Momma said there'd be days like this

February 13, 2012
This week was an exciting week full of the typical struggles of a missionaries life. We had investigators drop us, try dogging out on our appointments who we later caught in town, dropped a few investigators and were turned away from every door we went to this week. The wonderful saving grace in our days have been the dinners we have with the members. Many of the families are starting to get to know us more and we are building those relationships with many families which has been a lot of fun. Even though our branch is quite small, there are some rock solid members here that I know we are here for and many less actives we are sent here for as well. Our exciting news for the week was on Thursday when we had interviews with President and Sister Keyes. A new senior couple, the Jensen's trained us on the open house and what to expect when it comes around. They told us that EVERY SISTER will be helping out with the open house 2 a week for the 2 weeks!! Whoop! Sister Barnum and I are VERY excited to be apart of the temple events! Oh AND, President Monson will be coming here to dedicate the temple in May which is totally awesome! We are all praying he has President Keyes call an all mission conference so we can meet him :) Oh and this morning we woke up to 2" of snow and it is still coming down! Winter finally made its way here, 13 days into February!

Friday was a wonderful day amidst all the bums. We talked with some of the managers at Salvation Army and we get to do service for them every Friday for a few hours which is going to be really good. I LOVE service and so far, Friday was a good time working in the back sorting through all the random things people donate. Sister Barnum and I are entertained by MANY of the random things we find haha. But later that day, we went to a few appointments with a member team up Peter again and it was really good! He was able to connect with an investigator so perfectly and helped him understand certain things he had been reading in the Book of Mormon. Later we went over to Justin and Carissa's house (the ones with the 2 kids we took to the visitor centers last week). They seemed a little unsure but were more open that night about different things within the church they were curious about. Since we watched the Prophet of the Restoration movie with them, he said that he thought that miracles had stopped with Jesus until he saw Joseph Smith going around healing people. I asked him if he thought it was by his own powers or by God and he immediately said he knew it was by God and that he knew that Joseph Smith HAD to be a prophet! We asked Carissa the same thing and she agreed and said how she saw how similar Joseph Smith's life was compared to Jesus and that was incredible to her. As they both talked about the power of God, the spirit was so strong and I tried to refrain from shouting, YES thats it!! Ha. But of course I refrained. Justin also talked about how he realized that Mormon's live a different life, he could tell that we try to live this higher level almost. It was really cool to hear him say that and for myself to be reminded of the level of life in which I personally strive to live. Seeing both of them change and explain about their belief in Joseph Smith, it was a HUGE blessing for our week. Both of them are so incredible and have such amazing potential.

Sunday after church the Adam-Ondi-Ahman missionaries, Elder and Sister Banks from Mesa, AZ, took us straight from church up to their house for lunch. After we ate, they took us around AOA while they told us stories and information about the land. We went out to Preachers Rock where rumor is Joseph Smith spoke from and the land with the sunset was gorgeous! Elder Banks is so full of knowledge and stories, it was a really fun time out with the both of them. They shared with us about their life, their children, their challenges of being out on a mission and all sorts of fun times. Later that night, Sister Barnum and I were asked to give a little insight about ourselves and experiences to all the AOA missionaries for a little fireside. I didn't plan out at all what I was going to say because I knew talking about myself would be easy, as long as I didn't have to quote scriptures or other people it was going to be straight from the heart. While I was sharing different experiences and my life, I realized how much I have personally grown on my mission. A member on Saturday night asked us about our biggest challenge or what we have learned the most about since being on our mission and it helped me think deep about that 1 experience or thing I have learned. As I reflected on that and while I was sharing my life on Sunday, I realized that there are numerous things I have learned but one that sticks out to me right now is knowing that I have a testimony that others can truly lean on for strength. Since I haven't always been the most obedient person, I had some worries about raising my own kids or being married while still striving to stay active in the church. I feel now that I have this strong foundation inside that I know my future kids can lean on until they have their own testimonies and that my future spouse can truly rely on me on times of need. What a comfort it is to me knowing that while they lean on me, I am leaning on Jesus Christ who is right there with Heavenly Father. I couldn't ask for a better gift than that and am forever changed from my mission already. I know that I wouldn't have been able to make it as far as I am today without the blessings of a wonderful family and incredible friends who help push me when I feel like I cant go anymore. Thank you all for your strength and fun emails that help make my days better! :) I love you all more than I can say!!

Love,

Sista Larson