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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Photos

Week #33

You are all so awesome. Thank you so much for all the love and the support that I recieve from each of you. I can feel of the prayers that are given in my behalf. THANK YOU.

 

This week has been incredible. Incredibly hard. But so incredible because I have learned so much from it. It was Hermana Sordes and I first FULL week together. We had set some pretty high goals because we were so excited to be working together and know that God has put some people in our paths. BUT. We didn't reach most of them. Saturday was a particularly hard day. We had 5 lessons set up and were planning to have 5 member present lessons. We also had the baptism of Lupe and Kandy that we had been planning all week in the evening. During our companion study in the morning, Lupe called us to tell us that Kandy had called him and told him that she didn't feel ready to be baptized. Apparently she had had a sleepover at a friends house the night before. The friend and her family were Jehovah's Witnesses and had talked to her telling her she was too young to know and shouldn't get baptized. But Lupe was still planning to be baptized. Kandy was going to be with her friends until two hours before the baptism. So we could really talk to her until then. So we went about our day... just praying so much that Kandy would recogonize how many times that she has felt the spirit and realize that she really is ready to make this covenant with God.  We had members with us for every single lesson as we went through the day.. which made it worse when EVERY SINGLE LESSON CANCELLED. It was so frustrating. I just felt like all of our investigators were flaking, which shows us that this really isn't something that is important to them. But then when we went to go visit Lupe and Kandy in their house--Kandy had a beautiful dress on and was getting ready for the baptism. And when we asked her how she was feeling she told us that she was going to get baptized and she thought that maybe she was just a litte bit nervous before. So we had a baptism :] Lupe is the one that has diabetes and has had a lot of problems with a huge wound he has on his foot. The doctors kept telling him that he shouldn't get it wet. So we got special permission from President Ellsworth to put a bag over his foot when he's baptized. But right beforehand Lupe told us that he didn't want to use the bag. He said "I have faith that God will protect it as I make this promise with God." It was such an awesome baptism. Sister Sordes and I sang "Teach me to walk in the light." Kandy doesn't understand Spanish very well so we sang the first verse in Spanish, the second in English, and then the third we alternated between the two every other phrase. Everyone loved it because it is so evident of our lives--Spanglish! When we got home that night we were exhausted... but we sat down together for about an hour and talked about how our week went. Even though we had had a baptism... we didn't reach very many of our goals and we were a little bit frustrated and didn't understand what we were doing wrong. It was such an incredible experience for me. We talked about everything we could improve on and everthing we need to change. We realized that even though we are obedient and we are good missionaries--we have so much to change and so much to improve. I love being Sister Sordes' companion. I am learning so much. And ever since that night we have been on fire :]

 

So much has happened this past week though. We had an incredible zone conference. I have so much respect for President Ellsworth. He is just such a perfect example of humility to me. He has so much power... but is very humble.

 

One day while we were working in the VC we were working at the front desk. It wasn't very busy when two men walked in. It was pretty obvious that niether were members of the church. And as it turns out... one of them was visiting from Benin (not sure if I spelled that right). A french speaking country in Africa. The other man spoke Spanish. It was one of the most incredible moments of my mission as Sister Sordes taught the restoration in French and right next to her I taught the restoration in Spanish. I felt the spirit so strong testify to me that this is missionary work. It was not a coincidence that we were at the front desk when those men walked in and we were able to teach them in their tongue.

 

I love you all so much and am so grateful I'm here to share the gospel. I love being here--even in the Arizona heat :]

 

Have an incredible week.

 

Love,

Sister Larson

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Week #32

How is everyone doing? I hope that things are going well for everyone else... because I have had a super awesome week! We had transfers on Wednesday. It was sad to leave Sister Falcon because she has been such a good companion to me and has helped me in so many ways. But we have had 12 weeks together and it was time to move on. And I LOVE Sister Sordes. We already knew that we get along so well... but it's just so good to realize that we have fun and love each other, but we also work really hard together! We've only have 5 days together but I have already learned so incredibly much. She is so fantastic at talking to people in the streets and having everything be so natural. I still sometimes feel nervous and awkward sometimes approaching people and talking to them in the streets, and then transitioning to talking about the gospel with them. So that is something that I am going to work on a lot while we are companions... I want to feel completely comfortable talking to people in the streets in Spanish and just stating our purpose with them by the end of the transfer.

Well we thought that we would have the baptisms of Lupe and Kandy this past week but Lupe wasn't feeling completely confident with his foot (remember that he had a big wound in his foot? ) and everything. BUT he did have his interview this past Friday and he and Kandy both passed and are ready to go. They are so good. I love them so much and am so happy for them. We have printed up invitations for their baptism that are so cute. So that they can invite all of their friends to their baptism. We are going to make their baptisms a missionary experience and are hoping to have a lot of nonmembers there. The spirit is always so strong in baptisms that it is so awesome for nonmembers to be able to be there and to feel the spirit.

