So we got to talk to Shawn on christmas. He sounded very good! He had a stuffy nose because he has a cold but other than that he sounded good. Matured too! but it was fun to hear from him. He doesn't know if he will be staying in Pachuca or if he will be leaving back to Tecamac or somewhere else. He is kind of lost right now. We will find out on Monday because he should know by then where he will be going.
Well, just to give you the jist of it all, we called a member's house to get a hold of him. We talked for about an hour or until we thought our phone card had finished all of its minutes. Like all the other calls, my mom asked a lot of questions and we got to say somethings but for the most part we listened until the very end. Um.. not all sure what to say because it was a very random conversation between if he has gained weight to how his socks are holding up to how he only missed kyle and nobody else. NOT EVEN ANNI! or ME for that matter! why am I typing this up for him then?!! oh well, so yeah he is doing great! oh anni joined us for his conversation. It was fun! So anyways he says all is well and that he is working hard. He couldn't remember that it was Thursday so that's a good thing. OH he had a baptism that day! The elders in the area had been trying to find a day that would work to get this guy baptized but with work and everything they just couldn't get in the time to baptize him. So on Christmas he was not working and they decided to baptize him. So they had that later on in the day. Also Shawn told us that between all the Mexico City mission, his has the most number wise with baptism and everything. Most successful! that is what i am going for! So yeah good job missionaries!
So yeah, the phone call was great! just thought i would share a little bit about it. We will hear from him again on monday and talk to him on mothers day! :) anyways this is shay signing off!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
December 24, 2008
Okay so today is p day, and tomorrow is Christmas. (K, so from what shawn said is that they celebrate more of Christmas eve then actual Christmas. That is why he had his p-day on Christmas eve then that Monday or even Christmas day. Just to clear that up with everyone.) The calling will work as followed, (yay!!! we get to talk to him!! YAY!! about time he told us what was going on!) I will give the number to call, then you will call me at about 9:30 your time in which it will be 10:30 here so yeah. Sounds like every one is have fun. Happy Birthday Tyler! Oh i forgot, so on friday night we get a phone call from the district leader who says that i need to pack all of my stuff, because I am going to Pachuca, which is like an hour from where I was in Tecamac, and I will also hlep being a zone leader but only for one week just until the changes so we will see what will happen. Transfers are on the 30th so yeah. So I am in Pachuca, with Elder King from New Mexico. He is pretty cool. Lets see here oh on Saturday we had a little thing called "Centro paralas visitantes" basically it is just like the visiter center in the States. That was fun because for like 4 hours all of the missionaries in the zone got paired up with a young man and went out to contact people and try to bring them in to the program that we had for them, So it was cool. Also on friday night there was the ward christmas party, also played some football americano, (or in our world, football) it was fun. Along with that we got our packages today, so I got the blanket and the other package with more gifts inside, so yeah thanks!! So yeah don't really have anything else to say, but that you are calling me tomorrow at this number: 123456789012 (sorry folks, don't want some fans of shawn the judd crash larsen trying to call him while he is in mexico right now.) So yeah if the time doesn't work with you then oh well, but it should. Well I guess I will tell a little bit about Pachuca. It is a bit colder then Tecamac but not by much, and here, there are a lot of hills, because we basically live on mountain side. So we have to walk downhill and uphill to get to places. Although it is cleaner here then Tecamac like in the streets and stuff. Here is also more of a modern area, well more then Tecamac. Like in Tecamac they have a lot of crappy (exuse his language there) old cars, here are more newer and nicer ones, so I am sure I will see more differences in other areas. So yeah here, Chrismas is not celebrated that much, but the 6th of January is. It is called Kings Day, so yeah that is more like their Christmas. So it doesn't fell like Christmas because of that, also people are still working today and maybe tomorrow also. Although a lot of people if not all have a Christmas tree, so yeah. Okay now I really don't have anything more besides now I am going Christmas Caroling with some people in the zone. So yeah the number is 123456789012, about 9:30 your time. Okay love ya!
Elder Larsen
Elder Larsen
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
December 15, 2008
So you saw me in the Church News huh? It must have been when we were helping the temple open house or something like that, because I don't remember any picture that was taken so yeah that's cool.
Why did you kill Elmo?!!!? (kyle and Shay killed elmo at a comedy club. Just to clarify that.) He is my friend, mi mejor amigo! Oh well. Oh yeah I was wondering about the snow and stuff because here is just hot, and no snow. (rambles for a minute) This past week has been good, we had a baptism yesterday which went well. She had a lot of sins so I had to baptize her like 3 times. I don't know why it didn't work the first two times. So yeah It went well.
