That just keeps life interesting!

"I was going to send you some pictures today but the power has been out all day. This (Internet Cafe) is one of, I think, 4 places in the entire city that has a generator. (i.e. power)

Super glad to hear about our boys b-ball gold. I knew they could do it. I figured Argentina would get a medal. No one around here thought they would but I was right!

Dad: I made you proud at Zone Conference last week. The AP's (Assistants to the President) asked the group who the first people to climb Everest were. I was the only person in the entire mission to answer that Tenzing Norgay was actually the first person followed by Edmund Hillary."

This is a picture of the Guyana Elders from the Canje and Berbice Districts at Zone Conference on August 20th.

"We made pizza this week for lunch. It was so good. I still got it. My companion loved it too.

This morning, we were throwing a Frisbee around our back yard and we accidentally hit a fence and the thing exploded. It's in like 10 pieces. It was so cool!

Some of the things people yell at missionaries are just dumb. I had a guy accuse me of being an American Spy yesterday. He just rode up on his bike and wouldn't let it go for like 10 minutes. (We had to duck into an investigators house to get rid of him!) Oh well. That just keeps life interesting!

We should have 1 baptism this week and hopefully have 3 next week. It probably won't work out like that but that's what we are hoping for. The mission had 48 this past week end. That's a ton! Especially since my zone only had 9!

I get a new companion next Wednesday. I am staying in Reliance but someone new is coming in to replace Elder Hamilton. It's a bittersweet feeling but I'm looking forward to finding out who I will be with. I know that we have 2 greenies coming to our zone. That will spice things up a bit around here. I hope that I don't get one of them!!! I'm not ready to train anyone yet. I think I would have a heart attack if I have to train.

The scripture of the week is Mosiah 2:32-41. I'm not really sorry that it's so long because it's so good."

That makes 3 of us Larson's/Larsen's

Sorry we are slow in updating the blog this week. We have been at Lake Powell. We were able to get Jonathan's e-mail on Monday, but the internet service was so unreliable we weren't able to complete
the update.

We asked Jonathan in our e-mail who the people were in the pictures he sent last week. He said, "That picture last week was Michelle's mom. I have found out her name is spelled Leila. It's short for Lillawattie Ramnarine. What a mouth full! The little boy is Michelle's son Randy. Too bad that he broke his arm about 3 hours after that picture was taken!"

"I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Georgetown this week. While we were there, we got to see some of the Olympics because we were staying with one of the senior couples. We watched the women's all-around event in gymnastics, a men's volleyball game, and Michael Phelps win his 6th gold medal. I heard that our basketball team is just destroying people. I saw something today about a 50 point victory or something like that. It's awesome. On the way to Georgetown, our cab driver had sweet music. We got to listen to Bon Jovi the whole way there and back. It was actually a fun trip. I accidentally left my camera in Reliance at our apartment though. Oops!"

Something funny happened last week after we posted the blog update. Jonathan forgot to send his scripture of the week and asked Elder & Sister Larsen to e-mail it to us since his e-mail time was finished. When Shane received the e-mail he assumed it was from his dad and sent a "Thanks Dad" e-mail back. He realized later that it really came from the Larsen's! We mentioned the incident in our
e-mail and Jonathan said, "The Larsen's said that Dad was confused. They thought that it was pretty funny. I explained to them that Ron is grandpa's name too. Don't you love how confusing some things can be? During our trip to Georgetown, we actually stayed with Elder Larsen's brother. He and his wife are here as missionaries too.
That makes 3 of us Larson's/Larsen's."

"The only food we get to eat is what we make ourselves so it's not
very good. We experiment a lot so at least it's always interesting!
We can eat at peoples houses in any other country but it's banned here in Guyana because a of couple Elders got really sick. So, most people just give us recipes and tell us to go make stuff. We have tried a few and they usually turn out alright. Nothing is as spicy as what I was expecting though. (None of the other elders like how spicy things are... I think they are just wimps!)"

"I'm glad you are reading the Book of Mormon. I am also reading it and I'm not too far behind the schedule. I just finished reading Jacob this morning and I will probably read Enos tonight before I go to bed." (Our ward is reading the Book of Mormon to finish by the end of the year. We sent Jonathan our reading schedule thinking that he could read along with us each week.)

