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