Saturday, August 29, 2015

8/28/15 - MALO LO'U 'AIGA!!!!!

MALO LO'U 'AIGA!!!!!

I'm so glad you found DearElder it's so nice to hear from you during the week!! 

Dad, thanks so much for the travel tips, it's gonna be a little sketch but we're all going down as a bunch of elders so it's gonna be way fun!! Hopefully be able to teach a lesson on the plane or in the airport!! 

Mom, thanks so much for unconditionally loving Audrey, you don't know how much she appreciates all the things you've been doing for her and so do I!! Thanks so much for sending those, it's totally fine that they get sent Monday, just hopefully they get here before I leave! 

So, this week has been literally crazier than the Wild Mike off of Barnyard on caffienated soda!!! Elder Bickmore and I are just praying we're covering everything we need to finish as Zone Leaders it's nuts! We have to plan for 4 priesthood meetings every Sunday, companionships to teach the lessons, differetn companionships to teach the ordiance, getting interviews with all the District Leaders done before we have meetings on meetings on meetings each Sunday.....wooh sorry just needed to get that all out. I know the Lord will bless us though when we do all this with a happy heart so we're trying our best! I'm sorry I haven't been able to write in my journal almost at all this week cause we've been setting up for the new Tongan districts that just came in, cause the last Tongan district just left Monday and the new districts came Wednesday, so there's that and our other ZL stuff, so I apologize if there's not a lot this week! But, Elder Bickmore and I taught another TRC over skype this week with a brother in Samoa!!!!! We couldn't hear him very well and our screen was black cause he didn't have a camera at all so he could see us, we couldn't see him and barely hear him, but we gave the entire lesson on Revelation through Prayer and it was way sweet even though we couldn't hear him, I believe he felt the spirit!!! We shared the First Vision with him, Moroni 10:4-5, and attempted a personal experience but our Samoan isn't quite there yet so we had to bail on that for this week, but it was way sweet!!! AND HOLY COW!!!! GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!? Our travel plans came in yesterday and we're actually leaving Sept 5th now at 1 PM!!!!! It's gonna be a hectic week but thankfully we have all of friday, which is Pday to prep for it! Everyone is way excited and we've been meeting some more Samoan elders here and they speak to us, but it's way fast and my prayers are only going to increase in faith and number to My Heavenly Father, cause there is no way any 18 19 year old kids could learn a completely new language without the Lord's help!! And honestly more important than the gift of tongues, if the gift to bring the Spirit into each and every lesson! Even if You have the language, if the Spirit is not present, You can't teach. It's as simple as that. Pray continually for the Spirit to be with You in lessons, plan accordingly and fervently cause some of the best lessons Elder Bickmore and I have taught have been we planned to teach our investigator one thing, and the Spirit prompted us as well as the investigator to talk about a completely different topic! It's been such a blessing and way cool to see the Lord's hand in it all!!! I LOVE SERVING MY SAVIOR, IESU KERISO, MA LO'U TAMA FA'ALELAGI!!!!!!! 

Kyle, keep puttin in work homes!! Read Alma 26:12 before you hit the field!!

Cade, my man, I hear the football is getting a little crazy and the homework is starting to pile up?  Continue with faith uso and the Lord will help you!! 

Keato!!! How's school been dudey!?!? Let me know how you've all beeen doing with some DearElder's cause I've only got a week more of those!! 

Thanks for sending all your prayers and love, I can most definitely feel it all!!! 

And for all the stuffs I need before I leave, I'm actually set, I don't think I'll even wear contacts once I get down there cause lot's of elder's get eye infections from them, so I'll either stick with glasses or go without so I may be blind when I get home but that's fine haha! 

Haha Audrey told me the whole story of her surgery, Colbz Bear, and how Dr Lowder was the one who did the operation and how he delivered Cade and Keaton! Small world! (Please don't sing the song, I can hear it if you do even though I'm in Provo) I'm not sure if she'll be able to send a pic, she sent them via email but I can't print them out and I really want one so and I asked her but I don't know if she'll be able to but I wouldn't mind 2 sets!! Oh and can you send recent pics of you all, either football, just around the house, doing crazy stuff, I don't know just some recent one's to keep you close!! 

I love ya all and hope everything is going well!!!!!!!! Even though I'm the one out on a mission, we can all be missionaries with your wonderful example's of following the Savior!!! 

