Email of May 4, 2009

Dear Mom and Dad,
Things here in Naples are moving forward. Yesterday at church we had about 36 people in all, which is a pretty good number for us. The primary room where we meet was pretty much full. We also had four investigators at church. One of them is named Lunique. She is a really awesome lady, about 30 years old. She has been progressing fairly well. Her biggest problem is her boyfriend, whom she lives with. We are planning on having a lesson with our Relief Society president and her husband who went through a similar situation when the husband was investigating the church. It should be really good. The other investigators that were at church were the Joseph family. They are a family that we're really excited about. The mom is a niece of a member and was a judge in Haiti with one of our strongest members (Brother Marc). The mom wasn't able to come to church but the dad and the three kids were (the youngest is 5 so technically he doesn't count as an investigator). They all had a really good time at church and things are looking good. We are planning on having a lesson with them on Friday with Brother Marc. We have some other really good investigators right now as well. We are teaching a young boy named Raynald who has a date to be baptized in June. We have pretty much stopped teaching the young girl that we were teaching that had a baptismal date. This week we also started teaching another family. This one seems really cool as well. They are neighbors/friends of the Joseph family. We are also teaching a few other younger people. That's one of the sad things about Haitians is the lack of good solid families. The parents will love you to teach the kids, but mostly just as a babysitting deal. They are just trying to get rid of the responsibility to raise their own children. It's not very often that you find parents who are interested themselves, or who are at least willing to give their kids rides to church. But it just makes those families that much more special.

We have some other exciting things coming up in the near future. We found out that the new Haitian missionaries will be coming in August. It is strange to think about the four older missionaries going home. It's only a few months away and then I will be one of the oldest. That is pretty much the low down on all the happenings here in the Florida Tampa mission. Things are going great. I'm keeping busy (as are you). I hope all is going well at home. I'll talk to you Sunday. It will probably be after church for you guys. But I may surprise you and call at 7 am MDT. Our church starts at 11 am EST.
Love,
Elder Larson