Larson Legacy

Pictures from Mexico!

2009-01-15T01:30:00.000-08:00

ALL THE WAY FROM MEXICO! This picture is from the mission home in Torreon Mexico. This is when Clay first got to Mexico and doesn't he look scared to death. I am sure a lot was running through his head at this time like what in the heck am I doing :)
This is Clay in front of one of the many Catholic churches they have over there. He said they are all really pretty. He looks happy in this picture.

This is a great picture of him and his companion Elder Lopez. He is a native and is from Puebla Mexico. Clay really likes him. They live in a dump of a place but looks like they are both happy. They have to wake up every morning and turn on the boiler to heat the water to take a shower. On Christmas morning they had no gas to turn on the boiler so they just got a bucket of water and plugged in the iron and put it in the water to heat the water! Yep! Can you believe that. Quess it is quite common over there to do that. It's crazy to me. Clay said he just got a little bit of a shock :)

This is by far my most favorite picture. Doesn't he look so happy. He is washing his clothes on a scrub board and freezing. He said it took him 3 hours to wash his clothes this way. Sometimes they get to wash there clothes at members homes. But not this time! I am so grateful for the experiences he is having. He is loving his mission and the spanish is coming along finally. I will try to be a better blogger. I wanted to wait until I recieved some pictures before I posted. Sorry it's been so long. I am still new at this and am not quite sure what I am doing. That's why I have two pictures of my favorite picture on this blog because I don't know how to get the second one off. HA! Oh well I know you love looking at our happy boy twice.

Receiving Letter's part two!! :)

2008-10-22T19:32:00.001-07:00

Well, I don't know what I did with the last post but I pushed some button and it posted a blog that I had'nt even started. Well I am still learning. I just wanted to post something really quick about our missionary Clay buddy! We have received 3 letters from him and they are all amazing. He is already learning so much and has caught the spirit! He loves it and has had some pretty great experiences so far. After dad gets back from his hunting trip I will have him help me scan Clay's letters and you can read them for yourselves. Dad and I feel so blessed to have a missionary out. Clay's P-Day is on Thursday while he is at the MTC we will be getting letters on Mondays. It use to be that Mondays were my least favorite day of the week and now they are my favorite. Well, I just wanted to write a little something and tell you that Elder Larson is doing great and that we need to all continue to pray for him. He is going to be a great missionary I can already tell.

Recieving letters from Elder Larson

2008-10-15T17:01:00.001-07:00

Today is the Day! October 8th @ 12:30PM

2008-10-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Today was such a bitter-sweet day! There is no other place that parents would like to have their 19 year old son than on a mission serving the Lord. But I am here to tell you that it is the hardest thing we have ever done. Thank goodness that this is our very last child to go out the door. We never want to experience that again! It was harder than heck saying bye to Clay. We are so proud of him and his decision to serve the Lord. I will take you through the day. First off this is Clay when he first woke up this morning. I expected him to sleep in alittle bit because he was up late talking to the twins and Wendy, but he must of been very exciting because he woke up around 8:00am.Taught him how to iron a shirt! Think I waited until the last minute to teach him some things! :) Oh well at least he did it and he did a great job. I told him his brother TJ can iron a shirt better than I can and so he had alot to live up to.After showering and getting ready he sat down on got onto his my space just one last time. He wrote something on his my space that told all his friends he wouldn't be on there for awhile.This is the room we stayed in at Little America in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was a really nice room kinda homey! It was hard coming back to the room and seeing Clay's bed and no Clay :(Clay and I were standing outside our hotel waiting for Van to bring the car around to load up all his luggage.

We went to breakfast before the MTC and Clay got to pick the place. I think he picked Denny's because that is where he and Wendy ate breakfast alot. We let him make all the decisions on where to eat.He made his mom alittle abstract figure out of the Denny's straw paper! Yep I will keep that forever!

We are at the MTC here. You pull up in front first and they help you unload your luggage. Then I stayed with Clay and dad went to park the car. You take your luggage to this holding spot. Clay's spot was 18. Clay's favorite number is 88 and alot of things with his mission have 8's in them. His spot to leave his luggage 18, his date he went into the MTC 10/08/2008, the date he is leaving the MTC 12/08/2008.Clay in front of the Wilford Woodruff Administration Building. This is the building that it all takes place in. This is before we went in and before he got his tag.Van and I with our favorite missionary! Thank goodness you can't see me up close because I think I had already lost most of my eye make-up by this time!

