My Last Day in the Mexico MTC

hey everyone!! this will be my last time sending emails from the mexico mtc!

my flight leaves tonight at 2 a.m! i cant even put what im feeling right now into words. im so nervous and so scared but at the same time i cant wait to finally get out in the field and actually start my mission. so wish me luck and keep me in your prayers. im gonna need it.

so anyways just really quickly, these past couple of days have really been some of the hardest and some of the most spiritual days of my life. ive fasted a lot this past week and i really feel like ive come a lot closer to my heavenly father. ive really been able to see how much the gospel has changed me personally. even just being here in the mtc for such a short time. i know that whenever i doubt myself i can turn to prayer and heavenly father will be there for me. and he is there for all of you as well.

so thats my little spiritual thought of the week. next time you hear from me im going to be in honduras! im freaking out but i know that its all going to be alright! love you all, thanks so much for the support.

elder larsen

LAST WEEK IN THE MTC

hello everyone!

greetings to everyone from the mexican prison,

this week has been a really good week and a really hard week.

all week ive been trying to work really hard to understand the language and everything and get it down before i get shipped out to honduras. ive been doing alright but its still pretty difficult to get used to. 

yesterday we taught the closest thing to a real investiagtor. we taught some random lady that spoke the fastest spanish in the world. i picked up a good 20 percent of it. haha. all i heard was how her son was in jail and how he was a terrible son and she just sat there and cried to us about all her problems. and i felt so bad because my spanish sucks to bad to help her! haha

it ended up going well, we taught he about how important church attendance is and how it can help her and her son not have such sucky lives. haha

so that was a great experience, soccer here is getting way to competitive. last thursday after i got done emailing some big tongan who is going to play football for byu we were playing soccer with decided he didnt like me and he was just going to hit me flat on my back. so that was fun and then 2 days ago another kid decided he wanted to try and send me home from my mission so he elbowed me in the face and then hit me again on to my back and i had a bloody nose all day. so that went well. haha

i guess the lord is just trying to test my patience a little out here. haha

but yeah, ive really started to get nervous about leaving for honduras. ive heard alot since ive been here that its the armpit of the world. whenever you ask one of the teachers about honduras they cringe because its pretty terrible. but oh well! ill be alright. haha

hope everyone is doing good. keep all the emails coming. p day is like christams being able to hear from all of you!

elder larsen

a couple of pictures from this week! 

the first is with a couple of my good friends that left for chile this week

the 2 is me and elder beaston repping hondo

3 is me trying to escape this prison, notice the barb wire all around the top. haha

and then the last is me and elder lee, who i was really close with who also left to chile.

September 17, 2014

quick update from your boy elder larsen,

everything is going great down here in mexico. ive learned to embrace the dirt and ghetto here. haha the food continues to be awful and the beds are still hard as rocks. but everything is great. im starting to sound like a mexican. and every couple of days i let the mustache grow out so i can fit in with the people. haha. the spanish is coming a long great. pretty much all i do is study spanish and play soccer. it gets really competetive here so this week i had to take a break from soccer so that a couple of the guys can cool down and not want to kill me. haha not even joking. but im short on time because a ton of other elders are breathing down my back trying to get on this computer

much love from the worst city in the world,

elder larsen

September 11, 2014

hello everyone! good to hear from you all this week. except allie. haha but yeah. im doing good out here! im gonna try and get on later and send some pictures so you can kind of get an idea of what this place looks like and what ive been up too. but yeah, this week has kicked my butt. all we do everyday is teach investigators and its actually going really well. so on tuesday i think, we taught this guy named juan carlos. and this dude was a tool. he was just an actor, but still. a tool. throughout the whole lesson he would go cross eyed and stare at us and then fake asleep while we were teaching him. it went awful. haha we tried to teach but me and elder smart could not focus at all and it was just sucky. so at the end we ask if he could offer a prayer and he says okay. so me and elder smart kneel down and close our eyes. and this dude stands up and starts chanting a roman catholic prayer at the top of his lungs. and the whole time he his pumping his fists and going wild. and keep in mind this is in front of like 20 other missionaries that we were doing a demonstration for so we looked like complete idiots.... hahaha. so that was the low of the week. so me and elder smart went in the next day to teach this girl that weve been teaching named karen. and it was the first lesson where we went in there without any dictionaries or spanish guide things. and we just sat there and had a 20 minute conversation in straight spanish just answering all of her questions abou the church and it was amazing. we just talked. it went so well. the spirit was definetly there. so that was the highlight of the week. im just trying to be as happy as i can here and do all that i can to stay positive. funny story real quick: so in our night classes we have this crazy little mexcan teacher. and the dude has no respect for anything. so in the middle of this lesson. he grabs a marker and starts drawing all over this flat screen tv that they have here to try and explain a spanish concept. just drawing all over this tv with a marker. and i was dying. like what is going through this dudes head. hahah. luckily after he scrubed if for awhile it came off but yeah. funny thing. anyways. im going to get on later and send pictures. dont forget to send donuts and mail to me. 

love you all so much!

elder larsen

Sep 4 (10 days ago)
to Lorren, Nick, Amber, allie, Marian, me, Drew

so here is a group email that you all can forward to everybody! just an update on ya boy. so basically ive been doing pretty good. ive gotten into a good routine and the days are starting to fly by. so here is the daily schedule. i was up every morning at 6:30 and take a shower in the worst shower on the planet. it is either lava hot or ice cold so you have to choose if you want to boil your skin or freeze. then i go to the cafeteria on the other side of the campus where they usually serve some kind of weird looking mexican dish that usually is as hard as a rock. then i go to our class and i study for about an hour. its really a peaceful time where i can learn a ton. next we start our 3 hour spanish class in which not a SINGLE WORD of english is spoken. next we teach a fake investigator in spanish. which actually goes decently well. next i return to the cafeteria for usually a plate of mystery meat that ive learned to love. i honestly couldnt tell you what type of meat it is. then i have about 4 more hours of study. then i get to go to gym. THANK GOODNESS. and we play soccer in this cage on concrete and it is so fun. next we eat dinner. another plate of mystery meat. then we start our night time spanish classes for another 3 hours. once again completly in spanish. and then we go home and all hang out in this dinky little house that we share with 20 guys. and i actually am enjoying myself here.... who would of known. i hope everyone is doing alright at home without me! know that i pray for each of you individually at least like 3 times a day. im so thankful for all of you. send me donuts if you can through the website that mom knows! and try not to forget about me. love you all so much.

elder larsen

First Letter in the Mission

so i sent all of you guys little letters! all of you are really huge inspirations to me! im so thankful for all of you. so anyways, the mtc is actually not to bad. the first couple of days will definetly go down as the worst in my life, but since then it has been great! my companions name is elder smart and he lives in salt lake. hes a cool kid. i have a really cool and nice district as well. they are all really intresting guys. so there is about 14 guys here that are all going to the same mission as me. it is ridculous. we really are and army of god. the food here isnt too bad but it definelty wouldnt fall under the good tasting category. the mtc here is surrounded by a huge barbwire fence. its like a little paradise compaared to all of mexico. all my teachers are really nice and spanish is coming along pretty well! i can understand it well its just hard to say stuff. ive already learned a ton about the gospel as well. this really is such a spiritual place. i hope that everyone is doing alright and getting along with out me constantly bugging you guys! hahaha. everyone make sure to write me! try not to foget like dad did! hahaha you guys are all in my thoughts and prayers. everyone be safe this week! i love you all so much!

elder larsen