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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Small Miracles 6-16-14

This week was good! On Wednesday night we got to participate in the mutual activity which was on missionary work. The elders in our district were there as well, and we were in charge of different stations to talk to the youth about missionary work. Sister Fletcher and I (and a return missionary In the ward named Javier) talked to them about why we decided to serve, and overcoming doubts. It's funny; Javier talked about how he absolutely DID NOT want to go somewhere close on his mission. But he went to the Washington DC mission; which is like 4 hours away from here (so no complaining, Elder Larsen  haha).  He wasn't happy about it at first, but he ended up LOVING it. I shared about the doubts I had and how Mom would ask me, "are those doubts fear based, or faith based?" That line is something I've had to say to myself quite a bit thus far on my mission as well.

Thursday we met with a less active named Diane. It's amazing; the changes we've seen in her since the first time we met her. She tells us how much she loves our visits and how good it makes her feel. She said she had prayed that both of us wouldn't be transferred this transfer. She is going to be coming to church soon but she was out of town this weekend. She wants to get to the temple to be sealed to her husband. It is so great to see her progress!

So crazy story: we went to a trailer park to see Lisa, a potential investigator that seems interested but always says, "it's not a good time; come back Sunday night at 6" but then she doesn't answer when we do! We parked our car and began walking to her trailer, but this 13 year old kid ran over to us and said he had a question. His step mom came over too. He asked "why is God a hypocrite?" And then he ran back into his trailer and his step mom was confused but stayed and talked to us. Then the kid ran back out with his dad and told us his dad had a question for us. The dad came over and explained the whole question, which I'm not going to go into detail about because it's hard to explain. He said he has wondered this question for years and years and has read the Bible over and over and asked priests and pastors of many different churches, and none could give him an answer. Their answers were always, "it's just your own interpretation of the scripture." Well, we were able to give him an answer, and he was very happy about that. We said that there's probably a lot of questions that the gospel could answer for him. We asked if we could teach him and he said only if we didn't mind the mess in his trailer. His name is Chris. There's a lot of people that live there. So we taught Chris, his wife and three teenagers. They are all really awesome and funny.

They received it so well! Chris was smoking as we taught but he is willing to learn more so I'm excited! Apparently every time they have seen our car parked when we go to that trailer park, they have wanted to ask that question. (Our car has Mormon.org hanging in the back window).

The 13 year old boy gave us two referrals that he said we should go talk to; his neighbors. Neither of them answered but I'm glad we wanted more people to hear our message. They have real potential... But everyone I have thought does so far ends up dropping us or not keeping appointments. I hope this one will be different! So that was my week! Love you guys!!

Gardening 6-9-14

Hello!! I just got back from a coal museum... It was very interesting and fun to see!! Anyways, this week has been a great week. We met with the mayor and she was so excited. She bought us breakfast at a

little cafe. We are gonna help her tend to some flowers in the city and she'll have more opportunities for us in the future. We also are trying to work with her to find something the whole ward can help with. So it will be good.

On Friday we got to help a member in her garden, which was so delightful! I learned a lot about gardening. On Saturday, I got to help paint a barn for a non member with our district leader and his
companion and that was so much fun!! I love doing service, and especially when it's outdoors!

I got to go on exchanges on Wednesday so I went to the Montrose area which is an hour away. It was the cutest small town and so much fun!  Not much else happened this week, but things are going good  I love you all!!

Dedicated Missionary Service 6-2-14

Hello!! This week was a bit slower because I got sick, but I got some Sudafed and that helped a lot. 

Yesterday was so great!! We attended the baptism of an eight year old boy in our ward named Steven. Sister F and I have been teaching him to prepare to be baptized and he's awesome  we helped a lot with the baptism and it turned out great! A lot of his family came into town who are not members, so it was a good missionary opportunity for us. They are all Italian.  Steven was baptized by his uncle, who served his mission in Italy, the Sicily area. He got to serve where his ancestors had lived which I'm sure was really cool. I told him how Dad served in Italy too and how I want to learn to speak Italian. We went to a dinner after that with everyone and it was so much fun.

