Week # 44

Happy Thanksgiving week!!! That is so weird to me to think that Thanksgiving is already here. It still hasn't really hit me yet... I think it will when the Christmas lights start at the Visitors' Center! The lights will start on Thursday... but Sister Sanchez and I are still "full-field" until Friday... and then once Friday hits we are there everyday. I'm pretty excited to go back... but I also feel really weird. Like I've been out of the VC for so long that I don't know what to do. and feel like I don't belong there anymore! But I'm sure that it will come back pretty quickly!

Well. I have had my first FLAT TIRES experiences on my bike! I think that I must have run over some type of branch with super sharp thorns on it... because BOTH my tires got super flat. And I barely made it to our baptism on Saturday! It was a miracle we made it to the stake center! The baptism was so incredible. It was the least stressful one I have ever been involved in :] Lupita's son, Jesus was baptized about two months ago.... and he's awesome. He has been through a lot in his life. He's only 22 but he's had a rough past. He's been in prison. But he has changed his life COMPLETELY. He is planning to put his papers in next summer and working hard now to save the money. He's just really solid. And it was such a tender moment to see him in the baptismal font with his mother. His arms were bare with the white baptismal jumpsuit, so you could see all of his tattoos... and I could just feel how much the both of them have changed. I couldn't help but think about where there were a year ago... and where they are today. It was awesome. I'm so grateful that I have been able to be a part of their conversion and just see how the spirit can soften the hardest hearts.

On Sunday there was a mission president's fireside in Spanish and Lupita and Jesus were both asked to speak. It's usually months after people are baptized that they are asked to speak. But she spoke the same day she was confirmed! It so special to be able to listen to them tell their stories and bear their testimonies of the  things they have learned. It's also funny to hear them talk about how bothered and annoyed they were by us when we first started to come by :] 

After the baptism we went to our investigators' Juanita and Alberto to celebrate Alberto's birthday! It was a fun night (too much cake... haha). 

Friday night we had a Branch Thanksgiving dinner! And one of our investigator's Jorge came! I've been teaching him since June and this was the first time that he ever set foot in the church. So it was huge. And I think he had a good time. 

Shout out to my girl LAURA! That received her mission call this week!!! She'll be going to the West Indies mission!! Speaking English! And leaves February 27th! I am so happy for her. Can't believe we will go SO long without seeing each other. But happy that she has accepted the call to serve the Lord.

I am so excited for the holiday season to begin. I feel like it may be hard for me to be away from all the family during the holidays... but I'm also excited to be in the VC so much and spend all this time on Temple Grounds. I feel like I will really have the opportunity to learn the true meaning of Christmas. And see miracles everyday.

I love you all so much!

Love
Hermana Larson

Week #43

Hey everyone! How is everyone doing? Things here are going pretty well. We received transfer news on Saturday night and Sister Sanchez and I will be staying together in Mesa Grande! That is what I was expecting because new missionaries are trained for 2 transfers now... and it's unusual for a trainee to have two trainers. But Sister Sanchez has been called to be a VC Sister for this transfer :] Which will be a really unique and cool experience for both of us. We'll still be full-field until Thanksgiving... but then once Thanksgiving hits we will be in the VC everyday. Which definitely puts some pressure on us to get things going in our area now while we have the time... because things will change once Christmas lights hit! I'm happy with transfer news... not super surprised... but I do expect that this will be my last transfer in Mesa Grande... I'm starting my 5th transfer here. Oh and also because the next transfers fall right during Christmas they moved it up a week (because flights are super expensive during the holidays). So this transfer is only 5 weeks, and the next transfer will be 7. So it'll be interesting to be transferred like 6 days before Christmas! But all will be fine!

Sister Sordes has been transferred :[ It was weird because even though we haven't been companions this past transfer... we have still been living in the same house and I feel sad that she will be leaving the house! But Sister Mendoza is staying and Sister Noble is coming to Mesa Grande. Sister Noble has been out one transfer less than me and was actually trained by Sister Sordes! It will be a fun transfer. Well except that it is started to get COLD here. Okay well not cold compared to Utah or Colorado.... but pretty cold! IT rained on like Friday night and I had my first biking in the rain experience! haha. But ever since then it has been really cold outside. And I'm trying to figure out how to bundle up on my bike. It's hard because then we get going and I get hot... and don't want to carry my coat and such around on my bike during the day... but then night hits and I totally regret that decision! So still working on all of that... We come home each night frozen and just bundle up while we plan for the next day! haha.

Lupita had her baptismal interview this past Friday and passed! We are so excited for her. Her daughter (who is not a member) and her son that was baptized two months ago (and will be baptizing her) came to support her while she was in her interview. So we are so excited. We just realized that we have a scheduling conflict with another baptism here in the stake at 5:00pm on Saturday night. So we might have to adjust something. But everything is going really well with her!

