07/04/16 - Happy American Samoan 4th of July!!!!

Haha chess chess, they do celebrate the 4th over here!! Haha but I don't think we'll have fireworks haha! 

Welp, this week, just as crazy as the last!!! We've really been utilizing the members and it's working wonders!!!! Haha I wish I would've learned this WAAAAY earlier in my mission!!! We went on crazy amounts of splits with young adults and our taitai misiona's and we're finding and teaching heaps of new peeps!!! We found 2 old men, Toa and Fetu, one in third and the other in 2nd, but getting the opportunity to teach people this old is unheard of because they are usually WAAAYY strong in the church they go to!!! But they both have great fellow shippers and Fetu accepted baptism, and we're going to set a date for him this week!!! And Toa's whole family is going to move down here from Hawaii and hopefully we'll be able to teach them as well!! It's going crazy good over here!!! On another note, Pres is coming this week, so some may get transferred cause that's what usually happens, but we'll see!! I'm praying for Upolu or Savaii!!! But we'll see what the Lord has in store!!! Chris is doing good, loves the gospel, his only thing is smoking so we're gonna really try and help this kid out with that!! He loves the church and knows its true, now it's just a matter of doing!!

We actually in our last island conference with Pres, that's what we talked about and I want to apply it to us as members as well!! It starts of with a triangle, and then each side has a word linked to it....one side says, Know. Another is to Feel. And then the last one is Do. Most of us KNOW the gospel is true, because we FEEL it!! But what are we DOING about it??? Heaps of us get stuck at the DO part, either we don't know what to do, where, when, etc!! But it's honestly not as hard as we make it seem!!! I have a challenge for everyone to watch Elder Jeffrey Hollands talk called, "The First and Great Commandment!" It is BOMB and it will explain a lot of this HEAPS better than I can!!! 

Love yous all and have a sweet as week!!!!!

Elder Larson!!!(;

An investigator took this pic....and it just looks awesome

Wazzam!

We were supposed to do a bonfire with the YSA and we brought Fetoai with us, but we ended up not doing anything and just taking pics with George, Lani (stake pres daughter, RM, getting married in like a month!) and then Fetoai

Words can't really describe this one...its just SWEET.

06/27/16 - HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!! FAMILY!!!!!!!!

Hows the fam been?!?!?

This week was just.......wow. This week was just miracles after miracles!! Wednesday we were E Knapp for the afternoon while we waited for his companion E Brown to get here! So we went to faafesootai a referral we got from a member family, in third ward! We went and a little 11 year old, Masi, opened up the door and then an older girl, Toai(19), came to the door and invited us in! We came in and just got to faamasani with them, and they both started to open up heaps!! They just moved here from Upolu about 2 months ago and didn't have a church to go to, so they've been searching! This last Sunday, they were going to be baptized in the LMS church, but then we showed up! To'ai then began asking us heaps of questions about us as missionaries, she wanted to know if girls go on missions, how old we had to be, what we needed to do to go on missions.....and then this....she had a dream since she was young that she would serve a mission!!! She wants to be baptized, but just wants to go to church a few times and watch a baptism before she gets baptized, but it just blew our minds!!!!!!! And then after we shared a little message with her and Masi, Masi gave us a faafetai speech like a matai!!! And then while he was thanking us, he began to cry as he thanked us for coming and sharing what we did!!!! IT WAS INSANE!!!! By far, one of the coolest mission experiences I've EVER been blessed to be apart of!!!! Then Toai was able to make it to church with us on Sunday and LOVED IT!!! And then on Sunday, we talked with Terry, and an 18 year old who's been living with his girlfriend's family cause his family has some major problems, but he wants to get baptized but he's still living with his girlfriend who wants to go on her mission! But he came on Sunday, and he just looked ticked, he walked up to us and it took a while for us to get him talking, but we finally went to a room and starting talking with him after sacrament meeting, and then he said something that made both E Faalogo's and my heart drop...."I don't want to get baptized in your church anymore, sorry for wasting your time, I don't want to live anymore." We all just kind of sat there for a little bit and then my comp and I started talking with him and we talked about how when people begin to get closer to God, Satan will work just as hard to get You away from God. So, that's when we see who has the diligence to keep going...God will never let us down if we put Him first before everything! That is the first and great commandment He has given us! And then Terry turned 180 degrees!!!!! By the time we were done, he's going to talk with his girlfriend to move out quickly so he can get baptized and then start preparing for HIS mission and leave with his girlfriend on their missions!!!! SO BLESSED TO BE ABLE TO SEE THESE CHILDREN OF GOD COMING CLOSER ONE DAY AT A TIME TO THEIR SAVIOR, REDEEMER AND MOST OF ALL, THEIR CREATOR!!!(;

And haha my quote isn't half as sweet as Yours, but I write my own quote or grab one from a conference talk, but this weeks, I just started writing, and this is what I came up with...

