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!!