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

Like

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