"Live to Love those Around Us"

So pumped to here from YOUS THIS WEEK!!!! 

Love to here from Yous in a little bit!!!! Miss Yous like CRAZY!!!!!!!

Love Elda Laason 

Just pondering on the beach

I knelt down to begin my fast after one of our feeds this week, and I set the BoM down, and after I closed my prayer, I looked down and I just HAD to take a pic!!

Clarence Crichton, Daryl's little brother, taught me how to play a couple songs on the guitar....definitely a bucket list checked off! 

06/20/16 - Happy Belated Father's DAY!!!!!

Happy Belated Fathers Day DAD!!!! 

WELP, this week FLEW by!!! We got a baptismal date with Chris Rose, one of our youth's best friends and he wants to serve a mission too!!! So pumped for him, we set his date for the 9th of July!!! He's got  a Word of Wisdom problem, but he has a sincere desire to change and with the big group of friends, the others hopefully will come in close pursuit!! One's less active, another one isn't a member, but has been at all the lesson's and from what we've been told by Esau, he likes having us over and learning!!! So excited for them!!! The only prob is that Esau's other buddy, his dad is an aoao in the Methodist church, so he may not get baptized in the near future but planting the seed right?!? Daryl Crichton also left this week, back to his mission in the Philippines! Props to him, cause if it were me, being off for three years is tough, and he has stuck it out and gone back and the stake president bore a testimony at his setting apart that was cool as! But overall, for being here for 7 months, I've gotten such a  close relationship with all the members, it's gonna be hard as to leave this area...but I'm loving it and having a blast teaching with them!!

I actually just wanted to bear my testimony real quick, about how much help the ward is when the missionaries and the ward work together!!! I know that the power from member testimonies are usually more powerful for the investigator, cause especially here, everyone thinks that the missionaries are perfect, even though we all have faults, none the less, that's the culture. But when a member they know testifies to them of the truthfulness of this gospel and the eternal joy that it brings to their families, friends, and personal lives, it's staggering!!! Loving the work and loving working with the members in bringing their friends and family to this auala sa'o ma le olioli atoatoa ma le fiafia atoatoa!!!! For reals, for all the members, YOU DO NOT REALIZE THE POWER OF YOUR TESTIMONY UNTIL YOU SHARE IT WITH OTHERS!!! That's the ONLY way to strengthen Your testimony! The 12 apostles and the first Presidency get together and have a big testimony meeting with each other....why?? Because that's how we strengthen ourselves as well as others!! I challenge You to bear Your testimony to a nonmember this week and see the power it has on You and them!! LOVE YOUS!!!!

Have a good one this week!!!

LOVE YOUS!!! Elder Laason!!!

Haha so, took a spill this week in the dark...we were running food over to Jordan cause we promised food and we were trying to hurry over, but we hurried over too fast.

Daryl is set apart!

06/13/16 - Baptisms and Hospital

Fam HEY HEY HEY!!!! LOVE YOUS!!!

First and foremost!!!!! HAPPY BDAY KEATO!!!!!! YOU'RE 10 BRO!!!!! You're so old!!!! LOVE YOU BRO!!! Hope you and the fam are having fun at the tramp place and have fun at dinner and ice cream!!!! Hope you had a bomb as BIRTHDAY!!!! LOVE YOU MAN!!

And congrats to Garrett on his baptism!!!!! Turning 8 and moving forward, through Faith in Jesus Christ!!!! Keep it up Cuz!!!

Welp, yes, this week was wondrous!!! Tusiga(32), Juliet(14), Hariat(10), Salvation(14), Josie(12), and Toluvalu(11) all got baptized this Saturday!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! All 6 of them!!! Now we're going to work with the grandma, Mati, and hopefully get her baptized here with her fam!!! We're way tight with the family and they are just the best!!!! Haha they're all hilarious!!! They're from Upolu and so they don't know a ton of English which helped me and my comp out cause we literally couldn't speak English at ALL with this fam!!! Usually if we can't explain something in Samoan, they'll understand a word or 2 here and there, but this fam was straight SAMOAN!! They were all just beaming at the baptism service and when each one got into the font, they were just on fire!! Hariat was so short though haha, she swam into the font, and we did the ordinance on the step cause she was so short haha!! They're bomb as!!! Haha, on another fun note, I got way dehydrated on Wednesday night, and we went to the hospital with Alex Willis at like 1 in the morning haha cause our ZL's weren't picking up and neither were the spiritual parents so we were at the hospital til 7 in the morning haha! I'll send yous pics it's funny as!!

