Summer Tan Line - March 26, 2012

This past week was really random but full of awesome spiritual and hilarious experiences. With the temple open house, we have lots of temple invitations we hand out to people and surprisingly no one here in Chillicothe are remotely interested. It is sad when we talk about the temple, no matter how we present it and people say thank you for the invite but I wouldnt go. We went to district meeting on Wednesday in Cameron and it was a fun surprise to Sister Barnum and I as we handed out 2 invites to people just standing in line at Wendy's! Lucky for us the Elders carry everything in their suit coats cause we just had out wallets. Handing them out to people who either brought it up to us or that we just randomly talked to was a tender mercy for us.

Thursday was a fun and random day as we drove around with the Leonard's from our branch. They are landlords and talk to EVERYONE about the gospel, the down fall is they always send us to their tenets. Not sure if they should really mix their business and the gospel but sometimes it works. We had an appointment with the Weed's, a Less Active and Part member family, that the Leonard's came to which was a very good team up. Afterwards they wanted us to meet this girl, Michelle, they were trying to get set up in a place to live as she just got out of prison. After driving around to non sense places with them, we eventually met Michelle and her friend Christy who were SO grateful to the Leonard's for helping them get all set up and back on their feet. As we drove to our car we talked about the gospel, the Book of Mormon, their beliefs in God and had this really awesome discussion. They committed to church and said they would be there every week because they know its time for a change. It was not at ALL what we expected but they are so amazing.

Friday we had the awesome opportunity to go to lunch with our mission president and his wife here in Chillicothe! They drive up here just to take us out and to look around the town. It was a lot of fun showing them around, telling them a little about our area with the positives and negatives then him giving us some good advice. Later that evening we drove to Cameron to have exchanges with the sisters in Liberty. I went to the Shoal Creek Valley ward with sister Park and we had a lot of fun. It was weird being back in the same house again but have everything be different. I got to see Sister T because she is serving there with Sister Cashmore, who I just LOVE! Saturday we went out with these big plans to do service, find lots of people and teach lots of lessons...nothing really goes as you think it will as a missionary! Our service fell through and we stopped at a less actives home. Its a 3 generation home, with the daughter age 5, the mom and her grandma. As we were talking to the mom, grandma came down the stairs and saw me sitting in the kitchen. Grandma is 4'10" and a little overweight but adorable. She yells, "Oh! A new sister!? Yay!" as she walks towards me and hugs me. I then told her I was just visiting and she kept holding on to me saying "Oh no! Well we will keep you anyways! I just love you!" Sister Park had told me about this grandma and how she was hilarious slash crazy and she was right! She bends down to Sister Park after releasing me and says "Sister, I got an addiction. I need to quit smoking!" Sister Park goes to talk to her about how and that she should just stop that day. Grandma stood up straight and said "Ha oh noo no no Honey! Not TODAY! Not after the day I have been having! Aint that right!? *pointing to her daughter* No way honey!" She then walks towards the front door with her pack of cigarettes and a lighter in her hand. As she is walking away she starts yelling, "I have an ADDICTION!!" over and over again till she opens the door and closes it. After she shuts the door, she puts her face to the window and yells "I have an addiction!!" I cannot tell you how hard I laughed while she was yelling it and the rest of the day!! Hahahah. Funniest experience ever! We had a fun rest of the evening as sister Park was a therapist to a lady in her ward with Post Par tum depression and I cleaned her house then played with the little 2 year old. The senior couple, the Sinclairs took us out to lunch which was so good! That night we had dinner with another very fast talker lady who grew up in Arizona. Sister Park and I talked to her 14 yr old son all about the best places to eat back in AZ, the fun spots to go hiking or sight seeing, it was fun to reminisce about wonderful Arizona :) I made it back to Chillicothe that night, it was good to be back in the middle of no where on 80 acres of land where I fall asleep to crickets and not crazy city noises like Liberty.

Sunday was such a wonderful sacrament meeting but so different at the same time. Michelle, the girl we met, cam with her friend Christy and Michelle actually got up to bear her testimony! She expressed her gratitude for the Leonard's and her faith in God being a strong support for her in her life. It was really cool to see her get up on her own, esp when she had NEVER done that before. So many wonderful testimonies were born but my favorite was the Weed's little 9 yr old Miyanna that we are teaching. She got up and spoke from her heart, as she started her testimony talking about how her mom joined the church, how it made her mom happy and how it makes her happy to be in a church were she feels loved and respected. She is such an incredible 9 yr old and reminds me a lot of Aly who I baptized out in Odessa! There is truly nothing like a testimony of a little child who can really feel the spirit and speak with such simple power.

I was studying the new Ensign this morning all about the Atonement and I absolutely loved the article by Elder Bednar. He speaks about how the Atonement isnt just to make bad men good, but it is to make good men BETTER. Many members forget the true power that comes from the Atonement and I myself know that I have forgotten. Through studying this morning, I felt like I should share some of the quotes I found.

"The enabling power of the Atonement strengthens us to do the things we could never do on our own."

"As we come to understand and employ the enabling power of the Atonement in our personal lives, we will pray and seek for STRENGTH to CHANGE our circumstances rather than praying for our circumstances to be changed"

What a blessing it is to really feel the power and strength from the Atonement. His grace truly is sufficient for everyone and will give us such great power to over come anything that comes in our path. We really do not have to face trials by ourselves because there is a power from the Atonement that we sometimes forget. I feel so at peace remembering the Atonement and feeling the strength from inside. I hope you can see the enabling power of the Atonement in your daily lives and never forget how He truly is the strength in all things. I love you very much and care for you. May the Lord bless you!

Love,

Sistaaa Larson