Week #5 Getting Along

Buenos Dias, Todos!

 

      Well things this week have gone a lot better than last week! Which is always a good thing! Being in a companionship with three people is still really difficult, but as I serve them, and pray for help, I am growing to love my companions so much.

 

      As I have said in past letters, we are teaching two investigators, Trino and Alex. Trino is doing really well and is practically ready to be baptized, except that he isn't married to the women he has a child and lives with. We're working on that. But last Saturday we held a little sacrement meeting in our classroom for Trino. We didn't actually have the sacrement, but did everything else. We sang hymns and had a testimony meeting. Beforehand, one of our teachers had talked to us about it and told us to make it as real as possible. He's done it in the past where everyone acts like the overwelcoming members. And while that is nice and all.. it's not realistic. So two people are the missionaries, and everyone else are members of the congregation. We chose two people to be the welcoming members, one person that is a little weird (doesn't every ward have one of those?), and the rest of us were just normal! Well Elder Kener (yes mom, the one that is going to Houston) took his role as the weird person a little too seriously if you ask me. The whole meeting was in Spanish, so he had a notecard of his testimony written out, and afterwards I copied from it word for word what he said. I won't tell you word for word everything he said... but pretty much none of us could hold it together. Well except  Elder Kener. he was just up there talking and didn't laugh at all. But he said that He knows the Bishop is a king of God, that when we die we rise from the cemetaries. He is very grateful for his 8 sons and 10 daughters, he is a goatmilker and that God blesses his goats more than he blesses his family. He talked about how Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon and that because of Joseph Smith we can return to God. (Which is false... anyone that is reading this and does not know very much about the LDS faith, Joseph Smith TRANSLATED the book of mormon, and it is because of Jesus Christ that we can return to God!) Anyways, he said that and much more that I feel maybe I shouldn't share. It was just really funny though. As I am writing this I'm realizing that maybe it won't be as funny to all of you, but the look on poor Trino's face. Let's just say we had a lot of things to clear up the next visit with him. He is doing well though!

 

     The next day in sacrement meeting Elder Kener (the one and only) got called as our new District Leader, and about six people in the audience started laughing. Mostly because they could only think of him as Jose Fernandez (the crazy member in the ward...) So funny. He is a great District Leader though. The Houston East Mission will be lucky to have him.

 

     Sunday was fantastic. Before I came out on a mission, I thought that I would live for preparation days, but I live for Sundays. They just really make you remember what is most important. And this past Sunday was the best one I have had yet in the MTC. Relief Society is always so fantastic. The speaker is usually a member of the General Relief Society Board, but this past week it was actually Sister Rosemary Wixom, the General Primary President, and I think that was the most beautiful meeting I have been in. Maybe ever. She had us stand and sing a couple of primary songs, one being "I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ." They are such simple songs, and I sang them all the time as a child, but I can't remember the last time I sang any of the primary songs that we did. But the spirit bore such a strong witness that these simple things are so true. "I know who I am. I know God's plan. I will follow him in Faith. I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ. I'll follow his way." It was just so amazing to be in a room with 300 worthy sister missionaries that are going out to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and know that we are daughters of God. I think I really realized what that means for me this week. I've always known that, but we literally are His children. And he loves us.

 

      Sunday evening they show films. They show previous talks that have been given at the MTC, the Joseph Smith movie, Legacy, and for the first time since I have been here they showed the Testaments. It was really neat to watch it. I hadn't seen it in a verrrrry long time. But I loved it so much. I love the scenes showing Jesus Christ's life. The scene where he is crucified brings me to tears everytime. I can't imagine that kind of pain. To be nailed to a cross for over 9 hours before he died, having the power to not go through that... He truly does love us.

 

      The Tuesday evening devotional was given by Elder Jose L. Alonso. It was a great talk... but the really neat thing was that his wife didn't speak English, so when she got up before her husband to talk and bare her testimony, she did it in Spanish, and then they had a translator... but I understood most of the Spanish. Way cool.

 

      The rest of the week has been pretty much the same thing I do every week. Yesterday we got to go the TRC (Training Resource Center) where members volunteer time to talk to us and listen to our awful Spanish. We just get to know them and share a spiritual thought. I love the TRC, because you don't usually prepare too much for it, and so you go in there and try out all that Spanish that you have been learning. It was a neat experience, and I can definitely feel myself progressing. The hardest thing (as I am sure it is for most people learning Spanish) is the grammar. Words aren't too hard... it's the verbs and conjugating. But I'm working on it!

 

     I love you all and miss you so much!!