Welp, Daryl is leaving this Friday back to the Philippines so we're probs gonna be on splits all week with him and Jr Faasao, bishop's son, who's an RM! I think I'm beginning to understand why I stayed here one more transfer...we'll see what the future holds, but I'm positive that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves!! We may think one direction or a decision that we want, may be the best, but the Lord will surprise you EVERY TIME!! I honestly wanted to leave this area by last transfer, but the last 2 weeks have helped me understand why I'm still here! Keach and Lucas' baptism last week! Tusiga and fam this week! I've grown such a love for the people that the mission has become an actual joy and wonder for me!! Seeing the beaming faces of them going into baptism and coming out, it's just the BEST!!!!!! They're lives have changed drastically forever and for the better!!! Now, we're all at the point of enduring to the end....and it's up to our attitude and desire to Love God if we are to endure all the way to eternity! It's not easy, no one said it was going to be easy....BUT, it will most definitely be WORTH IT!!!!

I love yous all and have a sweet as week and safe travels!!!! LOVE YOUS!!!!

Elder Larson =P

Here is part of the crew!

We did service this week for a family, that we basically went in and it was like those remodeling shows, where they tear the place apart and then build it back up! It was way nasty, but way cool when we finished!!

Waiting room for 4 hours...woohoo!

Three hours longer and still waiting!

Here is the whole crew!

This is us and Toluvalu haaha!

6/6/16 - HAAAAYYYYOOOOFAMALAY!!!!!!(;

What's the haps happening??!?!?

How's the fam doing?!?!? 

Sounds like yous were busy as this week!! Props for everyone keep trucking through it all!! Awesome Dad traveled safe all week too!! Hope yous were able to get in some BoM reading!!!!

Props to the bros on the sport and jobs!! Keep it up homies!!! 

Welp, this week, Lucas and Keach, George's little brother got baptized!!!!!!!! It was awesome!!!!!!! Lucas has been trying to get baptized since December!!!! And Keach's was sweet as too!!!!! He and his bro are so tight and they I have a feeling they are gonna be the one's that hold each other together in this gospel!!! So sweet as!! I'll send a pic! 

We also had a great split with with one of the youth in our ward, my comp went with Daryl and I went with Esau Murillo. His mom wants us to go out with him more, cause he's preparing for his mission and she is worried about him hanging out with the wrong crowd over the summer...so we're gonna work with him over the summer cause there is literally nothing for kids to do over here, that's why they get into the drugs, alcohol, immorality, and all that junk...so we're gonna set him on a crash course for a mish! Anyways, he and I went to one of his buddie's house to see if he would like to hear lessons or possibly the family would. Welp we got there and his buddy's name is Chris, and he and his little bros were taking out the garbage, and then we walked with them and just faamasani'ed with them and then we eventually made it back to the house...I thought we would just set another time to come visit, but he invited us in, and then told us to wait a minute and to check with his mom....apparently, from what Esau told me, his buddy's mom is a total bipolar crazy lady! When Esau went over the first time, the mom cussed him out and then 5 minutes later, she apologized and said she's normally really sweet haha! We never met her at the visit though, but we went inside and just talked about families! I guess his dad passed away about 2 years ago, and the family's been struggling a bit since he died...but we just kept bearing testimony of forever families and he started to tear up and then caught himself. Then we set a time to visit tomorrow, and we're gonna go back with Esau! We left the visit, and Esau just looked at me and was like, "how'd you do that?" And I said "do what?" He told me that the Chris he knew would've seen us and told us to come back another time cause they were busy. And that Chris opened up to me and just kept asking questions about the church, missions, family....it was awesome! Haha I just laughed and told him it wasn't me that did any of that! It was the Spirit! Then we just kept chatting away about it, then we went and got ice cream cone's at Maca's and then went back and met up with Daryl and E Faalogo...but overall it was a great split cause I felt like I was able to help Esau do things differently than how I did before I left to help him have the best mission he could! 

Overall, we had a great week and the family of 6 are being baptized this Saturday at 12!!! So pumped for them all!! Hopefully we can get the grandma on board the salvation train!!!!

Love YOUS!!!

Elder Larson

 

George, Colby, and Keach...George baptized his younger brothers!

Another pictures with the bros.

This is a pic from Manua (from Elder Tuimauga)

 

5/30/16 - FAM in the 208!!!!!

WAAAAZZZZZUUUPPP!!!????

Loved the emails this week!!! Haha feels like I haven't gotten one in ages from the bros! Haha the dog bite is fine no worries there! (He got another dog bite--it happens often apparently) It's slowly healing with the hippie salve!!! (Thanks Holly and Mike!!!!!) 

Here's a couple sentences for Garrett!!

