Week Twenty Five

Eric has big news this week!

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I don't know if the Gibbs have noticed this yet but I was shocked to find Elder Gibb in a church news article on lds.org: http://www.lds.org/church/news/elder-andersen-says-asia-members-faith-shines-like-light-on-hill?lang=eng

(Our next door neighbor serving a mission in India)

Big changes are going on in the mission right now.  And on Wednesday I found out that I was part of it.

Elder Scotto is now on a plane going home.  I got my last picture with him on Monday:

And I got to say goodbye to him last night too but I didn't get to see him this morning.  

On Monday when I got back to my zone from lunch, one of our Senior Elders came up to me and asked, "Are you Elder Larson?" I looked down at my name tag and said, "Yes."  Then he said someone called for me but he didn't know who I was so the person on the phone said they'd try another number.  When I asked him if he knew who it was [who had called] he said he didn't know.

So I went back into my staff area to use a phone and called Elder Davis to see if it was someone at the mission office.  He put me on hold. TWENTY minutes later he picked up, and while laughing really hard with the other APs laughing in the background (his phone is always on speaker), he asked if I was still there.  I was like, "...Yeah..." and that made them laugh even harder.  Apparently Elder Davis found out the answer real easily but then got distracted and forgot all about me being on hold so he apologized several times, but now it's a really funny story we like telling people.

Anyway, Elder and Sister Andersen were trying to reach me.  When they called the British Reference Desk "They're supposed to call my Zone Leader but whatever" and were told that they don't know me, they thought they did something wrong because they're still learning.

Anyway, anyway, not only did I have a cleaning appointment with the dentist on Tuesday that I had no idea about (Elder Andersen asked if I wanted a cleaning appointment and I said yes but I guess I should have made it clear that I thought we were talking in a couple of months here) but I was also told that President Peterson wanted to see me on Wednesday.

So on Tuesday I went to the dentist again and got a cleaning, and I found out I had two cavities because I need to floss better....sorry...but for the record Dr. Liddell says that every one of his patients gets cavities because they need to floss better.  He also gave me some prescribed fluoride toothpaste right there for no charge because he said I could use it, he's a really nice guy. So sorry about the random dentist bills you'll be getting.

AND NOW HERE'S THE BIG CHANGE PART

So I went and talked with President Peterson on Wednesday and guess what?  He made me a district leader!  I'm replacing Elder Peterson as a district leader because he leaves at the end of July (he's the one in the picture you sent me strangely enough.)  So yeah, I'm a district leader.  Here's my district:

The gist of what I have to do is conduct regular district meetings with my district on Mondays.  Assign elders in my district spiritual thoughts, ip talks, etc.  And I have to prepare a lesson myself every Monday.  I also have to go to everyone in my district at 9:00 PM every day, bring them their mail, makes sure they're all doing okay and that their apartments are clean, and to check them in.  (Not allowed to go outside after district leader checks you in.)  Then I report to the APs who report to the Brandons, well Andersens now because Elder and Sister Brandon are officially released from that position but they'll still be hanging around until about August though.  

As a district leader elders are also allowed to come to me for counsel, which is a little bit frightening, but I think I can handle it.  

Also as a last hurrah to our presidency the district leaders, aps, Brandons, Andersens, and President and Sister Peterson went to Olive Garden at 11:30 today.  (I became a district leader at the right time apparently.)  I got some pictures of that:

They wouldn't stop moving.

They're not forks, they're "threeks!"

This was the tip pile.

Anyway, so yes I'm quite excited and humbled by these changes.  I haven't met President Workman yet but he I heard him say that he's not going to change anything until he understands completely how this mission operates, so for now we're just going to be continuing with what we're doing until further notice.

The JSMB is indeed closed on Saturdays so I think the library wouldn't mind getting a package for me. 

Thank you about the story about the turtle and I hope Viktor is well.  Yes all reptiles can be carriers of disease but that's why you wash you hands after handling them, and I'm sure pet stores are much cleanlier than they were back then.

Love you too and have fun at the AquaBats,

(Note: The Larson family is going to see The Aquabats! at the Vans Warped Tour this Saturday -- Super Rad!)

Elder Larson

Week Twenty Four

Eric got his teeth this week and he's very proud of them.

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Yes I finally got my teeth.  Which means 20 years of work is finally done, and I don't have to worry about orthodontic work ever again.  (Hopefully.)