Lets see here, my comp is going home next week on tuesday. Oh we made the turkey dinner that you sent me, and it turned out pretty good, but it wasn't enough for 4 missionaires. (no because we sent enough for two... hmmm...) With the apple pie filling we put it on top of the corn bread and it was really good. So thanks for ssending it to me!!
Oh yeah so one of our investigators told us one that he has seen aliens and people floating. It was weird. I don't quite remember how we got on that subject or how his story relates to the Gospel so yeah, I think we were talking about baptism and stuff and how you don't need to know everything before baptism, but just need to have fatih. OH YEAH that was it then he went on how with more knowledge you are able to float and things like that so it was weird. Well that is about it actually so not to much, because it is Christmas here to and people have a lot of work and everyone here works for themselves whether it be clothes, tacos, music, or whatever it may be. Everyone is selfemployed.
So before we made the corn bread, we were wondering how we were going to make it because another strange cultural thing is that the oven is just a place with space to put stuff like cooking stuff, so it was chuck full with pots and things so what we decided to do was to make it in a pot, make sure the flames were low, and put a lid on top and it turned out pretty good. It cooked all the way through. Well yeah that is it for me. Love ya!!!
Elder Larsen who is now famous
ps. I MISS YOU MOMMY!!!
(k to explain that is that last week, shawn told he missed everyone (even the pets) except for mom, he didn't list her. So she went on a strike this past week and didn't write shawn until he told her that he missed her too. So there you have it and we will try and keep things updated better! :) )
Why did you kill Elmo?!!!? (kyle and Shay killed elmo at a comedy club. Just to clarify that.) He is my friend, mi mejor amigo! Oh well. Oh yeah I was wondering about the snow and stuff because here is just hot, and no snow. (rambles for a minute) This past week has been good, we had a baptism yesterday which went well. She had a lot of sins so I had to baptize her like 3 times. I don't know why it didn't work the first two times. So yeah It went well.
Lets see here, my comp is going home next week on tuesday. Oh we made the turkey dinner that you sent me, and it turned out pretty good, but it wasn't enough for 4 missionaires. (no because we sent enough for two... hmmm...) With the apple pie filling we put it on top of the corn bread and it was really good. So thanks for ssending it to me!!
Oh yeah so one of our investigators told us one that he has seen aliens and people floating. It was weird. I don't quite remember how we got on that subject or how his story relates to the Gospel so yeah, I think we were talking about baptism and stuff and how you don't need to know everything before baptism, but just need to have fatih. OH YEAH that was it then he went on how with more knowledge you are able to float and things like that so it was weird. Well that is about it actually so not to much, because it is Christmas here to and people have a lot of work and everyone here works for themselves whether it be clothes, tacos, music, or whatever it may be. Everyone is selfemployed.
So before we made the corn bread, we were wondering how we were going to make it because another strange cultural thing is that the oven is just a place with space to put stuff like cooking stuff, so it was chuck full with pots and things so what we decided to do was to make it in a pot, make sure the flames were low, and put a lid on top and it turned out pretty good. It cooked all the way through. Well yeah that is it for me. Love ya!!!
Elder Larsen who is now famous
ps. I MISS YOU MOMMY!!!
(k to explain that is that last week, shawn told he missed everyone (even the pets) except for mom, he didn't list her. So she went on a strike this past week and didn't write shawn until he told her that he missed her too. So there you have it and we will try and keep things updated better! :) )
Getting no where......
k, so I've decided that (that is Shay that is saying this) I am going to start with Shawn's most recent emails because i will never catch up and so if you want to hear how he has been in the whole that there will be talk to me, Anni or anybody that is in the Larsen family. Then you can know what is going on. So yeah it wasn't going anywhere so we will try it this way to stay up to date! (ha ha keep trying right?)
Sunday, November 30, 2008
September 30, 2008
This week has been pretty good for me except for a couple of things that are a real downer. Anyways first the questions then i will fell you in on the rest of my week. First I have not gotten any mail since the last package at the zone conference. I think that is the only time I will get mail are at zone conferences, and they are every 6 weeks. I believe that it takes a couple of weeks or maybe not even that long to get to the church office buildings. (aka mission office. Just in case anyone was confused when they read this like I was confused.) Either this Saturday or next I will know if I am going to be transferred or not. I am not sure when the next zone conference will be either. Also I don't think I have any stamps right now,so I can't send letters, because I believe that I sent those home because i thought I would be using international stamps but oh well.
