This past week was beautiful weather and full of great experiences. On Tuesday we had a zone conference with a general authority, Elder David Evans who is AMAZING. The whole first part of the conference we talked all about our desires. We were focusing on Alma 29 in the first 4 verses and he wanted to talk about the whole chapter but that's as far as we got! It was amazing because he talked about when the desire to do better or even a desire for anything isn't there, then to talk to the Lord about it and ask him to help you have those righteous desires. Sometimes we have a desire that isn't in line with what God wants but it seems like a good thing to do but things aren't getting better. That is when you have to take a step back, evaluate the possibilities and talk to Heavenly Father about making sure you are asking for what the Lord wants of us. I personally was so grateful because it opened my eyes to what I have been focusing on and what my internal desires have been. The need to evaluate my desires was there and I was so grateful because I feel more at peace about how I am doing the work out here. That night we had dinner with the usual Hamilton family but this time the dad was home and it was a lot of fun building that relationship up more with all of them.
Since it has been such nice weather we have had more opportunities to park the truck and walk around which I LOVE. It was a good week of contacting different people and we met a lot of people who told us about their struggles they grew up with. There are numerous people out here who have grown up in abusive, drug addicted homes and had to run away to raise themselves in a different environment. It was sad to hear some of the stories we did. A lady named Teresa comes in and works for the Sperry's who we live with because they have a 28 yr old son who can't function and she comes in to shower him then gets him ready to go off to school every morning. The Sperry's were out of town visiting their daughter in Hawaii and Teresa said the night a couple times. We came home to find her having a really rough day and we talked with her about her life for almost 2 hours as she told us some of her rough times in her childhood. She was abused and hitch hiked as a 12 yr old, went through almost everything you can imagine but she has the most positive personality today that I never would have known. Sister Barnum and I know that one reason we are here is for her, she is incredible and I don't know what will happen but I know it is something good :)
Friday we went to visit this family we found last week, we called to see if it was okay if we could still come over and she was hesitant about it but said she would just talk to us when we got there. We knew what was going to happen, the usual drop kind of talk, someone probably told her we are crazy and other random things. Before we went into their house we prayed like usual and went back to talk to the mom (Stacy) and kids. Stacy was very calm, nice and friendly to us as were her kids. We shot the breeze about life, work, the usual while we anticipated her dropping some sort of bomb on us...it never came! So finally I had to just ask her what it was she wanted to talk to us about. She got nervous and said, well you girls are Mormons and what I know about your religion is what Ive seen on TV about you having multiple wives and this other stuff. I laughed inside thinking, that's it? Good! Haha. We cleared up some confusion and we stayed talking more about the church which she was open to but still a little hesitant. It was a fun appointment, esp when we went to invite her to the temple open house she wanted to make sure we could go and when I told her we can only go with people we are teaching she lite up about the idea of going with us! Greatest appointment ever and NOTHING like we thought it was going to be like....tender mercy!
Saturday was an Elders Quorum BBQ that some of the less actives were going to and lots of non members were invited to. We anticipated a lot more people and sadly there were no non members in attendance but it was a success for the less actives that are trying to come back. The best part was playing with the Jones family, who we taught the "feed my sheep" lesson to because they just loved to play. I put on my tennis shoes and played soccer with all the kids for a long time until Sister Barnum and I joined some of the men in 500, which I won 2 times not because they let me either! Haha. It was so much fun to play around outside with the members and to have fun in the sun. I miss playing outside!
Sunday there were 2 High Councilman who came to speak in our branch and one of them I knew because I was teaching his son, Sam, down in Liberty and we went to his house for a Christmas dinner. Brother Sarver got up there and talked about how there was one person in the audience he was particularly fond of, a missionary actually, Sister Larson. He talked about how I was teaching his son and daughter in law, how I helped them grow even if they haven't returned back to the church but that he was so grateful for me. He then said that he hoped that his son would find a companion like me....I turned bright RED as I was getting a shout out from the pulpit haha. But it was such a nice compliment and a big surprise to me. He was so great and it of course boosted my self-esteem haha. The guy Stephen, who reminds me of my brother Logan, came up to me and said "hey you just got a shout out for like 30mins! I was LOLing in my seat the whole time" haha. I was grateful and still embarrassed. Minus the fact that he gave me a great compliment, he talked a lot about service and missionary work which inspired some thoughts about conversions. Many members think about how they have people they should share the gospel with or that one day they will but sometimes forget that they too need to be converted. A quote that is often said to missionaries is you cannot convert anyone past your own conversion. I have learned that for myself a lot and am so grateful to be converted almost daily because I hope to really never feel incapable of converting someone else who needs more than what I have gained. I love the idea of conversion in members and how we are all converts to the church because of when we gain our own testimony of the church.
I love you all!! Thank you for your emails and support!! You are all amazing. Happy St Patrick's Day and lots of love! :)
Love,
Sistaaaaaaaaaa Larson
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