Thursday morning we had our departure preparation meeting in the Visitors' Center. We have a breakfast and then the sisters that are going home share their testimonies and such. Well this transfer we have 4 VC sisters going home! So many. And so weird because I feel like I know these sisters soo well. So weird. But it was a great meeting. Sister Falcon is one of the sisters that is going home. So incredible how fast the time goes by. 

Sunday was Stake Conference here in Arizona for TODOS. It was such an awesome conference! It was a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake where Elder Holland, President Eyring and other leaders of the church spoke. And it was broadcasted to the entire stake. They talked a lot about families and the importance of having time together as a family and not just being so busy doing good things (sports, extracurricular activities, etc...)  that you don't  take time to teach your kids. They also talked a lot about missionary work... as members. And that with so many more missionaries is the duty of the members to take care of the missionaries serving there and caring for them :] I liked that part! haha.

Well today we are going to go over to Blanca's house... on of my recent converts. She's been without work for a month or so now and it's been really hard for her. But she knows how to do nails so we've asked her to do all of our nails and we'll pay her for it. So I'm excited to spend some time with her... and to get my nails done :]]

I hope that everything is going well for everyone! And that Meredith had a super awesome birthday this past weekend :] Love you all! Oh and that Julie's Bridal shower goes well! I'm sure yall will have fun!!

Love,
Hermana Larson

Week #42

Hey everyone! How was Halloween for everyone! I heard about some fun stories from all the grandkids from the parents... but I want to see some pictures of all the kids in their costumes! Sounds so fun!

 

Our Halloween here was pretty fun! President Ellsworth received word from SLC that they didn't want the missionaries out proselyting for safety reasons. So we were inside from 6pm and on. We spend 6-8 "studying" but mostly answering the door to trick or treaters! We didn't have any candy... (we didn't really even think about that!) but I had a bunch of spider rings that Julie had sent me (thanks girl :] ) so we passed those out with a mormon.org card. It was so fun to be there doing it with Sister Sordes and Sister Sanchez from France and from Spain because they don't really celebrate Halloween in the same way that we do and they LOVED answering the door for the trick or treaters. They asked us so many questions about what we were "supposed to do" whenever the trick or treaters came. I loved it. And then at 8pm we turned the lights out and had our own Halloween party! haha. We each came up with a game and played it. My game--we hung bread (I didnt' really have any other food.. haha) from the ceiling and tried to see who could eat it the fastest w/out hands. It was silly... but hilarious. I have some pictures. Sister Sordes even dressed up in an African dress that one of her investigators had given her a while back. It was a fun night.

 

Our investigator, Lupita is doing SO good. I think I told you that last week we set a date with her. On Monday night we went over to her house because her son was turning 16. So we brought some brownies and sang to him. Well when we got there her other son who is 22 and got baptized a month ago started talking to us and was so excited. He said, "Did my mom tell you that she is getting baptized on November 17???" haha. we acted surprised (like we weren't the ones that invited her) and loved it! so funny. Her son is so excited because he has received the Aaronic priesthood and Lupita asked him to baptize her. We are looking forward to it.

 

Well it's been a great week. Actually it just went by so fast. I don't even know what else to write about because I can't remember what happened! But I'm doing so well. Things are going by fast. Transfers are this week... but I'm not thinking anything will change because we are in the middle of training... but who knows. President has been known to do some crazy things!

 

I love you all! Have a great week!!

Love

Hermana Larson

Week #41

Dear Everyone!

 

Well this week has been tough... but those are the weeks that I feel myself learning and progressing. It has been really tough to have members in our lessons. I know that is how our investigators will progress--by getting them involved in the branch! But I feel like I spent hours and hours and hours on the phone trying to contact members asking them to help us. It's proving difficult with now 4 missionaries in such a small branch. I hate bothering the members--I know they are so busy with families and working alll the time. Us being on bikes makes it even harder because most of the women that are home during the day can't drive. That being said we worked really hard to have members in all of our lessons... and we had multiple multiple multiple lessons where we had members but the investigators weren't there. We tried visiting others but it just didn't work out. Which is okay. I'm learning to deal with my stress levels. Finding the balance between healthy stress (that helps you be productive) and unhealthy stress (which just freaks my companion out :/ ) is something I've never been good at. But I'm trying to figure it out. I'm also trying to figure out how we can help our investigators to keep their commitments (like our appointments!). We tried teaching a lot to our purpose as missionaries this past week and will continue doing that as we teach towards baptism and our role in helping people make covenants with God.