 

Love,

Hermana Larson

 

PS- Sorry for all the typoes and stuff that doesn't make sense. The better my Spanish gets, the worse my English is.

More "PICTURES"

Elder Erickson with all our district's name tags!  Haha.
I told him I would show President Crawford what a goofball he is!   Haha.

We have gym really late on Wednesday.
So, we have one hour of study afterwards,
so a lot of us wear glasses and NO makeup!

Service is the best - when  you get to look like a GHOSTBUSTER!

The first district of elders that we got to know well -
that left for the field!

We got ARIZONA shirts!!!!!

NERDS! WITH GLASSES!!!!!

My awesome and insanely crazy district!

The night before Hermana Paine left.

Hermana Larson and Cottrell in their dorm.

Buenos Dias!

 

I cannot believe it is preparation day already! My time at the MTC is really picking up. I told myself before I came out on a mission that I would be honest about everything when I write home, and not just be superficial and talk about how amazing I am doing... although I am doing amazing! But this week was without a doubt my toughest here so far. The first two weeks everyone else was having a hard time and I was like, " It's not that bad people! Come on!"  But then I kind of got a glimpse of it this week. I guess it started Friday morning. I was in class, and we were going over some teaching techniques (in English) and it was so incredible. Just getting to know peoples' backgrounds and that kind of thing. Well we did that for an hour, and then they said, "Okay... now do that in Spanish!"   And I tried, but then I had a little bit of a freak out... because I was able to connect with people so well when I was speaking English, and I was loving it, but then when I had to speak in Spanish, it wasn't the same, and I couldn't say what I wanted to. I was just so frustrated, and jealous of the other people that get to speak English on their missions, and can really share how they feel with the people, and not be limited by the words that they knew. I just started crying, and a resource teacher came to work one on one with me, and I honestly couldn't think of any of the Spanish I knew, but he kept pushing me to talk in Spanish. So I finally was able to say a couple of sentences then he let me off the hook for a while. I was questioning why I was out here and just having a really hard time. I didn't want to be unhappy, but I didn't know what to do to be happy. That night I just felt the Spirit tell me to read my journal entries from when I decided to serve a mission. It was incredible how much better I felt.   I know that there is a reason God has commanded us to keep a journal. It's so important to be able to reflect on the spiritual experiences that we have had.

 

I went to sleep Friday feeling so much better about everything here, but when I woke up on Saturday my back was killing me. My lower back hurt so bad. I hadn't done anything to trigger it, but I couldn't lay down or sit anywhere that made it feel better. I tried streching it out, and that helped, but it still hurt. I took some pain reliever that made me feel better. I toughed it out through Saturday and Sunday, but when I woke up still in pain Monday I decided to go to the clinic. I was thinking that maybe it was the beds here that it had just been building up and building up. Well,of course it was Martin Luther King Day so the clinic was closed, but they told me to talk to a District President that was in for the day. He's the one that can give me permission to e-mail home and I was thinking Julie could just send me a mattress pad or something and maybe that would fix the problem. So I met with him and told him what was going on. I told him what I was thinking about the beds. He just said that he didn't think it was a good idea for me to e-mail home Monday, and that I was too young to not be able to sleep on these beds. It was kind of hard to hear because I guess that wasn't what I wanted to hear. But he asked me if I would like a blessing, and I said yes. He blessed me that I would be able to bear the pain and that I would be able to do everything that I needed to. I woke up the next morning a little stiff, and I still am in a little bit of pain when I have to sit in class allll day, but it is so much better.

 

Monday night we taught one of our progressing investigators about the Book of Mormon. I was still pretty frustrated with Spanish, and had not been having a very good day with my back hurting. But before we went in to teach him I just said a prayer that the leccion would go well. I needed it to go well. And it did. It was the best lesson we have had. I had been having difficulty feeling the Spirit in our lessons because we were struggling through our poor Spanish. But during this lesson our Spanish was just flowing. I felt like I was having an out of body experience where I could hear myself just speaking so smoothly. I never thought I would hear myself speak another language this well. The past couple of days have been incredible as far as Spanish goes. We are trying to SYL (speak your language) all day long.

 

Wednesday morning, at 4 am Hermana Paine left for the Peru MTC. Her compenara Hermana Marcum, became part of our compainionship, so now there are three of us.  She has an extremely different personality than I do. But she has nothing but good intentions, and I am trying very hard to love her and to make her feel welcome in our companionship. This morning we had the opportunity to attend the temple and do initiatories. I hadn't done those since my own, and it is incredible to be reminded of the wonderful blessings God has promised you if you stay faithful.

