Sister Larson's Blog: Week 13 – February 10, 2015

Ok so this last week has been, well how do you say it… different! I got sick last weekend and ended up spending about four days in bed sick, but the good news is I’M ALL BETTER NOW!

Last Monday, February 2nd, I woke up with a killer sore throat! I didn’t end up leaving the house the entire day. Sister Bone was such a good sport considering it was our P-Day! While I spent most of my time the next four days sleeping away in bed Sister Bone went to town reading the Book of Mormon and well she made it half way through, so I guess there were some benefits to me being sick ;) We did still go out a couple of times to try and see people, but for the most part I slept for four days straight…

Tuesday evening we had an appointment to go and see Angie and well we didn’t want to lose out on that opportunity to see her. And let me tell you, it was a dang good thing we went because it was a powerful lesson! Angie’s heart is being softened! Oh it is a wonderful thing to see and be a part of. It has taken missionaries two years of working with her and now she is finally getting it! It’s just awesome! We are still working with Angie to pray to set a baptismal date, but she is making big progress towards that! And listen to this, Angie has never been willing to pray out loud with us, however, we did see in her progress record that once a upon a time a long time ago she had prayed with missionaries. And after meeting with her last week she promised me she would pray with us this week so there was NO way I was leaving that house until she had prayed! When it came time to go, I asked Angie if she would pray and reminded her that she promised me last week that she would and of course she said no because Angie is just stubborn like that. But there was NO way Sister Larson was backing down! I told her I wasn’t leaving until she did! We talked about why she didn’t like praying out loud with us and it was just something very foreign and uncomfortable for her. So I told Angie I would say a prayer first and then she could say a prayer after me. We talked about a few things we could pray for and then I prayed and then it was Angie’s turn. She put up a bit of a fight, but finally SHE PRAYED!!! Go Angie!!! WOW!!! And then it gets even better, when we invited her to church this Sunday she didn’t fight it one bit she just said, “Ok, I’ll be there.” And then she went on and said, “Wait, did 'I' just say that?” We reassured her that she did and that we would be seeing her at 9am on Sunday morning at the church. It was a good thing I got out of bed for that!

Thursday, February 5th, we had a couple of appointments in the evening that we went to and again it was a good thing I was able to get out of bed for those as well. First we went to visit Rahel and her 9 year old daughter Heaven. We checked in with them and saw how they were doing and we ended up reading some of the Book of Mormon with them. And then we wanted to teach them HOW to pray because that was something they weren’t familiar with. Oh my goodness was that just awesome! Little Heaven was so excited to read from the scriptures and then to learn to pray to GOD was like the coolest thing ever for her! We explained how we pray and the importance of praying and then Sister Bone was able to whisper into Heaven’s ear what to say as Heaven said her very first prayer. It was AMAZING!!! And then best part was afterwards, Heaven brought a piece of paper up to us before we left and asked us if we would write down how to pray for her so she could remember. How cool is that?! What an awesome little girl! So we left Rehel and Heaven with the challenge to keep reading the BOM and to pray together every night until we see them next. I can’t wait to hear how it’s been for them and how praying has helped them this last week.

Then we went to visit Erica and Tobey. Erica grew up in the church, but hasn’t been active in years and Tobey is her fiancée. They moved here this past summer and are looking for a church to go to and are wanting to meet people really bad. Somehow, Erica’s membership records kinda got lost over her last few moves. Anyways, when we came over they were really excited to have the missionaries over! They explained where they were at and what they were looking for and we told them we could help! We went on to explain how we would love to teach them. Erica expressed that she wanted to start learning from the very beginning and since Tobey isn’t a member he just wants to learn what we believe. When we told them that we have lessons that we would love to come over and share with them once or twice a week they were super excited! Now that is something missionaries just don’t see every day! And then we invited them to start coming to church and they were all over that. They said they were going to be out of town this coming up weekend, but after that they would love to start coming and meeting people. Once again, it was a dang good thing I was able to roll out of bed and come out teaching tonight. God seems to always provide a way when things need to happen!

Friday, February 6th, I tackled a whole day of work again! Yep, I still wasn’t 100%, but at least I could get out of bed so I was making lots of progress! That afternoon we went to the library and while we were there I saw the cutest older couple. The woman was working on the computer and her husband came to talk to her and gave her a sweet kiss. They talked for a few minutes and then before he left he kissed her goodbye. It was so sweet to see the kind of love this couple had for one another. I had just watched the Mormon Message “Enduring Love” and it made me so grateful for parents who express and show love towards one another. I would encourage each of you to take a few minutes and watch the Mormon Message. It is a sweet and tender reminder of the kind of love we should have towards each other. Anyways, before we left I was able to go and let this woman know how wonderful it was to be able to see a couple who has that kind of love for one another. And then I left her with a pass along card with that Mormon Message on it. Mom and Dad thank you so much for setting such a wonderful example to me and our family how we should love one another. I know it is so important to show and express love daily!