 

On a good note: we set an awesome baptism date! With Lupita. She's had a hard time quiting coffee... but she's been 3 days clean! And when we set the date... for the first time she was excited about it--instead of us trying to convince her that she is ready. It's for October 17th. I'm excited about it and hope that she will be able to stay strong without coffee :] The lesson beforehand we had talked about her not drinking coffee. We had made a "plan" with her... but she ended up not following it :[ And we really tried talking with her--trying to figure out what will help her. Sister Sanchez talked about how it's so easy for us to say it--just stop and that maybe we don't understand how hard it is, but that Jesus Christ does know and he can help her. As I heard that I felt the spirit prompt me and tell me that we need to at least try to understand her. So we made a deal with Lupita that for the next week as she stops drinking coffee that we will stop eating candy and desserts. When Sister Sanchez heard that come out of my mouth she just looked at me and said WHAT?? haha. But we are doing it. I obviously didn't think about that very well as it is the week of Halloween... but maybe God's trying to help me and Lupita at the sameee time by committing me to not eat sweets! haha.

 

Saturday was a busy day! We woke up early early. It was the Mesa City "day of service." The church is always very involved in it. They had a big stake breakfast and afterwards we when and cleans streets and canals and alleys. It was fun. We were also given City of Mesa shirts that say "I love Mesa" on the back! Love it! And then later that night was the branch halloween activity. Well actually... so as to not offend those that don't want to celebrate Halloween it was called "la fiesta de la cosecha." Which is like party of the harvest! haha. But it was fun to be there and see all the kids with their costumes. We had some investigators there which was good. We also enjoyed watching other people eat candy and we couldn't. haha. But Lupita was there to see us resist all the candy so maybe that was a good thing! haha.

 

This morning Sister Sanchez and I got up early to go hiking with some of the people in our zone! It was really fun... but I realized that since the last time I went hiking (MAY) that I have seriously gotten out of shape! But it was good to get out there and sweat a bit and feel good!

 

Well I hope that everyone has a great week! And a happy halloween! Apparently church headquarters is worried about missionaries safety on halloween night--so we have to be in our houses by 6pm. We'll probably do some studies or something. But maybe we'll try doing something fun. I'm glad we live with two other sisters! Should make it more fun.

 

Love,

Hermana Larson

Reply to:

Week #40

Happy 6th Birthday to Jack! Hard to believe that it's been 6 years! Tell him I said hi :]

 

Well this week has been a lot better than the last week! We saw a lot of miracles and I'm feeling better about training Sister Sanchez. I know that I'm not perfect, but I feel like she is learning and things are going well.

 

We always talk to everyone on the streets (especially if they look like they might speak Spanish!!) And this week as we have talked to everyone we have met 6 people that were already members whose names weren't on the records. And I realized that here on my mission I've never really worked with inactive members before. We've always just had so much work with our investigators that we didn't make it a priority. But I'm so excited to work with these people! They have already made covenants with our Heavenly Father and it's so important that they keep those covenants. I also sometimes think about the missionaries that originally taught these people. I would be heart-broken if future missionaries didn't work as hard as they could to help my converts. We met one lady on the street named Laura (!). She was baptized about 5 years ago here in Mesa (but in a different stake). She's in her late 20's but has gone through a divorce since then, and had a lot of trials... and she stopped going to church. We talked to her for while, got her number and address, and set up an appointment to come visit her again. Okay I'm going to try and explain where she lives because it is important to the story... but I am not sure if it is going to make sense! haha. She lives in a gated apartment. But not like a huge complex. It's just like 4 little gated apartments... but the point is that it's gated so you can't even knock on her door. I'm never been back to where the apartments are because it's ALWAYS locked and gated. So we just don't work much there. There's not a code or a way to call back to the apartments... just a key-lock. So when you get there you have to call their personal phone and they come unlock it. Well. Turns out my Spanish isn't as incredible as I thought it was... I didn't get the right phone number. So we were there calling her phone and the number didn't work :[ Because it's only four apartments it's not like people are coming and going frequently. So we waited for a little bit but then just went on our day and didn't have the appointment :[ I didn't know how else to get in contact with her. Fast forward 5 days. I had kind of forgotten about it all. We were working all day (without a ton of success) it was about 8:40 at night and I wasn't sure what we should do. I hate knocking on people doors without an appointment that late because most Hispanics go to bed pretty early because they all work extremely early. So I just turned to Sister Sanchez and asked her if she would say a prayer so that we would know what to do. She did and as she prayed I couldn't stop thinking about Laura.  I told Sister Sanchez that I couldn't stop thinking about Laura, but felt stupid because I knew it was a bad phone number and I knew that those apartments were always locked. But Sister Sanchez is the best. She was like "let's go! Who knows, maybe the lord is telling you that so we go over there and he'll put someone else in our path." So we biked over there. And we didn't see anyone. (I was feeling even dumber by this point). Sister Sanchez walked up to the gate and just pushed on it.... and it opened. Someone left it unlocked. I almost cried when I saw it open. It was something so simple, but confirmed my faith. At that moment I knew that God was conscience of me, and of the work I was doing. And that if I would just follow the promptings he gave me, they would come more frequently, and it would be easier for me to recognize them. Since this experience I have been trying to follow every prompting I receive and it's been incredible to see the miracles we have seen this week. They are simple, but I feel the spirit so strong as we work. We were able to have an awesome lesson with Laura that night by the way. And we got her real phone number :]

 

We are working with another inactive, Norma. And she came to church this week! It was so cool to have her come and to be able to meet all the members. It's so incredible how much faster people progress once they have been to church and have met the members and have that sense of strength.