In the evening last night, we did some tracting and mostly got turned away. At one house though, the cutest old lady answered the door and was so sweet to us. She said she was embarrassed because she had already got into her pajamas and said maybe we could come back another time, but then she said "all right you ladies can come in." She is seriously the SWEETEST person. Her husband passed away recently so she is struggling to deal with that, and is very lonely. We taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, which she said she didn't know if she could handle reading. But we marked a chapter for her to read about what happens to us after we die and said if she ends up wanting to, she can read it. She said she will look at it so that's promising. My heart aches for her because I can't imagine what she's going through and she is so incredibly kind! I can't wait to go see her again. She said that we came on the perfect night actually, it was a particularly lonely day for her. It is amazing how Heavenly Father guided us to her that night when she needed someone to talk to.  I know it was no coincidence that we knocked on her door. Even if she doesn't accept the gospel in this life and nothing comes from us teaching the restoration, God loves all his children and guided us there to keep her company during this hard time in her life.  

A lot of the people I mentioned in my last email have been impossible to catch this week... Like Greg who we had an appointment with... He ended up not being there when we went for the appointment. It's a bit frustrating when people don't keep appointments!  

We also contacted a referral (a family, who was referred to us by their neighbors). We met the dad outside his house (he was in the yard talking to a friend) who goes skiing in Utah and was very open.  He said to come back during the day sometime to meet his wife. His  friend then told us where he lived and said to go talk to his wife someday too! So that was exciting!

On Saturday we got to do service. Brother Ollivetti in our ward has a non member friend who needed help painting, so us and 2 elders in our district got to go paint the bottom outside of her house and the porch and deck. It was so much fun!! It reminded me of painting with Dad, which made me really happy and also a little bit sad. But I really enjoyed it and it's always fun when people let us serve them 

We are also meeting with the mayor of Clark's Summit tomorrow... We're  meeting her for brunch and are going to see how we can get involved in the community with service and stuff, so we'll see how that goes! 

  I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week!!

Sister Larsen

WEEK OF LOVE & LIGHT

Happy Memorial Day!! This week was AMAZING!!  We had exchanges on Wednesday, so our sister training leaders, sister Bradshaw and Sister Jensen came to our area. I spent the day with Sister Jensen, who is AWESOME.  I learned so much from her.  That night, we taught two non members the restoration and gained a new investigator!  His name is Greg and he's 19 years old. We're going to teach him again tonight, actually.  He said he is definitely interested after we taught the restoration to him, and that was such a surprise because I'm so used to people refusing!!

Something I learned this week from the book the Power of Everyday Missionaries is that you are a successful missionary as long as you INVITE. Even if nobody accepts, at least I let them use their agency to either accept or refuse.  So invite EVERYONE!! That's my goal... Anyone I see, I will invite them to learn more about this amazing gospel.  It's a bit hard for me sometimes to talk to people I don't know, but it's a skill I am working on.

We went tracting a bit (we rarely do because Sister F doesn't find it effective, and in a lot of instances it's not) but on it was! We found a lady who works at the library we often go to for wifi who recognized us.  She allowed us to teach her the Restoration and we're going to teach her again on Tuesday.  So BAM, I've taught a not only one non member for the first time this week, but THREE!!  Speaking of the library, we met a lady there who had a TON of questions for us about a lot of different religions.  She thought we were nuns (we get that a lot) but anyways, she is very eccentric and kinda crazy.  She told us we were so cute, we look like little chickens.  I don't know if that is a compliment or not.

Sister F's birthday was yesterday so we visited with a lot of ward members who had us over and that was so fun! We have an awesome ward.  

Yesterday we were doing a bit of tracting again as well and we stopped at this one house.  A young man probably in his late twenties answered and was excited! He said "wow I didn't know there was an LDS church around here!" We were surprised that he said LDS instead of Mormons.  Apparently all his friends from dental school are LDS and he likes the church.  He has been to church and taken some discussions and loves the social part of our church and the core values.  Unfortunately he is some catholic religion called MARYNITE or something like that... I dunno how it would be spelled. But it's the kind of church where if you leave you die or some middle eastern type thing like that and he's very involved in their church. But he said if we need ANY help with ANYTHING to let him know. He is seriously so nice it's crazy.  I'm sure we could practice teaching him and he'd be fine with it.  He also said we could invite him and his two kids to primary activities or things like that, and he also gave us two referrals that we'll try and contact tomorrow.

So yes, this week was AWESOME!!  I love you and hope you have a great week!!!

Sister Larsen

The Boroughs of Scranton Pennsylvania

Hello!! This week was a great week!! We got to do a lot of service for less active sisters... There were a couple that needed help cleaning their house and stuff so that was fun to serve them!  Something I have learned so far on my mission is to accept service.  Most people out here decline our service even though it's obvious they need help! So I'm very grateful for the people that allow us to help them.