Le ALOFA LAVA, 
Elder Larson

Elder Hosea (serving in Tonga) and Colby

LAVA LAVA LAVA LAVA
Elder Shwenke's mother sent all missionaries in their district lava lavas.

Elder Dallin Chuggs (from Colby's soccer team when he was 13-14 years old)
with his companion going to Fiji. They are in Colby's same zone, the
Pacific Island Zone. Colby and Elder Bickmore are also in the picture.

Friday, August 21, 2015

8/21/15 - ALOFA ATU FAM!!!


Holy cow thank You ALL so much for the packages and everything I LOVE THEM ALL!!!!!! 

So this week is one for the record books of most spiritual weeks of my life!!! This will blow your mind!!! The Lord is a miracle worker!!!! So, Elder Bickmore and i gave our first TRC today, which I'm not sure what is stands for but it's when you and your soa give a 20 minute lesson to a member of the church that speaks Samoan or whatever language you're speaking, and they're all volunteers!!! AND GUESS WHO ELDER BICKMORE AND I TAUGHT FIRST!!?!?!?! Dallin Tusieseina!!!!!! The brother we met an hr before entering the MTC at In and Out and he served in Samoa 9 months ago!!!!!!!!!!!! We taught him about faith in Jesus Christ and how the strength of his faith will bless him in his life!!! The Lord knows how hard we work, and when we work until we can't work anymore, He'll cover the rest!! As with Christ and the Atonement, we repent fully and live and obey his commandments to the BEST of our ability, and then He, through his grace and mercy, fills up the rest so we can make it back to our Father in Heaven!! And oh my goodness, when you think you've got everything on your plate and you've finally been able to get everything balanced and into a rhythm with your reading, teaching, and studying and responsiblities, the Lord says, "Elder Larson, I know you can work even harder!" So me and my soa have now been called as the new Zone Leaders of Branch 52!! We've got possibly the biggest branch, as it covers basically the entire Pacific Island missions, so we've got about 70 total missionaries we're over and it's lots o responsiblity but we can do it!!!! Serving the Lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength!!! 1 NEPHI 3:7!!!!!!!!!! Haha this week has been nuts, but it'll all be worth it, the trick is looking at the eternal picture!!!! It's WONDERFUL!!!!!!!

Holy smokes, boys you guys da men!!!!! Congrats on all the sports awards and posititions!!! The Lord will bless You with Your hard work and obedience to the gospel!!!! 

Thank You all for everything!!!!!! Oh and holy cow, the Nashville Tribute Band came and did our Sunday devo and it was off the hizzang!!!!!!! Could You please send me a bunch of CD's with whatever music you can find from them!!! some that were awesome were
"He Walked a Mile in My Shoes"
"The Rising"
"American Dreams"
"Stronger"
"Buried in the Water" I think....
But they were so legit and could you send a walkman or something to play CD's too with a speaker!?! I can't have headphones because it says so in the white handbook that we can't and we need speakers for our music! So if you could send something to play the CD's on that would rock cuase I've got Samuel's CD's too that I haven't been able to listen to! Thank You guys!! LOVE YA!!

Oh and MOM!! I forgot to tell you about DearElder last week!! Just look up DearElder.com and You can send me letters during the week that they print out once you write them and i get them same day!!!! So you can keep me up to date during the week with those!!!! Ask Audge if You have any questions cause she just found out about it!! 

Oh my and one more thing!!!! I was praying for you guys this week and my question during personal study for yeaterday, and my question was to please help me find some comfort words to send home(: So I flipped to Ether 12 and I read until I hit verses 26-28!!!!!! I won't tell you what they're on because I want you to read them yourselves, but its awesome!!! oh and go to the footnote for 27d!!!

I love you fam and I hope all is well even though it's a little smokey, make the most of it!!!!! Ou te alofa ia i oulua!!!

Elder Larson
New hair-doos!


With Dallin Tusieseina (met at In-and-Out Burger right before entering the MTC)
New Zone Leaders

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

8/14/15 - TALOFA AIGA!!!!



TALOFA AIGA!!!!

