Christmas Pics

Well we got here 

the tree we sang at, 

the lights and people of Sol, 

the beautiful weather we have here today, 

all the missionaries we sang with, and our ward caroling group. :)

Feliz Navidad

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have all had a great celebration already and will enjoy today as well.

We've had quite a bit of fun stuff happen for this wonderful time of year. We had that big ol concert at the temple the 15th which was really good. So many people came and there are a bunch of missionaries who play instruments. Sadly they didn't need a sax, but it was still good. 

We also had a the special meeting on Sunday and a ton of people came. Some that we invited, some that members invited and people came that hadn't in a really long time. It turned out really well. The only thing was the Bishop didn't really know much about it, so it wasn't about Christmas all that much. But the people who spoke were the Bishop, and his two councilors. So it was special alright.

We also did a bunch of caroling. We had a little activity of decorating cookies and then we had a little group meet at the church to go some caroling. We visited a few families and sang to them then gave them cookies and a Christmas Card. We also sang on the way between visits even in the Metro. We got some funny reactions, but it was fun.

Then last night, we went and sang Christmas songs with the other missionaries. We met down in Sol and the streets and the plaza were packed with people, but we gathered at the base of the giant tree and sang. People seemed to like it. We had a good sized ring of people who stopped to watch us. It's a really cool mix of people there. It's completely tourist and so all kinds of languages and people from different places and it was cool trying to speak with them. We sang songs in English and Spanish and we had quite a few join in a bit. Our Mission President and his family who is visiting came to watch too.

At the end of that our plan was to go eat with some members and they don't have man who lives there so they had someone else invited to come, but that night they said they couldn't come and so we had to find some other man to come with us. The only issue was that it was Christmas Eve and everyone already and plans. But thankfully we got a set of Elders to come with us. The dinner was amazing. One of the ladies is an actual chef and it showed. They also had a ridiculous amount of food and just kept serving more. It was delicious, but I was stuffed. It didn't help either that the metros were all closed so we had to walk back to our apartment. Then we walked over to the Zone Leaders to spend the night.

Now all the Madrid missionaries are meeting up for a lunch today. It's gonna be a party. We've had a bunch of crazy things happen with teaching this week too. We got a reference from Canada for someone who wants to learn about the church that lives here. We also had a family text us out of the blue and we were able to go over and teach them. Lots of people to teach right now and it's awesome how open people have been this time of year. 

Have a wonderful Christmas!

Elder Larchar

Some good old cookies

Toledo

Me and Toledo

More of Toledo

More

Some of the ruins we looked at. This one was kinda scotch cuz that hole had the river flowing under it. But cool stuff.

I left the city for the first time

Well our Ward had their Christmas dinner this week and man, they know how to throw a party. There were decorations galore including s life size set for the nativity. They had been working on that for quite a while and it was impressive. Elder Hess and I were angels who appeared to the shepherds. The show was only like 15 minutes which was kinda crazy after all the prep, but still great. The dinner was awesome too and I got to meet a ton of people. There are so many that I'm still learning names, but we're getting there.

We also had a family home evening at a member's house and they invited some people and were going to have us give a little Christmas lesson thing. Then it didn't start for an hour after we got there waiting for people. And they just kept coming. I was a little surprised since all the apartments here are soooo small. But we all packed in their living room which was like a 15x15 room with all the chairs we could find in their house and showed the Christ Child video. We didn't have much time for the rest of it since we had another person to visit so we had to cut it short. But that person wants to start working on family history and preparing to take names to the temple. Which I'm excited for.

Today we went to Toledo as a district and just walked around the city. It's super small, but on a really steep hill so that made it interesting. But the country was super nice. We also went out on a little hike where we could see like the whole thing. It was fun. And it just keeps getting better here.

