A photo sent to us from Sister Larsen

What happens when you contact in the library instead of writing your family...

Follow up to last week’s email (although we actually had to specifically ask him about it.): It was a dodgeball incident. Pure accident. Talk about the atonement! haha he went in for a laser procedure and it went really well. He had a detached retina. It’s really not too good. I feel super bad.

Hi family! This week has been really fun. It’s been over 15 hours of doctor appointments and large recovery periods. 

Spiritual: We had a lesson out of the blue with a man named Nu. haha We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and testified to him that the book had the purpose of life. He was blown away. He just kept repeating the fact that that was a huge question and it was amazing that that little book had the answers to life. It’s so true! The Book of Mormon has all the answers. We just need to do some looking.

Where I am at: Transfers are coming and things do not look good for an extended stay here in paradise. Sigh. It will be hard to leave but there are some amazing things yet to come. I have found that the area has all of the sudden exploded with the work. Oh boy. Looks like it’s time to go! haha I love you all so much! I think of you daily and pray for you as well. I just got the number of a lady who was sitting by me and she committed to come to church. Sacrifices bring forth the blessings of heaven! So sorry this is short. I love you all! 

Better Late than Never

Hi family: 

I am alive and happy. I will email you more on Monday.

Spiritual: Awesome lesson with a less-active where I was able to testify to him that the Book of Mormon is true and tell him why its blessed my family. I testified that my dad had seen more blessings come from being willing to sacrifice his family time for time for the Lord. it was so powerful when I was able to testify. Unfortunately he used his agency to say that he couldn't come to church because he was too busy. Too busy being retired. haha Don't let anything in the world keep you from being close to the Lord. 

Funny: I gave my companion a concussion. Not so funny to him.

Where I am at: on exchanges while he recovers! Don't worry; his brain and eye are fine. He is a great blessing to me and a huge example of forgiveness. I love you all and I am doing really well.

Love you all!

New Suit

This week was amazing. It was so much fun to meet Elder Cook and there have been a lot of fun experiences happening lately. I am happy to be where I am and am really enjoying life here. 

Spiritual: The Miracle of the Suit. 

Here it is. The suit of all suits. Okay family, I know what you are thinking right now. Is that a skinny suit? The answer is yes. Please don't disown me for it. It’s a miracle! And spectacularly trendy. So one week ago I awoke to the thought of "I need a new suit for Elder Cook. My other suit is 4 years old and looks like it. I need to look super pro and appropriate. I also don’t want to spend a ton of money on this suit. I would like it for around 10$ but that is not going to happen. It would be a miracle if I could find a suit for 100$. This is Pleasanton California. 10th richest city in America and people here dress like it. Okay. 100$ is all my budget will allow." When I told my companions they looked at me with a “Yeah okay. That’s cute Elder Black. Good luck.” We then headed out. First place we went was Macys. I went in and was looking around and found a really cool jacket for $100 and some pants for $65. Okay I thought. I can stretch. $165 is still not bad. I went and tried them on and they were too small. Darn. At this point I had to stop and ask myself why I was there. Was I getting a new suit to look good for me or for Elder Cook and for the Mission? I realized that I would be perfectly happy with my old suit but that I had the means to sacrifice to look good for and Apostle of the Lord and I would be willing to do it. There in the dressing room I asked Heavenly Father to help me find a suit. An earnest heartfelt plea. Then I went out to hunt again. There was a sales lady there and she asked for my size and then went hunting for me while I looked for some other pants. She popped up out of the blue and asked if I liked the color of some pants. I said yes and went on my way. Elder Moesser turned and said to me "Hey. You didn’t tell her you only had a $100 price limit. She is going to bring back a $400 suit!" I agreed and inwardly groaned. She finally came back and I confronted her telling her "I am so sorry, but I only have a $100 price limit. Sorry for making you work." She laughed blatantly and said "Oh $100$?? You way over budget! This is $40!!" I was shocked. I went and tried it on. It fit like a glove. It was a miracle! When she was ringing me up she even said to me "The Lord is with us today!" The Lord answers prayers that have righteous desires associated with them. I had a desire to please the Lord, asked for His divine assistance and He blessed me for it. It was a miracle. 

Funny: Remember that leeky dog? He struck again. This time we took Elder Moesser who it was his first time meeting Rosco and as we were getting out of the car we told him to watch out but that he would probably be in the back yard. This time when we knocked on the door the family said that they were just going to let him loose to get it out of his system of the front porch. He should not have gotten those new shoes that day. hahah

Where I am at: Miracles are happening in Pleasanton. There are a lot of good things happening in this area. We will have two baptisms this Saturday if everything goes as planned! We also have a ton of lessons coming up here as well. It’s Awesome. 

February 3, 2014

Spiritual: This week we were going to see a lot of the less actives that I did not know. We decided to go see Leon Easton, residing in a rest home on Neal St. We went over and asked for a Mr. Easton. No resident by that name was there. We felt really awkward and asked if he had, ya know, passed on. The reply was no. We then asked if there was a Mrs. Easton. There was! We went in to visit her and it was an amazing feeling. We walked into a dark room with a lady sitting there staring at a dark wall. It took us back for a second. We then asked if she was Sister Easton and if she was a member of our church. She replied with a rousing “Oh Yes!” We then proceeded to have a fairly long conversation on the church. It was one of the hardest conversations to have because she had memory problems and had trouble speaking so there was really not much to talk about. The one thing she said she knew a lot about though and really remembered was genealogy. She even asked us to quiz her on it! We proceeded to ask her about her father’s grandmother and she was able to reply! It was amazing. The only solid thing that she could remember was genealogy! It was incredible. We felt inspired to ask her if she wanted a blessing and she said yes. As we proceeded to place our hands on her head we felt so many people in the room. It was amazing. We basically gave her a blessing that told her there were people waiting on the other side who love her so so so much and couldn't wait to talk to her. It was amazing to know that God loves us and by performing the saving ordinances for the dead we make friends on the other side. The Spirit was so strong! If you aren't doing family history, do it! We need friends who will be with us when no one else can be. 

 Funny: We were in another rest home (Wow. We visit a lot of older people) and we met these two old codgers, one man and one woman. We asked them what their names were and the gentleman replied Donald. "Donald? That’s a cool name! Where does it come from?" He replied "A duck. My mom named me Donald because she saw him on the TV!!” The rest of the conversation spiraled down from there. We were laughing so hard at this 80 year-old man named after a duck. Oh it was funny. haha

 Where I am at: Things in Pleasanton are fantastic. It’s so cool to see what the blessings are of following the council of your leaders. Missionary work has taken a dramatic increase with all of the return and report system of doing missionary work. We are still teaching Max, Anthony and Angelina and they are all progressing very well. We love them so much! We have decided to push this week and start asking the questions that will get some of these less actives back to progression. Asking hard questions is hard, but the rewards are awesome.