We had zone conference this week which was AMAZING!! They talked a lot about how the only way you can grow and progress is if you're out of your comfort zone. And boy am I out of mine! My comfort zone is a thousand miles and 17 months away, so by the time I return I will be pretty different ha ha.  In the conference they also talked about the parable of the talents. We learned to NOT bury our talents but use them to serve The Lord and gain more talents! The Lord invests so much in us, and he TRUSTS us. So it's important for me to remember to exercise that trust that He gives us with faith.

We got to teach two different non members this week; who both happened to be the Catholic mothers of two members in our ward. They're both very old and set in their ways, but very sweet and loved hearing from us.

We also got to visit an old lady named Esther. She is Jewish and usually every time we go to her house she's about to leave so we don't get to talk to her much. But on Mother's Day she answered the door and talked to us for awhile. We asked her if we could come in and share a message with her, and she wasn't happy about that. She didn't really want us to but said she wants to be hospitable so she reluctantly let us in.  We showed her the new Mormon message about mothers and she LOVED it! She said this wasn't the message she was expecting... I guess she didn't want us to come in and preach to her. We got talking about eternal families and genealogy and she is gonna come to the Family History Center when she has time to find out more about her ancestors. being Jewish, I guess she firmly believes that we die and there is nothing after death... We just cease to exist. That is such a sad thing to believe that doesn't make any sense at all to me.

We asked her if there was anyone else she knew that would love to hear a Mother's Day message and she told us her neighbors probably would but they're most likely too busy. We felt prompted to try so we did and the mom was interested, so she told her whole family to come. They didn't invite us in so we awkwardly showed the video to them on their porch as they stood in the doorway. The mom felt the spirit and the video made her cry. We told her we believe that families are forever and asked if we could teach them more. She said we could "leave some literature" so we gave her a pamphlet and we'll go back and see them in the next week.

Being able to FaceTime for Mother's Day was the best thing ever!! It was so nice to hear your voices and see your beautiful faces. I love you soooooo much!!! I can't even put into words how much I love you. And don't worry, it didn't get me down or make me feel more homesick.

Lots Of Ups But Also Some Downs

Elder Larsen seems to like the MTC from his letter! Not as much as me though.  Ha ha, and the rigorous schedule for the Missionary Training Center was fine for me, but it gets harder out here in the field.  I'm getting used to it though.  How was his setting apart?  Did you record his blessing?  That has been a huge comfort to me out here.

My sweet missionary cousin, Sister Taylor, sent me a very encouraging email today and a letter so that was nice. I'm doing better this week. I still have a ton of ups and downs and often want to come home... I'm still hoping 17 months will go fast but I also know there will be a point where I'll love it. I've been praying almost as often as I breathe out here.

Many have asked why is it hard? The homesickness is hard. It's gotten better as the week has gone on but it still hits me sometimes. 17 months seems so faraway... But I think it will go by fast. It's also hard when we knock on doors and people won't listen to us or even answer.  At first it was frustrating because to me it felt like we weren't doing anything but knocking.  We do get to work with a lot of less actives and that is rewarding. We've visited a lot of old people who are lonely and in senior centers.

Yesterday we finally found a less active couple that we've been searching for... Their address is wrong on the ward list... All we knew for sure is that they lived in a certain trailer park. But we found them and they warmly invited us into their home and were happy we had come.   The mother struggles from bipolarity and depression and that has kept her from coming to church... Her and her husband haven't been to church in a long time. They were converted 12 years ago and this is her second marriage, and she said that the church is what saved her marriage so she's grateful for that. We're going to go over there at least once a week and study the Book of Mormon with them so that will be good.  We want to get them on the road to receiving their temple endowments for when the Philly temple is built!!

My companion is good. She challenges me in companion study and it's good to learn. We have very different personalities though. But, as we've get to know each other more it's gotten better. We are growing to be good friends.  She's helpful with supporting me through being homesick.. She remembers feeling the way I do.  She even insisted on buying me some frozen yogurt last Monday... (That was the day I was having the hardest time).

Sister McPherson (we go to her house to email and do laundry) also helped me that day and made me some tortilla soup (I told her that was one of my favorite meals from home). She is the one that gave us an Easter basket too.

Also, the Fyffes sent me an Easter package which was so very kind of them! Be sure to thank them for me... I sent them a card but I don't think they'll have gotten it yet.

I also got to draw a picture for an old lady we go visit... She's in a rehab center because her health is bad and she has no family here so she's very lonely. It's hard for her to talk, but we sing to her and hold her hand and she loved my picture.  I'll try to send you a pic of it soon.