 

Last night our branch hosted the Mission President's Fireside. Which means the recent converts of our branch spoke :] It was awesome as Miguel, Maribel, Paola and Blanca spoke. The music was awesome, the spirit was there. And Sister McKee was there! (my trainer!) she is working and living in Phoenix and knew I would be at the fireside because our branch was hosting it. It was so fun to see her, but weird to see her not as a missionary! haha. But also fun for her to meet Sister Sanchez.

 

We're having a zone activity today. They're calling it an Arizona Snowball fight. Where they put flour in nylons and then I guess we just fight? haha. I hope Sister Sanchez enjoys it!

 

I love you all! Hope all is well.

 

Love,

Hermana Larson

Reply to:

Week #39

How is everyone doing? I can hardly believe that it is October 15! Halloween is coming up pretty soon! Which is fun... but for me it mostly means that the weather is really cooling down! Which I am totally grateful for. It's been a good week to be on bikes. During the day I still get sweaty and gross... but the evenings are the best. And there are a lot more people in the streets in the evenings which makes it easier to talk to the people.

 

We're really getting ready for the Christmas lights at the Temple! Even though I am a "full-field" sister while I am training Sister Sanchez... we will both work in the Visitors' Center during the season (assuming we stay together the full 12 weeks). We generally have preparation meetings for the VC sisters every other week, but in preparation we are starting to have them every week. Which is making it better for me to be able to go every week and see all the sisters! I miss them not being in the Visitors' Center.

 

This week has been tough as far as the work goes. On saturday we had 6 appointments planned... we were ready and had members for all of them... and then all 6 either cancelled... or weren't home when we went. And it was pretty much the same story yesterday. So it's been discouraging in that aspect. I have been trying to figure out what I am doing wrong, and improving will still keeping the faith and excitement about the work. We have a lot of investigators that are just not progressing and not following through with their commitments. So this week we are really going to focus on helping our investigators know our purpose as investigators--we're not just there to talk to them about God if they happen to be home when we come by. We are here to help them change their life and make covenants with God. So hopefully this week we'll be able to really find out who is prepared and ready... and who needs more time :]

 

I love you all and hope that everything is going well. Have a great week!!

 

Love

Holly

Reply to:

Week #38

Dear Family,

I hope that everyone is doing so well. I heard that Chad and Amy were in Provo! And got to go to a football came with Julie and Ryan?? That is so exciting! I want to see the pictures that were taken :]

This week has been... really interesting/weird for me. Well Sister Sordes was called to be a trainer in the Visitors' Center. (Just like S. McKee and S. Falcon). Like an AP in the VC--there are two of them. I thought that I was going to have ONE companion where she wouldn't be at trainer and wouldn't know transfer news beforehand and not be able to tell me... but apparently not! But I am so excited for her because she is going to be such an incredible trainer. I was still hoping that we would stay together another transfer! She found out transfer news on Wednesday but of course she couldn't tell me! But from the way she was talking I had a feeling that we wouldn't stay together :[ But as I thought about it I honestly had no idea what would happen. I felt like maybe I was ready to take a little bit more responsibility (maybe greenie break or something). Then during the week we got a call from the assistants. They told us that they were going to split our branch (mesa grande). Well not the branch itself but that we would then have two sets of missionaries. They just wanted our opinion on boundaries. So that got me thinking! Saturday night is when we always recieve transfer news. Well we were on shift at the visitors' center. I checked the phone looking for a text from an investigator to see we had a missed call from President. That's always a little scary to get transfer news from President. He told us that they are splitting mesa grande. We will both be staying.... but that both Sister Sordes and I had been called by the Lord to be trainers. My stomach did somersaults audibly. And I just started to cry. I didn't even know what to think. I'm still completely overwhelmed. I've never been a senior companion before. And I don't know how to train a new missionary! I still struggle with the language! Then I found out that the sister I will be training is from Spain! So that made me feel a little better. Then I found out that she is not a visitors' center missionary. So I will be full-field for two transfers. Saturday night and Sunday were hard for me as everyone asked me "are you so excited to train!?!?" and I didn't know what to say. I've never been full-field before so that terrifies me! THEN. I found out that we will be on bicycles! I've never been on bikes before either. So pretty much I'm doing everything new at the same time. I'm still terrified. I still don't know how I'm going to do it. But I'm excited now (I wasn't two days ago...). I just hope she likes me. I hope she is happy. I want to help her become an incredible missionary. I feel like yesterday I was just trained; but maybe that will be able to help me in knowing what I can do differently, or the same as my trainer. I know that these transfers are going to be really hard for me. But I know that I will grow so much and I will learn a lot. I scared of so many things--not being able to meet our investigators down, not teaching her everything she needs to know, offending her, scaring her, and a lot more. But I am just trusting in God that if I try my best he'll make up for all the stuff I don't know.