Have a good one,

Elder Larchar

Photos

Christmas

Christmas in Sol

Paris! Or at least the Madrid version

Nice sunset from the church

Don’t forget your keys

Happy Thanksgiving! We got to go to Goodburger to celebrate with the sister missionaries and zane leaders. It was great and the only lesson we had that day canceled on us which was super sad, but it made it so we coud actually go have Thanksgiving dinner it yay! We were on the metro and Her Hess' said "go ask that guy what kind of shake is his favorite", he asked why, but he he was actually interested in talking to me. Eventually he asked where we were going and he he told us that we were going in the wrong direction so we freaked out a little bit all was well, we were on the right track. So we kept talking and I asked if he'd want to meet some time and he said yes. So I got his whatsapp and we will see what happens but that was the first person I talked to all alone in Spanish! We then went back to the church to have some study, but we just tallking to Armando, Wilmer and Fabian. They're members that have been working on a big old nativity scene for a show we're putting on. After that we had to go get our apartment ready for other missionaries coming to stay the night. We got everything set and they got there so we went to go let them in and as I shut the door, I asked "do you have the keys?" and the answer was no. And so, we were a little stuck... All of the doors here are just locked and so when you shut them that's it. So we called everyone trying to figure out if we would have to call a locksmith. Thankully we had 2 fluent Spanish speakers, Elder Harriss was trying to break in the whole time, but this door is legit. But finally we found out that our londlard does have a key as does another person in the mission office. We eventually found out someone was coming with a key which was a huge relief that we wouldn't have to hire someone to break in for us, we still were waiting outside for a good bit, but hey bonding time right?

So usually our prep day is Monday but we got to go to the temple as a zone. So that's why the email is today and not monday. But we got up super early this morning and went. Then we got to spend a good chunk of time with the other missionaries after. It was fun and I'm glad I got to know a few more. Tomorrow we're having a multi zone conference where most of the missionaries in madrid are all meeting with President Bussey. It should be really good.

Just a little run down there'll be more next week.

Love,

Elder Larchar

I didn’t forget the subject this time

Well hello everyone. This week has been pretty great, getting to know the area and people more here and it's pretty awesome. 

I actually got to meet the members here this sunday which was great. And we're going to meet with quite  few of them this week. 

We had two times this week where we were given a reference for someone to go teach. We put the address into maps and followed it, but we would get there and there wasn't an apartment number that matched. And to make it even better, it was raining both times so we walked way out in the rain together and just had a blast. Part of the problem is madrid is massive. And there are, to my knowledge, no smaller divisions for addresses. You just have the street and apartment. So it's a little bit of a mess. But it's been fun. 

We have weekly district meetings where a couple missionaries get together and have a meeting. This week we had to travel a little to get there and it was a little interesting. We started on the metro and barely made our train and were on the bus for a while and by the time we got there we were half an hour late. But we're figuring it out little by little. On that trip there was a variety of landscape. Like just open land for the first time in a while which was super different and little towns and the contrast is really cool. 

We had Chocolate and Churros for the first time today as a district and it's so good! We also ate some other Spanish food and I love it. I'm excited for the members who have invited us over for dinner. They come from so many countries so we'll have a mix of cultural foods.

Madrid is really a mixing pot too which is cool. You can just start talking to someone (which is sort of what we do as missionaries) and there are so many cool stories and backgrounds that people have. I love it and I get to practice Spanish everywhere and it helps a bunch. 

That's pretty much all the time I have but it has been really good so far. Starting to feel settled in and just learnin about life up in here.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Larchar

Video chat 11/18

With the time change it was difficult to coordinate when to visit. On this day, I was the only one who got to chat with Elder Larchar. Madrid is 6 hours ahead of us. Caleb caught me after my morning at the nursery school, and I went to stand outside of the Earlville Library (which was closed) to use WiFi. The library director was working and invited me in from the cold. (Thank you, Shari)

Caleb is enjoying Spain and his independence in a new country. He carried lots of groceries through many metro stops and a few blocks of walking (his arm strength workout for the day). He says it’s amazing how there are always things happening outside their apartment, and that it’s the smallest flat ever! Madrid reminds him a lot of Paris. 

He was complimented by trainers for his Spanish, and that was a boost for him. He finds it easier to understand Madrid citizens than church members. At church there is a variety of “Spanish” backgrounds, and in the city the language seems slower and more relaxed. His comprehension is greater than his vocalization, though, and he looks forward to being able to formulate sentences beyond the one sentence structure he has learned.

He’s cold, and needs to get shopping for a parka, hat and gloves. He’s confident as ever and loving what lies before him. Way to go, Elder! Keep up the good work!

Jenni

First days photos

Elder Larchar and Elder Hess

View from the apartment in Madrid

The Madrid Temple

View of Madrid

Finally in Spain

Alrighty, well we be in Spain finally and it's pretty great. Everything is in Spanish believe it or not which is different, but it's a bunch of fun. 