"GAAAARRRRREEEEETTTTTT!!!! haha I love ya bud and hope that as you continue doing good things and following the perfect example of Jesus Christ, your parents will be proud of you and so is you Heavenly Father! Congradulations bud and keep the faith!! And take care of your brothers too!!!"

Welp, this is whats the week has been like.....

Wednesday-We had a conference with Pres Hanneman, his wife and the APs! Cool as experiences too!!! The whole morning the APs and Pres H and his wife taught about Find, Teach, and Baptize! And then the ZL's, the other DL, and I all taught a little 20 section through kind of like a station thing, and then we went on a blitz in the Leone elders area, back to the first area!!!! Welp, E Faalogo and I went with Pres H and his wife, and we were kind of in the back behind the rest of everyone going to the blitz, but we decided to take a different road, we began with a prayer, and then was off! The first house we came to a lady and a younger guy were sitting out front..and then we just went! We got to familiarize ourselves with them and then found out the lady wasn't a member, but the guy was, just less active for the last 12 years with his wife and kids...the lady and him are cousins, and she works for the first lady over here in American Samoa! The guy, Mayne, got beat up and looked in pretty bad shape a couple nights before and wasn't able to work to help his family out....BUT! We taught a little lesson on Plan of Salvation towards the woman, cause her dad passed away, and her mom is in Irie, or Irvis in Cali right now having treatment cause they cant' get good treatment over here cause the hospital stinks! We sang Families Can be Together Forever, and then while we were singing, we saw that Mayne, the guy, starting singing with us, mouthing the words, and then she was way crying at the end it was soooooooooooo spiritual!!!!! Cause to top it off, she told us afterwards she saw us walking, then saw us turn around to come down this road, and wanted to call out to us to stop by, but didn't want to interrupt or sound rude or anything, but when we ended up coming around the corner, she was so grateful, cause she wanted us to stop by!!!!!! Hopefully the elders there have followed up with her and his family!!!!! 

Jake wasn't able to get baptized this week, cause he still hasn't quit smoking, but he's reset for the 18th and he wanted to pay tithing so we helped him pay his tithing this week and it was sweet as to see him, not even a member yet, but still wants to help contribute to the Lord!!!!! WHAM!! And then Keech, George's little brother is getting baptized this Saturday fo sho!!!!!! George is gonna baptize him, it's gonna be cool as!!!!!! He's been such a skux and wants to follow his older brother, and hopefully bring his family back together and hopefully all of them into the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welp, as yous can see as well, I'll be staying in Tafuna for another 6 weeks, which I actually pretty stoked so that I can see all these peeps get baptized!!!!! I'm stoked!!!! But THEN I'll be ready for Upolu or Savaii or something new!! 

LOVE YOUS ALL AND HOPE YOUS HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!! 

Love Elda Laason!!!!

 

Not expecting the picture to be taken when I turned around

Daryl

Me, they call us the 3 Wise Cousins

My comp

The Zone

 

5/23/16 - WAZZZZZUUUUUPPPPP???!?!?!?!

MUM!!!!!! FAM!!!! WAZZZZZUUUUUPPPPP???!?!?!?!

We didn't have a bap for last week, this week we have one though with Jake!!!!

This week was amazing!!!!!!! It finished amazing as well!!!! We have set for this Saturday a baptism with Jake, whom I've talked about in recent emails!! Well, we help re-haul his yard and side of the house for him while he was at work!! It was awesome!! Because the first thing he said when we met up again was, "How could this church NOT be true??" He said he's never had people love him like this before being so kind and helpful!! The only thing he has now to quit is smoking and he's cut back tremendously!! And then, Sunday, we met up with Keech, George's younger brother and taught him lesson one and he's getting baptized on June 4th!! This kids such a stud!!! He wants to follow his older brother, in hopes that it will bring his family together to know the truth!!! And THEN!!!! We went to bishop's to see if he had any families he wanted us to visit, the daughter was there and said the family that lives in front of them they brought to church last week and again this week!!! There's 8 of them in total!!! We met with them after church, taught lesson 1, and the spirit was so strong that we invited them to be baptized and 6 of them accepted!!!!! One little guy isn't 8 yet, and the grandma/mom is still a little skeptical, but we're meeting again with them on Tuesday and going to extend the invitation to the grandma again!! So then the whole family can be together!!! Forever!!!!!!! Such and amazing week!!!!!!!

And then this Wed, we're meeting with Pres Hanneman, transfers might be made on Thursday, cause that's what usually happens, but if not then transfers will be next week!! I really really want to stay one more transfer!! Just one!! But we'll see how the cards play out.,..

Elder Larson

 

This is by Maliu Mai, a little resort in our area that Daryl Crichton took us to.

With Daryl, who will head back to the Philippines for his mission.

Pretty cool picture

Service the old fashion way

Another sunset in paradise