The One Year Tradition

FIRE!!!!!!!!! BURNED A SHIRT!!!!!!! ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!
no pics of the remains, there was none :o
i took a video but it wouldn't send ;p









Two years its a suit.

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And Now He's Training

I remember getting this picture of Harry along with a letter introducing us to his first companion who would be training him for the next12 weeks:
16 May 2012
Dear Brother & Sister Larsen,
We are pleased to let you know that your son, Elder Harald Douglas Charles Larsen, has arrived in the England London Mission. He seems very happy to be here, and is anxious to get to work. We are excited to have him here and look forward to getting to know him better.
Soon after he arrived, we introduced him to his first companion, Elder Maryan Boysyuk. He is a wonderful young man and one of our very best missionaries. Elder Boysyuk will teach your son the joy of sharing the gospel. They have been assigned to work in the Romford area in the Romford zone. I have attached a picture of your son with myself, Sister Patch and Elder Boysyuk.


Harry LOVED Elder Boysyuk. He taught him so much. Harry was a little sad when Elder Boysyuk went off to be a zone leader. I think there's a special bond between a new missionary and their trainer.
It seems like such a short time ago that Harry was being trained. But now, parents in Utah have probably received a letter and picture introducing them to their son's first companion and trainer...and it just happens to be HARRY.

My companion is amazing, his name is Elder Allred and he's from St. George, UTAH!! xD Man, it's so fun being with this kid, he's like a spiritual firework, faith!
...he's a lacrosse player, apparently he's pretty good. He's 6' 3" so I feel pretty short... but that's ok! we go running in the mornings... ugh! xD but yeah, it's really fun to be training, it's also really neat to hear a missionary praise you so much, especially when you don't think you're too noteworthy of a guy :3
so this week has been awesome! I'm training a kid from Utah, it's rather exciting to expose him to the real world ;) I very much enjoy it!



And he's a blast, kid is a dork, kinda like the rest of my family ;) but yeah, we've been working hard this week, which is a good change for him!! I've put him to sleep in several odd situations cuz i've tired him out so much. Twice on the bus, twice on a recliner before we were about to teach a lesson with some members, and once on our floor :3 It's so much fun!!!

I hope, when his 12 weeks are up, Elder Allred holds Harry in as high regard as Harry did Elder Boysyuk.

ONE YEAR!

xD oh man, it's gone by so fast! :O like seriously, where'd all the time go??

o don't talk about going home yet! xD i'm still here ;3 i've got a whole 368 days left! then i'll be done, and then yeah i might be sad to leave :3 but hey mum!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

He calls me "mum" now.

Playing Piano, Funnies, and a Baptism

I tried and tried to tell Harry how important it was to learn piano. And he took lessons from some really good teachers. But he had his own ideas and guess who's wishing he'd stuck with it?
I'm also learning to play some things on the piano since my mission, and Elder Gonzalez is teaching me pretty things :3 and i can play a few hymns as well. Oh how i wish i would have listened to you about piano when i was younger!!! I'm sorry mom!!! But i guess i'm more sorry to myself xD I'm gonna FORCE my kids to play an instrument when they grow up ;D
Harry wanted to play drums...and guitar...


We are always asking for funny stories. Actually, any stories. This one is great and I am soooo glad Harry is feeling inspired.
As for the funny story, oh have i got a good one this week.... so we were knocking on some doors ten minutes before an appointment, and we did so for about eight minutes and we were about to walk down the street to the appointment, when the spirit whispers to me... "one more door." and i totally ignore it, saying oh man, i wanna sit down, but the prompting persisted so i turn around and walk back to the next door, and my companion spins around to follow me... we knock on the door.... and a dog starts barking. not usually a sign of an interested investigator, just from experience ;) but we wait for someone to answer, and a little girl comes to the door! then from between her legs emerges a huskie-german shepherd mix looking dog, and it RUNS up to us!!!!! THEN!!!!!! It commences to mark Elder Gonzalez as it's territory... he got peed on!!!! XDD Then it ran back inside having finished it's job! the little girl apologized and closed the door, I was in stitches!! And Elder Gonzalez' best suit was a bit wet... This is my testimony that God has a sense of humor!! ;)