So I was supposed to leave on Tuesday morning right? Which would have left me with the full night to pack. Well, about that... My companions decided to ship me out Monday night. So I had a full 45 minutes to pack. But I made it and with most of my stuff. Actually all but my shampoo and soap which is pretty good for the given circumstances. 

I still flew out Tuesday morning, but I stayed the night closer to the airport. I flew all day and through the night event though that happened because of the time difference. But we got there at 8 in the morning and apparently we were early (didn't know flights worked like that🙄) so there was no one there to pick us up for an hour. But it was all good. I got to meet a bunch of other missionaries that came in with me. We spent the day in the old missionary training center right next to the temple. We had orientations and paperwork and got to go to a huge park together which was beautiful. We then had dinner and stayed at the mission home.

The next day was back to the grind and we had a bunch of instruction. But then we finally got to meet our new companions. They would come up and describe the area they would be taking their trainee to and then President announced who was going there. It was a fun way to do it and thankfully I was one of the first ones so I wasn't totally on the edge of my seat the whole time. But it was fun. 

I am with Elder Hess and we live in downtown Madrid like right in the center (just north of Sol) and it's a pretty exciting. Since we're so much in the city, we live in the smallest flat ever. But it's nice and cozy. We ride the metro at least 6 times a day and we've gotten lost a few times, but it just all good plus we get to see more that way. 

I'm still learning where everything is and it is so crazy how much is always happening right outside out apartment. But it keeps things interesting. We have met people from all over including some college students on exchange here from Syracuse University. 

But I'm still meeting the people in our church and they're awesome. Food is amazing and yeah. It's been great. We actually got to do some service this week too. We helped shut down a restaurant. They were closing and we pretty much just helped move stuff and fridges out.

That's pretty much it, but I can't wait to tell about this coming week. 

Until next time, 

Elder Larchar

We’re not in Kansas anymore

I made it. I met Elder Linerude in Atlanta and we flew out together. There were also a ton of other missionaries who hopped on to so now we're all waiting for someone to pick us up.

Elder Larchar


Back home, we received a text from others traveling to Spain with this photo from Atlanta. 

Last letter from the States

So this Tuesday we had interviews with president as a zone. My interview was super short. He just asked how things were going and we were done. Then he got my companions in there and they talked for probably an hour. So I was just sitting outside talking with Sister Auna. She's so nice and I'm glad I got that chance to talk to her before I left. I got a call from President Auna last night which scared me at first, but it turned out everything is set for me to leave tomorrow morning and he also said he used to know my new mission President. We shall see. I'm excited to meet them on probably wednesday morning. 

So we checked our mailbox and I had gotten a letter a bit ago that said I was invited to attend the temple on Saturday. The only problem was that I read the letter on Sunday night so I missed it. But we did get to go earlier this week with some of our recent converts to do baptisms. We didn't have a session set up, but it turned out that the other people who were scheduled to come needed people to do the baptizing for their group so we were able to help them out.

We got to help out at the Alpaca Farm again. This time we helped move the rest of the stuff out of the house and then we ripped up all the carpets and threw them out. It was in pretty rough shape after the previous owner, but it's looking a lot better now. There was also a coffin in the living room thankfully with no one in it so we had to move that as well. Kinda weird and we just left it in the barn. Pallbearer was not in the job description. 

One of my companions went on exchange this week just for a day, but no one came over to our area from the other companionship. So it was just me and Elder Rhead. It was pretty different to just have one companion again. And I'll have to get used to it. But it does make me talk more which I guess is a good thing. 

So we did some service for someone who was a friend of someone we have been teaching. We pretty much just help them swap two bedrooms and it was pretty easy. Then I was thinking alright let's go. What's next. But my companions took a minute to share a quick message. Then I just thought well, that is one of the reasons I'm here and I should try to incorporate it into everything. “Ultimate happiness, true peace, and anything even remotely close to scriptural joy are found first, foremost, and forever in living the gospel of Jesus Christ.” -Elder Holland. Why not take every opportunity to share about Chirst. Especially with Christmas approaching. If Christ is who we claim him to be, he should be the most important part of everyone's life. It's kind of like President Nelson's gathering israel devotional. I'd invite you to listen to that and ponder on it this week.