Her name is Hermana Sanchez. And because she is not a VC sister I really don't know very much about her. But I'm excited that Sister Sordes will also be training... and that all four of us will be living in the same house! This morning for exercise Sister Sordes and I road bikes around, and that helped me a lot to gain some confidence in that aspect (I was so scared of getting hit by a car haha). I still feel like I have a blank future, because I feel a little bit in denial, or like I have no idea what is going to happen. But I know things will work out.

This week with Sister Sordes has been so good. We continue to learn so much from each other and I'm so glad that being in the same branch as her will allow me to continue learning from her example. We have an investigator Lupita that is progressing so well! She's so incredible and her 22 year old son was baptized on Saturday! It was an incredible baptism to be at. The second that he came out of the water he just shouted "Finally!" It was pretty cute.

We met a family of 6 this week! They are really nice and we can tell that they have had a lot of contact with the church in the past. They are very catholic (two of their kids are in their first Communion right now...) but they allowed us to come in and have a prayer and we were able to talk to them for quite a while. I hope they will open their hearts and allow the spirit to touch them!

There are so many other things that happened this week. But that's the biggest thing for now... I'm training. And I have so many things I want to do today to get ready for her! So I hope everyone has a great week. I love you all.

Love,

Sister Larson

Reply to:

Week #37

Family,

I hope that everyone is doing so well. I heard that Chad and Amy were in Provo! And got to go to a football came with Julie and Ryan?? That is so exciting! I want to see the pictures that were taken :]

This week has been... really interesting/weird for me. Well Sister Sordes was called to be a trainer in the Visitors' Center. (Just like S. McKee and S. Falcon). Like an AP in the VC--there are two of them. I thought that I was going to have ONE companion where she wouldn't be at trainer and wouldn't know transfer news beforehand and not be able to tell me... but apparently not! But I am so excited for her because she is going to be such an incredible trainer. I was still hoping that we would stay together another transfer! She found out transfer news on Wednesday but of course she couldn't tell me! But from the way she was talking I had a feeling that we wouldn't stay together :[ But as I thought about it I honestly had no idea what would happen. I felt like maybe I was ready to take a little bit more responsibility (maybe greenie break or something). Then during the week we got a call from the assistants. They told us that they were going to split our branch (mesa grande). Well not the branch itself but that we would then have two sets of missionaries. They just wanted our opinion on boundaries. So that got me thinking! Saturday night is when we always recieve transfer news. Well we were on shift at the visitors' center. I checked the phone looking for a text from an investigator to see we had a missed call from President. That's always a little scary to get transfer news from President. He told us that they are splitting mesa grande. We will both be staying.... but that both Sister Sordes and I had been called by the Lord to be trainers. My stomach did somersaults audibly. And I just started to cry. I didn't even know what to think. I'm still completely overwhelmed. I've never been a senior companion before. And I don't know how to train a new missionary! I still struggle with the language! Then I found out that the sister I will be training is from Spain! So that made me feel a little better. Then I found out that she is not a visitors' center missionary. So I will be full-field for two transfers. Saturday night and Sunday were hard for me as everyone asked me "are you so excited to train!?!?" and I didn't know what to say. I've never been full-field before so that terrifies me! THEN. I found out that we will be on bicycles! I've never been on bikes before either. So pretty much I'm doing everything new at the same time. I'm still terrified. I still don't know how I'm going to do it. But I'm excited now (I wasn't two days ago...). I just hope she likes me. I hope she is happy. I want to help her become an incredible missionary. I feel like yesterday I was just trained; but maybe that will be able to help me in knowing what I can do differently, or the same as my trainer. I know that these transfers are going to be really hard for me. But I know that I will grow so much and I will learn a lot. I scared of so many things--not being able to meet our investigators down, not teaching her everything she needs to know, offending her, scaring her, and a lot more. But I am just trusting in God that if I try my best he'll make up for all the stuff I don't know.

