be up to going to Peru. It's too bad I can't hear your vast wisdom face to face anymore Lisa, but I do enjoy reading it. It reminded me of a quote from President Monson, "Always be happy, never be satisfied." It's easy to be happy and easy to be unsatisfied, but to be both together takes some work. Ja Joey, manchmal esse ich viel. Are you gonna be on son #5 by the time I get back? I suppose assuming you guys would magically know that it would be a Skype call was a poor move, but at least it ended up working alright. We technically have up to 40 minutes, we just had a member appointment to run to. I'm glad you've been having some fun tooth adventures mom, if it makes you feel any better, my implant still feels weird in my mouth. Did you at least take a hillbilly picture before the implant was put in? Good to know y'all are doing well.
typical opening presents and spending time with family,
I: met the Angel Gabriel, destroyed my mouth (and later my bowels) with Serbian food and ate lunch with a Muslim, an atheist and a Christian.
So there we are at the church, finishing our studies and about to do our skype calls, when this guy (also, the door was locked) walks in. He walks over to us, hugs me and gives Elder Anderson a kiss on the cheek, tells us that he is the Angel Gabriel, looks at a restoration pamphlet for 30 seconds, says something to us in Arabic, says "I love you" in English and then leaves. Off spreading the good word I suppose...also smoking. Didn't know that angels reeked of cigarette smoke.
So the member appointment for Christmas dinner was with a family originally from Serbia. We had this soup stuff, and off to the side were 2 bowls of spices, one "spicy" and the other "very spicy." Well after a few months of eating with Germans, who probably find ketchup to be spicy, I figured I could handle whatever came my way. So I dump in 2 big spoonfuls of the spicy and a spoonful of the very spicy. By the end my mouth, face and eyeballs were basically on fire and when I took a seat on the toilet the next morning, I had quite the burning in my bosom...and not the good kind. Anywho, I now have the nickname Chili Elder. The third story isn't actually very exciting, we just ate lunch with a member and 2 of her friends. One was atheist one was Muslim...yep. Also it happened first, so it probably should have been the first story. Anyway, that was Christmas.
We had a couple other awesome member appointments during the week, met with some investigators and (drum roll).....our bishop came to church! After weeks of being sick (since before I even got here) he finally made it. Also at church, this old couple randomly walked in for Sunday school and Sacrament. They enjoyed it and made an appointment with the sisters to learn more. Wonderful stuff!
But yeah...the Gospel is awesome. In 3 Nephi Jesus Christ quotes Isaiah, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy
foundations with sapphires." Fair colors and sapphires...enduring and trusting in God through hard times not only helps us to grow, it beautifies us. It definitely takes time and effort and maybe a bit
of pain, but it's always worth it. Have a great week and happy New Year!
Elder Larsen
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