July 5, 2012            Transferred to the Inde Visitors Center

Hello everyone! I know it has only be like 3 days since I last wrote but apparently in the Visitor Center, we have weird pdays...like on a Thursday! As you have read, I am officially in the VC and I am in a trio with 2 amazing sisters that I am so excited to be with but so sad that its going to be a short lived time. Sister Barnum got transferred out to ODESSA though and I was totally pumped for her!! She is excited to head out there and I will really miss serving with her...we were together for almost 6 months! She is going to be awesome out there though.

Tuesday was a day of goodbyes as was Wednesday. I totally went against my eating restrictions on Tuesday to eat lunch with the investigator family we were teaching. The grandpa made us Donut Bacon Cheeseburgers....sound like a heart attack waiting to happen?? Well it was! But it really was so good!! Haha. Do not worry, I didn't die from it. I may have been very tired afterwards but it wasn't too bad :) The girls we were teaching in that family were so sad to say bye, as were the grandparents who at first didn't really want to sit in to listen. They will progress and come around to coming to church one day when they are ready.

Saying goodbye to the Sheltons was not very fun, Mary Lou started crying before we left as she talked about how grateful she was for our weekly visits and how it was because of us that she was able to pick herself back up during those rough times. Her and Mike have truly changed SO much in the past 5 months, it is incredible. Her husband Mike was so sweet, he really is a man of few words but he wanted to make sure we knew that he was grateful for us and he would miss us. As we were walking away, he shouted out in his raspy voice "LOVE YOU!" It was so sweet!! They are so amazing, I will miss them.

We had our last dinner with the Hamilton family on Tuesday night, Neal wasn't able to make it even though he worked double time on his projects to get them finished so his boss gave him another project so he wasn't able to come home. But we still had a really fun time just visiting with Catherine and Kenzie. Since Wed was the 4th of July, Neal was off work so we got to go back to see them again! We really couldn't say bye to them...so hard. After visiting for awhile, making random jokes and having some good spiritual conversations, we gave our hugs and went on our way. I thought I left my shades at their house so we turned around to get them, we walked in and Catherine had told us that Neal was in the bedroom crying. Neal walked out with red eyes, asking us what we were doing back! It was such an amazing thing so see him cry. He is the kind of guy that told his kids to stop crying and if they got hurt to rub some dirt on it...so it was a lil tender mercy to have gone back to see that :) Even though it is sad, it will still be a precious memory forever. I will REALLY miss them....sooooo much.

Of course Wednesday was crazy packing day, getting everything ready to go and seeing all the others that we wanted to say bye too. There are some really awesome families here that are just so down to earth and real, I'm so grateful for their examples and the impact they have had on my life. We did get to say bye to Shawna and her daughter Shanda which was fun, they wanted to make sure to get our info to keep in touch and to make sure the elders come by too! Ha. Love them. We went to a BBQ at the Eyrings house and they invited a bunch of members in the branch so it was nice to be there with everyone. Sister Barnum and I's favorite family, the Sorensen's were able to come and it was so fun. Near the end we had all the adults sitting around in a circle telling jokes/stories...it was awesome. I felt like I was home around my family. It was no fun saying bye to the Sorensen's, they're such an amazing family, they became like brothers and sisters to us. That night I was so sad to not see fireworks again, but when I came upstairs to get some water Momma Sperry was watching some fireworks show in Boston and it was awesome!! A lil present to me :) I seriously LOVE fireworks....4th of July is the 2nd best holiday ever. It was hard saying bye to the Sperry's this morning, although I think I was running on about 3 hours of sleep so I didn't really have any emotions haha. I will really miss them though. They have been amazing.

I got to see some good friends this morning at transfers and it was so fun! I am really excited to be serving in the Lee Summit 2nd ward. I am serving in Sister Dodd's old area, with one of her recent companions Sister Satterthwaite (who is hilarious) and Sister Crystal (who is the Bomb). It should be a really fun time here! I am excited for the fun and spiritual adventures to come :) I'll give you more on our area and companionship next week! :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Love

Sistaaaa Larson