This past week has been by far the most AMAZING week I think I have
had in Chillicothe, maybe in my mission. But it was also the most
interesting week full of the most RANDOM events! Tuesday was probably
the craziest day, filled with very weird/interesting experiences. There
is actually too much that happened to really say in this email but just
know that there was something interesting that happened at every
appointment that day haha. One of the better stories was eating dinner
with the Hamilton family. After we all ate dinner, the daughter Kenzie
and her boyfriend Tanner got up and went outside. Then Catherine, the
mom, got up to make the dessert which left Neal with us 2 sitting there
at the table. We of course gave him a hard time about not getting the
memo about ditching out on us and how he was in the hot seat. Eventually
we got into talking about the Restoration pamphlet that we left with
the family to read but only he read it. He has some good questions about
Joseph Smith, how old he was when he was baptized, if he checked out
any of the other churches before he prayed about what church to join and
how the church was organized. It was such a good conversation with Neal
and we committed him to say the pray next week when we come over. Every
week, Catherine says the blessing on the food but this time, we will
get Neal! Which we were told on Sunday that he is all kinds of nervous
for the prayer so I drew him up one of my prayer drawings that I made up
in Odessa about the steps and what to say with beautiful 3rd grade type
drawings to go with :) We are excited for tomorrow!
Wednesday we contacted 2 friends of little Mayanna Weed's who had
come over and listened to a couple of the lessons when we taught her.
The girls are 9 and 8 years old with incredible questions every time.
They're being raised by their grandma as of last year because their mom
was murdered and the dad committed suicide. These poor girls have lived
an interesting life the past year and are so worried about where each of
their parents are now. Grandma said that she would love it if we would
come over and teach the girls! We were so excited and Mayanna even came
with us to teach them when we went back on Friday. Mayanna is already a
missionary and acts like she is 30. It is so fun! Before we went to
dinner, we stopped by a less actives home and were greeted by her
African American boyfriends family. We had the Uncle, cousin and brother
all outside talking to us...or more like hitting on us haha. I may or
may not have gotten serenaded by the Uncle. Haha. It was hilarious! We
had dinner with this new family, the Albrecht's, who moved here a month
ago and we just LOVE them!! They're so fun and have such down to earth
personalities. He is the new Anesthesiologist for 2 of the hospitals
around here and moved here from St Louis for the hunting/fishing/wild
life adventures. Plus, they watch modern family! They totally win in my
book. The dad bought a Beebe gun from Walmart and shoots the birds that
try to eat his dogs food and their little 4 yr old girl LOVES it! They
sit on their back porch watching the birds, just waiting. Haha. Yep,
they are def adapting to the Chilli lifestyle real quick haha.
Thursday we were able to teach a former investigator names Rusty.
We didn't really know what to teach but we thought we should go over our
purpose because he would also bail out on lessons which is why we
dropped him in the past. Before we really got into our expectations or
our purpose he told us that he was ready for a change because he stopped
going to church 3 weeks ago because of a situation with his pastor. We
of course had to ask him what it was and we were NOT expecting this
one....he went to his pastor and told him why they aren't teaching out of
the Book of Mormon because it is a book that is similar to the Bible
but is better. His pastor was taken back and told him that no one should
be reading anything but the bible because it says in there that no one
should add or take away from the book. Rusty didn't agree with it and
apparently stood up for the Book of Mormon, testified to him of the
truthfulness of it and that the Bible was written by man and who is to
say its entirely correct! Sister Barnum, Peter and I were all taken back
as we just sat there with total amazement! Peter said in a text before
we got to Rusty's house that he wasn't sure Rusty was ready to change but
that it was our call since we have that inspiration as
missionaries....we were right!! Haha. But we definitely didn't expect
THAT kind of a response! It was so awesome! We reminded him about the
intro to the Book of Mormon, how it says that if you gain a testimony of
the Book of Mormon then you know that Joseph Smith is a prophet and
that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lords church
established once again on the earth. He agreed right then and was ready
to come to church! We thought about committing him for baptism but we
talked to him about baptism on our last visit but that is when he pulled
away big time so we didn't feel right about it....although now I wish we
would have just asked him! Oh well. Maybe this week! :)
Friday my bishop from my old ward in Chandler was in town and came
up to Chilli! I just love Bishop Arnett, he is the best. That night Sis
Barnum and I had a chance to make sushi with some kids our age for
dinner. A member, Jeremiah, has been dating October for over a year and a
half but she has never wanted to take the lessons. We finally got the
opportunity to sit down with them, talk to her about her religious
background and she was entirely open to learning! She came from a
spiritual background, not believing in Jesus Christ and believing that
God can be referred to as the Universe. It was so interesting to me
cause I had never really tough anyone who wanted to learn who Jesus
Christ was without really having a belief in him already. She thinks of
him as just some man that people look to but doesn't understand why. Were
so excited to teach her and to be able to teach someone who Jesus is
from a totally different view! It was a fun night, made me miss real
sushi though.
Saturday we went to a real small town called Braymer, population
900, a town where everyone waves at you no matter if they know you or
not. We loved it! We got a referral for a lady names Shirley who we
found out had been taught by missionaries almost 7 years prior. She had
been to church, was living in Liberty and even went to the Independence
Visitor Center. She is so friendly and open to learning from
missionaries again! It was a total surprise to us since she hadn't called
us back or replied to our text messages prior to us just showing up at
her house. The Lord was just preparing her heart for us to be at her
door that is for sure! That night we went to dinner at the Applebee's in
Chilli and we were told that our check was getting paid for by another
table!! We had to ask them multiple times if they were sure they meant
OUR table cause NO ONE had done that for us here in Chilli! But they
did! It was the perfect ending to that day too.
I LOVE YOU ALL!!
Love
Sistaaaaaaaaaaa Larson
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