In England (well, actually Europe) baptisms are hard to come by, so here's hoping this one happens.
Elder Gonzalez was contacting some potential investigators from several years ago who were never contacted and set up an appointment with Phillip, we didn't really know anything else about him at the time. So the time for the appointment comes and we walk to his house, his wife answers and ushers us in, how nice! Then we go into the living room and meet Phillip! He's from Ghana so he speaks Chwii (i think that's how you spell it? Probably not, but you say Etesay to say hello, which he thought was awesome that i could do that) and we had a nice little chit chat to begin. Turns out he met missionaries ages ago in London but then fell out of touch! We had an absolutely amazing first lesson with him and he fell in love with the Book Of Mormon, he understands the passages that he reads better than most members I know! During our second lesson we invited him to be baptized on April 27, and he said.... oh. well, what time? and inside we just jump up and down for joy!!! xD so with a tentative time of 4 o'clock on April 27, Phillip from Ghana will be baptized!

Perhaps he has difficult days, but he never mentions them to us. He continues to tell us what a wonderful time he's having. He's happy and feels blessed to be on a mission. I guess maybe its true that doing what The Lord wants us to do will make us happy.

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Big News!

BIG NEWS!!!!!!!!!! I CAN EMAIL FRIENDS NOW!!!!!!! WOOP WOOP! So Justin needs to give me his email, and Emma and company, and all those beautiful people, if you can get hold of em, tell em to email me!


so speaking of the fate of my mission!!! I'm leaving Bury!!!!!!! :OO so sad! I love these people so much! this ward is amazing, i feel like they're more than my ward family, just like they're family family, ya know? But it's always fun to be in a new place. I'm going to Kettering! No longer in a car area! Apparently it's walking and bus travel, no biggie. and my companion is Elder Gonzalez!!!!!!!!! He was in my district last transfer!! He's only been out for three transfers, so I'm senior companion again! We're gonna tear this place up! ;DD He's awesome, i already know. and before he left, we told each other that we'd serve together, turns out we were right!

Sorry, no pictures but here's a funny for St Patrick's Day:

Mustaches

If missionaries could have mustaches.




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He's Working

It's been a month since last I've posted on Harry's missionary adventures. Although he hasn't been taking any pictures, he's been working REALLY hard.



things are going well! we had zone conference, i got a flat tire.... visited a member that's been off the map for three years and bringing him to church sunday, brought one who'd been gone for a year and a half this sunday, all is well!
I learned how to play brightly beams our fathers mercy (hymn no 335) today while my companion was emailing.

Everything is going super good here! One of our investigators, Dan, he's seventeen almost eighteen, has a baptismal date!! yeah!!!! He's gonna be my replacement, he wants to serve a mission! Every missionary wants a replacement, and yeah! I'm super excited! :)

we just taught the sweetest couple!!! They have a ten month old little baby :3 hugest little ten month old ever! xD she's cute :3 and yeah, it was awesome! taught lesson 1 pretty well and very much in a normal conversational manner, which was fun! Elder Bensige complimented me for the way that i made it not awkward by "making the lesson part of the chit chat." so yeah! It was fun :£

You know, he took his fancy basketball shoes with him. And he's finally gotten to play.
Hey, i got to play basketball this week !! For the first time since i've been out! The elder's quorum had an activity where we got together for a pickup game. it was three on four, i was on the team with three. and man, did we school
the other guys xD it's funny to see english people play basketball, it's probably about as silly looking as when the average American plays football (soccer).

He writes the nicest things to his nieces and nephews. They miss him and they don't always understand what he's doing and why he's not home.
Thank you so much for the lovely email ;) and yes of course i'm still having a blast on my mission!!! It's amazing to serve the Lord :) It's so cool to see so many answers to prayers and to see the Lord's hand in his work. It's awesome!

He sends us scriptures to read (well, sometimes they are for the Sister Missionaries).
btw, if they ever have investigators that are concerned that the pre-earth life isn't talked about in scripture, tell em proverbs 8:22-31, it's wonderful. or john 17:5 is a good one as well. just thought i'd share, pmg (Preach My Gospel) doesn't give the most clear scriptures for that one.

He loves getting email, hearing who's going on missions (Ashley Bratton is the latest), who's getting married (Jacob Miles), what his high school friends are doing (Justin is playing Pooh in Gallo's production of The House at Pooh Corner.) So please email him harald.larsen@myldsmail.net and remember him in your prayers. 
and thank you so much for the prayers! I appreciate every single one ;) I love you all so much :D enjoy your week! :D