We had a great lesson at the Visitors' Center with two youth- Rodrigo and Edgar. They're brothers that are 14 and 11. They have both had a lot of contact with the church for the past 2 years. But their parents are not interested--we've tried teaching them a lot... but just aren't open to it. But they have no problem though with their kids being involved in the church. So they come to everything, church, youth activity, scout camp. Everything. And they have a ton of support from the ward. Our young men's president has really helped the young men to have a lot of unity. So I feel like they are ready to be baptized. With all the young men in the branch helping them I really feel that they will stay active. So we are planning to set a date with them this week. I'm excited for them, because I really feel that they can be examples for their family, for the rest of their younger siblings, and cousins and aunts and uncles (they all live very close and practically all of them are formers.)

On Sunday Sister Sordes and I spoke in Sacrament meeting. This was the third time that I have spoken here in the field and it has been so incredible to see how each time I feel more comfortable talking in front of people in spanish. I can see how drastically my Spanish has improved since my time with Sister Falcon. She helped me so much with that! I am still learning so much... and know that even once I get home I will still have things that I need to work on. But I feel that I am doing really well with my Spanish. I don't want to get complacent. But I do feel pretty comfortable talking to people about whatever (for the most part :] )

My trainer Sister McKee came to the visitors' center while I was on shift this week! It was so weird to see her not as a missionary! Her brother lives in Phoenix so she was in town visiting him and came in to see how everyone was doing! She's so fun and I miss her! But it was weird to realize that she's been home for over 3 months. And that things have changed a lot since then. It is really almost September?? Ah! I love you all so much and I hope that everything is going well!!

Love,
Hermana Larson

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Week #31

How is everyone doing! I hope well!! This week has been a really good one with the ups and downs that always come :] Friday night Paola was baptized. We were running all over the place because we got out of the VC late, and we had to make copies of the program and just got stuff ready. So we got to the stake center 10 minutes before the baptism... and the only person there was our branch president who was filling the font up. We then got a call from Paola's mom saying that she was still at work because she had gotten a flat tire. So then our ward mission leader went to help her, and we had a different member go pick Paola up. Anyways... again it got started pretty late... but it happened :] In the meantime that we were all waiting at the chapel, one of our members, Hermana Garcia went to go use the bathroom. The bathroom doors are right by the back door and she saw a lady walking around in the parking lot opened the door to talk to her thinking that she was coming to the baptism but was lost. But it turns out that she wasn't a member, just walking around on a Friday night trying to find what time this church starts on Sunday so that she could come. It was an incredible miracle. There isn't a Spanish branch in that building, it's just that our building doesn't have a font. But she is a Spanish speaker that just happened to be walking around the outside of the stake center when a Spanish baptism was about to happen. So Hermana Garcia invited her to attend the baptism, and she did. Her name is Marlyn, and she is now our investigator!

Also this week we received transfer news!! Because Hermana Falcon is a trainer in the VC she found out transfer news on Friday. She has been asked to train Hermana Aquino, in a different area. Both of them are from Mexico and don't have drivers licenses. So Hermana Falcon has been asked to learn to drive! So that has been an adventure with me teaching her! I feel like I now understand what mom and dad went through driving with me when I was first learning... it's kind of scary!!! I feel like mom grabbing onto the handle on the side of the car haha. I found out on Saturday night that I'll be staying here in Mesa Grande, with Hermana Sordes coming to be my companion!! I'm very excited! She's the one from France that know Uncle Larry and Aunt Arlene! And we have worked together a lot in Liahona 4th and in the visitors' center. I think we are going to be able to work together really well and so I'm really excited. I feel like I have learned so much from Hermana Falcon because she is such an incredible missionary, and now I'm going to be able to take a little bit more of a lead and put everything into practice.

Last Tuesday we had the mission tour by Elder Aidukaitis and it was so incredible. He really beat down on us... but in a good way. He really showed us that we are not planning very well... and that is why we are not reaching our goals. He took a look at every single persons planner, and area book and was extremely straight forward and direct about how we are not doing what we need to do. So this past week we went through and weekly planned the way that he taught us we need to and it took us a good 5 hours to do it. It's extremely in depth and during weekly planning you fill in your planner for the next 9 days... every slot with what you are going to do to fulfill your goals. You do it in pencil because obviously in 9 days you are going to need to make some adjustments... but that is all daily planning is--making those adjustments. So it's been a big change. But I am excited to put all that we learned into practice and see the blessings that come from being obedient... and having a plan :]

Well I ought to get going! It's been a busy p-day already. I finally went to the eye doctor and got some new contacts. I've been needing to for a while. But it just eats up so much time!! I love you and hope all is well!!

Love,
Hermana Larson

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