April 30, 2012  Adventure Week!

This past week was a fun filled/adventure week! With our last shifts working at the temple, we met lots of people who had some really good questions. There were more people this week who came to the open house and asked questions just to solidify their opinions on us being crazy but that's okay! Opposition in all things right?! We got to go through the temple with Teresa, she works with Nate Sperry every morning, getting him showered and dressed and off to school. She is so awesome and she brought her sister along for the tour. As we were walking back to the church building after we went through the temple, people behind us were asking questions to me about why I have a black name tag, where I was from, why I was here in MO and why would I choose to live in Chilli. Teresa walks right next to me, grabs my arm, turns to them and said "because we want them here! These girls have blessed our lives in sooo many ways ever since they got to Chillicothe." Her sister said, "she would never say that if it weren't true either." It was a really awesome moment because Teresa is a Harley driver, rough on the outside kind of a woman but she has the biggest heart and we have made an impact on her life in a way that I don't think we really understand.

Thursday on our way to Cameron for District Meeting, we were going to be early, so I suggested stopping at Far West which is 14 miles round trip out of our way haha. So yes, we went and yes we ended up being late to district meeting! But, by only 10 minutes :) We drove down to the Far West site, took some fun pictures, told some stories about the site since Sis Barnum had never been there before and took off on our journey towards Cameron. The GPS said the fastest route was on a dirt road which the truck and trailer right in front of us also happened to take. They took up the whole dirt road, eventually we made it past them which they didn't really move over to the side or slow down...luckily we were in our truck so could handle to nice bumps along the way haha. After our meeting, we went to a small town to contact our first referral from the Internet in a small town called Braymer. We chose Shortest Route on the GPS...bad idea....we drove on almost every gravel road south of the freeway in Livingston county! It was pure chaos. We found the referrals home only to find out she wasn't home sadly. But it sure made for a long driving day and lots of fun!

Friday was our last temple shift, it is going to be so sad not to see everyone so often! I got to see some really awesome sisters 3 times a week, it was the best! Sister Harrel who is actually serving in Odessa, and I got really close while we worked at the temple. Its fun cause she is the smallest sister out here! She's adorable though. After our shift, we went through the temple with one of our investigators Michelle who came up with Sis Leonard and it was a really amazing experience. She was speechless and was amazed by everything in the temple. We didn't really get a chance to talk to her more about the temple cause she slept on the way home but we do know that she loved it! Sister Barnum's family (uncle/aunt) from Overland Park came up that day too and took us all out to dinner at a casino buffet in down town Kansas City. Haha yep, we walked through a casino and had lots of interesting looks. It was so weird being in a casino as a missionary! Very weird. But it was a total blast being with her family, they are a blast and just a party to be around! It made me miss my family though.

Saturday Mayanna had her interview with our district leader. She was so prepared on her own, some of her answers surprised me too! Her response to why we have a prophet means that she knows she can get baptized and she can return to Heavenly Father and that if we didn't have a prophet we wouldn't know how to pay our tithing or do anything else! Haha. She is absolutely amazing and a very special spirit. Her Baptism on Sunday was wonderful. Her dad was able to baptize her and confirm her which was a HUGE blessing. He is such a great guy and has been trying really hard to do things the right way. Pres Coleman was in tears as he welcomed Mayanna into the branch right after Frank gave her the Holy Ghost and gave her a beautiful blessing. Frank and the family has really made some wonderful changes. So excited for them.

Since next week is our temple dedication, yesterday was fast Sunday and we decided we were going to fast for miracles. Our family we eat dinner with every Tuesday is so great but we haven't really been able to count them as new investigators. We asked the husband Neal to come to the baptism after church, him and Kenzi normally leave right after sacrament. As we came around the corner towards the cultural room where the baptism is held, we saw Neal all dressed up walking into the room with Catherine! It was amazing!! They even sat fairly close to the front. The two talks on baptism and holy ghost were most likely more for HIM than they were for Mayanna :) After church, we saw this pretty golden lab with no collar or anything. Sister Barnum suggest we take it back to one of the surrounding houses. Well, no one claimed him and they all said he just showed up that morning. On our way back towards the church, the dog saw a bunch of chickens so it darted across the street just to harass them in their pen. Then it saw a rooster roaming on the yard and it took off and grabbed it in his mouth!! Sister Barnum turned away cause she didn't want to see this dog kill the rooster!! My instincts kicked in or something cause I just took off running towards the dog! Sister Barnum came running too and we got the dog away and the rooster was still alive! Ya! I man handled that dog towards the church, a member found the shelter's number so we called to have him be picked up but the lady at the shelter said she couldn't come get him right away but we could bring him in. We thought, shoot well bring him in! We got a truck bed we could put him in :) Walked to the truck, he jumped in then back out and then jumped back in but tried escaping. We grabbed the hitch to try to shut it but it got pulled up off the hinges and it fell right on my leg above my knee cause I tried to catch it. There we stood with a broken hitch (or so we thought) and a dog who just tried to kill a rooster who is just sitting there watching us!! Our really awesome spiritual day quickly turned!! Haha. It was hilarious. We fixed the hitch, put it back together and sat there waiting for the animal shelter to come get him. While we waited, we just fell in love with this beautiful dog! We named him BarSon :) The lady came, took him away and we felt sick to our stomach. Later we found out from a member that she kills the dogs if they're not claimed after 2 weeks!! Ah!! Sister Barnum was scared and still not okay with the events of the day...it was kind of funny actually haha. Yes I know. I laughed at her pain, I am cruel but it is just companionship love really :) The day did get better as we found another investigator who we taught awhile ago who just stopped meeting with us but he told us that he wanted us to come back and teach him again!! Whooop!! Overall, it was quite an interesting yet awesome week. Only in Chilli do random things like this happen.

I am so excited for the temple open house coming this next week, the prophet will be here and we all get to be apart of the celebration on Saturday night!!! Ya!! I will send you pictures of it all, hopefully we get to meet the prophet! Pray we do :) I love you all and am so grateful for your prayers and love you send my way. Hope this email brings a smile to your face :)

Love

SISTAAAAAAA LARSON