Ok this is a funny story. We were standing outside talking and taking pictures before we went in to get Clay's tag and there was this family that was standing by us. There dad said to Clay "Where are you going Elder" Clay said "Mexico" he said "Where in Mexico" Clay said "Torreon" he said "Meet your companion Elder". This family's son is going to Clay's same mission. So Clay shook his hand and of course I had to get a picture of them. Maybe they will be in the same district at the MTC. That would be really cool. I think it put Clay alittle more at ease meeting someone that was in his same mission before he even went in.

This is when we went inside the building, Clay went in one door to get his badge and meal ticket and Van and I went into another door and met him in there. This is Clay talking to the nice lady. The workers (over 800) are so nice. They were always saying welcome Elder, smile Elder, were proud of you Elder. It was unbelievable.I know I know I don't look very happy. Because first of all when he first showed me his badge I started crying. Just to see Elder Larson on that badge made me so proud of him. I don't look happy because I am crying. Although I am thrilled to pieces it doesn't look like that. You know it's the bitter-sweet thing.Look at my two handsome boys. They both look pretty nervous. Van keep saying that he was so nervous for Clay. He was jealous because he remembers how awesome it was to go on his mission but he said he remembers going in and how nervous he was!
Clay with a picture of Christ. This is before we walked down to the room where you say goodbye!

Our Missionary!!!

Mani Temple Day!

2008-10-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, the day before Clay went into the MTC we went up to Manti and went through the Manti Temple. That was an awesome experience for all of us. We had a very fun day and Van and I so enjoyed our time with Clay.

It is so pretty sitting up on the mountain like that!

The good looking Elder Larson

Mom kissing here Elder on the cheek!

We also went to the Pioneer Cemetery where Van's great great great grandfather was buried. His name was Christian Larson. If you look really close in this picture you will see two deer!Van and Clay were looking for Christian Larson's name in this book that they had there.We were getting ready to leave and I snap a picture of the good lookin boy again!

We stopped at an ice cream shop called "Polly's Brain Freeze". It had ice cream and a candy shop too.

On the way back from Manti we decided to go sneak a peek at the MTC before we took Clay the next day. You know we had to see where it was so we didn't get lost the next day. We also took a picture of the Provo Temple on that day!
We finished up the day by eating at Clay's choice since it was his last meal with his mom and dad for awhile. You should of know he would pick "Texas Roadhouse". He wanted his dad to try the ribs and steak combo. Van always gets the chicken fritters and Clay really wanted him to try his favorite. It was a really great ending to a wonderful day.

Priesthood Session and Olive Garden

2008-10-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

Clay with the First Presidency! Isn't he so handsomeClay with President Spencer W. Kimball (his relative)!
When Kristi and I were driving around while the boys were in the Priesthool Session I took this picture of the temple. It is so so pretty at night!

The boys went to Priesthood session and Kristi Daynes and I drove around got lost and then finally made it to Olive Garden to get a table for all of us. Van said the Priesthood session was awesome. He said the best part was hearing the MTC choir. Can you imagine seeing a choir loft full of missionaies from the MTC singing "Called to Serve" and "I'll go where you want me to go". I can't even imagine that I would of loved to have seen that. We had a great time at Olive Garden with Kristi and Josh. Josh and Clay while we were waiting for our table.
Kristi, Van, Clay and Josh waiting for the table.This was at the Sunday morning session. It was really bright outside so I look chinamanlike :)

Kristi and Josh Sunday morning.
Good lucking buddy on Sunday morning! Like I said it was really bright outside.Clay marking his scriptures on Sunday after conference!Just so all of you know we are having a blast! We love all of you and miss you like crazy. Clay is ready to go. He is asking Van so many questions. I love hearing them carrying on discussions about the gospel!

This was Friday!

2008-10-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is us at the old tabernacle. The nice guy that took our picture didn't know how to take pictures :) I would of liked to have the organ in the picture.
This is Clay and I at Temple Square. The flowers are just beautiful You can see the organ in this one!
My two handsome boys!
What can you see by our feet?? Trivia!

The Time Has Come!

2008-10-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

These pictures were when we first got to the airport. Notice TJ it looks like he is sitting in a wheelchair and is a cancer patient. The kids wanted to rub his shaved head. He had more hair on his face than he does on his head!

