Divine Intervention - 8-4-14

This was a good week!! We had zone training and I did a musical number with Sister Baugh and Sister Stephenson and Sister Andrus played the piano. After that they asked us to do another one at zone conference so we'll be doing that this Wednesday.

We have become good friends with our neighbors, who are AWESOME! Their names are Lisa and Sam. I met Sam when I was backing Sister Andrus out of our driveway and he told me that their dog had puppies and we could come over and see them sometime... He said if we are ever having a bad day, to come see puppies because "I guarantee puppies will cheer ya up in a heartbeat!" Amen to that!! We've visited them like twice and they are so nice and AWESOME!! We talk to them for a long time... They've asked us a lot about missions and stuff. They said if we ever need help with anything to not hesitate to ask them... So yeah they are super great! And, we asked them last time we talked to them if they could do us a favor. We said that we don't have any investigators therefore we have
no one to teach. We asked if we could come and practice teaching them.  They said YES! They are Catholic but are willing to let us practice on them and we're doing that tonight!!!!

Yesterday we stopped by a family that we've talked to a couple times... The Dad I've talked to a couple of times and he is always nice and says we can come back. The Mom I have met once and she wasn't very nice to us... We asked her if we could come back and she said "I don't know!" In a really frustrated tone. But she was nice to us yesterday... We talked to her for awhile! Then she said she had to go make dinner and so we said goodbye. As we were walking to our car her husband came up on his bike with his son. He said hi to us and said "did you convert em yet?" We said no. He said, "I'll go in and talk to my wife and see how you did." Haha it totally sounded like he is a member. But he's not.

Also, Thursday night Bishop called us and felt that we needed to go on an emergency visit to an inactive family that isn't in our area... They live in our district leader's area. Bishop and a member were going to go visit them, but Bishop said he got a strong prompting that he shouldn't go. Then he felt that Sister Andrus and I needed to go. So we went with a member named Bob, who is their home teacher. We talked to them about family and read part of the family a proclamation. They have a 15 year old daughter who is spiritual and tries to get her family to pray together but they just think she's weird. Anyways, she's been attending a Baptist church for the last couple months. She said she had more questions answered in the time we taught them than she had answered in months of attending the Baptist college. I have no idea what questions we answered but it was cool, and I know she was the reason we needed to go that night. We are going to continue to try and bring her back to the church.

The Hope of God's Light

Feel lost and alone? 

Hear what a man on the brink of suicide learned about God's promise to LIGHT OUR WAY no matter how long it takes.

 

 http://bit.ly/1AuYjwQ

It takes an act of FAITH to open our eyes to the 

LIGHT of CHRIST! 

HE will ILLUMINATE the way!

Life of A Missionary 7-31-14

Hola Mi Familia,

So as requested, I am about to provide you with a regular days schedule:
6:15 am Arise and Exercise!
8:00 am Personal Study
9:00 am Companion Study
10:00 am Go to Work! Proselyte! Teach! Convert!
We get a 1 hour break for lunch and 1 hour break for dinner
On Tuesdays we usually go the Family History Center from 12 -2
On Thursdays we have district mtgs from 10:30- 12:30 and weekly planning from 1-4pm
Sundays we have church from 9:30am-12:30pm. Every other week we go to ward council at 8:15am

So that is the life of a missionary. Our curfew is 9pm to be in apartment and 10:30 lights out. I am often tired, but with the process of adjusting it has gotten better.

I don't have to drive anymore- which is very nice because now I can look out my window at the scenery more! And I get to control the music--- SCORE!

You know what I've learned about people as a whole in general? My parents' generation have a problem with being content--- they're living life in their comfort zone, feeling good and happy, so, "why would they need God in their life?" And then there is my generation--- the ones who have a problem with being apathetic. They don't wanna know because they simply do not care. Obviously, everyone is not like this but it's just something I have learned as I have talked to people.

Something else interesting that I have learned--- simply DO NOT JUDGE! This past Friday we were walking to a member's house from our apartment-- it's probably about a mile's walk. We always pass this little shop called 'Summit Cigar' which sells... *take a wild guess* Yup, beer and cigars. I have always avoided people there who sit at the tables outside smoking-- we say hi but don't stop and talk. I've always felt like they wouldn't be very nice or want to talk.

On this particular day, however, there were 3 men sitting at the table and we decided to stop and talk to them. They were so nice!! We ended up talking to them for a good 20 minutes. We told them about the Restoration and they also had a lot of questions about missions. One guy felt it is wrong that women can't hold the priesthood so we talked about that as well. One of the guy's name is Frank-- he lives on the same street as our church building, he said. Ha ha, he asked us if we believed in polygamy. When we told him no, he said, "dang if ya did I would totally be joining!" Ha ha, what a jokester. They all have their own religion already, and Frank said his is happy where he's at. He said if he weren't happy he would love to learn more, but he is happy. It was so fun to talk with them and they were so very nice. They are impressed with what we are doing. They were a lot nicer than a lot of people who look like they'd be nice but aren't. So you can never really judge.

Thank you for everything, my wonderful family!

Goal Accomplished 7- 28-14

Hello! This week was really great! Tuesday night our mini missionary arrived... Sister Pierson and she is awesome! She lives about two hours away. We were able to show her the ropes of missionary work this week and it was GREAT! Also, our zone focus this week was number of referrals asked for... In two weeks our district had a goal of 400. So we had to push ourselves to talk to EVERYONE and ask them for referrals. We aren't located in a big city so we don't see as many people on the streets... So we usually averaged about five or six a day. But yesterday we went to a park and walked a half mile trail that had a lot of people... So we talked to EVERYONE and got 24 yesterday! We'll definitely be going to that park and trail more often. Unfortunately, no one had anyone they knew that we could share the gospel with. Out of the 65 referrals we asked for, we only got 2 referrals out of it.
 