 

Sorry this letter was a bit of a downer. I'm trying to stay positive and have the best experience I can. My testimony of Jesus Christ, and his love for all of God's children is getting me through. But March 6th can't come fast enough. Also being fluent can't come fast enough. Thanks for the letters and all the support. I love you all.

 

Love love love,

Hermana Larson

 

 

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Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

Part of our District: Elders Mallard and Erickson (both going to Houston!) Elders Satchwell, Anderson, Maxwell and Kener (who is also going to Houston!) with Hermanas Cottrell and Larson in front of the Provo Temple.

"The classroom, where I spend most of my day"

Hermana Larson with her companion Sister Cottrell.

The Sisters in Holly's district.

Week #3

Hello everyone!

Crazy that I have been here over two weeks. Wednesdays are kind of fun because that is when the new missionaries arrive. It's fun to not be the newest missionaries and to be able to say "Hola, Elder/Sister, Welcome to the MTC!" We love it! Also they cater BYU creamery on Wednesday so that's always a good thing. Well not always... haha. Last wednesday I saw an Elder come into the MTC that was in my BYU ward this past semester that will be serving in Italy!

Last Friday we taught Jose for the last time. We had committed him to baptism and we were really excited for him. That night one of our teachers told us that Jose was actually a teacher at BYU and that the next day he would become one of our permanent teachers for the duration of our time at the MTC. The first couple of lessons that he taught us were a little weird because we kept wanting to call him Jose, and then we would be like, "Umm sorry Hermano Sanchez!" But he is a great teacher and I am loving having him as a teacher. We have two teachers, him and Hermano Janis. They are both great teachers and I feel like I am really progressing with my Spanish. Yesterday morning we had the opportunity to go to the TRC (Training Resource Center) for the first time, and I loved it. Members who speak Spanish volunteer their time to talk to us and get to know us, and then have us share a spiritual message with them. It's so great because we really get to practice our Spanish, but it's a lot less stress because they are members and are really kind. We spoke with a really nice lady named Sister Gonzalez who is from Mexico, but has been in Utah for 7 years.

Our two teachers are also two of our investigators, Alex and Trino. While they are just acting, they actually pick people that they taught on their mission and will respond as if they were them. So like Alex is pretty closed off, and is only listening to the missionaries because his girlfriend wants him to. It's suprising how different it is from our teachers. Like, it isn't hard to see them as investigators, if that makes sense.

As I said last week, being forced to speak spanish all the time, when not really knowing Spanish, can lead to a lot of hilarious, and sometimes awkward moments. Here are just a few. Elder Kener was being weird and saying something weird (we love him! haha) and so I was trying to tell him that he was really embarrassing... but instead I told him that he was VERY PREGNANT! The words are extremely similiar I promise. "Buenas Noches" means good night. "Buenos nachos" means good nachos. Don't get them mixed up. People may look at you a little weird. Two elders in our district were teaching our progressing investigators and got 1 John and St. John mixed up. So they had him read a TOTALLY irrelevant scripture, but had no idea that it was irrelevent because when he read it they had no idea what he was saying. Elder Maxwell told Jose that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ he could be cleansed of his fish. (sin=pedaco, fish=pescado). There are many more, but these are just the ones that are coming to mind at the moment.

My companion, Hermana Cottrell, is doing extremely well. She has made the decision to stay on her mission and serve the Lord with all she has and is not looking back. Love her to death. Hermana Paine leaves for Peru this coming Wednesday, so we will gain Hermana Marcum into our companionship! Hopefully things will go well with a three some. Hermana Cottrell and I are chill enough that I think (and hope!) we will be just fine!

Sunday was fabulous. Relief society is a really different meeting compared to most wards. All of the sisters of the MTC meet together and they have a speaker as opposed to a lesson. The speaker this week was Sister Elain Doxey of the General Relief Society Board, and she just spoke with such power. I loved it so much. We always sit with our Branch Presidency's wives. They are so cute and we love them! We love getting hugs from them, because we don't get all that many! When our teachers leave they always hug the elders and shake our hands! So we get as many hugs from sisters as we can. Anytime I see a sister I feel compelled to hug them. I hugged all the sweet temple workers this morning. Ah. Funny stuff.