Here are a few pictures from the airport scene! Clay was so sweet when he was saying bye to his nieces and nephews. And then we have the horrible pictues of when he was saying bye to his brother and sisters. Of course I cried everytime I saw all my kiddos crying.

Saying bye to TJ

Saying bye to TamraSaying bye to Niki
Niki and Clay had a really hard time!
Clay was showing Brycee the airplane!

Walking back from looking at the airplane
The kiddos got a big kick out of the airplane! Clay with Miss Kate

Clay with his sisters! (We missed you Amy and Sarah)

The brothers
Clay with Brycee

Clay with crazy Dallin Clay saying bye to Lily Girl!

Elder Clay Larson is LEAVING!!!

2008-07-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

This IS a day to remember!

Clay received his mission call to Mexico Torreon Mission and will be leaving on October 8th! It is prefect timing for us. Van has a mission reunion on October 3rd up in Utah and we have decided to take Clay to General Conference on October 4th and 5th. We have never been to general conference so we are very excited. Then 3 days after that he will enter the MTC. His mission is in the middle of Mexico. It is quite a large area he will be serving in. He will be learning spanish and will get to speak spanish to his dad and brother. We are so proud of his decision to serve!! We will have 3 Larson boys out on missions. DJ is in Spain, Braydon in South Africa and Clay Mexico. We will be having a little bit of Heaven on Earth when we all go to the temple on August 9th. All 6 children and their spouses will be there with Van and I. What a awesome experience that will be. We will also get our family picture done on that day because Sarah and Mark will be there from El Paso. It is also Tama Lama Ding Dong's (Tamra) birthday. I feel so blessed!

This picture is when Clay was getting ready to open his mission call and his dad said "son before you open that just know that there are hundreds of missionaries all over the world opening their mission calls but...this is YOUR mission call. It is meant just for you. These next two years will change your life forever." and this picture is Clay listening to his dad!

Clay reading his call!!

IT'S HERE!!!!

2008-07-07T10:10:00.001-07:00

Clay's mission call is here but.....
We have been on vacation to Chama New Mexico and so on the way to work this morning (Monday July 7th) I went by the postoffice and it is here! Once again it is sitting here in front of me at work and I CAN'T OPEN IT!! What our plans are is to drive to Gilbert today and open it with the other kids tonight for FHE! My stomach is in knots just seeing it sitting here with "Elder Clayton Bryce Larson" on it. Well, we should know by tonight where Clay will be for the next 2 years. I don't know why with both of our sons this happens! Why can't the mission call come and we just open it up. It has to be a lengthy process! Everyone of our kids are home from their 4th vacation except for Amy and Dustin. We are hoping that they can cut there trip short or drive down to here the call and drive back. After all we are doing that :) We will be putting the notice out to everyone tonight.

2008-06-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Fun at Chico's Taco's!! We met at Chico's the night before the reunion started. We had a blast visiting with everyone and it just made it exciting for Friday to come!!

2008 Larson's Meet Again

2008-06-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

We just met as the Larson Clan once again on June 20th. What a blast we had! Everyone else has already blogged about the events so I will save you that but I do have some great pictures.

We ate at Bisbee Breakfast Club before leaving town.

When we asked Clay and Rachel how they felt about going to the family reunion this is what they did!!!

HE IS ON HIS WAY!!!

2008-06-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

I guess it is about time that I start posting!! The latest and greatest information is that Clay is now in the waiting process of receiving his mission call. He met with the Stake President last Sunday. He had a really good and long interview with President Goats and he forwarded his papers on to Utah. We are so excited for Clay and the decision he has made to serve a mission. What great examples he has had in his life. His dad, brother, all his brother-in-laws, cousins, cousin's spouses, and friends! Thanks to all of you for being such awesome examples for Clay. We should know something in about 2 to 3 weeks. There are currently 335 places Clay could go. It will be fun to see where he is going. We are planning our family picture and Clay's endowment session on the same weekend sometime after he receives his call. This is so Sarah and Mark won't have to travel over to Arizona twice. We are planning on having the picture taken on a Friday and the temple will be on Saturday. It will be "Heaven on Earth" to have all of our children and all of their spouses in the temple at the same time. So make sure your temple recommends are current!!