin...Ok, went on splits for first time, with Elder Bachelder (the other greenie in the district). Fun day. 2 of the 3 appointments we had went bad, Elder Dahl's bike broke on the way to the second, so we ended up walking all the way back from that appointment, which wasn't too awesome (middle of the day, etc.), until we ran into this guy on the street and went inside and talked for a while. We've actually got an appointment to go back later on today. We'll see how ...

Settling in

2008 April 07

Once again Monday has arrived. This is the last of 3 days rest (conference generally means we watch and try to do a little bit of work, so it's pretty much rest). Having conference here is a bit of a different experience, since it starts pretty early (9am) and is finished by 7pm on Saturday, and 3pm on Sunday. In fact, the change in time makes dinner an after-preisthood session kind of thing. We have a Chinatown-like section in our area. We haven't been there yet, since it's pretty far out, but we may go ...

Lead Kindly Light...

2008 March 31

I'm in the field now. I'm serving in the South District in the South Zone of the mission--my area is Hacienda Heights/Laurelwood. We're right next to the strip (which is no-mans-land... I don't think it's in either mission). My Trainer is Elder Dahl. He's from Palmer, Alaska, and has been out for just shy of 9 months. I'm a second child (aka E. Dahl trained somebody before me), and my grandpa, E. Warnecott, is one of our ZLs. There are 6 Elders & 2 Sisters in our district. E. Dahl is DL, we have ...

The Whirlwind

2008 March 19

For those of you who've emailed, I may not have much chance to respond until next week... email was down when we tried to read email this morning, so this was written on paper in the laundry. I finally got more things in the mail yesterday and Monday (thanks to home, Bishop Boyle, and Elder Hiatt). We're leaving for Las Vegas on Monday. It's a little scary, but it's also pretty exciting. We've learned a lot, and I'm pretty happy with how much studying I've been able to do (I've almost finished Deuteronomy... I'm trying ...

Contact info

2008 March 12

I've finally gotten some email time, so I thought I'd post my contact info (In case anyone had the *silly, silly idea* of writing at some point). I only have about 30 minutes to email during the week (Wednesday...) and I've used about 10 of that so far. Week one has been pretty good. I'm adjusting ok (although the early hours are not too friendly) Good district, evenly split, 4 Elders, 4 Sisters, all the elders and 1 sister are going to Vegas West, and the other 3 are going to California Carlsbad (who's ...

The start of something new

2008 March 05

Well, Today's the day. I'm pretty excited about this, and just want to get started. It's a little sad to be going, but I'm excited about the prospect of this new adventure. I hope everyone is well, and I'll see everybody on or after March of 2010. Note: Leury, Chris, Steven, if you're reading this, I'm sorry the timing is so close and yet so far. I hope you all get home safely and on time (not early, *on time*). I think I've got everything working properly. I probably won't see any of the comments until after I've posted my ...