Email of Jan. 18, 2010 (after the earthquake)

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well, it has been a roller coaster week to say the least. I think I am still in shock about the earthquake. It is hard to hear of all the suffering, but it is also interesting to notice God's hand in the events taking place now as well as the earthquake itself. We always read of the earthquakes that will happen in the last days, but it is something else to actually be witnessing it so closely. It was especially hard the first few days when we still didn't know very much. But we are finding out that most of our member's families are doing fine. Our main investigator, Zak, is from Carrefour. That was one of the hardest hit areas of Port-au-Prince. We were really worried for them but we found out that their family left Carrefour a few days before the earthquake and were in another city. Also, one of our strongest members, Seour Roselie, was supposed to be in Haiti for all of January but for some reason she stayed. We have heard many other stories of "close calls". We do have one member who was in Petion-ville at the time of the quake that we haven't heard from yet. He was just baptized in November. His name is Yves Boutin. We are really worried about him. I was also happy to hear that all of the missionaries and all of the chapels in the area were fine. I just wish there was something more I could do. I've been thinking about making a trip down there this summer to help rebuild. The branch had a special devotional on Thursday to talk about the quake and what people could do. The consensus was that the best thing to do right now is to donate money to the church's fund. I think it really helped the members. They are all doing pretty well for the most part. There may be some good things that come out of this earthquake. There will probably be more Haitians coming to Southwest Florida, and Haiti itself could be better off in the long run. But thanks for your prayers, both in behalf of me and also my people.

The work is still going forward. We are working with some good people. Zak is scheduled to be baptized on the 31st. He is looking good for that. Also, Rene is looking good. His dad was in Haiti but is alright. He's staying at the National Stadium. Rene just needs to talk to his girlfriend about their future and if they want to get married. So that should be good. Then we are working with two young boys named Lee and Harvey (They don't have any brothers named Oswald) and also an older couple named Janide and Lucien. So things are going good in that department.

I just want to tell you that I love you and I really appreciate everything that you do for me. I hope that everything is going well.

Sete,
Elder Larson