Every Monday morning we give an hour of service! This week we got assigned to mop the bathroom floors in the main building, including the boys' bathroom. Pretty gross, but we survived. I was sweeping the bathroom floor, and apparently was getting pretty into it because I wacked my head on the corner of a shelf. It hurt pretty bad, but I'm doing alright. I just thought you could relate a little bit, dad, after getting your letter :]

Every Tuesday night there is a devotional at the MTC. It's always a General Authority, but the majority of the time it is a member of the seventy. Rumors were flying all day that a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was at the MTC. Funny how big of a deal it was. Everyone was saying "I think it's so and so," and then someone else will say "No, I heard it was so and so." Pretty funny. Usually we leave for the devotional about half an hour before it starts, but people started lining up about 2 hours before hand, so we joined suit. We got fantastic seats, and I was sitting about 20 feet away from RUSSELL M. NELSON! It was such a fantastic meeting. The spirit was so incredible strong. We were singing "Press Forward Saints" when he walked in and everyone immediately stood up. Because I was so close to the front, I took the opportunity to turn around and look at the crowd behind me. I was speechless, seeing the thousands of missionaries behind me. It was an incredible feeling. Singing "thus saith our God, 'Ye have eternal life'" with that crowd and Elder Nelson in the room was just so amazing. I can't quite describe it. The talk he gave was very unique. He spoke about the House of Israel, and read from the Old Testament the majority of the time. I really enjoyed the talk. I learned a lot about the Abrahamic Covenant that I didn't know before. It's incredible to really think about the gathering of Israel, and that we are fufilling that prophecy right now by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others all over the world. I couldn't help but wonder what other Christians believe about the Abrahamic Covenant and the House of Israel. After every Devotional we have a district meeting where we discuss some insights about the devotional. It was a great meeting, but a lot of people didn't even know what to think about it because it really was a very unique and different talk.

Gym time is pretty much some of our favorite time here! It's really fun and I love getting a workout in! They have a track, ellipticals, weights, bikes, etc and then you can also play games; basketball, volleyball, and FOUR SQUARE! I had never played four square before I came, but it is so much fun. Our whole district will play and sometimes we get a little competitive. haha. Love it.

This week I have run into a lot of people that I know which is always fun! I see Elder Gunnells all the time because his Spanish class is on my floor and our schedules are the same. I also saw Elder Abbott a couple of times! I also ran into Brother Andrew Welch! It was so fun to see him! Apparently he teaches on my same floor, I just hadn't run into him before. It was really weird because he would only speak Spanish to me! And I hadn't really heard him speak before. It was just funny. But so fun to see a familiar face! I also ran into Brother Kris Paries (Laura, I think you will be the only one that knows him...) He lived in our building in Florida, but it was just fun to see some people from the outside world! I also met a Sister that will be serving in Hungary! So crazy! But I was like, "That is where Wilson Lindelof is serving!" So I gave her a post it with my name and his name and told her to say "Hi" to him when she gets there!

I am doing so well. I am so grateful for the support that I have back home and for all the love you guys send me. I feel the prayers you give in my behalf and know that God is a part of this work. I want you all to know that I know that this Church is the true Church of God. I wouldn't be here if I had any sort of doubt. I am so grateful for this restored gospel. I love you all.

Love, Hermana Larson

Pictures from the MTC

Hermanas Cottrell and Larson locating their future area of service, Mesa, Arizona, on the MTC map.

Holly with her companion, Sister Cottrell, on a Sunday walk - a break from the MTC.

Hermana Cottrell and Hermana Larson, with Elder Satchwell their District Leader who will be serving in New York North, and Elder Erickson who will be going to the Texas Houston East Mission, Holly's home town and the mission in which her mother is serving as as mission secretary.

DearElder.com

Free, same-day letters can be sent to Holly at the MTC by going on-line to dearelder.com. Click on MTC on the left hand side. Then provide your information and Holly's information: MTC Box 308, Mission Code AZ-Mesa and estimated departure date is 3/6. You then type or paste in your letter at the bottom. She would love to hear from everyone.

Once Holly leaves the MTC on March 6, you can still send letters through dearelder.com but they will charge you the cost of the postage stamp. You set up an account and they just deduct the amount of the stamp every time you write. All her mail should be sent directly to the mission office for the rest of her mission at: Hermana Holly Larson, Arizona Mesa Mission, 6265 North 82nd Street, Scottsdale, AZ 85250.

It is an easy way to keep in touch, no hassle, no fuss. And cheaper than buying stationary! Just enter your note, they print it for free and charge you for the stamp.

Week #2

Hola mi familia y mi amigos :]

Things are so fantastic in the MTC! From Wednesday-Sunday of last week, the days seemed extremely long and I didn't know how I was going to make it through 10 weeks here! But Sunday was so fantastic, and things have really picked up since then. I can defintely feel that my time here will fly by!

