Larson, Josh

Hello all! It's me again, I know your not too surprised by that fact, but anyway. It's been a pretty awesome week here in Newbury Park, it's still nice, expensive, and prideful. But we make it work, despite the opposition we were able to extend a baptismal date to our friend Natisse and she accepted! We have had a lot going on this week, we had three exchanges plus a zone blitz. Which in total means I have spent almost more time without my companion than with him this week. I have come to gain an appreciation for all the wonderful missionaries in this zone, they are all working so hard and have such wonderful testimonies. These exchanges have also lead me to some realizations regarding activity within the church, if I have shared these before I apologize, but it's important. Therefore repetition.  With my companion being on his last transfer, we have been talking a lot about how one stays active in the church and continues onward after a mission. A talk that has been on...

Hey everyone! It's been a good past week here in the Newbury Park zone. We met some awesome people and started teaching a few as well.  We have had quite a few things going on this week. We had a meeting known as MLC in which we discussed the Needs of the mission and how to best help the missionaries. And a quote came to my mind that I will share a little later.  We also had 2 different exchanges this week. The first was down in Oxnard with the assistants to the president. The second was with one of our district leaders and his companion. They were both really awesome and I learned a lot from the both of them.  So anyway, back to what I learned from the MLC. There was a quote that came to my mind while I was sitting in the meeting. The quote is:  "What we do depends on how we feel about what we know" - Hyrum Smith. This quote has been on my mind a lot as I have been thinking about it and we have been talking a lot about personal conversion to the savior. Really this ...

Hello everyone! Elder Larson here reporting live from Newbury Park. Oh boy it's been quite the week. I don't quite know where to start. After our 3 1/2 hour drive down to Newbury I met my new companion and we got moved in. This was the first time I have ever white washed an area and it's been quite an experience. The ward here is great though, and it's actually the same ward which my MTC buddy Elder McLeod is from! So that has been super fun. The people here are very nice but slightly prideful, which makes spreading the gospel a little more difficult, but we have still had a lot of success this week. I realize now that I am kind of rambling so I will break this down a little bit more.  Area: geographically speaking our zone is the furthest south in the mission, it is also one of the smallest zones, (the Templeton ward would cover our whole zone). We are also a lot closer than I thought from some major cities. For example Malibu is just 20 minutes south of us. And LA is ...

Hey all! It's been another epic week here in Templeton! We have worked hard and found two new people this week! It was awesome. The most awesome thing this week however was General conference. Conference is a blast as a missionary. I learned so much, it is a spiritual feast and I would invite you all to go back and read the talks again. One thing I learned was the importance of being humble and relying on the lord in all I do. This has been a focal point especially with recent transfer news Honestly I was hoping for a normal transfer but that's usually not what I get. I have been asked to serve as a Zone Leader down in the Newbury park zone. Doing so means I will be whitewashing in with Elder Nickle who is on his last transfer. I know for sure this next transfer will stretch me and will push me to my limits. But that is when we learn the most. Humility will be important for me to remember as I strive to learn as much as possible from my examples and companion. Another exciting ...