We did more service this week; weeding and cleaning for a member. We also got to go pick blueberries at a farm and we used that as a finding activity an 8 year old member was baptized and Sister Andrus, Sister Pierson and I got to teach the plan of salvation at that. I also had to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday and that went really well. We are going to start volunteering at the local
animal shelter which I'm excited about. It was a really busy/wonderful week!!
 
I also got to go on exchanges this week and I got to go 1/2 an hour away to Moscow with Sister Baugh. We got to teach two investigators that they have and that was a good experience for me:)

GOOD NEWS!!!! I HAVE A GUITAR!!!!! Sister Pierson's mom brought it for me when she came to pick up Sister Pierson last night. I'm so happy!! I practiced and now my fingers are killing me because I lost my callouses. But I am so excited

Mini Missionary 7 -21-14

So I've got some real exciting news!! Earlier in the week the AP's called Sister Andrus and I and asked us if we would host a mini missionary! She is 17 years old and lives about 2 hours away.   She'll be coming this Wednesday and she'll stay with us till Sunday.   It is going to be so much fun!! We'll get to show her the ropes of missionary work I'm excited!

We got to do A LOT of service this week... Like every day which is AWESOME!  We helped a member pack up her glass kitchen items (two families are moving out of our ward; basically they're taking the whole junior primary because they both happen to have five or six kids under the age of eight... So that's minus like 10 kids!). 

We weeded for another member in Scranton and started talking to her neighbor who seemed pretty interested in the church! We gave her a Book of Mormon and our number... Unfortunately if she began investigating, the zone leaders would teach her because that's their proselyting area. But we really enjoyed talking to her!

We talked to this guy named Marty the other day.   He lives in a trailer park with 17 cats! 17!!!  He's a Jehovah's Witness.  We taught him a bit about our beliefs, he retorted back with his beliefs which are... Interesting.  We ended up agreeing to disagree...  Sister Andrus shook his hand and I had to as well... but his hands are so filthy so we immediately ran over to the McPherson's right after to wash our hands, haha.

We also participated in youth conference and got to do an activity with the youth; teaching them role plays. We then split them into groups and had them do role plays.  It was a lot of fun.  I've had to lead the music in sacrament meeting the past two weeks which is interesting because I've never really led before.

Yesterday in relief society, the member who we weeded for taught the lesson. She brought up how we had gone and weeded her yard for her and how she has been telling everyone at work, "while I'm here at work the missionaries are at my house weeding my whole yard for me! That is the way our church is!" She said a lot of people have been impressed with that and it has led them to ask more questions about the church!  So, I think it's cool that even something as simple as weeding a members garden can affect other people in helping them see how good the church is.

New Companion 7-14-14

Hello!! This week was transfers!! My new companion is Sister Andrus who is AWESOME! she's 22, from Arizona and she's been out for 6 months. Sister Fletcher got transferred to Stroudsberg which is only like an hour away.  Guess who her new companion is?! Sister Casey, my MTC companion!!! It is so weird that my two previous companions are
now companions... SO WEIRD!!!

This week was good!!! Especially yesterday... The two inactive families we have been working with both came to church again yesterday! That's two weeks in a row! I sang in sacrament meeting and Sister Andrus played the piano wonderfully I sang I Believe In Christ and it went really well... A lot of people cried so I guess that's a good thing.

There was a relief society dinner on Thursday that was really fun! We got to meet a 15 year old French exchange student named Sonya that is staying with a member in the ward and she's really awesome! We had invited a lot of non members to the activity but none showed up
unfortunately. But it was a lot of fun!

Service with the Mayor- 6-23-14

This week we did service with the mayor! It was so much fun and she is so delightful. She reminds me of what my friend Taylor Standage will most likely look like in 30 years!! . She brought a journalist over to take a picture of us to be in the newspaper... But it may not make the print so it will at least for sure be online! Mayor Lawler said she'll print us out copies for us to send home!  we planted flowers on Main Street around the clock tower and it was so fun.

Everyone complains about the heat but it felt perfect to me. I seem to be the odd one that's always cold though. But I LOVE doing service!!!! Preferably outside... The hard working kind that makes ya sweat!!

Today we saw Diane again and it was so great  just seeing how she wants to change and what our visits do for her... It is amazing!! And the hope and comfort that the gospel brings to her life! Those are the moments that make me so happy. It is so easy to get discouraged out here... But those moments make it all worth it. I truly have gained a strong testimony that the greatest medicine for when you're feeling down is helping others!!! And hard work!! "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 10:39) The only problem is finding people that will allow us to actually help them haha.

Remember the family we told you about in the trailer park? We saw Austin (the 13 year old) two days later and he said he had already read 6 pages of the Book of Mormon! He said his dad was reading too. We were very excited. That meeting was super short, and we tried back one more time after that and got no answer. The next day we tried again, and a lady we had never met answered and said rudely, "nobody's home!" And then she shut the door on us. We tried again yesterday and there was a lady out in their front yard (I don't know if it was the same lady that shut the door on us, but it looked like a different one) and when she saw us walking up, she yelled, " Oh no, don't even bother! Austin is not a Mormon and he's never gonna be a Mormon! DO NOT come back!!" So we told her to have a nice day and walked away. It's really sad, but at least we know they'll have other chances to accept the gospel, if not in this life than in the next. I just wish we could know how Austin and his dad are feeling about it instead of being turned away by a crazy lady. They received the first lesson so well! But oh well, it is what it is.

We have now started teaching an 8 year old to prepare him to be baptized. His family is all less actives so we gotta work on reactivating them as well.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Sister Larsen

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