Every fast Sunday at the MTC is a mission conference. It is so incredible to have thousands of missionaries in the same room! The MTC presidency and their wives spoke to us. There were a lot of things that stood out to me and it really helped me put this whole experience into perspective! Sister Brown shared the analogy of walking into a spider web, and jumping around trying to shake it off.. when we get caught in one of Satan's webs, are we as quick to shake it off? It was a fantastic meeting. We met with the Branch presidency and the whole Sunday was just a really chill day, which we TOTALLY needed! We got to walk to the temple. It was so great to get out and get some fresh air. It was funny though like leaving the MTC, it felt like we were doing something wrong! But it was so nice to get out! Then Sunday night we had a fireside where a man... I can't remember what his name is off the top of my head, but he came and spoke to us. He is the director of all international MTCs. It was fun to learn where they all are, and to hear some pretty neat stories about missionaries that have attended them. This guy was seriously incredible. He was the mission president of the Japan Nagoya Mission (thought you would like that dad!) when he was in his 30s!! They had three very young (under the age of 10) when they went. But the children bore their testimonies, and it sounds like they really enjoyed their time there.

Monday was great too. Mi compenaró, Hermana Cottrell was feeling pretty sick in the morning, so we stayed in and I just got some studying done while she slept. The rest of the day was spent mostly in classes. My Spanish is really coming along. It is so incredible because I have only been here for a week! But we speak it all the time, and teaching José really helps. We have taught him 5 lessons already, and we are teaching him again tonight. We started out by scripting everything, and are slowly weening ourself off of notes. When we get out it's pretty funny because Hermana Cottrell will be like " did you know that you said..." or vice versa. We've said some pretty funny stuff, but if you told me a week ago that I would be able to talk to someone in Spanish I would have thought you were crazy! I still have a long ways to go, but I am loving it.

Thank you to everyone who has been sending me mail. It is so fantastic to get mail at the end of the night! So funny though, our district leader passes the mail out, and will read our fulll names. It's so funny because most people don't know your first name, it's like that part of your identity is gone. But when we learned some of the names it was just hilarious. We couldn't like stop laughing. It was like we knew this secret. We're silly, but we have fun!

Tuesday afternoon Hermana Cottrell and I decided to go to the bookstore and get prints of some of the pictures we have taken because apparently there is not really any way of uploading pictures and emailing in the MTC! But when we got to the bookstore one of the machines was out of order, and the other one had a long line. But we got in it anyway because we totally wanted to get pictures!! Long story short, the machine that was working was totally awful and slow. So we waited in line for like two hours and missed our lunch. But we got pictures! So I'll mail some home today! Yeah I'm already kind of starting to get sick of the food here... it's not awful, but just eating a cafeteria everyday all day is kind of blah... Tuesday night was the devotional. O. Vincent Haleck of the seventy came and spoke. He's from Samoa and it was fun to hear some of the stories he had to share. After devotional you meet with your district to discuss some of the things that you learned and that you want to share. We all bore our testimony and it was so incredible. I am so blessed to have such a great district. We have 4 Elders going to Tijuana, Mexico, 3 Elders to Houston!!, 1 to New York, New York, 1 sister to Peru, 1 to Ogden, UT (I've been able to tell her some fun stuff because of you Julie!!) and then the 2 of us to Mesa, AZ. It's just so incredible.

I love Hermana Cottrell so much. I can honestly say that I am loving the MTC. I know 10 weeks is a long time, and March sounds forever away, but I can already feel time picking up.

Everyone lives for preparation day, and I can totally see why! This morning our zone got to go to the Temple. It was so incredible to be in there with my district. It's just so fun. When we got in there we met a really nice lady who asked us if we wouldn't mind going through for one of her family names. So awesome. The name was Wu Shi, born in 1643 in China. So cool. It was just really good to go, since I hadn't been in over two weeks. Afterward, all the missionaries that have been here for weeks were like, "You HAVE to eat at the cafeteria in the temple because it is so good!" We were like uhh... okay. Who knew that that Provo Temple Cafeteria food is so good. It's probably not that good, but after what we had been eating it sure looked good! I got some quiche that was looking sooo good. I ate about half of it when I realized that it had shrimp and crab in it... I couldn't eat anymore of it. There's something mental with me and seafood. I haven't quite figured it out. haha. But it was pretty funny. Today I'll have time to write mail, do laundry, and just wear jeans! I'm so looking forward to it.I love you all so much. Thanks so much for the support. I don't think I could be here without you!

Love, Hermana Larson

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