My zone is called Tecamac, and we are outside of the city of mexico, the name of the city I am in is ecatepec in jardins de morelos. So look for those two names. I am not sure which you find. We mostly travel on foot and once in a while we will take a taxi or a combi, a combi is like a well the buses atome but smaller. In which the combi is pretty cheap. My comp has 1 sister who is 14 years old and two older brothers like one is 24 and I am not sure how old the other one is. I think both of his brothers served missions in mexico (he thinks...) My companion loves music, absolutly loves it. He can play the guitar like non other and can play piano also.
I am doing better. I guess it was only two day thing, but I am doing good. It is very cold i the mornings then hot in the afternoons. Also it rains a couple of times during the week and it doesn't rain lightly. The people are nice, they love feeding us too. (at least we know that he isn't starving right?) I am picking up more spanish each day. I asked one Elder yesterday how long it took him until he got the language and he said "that you learn something new each day and it shouldn't end. The secret to learning the language is to teach and work hard everyday." I like what he said that we are to work and learn more each day because it shouldn't end. So yeah a typical day is like this, we get up at 6:30 to exercise and shower and play guitar. Then at 8 to 11 it is study time. To study the language and scriptures and stuff. After that we head out to visit some people if they are home, but most times they are not so mostly we just we just walk around. At 2 is lunch usually with a sister in the ward, and most of the time the food is good but there are things that didn't taste like it should or that I am not us to their culture or something, because they put salsa and other hot stuff. The best is their qusidillas which are just amazing. Also tacos and gringas and trotas are pretty good to. Which most of that stuff is from street vendors. Anyways we get done with lunch at about 3:30ish give of take a half an hour. After that we do some more searching for the less active members till like 6 when we usually have appointments till about 9 to 9:30. Then we go to the house and I write in my journal and Elder Armenta plays the guitar some more so yeah that is a typical day so far. (Wow, that sounds like fun. Keeping busy i see!)
(k so he just rambles about us talking about stuff like his monkey.)
So the reason I did not type yesterday was because we had a zone activity. we went bowling, an ate a lot of tacos at a members house. the bowing was fun, the mexican people are funny when they bowl because some of them don't know how to bowl, like literally don't know how. (and he believes he knows how to bowl? just kidding, he knows how to spin so I guess he does know how to bowl.) It was fun. I also took some pictures of it. It was an awesome group of missionaries. the zone leaders are Elder Adams and Puga, Elder Adam's is from Ogden too, he went to Ben Lomond High I think. So that was fun. And it was packed, like we were sitting on top of each other. It wasn't comfortable. Oh but the food was so good! I had like 15 tacos, okay not really. I don't know how many I had but they were good. We didn't get back to the house till like 8:45 ish. So yeah it was kind of a long but fun. Oh also we were going to have a baptism on Sunday, but the family backed out of it. We were going to baptize the mom and daughter but the dad didn't want them to get baptized and also the mom and dad were not married but they were living together so yeah there were problems and they didn't get baptized. but we do have one on the way. So yeah i think that is it for this week. Love ya!
Shawn
My zone is called Tecamac, and we are outside of the city of mexico, the name of the city I am in is ecatepec in jardins de morelos. So look for those two names. I am not sure which you find. We mostly travel on foot and once in a while we will take a taxi or a combi, a combi is like a well the buses atome but smaller. In which the combi is pretty cheap. My comp has 1 sister who is 14 years old and two older brothers like one is 24 and I am not sure how old the other one is. I think both of his brothers served missions in mexico (he thinks...) My companion loves music, absolutly loves it. He can play the guitar like non other and can play piano also.
I am doing better. I guess it was only two day thing, but I am doing good. It is very cold i the mornings then hot in the afternoons. Also it rains a couple of times during the week and it doesn't rain lightly. The people are nice, they love feeding us too. (at least we know that he isn't starving right?) I am picking up more spanish each day. I asked one Elder yesterday how long it took him until he got the language and he said "that you learn something new each day and it shouldn't end. The secret to learning the language is to teach and work hard everyday." I like what he said that we are to work and learn more each day because it shouldn't end. So yeah a typical day is like this, we get up at 6:30 to exercise and shower and play guitar. Then at 8 to 11 it is study time. To study the language and scriptures and stuff. After that we head out to visit some people if they are home, but most times they are not so mostly we just we just walk around. At 2 is lunch usually with a sister in the ward, and most of the time the food is good but there are things that didn't taste like it should or that I am not us to their culture or something, because they put salsa and other hot stuff. The best is their qusidillas which are just amazing. Also tacos and gringas and trotas are pretty good to. Which most of that stuff is from street vendors. Anyways we get done with lunch at about 3:30ish give of take a half an hour. After that we do some more searching for the less active members till like 6 when we usually have appointments till about 9 to 9:30. Then we go to the house and I write in my journal and Elder Armenta plays the guitar some more so yeah that is a typical day so far. (Wow, that sounds like fun. Keeping busy i see!)