Love,

Elder Larchar

There is a way to swim in the mission after all

Good morning, afternoon, whatever it is where you are. God day to ya.

This week was super fast and I think it's because of all the stuff we did. But all of it just speeds past so idk. But our days were pretty much planned out for us already so daily planning was super easy. We found some new friends (people we can teach), did a bunch of service, and with exchanges and meetings, there was a lot going on. But it was fun.

So on top of our regular food bank service twice a week, we got to help someone gut their closet and build new shelves. It was a fun little project cuz we didn't really know what we were doing. There also may or may not be a hole in the wall now... but we put a shelf there so it's all good. We also went to an alpaca farm. They are some special animals. But the babies are super cute. We helped the family move from one house on the property to another and they had this giant machine that wove alpaca fur into other fabrics. Never heard of that before, but yeah they wanted us to move it. Right before we were gonna lift it up he said by the way, this thing is $38,000 and if you just donk it a little bit it won't work anymore. And I was thinking "huh?! All for alpaca fur? Well, then you can have fun with that budy". But we did it and thankfully we didn't break it and they asked us to come back this week so we shall see what they have in store for us next.

We went on exchanges with the assistants this week which was pretty fun. We got the one at kinda speaks some spanish and he was actually companions with elder martinez before so it was a little reunion. And then we saw them again at the baptism saterday which is where the real story begins.

So while we were at the alpaca farm, we apparently got a phone call from the sister missionaries in the Spanish Branch, but we missed it. So we saw we had a voice mail and I wish I could have sent it because it is quite funny. The sisters were freaking out because they had a baptism in an hour and they were just at the church and they saw water seeping under the door. The baptismal font was overflowing into the hall. Not the ideal situation as you can imagine. So they were going back to their apartment because one of the sisters needed to change into dry clothes. Why you ask? Because she had to go swimming to pull the plug. The font didn't have a chain attached to it so they had to go down and pull it. The font really isn't all that deep or anything, but the sister is just a little short. 

So this was the situation we had and we needed to make the room ready for the baptism at 5:00. So we had a fan blowing, a bunch of towels on the floor that we were jumping around on and then wringing out just to try to get it dryish and it kinda worked. By the end you could still tell that the carpet was wet, but it didn't squish or get your feet wet anymore if you walked on it. And the baptism went pretty well. I got to give a lesson with my companion on the restoration and while my talking is still pretty slow, it was a solid lesson.

That's not nearly everything, but some of the highlights. Hope y'all have a good one.

Much love,

Elder Larchar

Washington drive-by pics

Each week faster than the last

Good afternoon y'all. So I do appreciate those who have messaged me, however I cannot respond using Facebook messenger. Thank you and I love the emails, but just so you know I'm not ignoring you.

Well this week has been pretty great. And not sure why, but each week seems faster than the last. And it's great to be here. I only have two weeks left here, but it's been fun. I have met so many missionaries here so far and I guess I'll just get to meet even more of them next month. The other Madrid elder and I leave the same day so hopefully we'll get to fly together. But anyway,

So we help out at a food bank twice a week and there are some occasional people that only speak spanish which is always fun, but we also happen to teach an English class every week. So we have been inviting people from the food bank to come to the classes and now we have a bunch of people coming and it's a good time. The best part is teaching how to pronounce weird English sounds. But we have a sister missionary who wants to go into speech therapy and my companion who had to learn how to do this not to long ago and I think our lessons are pretty good. 

This week we also had an oil change, but the church only uses this one company so we had to drive quite a bit to get there. When we got there we we found out they wouldn't have an opening for 3 hours so we had to kill some time. As soon as we dropped off our car three hours later, we were stopped by a lady who was very much not interested in what we had to say and the by a man who was the exact opposite he said he wanted to go to church and we told him where and when. The contrast within just a few seconds was pretty crazy. But during our little wait we decided to go have lunch with some other missionaries. But when we got to their apartment they weren't there so my companions just tossed me in the window and we decided to wait for them there. It turned out thosd missionaries were at another apartment so we just went to the church to do our studying. Where we saw some other missionaries. They're everywhere it's kinda crazy. 