Her name is Hermana Sanchez. And because she is not a VC sister I really don't know very much about her. But I'm excited that Sister Sordes will also be training... and that all four of us will be living in the same house! This morning for exercise Sister Sordes and I road bikes around, and that helped me a lot to gain some confidence in that aspect (I was so scared of getting hit by a car haha). I still feel like I have a blank future, because I feel a little bit in denial, or like I have no idea what is going to happen. But I know things will work out.

This week with Sister Sordes has been so good. We continue to learn so much from each other and I'm so glad that being in the same branch as her will allow me to continue learning from her example. We have an investigator Lupita that is progressing so well! She's so incredible and her 22 year old son was baptized on Saturday! It was an incredible baptism to be at. The second that he came out of the water he just shouted "Finally!" It was pretty cute.

We met a family of 6 this week! They are really nice and we can tell that they have had a lot of contact with the church in the past. They are very catholic (two of their kids are in their first Communion right now...) but they allowed us to come in and have a prayer and we were able to talk to them for quite a while. I hope they will open their hearts and allow the spirit to touch them!

There are so many other things that happened this week. But that's the biggest thing for now... I'm training. And I have so many things I want to do today to get ready for her! So I hope everyone has a great week. I love you all.

Love,

Sister Larson

Reply to:

Week # 36

Hello everyone!

Okay. This has been like the most incredible week of my life. We were excited all week that Elder Bednar was going to come on Saturday morning and speak to us... but to be honest I wasn't just jumping out of my seat. I was excited... but not like crazy (like some other people haha.) I had been to meetings before with apostles and knew it would be edifying... but I had the most incredible experience. I felt the spirit like I never had before. I would love to share with all of you all of the things that I've learned this week--in the meeting, and since then as I have tried implementing those things into my life and the lives of my investigators--but I can't even begin to explain. I can't give you all that experience. But I can just bear my testimony that I know that Elder Bednar has been called to be an apostle, that this church is the church of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the head of this church. I learned so much about faith--that it's a principle of action. And so much about the Holy Ghost. It was so cool to be in such a small group talking to him. I was able to stand up and tell him about how easy it is sometimes to feel like we are not directed by the spirit as we go throughout our days doing everything we have learned. And he helped me to realize that a lot of times we are prompted by the spirit... but most of the time we don't recognize it. But as we have enough faith to act, we then will later be able to see the evidence that we were directed by the spirit as we see the fruit of our actions--which increases our faith, helping us to act again. It's just a big cycle. After we had a big discussion on faith and being guided by the spirit he opened it up to questions. It was indescribable the spirit that was there as he answered questions from "What is a priesthood key" to "You were in the room when Thomas S. Monson was ordained as a prophet--what can you tell us about your experience?" to "What can I do to better understand the temple endowment?" It was so cool. He told us a little bit about his upcoming conference talk and it got me super excited for general conference in TWO WEEKS! haha. I'm just hoping that I won't be in the visitors' center too much and will be able to watch most of it.

So I feel like my life has completely changed since the meeting we had with Elder Bednar. And it was exactly what I needed. It helped me to realize that I'm doing okay here. It was awesome for me to be able to feel at such peace in that meeting. I'm at such a good place. I still have SO much to improve and so many things that I want to learn, here on my mission and just in general for the rest of my life. I finally feel like I know who I am as a missionary. I still don't always know what my investigators need or what I need to do, but I am not afraid to talk, or afraid of doing something wrong. I'm doing everything I know how to to have the spirit and help our investigators. And I trust that God will help me with the rest because that's all I can do.

We have had an incredible week and have seen so many miracles. All day Saturday and Sunday we were trying to implement the things that we learned into our everyday teaching. On Sunday night we had a lesson with Jesus. He's 19 years old and we've been meeting with him for like 3 weeks. And he's come to church every week. Everything we are teaching him is really new for him, but he has taken such an interest in the book and see it changing his life. Well when we came for the lesson on Sunday his cousin was over visiting, and we invited him to come and join us. And that was a miracle. Because it completely changed the dynamics of the lesson to where Jesus began to teach his cousin everything that he has learned with us. It was the coolest lesson I have ever been in. And it was exactly one of this things Elder Bednar taught us--helping our investigators have those experiences for themselves. I know he felt the spirit when he was teaching his cousin everything he's learned, and it was SO cool for us to be able to hear his excitement about the book of mormon. His cousin lives in our area too and we are excited to go back and teach him again.

It's also been really cool to be in the visitors' center since we have had that meeting and just see how I can implement the things I learned there as well. It's not just about finding new people to teach, but about stregthening members. And I love being able to ask members "What do you think you can learn about this painting? How has this movie helped you to think about the scriptures in a different way?" I don't know what I'm going to do when I am a normal person and can't do that in the same way anymore!