(k so he just rambles about us talking about stuff like his monkey.)
So the reason I did not type yesterday was because we had a zone activity. we went bowling, an ate a lot of tacos at a members house. the bowing was fun, the mexican people are funny when they bowl because some of them don't know how to bowl, like literally don't know how. (and he believes he knows how to bowl? just kidding, he knows how to spin so I guess he does know how to bowl.) It was fun. I also took some pictures of it. It was an awesome group of missionaries. the zone leaders are Elder Adams and Puga, Elder Adam's is from Ogden too, he went to Ben Lomond High I think. So that was fun. And it was packed, like we were sitting on top of each other. It wasn't comfortable. Oh but the food was so good! I had like 15 tacos, okay not really. I don't know how many I had but they were good. We didn't get back to the house till like 8:45 ish. So yeah it was kind of a long but fun. Oh also we were going to have a baptism on Sunday, but the family backed out of it. We were going to baptize the mom and daughter but the dad didn't want them to get baptized and also the mom and dad were not married but they were living together so yeah there were problems and they didn't get baptized. but we do have one on the way. So yeah i think that is it for this week. Love ya!
Shawn
September 22, 2008
Hi! Okay, first to answer the questions. Yes my companion is a native, and yes he does know English, quite a bit of English. He is from Reynosa Mexico, which is like about 20 monutes from the border yb texas. Which he has been to Mcallen texas once, so yeah he know how to play the guitar really well, which he is teaching me how to play it. So when i come back I will be a pro just like him. (yeah sure. like he has to time to practice. psshhh.) Oh also my companion does not look like a mexican, because he is white, he looks more american really.
Okay so this past week has been interesting because on Saturday we had a baptism, which I baptized (wow, he has been able to do the baptism a lot lately.) and we might have another baptism next week too. the baptism went well, her name is Adriana. She was nervous to get baptized but we did it, and she did just fine. I am sure that she will do just fine in the church. The night of the baptism I didn't feel too well so iwent to bed at like 10ish, and the next morning I still wasn't feeling the best so I checked the temperature, and I was at 99.5 (not bad shawn. A little high....) yeah but I still went to church because we had to get investigators to the chapel for church. (yay! way to go! still went to church even when he wasn't feeling well! such a good child! :) ) It got worse during church, so after church I checked again. My temperature and it was 100.5. yeah i went to bed and drank lots of water, I feel a little better today but we will see. Well that is basically it. Lets see here well unless I think of something else then I will type some more but I don't have anything right now so love ya! (wow, i wrote in the rambling, see folks, shawn just rambles about stuff. oh well, you get it all today!)
Shawn
Okay so this past week has been interesting because on Saturday we had a baptism, which I baptized (wow, he has been able to do the baptism a lot lately.) and we might have another baptism next week too. the baptism went well, her name is Adriana. She was nervous to get baptized but we did it, and she did just fine. I am sure that she will do just fine in the church. The night of the baptism I didn't feel too well so iwent to bed at like 10ish, and the next morning I still wasn't feeling the best so I checked the temperature, and I was at 99.5 (not bad shawn. A little high....) yeah but I still went to church because we had to get investigators to the chapel for church. (yay! way to go! still went to church even when he wasn't feeling well! such a good child! :) ) It got worse during church, so after church I checked again. My temperature and it was 100.5. yeah i went to bed and drank lots of water, I feel a little better today but we will see. Well that is basically it. Lets see here well unless I think of something else then I will type some more but I don't have anything right now so love ya! (wow, i wrote in the rambling, see folks, shawn just rambles about stuff. oh well, you get it all today!)
Shawn
Friday, November 14, 2008
September 15, 2008
(hey looky, shay is actually trying to blog again!! ha ha! we will be better bloggers (okay shay is just a slacker!))
email # who knows anymore.... he just emails us now....
