Post #53

February 4, 2013

Dear Family!!

I hope that things are going really well for you. Hard to believe that February is already here! We received transfer news on Saturday night and this upcoming transfer has tonsss of changes. But I'm excited for them. I've been transferred. I wasn't super surprised by it because I had a feeling Sister Valladares would be ready to train a new missionary :] She will be training a new missionary from Washington state that is learning Spanish. She'll be a great trainer. But because she is training... it means I am leaving the area. I'm really sad. This area is incredible. And I love our investigators so much. But I know that this is what the Lord wants me to do and I'm happy to just do what He wants. I'll be leaving the Liahona 4th ward and going to Liahona 3rd. It's a totally of 1.5 miles away! haha. That's about how transfers go when you are a VC Sister. My companion is Sister Aquino! She's from Mexico City and has been out for a little over 6 months. She's super cute and I already know her pretty well from working around her. I will be back working at the VC everyday. Which will be a change because I've been "full-field" since SEMPTEMBER. But it will be excited to be back. We received a lot of new changes from Salt Lake for how things run in the VC. This transfer the shifts change from having 3 shift of 9am-3pm, 3pm-6pm, and 6pm-9pm to only have two shifts a day, 9am-3pm and 3pm-9pm. Which means that we will always have 6 hours shifts. And I thought that that would mean we wouldn't have shifts every day but maybe have a day or two off a week... but no. We will still be there everyday. We will just have more time to work online and on the phones. At first I was like what. That leaves us NO time in our area! But after praying I remembered that this is my call. My call is to the Visitors' Center. And there is a reason we are having these changes. I'm just glad I'm not training. haha. Can you imagine 6 hours in the VC, 4 hours of studies... and like 1 or 2 hours in the area! How crazy. I suspect that as more missionaries come they will split the areas of VC Sisters to make them a lot smaller if we are going to be in the Visitors' Center so often. They have also put us on VC "teams" with 5 companionships on each "team" and we are ALWAYS on shift with those five companionships. It'll be interesting... but exciting. Because we had a lot of new sisters in the mission a lot of the sisters in the VC have been called to train "full field" sisters (like what I did with Sister Sanchez). Sister Valladares is actually the only Sister training in the VC. And we are on the same team so I'll see her all the time. This is all super complicated but hopefully some of it makes sense. Sister Cottrell is going full field this transfer. So funny. We haven't been in the VC together in forever. This transfer will only be five weeks.

This week was a great week working with our investigators. I love being full-field and having some much time in our areas. I suspect that I will finish the rest of my mission in the Visitors' Center. We have a lot of progressing investigators and it's excited to see people change. I'm nervous about Sister Valladares training and not having time to keep up with them! But I know that the Lord has done this for a reason and He will take care of them.

Haley's last day in the hospital was yesterday... today she is being sent to a rehab center in Chandler (not in the mission) so we won't be able to visit her anymore but we will still be able to call her and keep up with her. I love her so much and it's been absolutely incredible to see all the changes that have happened in her life. She has such a bright future.

Wow. So many things have happened. Our departure meeting at the VC this week was so sweet. I gave the legacy for Sister Sordes (like just talk about her and her mission) and the spirit was so strong. I have said bye to her life 5 times thinking it is the last time I'll see her and it breaks my heart each time. She was such an incredible companion and such a close friend. I can't believe she is going home. The VC will be so different without her. Also Sister McKenzie from Kenya and Sister Holladay from Utah are going home. Changes changes changes.

I hope all is well! I love you all so much! And I hope that each of you were able to watch the Joseph Smith movie. I know mom and dad did... but I didn't hear back from any of the rest of you...   :]

Love,

Sister Larson