We're starting to see our investigators start progressing and it's exciting. I love working with Sister Sordes and feel like I have so much to learn from her and am just so excited that we have had this time together. It's so insane to me that transfer news will come this saturday!! It's not possible!!! I feel like sister sordes and I will stay together just because we have so much left to learn from each other, and also because I've still never had the experience of being with a companion for only a transfer, but it happens a lot and I wouldn't be super suprised if one of us leaves. Who knows. But I'm up for anything. I was thinking last night how desvestated I would be to leave this area and our investigators that I finally started to progress and understand! But I know that the Lord always does things for a reason.

Also I will hit my nine months this Friday! It's hard to believe. I hope that everyone is doing really well. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Larson

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Week #35

Helllooo

How are you all doing?? I hope that everything is going well! It's been okay here.... except that I have been pretty sick this week. I started off the week with a super high fever and just feeling awful. I worked through it though because we had so many lessons planned and I didn't want to cancel any of them. But I was dead when we got home or when we got to the visitors' center. It was hard because I really wanted to work, and didn't want to not work and feel like I wasn't doing all of my part to help our investigators progress. And I was just struggling with knowing what the Lord expected out of me! If I was supposed to keep working hard because I wasn't THAT sick or if I should rest and feel like a bum :[ haha. So I toughed it out for the most part... until we got to Saturday when my fever was gone and my throat was feeling a TON better... but I got a really bad eye infection. I thought at first that my contacts were just bothering me... but no. It was totally infected. We had lessons planned and went to some of them anyways... but when I would try and talk people would just be like what's wrong with you?? Are you okay?? haha. We even showed up with one investigator, Jesus... he's 19. And he was like "whoaaa. What is wrong with you? You look awful! Did you go partying last night? I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just being honest... you've had better days!!" haha. It was humorous. But I took some time and rested and stayed inside most of Sunday. It was tough to stay in because I hated not doing anything! So crazy how the mission has changed me so much already! We went to the doctor yesterday and I got some antibiotic eye drops and am feeling soo much better.

On Friday night we had a talent show in the ward. I was feeling okay so we went and it was awesome! The youth did tons of dances, the primary danced. Los hermanos did a skit. It was just a really funny, hilarious night. It was in honor of the Mexican Indepence day (which was Sunday). So it was a fun night and we had some awesome investigators come. One being Lupita. We actually had a lesson this morning with her. Her older son, Jesus (a different Jesus) is 22 and has a baptismal date for September 29th. He's meeting with the English Elders because he is going to the YSA ward. Lupita has another son, Miguel that is 15 that is already a member. But he has some bad friends and has been having a hard time. And so Lupita opened up to talk to us and to get involved with the church to help her son, but was very forward about how she would never get baptized. She "believes in the virgin very strongly, and absolutely will not give up drinking coffee." But we have just stuck in there with her, visiting her every week and getting her involved with the Spanish Branch. AND MIRACLES HAPPEN :] She has been coming to church every week for the past month, and coming to allllll the activities. And for the very first time today she told us she read in the Book of Mormon on her own. And she told us today that she loves church, and she is always looking forward to our visits, but doesn't know if she could get baptized because she is scared of water! haha. She brought it up all on her own, and we are so suprised, but excited! We are going to keep working with her, and it just made my week the lesson that we had this morning! We decided to use an hour of our p-day to see her because she couldn't any other time... and God blessed us for it :] She has changed so much. Her countenance was completely different today when we met with her. That might be my favorite thing about the mission (a love a lot of different things!) but just seeing how much people can change!

We have another part member family that we are working with; a recent convert Santiago, and his wife and son, Juana and Alberto. I'm pretty sure I've talked about them before. It's been a hard week for them as they have been having some family issues. We had a lesson about having a family prayer every night and when we went by two days later to check up on it... they had done it every night!!! And so that made us really happy. Juanita is ready to be baptized; She knows and believes everything, but just says that she can't be baptized with the feelings that she has in her marriage and family. So we are working with the family as a whole to come closer and have the gospel bless their family.

Sister Sordes is so incredible. She has taken such good care of me this week as I have been sick! One thing we have been trying to figure out within our companionship is our lesson length. Ever since E. Aidukaitis came we have been trying to have shorter lessons so that we can come by more frequently without bothering them, but it has turned into stressful messes sometimes. And I don't like being stressed out! We will schedule lessons every thirty minutes. It seems that we should be able to do it and just have a 15 minute lesson and then have enough time to get to the next lesson... but it hasn't been working. With trying to get members there for every lesson... it just turns into a mess! And I don't feel like I am meeting some of our investigators needs because we are in a such a rush and have to tell them sorry we have to go!! But that is something we are trying to work out--because at the same time hour long lessons are really long and sometimes overwhelming for people when they are just starting to learn! We're just trying to use our time effectively. But besides that.... we are doing really well and I love being her companion! It is so crazy to me that we only have two weeks left in this transfer together. I'm hoping we stay together for another.

