Elder Colby Larson's Mission Blog: 12/28/15

Malo Lava Aiga!!!!!!!

SO PUMPED TO CHAT WITH YOUS AT CHRISTMAS!!!!!! I absolutely LOVED it!!!! Sorry if I wasn't emotional at all I was super excited and so the tears just never came,.. I LVOED every minute! AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!! ANY FUN PLANS FOR TODAY!!?!?!?!?!?!?

This week was pretty much dead, besides chatting with yous all...no one really wanted us in there house and right after I complained about it being too hot here....it hasn't really stopped raining since the morning of Dec 26th.....soooo, there's puddles everywhere, and we got so wet...we kind of just walked straight through one cause we were going home to shower and change our sopping wet clothes before we went to a ward council!! Quite fun!!!! And the umu we did with the Willis family on Christmas was sooooo bomb!!!!! I'm going to send as many pics as I can!!! Welp, like I said this week, was quite difficult cause no one wanted us, but it was a big learning experience!! It also gave us time to read over conference talks from Oct!!!! One I really enjoyed reading again was Elder Bednar's!!!! The last one where he talks about how its so awesome that this church is run by old men!!!!! Haha I didn't realize how much I had forgotten until I went back and read them!! Real talk, they were so bomb and I couldn't put down the Ensign!! I think I talked about this earlier in the mission, but his talk goes really well with D&C 1:38 (or 39 or both haha can't remember exactly)!!! But it was so awesome because its scripture for our day...it's the talks and revelation given to the apostles and prophet to be able to give us all hope, peace, and a strengthening of our faith as we continue to read and ponder their words!! Because it's coming straight from the Lord!!! I believe that's what the scripture says!!! And one more thing this week, on Christmas Eve, Elder Speakman and I went out and took some little gifts we made for some investigators and a couple member families, and we dropped by Lui's, (the drug lord), haha after he told us not to give him anything because he didn't want us to come while he was drunk with some friends and he didn't want to say anything he didn't mean, but we dropped by anyways just to give him some brownies we had gotten from a member, and it was like the happiest day of his life!!!!! I had been meaning to take it to a different investigator but Speakman thought we should take it to him, and the beam in his face when he saw us was indescribable. I've come to realize that Christlike love, Charity, is something that when given, you receive back in joy and thanksgiving because of the change and help that you give to that particular person!! Which takes me to the other talk I really loved, was Through God's Eyes by Elder Renlund!! When I reread it, my mind immediately put his talk into missionary work!! When we see people as they're parents see them, as our Father in Heaven sees them, there is no one that we can say that we do not want to help them in ANY way we can!!! We have quite a few investigators who are really trying to do the right thing, and the biggest thing they need is just encouragement from us...we can only do so much to help, but with constant encouragement, prayer and fasting, it's incredible to be able to see and help these people in what seems like their darkest hour!! And with this new year coming up, that's really all I wish for....is that we all find someone, who may just need encouragement, love, support, the Atonement, whatever it may be, we can be the link from them to Christ, and that can make all the difference! I LOVE YOUS ALL AND HAVE A BOMB NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Hey and thank everyone for the video that yous sent of the fam singing happy birthday!! I loved it!!! Oh and could I possibly get some work out bands?? Once I leave this area, I probably won't have a weight set, and nothing to work out with/: OH and possibly a great read if you can find it I would love it!!! It's called Defenders (or Defense) of Faith and it's a book written about a debate between a pair of elders and basically all the religions in Samoa! I don't want it to bash, but it's nice to know what in heavens name all these religions believe and answers to some insanely hard questions they ask!

I LOVE YOUS ALL AND HAD AN AMAZING AS TIME SKYPING WITH YOUS ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a very happy new year and an amazing as week!!!!

Love Elder Larson