 Every Sunday we meet with the Luna family who are recent concerts and we talked about and watched the Restoration video. We talked about faith and what they believe to be true for themselves or their testimonies and gave them a challenge to try to share what they know to be true with people when possible. It is pretty weird at first, but people have a lot of different beliefs and it's surprising how easy it is and how much people are willing to talk about them. Y'all should try it. People have so many stories and there are connections you can make all the time. 

Have a wonderful week, live it up. 

Love, Elder Larchar

First regular Sunday with the Branch

So, my companions had to go to Mission Leader Conference and I got to go with another set of missionaries: Elders Faisal and Usery. We had some good old study together and then we met with one of the people they're teaching. I loved the lesson we had. It's amazing how interested they are and how eager they are to learn. And these missionaries are English so that meant the lesson was in English as well which was quite enjoyable. So we taught about the Plan of Salvation and despite the dog running around and trying to jump all over us, it was a really spiritual lesson and definitely a highlight of the week. Afterward we went to the food bank for a solid 3 hours and I got to talk a little with a Spanish family we helped which was pretty cool and a little encouraging.

Every week, we meet with the Branch Mission Leader and this week they changed the time withought us knowing. So we arrived at 7:00 and no one was there. So we called them and they explained the situation to us and we didn't have a lesson planned (obviously) so they invited us over for dinner. The only problem was we had just finished our dinner back home. But we thought nah, it'll be fine. So we got there and for dinner they had this mexican soup thing I don't know what it's called, but it's super good. However, when they gave us our food, they gave us huge bowls of it and I just thought 'what have I gotten myself into?' And after we finished I was convinced I wouldn't have to eat the next day. 

This week I also got to have my new missionary training. I wasn't super excited for it, but it was actually really good. We got to hear from the Mission President and his wife, then we did some roleplaying with random people who wanted to come except we got to teach some of the mission office people instead, but it was still good. After lunch President Auna's son and daughter in law spoke to us. They were there visiting with their family. And at the very end, the Assistants prepared a message with videos from missionaries in the mission which was kinda unique. But learned quite a bit and got to meet a bunch of missionaries. 

Yesterday was my first regular Sunday with the Branch and one of the speakers was someone we helped put down a lawn for and he's a funny guy. I thought his talk was really good or at least the parts I understood. But then my companions were talking about it later and it turned out that at the beginning of the talk he said "in preparation, I came across this talk from General Conference and I think he just says it better than I could". He then proceeded to read the entire thing. I was just sitting there, but little did I know. But it's I'll good. I'll figure out this Spanish thing eventually.

There was a lady I met at church yesterday and she is from New York and so we were talking for a bit. And in our conversation she started telling me how every piece of our life is preparing us for something God has planned of us. We experience things as preparation for what is coming like one step at a time. It's and interesting way to look at life, rather than thinking about the difficult and complaining, think how you can take the opportunities in life to become the person you are meant to be.

Have a wonderful week everyone.

Spain, here we come! (For real this time)

So I got a phone call from President Auna (the Mission President here in Washington) and he said "well I got some good news and some bad news". That kinda scared me, but he said my visa has been approved, but I wouldn't be leaving until Nov. 12th. But I'm pretty excited. I get to experience a full transfer here and then by the time I get to Spain next month, I'll hopefully have the language kinda down and know how things work and we'll be ready to go. A member of the church here served his mission in Madrid and he has been telling me about it. Sounds like it'll be amazing and I can't wait to get there.

Our Monday is P-day was pretty great. We had a little celebration for the Zone reaching their goal. I wasn't really a part of that, but I got to go anyway. Afterward, it was starting to rain, but a bunch of the missionaries stayed and we played some volleyball and then some kickball. That was pretty fun and then there were just a few of us left and we decided to play some frisbee golf. I've never played it before, but it's pretty fun. By the end it was pouring and there happened to be a slipnslide on the hill right there. So we took advantage of being soaked and went flying right down there. It was a great end to the p-day.

On wednesday we had transfers and so now we have Elder Rhead with us. I'm a little off of the cycle since I got here two weeks before transfers and I'm leaving early too, but it means I've already had 3 trainers and who knows how many I'll have in Spain. We said goodbye to Elder Hughes, but Elder Martinez stayed with me.