That evening Bob had invited us to come over for dinner. He cooked us up a wonderful homemade meal. Bob and Carol are just so good about spoiling us! Bob is really coming a long way! We just eats up everything we share with him and loves reading the different chapters of the BOM of Mormon we leave with him. He is loves learning and you can see how he finds so much comfort in the things we are teaching him. I just love Bob and Carol. I am so excited for the day when I see them embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing how many blessings it is going to bring their dear family!

Dinner with Bob and Carol

Saturday, the 7th, was rough. We hadn’t heard from Tanneh and Joshua all week and today when we finally got ahold of them things didn’t sound good. We told Tanneh we were coming over there to see them and talk with them in person. Oh boy, was that interesting! Pretty much we had a full on therapy session with the two of them. They have so many struggles and things they are facing and trying to work through and they seem to be spending their energy fighting each other instead of working together and facing the real issues. It was an intense hour, but Sister Bone and I tried to do the very best we could. We were at least able to get the yelling to subside, to have a prayer and start practicing HOW to communicate with one another KINDLY. They have a long ways to go, but I know if they turn their lives over to God and chose to be selfless and humble and WORK TOGETHER they can do awesome things! So the plan was/is for them to get married on Valentine’s Day. Sister Bone and I have already planned and canceled one wedding for them, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that this is the day! We know how hard Satan works on us before anything good is about to come our way. Satan is constantly attacking the family unit and we are going to have NONE of that this week! Sister Bone and I are going to be over there at their place EVERY SINGLE DAY this week until Saturday. We are determined to help them go through with this wedding.

Saturday night I came home to a sweet little Valentine’s package from my dear sweet Mother. It was for her Bobbi Bear (that’s me) and it was full of all sorts of little bears… including my favorite chocolate covered cinnamon bears! I also got my 4th pillow case which means I have been out on my mission for three months and am starting my 4th month out here! Thanks for making my dad Mom! You’re the BEST Momma Bear out there! I love you!!!

Package from Momma Bear.

Sunday, the 8th, ANGIE CAME TO CHURCH!!! And not only did Angie come to church but JENNIFER CAME TO CHURCH!!! It was sweet! Sister Bone sang in sacrament meeting so that was pretty cool. If the ward keeps having us do things it keeps giving us good reasons to help get our investigators to church!

After church we went over to see Melissa. She is the one who just had a baby about two weeks ago. We met her right before she was due and taught her the restoration and then she had a baby and was in the hospital for a week and then I was sick for a week so it wasn’t until now that we were finally able to go see her again. Anyways, turns out Melissa had all these horrible things happen to her right after her baby was born and she is just feeling completely overwhelmed! We were so grateful we went to see her! We told her not to worry and that we were here to help. Melissa is one of those independent people who doesn't like to ask for help from anyone, so she really didn’t feel comfortable with that, but I simply told her, “Melissa, we aren’t asking IF we can do this, we ARE going to do this!” She just looked at me, blinked, and said, “Okay.” As soon as we left Sister Bone and I started making some phone calls and we were back at her apartment in 30 minutes with dinner and bags of food for her. We told Melissa she would be getting a meal everyday this week from someone from our church. Our plan is to send ladies over there each night with a meal. More than anything Melissa needs to feel loved! By the end of this week she is going to be stocked up on food and have a handful of new friends. Melissa doesn’t know yet, but her world is about to change! The Gospel blesses lives, what can I say?

Sunday evening we went over to see a new convert Jon. We tried walking around for about 30 minutes in the cold trying to find his apartment and it was just a disaster! Sis Bone and I finally just gave up and started laughing about how turned around we had gotten. It actually ended up being just funny by the time we got back to our car. We decided to use the GPS and it was a darn good thing we did because we would have never found his place. Anyways, when we got there he was the only one at his place so he had to come out into the hall to be with us, since we couldn’t be in his place with just him there. Just as we were sitting down to talk the Elders showed up and oh man were they heated! They stormed in and told Jon to get inside. We came in as well to see what this was all about. Something had happened that they needed to confront Jon about. I just sat in the corner and watched these young Elders try and take care of this situation. After about 15 minutes of me just watching, I stood up and everyone in the room looked over at me and said, “Oh no, here comes Sister Larson—the big guns.” (Guess they know me well) ;) I was able to take the reins get things under control. I explained what I had been seeing from the corner and how no progress was being made. I sat down right there in front of Jon and was able to invite the Spirit back into him home by baring my testimony with him and letting him know he was a child of God and that God expected so much from him. The whole feeling in the room changed and when I was done talking I asked if we could all kneel down and have Jon pray. After he prayed I left him with some scriptures to reading and then told him it was time for us to leave. The difference was amazing! When we walked out the Elders just looked at me and said, “Sister Larson, you just did something NO Elder could do.” What can I say? I guess there is something to be said about being a 27 year old sister missionary.

So besides being sick I would have to say I had a pretty good week. Oh and we got a call this morning from Tanneh- the wedding is a GO! She is going wedding dress shopping today! Yippy!