An eight year old girl named Annika, who loves us sister missionaries, she runs up and gives us a huge hug whenever she sees us, is being baptized on May 17.  Her family has invited a lot of family friends who aren't members, so far two are coming for sure. Us missionaries are going teach the plan of salvation!!

We also taught a boy yesterday who's turning 8 soon and being baptized in June. We taught him about the Ten Commandments yesterday.

On Saturday we got to go to Susquehanna for a service project with the whole stake so that was a ton of fun!! There were a ton of missionaries and members.. It was with the whole stake. We waxed fire trucks and cleaned the fire station building and got to rake leaves out of a huge park (that was my favorite part) and we got to visit the priesthood restoration site but it was closed.   I remember being there on heritage tours. It was a fun day.

Overall, it was a good week!! A lot of ups and there was still some downs, but I am growing to love it, slowly but surely.

I love you all so much!! Thanks for all your love and letters and support.. I don't know where I'd be without you guys!

A Bout of Homesickness

I hate to tell you this, having a hard time with Elder Larsen leaving and such, but I will be honest, this week was really hard.   We never taught the two investigators we planned to teach. Those fell through and we haven't really taught anyone except a couple recent converts.   Everyone here says they are Catholic and don't need a new religion.  I actually just laugh at the mean ones.  We had an old lady tell us we were a pain in the (bad word)... Because I guess other missionaries once in this area tried her. And she said to never come back and was quite ornery... But her house keeper lady was super nice to us and said she was baptized a long time ago in the LDS church.  Something happened with an elder and she stopped going.  It was hard to understand her because of her strong Hispanic accent.  We gave her our number and she said it is a good work we are doing so I hope she calls us! We can't go back there because the elderly lady definitely does not want us back.

 I also got very homesick this week.  I miss you guys a lot... I miss my home state a lot and I was feeling very discouraged.  At this point I'm kinda like wow,  I can't believe I have to do this for 17 more months. But, I think as I become more adjusted to missionary life and get over feeling homesick... It will get better.  I'm praying so much that I will learn to love it and I know that will come.

My companion is opposite of me... she's gonna be a chemical engineer and is very left brained.  I've been learning a ton from her so that's good!

We are the only sisters in our district and there are five other pairs of elders... Six if you include the zone leaders. Our district leader is Elder Taylor. Then there's Elder Shamo, Thomas, Pintor, Standing, Bergman, and the two Spanish speaking elders who's names I don't remember. And our zone leaders Elder Rich and Elder Berk.

Oh I also sang in the ward choir yesterday and that was fun. I just had to sight read because I had never heard the song before.  There's like eight people in the choir.   I was able to meet a lot of families in the ward yesterday.

Here is a picture of my first package from home- Easter package

First Week In The Field

Hello!  So I've almost been in the mission field a week! Wow!  My first night in Pennsylvania I stayed at the mission home and President Anderson interviewed everyone.  When he interviewed me, I of course told him about my Delaware dream.  After I did, he asked, "do you know how many missionaries are in this mission?"  Then he stood up and walked over to a flat wide cabinet and opened it up.  There were individual pictures of each missionary serving in the mission, divided into what branches or areas they are serving in.  I looked and found my picture under the Dover, Delaware branch.  My heart started racing with excitement and President Anderson said something about having impressions and that these weren't set in stone but he didn't see any
reason why I would be changed to somewhere different.  I was so excited!!  I went to bed so happy and excited for the next day.

The next day I got my new companion, Sister Fletcher who is awesome. She said something like, "are you excited to go to Scranton?"  Since I thought I was going to Delaware, I said, "oh is there a Scranton in Delaware, too?"  But no, there isn't and so my first area is Scranton PA! I was super disappointed actually. I had been so excited about going to Delaware. So I wasn't feeling very happy and I was still exhausted from pulling an all nighter when I was traveling... On top of that I had to be the driver because sister Fletcher doesn't drive.  But when I got to Clark's Summit, which is a borough (or suburb) of Scranton, I saw it is the perfect place for me. It's probably the most mountainous spot in Pennsylvania and we live right in the middle of them! (Okay they're technically really big hills with a lot of trees but I'll take what I can get haha)  nevertheless, I think it is the perfect place for me to transition to missionary life. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love mountains and how at home they make me feel. So being here feels a bit more like home, if that makes sense.

