Wednesday 2/11
– Today we had our weekly lunch with Brother Longstreet at Snuffy’s which is always one of my favorite pick me ups of the week.
– We met with Melissa and tried teaching her, but it wasn’t quite the right time so we ended up just spending some time with her and her beautiful new baby Carter. Oh my goodness, I wish so badly I could just hold him. It’s a hard rule for us missionaries not to hold, hug, or let children sit on your lap, let me tell you!
– We went to visit Angie tonight and we talked about prayer. We read from the Bible dictionary what was under prayer. If you haven’t done that recently, I would encourage you to do that. It’s a really good reminder of what prayer is truly about. We also were able to get Angie to commit to start praying about the month of “May” for her baptismal date. Oh, I am so proud of Angie! She is 65 years old and at one point during our lesson she curled up on the couch in the fetal position with her cat. This is such a big deal for Angie! She has come so far. I definitely push her out of her comfort zone, but let me tell you, she has made some crazy progress the last three months! If we can make a baptism in May happen that will be no less than a miracle!
Thursday 2/12
– Oh my goodness, okay, so Tanneh and Joshua were still on for getting married this Saturday, so Sister Bone and I knew we were going to have to do some quick planning once again! We tried pulling something together, but when you have a budget of zero it is REALLY HARD! We were determined but finally we got to the point that we were only getting frustrated and we had to stop and just hope that somehow everything would work out.
– We got so frustrated by the afternoon that we needed to somehow recharge ourselves! And guess what, we discovered the best way! It’s what we like to call “Visualization”. We found ourselves in our car in the middle of freezing Minnesota and we just had to get away so this is what we did... we reclined our seats back in the car as far as they would go, we cranked up the heat to full blast, we turned on our most upbeat favorite mission approved song, put our sunglasses on, and just sat back and relaxed for a good five minutes ‘‘visualizing” that we were just chillin’ on some beach somewhere soaking up the sun. Wow! Those five minutes were absolutely magical!!! I have decided that “visualization” just might be the newest thing.” If you are ever having a rough day, try it, it’s AMAZING!
– Tonight we had a movie night over at the Broadbent’s for Jennifer. We invited a few less actives and some solid members to be there with Jennifer. We watched “The Restoration”. It was a great night. It was cool for Jennifer to be able to get a better idea of the sacrifices Joseph Smith went through in order to restore Christ’s Church. Afterwards, Jennifer kicked started a mini testimony meeting and soon everyone was bearing their testimonies. Jennifer is getting pretty close to baptism, very exciting!!!
Friday 2/13
– We taught Bob the Plan of Salvation today with Steve (one of our new converts) at a little coffee shop. It was so cool to be able to explain to him where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. He kept saying, “Yeah, that makes sense. I never understood that before.” Bob loves learning so it is always fun to teach him!
– Sister Bone and I swing by the gas station a few times a week to run in to use their restroom and over the last few months we have become friends with one of the managers there, Andre. Last week we finally nailed down an appointment to go teach him. We brought the elders with us because he is a single man. That lesson was quite interesting to say the least. Andre is very passionate. He has a love of God that is for sure! It will be interesting to see where the elders are able to go with him.
– Tonight we went over to visit Tanneh and Josh and make sure everything was still on for their wedding the next day. They seemed to be all set. We had Bishop Pattersen come over so he could actually meet the couple he would be marrying the next day—we figured that would be kinda nice ;) We have stopped by or checked in with Joshua and Tanneh every night this week because we were determined to make sure this wedding was going to happen and every time we also made sure there was ZERO alcohol in the apartment because that never is a good idea!!! We shared a quick message with them (Matthew 6:33-34) and then told them to get to bed because tomorrow was going to be a big day!
– We stopped by Brother Dam’s with Mercy tonight to visit. Oh he is just the sweetest little old man ever. Someone finally took his license from him this last week. As hard as that is for him, it is most certainly time for him to not be behind the wheel anymore. Mercy has offered to start taking him to church every week. It is so cool to see our new converts doing so much! Our ward seriously is on fire!
Saturday 2/14 – VALENTINE’S BABY!!!
– First off, I just want to give a shut out to all you have sent me sweet little Valentine packages and cards in the mail. You sure made me feel pretty special! I just found out that I have a package for me at the mission office that I will get later this week... It says Don’t open until Valentines! ;) THANK YOU ALL FOR SENDING ME LOVE!!!
– This morning we had a meeting over at Bishop’s and when we got there Sister Patterson had been sweet enough to make us a bunch of delicious crepes. Oh and boy were they good! What an awesome way to start your Valentine’s!
– Soon it was time to get ready for the WEDDING!!! Sister Bone and I were so blessed! God totally was watching out for us because by many little miracles we were somehow able to pull off a perfect little wedding for them without spending a dime. So many people from the ward came together at the last second to help. We were able to totally transform the gym. We opened up the overflow area and set up a little area for the ceremony and then we put some tables up for the food that was going to be served, and then round tables through the whole gym. We got clothe table tops, little flower center pieces for the tables, we found other decorations, and then there are some people in the ward who own a flower shop so they made a beautiful bouquet for Tanneh and two little ones for her daughters, and then of course a corsage for Josh too. People were just absolutely wonderful.
– Now there was just one hiccup... the wedding was suppose to start at 2:00, however, with all of Tanneh’s family being from Africa their culture just happens to ALWAYS run late! The wedding didn’t end up starting until 3:30!!! Bless everyone’s hearts who showed up from the ward to show their support! Most of the people that came from church didn’t even know Tanneh or Josh. But the good news is THEY’RE MARRIED!!! They’re one step closer to getting baptized!
– After the ceremony they had a HUGE African feast! Oh my, they don’t mess around when it comes to food!!! Afterwords, Tanneh thanked us for giving her the dream wedding she has always wanted. After all the planning and stress we were really happy to be able to make the Bride happy. Every Bride deserves that!
Sunday 2/15
-Tonight we had dinner over at the Hicken’s. Tanneh and Josh and their children came and Tanneh’s sister Josia came as well. Tanneh really wants us to start teaching her sister, so that was awesome that she came to dinner. Mercy and her daughter Blessing also came. Now we have been working with her cousin Obed since the day I got here and her sister Judy for awhile now, but they really haven’t been progressing. Tonight, somehow, we were able to talk them into not only coming to dinner, but coming to the fireside afterwords. Mercy was going to be sharing her conversion story and Sister Bone was going to be singing so we had some good reasons for them to be there. Obed told us that he will call us and have us over sometime this week for a lesson. We’ll see about that.
I hope you all had a fantastic Valentine’s! Miss and love each one of you! xo
-Sister Larson
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| Heart attacking more... There's just so much love. I just love love! |
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| These are our prayer sandwiches—best visual ad ever. Thank you Sister Hopkins for teaching me this when I was back in primary. |
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| What kind of sandwich do you want? What kind of prayer do you think God wants? |
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