March 14, 2011

Hello Everybodyyyyyyyyyyyy!

So day lights savings time happened and I lost an hour of sleep yesterday. That wasnt cool. BUT today I got to go to the temple again! Yes! I seriousaly LOVE going :)

Being out here has been so challenging and different. This week went by fairly fast, well minus Wednesday and Thursday because those days felt like FOREVER. Tuesday night we had a devotional here and it was so cool, no big apostle or anything but I loved it. My favorite event of the day would def be gym time cause of my new white kicks with bright neon pink. Theyre rad. Oh and another would have to be eating time, not really for the food but because my whole zone sits together and its like having all your family together for EVERY meal, so fun!! And its a break from the extensive hours of study serious time. I go with most of my zone to choir practice which is really fun, singing really does something for your spirit :)

There was a Sister Brown who had to tag along with me and Sister Dodd because she missed her flight to New Zealand but it ended up being a huge blessing to me and my companion. She was going to the visitors center out there and she was able to give us a sense of hope and an idea of what to expect on our last week here in the MTC. She also said that being in the visitors cneter is challenging because we wont have time to really prepare a lesson, we have to listen to the spirit the moment we meet someone and take them to where we feel prompted so they can learn!! So cool and also really shows how much the Lord trust's us to be called there. It is such a blessing to feel apart of such a wonderful calling and to be surrounding by other kids my age (okay close to my age, yes I am the oldest in my zone and older than my teachers no big deal).

Its fun though being here, my companion and I realized that we start to go crazy in class if we are too serious for too long so we made a pact that whenever we feel our minds wondering or falling asleep, to get up and go outside. For some reason we always sing songs too, were a big fan of the Marry Poppins, Anastasia, "Get Low", "Hey there delila" and High School Musical. Hahaha. I realize other elders go crazy too cause we walked past a group of 4 elders sitting on a bench and they were just whistling like birds the whole time. Hahaha. Gotta love this place. Oh and a shout out to my 1st Warders, if you know a Brother Hopper, he is my teacher!! He remembered a Mac Daniels and Taylor Smith but we didnt get to finish talking about other people we have in common!! So shout out to my love and other family - University 1st Ward!! :)

In all serious, I have never grown SO much spiritually than I have in the past week alone. Sister Dodd and I teach our teachers who act like investigators and we taught one teacher for the 2nd time and it was all focused on prayer. We had her pray with us and it was the most AMAZING spirit that was in the room, I was not prepared for that. Afterwards she said that she has never felt like that as an "investigator" before. I seriously LOVE teaching so much. We have had 4 other people within the volunteers and the staff that we have taught and everytime the spirit is so strong!! I am so excited to go out and teach people, share the love of the Lord, and really help others grow closer to Christ. I fell so blessed to have amazing teachers who are so patient, smart, and so willing to help. I really wish that I had better words to describe the feeling I get when I come out from teaching but its wonderful and so undescribeable.

I am so grateful for all the prayers that are made for missionaries around the world. Its amazing how many people pray for them and now I am apart of them. I know my companion and I feel so blessed to feel of the love from those prayers, I wish I could pray for every single person who prays for us because you and everyone deserves to have blessings like this.

As for everything else, I found out that my departure date from the MTC is March 30th and my RETURN DATE is Aug 15th!!!!!!!!!!!! A week from tomorrow is 17 months til I return, but not until I do my work! Ooo Ooooo!!

I love you all,

Sistaaaa Stephanie Larson

To my friends:

PLEASE WRITE me on Dear Elder OR my Hand Mail!! :) I do not have any body's address because the address book was left in Arizona!! So if you write me on Dear Elder, I will def write you a hand letter back but I dont have ANY addresses!!! Thank you! :)