I have no explanation as to why I move so much either.  I even asked Elder Davis why I move so much and he was surprised at how much I moved and I said, "But you're the one making the decisions to move me around! What do you mean you don't know why I'm moving around so much?"  And his only answer is that's just how things turn out.

Yes I already have 4 tickets for the Pioneer Day concert.  (Just walked across the street from where I live to the ticket office and requested the tickets right there.)  I got 4 tickets to be considerate for any other elders that may want to come but apparently that's what every elder did because we all have way too many tickets. I might have to do some scalping. (Brian's Note: Eric means he will give extra tickets away. No money will be exchanged.)

And believe it or not, yes my hair does have to be that short because that's how President Peterson likes it.

And I don't know how you guys are managing to keep track of our cars but somehow things always work with them.  And maybe you should have Becca hang out at Grandma's house and Grandpa can take her to Lehi High.  Now there's an idea.

I'm trying really hard to write a proper e-mail but I can't think of anything to say.  Elder and Sister Brandon are leaving next week and that's really sad for us.  Elder Scotto is also leaving too.  I already told you about my teeth....What else can I say?!

Umm, Temple Square is swarming with tourists.  You know those tour bus things filled with old people as they tour the country or whatever?  One of the stops is Temple Square and because of that we let them have a quick activity where we help them with FamilySearch.  I usually have to deal with people who have never touched a computer before in their lives.  I had to deal with this one guy who was so paranoid of computers he wouldn't touch it and kept yelling, "It's nobody's business to know who my ancestors are!  Nothing's private anymore thanks to computers!"  and super long rants like that.  Yeah it's fun.

I had to get my prescription, again.  And the co-pay was too expensive, again.  So I had to withdraw from my savings, again.  "Radioactive" by "Imagine Dragons" started playing at the Pharmacy and that was really hard to ignore.

Pictures:

Yep, it's officially summer.
(Brian's Note: This picture was taken from North Temple looking west. I work just one block on the other side of LDS Business College at Fidelity Investments. That is how close I am to Eric every day, but I can't visit him while he's on his mission...)

These signs are all over Temple Square.  There's going to be volunteers everywhere once the falcon attempts to fly.

And I guess I already gave you the teeth picture...

A certificate dated September 18, 1901 showing that Lehi Larson Sr. (Eric's great, great, great, grandpa) was ordained and set apart as Bishop of the Matthews ward in Graham county, Arizona. Peter McBride (Eric's great, great grandpa) was his second counselor.

So I know it's a little early to be thinking about this, but I want to go to LDS Business College when I get home from my misison.  Once I get my two years done there, hopefully I can transfer over to BYU.  If not then I'll go to UVU I guess, or maybe one of the other BYUs.  

Okay that's all I've got.  Talk to you next week,

Elder Larson

Week Twenty Three

Latest update from Eric:

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I sent a letter with a card for Janetta (and Becca, and Dad.) But I don't know if you got it yet or not.  So now it's my turn to spoil something before it gets there.

No I didn't take any pictures of the demonstration, because is specifically says that we are not supposed to do that in the mission handbook: "Avoid situations that could lead to confrontations.  Stay away from public demonstrations and from locations where those seeking to cause trouble might target you."  "Do not take pictures of civil unrest or demonstrations."  If we had known that was going on we wouldn't have gone, but we did.  My sandwich is a flatbread footlong with steak, pepperjack cheese, green peppers, onions, and chipolte sauce.

I'm glad Janetta had a good birthday and that you were able to go despite them working you to death.  It's also cool that Becca's birthday and Father's Day is on the same day.  Again I sent some stuff.

This week was also very eventful.  I've gotten a lot better at remembering stuff because I carry my journal with me everywhere now and just write things as it happens.

THURSDAY: At the end of the day I went to a MoTab concert.  They're going on tour and they always show their concert at the Tabernacle before leaving.  It was free but there were a lot of people wanting to get in:

But we got in anyway and it was fun.  They'll played a lot of cool songs that you wouldn't see in Music and the Spoken Word.  And they played a lot of songs from their CDs.

Us at the concert:

SATURDAY:

I helped set up the swap meet today, because I was assigned.  I didn't get anything of particular mention except for this guy:

Why did I get this little figure?  No reason other than it was free and frivolous.  I call him Captain Seaman Man, and he watches over my books.

