Email June 7, 2010

Dear Mom and Dad,

How are you? How is your week going? It was good to hear from you. It sounds like things are going really well. Things here are going really well also. I'm looking forward to some great things this upcoming week. This past week we had some good things happen, and some things that were not so good. Our main investigator, Reginald, called us on Friday and expressed some concerns that he had. He said that it mostly revolved around the fact that he had been baptized before. But he said that he was done investigating the church. But, we told him to come to English class that night and we would talk to him. He came, and seemed his normal self. We even set up a return appointment with him for Saturday. At that lesson we talked about the Holy Ghost and looking for a spiritual answer and also reviewed the Apostasy and restoration, focusing on Priesthood authority. He understood it all, like he has since day one, but he still isn't really sure what to do. But, we did set up another appointment with him. So he still likes us and is interested. But, we feel like he is just hiding his real concern. So we're going to work at finding out what that is and how to help him overcome it. Hopefully that will be a fruitful plan.

On the brighter side, Michael is looking really good. He came to church with his Grandma again yesterday. He fits in very well with the young men's program. We just need to talk to his "mom" to make sure that he is going to be able to come to church every week. We're hoping to have his baptism on the 20th. Also, yesterday we had an inactive family come to church. We have been working with them my whole mission with out much success. But this summer their inactive 19 year old daughter, Silienne, is home from school and we've been able to use her to get her little sister and brothers to church. The mom is still stubborn. But progress is progress. We're hoping to the younger daughter more involved in young women's and the older daughter involved in Institute. Also we've kind of forced Silienne to work with the Spanish sisters. It will be really good for her. Also, two of the youth that I've worked with quite a bit are getting ready to graduate next year. One is Wallace, who was baptized last summer. He's started filling out his papers to go on a mission. He would be the first missionary from this branch. He says he wants to go to Japan, which I thought was funny since he's about 6'6". The other one who is graduating is going to a school in Wisconsin to wrestle and play football. He says he wants to go on a mission after a year. So we're hoping to encourage that.

Tomorrow I will be able to go to Orlando and finally go to the Temple. I'm really excited. There will be the three of us who are going home in two weeks, along with three other missionaries who are going home Wednesday, the senior couple who is taking us up, the temple president, and President and Sister Colton. It should be really good. I hope that everything is going great for you. Have a great week and drive safe. I look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love,
Elder Larson