We had stake conference Saturday night, and apparently the area that Sister Casey is serving in is in our stake so she was there and it was SO GOOD to see a familiar face! I was so happy to see her and hear that she's doing well.

The ward here is extremely helpful.  I went and had Easter dinner at the Macpherson's home, who are so nice, they made us an Easter basket and everything.  Brother Macpherson opened the East Houston mission,
so he's curious to find out what area Elder Taylor is in right now.  So someone should tell me and that would be great! :)

We have been visiting a lot of members and semi inactives and that has been good. We try to visit potential investigators homes but most of them have not even been answering!! A couple do and say they are not interested. One lady was soooo not happy to see us on her doorstep and never wants to see us again... She wasn't very nice about it so that was interesting hahaha.  We'll tonight we have two appointments of teaching investigators so please wish me luck! It will be my first time teaching real investigators and not just practicing on members.

I can't believe Taylor is going to the MTC in 9 days!! He is gonna be great and just remember, the MTC will be good if you have a good attitude about it!!

I love you!!!

Sister Larsen

Sister Larsen Meets President & Sister Anderson

Last Letter from the Missionary Training Center

Hello!!!

I LOVED all of your letters and the photos that were sent!  I got them last Wednesday- so thank you!  And I got the package on Friday and that was great!  Thank you so much for everything!  I love you guys and I'll try to write each of you back individually when I get time.

Well I can't believe I am flying to Pennsylvania tomorrow!  Exciting times!!! Today Elder Morris and Elder Hollaway left for the mission field in Tampa, Florida.  I wish our whole district could have left on the same day- we had to say our goodbyes last night and that was hard.

Me and my companion, Sister Casey have become good friends.  We have a ton in common and she is seriously so nice- there isn't a mean bone in her body!  Although we have similar likes and interests, our personalities are very different.  Surprisingly, I'm the one who takes charge when we're teaching investigators.  Sister Casey was struggling a bit so I taught way more and had to be more outspoken, which is good for me.  And Sister Casey really has improved!  And so have I, when I think about how awkward our first time teaching was. 

 Last night we had a really amazing devotional put on by the BYU men's chorus.  It was AMAZING!  They sang classical songs, hymns, pop songs like "Lean On Me" and my two favorite ones, "Baba Yetu" and then the last song that is on that "Calling All Dawns" CD (that starts with a K) and Taylor, they reminded me of you!  They had the cool drums and other instruments and everything- it made me so happy that they did these songs that I cried.  And I'm mad at myself for not bringing that CD, haha.  But hearing those made me miss Taylor.   It's so weird to think that by the end of the month he'll be here doing what I'm doing!  So weird!  It went by so fast and yet it seems like ages ago that you guys dropped me off.  The MTC is a time warp and all the days kind of blend together.

My favorite thing about the MTC is the people.  I have made so many friends and I love hearing people's testimonies from all over the world.  Taylor, be outgoing and just talk to everyone!  Really bond with your district... it makes your MTC experience more fun :-)

Yesterday was great... my calling is the music coordinator for our zone and so I played all the hymns for sacrament meeting.  Sister Ezekiela and I did a musical number... we sang, "A Child's Prayer," Acapella since I'm the only one in our zone that plays piano. :-)  It went well!

Also cool experience, we walked to the temple yesterday and took photos on the grounds... there was tons of missionaries everywhere!  Well I asked two girls if they would come take a photo of me and the other sisters in my district.  They asked us where we were going on our missions so we told them.  Sister Casey, Sister Wood and I to Philadelphia and sister Ezekiela to New Zealand.  They freaked out because turns out, one girl had just gotten back from the Philadelphia mission, and the other girl that I asked to take our photo had just returned from the New Zealand Visitors Center Mission, just like Sister Ezekiela!  Seriously, what are the odds!!! It was awesome!  And the girl that had just returned from Philly knew Emily Gottfredson, they were companions or something!

Something else I forgot to tell you in my email last week... you know how my district and I went to the temple on P day and I did a session?  The girl whose work I did was from Philadelphia!  She was born in the late 1700's.  Cool Right?!

Well I hope you are all well!  Thank you for everything and I love you SO MUCH!

Love,

Sister Larsen

Week One Down

So, Week 1 of the MTC is gone and over with! It has gone by SO FAST!!! But it's been great and I've been loving it. I have already grown so much and learned a ton!

General Conference was AMAZING. Most of my district and I fasted all day Saturday so that we could have questions answered at General Conference, so that was great.  It's not very hard to keep myself from eating MTC food... I am SO sick of it.