MONDAY:  

At the morning devotional the fire alarm went off.  The alarm just said "There has been an emergency reported in the building, please evacuate."  So all 200+ Senior Missionaries started to slowly shuffle out of the chapel.  Because we weren't allowed to use the elevators, we were all jammed right at the entrance in front of the stairs.  I was with Elder Smith and I said "Let's try getting out a different way." But when we turned around we were stuck because for some reason everyone wanted to go out through the same door, so we were surrounded by dozens of old people trying to slowly shuffle their way down the stairs.  I looked at Elder Smith and said, "If there truly is a fire then we are going to die."  Anyway it turns out the alarm went off because somebody burnt the bacon in the Nauvoo Cafe.  But it's still good to know that in the case of an emergency with 200+ old people that need to go down the stairs, that it's going to take awhile.  

TUESDAY:  So I got tickets for the Pioneer Day concert because we were allowed.  And that's about it.

WEDNESDAY:  We had our last missionary conference (and this is just the young elders) with President Peterson and the Brandons, so it was pretty emotional.  I got some pictures taken with them:

President and Sister Petersen

Elder and Sister Brandon

We were also surprised to hear a pretty big announcement.  We now have 78 young elders, so because of that it was decided to have a 3rd Assistant to the President.  Elder Jensen, who was a District Leader, is now an AP.  And Elder Liddiard (one of the elders that came in with my January group) replaced his position as a District Leader.  

And I don't know if this has anything to do with these changes but they put my apartment in a different district.  I was in Elder McCarty's district but for some reason now I'm in Elder Fish's district.  That means I was in Elder McCarty's district for a grand total of a whopping literal week.  (June 5 to June 12.)  Yeah I don't get it either but whatever.  

Other Pictures:

This is the scary dolphin on my shower curtain.  No matter where or what I'm doing in the bathroom, he is always watching.  It's really starting to freak me out.  

This is a picture I took while walking home yesterday.  I thought the sky looked pretty.

Did I tell you that I have a flower mode on my camera?  And that it makes flowers look awesome? 

I mean seriously, look at that!

I'm always ready to help.  Also I swear I'm going bald.

Okay I think that's all.  I helped many patrons this week and someone told me that I'm the best genealogist they've worked with, and I'm just a missionary.  It's good I'm still in a great zone like the British Zone.  Yes my mission may change a lot but I'm staying obedient to the end.  See you next week,

Elder Larson

Week Twenty Two

I can't stop laughing!!  Eric is in good form for this message.  (It helps that he had a lot to talk about.)

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I received the package on Friday and it made me feel bad because I was so whiny in my last e-mail.  *still wants a pull-up bar though and then I promise I'll shut up about wanting stuff forever*  But yes thank you very much.  Last e-mail you told me you found something called "Manga Magic" not "Manga Mania."  I know what that is, and yeah I'm glad you didn't send it to me because I didn't ask for it for a reason.  (I kind of don't like that book I bought it because I thought it would help but it didn't help me at all.)

Thank you so much for the camera, and yes it works beautifully.  It's the nicest camera I've ever had the privilege of messing around with.  So yes you made a good decision and it works.  I don't think I'll be able to fit all the pictures into one e-mail.  (I've been taking a lot of pictures.)

Yes my moving strategy so far has been to stuff everything into a grocery bag (I keep every grocery bag) and haul it over to my next apartment as quickly as possible, and then once all the bags are in my apartment I spend quite some time trying to figure out what's what.  But I did pretty good this time.  (Don't worry I don't stuff my clothes into grocery bags, those I carry over carefully with their hangers.)  I moved into a different building right next to my old one.  It's a two man apartment on the basement, and Elder Call is my companion.

I'm sorry Becca damaged the car I'm sure that wasn't a nice experience for her.  I learned how to park by just confidently (yet cautiously) pulling into whatever spot was needed.  Take her to empty parking lots and just have her pull into spots and maybe put up some cones or something to represent other cars.  I don't know.  But yeah battle scar family vans are always fun to have I guess.

Becca hit a car while trying to park at Walmart. It caused quite a scene. On the positive side, the door opens and closes better now than it did when we got it fixed after Andrew's accident several years ago.

 We will probably hike to the cemetery again NEXT Memorial Day so I guess you'll have to wait until then.  But on Pioneer Day (Or July 4th, can't remember) we'll be hiking to Ensign Peak so I'll have my camera with me then.

This was a pretty big week.