So, beleive it or not, I've had an even better week than last week!!!! Sunday was just as great as the last! we heard from the director of the MTC, President Heaton!! He spoke on the importance of the sacrament and keeping the Sabbath day holy!! But first, we all sang If You could Hie to Kolob, and it was so spiritually uplifting it was phenomenal!! when we sing powerful songs like this it's absolutely reedonkulous!!! Totally spelled that wrong on purpose .....anyways, Elder Bickmore and I taught our first lesson without notes in Samoan and wow, the spirit was WAAAAAAAAY STRONG!!!!! We taught the first lesson of the Restoration all the way to the Great apostasy and holy smokes it was phenomenal!! We testified of Joseph Smith and Thomas S Monson because he's having trouble with undertanding modern day prophets because his parents are against modern day prophets and says their liars...BUT, we testified that his Heavenly Father loves him and families are forever!!! It was amazing!!! AND THEN, the next day during my personal prayers I prayed super hard to my Heavenly Father for the interpetation of tongues, because if we can't undrstand our investigator, we can't help him answer his questions!!! And our lesson that day with our 2nd investigator, we TOTALLY understood him and we've been here 2 weeks!!! Haha the only backfire after is, the other investigator is the other Samoan teacher, and during the lesson I was trying to say, Christ was crucified and His apostles were later killed, but I accidently said that Christ killed His apostles so the gift of tongues is still a work in progress but that's what the MTC is for!!! Haha our teacher could not stop laughing so we're still a work in progress!! Oh and this is for anyone who would like to try it!!! During my personal study this week, I have begun in my prayer by asking Heavenly Father a question whether it be, "How can I become a better missionary?" or "how can I better help become a better soa?? (companion)......and then I flip to a page from 1 Nephi 1:1 to the end of P of Great Price, and then read the entire of the both pages, and I asked that first question in my first personal study time this week and I flipped to Helaman 5:12!!!! It talks about setting your foundation in Jesus Christ so as to keep away from Satan and his whirlwinds of hail storms and when our foundation is set in our Savior Jesus Christ, "we cannot fall"!!!! MANAIA!!!!!!!!! I got sick yesterday with some wierd headache thing and my balance was off all morning and I tried to tough it out cause I didn't want Elder Bickmore to miss any class, but I couldn't do it so we went back to residency and he studied while I took a power nap and I felt better afterwards so the rest of the day was good!! I'm going to bear my testimony in Samoan now just to get some more practice and so you guys can kind of see what two weeks in the MTC does to you...

Ou te molimau atu o Iosepha Samita o se perofeta. E moni le Tusi a Mamona. E mafai ona tatou toe ola Ia, ma tatou filifili mea tonu taimi 'uma!! E alofa a'u le Talalelei ma e fa'amanuia le Talalelei aiga!!! I le suafa o Iesu Keriso, Amene.


Kyle, Cade, and Keato....keep killing it on the field!!!! You guys eat right, be obedient, and you'll be blessed on and off the field!!! Kyle, keep kicking trash, keep me updated on the madison game too!!! I met an Elder that played for madison last year and he said that you'll kill em cause they're cockier than Kobe Bryant! And an Elder I met that's going to Kiribati said that there's this protein that a guy in his ward made called Man Feed that you can order online, and it's basically calories and protein and he said if you drink it with bananas and strawberries it's phenomenal, (and mom it's all all natural no worries;)!! It'll defnitley help during the season too!! And congrats with the fire hydrants, trust me you'll thank mom and dad for pushing you to finish cause being an Eagle Scout goes a long ways with colleges!!


Cade I remember my first practice and trust me, I felt the same way, but keep it up and you''ll be the next Peyton manning in no time! And trust me, Mr. yee was not that great of a coach so be thankful he's not your coach. I know your're putting in work my man!! Have fun at Junior high but be smart cause you're going to get hit with a lot of wordly things, but pick a primary song or a hymn or a scripture to keep your mind off it, and the Lord will bless you for your obedience!!!! Read D&C 121 45-46, it's my favorite scripture and I know it will bless You!!!!


 And Keato!!! Dude, keep up the good work in the sports your playing!! I'm glad you've been having fun with Jacko and trust me, school is a blessing and if you go in with a happy attitude, you'll do well and you'll LOVE IT!! Trust me, looking forward to sports after school is a definite plus too!! If you want a scripture on enduring to the end, D&C 14:7!!!


And all of you guys read 3 Nephi 5:13 again!!!!!!!!! We've all been called to serve and trust me get ready now and You'll be blessed and WAAAAAYYY ahead once you hit the MTC!!! Love ya usos!!!!(bros)


Mom, thank you for the packages they are AWESOME!!!! AND your rice krispies were a hit in our room back at residency!!!!! I appreciate it all!!! I'm glad You liked the letter, I knew Papa was with me and so were my kids it was such a cool and overwhelming spirtual experience!!!!!! LOVE YA SO MUCH!!!! Oh and can you send me everyone's address so I can send them their thank you cards?? I don't know where to send them all!


