01.25.10

habari enu?  well this last monday night we got our transfer news.  Elder Molotsi and I are still together.  Elder Overson went to Chulyu (Antite wan de), Elder Ngapesare went to Kisumu.  Two brand new elders joined our little district.  Elder Kunz from Sandy, UT is now with Elder Chikenge, and Elder Hawke from British Columbia, Canada, is with Elder Chimimba. so we had a fun little service project this last saturday.  President Ndung'u fixed his roof a little bit.  he ended up increasing the pitch of it, so there was a gap between the wall and the tin.  so all of us got together to fill in the gaps with mud.  it was pretty cool.  we showed up just as the mud was almost ready to put in the house.  they dug a little pit and mix the dirt and water with your feet.  now i got a bunch of little cuts on my feet.  but once the mud is mixed you put it in the wheel borrow and take it in the house and start filling in the gap.  haha being the adolesants that we are.... we ended up having a mud fight in the house. :)  haha it was great.  no worries though, mama didn't care.  and no i didn't start it... i finished it :)  so i gotta admit, i'm pretty excited for you guys that drew tags for the turkey hunt.  make sure you take pics and send them to me.  and maybe a letter or two?  its been awhile since i got a letter.  We were suppose to have zone conference on friday, but it got canceled.  President Taylor is still going to come up and do interviews.  i think that we will have mission tour this transfer instead of next, i'm still not sure but i'll probably find out this week. hopefully President Taylor will bring all the mail up with him.   

Brandon!!!!   i'm excited for ya, let me know where your going when you get your call!!!   i can't wait to hear!!   haha my guess is Europe, let me know if i get close :) 

Oh i think Matt's birthday is this week,  Happy Birthday Matt.  someone please tell him for me, thanks.   

Well love ya, have a great week!!

01.18.10

Habari zenu? Well this week was pretty fun. we had baptisms on saturday. we planned on three but only two were baptized. tuesday i went on exchanges with Elder Chikenge. we had a lot of fun together, he's from Zimbabwe. i bought a bull whip, my shoulder is kinda sore from cracking it. i just hope somebody doesn't call the police cuz they think we're shooting a gun. that could be a problem. so we find out transfer news tonight. i think i'll be staying in kitale with Elder Molotsi, but i'll find out in a little bit. Elder and Sister Watt have gone to Johannesburg, SA with a group to the temple. i'm a little jealous that i can't go. i hope all of you people that are reading this will not take the closeness of the temple for granted. haha we tried to convince them to let us hide in their bags... it didn't work. well i must say if there are three turkey tags in the family, then i'm pretty excited for you guys. that was one of my favorite hunts. i hope everybody fills their tag. take pics and send em my way! So Whitney tells me that all yall want a story, well sorry i'm at a loss of words right now. nothing is really coming to mind. i have a lot of little experiences but nothing really big, funny, or entertaining. just kinda lessons learned on my part. pole sana. hope you guys have a wonderful week! love ya!

01.11.10

Well its just been another week over here in Africa.  we ended up pushing our baptisms back to this satuday, there will be three of em.  their all from the Sikhendu Branch. next week is transfer week, so if i get moved I'll try and let ya know. so church was a little interesting yesterday, Priesthood started about 30 min late. the only people in the room was me, Elder Molotsi, President Kandawala, his counselor Paul, and the elders quorum president Cosmos.  we ended up having a P.E.C. meeting instead of priesthood and sunday school.  that branch has a few shida's that need to get worked out.  i don't remember if i told you this last week but haha we had a preacher tell me and molotsi that we were going to hell.  it was a funny conversation.  we ended up walking away, turning the corner and then we both busted up with laughter. other than that its been pretty quiet this week. wait,  i made a pizza, that was freakin good!  

Casey and Elder Molotsi

Casey and Elder Molotsi

1.04.10

Happy New Year everybody!! 

So this week was pretty good.  thursday we took a matatu down to Eldoret and spent the night with our zone leaders.  that evening all of the zone went to the chuch house and played ping-pong and just had a good time.  Elder Casey was playing the piano and we were all singing, it was pretty fun.  Once the AP's carted all the sisters back to their flats', they picked us up in town and took us to the Zone Leaders flat.  haha there were 10 of us in one flat and 8 of us in the Haruma elder's flat. the floor was covered in elders, but it was fun.  Zone Conferance was friday morning.  i realized that all of you were celebrating at the same time i was taking notes and listening to my mission president.  but the conferance was good. Elder and Sister Fox bought a wheel of cheese, they sold 1/4 of it to us.  haha its the best cheese i've had in a long time.  to bad its almost gone. but no worries our next zone conferance is in 3 weeks.  that cheese is great, i made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch today.... it was heavenly.  

