My last letter on my Mission – July 12, 2012

I just want you all to know how grateful I am for having this wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord and to give just a portion of my time back to Him. What a blessing it has been to have grown so much in my own testimony as I help others gain their own personal testimonies. I cannot say even a portion of what I really am feeling right now, especially since I am in denial that I am really leaving next week haha. I will truly miss being out on a mission, representing our Savior, Jesus Christ, and feeling the spirit ALL the time. I have gained a strong testimony of the power of prayer, with many challenges in my own life or praying for the challenges our investigators had, prayer was always the first step to helping find a solution. Although the solution sometimes wasn’t what I expected, I know that He answered my prayers in ways that I could never imagine. One of my favorite things that I have gained a testimony of has been of the Book of Mormon. I knew it was true before my mission and that it would help me every now and then when I would give myself time to read it. But since being on my mission, I have seen the stories come alive and every chapter I would read in the morning would apply to someone or me that very same day. I would make sure to pray every morning to apply it or remember what I studied because I knew that Heavenly Father would provide a way. The prophets in those times truly had so much faith, much like the pioneers. Faith is one of my favorite principles because it is a POWER, a motivator, a comforter, a test, and the only way to know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

I love our Savior so very much and am grateful that he taught his gospel to the people before he died. What a blessing it is to know how to live our lives and apply the atonement than to just know he died on the cross and let that be all we do with understanding what Christ did for us. This past week, we met with a man names Tim who called us to meet and talk more about the gospel/religion. He is a writer and talked to sis Crystal for 15 min with her last companion about 2 weeks ago but it wasn’t anything in depth really. This week, he came to us expressing how he loved in the LDS faith, that we believe that God loves us so much and that Christ's teachings never stopped when he died or when his apostles died, it didn’t make sense to him...he expressed a concern about how things he believed from a Baptist background, didn’t line up with what he felt was right but a lot of the beliefs in the LDS religion did. He blew us away, right from the beginning! We expected to teach the restoration but this man had a clear desire to follow the teachings of Christ and has been the most prepared person I have met my whole mission...it was so awesome! He eventually got to the main concern about what to do about his family; since he led them into the Baptist church he is worried they won’t want to join the LDS church. He asked us to find someone with a similar situation where they joined the church first but their families were a little hesitant but then joined...my mind was racing with TONS of stories in the Book of Mormon. My comp told him she would ask around but I couldn’t hold back my thoughts. I told him we could look around for him, but in reality, he could open the Book of Mormon and find families who were primarily lead by the husband/dad into the church and they had a lot more struggles back then than we do today. It was such an amazing feeling, testifying of the power of the Book of Mormon because it was so true! I found so many people in the Book of Mormon who have helped me gain strength or understanding and how to remain faithful to what the Lord wants me to do.

I also had the same opportunity to testify of the Book of Mormon when we were teaching this very intelligent 20 year old. He said it just didn’t seem right that the Book of Mormon people had Christ visit them but that He didn’t come to the America's and do some incredible thing like he did in Jerusalem with dying on the cross. Well, my heart sunk as I recalled what I have been reading in the Book of Mormon. I am trying to finish before I go home and this past week I have read through 3 Nephi when Christ visits the people. I testified to him how incredible the stories are of Christ visiting the people. In 3 Nephi 17 alone, Christ goes to leave the people but sees that they are sad and don’t want him to leave. So he asks for those who are sick or afflicted to come forth and he heals them. Then he has all the children be brought to him and they all circle around him, while the people stand around him and he has everyone kneel in prayer. He prays for the children and the people, then we weeps or cries with them. He prayed cried with the people more than once. After reading this chapter, I have gained such a DEEP appreciation for Christ and I can truly see how much he LOVES us more than we will ever know. I am so grateful for the love of our Savior. He has helped me and blessed me in more ways than I can ever recount. He has given me my life, this opportunity to serve others, to love others, to share the light of Christ and bring that into their homes. I love this gospel with all of my heart and I love my Heavenly Father immensely. May we all remember Jesus Christ in all that we do and be helping hand to all around us, even if we aren’t on missions :) I will miss my mission more than I can ever say, in fact I would be totally okay if I could just stay for another month or two but I know the Lord has something different planned for me and I must keep that Faith in Him.

I love you all and am sooo grateful for all you have done for me my whole mission. I wouldn’t have gotten through some times in my life if it weren’t for many of your letters and encouraging words. I look forward to seeing your faces soon :)
Love,

Sistaa Larson