Dad, ya the food, it does things too ya, I've gained 5 pounds of partial muscle partial fat, but I'm puttin in push ups on push ups with crunches on crunches!!!! Trust me, I won't be fat when I get home!!!! I'll look like a pretty solidly, toned Palagi Samoan. (White Samoan!!) 


I love you all and so sorry I can't reply to everyone, we've only got an hr!!!


I love you all and thankyou all for everything!!!!


Alofa,

Elder Larson

Flexing

Flipping Out

Muamua Le Atua means God First

Samoan District

First pic with brothers--Cade and Keaton

Friday, August 7, 2015

8/7/15 - HELLO FAM!!!

HELLO FAM!!!!

Let everyone know I don't have enough time to reply cause I feel bad, they only give us an hr at the mtc, but it's 2 out in the field. Which reminds me!! I'll have a lot more email than expected in the field!!!! 

Haha you could say that the MTC is flying by, the first couple days felt like forever but everyone just said, make it to Sunday, make it to Sunday!!! Haah we did and honestly all the days are sticking together now!! Being out here is such a blessing for all of us!! I'm on such Spiritual HIGH its AMAZING!!!!!! 

Holy cow so this week has been crazy AWESOME!!! IT WAS AMAZING AND TEARS OF JOY IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!!!!!! So on Sunday, we listend to Sheri Dew for the devotional and Elder Bednar for the movie, called Character of Christ! If you can find it, WATCH it cause it's amazing!!! Sister Dew talked about how "Jesus has rules", best said by a 4 yr old who showed Christlike attributes in his preschool towards his classmates! She invited us to spiritually wrestle with God to come to know....
Jesus is the Christ
The Holy Ghost is real
Angels really do minister
and finally, The Togiola (Atonement)
Ask the Lord for masoli (strength) and help for angels to walk for angels to walk and help minister to tagata sailiili (investigators)!!! And then Elder Bednar talked about how when listening to a speaker, make Your own small plates, not your own large plates (a history of the people), but a recording of a revelation and inspiration!! Turn outward, away from yourself not inward and putteth off the natural man in love, service, and compassion!! THAT IS THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST!!!! Convert to the Lord!! it starts with YOU!!!! Are you deepening your testimony to become converted unto the Lord?? Alma 23:5-6!!! Phenomenal!!! Conversion is being consistently true to what we know!! ONLY SOURCE TO EVERLASTING JOY!!! All this possible thru the Atonement of Jesus Christ!!! Just amazing.

So we have to teach this one investigator named Silau and the entire lesson has to be in Samoan so it's super crazy scary, but so cool to watch the Spirit work, especially when Elder Bickmore and I can barely speak a lick of Samoan!! It's humbling to say the least but we're working hard and putting in work!! We've got to teach Priesthood this week and I'm getting piled with DL stuff, but it'll all be worth it in the end!!! 1 Nephi 3:7!!! 

I love ya all and miss you like crazy!!!! 

Alofa,
Elder Larson
Colby's favorite painting in the MTC


His 'Smolder' look

Elder Bickmore and Colby in front of the Provo Temple
Almost the entire group going to Samoa Apia on Sept 7, 2015

Part of MTC District

How to Contact Elder Colby Larson

Elder Colbin Jacob Larson is serving in the Samoa Apia Mission. It includes both Samoa and American Samoa and there are four islands. We have been told that it is mostly a letter-writing mission with some areas for email. Letters sent can take between 2-3 weeks to get to him depending on where he is serving.

While in the MTC:

By Email:   

colbin.larson@myldsmail.net

By Mail:

Elder Colbin Jacob Larson
Samoa Apia Mission
Post 41
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84602-1763


He is tentatively scheduled to leave for Samoa on Tuesday, September 8th.

While in Samao:

By Email: 

colbin.larson@myldsmail.net

*Note: Elder Larson may serve in remote areas of the islands that does not give him access to email. So he may not read the letters for a while.

By Mail from the U.S.:

Elder Colby Jacob Larson
Samoa Apia Mission
P.O. Box 608
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799

*Letters and packages arrive quicker here than sent to the actual mission home. It may take him longer to get the letters when he is serving in Samoa, but he will get them.