Last zone conference, President Ellsworth announced to us that the 22nd of September we would be having a "special meeting" with the entire mission. And we just found out yesterday that Elder Bednar is coming to speak to the mission this Saturday! We are so excited. It's going to be such an incredible meeting to have an apostle there, and also to have the entire mission there together will be really exciting.

This morning we got to go to the temple! I love the temple. It's always fun to go with a big group of missionaries and be in the temple with your zone. Love it!

It's been a good week. I'm happy to be here. I'm able to say all of this because I went to the doctor yesterday and am feeling a lot better! (I was not saying this earlier last week!! haha) I love you all and hope that everyone is doing so well!!

Have a happy week!

Love,

Sister Larson

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Week # 34

My Dearly Beloved Family,

How is everyone doing this week! I hope really well. It's been a great week here in Mesa! The weather is beginning to turn a little more reasonable. Still hot--but bearable. And I hear that once we hit the second week of October, it's smooth sailing :] We even got a pretty hard rain storm one morning. We were on shift at the VC and it was great to be able to look out on it and see the wet people come in--but not be out in it :]  This morning the VC sisters did a service project together! We went over to the building/warehouse place where they store all of the Christmas lights for the temple. I don't know if you all knew this (it's okay I didn't before my mission :] ) But the Mesa Arizona Temple has crazy awesome Christmas lights every year. It's like twice as many than they have at SLC or something (or so I hear!) They don't hire anyone to come put them up.... each stake in the area is assigned a certain part of the temple and members help. Well it's a huge project that they work on year round. So we helped them to organize today and put stuff together. It was really fun and got me a little bit in the Christmas mood! (we listened to christmas music!). Apparently Stakes start coming in October to start putting lights up! And the day after Thanksgiving the madness begins! Each night they have concerts right outside of the VC. And it's every night until new year's eve. So I'm excited! All the sisters that were here last year were just talking about how exhausting but super fun it is!

This week has been good... I'm started to feel a little sick (I think that Sister Sordes gave it to me!) But it's not so bad that we can't work hard everyday! Just bad enough that when we get home I'm EXHAUSTED! But our area has been good.  We worked a lot with daily contact and have some people that are really progressing well. We are teaching Rodrigo and Edgar still and they are doing well! They have dates for this coming Saturday! They are both kind of nervous about it just because it's something new, and they don't have the support from their family. But right now we are taking things one step at a time and right now we are working on getting them to their baptismal interview on Tuesday! We reviewed the questions and they are both good to go in those aspects (at least as far as we know!) We are also teaching their older brother, Jesus, who has progressed SO much this week! It's been incredible! He went to the VC and saw the movie of Joseph Smith, and we also had a couple other lessons with him. He said that he has gone to a lot of different churches before where they have tried to get him to get baptized really fast and he isn't ready for that--so we are trying to respect that while still being bold with him. But his younger brothers are really excited to have some more support from their family.

We moved houses this week which took a couple hours out of our studies and time in our area on Saturday morning, but we are all settled in and are happy to be where we are. Although it was SUPER sad to leave the Jackson's house! I thought that I would be excited to have more space and stuff... but as we left we were both like oh nooo.. this is like home! The Jackson Family has been incredible hosts and have helped us so much. But I am excited for them that their son will return from the mission next week. We have moved into the Kellis house. It's so funny because they have their name--Kellis, written on everything and every time I see it it reminds me of Kelli. It look like it says Kelli's... like it belongs to my sister.. haha. They actually don't even live in the house-- they own two houses just a street apart from each other. So we live in the one they don't live in... but they are still there a decent amount. It is an interesting situation. But we live in the basement and it's been good. This morning we were actually studying when the doorbell rang, and since we were the only ones there we went and answered the door... and it was Jehovah's Witnesses. I was SUCH a weird experience to be missionaries when other missionaries are trying to teach you. We were like analyzing their approach and we actually talked to them and tried teaching them ourselves.

As a companionship we are working this week at setting baptismal dates--because we have so many people that are progressing... but just tell us that they aren't sure this is what they want and that they will pray about it. We know we need to invite them to be baptized with a date no later than the second visit, so we are repenting and setting a goal to really work on dates this week! Another goal that I am personally going to set this week is to spend 15 minutes with the area book each night. I haven't been the best at taking time to update the book EACH night and just review the progress of our investigators, recent converts, and even formers. We are always exhausted when we get home, and this week as we haven't been feeling well we've just wanted to go to bed, but I know that we will be blessed for being obedient in every aspect! Even with the area book!

I hope you each know how much I love you and how grateful I am for the love and support that I recieve from you! It means a lot to me to hear how you are doing and to hear what is going on in your lives! 

Love,
Sister Larson

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