On Wednesday we had a zone conference which was really good. However most of it was in spanish, so I was able to pick out a few words but not all of it. Although there was a speakcer who did his talk in english, so i gt that which was nice because it was a pretty good talk. Also at the zone conference I got your greeny package, (yay! he got the greenie package! for those of you who don't know my mom sends greeny packages for when they first arrive in the area. Well, since he couldn't get packages till conferences he finally got it! Whoo hoo!) but nothing else, (oh sad, nothing else :(...) no letters. That made me sad. I was looking forward to reading a letter. Oh well, thanks for the package. I have not written any letters this past week because we have had some crazy nights like staying at investiagtors house for like a couple of hours when we have other appointments to keep. But today I should be able to write some letters. I am still not sure what the address is or if it is a good idea to send letters there, because my companion doesn't get any mail in so I forget. (yeah right, secretly he just doesn't want any letters. He just doesn't know that we know that!!)
Things here are good. The people here talk really fast, and I say that I don't understand, someimes they would go slower but most of the time be like oh okay and talk to my companion the rest of the time because I don't understand. But I think they can understand me and yes I am improving a slight bit.
Well this saturday we have a baptism which he is ready for it and know that it is right. The rest of his family are members, so that has helped and we will have more baptisms next week I think. I am not totally positive though. (hmmm... not sure eh?!)
So today is Mexico's Indenpendence day, in which I didn't think that I would be able to email today but they are open so why not?! I am not sure what exactly what they do for their independence day, except for that they have fireworks. Also I think it gets crazy on the streets or something because President Bulloch said that we need to be in our house at 6. And it is right now 4:45. Oh also as part of the mexican culture is that they don't really have a storage place for food. They just but what they need for that day for that meal that they are having. Also everything here is spicy and hot! EVERYTHING!! Event he Doritos, just the chees one even! Oh I haven't had a lot of rice and beans, I have had chicken, soup, and some other things. Oh as well in Mexico for the college and stuff, is well there are some universities that are free to attend and go to school. Also here their are quite a bit of rich, or middle people. It may not look like it on the outside but it shows on the inside. (K, he just asks the fam questions like when is so and so leaving? how is so and so doing on their mission. yada yada yada...)(says something like they are in the ghetto so they are not sure about mail.... yeah basically it!)
so it might take some time to send a letter yeah but I will let you know next week. Well love ya!!
Missionary boy
Shawn
email # who knows anymore.... he just emails us now....
On Wednesday we had a zone conference which was really good. However most of it was in spanish, so I was able to pick out a few words but not all of it. Although there was a speakcer who did his talk in english, so i gt that which was nice because it was a pretty good talk. Also at the zone conference I got your greeny package, (yay! he got the greenie package! for those of you who don't know my mom sends greeny packages for when they first arrive in the area. Well, since he couldn't get packages till conferences he finally got it! Whoo hoo!) but nothing else, (oh sad, nothing else :(...) no letters. That made me sad. I was looking forward to reading a letter. Oh well, thanks for the package. I have not written any letters this past week because we have had some crazy nights like staying at investiagtors house for like a couple of hours when we have other appointments to keep. But today I should be able to write some letters. I am still not sure what the address is or if it is a good idea to send letters there, because my companion doesn't get any mail in so I forget. (yeah right, secretly he just doesn't want any letters. He just doesn't know that we know that!!)
Things here are good. The people here talk really fast, and I say that I don't understand, someimes they would go slower but most of the time be like oh okay and talk to my companion the rest of the time because I don't understand. But I think they can understand me and yes I am improving a slight bit.
Well this saturday we have a baptism which he is ready for it and know that it is right. The rest of his family are members, so that has helped and we will have more baptisms next week I think. I am not totally positive though. (hmmm... not sure eh?!)
So today is Mexico's Indenpendence day, in which I didn't think that I would be able to email today but they are open so why not?! I am not sure what exactly what they do for their independence day, except for that they have fireworks. Also I think it gets crazy on the streets or something because President Bulloch said that we need to be in our house at 6. And it is right now 4:45. Oh also as part of the mexican culture is that they don't really have a storage place for food. They just but what they need for that day for that meal that they are having. Also everything here is spicy and hot! EVERYTHING!! Event he Doritos, just the chees one even! Oh I haven't had a lot of rice and beans, I have had chicken, soup, and some other things. Oh as well in Mexico for the college and stuff, is well there are some universities that are free to attend and go to school. Also here their are quite a bit of rich, or middle people. It may not look like it on the outside but it shows on the inside. (K, he just asks the fam questions like when is so and so leaving? how is so and so doing on their mission. yada yada yada...)(says something like they are in the ghetto so they are not sure about mail.... yeah basically it!)
so it might take some time to send a letter yeah but I will let you know next week. Well love ya!!
Missionary boy
Shawn
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