I'm super grateful that we have a car I'll most likely have to say good bye to that when I leave here, but it has been super nice. In case you haven't figured it out yet, it rains a lot here and many missionaries are on the bikes all the time. Plus we can go see whomever we feel we need to anytime. I'm still with the Zone leaders too so I get to meet a bunch of the missionaries that I otherwise wouldn't.

We met a man this week when we were looking for someone we thought we had the address for and we asked him about his religious background and he told us that he was a Mexican Native American. It made more sense in spanish, but yeah. So he spoke Spanish, yay, and he also said that he worshiped the elements pretty much and had his own bible that comes from Native American history a really long time ago. So we told him about the Book of Mormon thinking he might be interested and we asked him if he wanted one he just said he was fine. But it was worth a shot. And he told us where we could find the person we were looking for.

We also started talking to a less active family and they weren't very into it. But we went back yesterday and we just talking about his life and he's having a bit of a rough time right now. I can barely understand what this guy is talking about, but thankfully I have a Mexican companion. So we had told him about English classes we give every Tuesday previously and this time he asked what time it was and said he wanted to go this week. We've had quite a few community members coming which is awesome, getting to know a bunch of new people.

It has been really good here so far and I'm understanding more and more of what people say each day. I finally got to meet the branch yesterday at church and it's pretty unique. It's similar in size to Norwich, but it's Spanish. Most of the people are bilingual, but some only Spanish and others only English so my companion translated yesterday for all of the English people. They are super nice though and I am definitely going to miss all the Mexican food people cook for us. I'm glad I get to spend another month here. 

I'd like to restate President Nelson's invitations for considering: 

“How would my life be different if my knowledge gained from the Book of Mormon were suddenly taken away?” or “How have the events that followed the First Vision made a difference for me and my loved ones?”

It's something to think about for sure and I know a lot in my life would be different, but here I am because of it. 

Hope everything is going well for all of you and yeah, have a great week.

Love, Elder Larchar

Video chat 10/7

Doesn’t he look great? When we see him on the video chat it’s like he’s glowing! We didn’t send him with a rain coat- he’s borrowing one from the mission. 

What a great opportunity to serve! We are so happy to have him out there!

Wonderful Washington

So, I made it everybody. And it's super pretty here compared to Utah. And really similar to NY. I ended up not flying alone here which was nice. There were 3 other visa waiters who were Dutch speaking. And I have two companions now, but one of them is leaving this transfer :(. (See picture of us soaked in the rain.)

I was worried about not having Spanish practice here, but we are assigned to a Spanish area so all our teaching is in Spanish. It's pretty fun to be talking to random people on the regular now.

So the day I met my companions, they said Elder Martinez didn't speak English. We were in a district meeting and one of the sister missionaries was translating for him. And everybody we bumped into played along with his Spanish thing. He completely had me until a few hours later when he just said "by the way, I do speak English". And I just thought you've got to be kidding me. I had been trying so hard that whole time when I didn't have to.

General Conference was great. There were so many good talks and this was probably the first Conference ever that I was focused the whole time. Let me tell ya, it makes a difference. I really liked in Peter M. Johnson's talk how he said "If we dont understand who we are, how are we supposed to imagine who we can become?" Without the knowledge of God's plan for us, how are we going to follow it? He wants us to repent every day, changing for the better so we can become more like Him. As we try to fix all the little things in our lives and turn to Christ for help, we can become the best versions of ourselves possible. 

We invited a lot of our friends to watch Conference and I hope they did. We made the promise that if they would listen to Conference with a question in mind and I definitely saw that for me and I hope they experienced the same thing.

We found Waldo. I mean Aldo. He is super interested in our lessons which is really cool. He doesn't really have any religious background, but he's pretty eager to learn about everything. We taught him about the restoration and first vision and he's loving it.

We're also teaching this recently converted family. Right now we are trying to get their daughter to attend seminary and are just teaching them. They have the cutest dog ever named Chewy. He freaks our whenever we come over and they say he watches us drive away and then he's sad. But that dog is just 10 pounds of cuteness.

Seattle, Washington

From President Auna:

I wanted to inform you of the safe arrival of your missionary son into the Washington Everett Mission.  Although they will be with us temporarily until their visa arrives, Sister Auna and I want you to know how much we already love them

Airport to Washington State

A kind soul at the SLC airport forwarded this shot of the happy, excited missionaries!