SATURDAY: So I got out of bed just in time to get the announcement that the library is going to be closed all day due to unforeseen circumstances.  Apparently security discovered an "object" overnight on Friday that caused them great concern.  I guess that warranted them to close down the library all day.  Details are sketchy(by the way, an artist was found dead in his apartment.  Details are sketchy) , so we don't really know what happened exactly.  All we know was that security closed down the entire library all Saturday.  Since most elders have their p day on Saturday they had to go to the JSMB to do their e-mails.  But since it wasn't my p day I just had nothing to do all day.  (Except draw since a certain package arrived.  Thank you again.)

During the evening some Elders including Elder Hurd wanted to go to D.I. and they invited me. I didn't really want to go to D.I. but I was really craving Subway for some reason that night, so I agreed to go and they said they'd stop at City Creek on the way back for me.  To get to D.I. we have to get on trax and then we get off at the courthouse because that's freefare.  Then we walk to D.I. from there and it's about a 10 minute walk.

Anyway to make a long story short apparently June 1st is Gay Pride Day.  And there was a big "Pride" festival going on right where we were walking.  So yeah that was a fun crowd to walk through.  We got lots of taunts and boos as we were walking through but most people just ignored us, thankfully.  But it was still kind of traumatizing.

The good news is that I still got my sandwich:

MONDAY: So Elder Hurd invited me to a Japanese class that's taught by a missionary in our mission (Sister Ejima, the one that invited us to dinner) and so I guess I'm going to try and learn Japanese. Again.

WEDNESDAY: That was the day I moved, and it went well.  I didn't lose any stuff and I had plenty of boxes. That's not why this day was exciting though.  Our new Mission President was getting announced this day.  And because President Peterson has connections, he was able to make it a huge devotional with the apostles Elder Scott and Elder Bednar to speak briefly...Yeah pretty big.

Anyway our new President effective starting July 1st is going to be H. Ross Workman, an ex general authority just like President Peterson.  In fact, I looked it up and he gave a talk right after President Peterson during the October 2001 General Conference.

See look:

Current Mission President: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/10/our-actions-determine-our-character?lang=eng

New Mission President: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/10/beware-of-murmuring?lang=eng

Elder Bednar spoke briefly and told us that missionary work is about turning peoples hearts so that they can do ordinances, therefore we shouldn't think that we're just "Family History Missionaries" but that we are actual missionaries, which was pretty comforting to hear.  Elder Scott pretty much said the same thing to, although it was pretty hysterical when he said "Hey do you guys want to know something about Elder Bednar that you don't know?"  We all though he was going to reveal some embarrassing secret or something but he just ended up saying, "Well, did you know that Elder Bednar's shoes are so shiny, that you can comb your hair by looking at them?" He also gave his coat hanger joke again which never gets old.  No one got to shake their hands because as soon as it was over security escorted them out pretty quickly.  Oh and this was all done in the chapel at the JSMB by the way.

So yes, we're getting a new Mission President, and he seems like a pretty cool guy.  I don't know how much he'll change this mission but I'll let you know if does anything drastic.

Elder Call is a very nice guy with a good heart, he works at the vault too and he'll be leaving at the end of July.  He's from Gilbert, Arizona, and a temple is currently being built there which he's excited about.  Here's a picture I took of him as he was walking home from working at the vault with Elder Scotto, notice the uniforms they get to wear:

Elder Call is on the right in case you forgot what Elder Scotto looks like.

THURSDAY(TODAY):  Umm, well nothing much happened but we did have a pretty funny experience at Walmart today.  While we were waiting at the checkout line there was a couple and an infant child in the grocery cart behind us.  The mother picked up a lighter on the display next to the magazines, light it, and then started waving it in front of the baby real close saying "Touch it!  Come on, touch it!"  We were looking at them with complete shock and when we turned around Elder Simpson said whispered, "And the Mother of the Year Award goes to..."  And we think he said it to loud because it looked like the father heard us and he was giving us a real dirty look the rest of the time.  Which scared us because based on his tattoos we're pretty sure he was a gangster.  

Anyway, I have a lot of pictures and they won't fit so I'll send them in a different e-mail. 

Love, Elder Larson

Pictures:

This is me messing around with the panorama mode.  This is my old room.

And this is my new one.

This is a horse.

This is me.

This is Elder McCarty.

This is a really cool picture of the Temple that I took.

These are my shiny shoes.

I took one last picture of my old roommates before leaving the next day.  Elder Farrell, Elder Stringham, and Elder Hurd.