Anyways, I really REALLY loved the talk by Elder Bednar. I loved the story he told about his friend taking his new truck up into the mountains and getting it stuck in the snow, and how he decided instead of just sitting there he would go cut his firewood anyway. And then when he loaded all the firewood up, he was able to get out of the snowbank! So when Elder Bednar said, IT'S THE LOAD... that part hit me with the spirit SOOOOO hard! Like BAM! "Is the load I am carrying providing the spiritual traction I need to stay on the pathway to Christ, and keep me from getting 'stuck?'" I loved how it said a heavy load was necessary to provide traction to get back to his family and move forward... just like in this life, getting out of your comfort zone, being challenged and maybe even going through trials is what helps us progress and learn, and get back to our eternal family in heaven.  My FAVORITE thing about watching General Conference at the MTC was the MUSIC. I loved when they had the whole congregation join the MoTab in singing, and all the missionaries voices just filled the gym. It was very powerful 

Sister Casey and I taught our first investigators this week! The first one was one named Ludmilla, and let me tell ya, our first time teaching her was the most AWKWARD thing I may have ever experienced. Haha I may be exaggerating a bit, but still  We were feeling very discouraged. The second time (a different investigator) was a bit better, but not much. I was very disappointed in myself and my teaching abilities. I was fasting and praying that I could improve. It wasn't until this last Monday that we taught Ludmilla again and WE ROCKED IT! It was an amazing feeling. And then the next day, we taught our second investigator, Kenzie, and it was even more AMAZING! I felt so grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me improve... I feel so much better about teaching now. I was able to rely on the spirit to really feel what the investigators needed to hear.

I've made a ton of new friends here at the MTC! You know Mom, how you always say that I get along best with foreign people? Well that's true here! I have a lot of friends from New Zealand. Sister Ezekiela in my district is from New Zealand and we've come to be really good friends. She's 21 and she loves to sing as well! So we were sitting in the hall outside our classroom singing hymns (she sang melody and I harmonized) and after singing like 5 songs, five Elders from New Zealand came and sat down and started singing with us! They all harmonized and it was beautiful and it made me SO HAPPY!! So the New Zealanders are like my best friends now haha  I seriously could have stayed there and sung with them for hours, but my comp. and Sister Ezekiela's comp. were anxious to go get ready for bed, so we had to leave  The next day I played volleyball with all the New Zealanders and got smacked in the face with the ball... it was hilarious haha. But I got a few good shots in, and the rest were just funny attempts to hit the ball 

Elder Winterton (an elder in my district) and I rewrote "part of your world" From the little mermaid to make it gospel related and it's AWESOME! But we haven't finished it yet so I'll send you the lyrics when it's done haha. My district is SO GREAT! We all went to the temple this morning and I FINALLY got to see the 2nd newest video... since I've only seen the newest one so far. I'm glad I got to see the new one my first time when I received my own endowments because the one I saw today is good but doesn't have the best acting.  But I'm glad I got to go to the temple one last time before I leave for Pennsylvania!

On Sunday night we had a devotional, and guess who put it on? VOCAL POINT!!! They are amazing. They spoke to us and sang to us and I loved every minute of it. When they sang Nearer My God to Thee, I felt the spirit so strong and I've never felt the chills that much before. Oh and guess what, DAVID ARCHULETA WAS HERE FOR A DEVOTIONAL A WEEK BEFORE I GOT HERE! So that's really really sad. I just barely missed him 

I love the MTC and I know I'm going to love my mission! I'm excited to leave for Pennsylvania, and there's a lot of things that make me excited to leave the MTC (such as the food and having a better shower and apartment and trivial things like that) but I'll be sad to leave the MTC. I'm gonna miss my district and the other people I've met here.

All the days pretty much blend together here, and guess what, I LOST MY JOURNAL last night. So hopefully I haven't forgotten anything else important in this email. But I'm trying to find my journal because that has the personal stuff in there!

We're gonna be zone leaders for a new district that just got here today, and they are all going to Eugene Oregon on their mission. Seriously, it's hard to leave home and go to a new place and live by new rules and all that... but it is seriously great! Taylor should be excited! I have had a lot of fun here at the MTC... partly because of the people in my district. We're allowed to have a bit of fun here. Elder Morris, Elder Winterton and Sister Ezekiela get me through the day... they are SO FUNNY.  But Taylor will make a ton of friends here and learn a lot.

Well I love you all and thank you for your support!

With my companion (below) and others in my district.