E-mail of Sep. 29, 2008

Family,
It is wonderful as always to hear from you. I'm glad to hear things are so crazy at home. It's great when the Lord is keeping you on your toes. Sometimes we don't see our trials as blessings when in reality that's exactly what they are. Speaking of trials, we have had a few. Last week I told you that Pharnod's dad had given permission for him to be baptized. Well, he took that back. We've spent the past week trying to talk to him and understand the reasons why he didn't want to allow his son to be baptized. When it came down to it, all of his reasons were selfish. He has no problem with the church or with us (probably because we help him with his citizenship). His main concern was that he had already baptized Pharnod in the Catholic church and he thought if he left Pharnod be baptized that it would somehow bring shame on himself. He strived to help him understand the principle of agency and that if he truly loved his son he would let him make his own decisions but nothing worked. It was a real lesson for me about the power of the Spirit in everything we do. He wouldn't let the Spirit teach him what was best for his son, in fact he wouldn't even pray to ask, and without that he will never be able to know. The whole ordeal was really sad for Pharnod. He was really ready to take that step but he just wasn't able to because of the choices of another. But he is still doing good despite all that. He came to church yesterday and our branch president aknowledged him in sacrament meeting after the other boy was confirmed. I just hope that somehow his father's heart can be softened so that Pharnod doesn't have to wait until he's 18 to be baptized. Either way, I know he'll be fine though.That was the big news of the past week. That is where we spent most of our time. Surprisingly we still had a pretty successful week. We've been trying to work with some part-member families in our branch (pretty much every family) and we have been able to find some new people to teach through that. We still have two people with a date for the 11th and so that should be an awesome day. There has been alot of exciting things happening and the future looks even brighter. I hope everything at home is going good. You are always in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Larson