"I want to let you guys know that you can feel free to send me pictures and stuff because it is really cheap to print pictures here.
I can also put them on my MP3 player. I talked to some elders here about mailing packages. They all said to use USPS. If you get on the website, just click on the international links. I did it at the Larsen's this morning and a 5 pound package to Guyana is $34.50 and takes
6-10 days. Just so you know."

I think this is a not too subtle hit that he would like a few more packages. I have also checked with the post office, they told me the cut off was a 4 pound package for less than $40 (over that and the cost really jumps). After how much we spent to send a small package by FedEx, I think we will try the USPS next time!

This weeks scripture of the week is: D&D 63:23

Every baptism just resets my patience meter.

Jonathan sent these two pictures today but didn't tell us who the people are.

This is a great picture of Elder Hamilton and Jonathan with a cute little boy. He is Michelle's son, Randy.


This is Leila (Lillawattie Ramnarine), Michelle's mom.

These are quotes from today's e-mail:

"Well, we are up to 3 baptisms as a companionship now. My comp is doing just fine. We get along pretty well most of the time but there are a few moments where I would like to go "hockey" on him."

"We are doing another trade-off this week but I will be staying in Reliance this time. We were supposed to have 2 more baptisms this week but they are postponed. I'll let you know what happens with those."

"Life down here is the same as always. We still have the sun beat down on us, people still yell at us, throw stuff at us... the list of bad things just goes on and on. It's okay though. Every baptism just resets my patience meter."

"Thanks for sending the stuff about the Olympics. It's fun to keep updated."

Scripture of the Week: Luke 15:4-7

P.S. This "Scripture of the Week" came in a seperate e-mail on Wednesday from Elder & Sister Ron Larsen, the couple in Jonathan's area. They also had this to say about him:

"Elder Larson was more interested in telling you he was well and alive and to give you his love that he forgot to give you his scripture for the week. He seems to be doing well and I believe they will have baptisms on Saturday.

Thanks for raising such a strong missionary that is willing to work hard and keep the mission rules."

More than 10% Done

Today we received an actual hand written letter from Jonathan! These are a few excerpts:

"If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm going to be away from home for a while! By the time you read this I'll be more than 10% done."

"I'm still with Elder Hamilton. The next transfer is September 3rd and then he should be on his way out of this country because he'll have been here for 11 months."

"The rainy season has ended meaning that it's time to harvest sugar cane. This place is covered with it because we live about a mile from a sugar cane processing plant. Did you know that they have to burn the cane to make it easier to cut, and they cut it all by hand? Since they burn it, the whole country smells like burnt sugar. Take a cup of sugar and put on the stove (without a pan). That's how it smells all of the time"

"In my first 6 1/2 weeks, I've taught 189 lessons. We had 34 this week alone. We're shooting for 200 this transfer. I'll let you know how it goes."

Closing Scripture: Moroni 8:3

It was hard work

"This picture is of Elder Hamilton and me doing our first service project since I got here. Nobody ever wants to let us help so we went back to our apartment, changed and then demanded to help. It was hard work. We laid concrete for about 5 hours. The path we made was about 75 feet long and 4 feet wide."




"I went on a trade-off to Rose Hall on Thursday. It was fun to get to see some new faces. I was paired up with Elder Mundy. He is one of our zone leaders and he reminds me of Tim Jensen a lot. We had a good time sharing stories about all of our high school days of glory. He never played a college sport though. I am unique for that reason. I haven't found anyone else that has."

"I had some fun last night. We got in a little early so I decided to make a cake. It was hard! It was a white cake but that was too boring. So... I whipped up some jello mix and dumped it on the cake while it was still liquid. That made the cake way better because it just absorbed the liquid. It made it nice and moist and tasted like raspberries."

"Discouragement is just part of the game down here. It's okay though. We are baptizing a lady named Leela this weekend. She is Michelle's mom. (Michelle is the lady I baptized a couple weeks ago.) We will hopefully baptize a lady named Sarah next weekend as well as a kid named Ricky. They are both cool but have a problem (like most people down here) of putting in a little effort to come to church.
I have discovered the cure for discouragement though. It rests in last weeks Scripture of the Week. I read it at least once a week!"

This week's scripture is Alma 5:49-51