This is Elders Nzima, Larsen, Casey, &  Papworth

12.28.09

Well christmas was pretty good. i was able to open a package from my parents christmas morning. we visited a few members and then sister watt and elder watt fed us christmas dinner.  it was just like home, we had turkey, jello, stuffing, mash potatoes, and salad. pretty much all the normal things from home.  but overall it was a good day.  president taylor gave all the missionaries little animal carvings and a card, i got an elephant.  i also got two letters on xmas eve.  that was sweet, one from my grandma and the other was a xmas card from whit and aj. this last week we have been lining up dinner appointments with all the members.  haha its been really good, they all want to feed us and we didn't want to cook, so it worked out great.  this friday is our zone conference, we are going to go down on thursday so we can celebrate new years eve with all the elders from our zone.  we also found out that there is a cheese factory in eldoret. so we are going to stock up on cheese.  i haven't had cheese for a long time.  haha then we can make a real pizza :)

12.21.09

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

so Saturday we had four baptisms.  i performed two of them and a father baptized his two of his sons.  i think it was the best service yet. we all showed up early and played games while the tank filled up.  we were playing soccer and frizbee and i bought a little bouncy baseball thingy, so we were throwing that around. someone threw the frizbee in a tall tree.  we all thought that it was lost of good until this little kid started shimmying up the tree.  that was pretty cool.  i'm glad he didn't fall, it probably woulda killed him.  then on sunday i was asked to confirm one of the guys i baptized.... so i did it. thats always an interesting expirence. 
i can't believe christmas is this friday.  i'm excited!  the AP's said i have a package in the office, so the couples will bring it back with them on thursday.  i'm excited, i get a present on christmas now the only thing missing is a few feet of snow :) 

Casey learning to play the guitar!

The church pic is the meeting house in Sikhendu.

A pic of the baptism on saturday on 12/19/09

A gourd that he made! 

12.14.09

This week has been fun, i worked with a branch missionary till friday when my new comp got here.  the BM is a funny kid, he is President Ndungu's son, Edward Njoroge.  Elder Molotsi is my new companion, he has been serving in Arusha for the last 7 months.  he is from South Africa.  i think we will get along pretty good.  he likes to eat as much as i do.... which is all the time.  but he's a funny guy, very relaxed but always ready to share the gospel.  i think this transfer will be fun.  which is good cuz it doesn't feel like christmas at all.  no snow, no family or friends, and no lights.  but we did find out from our meat lady that the couples bought a bug turkey for us for christmas, so that'll be good.  Elder Overson and i decided that we are going to try and make cinnamin rolls for christmas.... it should be interesting. this transfer the other elders moved out of our flat.  and president taylor sent up another set of missionaries.  so now there are six elders in kitale district and we all have our own flats.  some how i got stuck with being in charge of the working fund.  so now i have to pay all the bills and reimburse elders for transport and stuff. its gonna give me a headache.  but hakuna shida, it'll be ok. 

love ya tons take care and have a great week!

Elder Larsen

12.7.09

this week has been interesting, it was my comps last week so we spent a lot of time with members. i went on exchanges with overson and we went out to a members home in ndivisi and we made gourds. they're pretty sweet we wrote on them with a sharpi. i like em! i drew a sweet elephant. i'm gonna keep adding to it and then towards the end of my mission or whenever it gets full of stuff then i'll put a clear glaze on it. but anyway everything is pretty good here in kenya. i find out who my new comp is tonight. tottles!

11.30.09

This weekend we had three baptisms. we originally planned on six but we pushed three back to december. the baptisms were good, this was my first time conducting the meeting. so it was kinda cool to put the program together and see it all work out. we went on exchanges again this last week, its always fun to work with different elders.

i sure do hope that your thanksgiving was good, i almost forgot about it completely. but no worries i was reminded that evening after i had my dinner... a cup of hot coco... yum. it was pretty exciting, let me tell ya.

do ya know what i realized this weekend? i get to talk you fellers in about 26 days. i'm not gonna lie, i'm excited for it, i can't wait!

it honestly does not feel like december, its way to hot. its more like the weather in june or july.

transfers are next week, my comp is done so i'll be getting a new companion next week sometime. probably on wednesday. it should be interesting to have a different companion, i've finally gotten use to Katjotjo. but change is good, right?
love ya tons!

Elder Larsen

11.23.09

Dear Mom,

Well i got to say that i'm doing pretty good! today overson and i went to this animal sanctuary and we rode an ostrich! i'll sent some pics. we also fed a giraffee and saw two rihno's, a bunch of gazell's, impalla zebra's and i few other antelope species. it was pretty cool. we rode a piki piki (motorcycle) for about 45 minutes to get there. but it was fun.

we have 6 baptisms planned for saturday. it should be a good week! lately we have found some amazing people. they are really prepared for the gospel. one kid is only 16, but he has an amazing desire to learn. Friday was zone conference in Eldoret. it was good, president wants to put two more missionaries up here in kitale. we found a new apartment so the other elders will be moving out soon.

know that i love you tons and miss you like crazy.

Choose the right and the Lord will help you!

love

Elder Larsen