Email of March 2, 2009

Dear Family,
I can't believe that it is March either! I'm not excited for things to start getting hot again. But I know it will come no matter what. There have already been signs of the coming seasons. It sounds like things at home are going splendidly. Although I was sad to hear that Brother (Larry) Miller had died.
Things here are going fairly well too. This weekend we had stake conference. Elder Devin J Cornish of the Seventy presided. There was a pretty good turnout even among the Haitians. I was able to attend the adult session as well as the general session. We had a few investigators come. Elder Cornish did something that I was really grateful for. He talked specifically to all of the investigators who were there and then made all of the converts who were there raise their hands. About half of the people present raised their hands. It was quite a sight. I know it would have been comforting to me if I were an investigator. Giertan was there with her daughter and also her friend. Her friend just moved here from Miami and is staying with Giertan for a while. She has studied with the missionaries in Miami and even had her copy of the Book of Mormon with her. She told us she wanted to get baptized too. I hope that she can continue progressing along with Giertan. The baptism is still looking good for this Saturday. I'm a little worried because we haven't finished teaching her all of the lessons which I usually like to do at least a week before a baptism so we can go back and review everything. But I think that she should be just fine. She is really excited and so are we. She really loves the church and has grown attached to us. She even calls us her sons. I don't mind if it means she keeps feeding us. I just hope she has developed a strong enough friendship with all of the members.
Also this week we started teaching a 20 year old kid named Claude. He is a friend/neighbor of some members and is a really cool kid. He came to the Adult session of conference and I think it was probably a little boring for him. They talked a lot about things that he probably didn't really understand; things like tithing and the temple were discussed a lot. We tried to help him understand some of the things discussed. I'm also pretty excited to teach him because he and his friends love to play flag football. We might be playing with them later today. Some of them are the same ones we put to shame in basketball a few months ago so it should be fun. Everything else is going really good. The branch is still going solid and a lot of our members are still really looking to be a ward by the end of the year. I think it may be possible and I hope with all of my heart that we can do that.
This week is also transfers and the Haitians (missionaries) are all staying the same. We tend to have transfers every other transfer. But, that is all the news that I have for you this week. I hope that everything is going good at home. I love you and I pray for you.
Sete,
Elder Larson