Boxes EVERYWHERE!!!!

Happy burfday Mom! Andy can give you a hug for me. I believe I'd like my mission scripture to be Luke 9:23-24. I guess I'd like to have the retainers, if I still have the ability to cram them into my mouth. There was also a paper that told me some scriptures and stuff I should memorize in German, if you can find it, that I'd like to have. Also, could you remind me what the web address is for my blog? The food at the MTC is quite good, when I weighed myself last week I had gained 4 pounds, so at this rate I'll be rather obese by the time I get back. My daily schedule right now is basically 6 hours of instruction, 1 hour of teaching and 5 hours of study, then 4ish hours of meals, breaks, gym time, getting ready for bed, etc. And to Joey: that scripture from last week I believe is Doctrine and Covenants 11:21, also I'll probably be calling Ezequiel Ziggy.

Everyone here says that days are like weeks and weeks are like days, which I guess means I've either been here for 2 days or 98 days. I think I'm more inclined toward 98, it's crazy how in two weeks the MTC has become my home and my life 100%. Last week during some of our winding down time we (the 5 of us in our district) chose some different movies and assigned each other characters from them. I was given Gandalf, Yoda, Vision (Avengers 2), Professor X and...Spongebob. I honestly don't really understand any of their choices for me other than Spongebob. In regards to the subject of this email, me and Elder Fritz failed our room inspection because we had "Boxes everywhere." I've received 0 boxes and Elder Fritz had 2 on his desk. Everyone in our zone says that our room is easily the cleanest and they received perfect scores...so that was interesting.

Anywho, I'm learning so much here in the MTC. I always kinda pictured the MTC as this brief training Montage that I'd hurry through before going to Germany, but I feel like I've grown so much just in these last 2 weeks. I think the lesson I'm starting to really learn and that I wish I had learned sooner is that it's ok to make mistakes. For example when I was teaching one of my investigators yesterday and I told her that we were from Utah, she said that she had heard there are a lot of mountains in Utah. However the word for mountain sounds somewhat similar to the word for bear, so I thought she had said there were a lot of bears in Utah, so in response I said "I haven't seen any bears in Utah." A more humbling one was when my teacher told me that I need to have a stronger testimony that reading the Book of Mormon will answer any questions that investigators (or ourselves) have. It all comes down to me using these experiences to improve and turn to Heavenly Father rather than becoming discouraged that I'm not some perfect all-knowing missionary. I frequently remind myself that God called me to learn German and to teach the German people for a reason, and I can see his hand so much in the companionship and district that he has put me in. Not to sound sappy but they honestly are incredible and have become 4 of my closest friends. We all have our issues but we've got each others backs, not to mention that if we do our best and rely on Them, we also have Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost on our side, and boy do we need Them. It's surprised me how even in the MTC, we still have our agency and it's entirely up to us how seriously we take our time here and how obedient we decide to be. Elder Costa from the presidency of the seventy emphasized that one of the most important things for us to have is a burning desire to bring souls unto Christ. So one thing I'd like to start asking myself everyday  is, "How have I proved to myself and to God today that I have this burning desire?" The MTC is amazing, and so far this has been a refiner's fire that I'm in desperate need of. I love you all and I feel and appreciate the faithful prayers you say in my behalf.

Love, 

Elder Larsen